Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from December 2007

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from December 2007

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!(science trivia)
December 14, 2007... Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the questions below. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the first-row question right, 20 points for each second-row...

Who knew?(amazing godwits)
December 14, 2007... YUKON DELTA, Alaska -- The longest nonstop flight by a land bird has been recorded by U.S. and New Zealand scientists. The bird, a female bar-tailed godwit, took off from Alaska in late August. Without touching down once, she crossed the...

The body electric: need an outlet for your excess energy? Get wired for sound and plug yourself into your iPod!(PHYSICAL)(Cover story)
December 14, 2007... The bass throbs, the light pulsates, and the floor shakes as dancers get into the groove at a nightclub in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Someday soon, the club will take the dancers' moves one step further. Enviu, a Dutch environmental group,...

History test: what do DNA tests really reveal about family trees?(LIFE)(deoxyribonucleic acid)
December 14, 2007... Douglas Jackson has always been interested in his family tree and has good family records dating back to the mid-1800s. "At that point, they just stop," he says. Jackson is African American and knows he is descended from slaves brought from...

Death stars: do the most powerful blasts of energy in the universe threaten Earth?(EARTH)
December 14, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You don't want to be anywhere near a giant star when it dies. In just a few seconds, the fiery giant collapses and forms a black hole, a region of space so densely packed with matter that the pull of gravity...

Got milk? Is the latest food craze--drinking raw milk--just crazy?(HEALTH)
December 14, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Young man sidles up to a drop point in New York City. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a few bills and exchanges them for a brown paper bag. Then, looking both ways, he turns and hurries away. What is the...

Pianists return from past.(technology)
December 14, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RALEIGH, N.C. -- Jazz pianist Art Tatum returned to the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in September to play the same nine songs he had recorded there in 1949. The performance was astonishing, not least because...

Monkeys go on crime spree.(too weird)
December 14, 2007... SCARBOROUGH, South Africa -- A crime wave has swept through this small town at the southern tip of Africa. Roving gangs have been breaking in to and vandalizing homes and businesses. Yet none of the perpetrators have been jailed or even...

Insight.
December 14, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Japanese scientists have bred see-through frogs whose internal organs are visible through their skin. Medical researchers can use the frogs to check the course of experimental treatments on the frogs without having...

Giant dam threatens environment.(earth)
December 14, 2007... CHONGQING, China -- The Chinese government is finally heeding this ancient proverb: "It is even more dangerous to silence the people than to dam a river." In an unusual show of candor, government officials have warned of a looming disaster if...

Faraway crack-up spelled doom for dinos.(space)(dinosaurs)
December 14, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BOULDER, Colo. -- Most scientists believe that a collision between Earth and a large asteroid bumped off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But the fate of the giant reptiles was more than likely sealed long before...

Did starch fuel evolution?(life)
December 14, 2007... SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Have you ever wondered why you never see chimpanzees dining at McDonald's? It's not only because they don't have cars to get there or money to pay for the meals. They just don't have enough genes to digest French fries and...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS)
December 14, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANSWER Left: a dog's leg Middle: a spool of thread and a needle Right: a jet engine

Bend your mind.(MYSTERY PHOTOS)
December 14, 2007... How would you like to make some fast money? Grip two shiny pennies between the tips of your index fingers. Holding the pennies vertically, rub them against each other with short, rapid, up-and-down movements. What do you see? Why? ANSWER...

Mathletics.(mathcounts)
December 14, 2007... You can't solve a problem if you don't know how to solve a problem. Celebrate the 25th anniversary of MATHCOUNTS[R], a national math enrichment, coaching, and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S....

Whatizit?(OPTRICKS)
December 14, 2007... These knobs may look like the fingers of a space alien, but they are actually the stinging tentacles of a marine creature that spends its life attached to a rock. What is this animal? ANSWER Whatizit? a sea anemone