Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from September 2002

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from September 2002

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!(trivia quiz)
September 13, 2002... Want to play a game of science trivia? See how many points you can win by correctly answering the following questions. To find score, give yourself 10 points each time you get the first question right, 20 points for each second question,...

Twisted! How Rubberboy gets himself into some very tight spots. (Life).(health benefits of being flexible)
September 13, 2002... Objectives This feature about a young human contortionist explains the anatomical basis of healthy flexibility. Critical Thinking * How might good flexibility contribute to athletic performance in baseball, basketball, and other...

Shoot the moon: laser beams fired at the moon have brought back evidence that our lone satellite might have innards like Earth's. (Earth).
September 13, 2002... Objectives This feature describes what scientists have learned about the moon's internal geology from measurements made on Earth and the moon. Critical Thinking * How might the moon's current internal structure have resulted from...

Heart to heart: the widow of a 9/11 victim turns her own family tragedy into a way of saving kids' lives. (Health).(charity pays for child to visit the United States for heart surgery)
September 13, 2002... Objectives This feature about a charity established by a 9/11 widow describes the pumping mechanism of the human heart. Critical Thinking * How might congenital defects be prevented from happening? * How might new, minimally...

Winning hand: teen inventor Ryan Patterson swept last year's top science fair competitions with a device that translates sign language. (Physical).
September 13, 2002... Objectives This feature describes a U.S. teenager's prizewinning invention that translates sign language into written language. Critical Thinking * How might technology in Ryan Patterson's American Sign Language Translator be...

Science teacher drives car 2 million miles. (Physical).(1966 Volvo P1800)
September 13, 2002... EAST PATCHOGUE, N.Y. -- Irv Gordon was a 25-year-old science teacher in 1966 when he bought a brand-new, cherry-red Volvo P1800. Today, Gordon, now retired, still owns the same Volvo. Last March, he put the 2 millionth mile on the car. ...

Roborat to the rescue? (Technology).(electrodes planted in brains of rats allow them to be controlled remotely)
September 13, 2002... NEW YORK CITY -- Have you ever dreamed of having the power to control the minds of other creatures? Scientists at State University of New York can now do that. They wired a live laboratory rat so that its movements can be guided by remote...

Mother knows best about broccoli. (Health).(chemical in broccoli kills H. pylori bacteria)
September 13, 2002... BALTIMORE -- The next time your mom tells you to eat your broccoli, listen up! A team of French and American scientists has found that a chemical in broccoli and broccoli sprouts kills a bacterium that causes stomach ulcers and stomach cancer....

Painter found order in chaos. (Physical).(mathematical pattern found in paintings by Jackson Pollock)
September 13, 2002... EUGENE, Ore. -- When people look at a painting by Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) they tend to see either a work of artistic genius or a mess. When Richard Taylor looks at a Pollock painting, he sees a mathematical pattern that might explain why...

Too weird. (Discoveries).(woman trapped in house by tumbleweeds)
September 13, 2002... MONTBELLO, Colo. -- Firefighters got an unusual call for help last April from a woman trapped in her home by tumbleweeds. A windstorm had blown thousands of tumbleweeds onto the woman's yard, burying her house and blocking its doors. Tumbleweed...

Ask Professor Ossolotch. (Discoveries).(freckles and hair color)
September 13, 2002... We have two questions. One: What are freckles? Two: Why are people born with only blond, brown, red, or black hair, and not crazy colors like blue or purple? Jessica and Leah Favia Carmel, N.Y. Dear Jessica and Leah, ...

Insight. (Discoveries).(star nebulae)
September 13, 2002... Is this a jellyfish rising in the Red Sea or a plume of smoke billowing from a bonfire? No, it's the Cone Nebula, photographed last April by a new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. A nebula is a humongous cloud of gas and dust where stars...

Fox hunt: why do Michael J. Fox and three people who worked with him all have Parkinson's disease? (Health)(Cover Story).
September 27, 2002... Michael J. Fox rose to fame in TV shows (Family Ties, Spin City) and movies (Back to the Future). But his first acting break was a little-known 1970s sitcom called Leo and Me, filmed in his hometown of Vancouver, B.C. Leo and Me was a big...

Crash test: what wiped out the dinosaurs? Scientists studying an enormous crater in Mexico hope to find the answer. (Earth).
September 27, 2002... A giant space rock races across the sky and smashes into the Gulf of Mexico. The impact blasts a hole in the ground deeper than the Grand Canyon. It also ejects billions of tons of rock into the atmosphere. The debris coats the entire globe...

"Overload": why does crime-scene investigator Gil Grissom electrocute a dill pickle to solve a murder?
September 27, 2002... A construction worker falls from the top of a 12-story building and lands facedown on the concrete below. The foreman at the construction site assumes the worker, Roger Valenti, committed suicide. But a short-circuited electric drill dangling...

Bye-bye BO. (Health).(body odor)
September 27, 2002... LIVERPOOL, England -- Many jobs require a nose for business. At the Unilever laboratory, "expert assessors" must have a nose for body odor. They sniff human armpits. Eeeeeeeew! Unilever's expert assessors are no doubt thrilled about a new...

Giant needle taps Earth's heat. (Technology).(Brief Article)
September 27, 2002... HOUSTON -- Doctors use syringes to administer drugs and extract body fluids. Now, engineers have designed a device that looks like a giant syringe to extract pollution-free power from under the ground. The device, called a Power Tube, taps into...

Who knew? (Discoveries).(Brief Article)
September 27, 2002... Astronomers once thought that a planet existed between Mercury and the sun. They even gave the planet a name: Vulcan. The longest mountain system in the world is the 16,000-kilometer-long (10,000-mile) Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which snakes...

Crime science: why is the CBS TV series C.S.I such a big hit? Cool science! (Life/Physical).
September 27, 2002... The dead body of a young woman lies on a cold bathroom floor. Flashlights shine and cameras click as crime-scene investigators Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows comb the room for clues to the woman's death. One clue is something red on the...