Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from October 2008

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from October 2008

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science.
October 3, 2008... 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 a first-row question right, 20 points for each second-row question,...

Who knew?
October 3, 2008... ALLIGATOR POINT, Fla. -- This summer, biologist Adam Warwick found himself playing a heroic role--lifeguard to a drowning bear. The black bear had been making a nuisance of itself in the coastal town of Alligator Point, Fla., roaming...

Heart sick: why are many gorillas in U.S. zoos dying prematurely?(HEALTH)(Cover story)
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Munching on leaves, playing with toys, entertaining visitors--it's all in a day's schedule for Mokolo and Bebac, two young male gorillas at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. "You look at the gorillas, and they're running...

Hearing Nemo: the seas are alive with the sounds of fish.(LIFE)
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For 20 years, Cape Coral, Fla., resident Marilyn Cicero thought she was living with a noisy ghost. "It just seemed to be in the room with you!" she says. Her friend Barbara Peet, who lives two doors away in their...

Good vibrations: will an early-warning system alert Californians in time when the next big earthquake slams the state?(EARTH)
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Big One. That's what Californians call the huge earthquake they expect someday. Earlier this year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the chances to be almost 100 percent that a large, damaging...

The air down there: a new plant in Iowa would store wind energy deep underground.(PHYSICAL)
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] People can't help but wonder about Tom Wind. Did his name inspire his passionate interest in wind energy? Was his destiny written on the Wind? "Perhaps there's a cosmic connection somewhere," says Wind, an...

Pluto is now a plutoid.(space)
October 3, 2008... OSLO, Norway -- Pluto is no longer living life on the D-list. Two years ago, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded Pluto's status from planet to dwarf planet. Now the IAU has changed its mind again. Pluto belongs to a new class...

Arsenic ruled out as emperor's killer.(health)(Napoleon Bonaparte)
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PAVIA, Italy -- For years, historians have argued over what killed French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Was the cause cancer? Did a close confidant poison him? Did his doctor give him treatments that...

'Fright night' plays on island.(too weird)
October 3, 2008... GOUGH ISLAND -- A real-life horror show is unspooling on a small island in the South Atlantic. Giant alien mice are attacking and eating baby birds, then cannibalizing one another. The mice are descendants of house mice (Mus musculus) that...

Drilling blamed for mud volcano.(earth)
October 3, 2008... Java, Indonesia -- The world's largest and fastest-growing mud volcano is an "unnatural disaster," according to a new study by an international team of scientists. The study disputes an earlier claim by an Indonesian oil and gas exploration...

Solar dish collects cheap energy.(technology)
October 3, 2008... CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- One sunny day in June, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student Spencer Ahrens stood outdoors in front of what looked like a large mirror-covered satellite dish. Lifting a long wooden plank, he thrust it into the...

Look closely at this photo taken off the coast of Indonesia.(insight)
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Look closely at this photo taken off the coast of Indonesia. Hunkered down among the rocks is an unusual fish. Unlike most other fish, whose eyes are situated on the sides of their heads, this one has...

Bend your mind.(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science[R])
October 3, 2008... Write down the following number on a piece of paper as quickly as possible: eleven thousand, eleven hundred and eleven. Then check with your teacher for the right answer. You'll be amazed how few people get it right. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science[R])
October 3, 2008... Mystery Photos: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mystery Photos: Shutterrock (3); Whatizit: Dennis Kunkel Microscopy; Hand, background: Shutterrock Answer Top: cacti Middle: uncooked spaghetti Bottom: the underside of a...

Whatizit?(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science[R])
October 3, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The epidermal layer on many animals is continually replacing itself. Some people experience an unpleasant immune reaction when they are exposed to results of pictured above, from a furry friend. Answer pet...

Seeing sound.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
October 3, 2008... How does the sound of a friend's voice or the music of a rock band travel through the air? What happens invisibly in the air when sound moves? What you Need * 10 pieces of thread * 10 pieces of puffed cereal * coat hanger * rubber...

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 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 a first-row question right, 20...

Animal spots.(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. -- Mary Ellen Schesser writes an advice column on pet care for her local newspaper. After hearing about incidents in which cats fell into swimming pools and drowned, she was determined that her...

Hard evidence: did the ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid of Giza from concrete?(PHYSICAL)(Cover story)
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, continues to be a source of wonder. More than 4,500 years after its construction, historians and scientists are still trying to figure out how...

Kyle EB: a Kansas teen is hoping to participate in an experimental therapy that might save his life.(HEALTH)( epidermolysis bullosa )
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kyle Hicks is a typical high school junior in many ways. The 17-year-old from Wichita, Kan., plays video games and loves chocolate and mac 'n' cheese. He hopes to go to college and study meteorology. But Kyle's...

The swarm: an invasion of "crazy" ants is driving Texans crazy.(LIFE)
October 17, 2008... They bustle around in huge crowds, their tall antennae bobbing, their long legs moving lickety-split in every direction. They're the "crazy rasberry ants," and they're driving people in Texas crazy. Though only the size of fleas, the...

Turn of events: why has 2008 been such a big year for tornadoes?(EARTH)
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The year is not over, but 2008 is already shaping up to be a record breaker for tornadoes. What's more, many twisters have had especially dangerous characteristics, says Bill McCaul, a meteorologist with the...

Winged giants stalked dinos.(life)(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... PORTSMOUTH, England -- Large, meat-eating dinosaurs made life perilous for baby dinos trying to survive. Now, scientists in Great Britain have identified another group of animals that may have snacked on small creatures. Those animals were...

Arctic sea floor erupts.(earth)(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... GAKKEL RIDGE, Arctic Ocean -- Who knew that such a ruckus was going on underwater? (See "Heating Nemo," page 6, October 3, 2008.) Now a team of scientists has found evidence of recent volcanic eruptions in the ocean. The scientists were...

Monkey think, robot do.(technology)(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... PITTSBURGH -- Two laboratory monkeys have learned how to control robotic limbs with their thoughts. The monkeys, both rhesus macaques, live at the University of Pittsburgh, where researchers are developing brain-controlled prosthetics...

Skyscraper shifts shape.(too weird)
October 17, 2008... NEW YORK -- Italian architect David Fisher was living in a deluxe apartment in Manhattan during the 1980s when inspiration hit him. The apartment looked out on both of the dyers-the East River and the Hudson River--that flow around Manhattan....

Patient's immune system cures his cancer.(health)(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... SEATTLE -- In what could be a new twist on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, medical scientists have used copies of a man's own immune cells to battle his cancer. The man, who is 54 years old and lives in rural Oregon, had an advanced form of...

Insight.(DISCOVERIES: News Briefs From Current Science[R])(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... Oyvind Tangen, a Norwegian sailor, photographed this striped iceberg near Antarctica. It reminded him of the "humbugs"--striped candies, pictured at right--that he ate as a child. An iceberg is a piece of an ice sheet that has broken off and...

Bend your mind.(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science[R])(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... Starting at the red dot, connect the other eight dots with only four straight lines? Your pencil cannot leave the paper while you're drawing, and the four lines must be connected one to the next. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANSWER ...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science[R])
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANSWER Mystery Photos: Top: computer mouse Middle: hairbrush Bottom: seat belt [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mystery Photos: Shutterstock (3); Whatizit: Dennis Kunkel Microscopy

Whatizit?(OPTRICKS: Brain Teasers From Current Science[R])(Brief article)
October 17, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When molten lava that contains high amounts of gas cools rapidly, it can form the fragile, lightweight rock seen above in close-up. People sometimes use this rock to exfoliate their skin. It's also used to make...

Tornado in a bottle.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
October 17, 2008... In "Turn of Events," you learned that 2008 has been a record-breaking year for tornadoes. Tornadoes are unpredictable, but you can create a tornado-like vortex on demand with this simple demonstration. A vortex is any spinning flow of fluid,...

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you (an win by correctly answering the questions below. To find your score, give yourself 10 points each time you get a first-row question right, 20 points...

Chicago--people often do a double take when they encounter Yoda the cat.(ANIMAL SPOTS)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... CHICAGO--People often do a double take when they encounter Yoda the cat. That's because Yoda has an extra set of ears. Yoda's owners, Valerie and Ted Rock, picked him out of a box of kittens being passed around a Chicago saloon two years ago....

Jerusalem--even for a tortoise, 10-year-old Arava was slow in getting around her new home, the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.(ANIMAL SPOTS)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... JERUSALEM--Even for a tortoise, 10-year-old Arava was slow in getting around her new home, the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. Staff members eventually discovered that Arava's hind legs are paralyzed. So the zookeepers built Arava a skateboard of...

Jagged edge: long-tailed primates and fossils of extinct giants occupy a spooky, spiked landscape.(EARTH/LIFE)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The island of Madagascar is sometimes called "the eighth continent" because of its distinctive plants and animals. Nothing is more distinctive, though, than the island's strange, spiky terrain: the tsingy. "It's...

Six feet under: this scientist uses advanced technology to hunt for unmarked graves.(PHYSICAL)(Elizabeth Wilson-Agin)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Elizabeth Wilson-Agin spends a lot of time in graveyards. She's not a witch or a weirdo, though. She's a modern tomb hunter--someone who locates unmarked graves without disturbing the ground. Construction crews...

White blight: a mystery disease is killing thousands of hibernating bats.(LIFE)(white nose syndrome)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's a warm summer night in Vermont. The air is filled with a chorus of squeaks--not from birds or bullfrogs but from bats. I'm spending an evening with biologist Scott Darling and his team of bat-trappers from the...

Personal mission: a student sponsors research to fight a cancer that could kill him.(HEALTH)
October 31, 2008... Josh Sommer began his freshman year at Duke University with a plan to become an environmental engineer. But plans have a way of changing. Just months after school started, Sommer began to suffer from severe headaches. Doctors discovered a tumor...

Fish give pedicures.(too weird)(doctor fish)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Because she plays a lot of sports, Tracy Roberts, 33, frequently develops calluses (patches of hard, thick skin) on her feet. She goes to salons for pedicures, but nothing has worked as well as the...

Bye-bye, baby!(space)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... PASADENA, Calif. -- Jupiter seems to be changing its spots. Earlier this year, the Baby Red Spot showed up on the giant planet. It appeared along the same latitude as the Great Red Spot. Both spots are enormous, spinning storms, though the...

Experimental pump keeps boy alive.(health)(Berlin Heart )
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] VICTOR, N.Y. -- Last March, Regina Busmire noticed that her normally energetic 8-year-old son Blake wasn't as lively as usual. At school, his teachers observed him walking strangely--on his toes. Blake's doctor...

The Wall Arch, a natural sandstone arch in Arches National Park in southern Utah, collapsed from natural causes--weathering and gravity--in August.(insight)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Wall Arch, a natural sandstone arch in Arches National Park in southern Utah, collapsed from natural causes--weathering and gravity--in August. Fortunately, the park has more than 2,000 other arches for visitors...

Volcano falls asleep.(earth)
October 31, 2008... MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- Do you remember the eruption of Mount St. Helens? Not the humongous one in 1980 that blew the top off the mountain, wiped out a forest, and killed 57 people (above right). We're talking about the eruption that began...

Professor Ossolotch: what is a plug-in hybrid?(Ask)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dear Katia, Let me back up for a second and explain, to those readers who aren't familiar with it, what a hybrid is. A hybrid is a car that has two alternating forms of power--an electric motor and a standard...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS)
October 31, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FEATURES PLUS ANSWER Mystery Photos: Top: sock in a clothes dryer Middle: soccer ball Bottom: human tongue

Bend your mind.(OPTRICKS)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... If you think the lines on this pattern are wavy, you just can't see straight. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FEATURES PLUS ANSWER Although the lines look wavy, they are actually straight.

Whatizit?(OPTRICKS)(kidney stone)(Brief article)
October 31, 2008... If you're lucky, you'll never experience the pain inflicted by this type of stone. Called a renal calculus, it forms when the compound calcium oxalate crystalizes. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FEATURES PLUS ANSWER kidney stone

Pickle power.(HANDS-ON ACTIVITY)
October 31, 2008... In this issue, Prof. O describes the plug-in hybrid, a modified form of hybrid car that can run exclusively on battery power. Follow the instructions to make your own "green" power source: a pickle battery. Like all batteries, it uses chemical...