Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from December 2001

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from December 2001

Thar she blows! (insight).
December 7, 2001... Last July, residents of Catania, Italy, had to use umbrellas because ash was raining down from an eruption of nearby Mount Etna. This satellite image of Etna shows a blue-gray plume of smoke and ash rocketing out of the volcano. ...

Wacky world. (micro-scope).
December 7, 2001... UNITED STATES. Construction worker Christian Turner is tougher than nails. Last summer, while building a swimming pool in Phoenix, Ariz., Turner put pressure on a nylon rope that accidentally dislodged a 13-centimeter (5-inch) nail and sent it...

Staying alive! Current science editor Rene Ebersole visited the wilds of Wyoming to see how moose are adjusting to the return of wolves and grizzlies. (Life)(Cover Story).
December 7, 2001... One chilly morning last March, in the shadow of Wyoming's snowcapped Teton mountains, wildlife biologist Joel Berger threw his head back and howled like a wolf. His nose tilted toward the sky, his long gray ponytail snaked down his back, and...

Return of the carnivores.(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... Gray wolves and grizzly bears once roamed western North America from Alaska to Mexico. By the early 1900s, both species had vanished from most of their southern range. Human settlers, who considered the large carnivores a threat to their...

Poor sports: sport utility vehicles are more popular than ever, but our writer claims SUVs are dirty and dangerous. What do you think? (Earth/Physical).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... Have you seen the TV ad that shows a fearless sport utility vehicle (SUV) driver charging down a dirt road and swerving around an avalanche of rocks? Or the one in which an SUV owner steers off the pavement, apparently to blaze his own trail...

Taming a monster: researchers are trying to stop Lake Nyos in Africa from exploding and killing again. (Earth).
December 7, 2001... Last January, I found myself staring at the cool, clear water of west Africa's Lake Nyos. I was hot, tired, and covered with dust after a jeep ride over Cameroon's dirt roads, and all I wanted to do was jump in. But I was more than a little...

Fishy idea: wins prize for students. (discoveries).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 7, 2001... KATY, Texas--In the 1940s, Jacques Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnon invented the Aqua-Lung, the first effective scuba gear. In the almost 60 years since, only minor improvements have been made to scuba equipment. Now, if 19-year-old Matt Spena...

These leeches are suckers for pain. (discoveries).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... ESSEN, Germany--In the days before modern medicine, doctors applied leeches to their patients to treat many illnesses. Doctors thought leeches sucked "bad" blood that made people sick. Now a team of German doctors has revived the use of...

Hot new wheels run on hydrogen. (discoveries).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... NEW YORK--U.S. and Italian inventors have unveiled what could be the bicycle of the 21st century. The new bike is powered by what many scientists predict will be the engine of the future: the fuel cell. A fuel cell is an electrochemical...

Scars silence snores. (discoveries).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... BETHESDA, Md.--Is there a snorer in your house who's ruining everyone else's sleep? Relief may soon be on the way in the form of a new procedure, called a "snoreplasty" developed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. When a person snores,...

Beam me up, Scotty! (Too Weird).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... Have you been watching Enterprise, the new Star Trek series? A prequel to the original Star Trek series, which first ran in the 1960s, the new installments show the adventures of the first Starfleet crew as they explore other galaxies in the...

Do people really shrink when they get old? (Ask professor Ossolotch).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... Agatha Doerksen Albert City, Iowa Dear Agatha, Yes, they do. By the time they reach old age, most people are at least an inch shorter than they were in their youth! Here's why: The vertebrae, or bones of the spine, are...

Mystery photos. (Optricks).
December 7, 2001... Top: part of Nike symbol on a leather sneaker Middle: handle of an oar Bottom: plastic brush bristles [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bend your mind. (Optricks).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... * Why do the numbers appear where they are? What number should appear in place of the question mark? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The answers are in the Teacher's Guide. the number 3, because three squares overlap where the question mark...

Whatizit? (Optricks).(Brief Article)
December 7, 2001... The orange shafts pictured above are called barbs. The blue and pink fringe on each barb is made up of barbules. Thousands of animal species have these structures. Dinosaurs might have had them, too. What are they? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Skillbuilders.
December 7, 2001... Moose (Page 4) Vocabulary Challenge Match each word or phrase on the left with the correct description on the right. Write the letter of the correct description in the blank provided. Use each letter only once. -- 1. Endangered...

Zebra crossing. (insight).(zony born in zoo)
December 21, 2001... This is a baby "zony" the surprise offspring of Tilly, a female Shetland pony, and Bijou, a zebra. The two parents lived together for a short while last winter at a wildlife park in Great Britain. Mindstretch: The zony isn't the first unusual...

French dip. (insight).(decompression suit)(Statistical Data Included)
December 21, 2001... French navy captain Philippe Bisciglia tests a new diving suit that enables a diver to surface from depths as great as 300 meters (984 feet) without decompressing. Decompression is the slow adjustment that the human body must make after being...

2001 today: how closely has reality in the year 2001 matched the vision of 2001: A Space Odyssey? (Earth/Physical).(Cover Story)
December 21, 2001... In 1968, millions of people watched in wonder as a small spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface. We're not talking about the first landing of a man on the moon. That happened a year later, in 1969. We're talking about the science fiction...

Shutterbug samples flying `dove bar'. (Earth/Physical).(comet Borrelly photographed)(Statistical Data Included)
December 21, 2001... A series of postcards sent to Earth by a dying spacecraft has given scientists the clearest views yet of a comet. In September, the NASA spacecraft Deep Space 1 performed a high-risk flyby of the comet Borrelly, passing within 1,360 miles of...

Red alert: scientists have linked killer algae in Florida to big dust clouds in Africa. (Earth/Life).(Statistical Data Included)
December 21, 2001... Tom Pitchford will never forget the winter of 1996, when dead manatees washed up on the beaches of Florida's west coast like cargo from a sinking ship. Altogether, 149 of the state's famous endangered sea cows died during a six-week period, and...

Dangerous play! Doctors say dietary supplements containing ephedra are a prescription for disaster. (Health).
December 21, 2001... One April night three years ago, Henry Porras came home after a long day at work and immediately sensed something was wrong. "No one was home, doors were hanging open, and the dogs hadn't been fed," said Porras. "Then one of my daughter's...

Lost continent found? (discoveries).(Atlantis)(Statistical Data Included)
December 21, 2001... AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France--For thousands of years, storytellers have enthralled audiences with the sad, mysterious tale of Atlantis. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato first put down the story in print in 400 B.C. As the story goes, Atlantis was...

Wacky world! (discoveries).(dog eats toothpaste)
December 21, 2001... France. Reynaud Perrine, a resident of Marseilles, found a dog in his garage, shaking its head and frothing at the mouth. When the dog dashed past Perrine, he felt what he thought was a bite on his leg. Fearing that the dog had rabies, Perrine...

These boots are made for power walking. (discoveries).(SRI International invention)
December 21, 2001... MENLO PARK, Calif.--Going for a walk or a jog isn't just good for your health. In the future, it might also charge up your cell phone or your portable CD player. A California research firm, SRI International, has invented boots that convert the...

Tuskers heading to new home. (discoveries).(Brief Article)
December 21, 2001... GAZA, Mozambique--More than 1,000 elephants that live in South Africa's Kruger National Park are packing their trunks and moving to the neighboring country of Mozambique. The exodus, which will take place over the next three years, was...

Students' prizewinning idea may give sight to sore eyes. (discoveries).(Brief Article)
December 21, 2001... DEFOREST, Wis.--The annual NSTA/Toshiba ExploraVision Competition asks students to come up with an idea for a visionary invention that will be useful in 20 years. Carl Hoel and his friends took the contest directions literally and hatched an...

the sci-triv game: have fun learning about science.(Brief Article)
December 21, 2001... the sci-triv game HAVE FUN LEARNING ABOUT SCIENCE Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the following questions. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get...

Optricks.(Brief Article)
December 21, 2001... MYSTERY PHOTOS [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] BEND YOUR MIND What number's missing from the square? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The answers are in the Teacher's Guide. WHATIZIT? The tear in this fabric exposes material that...