Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication articles from September 2006

Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication archives from September 2006

Sci-triv game: have fun learning about science!
September 8, 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, and...

Who knew?(Matsumi Suzuki does research on Mona Lisa smile)(Brief article)
September 8, 2006... TOKYO -- No one may ever know what the woman in the world's most famous painting was smiling about. But now we have a good idea what she sounded like. A Japanese scientist has re-created the voice of the woman who sat 500 years ago for Leonardo...

Battle bots: how can you protect yourself in a war between robots and humans?(PHYSICAL)
September 8, 2006... Why are robots so often drawn to the dark side? In The Terminator movies, the robots hunt people down. In The Matrix and its sequels, they enslave us. Why can't humans and robots just get along? Daniel Wilson and his friends used to wonder...

In hot water: was last year's super storm season fueled by global warming? Some scientists are starting to think so.(EARTH)
September 8, 2006... Are hurricanes becoming more destructive? Scientists couldn't help but ask that question as Hurricane Katrina battered Mississippi and Louisiana last year. The question is controversial among the researchers who seek to understand...

New vision: learning about an epidemic of blindness was an eye-opening experience for a group of middle-school students.(HEALTH)
September 8, 2006... Last November, two sixth-grade classes at Frederick Nerge Elementary School in Roselle, Ill, were given an assignment on human life spans. Their task was to find out how long people live in various countries around the world. Consulting a Web...

Marathon man: Dean Karnazes has an outrageous goal: to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days.
September 8, 2006... It's midnight on a Friday in Petaluma, Calif., and a pizza joint has just gotten a weird request: Deliver a pizza to a man running through a nearby intersection. When the pizza is delivered, the man balances the box on one hand and then strides...

Teens hear 'silent' ring tone.(ultrasonic sound ringtone from Compound Security Systems)
September 8, 2006... MERTHYR TYDFILL, Wales -- An invention designed to repel teenagers has been turned on its ear and used to outwit adults. The invention, a small black box called the Mosquito, emits an annoying ultrasonic (high-pitched) buzz. Many...

Muggle designs Harry Potter cloak.(John Pendry uses metamaterials for the clothing)(Brief article)
September 8, 2006... LONDON -- Sir John Pendry teaches at Imperial College, not the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in England. But he has devised the pattern for an invisibility cloak not unlike the one worn by Harry Potter. Pendry, a theoretical...

Humans gave cats ulcers.(Brief article)
September 8, 2006... UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Too bad peptic ulcer medications weren't available in prehistoric times. A big African cat probably needed one after a certain human meal upset its stomach. Peptic ulcers are painful sores in the stomach and...

World's tropics are expanding.(climate change)(Brief article)
September 8, 2006... SEATTLE -- The droughts that periodically afflict the southwestern United States may worsen and creep into the Midwest in the years ahead, according to a team of U.S. meteorologists. Tracking climate change with satellite data, the researchers...

Offspring feed on yummy mummy skin.(caecilians)(Brief article)
September 8, 2006... TAITA, HILLS, Kenya -- What some mothers won't do for their children! An international team of scientists has discovered an African animal that lets her offspring eat her skin. The animal is a type of amphibian called a caecilian....

Mpemba effect explained?(Erasto Mpemba on freezing)
September 8, 2006... ST. LOUIS -- Have you ever heard of the Mpemba effect? In the 1960s, Erasto Mpemba, a high school boy in Tanzania, became the butt of jokes in his class when he informed his teacher that he could make ice cream more quickly by first heating the...

Insight.(Micreon GmbH introduces new laser technology)(Brief article)
September 8, 2006... A housefly's eyes don't have large central lenses, so why is this housefly wearing cool corrective lenses? The manufacturer, Micreon GmbH, of Hannover, Germany, made the "flyglasses" to demonstrate the precision of its new laser technology. The...

Mystery photos.(OPTRICKS)
September 8, 2006... Mystery Photos: Clay Skelton, Edinboro, Pa.; Caroline Hanlet, Harrenville,II. Background: indexopen; Glass: indexopen Pennies: Photodisc; Whatizit: Andrew Syred/Photo Top: red licorice Middle: sole of a sneaker Bottom: whole wheat...

Bend your mind.(surface tension of water defined)
September 8, 2006... This glass is filled to the top with water. Roughly how many pennies can be dropped into the glass before flows Bend your Mind: You should be able to place at least several dozen pennies into the glass. Why so many? Because water has a high...

Whatizit?(hamuli)
September 8, 2006... This photo might look like a close-up of the stitching on a football, but the red protrusions are really tiny hooks that scientists call hamuli. They can be found on butterflies, and, in this photo, Apis mellifera, the honeybee. What might be...

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

Who knew?(sand gazelles counter heat by shrinking)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... TAIF, Saudi Arabia -- This year is shaping up to be one of the hottest years on record, but the world's sand gazelles probably don't mind. Sand gazelles have evolved a highly effective, not to mention bizarre, way of beating the heat:...

Coast guards: a U.S. education group sends students to a Costa Rican beach to help protect leatherback turtles.
September 22, 2006... It's midnight on a remote beach in northern Costa Rica, and Alissa Petrites hurries through the darkness. She carries a sack of about 100 leatherback sea turtle eggs, taken moments earlier from a nesting mother turtle. She moves urgently but...

Finding focus: an after-school program helps teenagers diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
September 22, 2006... Jaysen Bennington began to struggle in school in second grade. He had trouble paying attention in class, often lost his homework, and rarely finished an assignment on his own. "He could not focus on what he needed to focus on," says his father,...

Picture puzzle: U.S. art sleuths solve the mysteries in a classic painting.(Don Olson)
September 22, 2006... Have you seen The Scream? It's the famous 19th-century painting of a ghostly guy shrieking under a blood-red sky. You see the image everywhere nowadays, even on T-shirts. The Scream wasn't the best-known painting by Norwegian artist Edvard...

Bomb scare: can Iran use its know-how to make nuclear weapons?
September 22, 2006... Iran gave the world a scare early this year. The Iranian government announced that it would start operating equipment for the production of nuclear energy. The leaders of many other countries expressed alarm that the Iranians might use the same...

Student wins $100,000 prize.(Shannon Babb wins Intel Science Talent Search)
September 22, 2006... HIGHLAND, Utah -- Most people who monitor water quality do so for a living, but Shannon Babb, 18, says she does it "for fun." Since she was 13, Shannon has been testing the water quality of watersheds near her home in central Utah. One of her...

Ask Professor Ossolotch.(beans donot get digest easily)(zillion, bajillion, squillion, gazillion and kajillion defined)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Is a zillion a number? Colleen Strey, Winnebago, Ill. No, a zillion is not a number. Neither is a jillion, a bajillion, a squillion, a gazillion, or a kajillion. They're all words coined to indicate that something is indefinitely...

Sea snakes make energy.(electricity generated at coastal Portugal)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... POVOA DE VARZIM, Portugal -- The northern coast of Portugal has been invaded by what look like giant orange sea serpents (above). The "serpents," which are steel tubes 122 meters (400 feet) long, are a supplier of alternative energy. Their...

Cool coral spotted.(Washington)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... SEATTLE -- If you wanted to look for coral, you'd probably head for waters off the coasts of Florida or Hawaii, not Washington. But Washington is where a team of government scientists were blown away by the discovery of the world's newest coral...

Ants march on stilts.(internal pedometer helps in knowing places)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... ULM, Germany -- Ants that live in the Sahara have to cover vast distances in their search for food. Once they've located the food, how do they find their way back home across the flat, featureless landscape? German scientists have found an...

Whatizit.(Lake Manicougan )(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... This satellite photo shows Lake Manicougan in northern Quebec. The lake is about 70 kilometers (45 miles) across, and its island, Rene-Lavasseur Island, is the second-largest lake island in the world. Lake Manicougan formed about 212 million...

Bend your mind.
September 22, 2006... Which one of the objects below could produce the shadow above? Answer: C [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Mystery photos.
September 22, 2006... Top: cat's claw Middle: grains office Bottom: screwdriver [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Discoveries.
September 22, 2006... Fill in the Blanks Find the word or words that best complete each sentence. Write the words in the blanks. 1. A--is an animal without a backbone that is big enough to be seen by the naked eye. 2. Wastewater released from a pipe...