Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from October 2003

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from October 2003

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!(Illustration)
October 10, 2003... SCI-TRIV GAME Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the questions below. To find you score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the first question right, 20 points for each...

Think pieces!
October 10, 2003... Clay is both the 50th best and the 50th worst student in his school. How many students attend his school? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a bicycle race from point A to point B and back, Monique averages 30 kilometers per hour to point B and...

Whole lotta lava: will a groovy giant-size lava lamp brighten the prospects of depressed American town?(Earth/Physical)(architect plans giant lava lamp for Soap Lake, WA)
October 10, 2003... THE DUSTY TOWN of Soap Lake, Wash., isn't what it used to be. Fifty years ago, folks came from miles, around to bathe in the town's mineral-rich lake water, which supposedly cured all sorts of ailments. The lake got its name from the way the...

Monkey business: baboons can teach humans a lesson about coping with stress.(Life)
October 10, 2003... Meet Solomon. Solomon is big, hairy. and pushy. You can count on a "stressfest" whenever he's around. No person knows Solomon better than Robert Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University. For 25 years, Sapolsky...

Cracked plates: what made the islands of Hawaii? A U.S. scientist has a bold new theory.(Earth)
October 10, 2003... TAKE A CLOSE LOOK at Hawaii and you'll notice something interesting. The Aloha State is a string of volcanic islands. If you follow the islands to the northwest, you'll find that they get progressively older, smaller. and tess active. Look...

Second sight: stem cell surgery returns a teenager's lost eyesight.(Health)
October 10, 2003... Just days before he turned 17, Matt Higgins got the greatest birthday girl he could have ever imagined--the gift of sight. When he was 4, Matt contracted Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare condition in which the body has a severe reaction to...

Brain cells control robot 'artist'.(Physical)
October 10, 2003... ATLANTA -- In the sci-fi cartoon series Futurama, the preserved heads of famous people, such as President Richard Nixon and boxer Mike Tyson, are kept alive in glass jars. Now researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have kept a rat's...

Too weird.(Discoveries)(laparoscopic surgery used to remove fork from woman's stomach)
October 10, 2003... TIBERIAS, Israel -- You've heard the nursery rhyme about the old woman who swallowed a fly. Have you also heard about the woman who swallowed a cockroach? "It's a bit of a strange storg" said Nikola Adid, the doctor who operated on the woman....

Boy rescues tortured cat.(Life)(Sam Bernard)
October 10, 2003... COLE HARBOUR, N.S. -- Sam Bernard is the cat's pajamas in the small Nova Scotia town that his family moved to last spring. Sam, 13, saved a neighborhood cat from being killed by two bullies. One morning in July, Sam was awakened by a...

Pizza slices cancer risk.(Health)(research indicates tomato sauce on pizze reduces colon cancer risk)
October 10, 2003... MILAN, Italy -- Not everything that tastes good is bad for you! Italian researchers have found that pizza reduces the odds of getting cancer. The researchers interviewed more than 8,300 people for their study. They discovered that eating...

'Damper' stops feedback howl.(Technology)(electronic damper for acoustic guitar)
October 10, 2003... DURHAM N.C. -- Have you ever been jarred by a loud electronic shriek at a live music concert? That noise was probably the sound of feedback. Feedback occurs in those situations where a musical instrument is amplified and its sounds are...

Insight.(Discoveries)(strawberry poison dart frog born at Bristol Zoo Gardens)
October 10, 2003... This tiny amphibian is a baby strawberry poison dart frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Though the species is native to Panama, this one was born at Bristol Zoo Gardens, in England. It is the first offspring of a strawberry poison dart frog ever bred...

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
October 10, 2003... Using only an upside-down wine glass, lift a marble off a table without moving the table. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mindbender: Hold the glass by the bottom or the stem, and cover the marble with the glass. Then start rotating the glass...

Whatizit?(Optricks)(diatom)
October 10, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: This might look like a sand dollar, but it's really a much tinier water creature. It is a type of microscopic alga that is abundant in both fresh and salt water. Protecting it is a frustule, or shell, made...

Discoveries.(science quiz)
October 10, 2003... Fill in the Blank Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. -- are substances that stop chemicals in the body from reacting with oxygen. 2. Piezoelectric -- produce an electrical...

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
October 24, 2003... Have fun learning about science! Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can earn by correctly answering the questions below. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the first question right,...

Who knew?
October 24, 2003... Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was the second man to step on the moon. His mother's maiden name was Moon. The liquid inside a young coconut can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency. People will remember...

Chimps "r" us? Chimpanzees and humans are members of the same family tree. Should they share the same branch?(Life)
October 24, 2003... Objectives This pro-con feature looks at both sides of the debate over reclassifying chimps as members of the human genus. Critical Thinking * What are some similarities between chimps and humans not listed in the story? What are...

Waterworld: global warming threaten to make Earth not only hotter but a whole lot wetter.(Earth/Life)
October 24, 2003... Objectives This feature describes the ways in which global warming might make the world much wetter in addition to much hotter. Critical Thinking * Describe an original solution to reverse global warming. * Besides making Earth...

Big burps: car owners pump up the volume to earsplitting peaks at a new drag-racing event.(Physical)
October 24, 2003... Objectives This feature is about a new type of contest in which car owners crank up their sound systems to make earsplitting "burps." Critical Thinking * How might extremely loud sounds damage human organs? * What other...

Crossing over: monkeypox is just the latest disease to leap the species barrier to humans in this country.(Health/Life)
October 24, 2003... Objectives This feature discusses diseases that have leaped to humans from other animals and what factors have led to a recent increase in those leaps. Critical Thinking * Name some other diseases that have jumped to people from...

Scout's invention improves airport security.(Technology)(shoe-checking metal detectors)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... ROCKFORD, Ill. -- If you've traveled by plane recently, you know how long it takes to get through security. Lines often move slowly because passengers whose shoes have metal soles set off security alarms. Now a new shoe-checking metal detector...

Insight.(Discoveries)(Mars (planet))(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... Mars is an extremely cold and dry desert planet, swept by whirling dust storms and dotted by sand dunes. This field of Martian dunes was recently photographed by a camera on board the Mars Global Surveyor as it flew over Herschel Crater in the...

Tongue transplant licks cancer.(Health)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... VIENNA -- Austrian doctors performed the world's first tongue transplant in July. The patient, a 42-year-old man who was a heavy smoker, had developed cancer of the tongue. Normally, doctors replace amputated tongues with soft tissue taken...

No monster in lake.(Life)
October 24, 2003... LOCH NESS, Scotland -- One of the most thorough scientific studies of Loch Ness has found no sign of Nessie, its fabled monster. The study determined that the Scottish lake has steep sides and a flat bottom but nothing even resembling a giant...

Mona Lisa's secret exposed.(Life)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- For 500 years, art lovers have puzzled over the smile on Leonardo da Vinci's painting Mona Lisa. Sometimes the smile is there and sometimes it's not. Now, Margaret Livingstone, a professor of neuroscience at Harvard...

Spiders spin mega web: Walter and Val Jervis examine part of the 24-hectare web that millions of tiny spiders spun on their farm.(Too Weird)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... McBRIDE, B.C. -- Did you think the army of giant spiders in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was freaky? Well, check this out: Last fall, an estimated 150 million spiders built a web covering 24 hectares [60 acres)of a farmer's field in...

Kansas is flatter than a pancake.(Earth)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... SAN MARCOS, Texas -- You've probably heard it said that the state of Kansas is as flat as a pancake. Well, it's true. In fact, Kansas is even flatter than a pancake, according to a team of geographers from Texas State University and Arizona...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)
October 24, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mystery Photos Top: grass seed Middle: brush in a bottle of nail polish Bottom: soccer ball

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
October 24, 2003... * Which of the figures (A, B, C, D) best completes the top sequence? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The answers are in the Teacher's Guide. Mindbender: c

Whatizit?(Optricks)(toxic mold)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... Bordewich-Bray Elementary School in Carson City, Nev., is being partially rebuilt this fall. An infestation of Stachybotrys chartarum was found in the school. Spores of S. chartarum are pictured above. The spores should not be inhaled because...

Discoveries.(Brief Article)
October 24, 2003... Write the word that best completes each sentence. 1. The--is a membrane at the back of the eye that contains millions of light-sensitive cells. 2.--were large predatory reptiles that inhabited the oceans during the time of the...