Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from May 2006

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from May 2006

Weekly Reader Corporation and the National Middle Level Science Teachers' Association present The Vincent J. Marteka Jr. Award for Creative Science Teaching.
May 5, 2006... The Vincent J. Marteka Jr. Award for Creative Science Teaching, sponsored by Weekly Reader Corporation, publishers of Current Science, is presented annually at the National Science Teachers Association national convention during the Middle...

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
May 5, 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?(crustacean discovered resembling yeti)
May 5, 2006... MOSS LANDING, Calif. -- No explorer has ever managed to find the mythical Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. But last year, scientists exploring a deep-sea hydrothermal vent in the South Pacific Ocean found a creature they nicknamed the "Yeti crab"...

Jump for joy! Our writer discovered the ups and downs of an extreme pogo stick.(PHYSICAL)
May 5, 2006... Who doesn't remember her first pogo stick? I certainly do. It was small and red and had a single, creaky steel spring. It didn't bounce very high, but I loved it with a 7-year-old's abandon. Then I grew bigger and became too heavy for the...

Pop stoppers: many U.S. kids have a drinking problem--they're swilling too much soda.(HEALTH/LIFE)
May 5, 2006... As Suzana Cacaj goes about her day, she knows she's going to be tempted at some point to indulge in a sweet treat. "There are certain drinks you have cravings for," Suzana, 13, admits. "Soda is advertised everywhere, and they make the...

Swept away: dangerous currents hidden beneath the waves can turn a day at the beach into a fight for your life.(EARTH)
May 5, 2006... One day last summer, thousands of people were frolicking on Perranporth Beach in southern England. Suddenly, more than 30 people splashing about in shallow water were swept more than 100 meters (328 feet) out to sea. Lifeguards rushed out in...

Water found on the moon of Saturn?(Enceladus)
May 5, 2006... PASADENA, Calif. -- The search for life elsewhere in the solar system turned an unexpected corner in March. Space scientists announced that a satellite had taken pictures of what seem to be eruptions of ice crystals on Enceladus, one of...

That's hot!(Z machine was used to record hottest temperatures on earth)
May 5, 2006... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Using the world's largest X-ray machine, U.S. scientists have fired up the hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth. The temperatures exceeded 2 billion degrees Celsius (3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit]--133 times the...

Gladiators played fair.
May 5, 2006... IZMIR, Turkey -- If you saw the Oscar-winning movie Gladiator, you know something about the type of combat fought in stadiums full of spectators in ancient Rome. But the movie's depiction of the contests as savage free-for-alls is largely...

Easter island history revised.(Life)
May 5, 2006... ANAKENA, Easter Island -- The Garden of Eden didn't exist--at least not on Easter Island, says a new study. Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is an island in the south Pacific Ocean located about 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) west of its parent...

Insight.(Dan Piazza invented watercraft called Dolphin)(Brief article)
May 5, 2006... Ever wonder what it might feel like to be a dolphin? Two California inventors have built a watercraft that mimics the took and abilities of the playful marine mammal. Called the Dolphin, it can jump in and out of the water, dive, do barrel...

Ice sheets are shrinking.(covering Greenland and Antarctica)(Brief article)
May 5, 2006... PASADENA, Calif. -- Satellite measurements have revealed that Earth's two largest ice sheets--the ones that cover Antarctica and Greenland--have been shrinking rapidly. Greenland's ice sheet has been melting slowly for thousands of years....

Ask professor Ossolotch: did mammals live with the dinosaurs?(DISCOVERIES)
May 5, 2006... Kate McGowan Linwood, N.J. They certainly did. The first dinosaurs and the first mammals arose during the Triassic Period. Most of the early mammals were as small as mice and hugged nature's fringes. They had to be that way to avoid...

And the winners are ...(MYSTERY PHOTOS)
May 5, 2006... Current Science congratulates this year's winners of the magazine's annual Mystery Photo Contest--Matt Delkamp and his seventh-grade science class at Webb Middle School in Reedsburg, Wis. Mr. Delkamp and his class contributed more published...

What iz it.(latex)
May 5, 2006... You'd be a sap if you said that the lines in this photo were grooves on a rock formation. They are really deliberate cuts made to the laticiferous system of a Hevea brasiliensis. The white material is a hydrocarbon Polymer that has an...