Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from May 2003

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from May 2003

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
May 2, 2003... 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?(Brief Article)
May 2, 2003... In the Northern Hemisphere, Earth is almost 5 million kilometers (3 million miles) farther from the sun during the middle of summer than it is during the middle of winter. Yet summer is warmer than winter because the 23-degree tilt of Earth's...

Quick sand: winter's over! Time to hit the slopes and study the science of sandboarding. (Earth/Physical).(Cover Story)
May 2, 2003... The start flag drops, and with a small forward hop Jennifer Burns takes off down the 150-meter (500-foot) slope. Sand billows behind her as she speeds downhill, a blurred streak of color against the bare desert landscape. Burns, 22, is racing...

Bananas split: the banana might soon become an endangered species and slip away. (Life).(according to scientists from International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain)
May 2, 2003... Do you like banana cream pie? How about banana bread or banana split sundaes? Better enjoy them while you can! Scientists from the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) recently warned that disease might...

Doctor Zoolittle: who takes the call when an elephant has an earache or a giraffe has a sore throat? (Health).(Jim Rasmussen, senior veterinarian, Minnesota Zoo and others)
May 2, 2003... What happens when a Komodo dragon swallows a stuffed animal instead of a real one? Jim Rasmussen found out in a hurry last year. Rasmussen is a senior veterinarian at the Minnesota Zoo, where a young visitor accidentally dropped her stuffed cat...

Pest trashes ashes. (Life).(emerald ash borer)
May 2, 2003... PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- Canadian and American authorities are fighting a foreign invasion. The enemy is the emerald ash borer, a beetle from eastern Asia that has already killed millions of ash trees in Michigan and Ontario and is threatening...

Ask Professor Ossolotch. (Discoveries).(the Elephant Man)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2003... Did the Elephant Man have elephantiasis? --Lauren and K.J. Polus Ortonville, Mich. Dear Lauren and K.J., No, he didn't. Elephantiasis is a form of leprosy in which the limbs become enormously enlarged. The Elephant Man, whose...

Squirrel is nuts about water skiing. (Too Weird).(Brief Article)
May 2, 2003... SANFORD, Fla. -- If you happen to see a little rodent ski by one day, don't think you've gone nuts. You've just seen Twiggy, the water-skiing squirrel. Twiggy is an international celebrity on the boat-show circuit. Her trainer, Lou Ann...

Astronaut shows water colors. (Physical).(Brief Article)
May 2, 2003... INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION--Some artists paint with watercolors. Don Pettit paints water. Pettit is one of the three astronauts currently living in Alpha, the International Space Station. One Saturday last winter, Pettit decided to see...

And the winner is ... (Mystery Photos).
May 2, 2003... ... Drew Varkonyi, a seventh-grade student at Mason Middle School in Tacoma, Wash. During the 2002-2003 school year, Current Science featured more mystery photos taken by Drew, pictured here, than by any other student. Drew, 13, began taking...

Whatizit? (Optricks).(Brief Article)
May 2, 2003... This might look like a walrus, but it's really the larva of a sheep bot fly. The larva uses its hooks, colored in blue, to anchor itself inside the nose of a host animal. The larva lives there and grows for about eight to ten months before it...

Vince Marteka Award announced. (Features Plus).(James Kuhl)
May 2, 2003... The fifth Vincent J. Marteka Jr. Award for Creative Science Teaching was awarded to James Kuhl of Central Square, N.Y., at this year's national convention of the National Science Teachers Association in Philadelphia. The award is administered...

Discoveries. (Skillbuilders).
May 2, 2003... Fill in the Blank Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. Neurofibromatosis is also called -- disease. 2. -- is a property of water in which the top layer acts as if it's covered...