Science World articles from October 2003

Science World archives from October 2003

Card trick.(Freeze Frame/Physics)
October 13, 2003... Card-stacking ace Bryan Berg builds playing-card buildings without using folds, cuts, or glue. His world record-setting feat: a 7.7-meter (25-foot 3-inch) tower that uses 2,000 decks of playing cards (right)! What's Berg's secret? Physics: He...

Decibel drag race.(Technology/Sound)
October 13, 2003... The race is on to build the world's loudest car stereo. And so far, top competitors in "extreme decibel (dB drag racing" claim to have blasted sound levels (loudness measured in decibels) up to 177.6 dB. That's l0 million times louder than...

Close-up on Mars.(Earth/Space)
October 13, 2003... On August 27, 2003, Mars swung as close to Earth as it has in over 60,000 years (see diagram, below). Stargazers can still glimpse the Red Plane in the southern night sky. Earth and Mars orbit the Sun at about 24 kilometers per second, But...

Top jumper.(Life/Animal Motion)
October 13, 2003... The world's latest high-jump champ just might live in your backyard. Researchers at Cambridge University recently discovered that a common garden pest, the froghopper (Philaenus spumarius), can propel its tiny 6-millimeter body over half meter...

Superhuman jumpers.(Graph It!)
October 13, 2003... A leaping froghoppper can't even clear a hurdle. So why is its jump so spectacular? The ratio (mathematical comparison between two numbers) of the bug's size to its jump height is the largest of any other animal. If humans had the same jump...

One giant leap for a bug.(Science News)
October 13, 2003... The froghopper, a common garden insect, can jump more than 100 times its own body length. If it were a 6-foot-tall human, it could leap over the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Jump meter Froghopper 183 m Bay Bridge ...

Science world's top 10 takeoffs: this December marks the 100th anniversary of powered flight. To celebrate, Science World editors voted on our picks for the last century's 10 most amazing flights. Would they top your list? Check them out and buckle up for takeoff.(Physical science: flight/history)
October 13, 2003... 1 BIRTHDAY BOYS WHY: Without Orville and Wilbur Wright, two bicycle-making brothers from Ohio, you'd spend your vocations in a care screaming "Are we there yet?" WHEN: December 17, 1903 HOW: At Kitty Hawk, a North Carolina beach,...

Waiting for the big one: two new studies show that when it comes to a major earthquake, California could be a time bomb.(Earth/physical: quakes/waves)
October 13, 2003... California seems to have it all--from Hollywood to the redwoods, from the Lakers to the Golden Gate. The spectacular coastline of Big Sur, lofty peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and bone-dry Death Valley all form part of the Golden State's...

Close-up: cocaine.(Heads Up Real News About Drugs And Your Body)
October 13, 2003... Big White Lies At first, cocaine made Miguel feel powerful. But the drug's promises turned out to be lies. If you'd met Miguel Flores when he was in junior high school, you'd have met a young man who listened to his mother and did well...

Close-up: LSD.(Heads Up Real News About Drugs And Your Body)
October 13, 2003... "I'm Losing My Mind" A young woman's experience with the hallucinogenic drug LSD Sometimes when Amanda Contadino moves her hand in front of her face, she sees trails behind it, like the mark of smoke a skywriter leaves. Sometimes when...

Gross out?(You Can Do It)
October 13, 2003... MUMMY MYSTERY: I look pretty good for a Buddhist monk dead since 1973. That's because I'm a mummy, or a preserved body. Unlike ancient Egyptians, I wasn't embalmed. And unlike mummies from other corners of the world, I haven't been...

Explain this! What stinks? The game?(Activities & Oddities)
October 13, 2003... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANSWERS The pitchers of the Missoula Osprey, a pioneer baseball-league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, are wearing masks because they don't want to inhale smoke from the wildfires that blanketed Missoula,...

Tease your brain.(Activities & Oddities)
October 13, 2003... Place the numbers 1 through 9 in the nine divided areas. The sum of each individual circle must equal 11. Note: There are two solutions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANSWERS Note: Mirror image works too!

Science in the news quiz.
October 13, 2003... Directions: Read the late-breaking news in our Science News section on pages 4 to 7. Then test your comprehension skills by answering the questions below. Circle the correct letter. 1 Card-builder Bryan Berg stacks cards two or three at a...

Get ready to rumble. (Math/Chart-Reading Skills).
October 13, 2003... How strong is an earthquake? Scientists use a Richter scale to describe the amount of energy released during an earthquake. The Richter scale grows by powers of 10. That means, an increase of 1 point on the scale means the strength of a quake...

The great flight challenge.(Hands-On Activity)
October 13, 2003... Orville and Wilbur Wright may have created the first successful powered flight, but they weren't the first people to take to the skies. Before the Wright brothers, many attempts were made with gliders (un-powered flying machines). In Top 10...

Cocaine and LSD: review activity and resources.(Heads Up Real News About Drugs And Your Body)
October 13, 2003... What Are the Facts? What is the difference between a fact and an opinion? A fact is something that is definitely true and can be proved. An opinion can't be proved since it conveys feelings, beliefs, or judgments. After you've read...