Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from January 2003

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from January 2003

Think pieces.
January 3, 2003... All of Tillie Armbuster's pets are dogs except one, and all of her pets are cats except one. How many dogs and cats does she have? Which number best completes the sequence? 1000, 1002, 1006, 1012, 1020, -- Why does flying nonstop...

Hot topic: last year was a terrible one for forest fires in the West. President Bush has put forth a controversial plan to limit future fires. (Life)(Cover Story).(Cover Story)
January 3, 2003... Last June, a raging forest fire forced Darin Whiting to flee his home near Show Low, Ariz. "I lost everything that you'd have in a house," Whiting told Current Science. "Things that I was saving to give to my children." Whiting, a fireman,...

It's a gas: has a team of U.S. scientists solved the mystery behind the strange powers of the oracle at Delphi? (Earth).
January 3, 2003... * Who would win in an ultimate battle--Goku or Matin Buu? * Why is the sky blue? * Are we there yet? To find answers to questions like that today, you might go to an encyclopedia or Google.com. If you had lived 2,000 years ago in...

Anthrax: year one: survivors of 2001's bioterrorism attack are struggling to regain their health. (Health).
January 3, 2003... More than a year has passed since 22 Americans came into contact with letters contaminated with a strange white powder. Five of those people died, and the others became sick. The powder, sent through the mail by an unknown attacker, contained...

The outer limits: ghosts in space, multiple universes, and strange quark matter are some of the weird ideas today's physicists are pursuing. (Physical).
January 3, 2003... Most of the stories that appear in Current Science are about the research of people who might be called "discoverers." These are the scientists who experiment, observe, and invent--who find new forms of alternative energy or new planets or new...

Soldiers lunch on old, old sammies. (Life).(soldiers will eat three-year-old sandwiches)
January 3, 2003... NATICK, Mass. -- With a budget of around $300 billion this year, can't the U.S. military afford to put on a decent spread? Scientists at an Army food lab are preparing to offer troops three-year-old sandwiches. Ugh! The U.S. Army currently...

Brain strain brings teen turmoil. (Health).(teenage angst)
January 3, 2003... SAN DIEGO -- Is life unfair? Are your parents always ragging on you? Are your teachers forever getting on your case? Do even your friends let you down when you need them most? If so, you're suffering from what some psychologists might call...

Rock skipping 101. (Physical).(Physicist examined factors involved in skipping stones )
January 3, 2003... LYON, France -- Jerdone Coleman-McGhee holds one of the world's most unusual records. In 1992, he skipped a rock a history-making 38 times on the Blanco River in Texas. What are the secrets to the expertise of someone like Coleman-McGhee?...

Health food pill eases Parkinson's. (Health).
January 3, 2003... SAN DIEGO -- Every year, 50,000 Americans develop Parkinson's disease, an incurable illness of the brain. Actor Michael J. Fox, champion boxer Muhammad Ali, Pope John Paul II, and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno all have the disease....

Discoveries.
January 3, 2003... Fill in the Blank Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the answers in the blanks. 1. -- is a force that opposes motion. 2. -- are organelles in cells that have a smooth outer membrane and a folded inner...

Have fun learning about science! (Sci-Triv Game).
January 17, 2003... Ay Carumba! Bet you never thought The Simpsons was an educational program. Well, don't have a cow, man. Just see how many points you can win by correctly answering the following questions. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time...

Think pieces.
January 17, 2003... How can you drop a freshly laid egg 10 meters without breaking it? Without doing the division, state whether 78,475,333,532 is exactly divisible by 4. How can you throw a ball so that after it moves a short distance, it stops and...

Food fight: should McDonald's pay because two New York City teens are overweight? (Health)(Cover Story).
January 17, 2003... Ashley Pelman, 14, and Jazlyn Bradley, 19, have a beef with McDonald's. The two teens from New York City are obese--Ashley is 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds, Jazlyn is 5 feet 6 inches and weighs 270 pounds--and are suffering from...

The big dig: scientists have tunneled deep into a Norwegian ice cap to find out what makes a glacier go. (Earth).
January 17, 2003... Last summer, an 8-million-ton chunk of ice broke off the Maili Glacier high in Russia's Caucasus Mountains. It roared downhill and killed an estimated 140 people in its path. Many people wondered whether global warming was responsible for...

Outta here? A doctor accidentally gave one of his patients an out-of-body experience. (Life).( )
January 17, 2003... A severe car accident nearly killed Mark Jacoby. As paramedics scrambled to save his life, Jacoby felt "as if I were riding my own breath out of my body," he recalled later. He found himself hovering 10 feet in the air, looking down, watching...

Stink bomb: what's the rankest, most awful odor in the world? Our writer visited a Philadelphia lab to find out. (Physical).
January 17, 2003... Just as I started to eat dinner (a delicious meatloaf), there it was: the whiff of a most disgusting odor. It was a nose-burning mix of feces and rotten eggs. Yuck. I ate anyway. The next morning, there it was again. Not strong, but...

Dude, where's my car? (Earth).(erosion causes pavement to collapse and swallow up Chevy Corvette)
January 17, 2003... HICKORY, N.C. -- Ralph was enjoying a drink at Buffalo's Southwest Cafe last August when the manager raced up and told him his Chevy Corvette was in trouble. Betz dashed outside and saw a fountain of water gushing 6 meters (20 feet) into the...

Stray whales play with boats. (Life).
January 17, 2003... NOOTKA SOUND, B.C. -- Like all puppies, Luna enjoys chasing and fetching. The only problem is, Luna is not a dog. He's a young orca, or killer whale. Luna, 3, lives by himself in a quiet bay on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He's been...

Rockets power skis. (Physical).
January 17, 2003... RIDGWAY, Colo. -- C.J. Turner doesn't have the nickname "Turbo" for nothing. Being a professional downhill skier wasn't exciting enough for him. Neither was being a monoskier--cruising down the slopes with both feet planted on a specially...

Insight. (Physical).
January 17, 2003... The tropical archer fish shoots, not arrows, but a stream of water to catch its prey. It places its tongue against a groove on the roof of its mouth. This forms a tube through which the fish forces a jet of water each time it snaps its gills...

Cool glove takes heat off athletes. (Technology).(Rapid Thermal echange device helps delay fatigue)
January 17, 2003... PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Have you ever "hit the wall"? Not a wall made of brick or concrete, but the wall that athletes say they've hit when they're feeling played out. Hitting the wall happens when the human body is overcome by the demands...

Ask professor Ossolotch. (Technology).(fungi growing on people)
January 17, 2003... Do fungi grow on people? --Eric Lingerman, Erie, Pa. Dear Eric, There really is a fungus among us--lots of them. Tiny fungal spores (reproductive bodies) are everywhere--in the air, in the soil, on our furniture, on us! Most...

Discoveries. (Skillbuilders).
January 17, 2003... Fill in the Blank Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. -- is the forward force that moves Turbo Turner's rocket ski. 2. Animals that live in groups, such as killer whales, are...