Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from February 2004

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from February 2004

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
February 13, 2004... Ay carumba! It's time again for Current Science's annual Simpsons Sci-Triv Game. Don't have a cow, man! Just see how many points you can win by correctly answering the following. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get...

Who knew?(Brief Article)
February 13, 2004... Mike Bell, a British lawyer, suffered from frostbite while driving from London to Manchester during a heat wave last summer. Because his Jaguar sports car had an automatic transmission, Bell didn't need to use his left foot, so he removed his...

Dog eat dog: for prairie dogs and many other species, cannibalism is a normal part of life.(Life)(Cover Story)
February 13, 2004... Prairie dogs are cute, cuddly-looking critters. They're also the social butterflies of the rodent world, living, working, and playing together in vast underground colonies. "It looks like a peaceful society," said John Hoogland, a biologist at...

Bubble trouble: when volcanoes pass gas, watch out!(Earth)
February 13, 2004... THE EXPLOSION of Mount Vesuvius on August 24 in A.D. 79 was one of the most dramatic volcanic eruptions in recorded history. Vesuvius blasted a column of ash miles into the air and dropped mud and rocks on the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum....

Junkyard science: a high-school student built his own nuclear reactor from spare parts.(Physical)
February 13, 2004... THROUGHOUT HIGH SCHOOL, CRAIG WALLACE considered himself an average student in most subjects and a pretty good tennis player. What the boy from Spanish Fork, Utah, truly excelled at was scavenging old parts, such as copper pipes and discarded...

Super sight: Superman has x-ray vision, but even he might be envious of these emerging sight technologies.(Health)
February 13, 2004... Are you one of the six in ten Americans who wear eyeglasses or contact lenses? If so, you probably have less than 20/20 vision. A person with 20/20 vision can see objects from a distance of 20 feet the way they should look from 20 feet. ...

Cube dude wins prize.(Math/Physical)(2003 World Rubik's Game Championships)
February 13, 2004... TORONTO -- With wrists and fingers flying around a whirl of color, 24-year-old Dan Knights became the world's fastest solver of the Rubik's Cube last summer. Knights, a computer programmer from San Francisco, broke the record for "speedcubing"...

U.S. bears are pigs.(Too Weird)(Brief Article)
February 13, 2004... INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. -- U.S. bears might want to hop on the StairMaster. Lately, they've been packing on the pounds. A study in western Nevada by two scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society has found that many black bears there...

Did allied drug save Hitler?(Health)(Brief Article)
February 13, 2004... SHEFFIELD, England -- Was Adolf Hitler's life unintentionally saved by his enemies during World War II (1939-1945)? That's the question a British scientist has posed after investigating records of an assassination attempt against the Nazi...

Breathing device saves man caught in avalanche.(Earth/Life)
February 13, 2004... SALT LAKE CITY -- Mike Morrisey was skiing in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia last February when he and two other members of his group were caught in an avalanche. Rescuers dug Morrisey out of the snow 30 minutes later, unconscious...

Ask Professor Ossolotch.(Discoveries)
February 13, 2004... Dear Professor Ossolotch, Why is the water in the ocean blue, but the water in a pail is transparent? --Bethany Clinton, Conn. Dear Bethany, To understand the answer, you have to know what electromagnetic radiation is....

Insight.(Discoveries)(stargazers)(Brief Article)
February 13, 2004... This unlovely mug is the face of a stargazer fish poking out of a sandy bottom in the South Pacific Ocean, Stargazers inhabit the world's oceans and are benthic in nature--they dwell on the bottom of a body of water. A stargazer's eyes and...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)(Brief Article)
February 13, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Top left: spring on the underside of a chair. Middle left: pencil sharpener Bottom left: stack of books

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
February 13, 2004... Without counting or using a measuring instrument, determine which colored arc passes through the center of the circle. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Whatizit?(Optricks)
February 13, 2004... These little balls of white fluff are mammals that make their home in the leaves of trees in Central America. They bite the veins of a leaf, causing it to collapse downward and form a tentlike space under which they roost. They rest in their...

Discoveries.
February 13, 2004... Fill in the Blanks In the blanks, write the word or words that best complete each sentence. 1. The drug penicillin is produced by the -- Penicillium. 2. An -- is a step-by-step procedure for solving a mathematical problem. 3....