Calliope articles from May 2008

Calliope archives from May 2008

5 Ingenious--but little-know--inventors.(Galileo Galilei, Nicholas Appert, James Nasmyth, Robert Whitehead, and Patricia E. Bath)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... 1. Galileo Galilei an Italian mathematician--discovered the principle of the pendulum around 1602. He then used it to regulate the movement of clocks. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] 2. Nicholas Appert a French cook--developed in 1809 a way of...

Breakthrough.(MUSINGS)(importance of inventions)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TO INVENT, YOU NEED A GOOD imagination and pile of JUNK. --Thomas A. Edison, U.S. inventor (1847-1931) READY TO MEET SOME COLLEAGUES? "Colleagues?" you ask. Yes, as we are all inventors. Just think of when...

Why thumbs matter: ever thought about your grip? You should. Here's why!
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Have you ever seen a photograph of a chimp dipping a blade of grass into a termite mound to pull out a delicious lunch or cracking open a nut with a rock that it later throws aside? The blade of grass and the rock...

Think like on Archaeoloqist.(ACTIVITY)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Even if you haven't been trained in archaeology, you can analyze tools from across time. As the centuries pass, tools get more specialized. New materials are used to make tools, going from wood to stone to metal. Look at the tools below...

Moving life forward.(invention of wheels)
May 1, 2008... It is easy to take wheels for granted, but try to imagine a world without them. In fact, few inventions have changed our world as much as that of the wheel. Yet, some ancient societies knew about wheels but rarely used them. Let us step back a...

'That which is brilliant'.(faience production)
May 1, 2008... The ancient Egyptians developed the science of faience production long before the unification of the country in 3100 B.C. By the time King Djoser commissioned his pyramid around 2630 B.C., faience was being used extensively in the manufacture...

Archimedes and the siege of Syracuse.(Play)
May 1, 2008... Characters KING HIERON* II--king of Syracuse PRINCE GELON--son of Hieron ARCHIMEDES--great mathematician and inventor PRINCE HIERONYMOS--grandson of Hieron and son of Gelon HIPPOCRATES--traitor who seized control of...

Maya creativity.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The ancient Maya developed a way of writing that was more complex than that of any other Indian culture of the Americas. Like the ancient Egyptians, the Maya wrote by using pictures of animals, people, or objects...

Maya-mazing.(ACTIVITY)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... This carved stone panel from Yaxchilan depicts a royal woman giving a blood sacrifice by pulling a braided rope through a hole cut in her tongue. Ouch! But it shouldn't be too painful for you to solve this maze, from "START" to "FINISH." ...

Bridging the gap.(China's bridge engineering)
May 1, 2008... China's rich history of bridge engineering dates back thousands of years. It mirrors the country's response to the problem of moving people, vehicles, and goods across bodies of water and over deep mountain ravines. Chinese engineers and...

Fun with words.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WORD ORIGINS Create The history of "create" is quite simple. It came into modern English from I the Middle English word createn, which was a direct derivative of the Latin participle creatus, meaning "having...

A man for all time.(Leonardo da Vinci)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the world's most famous paintings, Mona Lisa, was created by the 15th-century Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (pictured here). Remarkably, Leonardo was also a master scientist. Recognizing that science...

A modern Leonardo! Each year, the Lemelson--MIT Program awards its $30,000 Student Prize to an MIT senior or graduate student who demonstrates remarkable inventiveness. Here is CALLIOPE's exclusive interview with the 2007 recipient, Nathan Ball.(Massachusetts Institute of Technology honors student inventors after Leonardo da Vinci)(Interview)
May 1, 2008... What motivated you to create your first invention? The first project I built that I ever considered a "real" invention was the "Miniature Bottle Rocket Launcher" I made when I was in the fourth grade. It used water and a bike pump to launch...

The spirit of invention.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On a July afternoon in 1916, a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, waits anxiously at the entrance to a tunnel. An explosion has trapped many workers several hundred feet below Lake Erie. Explosive gas and choking smoke and...

Obtaining a patent.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1. To obtain a patent, the inventor must create something that is new and useful. Any similarities to existing patents must not be obvious. 2. To begin, the inventor must file an application with the U.S. Patent...

Light a match.(ACTIVITY)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... When cartoon people have an idea, they are pictured with light bulbs over their heads. Study the bulbs below to find exact matches. When you find a pair, shade them in. After you find all the pairs, the unshaded bulbs will reveal another way of...

From clay tablets to the digital age.(FROM PAST TO PRESENT)
May 1, 2008... Have you ever thought about how important the storage of information is? Our books, newspapers, letters, and digital media contain the bulk of the knowledge that we accumulate and pass on to generations after us. Think back to 8,000 years ago,...

Preparing papyrus.(ACTIVITY)
May 1, 2008... Since papyrus plants do not commonly grow in the United States, here's how to make a paper similar to what the ancient Egyptians made using rhubarb (a vegetable that you can buy at most greengrocers). When your rhubarb papyrus has dried, you...

Ask Calliope.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Can you tell me where Callanish is? What's important about it? --Courtney, Web post Callanish refers to an amazing circle of 13 stones on the island of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland. The tallest is 16 feet high and weighs about...

Hello Calliope!(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Calliope was delighted to receive letters from sixth graders at Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island, after they read the September 2007 issue on Akhenaten. Here are some of their comments--enjoy! I read your magazine, and it was...

Amazing Leonardo Inventions You Can Build Yourself.(OFF THE SHELF: Books)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Amazing Leonardo Inventions You Can Build Yourself by Maxine Anderson (Nomad Press, 2006, www.nomadpress.net) is a terrific resource, with its detailed step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and templates for creating...

Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself.(OFF THE SHELF: Books)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself by Sheri BelI-Rehwoldt (Nomad Press, 2006, www.nomadpress.net) skillfully blends historical facts with detailed instructions for replicating the masks, hieroglyphs, calendars, and musical...

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions.(OFF THE SHELF: Books)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmesh (Houghton Mifflin, 2002, www.hmco.com) is a collective biography of women who changed the world through their inventions and discoveries, which include...

A History of Invention: From Stone Axes to Silicon Chips.(OFF THE SHELF: Books)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... A History of Invention: From Stone Axes to Silicon Chips by Trevor I. Williams (Checkmark, 1987, www.factsonfile.com) uses a chronological format, dividing historical time into five chapters, to detail the advances made in such fields as...

The Book of Inventions.(OFF THE SHELF: Books)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... The Book of Inventions by Ian Harrison (National Geographic, 2004, nationalgeographic.com) mixes timelines, fun facts, photographs, and anecdotes to take the reader through time to witness some of history's most incredible inventions.

Cobblestone resources.(OFF THE SHELF)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Materials that complement this issue's topic, "The World's Firsts," and are available from Cobblestone Publishing include: Kids Can Change the World (APL0509) Awesome Inventions That Changed Our Lives (COB0501) Amazing Inventors...

On the net.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... This site is a "must visit" for anyone even remotely interested in inventing and inventions: http://web.mit.edu/invent/ For a time line on inventions, with links to detailed descriptions of several, go to: ...

Meet the inventors.(Antonella Lisanti, Joe Keith, Connor MacKenzie, and Desiree Amadeo)
May 1, 2008... Throughout this issue, you have read about ingenious breakthroughs by forward-thinking young people who were invited to present their projects at the Lemelson--MIT InvenTeams Odyssey in June 2007. CALLIOPE was onsite at the event and sat in on...

Then and now.(kettles)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHAT'S CHANGED? Ctesibius' invention required pipes and wheels inside and a person to turn the outside wheel. Today's kettle requires neither--just someone to put it on a heating device. WHAT'S THE SAME? The...