Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from October 2006

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from October 2006

Sci-doku: trivia game: have fun learning about science!
October 6, 2006... Welcome to Sci-doku, the Current Science version of sudoku, the popular number puzzle from Japan. Sci-doku is easy to play. The goal is to find the numbers that go in each of the 25 squares in the grid so that all rows and columns contain the...

Who knew?(Rolo adjusts in dog's herd)(Brief article)
October 6, 2006... GWYNEDD, Wales -- Rolo might be called a dog in sheep's clothing. Orphaned as a baby, the little lost lamb was adopted by Emlyn Roberts, a farmer. Roberts gave the lamb dog food and raised her with his sheepdogs. He also indulged her sweet...

Tree huggers: Current Science sent a reporter to Australia to help scientists learn about koalas and their lives in the trees.(Cover story)
October 6, 2006... Tick. Tick. Tick. Holding an antenna above my head, I'm trying to find a clear radio signal. I adjust the receiver on my belt. The noise changes. Beep. Beep. Beep. I'm getting closer. With one hand, I fine-tune the receiver. With...

Farscapes: new types of telescopes may reveal what--or who--exists on planets beyond the solar system.
October 6, 2006... When early explorers first set foot on foreign shores, they had no clue what wonders they would find. That won't be the case when astronauts land for the first time on planets far out in the galaxy. The astronauts will arrive with maps of each...

Hail, no! Can giant cannons protect farms from hail damage?(hailstones)
October 6, 2006... A big storm is brewing over Colorado's vast San Luis Valley, but the deep booms aren't the sounds of thunder. They're the rumblings of the huge hail cannons on John Smith's farm. A hailstorm can ruin a crop in minutes. So Smith installed...

Did snakes drive primate evolution?(Brief article)
October 6, 2006... DAVIS, Calif. -- If you're like many people, your instinctive reaction to snakes is fear and loathing. Still, you might want to show some gratitude now and again to the slithery reptiles. According to a new theory, we owe some of our best...

Diabetes linked to Alzheimer's disease.(type 2 diabetes more dangerous than type 1 diabetes)(Brief article)
October 6, 2006... MADRID -- People who have diabetes are more likely to develop heart disease, strokes, kidney failure, and blindness. Now medical researchers have added another condition to that list: Alzheimer's disease, The addition was announced at a medical...

Fast-food fats make monkeys chunky.(trans fatty acids are more harmful than dietary fats)(Brief article)
October 6, 2006... WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. In June, Wendy's, the fast-food chain, announced that it would eliminate a controversial ingredient from all the items on its menu. The announcement should please a group of green monkeys that have paid the price for dining...

You gotta see the baby!( Red Spot Jr. on jupiter)(Brief article)
October 6, 2006... GREENBELT, Md. -- Like parents showing off photos of their newborn baby, NASA scientists have been proudly passing around images of Red Spot Jr. The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope took the images in April. Red Spot Jr. is a giant circular...

Paintings mix art and science.(Vincent van Gogh's art depict turbulence)
October 6, 2006... MEXICO CITy -- Did the great Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh take courses in physics? You might think so by looking at the brush marks in some of his paintings. A team of Mexican physicists has discovered that Van Gogh (1853-1890) had an uncanny...

Bend your mind.(studying about square)
October 6, 2006... A [] B [] Which figure is a perfect square? B is the perfect square. People tend to overestimate the length of vertical lines. So we think the vertical sides of A are longer than they really are and equal to the length of A's...

Whatizit?(papillae)(Brief article)
October 6, 2006... These tiny protrusions are called papillae. The fat ones are fungiform papillae, and the thin ones are filiform papillae. The fungiform ones hold tiny sensory organs that respond to dissolved chemicals. Where might you find these papillae? ...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS)
October 6, 2006... Top: zipper Middle: cucumber Bottom: stack of colored sticky notes

Fill in the blanks.
October 6, 2006... Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. Partially hydrogenated oils are also called 2. -- is a mental illness in which a person loses contact with reality. 3. Fullerene is a...

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
October 20, 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,...

Who knew?(Sandi Fontaine cooks cookies with sun's heat)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... BEDFORD, N.H. -- Millions of Americans roasted in this summer's oven-temperature heat, but not Sandi Fontaine. She baked instead. Fontaine works at a finance company in southern New Hampshire. Whenever the forecast was for temperatures in...

Altered state: what makes Eric Haller a teenage zombie with a craving for gummy worms?(kleine-levin syndrome )
October 20, 2006... Ever feel as if you never want to get out of bed? Well, what if you couldn't? For weeks at a time, 16-year-old Eric Haller of Placentia, Calif., sleeps up to 20 hours a day, waking occasionally to eat, shower, or use the toilet. He sleeps...

Alien rain: did summer showers bring aliens to Earth?
October 20, 2006... Early in the morning of July 25, 2001, a sonic boom shook houses in the state of Kerala in southern India. Shortly after, red-colored rain began falling across Kerala, continuing on and off in 20-minute bursts for the next two months. People...

The breakup: rumblings in eastern Africa signal the start of a new ocean.(Afar Triangle)
October 20, 2006... Last September, geologist Gezahegn Yirgu flew by helicopter to an earthquake zone in a remote part of Ethiopia. Landing in a region that was still shaking from quakes and rumbling with volcanic activity, Yirgu felt excited and afraid. "The...

True lies: computer prof exposes fake photos!(Hany Farid)
October 20, 2006... In April 2005, Star magazine boasted a cover showing actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie walking together on a beach. "Brad and Angelina Caught Together!" the cover screamed. Well, not really. The photo was phony, as Star acknowledged in a...

Quake changes gravity.(Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami, 2004)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The earthquake that rippled along the floor of the Indian Ocean in December 2004 did more than trigger a giant tsunami. It upset Earth's gravity. NASA, the U.S. space agency, has two satellites orbiting Earth, one behind...

Emperor's pain diagnosed.(Charles V had gout)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... BARCELONA -- Using a 448-year-old pinkie, Spanish doctors have determined what laid low one of history's most powerful rulers. That ruler, Charles V (1500-1558), was a Holy Roman Emperor whose realm encompassed territodes in Europe, Africa,...

'Gummy worms': soak up greenhouse gas.(salps dispose carbon dioxide)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Even as global warming continues to worsen, one animal, the salp, is doing its part to dispose of a greenhouse gas. The salp is a little-known sea creature that moves by pushing water through its body. About the size of...

Lakes found on moon.(titans)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... PASADENA Calif. -- Venus is sometimes called Earth's sister, but astronomers say new evidence shows that another object in the solar system--Titan--may bear a closer resemblance to our home planet. Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, is larger...

Fuel economy $talls.(Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Automakers are not keeping pace with the rising cost of gasoline, according to a new U.S. government report. The overall fuel economy (gallons of gasoline consumed per miles traveled) of cars and trucks is worse today than...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS)
October 20, 2006... Top: tea bags, Middle: tire tracks, Bottom: cracker [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bend your mind.(pressure by air)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... * Place a wooden ruler on a table so that about 10 centimeters (4 inches) of the ruler sticks out over the edge. Put a few sheets of newspaper over the ruler and smooth them down to press out all the air from underneath them. Guess what happens...

Whatizit?(waterbears)(Brief article)
October 20, 2006... These critters may not look like bears, but that's what they're called. You may have never seen one because they grow to only 1.5 millimeters (0.06 inches). Also called tardigrades, they live everywhere-from the bottom of the sea to the top of...

Discoveries.
October 20, 2006... Fill in the Blanks Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. A by-product of the digestion of protein is--acid. 2. --is the process in which carbon dioxide is absorbed from the...