Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from August 2002

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from August 2002

Have fun learning about Science! (Sci-Triv Game).
August 30, 2002... Have fun learning about Science! EARTH SCIENCE LIFE SCIENCE MATHEMATICS True or False True or False True or False 10 The moon is The sea cucumber What is an POINTS...

Yesterday once more: 75 years of Current Science.
August 30, 2002... February 14-18, 1938--Current Science reported that a panel of experts from 15 industrial nations finally decided exactly how long an inch should be. Prior to the decision, an inch in the United States was longer than an inch in Great Britain....

Falling down: how the World Trade Center collapsed. (Physical).
August 30, 2002... Objectives This feature describes the findings of the official engineering report about the collapse of the World Trade Center after last year's terrorist attacks. Critical Thinking * If the twin towers were rebuilt, how might the...

The bamboo towers: how New York's tallest buildings soothed their architect's fear of heights.(Minoru Yamasaki, designer of the World Trade Center)
August 30, 2002... MINORU YAMASAKI, the architect of the World Trade Center, was afraid of heights. But the twin towers calmed his anxiety, thanks to the way the structural engineers propped them up. Structural engineers are the unsung heroes of skyscraper...

Hip to be square: Stephen Hillenburg put his college science degree to unusual use and created Nickelodeon's top cartoon show, SpongeBob SquarePants. (Life).
August 30, 2002... Objectives This feature compares the cartoon world of SpongeBob SquarePants to the real world of ocean sponges. Critical Thinking * In what ways is SpongeBob like a real sponge? In what ways is he different? * What important...

Breaking the ice: is global warming the culprit behind the spectacular breakup of an ice shelf in Antarctica? (Earth).
August 30, 2002... Objectives This feature asks whether the collapse of a huge Antarctic ice shelf is connected to global warming. Critical Thinking * What evidence might convince scientists that the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf was caused by...

Florida family gets microchipped. (Health).(VeriChip medical information system)
August 30, 2002... BOCA RATON, Fla.--Derek Jacobs, 14, is a microchip off the old block. Derek has the same tiny computer device in his arm that his dad, Jeffrey, has. His mom, Leslie, has one, too. Last May, the Jacobs family became the first family to be...

Who knew? (Discoveries).
August 30, 2002... Saturn is less dense than water. If there were a bathtub big enough to hold the planet, Saturn would float. Tree kangaroos live in the forests of New Guinea. They spend most of their time up in the trees but can jump down to the forest...

Insight. (Discoveries).
August 30, 2002... An extremely violent tornado left this trail of destruction in La Plata, Md., last April. The supertwister, which had winds in excess of 425 kilometers (264 miles) per hour, was the strongest ever recorded in the eastern United States. It...

NASA cooks up world's lightest solid. (Technology).(aerogel)
August 30, 2002... PASADENA, Calif.--A substance that looks like frozen smoke has been declared the least solid object in the world by Guinness World Records. The new substance has a hazy blue appearance and weighs just 0.00011 pounds per cubic inch. Although...

Ocean of ice found under Martian soil. (Earth).(Brief Article)
August 30, 2002... WASHINGTON--Mars appears to have a vast ocean of frozen water lying beneath the dry, dusty ground of its southern hemisphere. The water ice was detected last spring by NASA's orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The ice appears to exist...

Too weird. (Discoveries).
August 30, 2002... LAUSANNE, Switzerland--First there was the Roman Empire. Then came the British Empire. Now there's the Empire of the Ants. Scientists in southern Europe have discovered a supercolony of ants numbering in the billions. The supercolony, which...

Ask professor Ossolotch: is hepatitis C a serious problem? (Discoveries).(Brief Article)
August 30, 2002... Hepatitis C has been called "the silent plague." As many as 4 million Americans carry the hepatitis C virus, yet most don't know it. The hepatitis C virus attacks the liver without causing any immediate signs of illness. A small number of...

What iz it? (Optricks).
August 30, 2002... The small intestine is small in name only. It is four times longer than the large intestine. I has also an internal surface area the size of a tennis court, thanks to these tiny fingers. What are these fingers and why does the small intestine...

Skillbuilders.
August 30, 2002... No. 1 August 30, 2002 SpongeBob Fill in the Blanks Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. A -- creature is one that lives out its life attached to another object. 2. --...