Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from February 2006

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from February 2006

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
February 10, 2006... 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 question right, 20 points for each second question, and...

Who knew?(Bellamy the lion treated with gold salt for arthritis)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... ROME, Italy -- Bellamy the lion has gone for the gold. The elderly king of the zoo here suffers from arthritis and has had great difficulty walking lately. Arthritis is an inflammation of the joints that causes swelling, pain, and stiffness....

Fantastic Physics: superhero powers can teach students some strange stuff about science.(PHYSICAL)(Cover Story)
February 10, 2006... James Kakalios loved comic books when he was a kid but outgrew them as a teenager. Now a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, Kakalios has fallen in love with comics all over again. He even teaches a course at the university called...

Livin' large: after years of confinement, chimpanzees are retiring to deluxe sanctuaries.(LIFE)(Save the Chimps, Chimp Haven)
February 10, 2006... Where do you go if you're a retired chimpanzee in the United States? You go where many other retirees go--to Florida. Last year, an exclusive retirement community for chimpanzees opened on several small islands in eastern Florida. With the...

The New World: geologists are drawing a new picture of the young Earth's appearance.(EARTH)
February 10, 2006... If you've seen the Disney movie Fantasia, then you have a pretty good idea of what many scientists think the young Earth looked like soon after it formed. Fantasia depicts the infant planet as a place with no water, where fiery volcanoes rise...

Life and limb: Middle East war amputees are bouncing back on high-tech arms and legs.(HEALTH/PHYSICAL)(Brooke Army Medical Center)
February 10, 2006... ON AUGUST 21, Army Specialist Ernesto Godoy, 25, and four other soldiers were traveling in a Humvee near Dai Chopan, Afghanistan, when a bomb that had been hidden in the road exploded beneath them. Wounded and burned from head to toe, Godoy was...

Teen's sidelong research wins prizes.(Earth/Life)(Lindsey Williams's tomato breeding)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... St. JOSEPH, Mo. -- When Lindsey Williams decided to enter her seventh-grade science fair, she didn't attack the project head-on. She approached it sideways instead. Five years later, the project has blossomed into a line of research that has...

Wormhole could consume universe.(end of the universe as predited by Pedro Gonzalez-Diaz)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... MADRID -- You've heard of the big bang, the event that gave birth to the universe. You may even know about the big crunch, the possible collapse of all matter that could bring an end to the universe sometime in the future. Now comes the big...

Chucky, say 'cheese!'.(TOO WEIRD)(braces used to treat tooth abnormality in rodent)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... CHICAGO -- Rodents normally have big buck teeth, which they use to gnaw on wood, seedpods, and nutshells. So why has Stormy the woodchuck, a resident of the Brookfield Zoo, been wearing braces since last summer? Stormy's lower incisors--the...

Blood vessels grown in lab.(Cytograft Tissue Engineering)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... NOVATO, Calif. -- A U.S. biotech company has for the first time grown blood vessels in a laboratory. The homegrown vessels have been implanted in the limbs of patients whose own vessels were failing The company, Cytograft Tissue...

'Mosquito' to teens: buzz off.(TECHNOLOGY)(sonic security equipment)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... BARRY, Wales -- The Spar convenience store once was a hangout for unruly teenagers who smoked, swore, drank, and abused the customers. Then the owner, Robert Gough (pronounced GUFF), installed a small speaker outside the store. The...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)
February 10, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Top: rubber bands Middle: fish food Bottom: pencil shavings

Bend your mind.(Optricks)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... The blue cogwheel turns counterclockwise. In which direction does each of the two racks move--to the left or to the right? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The answers are in the Teacher's Guide. Both racks move to the left.

Whatizit?(CURRENT SCIENCE Optricks)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... These projections are part of the human eye. They are made of densely packed dead cells composed of a structural protein called keratin, the same material that makes up claws, feathers, and reptile scales. What are they? eyelashes

Discoveries.(fill in the blanks )(Brief Article)
February 10, 2006... Fill in the Blanks Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. Lindsey Williams's transverse garden has yielded--kilograms of fresh produce. 2. --is the gradual loss of hearing with...