Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from October 2004

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from October 2004

Sci-Triv Game: have fun learning about science!(quiz)(Illustration)
October 8, 2004... SCI-TRIV GAME Have fun learning about science! 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...

Tel Aviv, Israel--have scientists found the missing link--the common ancestor of humans and other primates?(Who ? Knew)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... TEL AVIV, Israel -- Have scientists found the missing link--the common ancestor of humans and other primates? Last summer, at Safari Park zoo, a black macaque monkey came down with a stomach ailment that almost killed her. After Natasha...

Los Angeles--Mark Allestier recently underwent plastic surgery to look like his pet rottweiler, Mojo.(Who ? Knew)(Brief Article)(Column)
October 8, 2004... LOS ANGELES -- Mark Allestier recently underwent plastic surgery to look like his pet rottweiler, Mojo. "[Mojo's] face reveals all the qualities I want in myself: strength healthy, friendliness, and zest for life," said Allestier. The plastic...

Man-eaters of Tsavo: Current Science editor Kirsten Weir went on safari in Kenya to see the legendary maneless, man-eating Tsavo lions.(Life)(includes "Fill in the Blanks" quiz)(Column)
October 8, 2004... THE SUN HAD SET BY THE TIME I settled down to dinner in the open-air dining hall. Just as I was slicing into a steaming baked potato, my friend Lisa dropped her chicken kebab and pointed out into the darkness. "Uh, guys," she said, "what's...

Sea rescue: the country's weirdest body of water needs an extreme makeover.(Earth)(Salton Sea)(includes "Multiple Choice" quiz)
October 8, 2004... Norm Niver loves living by the Salton Sea. Pelicans gather over its calm waters at sunrise. The days are quiet. The sunsets are spectacular. "There's no place like it," said Niver, a musician and the unofficial mayor of the sea. The Salton...

Inside out: a controversial exhibit showcases plastic mummies made from human cadavers.(Physical/Health)("Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies")(includes "Short Answer" quiz)
October 8, 2004... IF SOMEONE HANDED you a piece of human lung, would you take it? I did. It was gray from years of smoking by its original owner, but not as gross as you might think. It had been turned to plastic. It was dry, hard, and odorless. It felt waxy but...

Mouse has two mommies.(Technology)(includes Fill in the Blanks . . .)
October 8, 2004... TOKYO -- A mouse with two mothers and no father has been born in Japan. The mouse, named Kaguya, was the result of a biological experiment that has shown for the first time that males are not necessary for reproduction in mammals. In...

Fruit to shoppers: bite me!(Life)(packaging that can tell the stage of ripeness)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... HAMILTON, New Zealand -- Grocery store managers dislike it when customers squeeze fruit to check for ripeness. Squeezing can bruise fruit. Now two New Zealand researchers have invented a package that forgoes the need to squeeze. The...

Take my equation--please!(Math)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... LONDON -- Mathematics rarely gives people much to laugh about. But now a British scientist has devised a math equation calculated to get big laughs. The scientist, Helen Pilcher, teamed with stand-up comic Timandra Harkness to draft an...

Insight.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... The four photos above are images of a human hair taken by an electron microscope at increasing levels of magnification. They show the result of an experiment in which researchers at Boston College and Boston University deposited a tiny drop of...

Teen awarded $50,000 prize.(Health)(www.collegeboard.com/yes)
October 8, 2004... MERION STATION, Pa. -- Ben Eidelson is passionate about politics. He plans to major in political science in college and may one day pursue a career in government. So how did he end up winning a $50,000 scholarship for epidemiology research?...

Ask professor Ossolotch: what is the youngest planet?(Discoveries)(Brief Article)(Column)
October 8, 2004... Dear Beth, The youngest planet is so young it doesn't even have a name yet. It is an extrasolar planet--a planet that exists outside our solar system. Astronomers discovered it last spring orbiting a young star, Coku Tau 4, in the...

Dogs look like owners.(Too Weird)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... SAN DIEGO -- Have you eve= heard it said that people tend to look like their pets? Two psychologists have found some truth in that adage. The psychologists, Nicholas Christenfeld add Michael Roy of the University of California, San Diego,...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)
October 8, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Top: tone arm on a record player Middle: rows of perfume bottles Bottom: guitar stand

Bend your mind.(Optricks)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... A pebble hangs by a thread from a cork sealed in a bottle. How might the thread be cut without breaking the seal or moving the bottle? Put the bottle in the sunlight and use a magnifying glass to concentrate the sun's rays on the thread...

Whatizit?(Optricks)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Most Whatizits are microphotos, but this one is a macrophoto, a close-up image of a gigantic object covered in a thick layer of ice. The long red veins are cracks in the ice. Beneath the icy crust may lie an enormous ocean. What might this...

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
October 22, 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, and...

Think pieces!
October 22, 2004... Three pennies are arranged this way on a smooth surface, How can you move penny C to a position between penny A and penny B without moving B? Penny A cannot be touched in any way--not by you, penny C, or any outside object. * To solve the...

Massif meltdown: why is the ice on Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro disappearing?(Earth)
October 22, 2004... Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, is a world in miniature. The base and lower slopes of the massif (very large mountain or rock structure) in northeastern Tanzania are swaddled in fertile farmlands that give way, higher up, to steaming...

Bird word: don't call Alex the parrot a birdbrain. He knows what he's talking about.(Life)
October 22, 2004... Moments after I met Alex for the first time, he started making demands. "Wanna go chair," he said in a throaty voice. It wasn't the most polite way to greet a new visitor, but since Alex is an African gray parrot. I took no offense. Jesse...

Count down: will electronic voting machines solve the kinds of problems that occurred in the 2000 election?(Physical)
October 22, 2004... The 2000 presidential election brought nationwide attention to the difficulty of counting every vote in an election. Of 6.1 million ballots cast in Florida, 176,000 were rejected by machine counters because the ballots were either improperly...

Robo doc: the machines are taking over-slicing and stitching in hospital operating rooms.(Health/Physical)
October 22, 2004... In a sterile operating room, a patient lies unconscious, prepped for heart surgery. The head surgeon enters, walks past the patient to the other end of the room, kicks oft his shoes, and settles into a comfortable chair. He'll be saving this...

Exotic fish imperil ecosystems.(Life)(Brief Article)
October 22, 2004... FLORIDA KEYS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY -- When the movie Finding Nemo was released last year, many kids flushed their pet fish down the toilet, hoping the fish would find their way back to the ocean the way Nemo did. The kids had good...

This software picks the hits.(Technology)(Hit Song Science)
October 22, 2004... BARCELONA -- Do you dream of making it big in music, knocking Usher and Beyonce off the top of the charts? You'll need talent and drive, of course, and maybe a course in Hit Song Science (HSS). Developed by Polyphonic HMI, a Spanish...

Alaska quake shakes Yellowstone.(Earth)(Brief Article)
October 22, 2004... YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK -- November 3 marks the second anniversary of a big earthquake that shook Alaska. Though the quake's epicenter (place belowground where a quake starts) was located in a remote part of the state, the quake was felt way...

States sue power companies.(Earth)
October 22, 2004... NEWYORK CITY -- Eight states and the city of New York have filed a lawsuit against five of the country's biggest energy companies. The lawsuit is an attempt to force the companies to reduce carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) emissions from their...

Did doctors kill Napoleon.(Health)(Napoleon I, Emperor of )(Brief Article)
October 22, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO -- What killed French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)? Most historians accept the diagnosis of Napoleon's personal physician: stomach cancer, But in 2001, a chemical analysis of a lock of Napoleon's hair revealed that it...

Operation relieves man of hiccups.(Too Weird)
October 22, 2004... VIDOR, Texas -- Suffering a stroke is bad enough. Suffering three strokes in a row is worse. But the aftermath of three strokes was worst of all for Shane Shafer: The strokes triggered a case of hiccups so vicious that doctors had to operate on...

Mystery photos.(Optricks)
October 22, 2004... Mystery Photos Top: human hair Middle: coral Bottom: a porcupine's quills [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
October 22, 2004... * Which two boxes are similar? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The answers are in the Teacher's Guide. Bend Your Mind 2A and 3D

Whatizit?(Optricks)
October 22, 2004... This is a close-up of the broken edge of a familiar product made of sand (plus soda and lime). Though it is hard, it is not truly a solid, but more of a frozen liquid. If it were a true solid, like the sand it's made from, its internal...

Vocabulary challenge.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
October 22, 2004... Match each numbered word or group of words with its correct description. Write your answer in the blank. -- 1. analgesic -- 2. epicenter -- 3. seismic waves -- 4. diaphragm -- 5. arsenic -- 6. geyser -- 7....