Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from October 2001

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from October 2001

Tuff Stuff.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... This huge black mound rising from the salt flats of northeastern Ethiopia is a tuff cone. It's a pile of fine lava particles that have fused to form a type of rock called tuff. Mindstretch: This tuff cone is one of a dozen in the area. All of...

Weird World.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... GREAT BRITAIN. The new Tyrannosaurus rex robot at the Natural History Museum in London is very lifelike. Its roar is ear-splitting, and it bursts to life when visitors approach it. To make the robot even more authentic, museum curators decided...

Could Apes Rule?(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... I 13n last summer's retelling of Planet of the Apes, a pod craft tossed through space and time crash-lands on an unknown planet. There, the pilot, played by Mark Wahlberg, encounters a bizarro world where apes dominate and humans are an...

Into Thin Air.(missing aircraft)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Scientists solve the mystery of a plane missing in the Andes for more than 50 years. ON AUGUST 2, 1947, an airplane flying west from Buenos Aires, Argentina, radioed the airport in Santiago, Chile, that it would be arriving in just four...

Word Imperfect.(brothers learning to read)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... A boy's struggle with reading prompted his brother to help others with the same problem. Andrew Miller, 13, used to end homework assignments with the slam of his bedroom door. "Homework was hard," he said. "I yelled a lot." His mom...

High as a Kite.(possible use of windpower to build pyramids)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Did wind power help build the pyramids of Egypt? One of history's greatest mysteries is the question of how the pyramids of Egypt were built. How did the ancient Egyptians erect such enormous structures thousands of years before motors and...

Earliest Human Ancestor Found?(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Until now, the oldest known human ancestor was Ardipithecus ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago in Africa. Fossils of that ancestor were found in Ethiopia in the early 1990s. The newly discovered species carries the name...

Poor Diet Hurts Female Athletes.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Anne Zeni Hoch, a professor of medicine, gave medical exams to ten young women runners who had developed amenorrhea--the absence of menstrual periods. According to Hoch, the women were amenorrheic because they had been exercising intensively...

Pop-Tart Blamed for Torching Home.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Hurff and her husband are now suing the Kellogg Co., claiming that the Pop-Tart started a fire that did $100,000 in damage to their home. The Hurffs are also suing Black & Decker, the maker of the toaster. The flammability (capability of...

Did Comets Bring Earth Some Atmosphere?(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Tobias Owen, of the University of Hawaii, analyzed the nitrogen that makes up most (78 percent) of Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen occurs in several isotopes, or forms that vary from one another in the number of neutrons their atoms contain. ...

Too Weird.(possible geological source of Loch Ness monster)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... People have argued for years about the existence of a monster in Scotland's largest lake, Loch Ness. Some say the Loch Ness Monster is real; others say "Nessie" is a myth. Now, an Italian geologist says Nessie is Earth's fault. The first...

ASK PROFESSOR OSSOLOTCH.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... Dear Michael, My cousin Zelda is a skin doctor, so I e-mailed her your question. Here is her reply: Fingernails--and toenails--are made from one of the most common structural proteins in nature. A structural protein supports and...

BEND YOUR MIND.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... The answer are in the Teacher's Guide.

WHATIZIT?(Brief Article)
October 12, 2001... There's a fungus among us! The type of fungus pictured here has a woolly appearance because it's made up of long threads, called hyphae. This photo shows one hypha with some spores clinging to it. What kind of fungus is it?

Global Meltdown.(glaciers)(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... This glacier in South America, like most glaciers around the world, has experienced serious shrinkage. A recent satellite survey of more than 2,000 glaciers has found that most of them have decreased in size by hundreds of meters over the last...

Wacky World.(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... AUSTRALIA. Oil spills at sea can be extremely harmful to wildlife, especially birds. Oil poisons birds when they swallow it while using their beaks to groom the black guck off their feathers. In an attempt to protect fairy penguins threatened...

Here Comes the Sun.(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... A U.S. spacecraft is headed toward the sun to scoop up fossils of the young solar system. To most people, "catching some sun" means slapping on sunscreen and stretching out on the beach for a few hours. To a group of U.S. scientists,...

Thrills and Spills.(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... Cheerleading is more than pom-poms and ponytails. It's a dangerous sport. Jill Repede was a freshman at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Ill., when she got the exciting news that she had made the school's cheerleading squad....

WHAT'S UP?(skyscrapers)(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... How high can buildings go? A planned superskyscraper will reach two-thirds of a mile into the air. Earlier this year, the Chinese city of Shanghai unveiled plans for an extraordinary new structure--the Bionic Tower. Rising 3,281 feet, or...

The Body Farm.(University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Research Facility)(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... On a Tennessee hillside, researchers study decaying humans and use what they learn to crack crimes. Swarms of maggots, relentless flies, and the stench of rotting human flesh are all part of a day's work for Murray Marks. Marks runs what...

Man's Best Friend Makes Him Sick.(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... SAN FRANCISCO--A 59-year-old man returned home recently from neck surgery. Five days later, he was sent back to hospital with an infection in the surgical wound. The cause of the infection: the man's dog! Researchers at the University of...

Its Alive! Kidney Survives Outside Body.
October 26, 2001... CHICAGO--In that unforgettably bad movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die, a mad scientist keeps the head of his dead fiancee alive on a tray in his laboratory. Now, scientists at the University of Chicago Hospitals have accomplished a similar feat...

Biggest Bang Made by Accident.(researchers discover explosive power of porous silicon)(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... GARCHING, Germany--Researchers at a physics lab at the Technical University of Munich were studying an exotic material recently when, suddenly, the material blew up. The unexpected explosion released seven times more energy and happened a...

Enviropigs Are Friends of the Earth.(development of transgenic pigs that excrete less phosphorous in their droppings)(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... GUELPH, Ont.--Gordie, Jacques, and Wayne may look like three little pigs, as normal as can be. But each one is a scientific marvel, equipped with a built-in emission control device that makes his feces environmentally friendly. Gordie,...

Plastic Heals Itself When Broken.(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... URBANA, Ill.--You're tapping out a phone number on your cell phone when the pressure of your finger cracks the keypad. What do you do? Instead of having to replace the phone, you simply wait while the break heals itself like a cut on a piece of...

Lewis and Clark Trek Taken to New Level.(undersea exploration of Astoria Canyon off coast of Oregon)(Brief Article)
October 26, 2001... NEWPORT, Ore.--The mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Ocean was the westernmost point reached by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their historic trek almost two centuries ago. Last summer, a team of 25 researchers picked up where...

the sci-triv game.
October 26, 2001... HAVE FUN LEARNING ABOUT SCIENCE Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the following questions. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the first question...

BEND YOUR MIND.
October 26, 2001... What do the letters mean? Cryptic Answer 24 H in a D 24 hours in a day 60 M in an H -- 9 P in the S S -- 90 D in a R A --...

WHATIZIT?
October 26, 2001... These may look like ripples on a lake, but this photo was taken in Saudi Arabia, where you don't find many lakes. The photo was snapped by a satellite flying high over the Rub'al-Khali. What might the ripples be?