Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from March 2004

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from March 2004

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
March 5, 2004... 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,...

Rocket boy: Justin Houchin is competing to be the first teen in space.(Physical)
March 5, 2004... NEXT FALL, if all goes according to plan, Justin Houchin will strap himself into the copilot's seat of Solaris X, a 14-meter (46-foot) rocket. When all systems are "go," the rocket will ignite, and Justin and his captain, Wally Funk, will feel...

Maggot in the house: doctors try some very old--and very creepy--tricks to treat sick patients.(Health)
March 5, 2004... Today's doctors have a whole medicine chest of marvels available to them: vaccines, antibiotics, maggots, leeches... Wait a minute! Back up! Maggots? Leeches? Yup. Maggots and leeches are two tools of biotherapy, the use of living...

Flights of fancy? Did NASA fake its missions to the moon?(Earth)
March 5, 2004... Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin thought he had an appointment with Japanese educational TV producers at a Beverly Hills hotel one day in September 2002. instead, he was ambushed by Nashville video maker Bart Sibrel, who was waving a...

Steer clear? Will mad cow disease take a bite out of U.S. beef?(Life)
March 5, 2004... Last December, a cow from Sunny Dene Ranch in southern Washington state was sent to slaughter. She was a "downer" cow--one that couldn't walk because of illness or injury. That wasn't such an unusual event; sick and injured cows are into...

Who flung dung?(Life)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2004... WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Several years ago, Georgetown University biologist Martha Weiss was distracted from her lab work one evening by a gentle ping. A short time later, she heard another ping, then another. Weiss tracked the source of the...

Antibubbles brewed in beer.(Physical)
March 5, 2004... LIEGE, Belgium -- Some Belgian scientists have used their country's most famous product, beer, to answer an old physics question--how do antibubbles form? An antibubble is the reverse of a bubble. A bubble is a pocket of air inside a...

Dog runs math calculations.(Math)
March 5, 2004... HOLLAND, Mich. -- Tim Pennings, a mathematics professor at Hope College, was playing on the beach with his Welsh corgi, Elvis, when he noted something remarkable. Elvis was doing math! The dog wasn't ciphering with a calculator. Rather, he was...

Cancer is killing Tasmanian devils.(Life)(devil facial tumor disease)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2004... HOBART, Australia -- Tasmanian devils are such hot-tempered critters that they even fight one another for food. Could that behavior be leading to their demise? A gruesome illness called devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) has cut through the...

Hole swallows woman.(Earth)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2004... APOPKA, Fla. -- Linda Sharp, 57, took her cocker spaniel, Bouncer, outdoors for what she thought would be a short walk late one afternoon in January. Instead, she spent three hours at the bottom of a hole that suddenly opened up beneath her...

Glue ear gums up hearing.(Health)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2004... SOUTHAMPTON, England -- Rachel Kavanagh's parents first noticed that something might be wrong with Rachel when she began cranking up the volume on the TV. Then she started shouting whenever she spoke. Rachel, 11, had been hiding a gradual...

Insight.(Discoveries)(mud volcano)
March 5, 2004... An unnamed teenager got a full-body mud pack at a mud volcano last summer. Located in southern Russia, the mud volcano is one of several hundred in the region. A typical mud volcano has several vents that continuously emit cold mud, water, and...

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
March 5, 2004... What number should replace the question mark? Mindbender: 3

Mystery photos.
March 5, 2004... Mystery Photos Top: large tiles on a gymnasium floor Middle: sand on a beach after the tide bas gone out Bottom: interior of a clothes dryer

Whatizit?(Optricks)
March 5, 2004... Doctors use this insect defensive weapon to treat pain, It evolved millions of years ago from an ovipositor (egg-laying organ) to an organ that pumps poison into victims. The barbs on the organ make it difficult to remove once it is embedded in...

Department of corrections.(Features Plus)(Correction Notice)
March 5, 2004... The article "Quad King" in the January 16, 2004, issue of Current Science states that Timothy Goebel speeds up and slows down his angular momentum by adjusting his arms and legs. In fact, he speeds up and slows down his rotation. His angular...

Check out our web pages.(Features Plus)
March 5, 2004... Current Science is more than a print publication; it's also an electronic one. The magazine's Web site is continuously updated with all-original material, much of it designed to supplement the content in the current issue of the magazine. ...

Discoveries.
March 5, 2004... Fill in the Blank Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. The -- is an air-filled space behind the eardrum that contains the bones of the ear. 2. -- is the branch of mathematics used...

Have fun learning about science!(Sci-Triv Game)
March 26, 2004... 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,...

Who? Knew.(Innovations )(Brief Article)
March 26, 2004... Pet owners in Nunoa, Chile, dress their dogs in fancy costumes before taking them for walks. The dogs are attired in tuxedos, wedding dresses, and clown suits, as well as the outfits of fictional characters such as Snow White, Cinderella,...

Destination vaccination: current Science editor Kirsten Weir traveled to Africa to witness a major lifesaving project in action.(Health)
March 26, 2004... Many kids dread getting shots, but not sixth grader Alseny Diallo. "It only hurt a little bit," said Alseny. "I'm happy to get the vaccine." Alseny lives in Guinea, a small, poor nation on the west coast of Africa. She was treated last...

Lord of the ring: Erin Hemmings broke the world throwing record with a super aerodynamic flying ring.(Physical)
March 26, 2004... Erin Hemmings calls himself "fanatical." That trait and an outstanding throwing arm helped land him in Guinness World Records last summer when he threw an Aerobie farther than anyone has ever thrown an object. An Aerobie is a Frisbee-like...

Mars attracts: two robotic explorers have touched down on Mars and are scouting for signs that the planet was once like Earth.(Earth/Physical)
March 26, 2004... Mars is a cold, dusty, desert planet. Eighty-mile-an-hour winds whip its surface, and temperatures drop in places to -305 degrees Fahrenheit. Was it always that way? The patterns of erosion on the planet's surface suggest not. Today, vast...

Toad-proof fence for oz?(Life)
March 26, 2004... DARWIN, Australia -- One hundred years ago, the government of Australia built a 1,600-kilometer (995-mile) fence to keep rabbits from moving westward across the continent. The fence didn't work. Rabbits squeezed through holes in the fence, and...

Black holes showering Earth?(Physical)(Brief Article)
March 26, 2004... BOLIVIA -- In 1972, an observatory high in the Bolivian Andes picked up a strange signal--a burst of quark-based particles in the sky. Quarks are basic particles in nature that combine to make Lip protons and neutrons. The strange signal was...

Insight.(Discoveries)
March 26, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Not all goldfish are gold. "Candy parrot" goldfish are as colorful as a bag of Skittles. These candy parrots were specially bred in Taiwan and photographed at a children's museum in Taipei.

NASA to pull plug on Hubble?(Technology)
March 26, 2004... WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Astronomers around the world were stunned by a surprise announcement in January that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had decided to cancel the next and final space shuttle mission to service the...

Too weird.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
March 26, 2004... Are you a lazy eater? For example, do you lave ice-cream cones but hate putting ell that effort into turning the cone around and around in your hand? Your sloth might soon be rewarded. The U.S. government has issued a patent (5,971,829) for a...

Elephant given false choppers.(Life/Health)(Brief Article)
March 26, 2004... KANCHANABURI, Thailand -- Eighty-year-old Morakot was having trouble aging gracefully. The elderly female Asian elephant had lost all her teeth. Unable to chew her food, she was slowly starving to death until a veterinarian fitted her with...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)
March 26, 2004... Top: coffee filters Middle: underside of a sea star Bottom: rubber tip on a hummingbird feeder [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
March 26, 2004... In what way are these four letters Geometrically identical? H M O X Mindbender: Each letter symmetrical--capable of being divided into identical halves.

Whatizit?(Optricks)(Brief Article)
March 26, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: This close-up image of human bone tissue shows signs of a disease that is common among the elderly, especially older women. As the disease progresses, the tissue loses density, becoming brittle and prone to...

Discoveries.(Current Science)
March 26, 2004... Fill in the Blank Find the word or words that best complete each sentence, Write the words in the blanks. 1. -- -- are streams of subatomic particles that zoom through space. 2. A -- is an exploding star. 3. Elephants have...