Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from September 2003

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from September 2003

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
September 12, 2003... SCI-TRIVGAME: 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 first...

Yesterday once more: current science flashback.
September 12, 2003... November 11-15, 1940--Current Science asked its readers, "Would you rather be gassed or blasted?" World War II was underway in Europe, and many North Americans were concerned that the war might make its way across the ocean. People were...

Toxic threat: how dangerous are chemical weapons of mass destruction?(Physical)
September 12, 2003... In March 1988, the Iraqi government launched an assault on Halabja, a town in Iraq populated by Kurdish people. For three nights, Iraqi airplanes bombarded the town, killing more than 5,000 Kurds. The Iraqi forces unleashed on Halabja a...

Inner space: is the sci-fi movie The Core a true depiction of world disaster?(Earth)
September 12, 2003... Birds fall from the sky. Human hearts stop. Huge electrical storms destroy cities. Those are some of the mysterious disasters that befall Earth in the science-fiction movie The Core, released this week on VHS and DVD. Two geophysicists,...

Face to face: a British surgeon is ready to perform the world's first face transplant.(Health)
September 12, 2003... Have you ever wished that you had the good looks of Halle Berry or Ashton Kutcher or the hottest student in school? For some people, such as the disfigured victims of car or burn accidents, that kind of wish is more than an idle fantasy. Now a...

Forensic Park: in one of the world's most unusual labs, scientists use the latest technology to fight crimes--against bears, fish, and other wildlife?(United States Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory solves wildlife crimes)
September 12, 2003... In a well-lit laboratory, scientists lean over a shooting victim. The man who fired the fatal shot claims he acted in self-defense. If so, the victim would have been facing the man and the bullets would have entered the victim from the front....

Monster drool helps diabetics.(Gila-monster saliva used in new drug: Exenatide)
September 12, 2003... NEW ORLEANS -- Here's an idea for a Fear Factor stunt: Try to avoid getting nipped in a cage of Gila monsters. The 2-foot lizards from the American Southwest have a bite that won't kill you but might make you wish it had! The bite of a...

Rare quark combo found.(Physical)(pentaquark)
September 12, 2003... OSAKA, Japan -- After 30 years of searching, scientists have finally spotted the elusive pentaquark. Invisible to the human eye and present for only a split second, the pentaquark is a bundle of five quarks. Quarks are fundamental units of...

Insight.(artificial satellite Helios crashes into Pacific Ocean )
September 12, 2003... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has not had a good year. First, the space shuttle Columbia crashed in February. Then Helios, pictured here, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii in June. Helios was a "flying...

Teen's cancer research wins $50,000 prize.(Anila Madiraju)
September 12, 2003... MONTREAL -- Many medical treatments can be rougher on the body than the diseases they're meant to target. Now, a 17-year-old high-school student, Anila Madiraju, has surmounted that obstacle with an experimental treatment that stops cancer...

Springtime for Neptune.(Earth)
September 12, 2003... MADISON, Wis. -- You won't find flowers blooming and birds building nests, but spring appears to be in full swing on the planet Neptune. It probably began there about 39 years ago and may continue until about 2005, when summer finally arrives....

Too weird.(woodpecker "vandalizes" vehicle)
September 12, 2003... BLOOMINGDALE, N.J. -- One morning last June, Gary Gaudreau discovered that his red 2003 Chevy Malibu had been vandalized. The mirror on the driver's side had been smashed. On the passenger's side, the mirror had been twisted and the door...

Mystery photos.(Optrics)
September 12, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CAPTION: Top: street-hockey puck Middle: Froot Loops in milk Bottom: Slinky toy

Bend your mind.(Optrics)
September 12, 2003... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] CAPTION: The pencils below form a grid of nine equal triangles. Move four pencils so that five equal triangles remain. Mindbender:

Whatizit?(Optrics)
September 12, 2003... This photo is an extreme close-up of tiny notches in a thin, circula sheet of aluminum. When a laser beam scans the sheet, the notches alter the way the beam is reflected by the aluminum. The changing reflections are converted into an...

Discoveries.(quiz on scientific discoveries)
September 12, 2003... Multiple Choice Choose the response that best completes each statement Write the letter of the response in the space provided. -- 1. Laboratory scientists recently created (A) down quarks. (B) pentaquarks. (C) up quarks. -- 2....

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
September 26, 2003... 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 first question right,...

Who knew?
September 26, 2003... Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The human brain accounts for as much as 25 percent of the body's energy needs. The brains of nonhuman primates (apes and monkeys) use about 8 to 10 percent of the...

Saving the sirens: Current Science editor Kirsten Weir joined a scientific mission in the Caribbean Sea to help protect endangered sea cows.(Life)
September 26, 2003... Brilliant turquoise waves that matched the color of the cloudless sky lapped gently against the side of the boat. Looking across the water, I scanned the swells, searching for signs of life below the surface. The sunshine glinting off the peaks...

Cosmic dust busters: a class of science students caught falling stars.(Earth)
September 26, 2003... Have you ever seen a shooting star? Most likely. Have you ever been hit by one? That's likely too! Dust-sized bits of residue from shooting stars land on Earth--and on Earthlings!--all the time. About 40,000 tons of space dust are thought...

High risk: a series of pole-vaulting deaths has spurred efforts to make the sport safer.(Health/Physical)
September 26, 2003... Kelsey Koty, 19, stood with pole in hand, ready to make her first official pole-vault attempt at the college level. She was excited to prove herself. She ran, planted the pole, and flung herself into the air. Then, something went wrong. She...

Beetle takes dung for moonlit roll.(Life)
September 26, 2003... LUND, Sweden -- Dung beetles are nature's pooper scoopers. They feed on animal droppings. One species of African dung beetle, Scarabaeus zambesianus, eats elephant excrement. Now, a team of scientists from Sweden and South Africa has...

Insight.(Discoveries)
September 26, 2003... If you were able to see as well as feel Earth's gravity, the planet would look like this. The GRACE twins, two spacecraft launched last year, are equipped with instruments that have since measured small variations in gravity around the world....

Student's asteroid research tops competition.(Earth)
September 26, 2003... NEW MILFORD, Conn. -- Throughout its 4.5-billion-year history, Earth has been hit repeatedly by asteroids and comets. Some of those hits have been cataclysmic, including the one that bumped off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. More...

Ask Professsor Ossolotch.(Discoveries)
September 26, 2003... Dear Professor Ossolotch, What is liquid nitrogen ice cream? Gerda Ruffalo, Chicago, Ill. Dear Gerda, Liquid nitrogen ice cream is made from a special recipe that I doubt even Martha Stewart knows. One formula for it was...

Too weird.(Discoveries)(Brief Article)
September 26, 2003... TAIPEI, Taiwan -- People across Taiwan are furnishing their homes with a new kind of light fixture: tropical fish that glow in the dark. The fish went on sale here last spring and are due shortly in the United States and Europe. The glow...

AIDS virus family tree traced.(Health)(Brief Article)
September 26, 2003... NOTTINGHAM, England -- The emergence of SARS in the last year is just the latest example of a disease that began in animals and crossed to humans. (See "SARS Unmasked," Current Science, August 29, 2003.) AIDS is another disease that moved from...

Eyes in the sky sense forest fire.(Technology)(Brief Article)
September 26, 2003... ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Last year was one of the worst in U.S. history for forest fires. The country spent $1.6 billion to snuff out fires that raged from Arizona to Montana. One fire alone, the Biscuit fire in Oregon, scorched a half-million acres....

Bend your mind.(Optricks)
September 26, 2003... * Two pointing fingers are missing from this pattern. Add the missing fingers to make a consistent pattern in the grid. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Whatizit?(Optricks)
September 26, 2003... This is the head of a blood-sucking arachnid that is widespread across the United States. It makes a small cut in the skin of an animal and inserts its mouthparts into the skin. The mouthparts are then cemented in place with a sticky fluid....