Posted: May 21, 2018

In Bangalore, India, faucets are running dry. People get ready for a very thirsty summer.

 Once, lakes kept the southern Indian city well-watered. But no one would want to drink from those lakes now. Foamy filth covers the city’s largest body of water, Bellandur Lake. Another major lake, Ulsoor, is choked with garbage. The water that’s left gasps under a blanket of thick waterweeds.

In the last few decades, people have added a lot of concrete to Bangalore, edging out the city’s famous gardens and lakes. The population in Bangalore grew too. And as it did, water decreased. That’s a serious problem—especially for the poor. Water has become expensive because of its scarcity. One resident of Bangalore, S.R. Reddy, says he spends over $20 a month to buy water for his family. “We spend one fourth of our earnings for water,” he says.

Bangalore’s population is still growing. The city’s water problems will likely get worse. But experts have a solution: Use resources well. Reuse falling rain—and clean out the lakes!

(AP Photo: Women collect water at a public tap in a poor neighborhood in Bangalore, India

Posted: May 18, 2018

This lizard isn’t just green on the outside. He has lime green blood! Why? Scientists have wondered for 50 years.

New Guinea lizards have green blood, muscles, bones, and tongues. Their bodies contain a lot of bile, the green fluid made by the liver. This turns their insides green. Other animals and people would die with that much bile inside. So why can lizards survive it? Scientists now think the lizards may have developed green blood as they adapted to their surroundings. In people, elevated green bile pigment levels sometimes kill malaria parasites. Scientists think that might be why lizards have green blood now. Maybe their bodies changed over time to fight malaria.  

This lizard isn’t the only creature with an unusual blood color. Certain insects, spiders, and mollusks have clear blood that turns blue when exposed to air. Squids and octopuses have intense blue blood. Icefish in Antarctica have clear blood. Little crustaceans from Lake Baikal in Siberia have blood that’s blue or red or green. Marine worms called lamp shells have violet to pink blood.

At first, researchers wondered if the green blood made the lizards taste bad to predators. But one of the researchers fed the lizards to a kingfisher bird. The kingfisher seemed to like them. The researchers ate several of the lizards himself too. He said they didn’t taste bad. Yikes! We’ll take his word for it!

 (AP Photo: A green-blooded prehensile tailed skink from the highlands of Papua New Guinea)

Posted: May 17, 2018

A company called Alliance in Arkansas makes more than 15 million pounds of rubber bands every year. Some are brightly dyed. Others are scented or embossed. But now the rubber band makers want to take rubber bands to the next level—using technology that won a Nobel Prize.

Graphene is an ultrathin sheet of the mineral graphite. Two scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering it in 2004. The scientists stuck a piece of Scotch tape to a block of graphite. They pulled off a material a million times thinner than a human hair: graphene. The material is almost totally see-through. Electricity passes through it easily.

Graphene atoms are very sensitive. They pick up on tiny changes and movements. If people wore graphene on their wrists in a rubber band, it could track their blood pressure. It could monitor heart rate and body temperature too. People have another idea for the super graphene rubber bands: Add them to goods in the grocery store. The bands could be programmed to change color if food is held at the wrong temperature or for too long.

(AP Photo: A sample of graphene-infused rubber)

Posted: May 16, 2018

What do you do when your car runs out of gas? That’s easy. You go to the gas station! But what if your car runs on electricity? Where can you plug it in?

Carmakers in Europe want to answer that question—fast. They want more people to buy electric cars. But buyers need to know for sure that there will plenty of places to power up. Here’s the carmakers’ idea: Build a highway network of fast charging stations. They want people to be able to charge their vehicles in minutes, not hours. They want drivers to be able to speed off—in any direction. They are building charging stations all the way from Norway to southern Italy and from Portugal to Poland. The carmakers are calling their new charging network Ionity. They are competing against an electric car company called Tesla.

Right now, many electric cars have to charge overnight at owners’ homes. Owners use them just for short rides. On long rides, drivers could get stranded! The first carmakers to fix that problem could make a lot of money. The race is on!

(AP Photo: A man charges his BMW electric vehicle at the Ionity rest stop in Niederzissen, Germany.)

Posted: May 15, 2018

People in La Jolla, California, can’t believe their eyes. The ocean is turning red! And at night, something even more extraordinary happens. The water glows bright neon blue!

It’s a red tide. Red tides are caused by sea plants called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton in California turn water red in the daytime. The tiny creatures are also bioluminescent. That means they are living organisms that produce light. (You might know another bioluminescent creature a little better: the firefly.) The microorganisms light up the face of ocean waves when they crash near the shore at nighttime.

Scientists don’t really understand how red tides work. They can’t predict when they will happen. Are red tides good or bad? Both! Some phytoplankton are toxic. They hurt people and sea life. But most phytoplankton are good guys. The tiny plants are food for ocean animals.

(AP Photo: A visitor to Oceanside Pier Beach in Oceanside, California, watches the spectacular flashes of neon blue in the crashing waves in 2011. The flashes are caused by a red tide.)

Posted: May 14, 2018

CRASH! Two pelicans come in for a landing . . . right on top of a crowd at a college graduation!

That happened at the end of April. It was just the beginning of the mysterious pelican landings in Southern California. More than 25 of the birds have been brought to a wildlife center in Los Angeles. The birds are sick. They’re scrawny. Their body temperatures have sunk dangerously low.

It’s normal for baby pelicans to land in California at this time of year. But these birds are older. Pelicans are normally seen flying in formations. They sometimes glide just above the ocean surface. To feed, they circle high above the water to spot prey. They dive to catch fish with their long bills. But these sick birds land on city streets, airport runways, and in people’s yards. They just don’t seem to want to fly.

What’s causing the sickness? To find out, wildlife workers will have to do a careful examination of some dead birds. But right now, they’re overwhelmed just taking care of the birds still landing.

(AP Photo: A pelican crashes a graduation ceremony at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, on April 28.)

Posted: May 11, 2018

Not long ago, people found a lock of George Washington’s hair in a library book in New York State. Now others have found hair from one of General Washington’s enemies—the famous traitor Benedict Arnold.

Why all the locks of hair? Around the time of the Revolutionary War in America, people regularly saved hair from loved ones. Asking for a lock of George Washington’s hair was like asking to take a selfie with him. Benedict Arnold’s lock of hair was given to his son to help him remember his father.

Benedict Arnold fought in the Continental (American) army during the Revolutionary War. He was a great battlefield leader. But he betrayed the Continental Army. He helped the British. Mr. Arnold moved to England after the war. In America, calling someone a “Benedict Arnold” is the same as calling him or her “traitor”—even today!

 A curator at Fort Ticonderoga in New York says Mr. Arnold’s hair was just rediscovered in the fort’s museum collection. Americans may not like Mr. Arnold much. But they still want to see his hair. The fragile hair and the paper it was wrapped in will be on display at the fort—but only for a couple days.

(AP Photo: A lock of Benedict Arnold’s hair along with its paper wrappings, at Fort Ticonderoga in Ticonderoga, New York)

Posted: May 10, 2018

Does King Tut’s tomb hide an extra room?

King Tut ruled Egypt thousands of years ago. He died at the age of 19. Tut was forgotten for many years—until people rediscovered his tomb in 1922. They studied the many artifacts inside and learned much about the time in which King Tut lived. But archaeologists suspected the tomb may hold still more treasures. In 2015, an Egyptologist (Egypt studier) made a suggestion. Maybe the tomb of Egyptian queen Nefertiti was hidden behind wall paintings in Tut’s tomb. People got excited. But now they’re in for a disappointment.

An Italian team tested the spot. They used radar that penetrated the ground. What did they find? Nothing. They proved the tomb did not contain any hidden, man-made blocking walls. No Nefertiti this time!

(AP Photo: In April 2016, radar scanning experts scan a wall in King Tutankhamun’s (Tut’s) burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt.)

Posted: May 9, 2018

The Taj Mahal is turning a little . . . green. And yellow. And black.

Officials at India’s Supreme Court are not pleased with the changes. Indian Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal more than 300 years ago for one of his wives. The large white building is a monument to love. It even makes the list of “New Seven Wonders of the World.”

A fog of pollution often covers the city of Agra, where the Taj Mahal sits. Swarms of breeding bugs leave green, yellow, and black patches on the structure’s beautiful white marble. What can people do about the discoloration? Right now, they cover it with clay that takes away stains when removed. But a Supreme Court judge says that’s not enough.

Fixing India’s pollution problems and saving the Taj Mahal’s color will come with big price tags. But the judge says people should not worry about the expense when such an important piece of history is at stake. The judge says, “We need to save it.”

(AP Photo: Tourists visit the Taj Mahal, in Agra, India.)

Posted: May 8, 2018

Astronaut Joe Acaba walks out into outer space. He holds on tightly to a railing. Why? Because he’s afraid of heights!

Mr. Acaba has traveled to space three times, spending a total of 300 days in space. He returned from his last flight in February. On his last mission, Mr. Acaba performed one spacewalk. He installed new cameras on the Space Station’s arm and truss. After returning home, he confessed his fear of heights to a crowd at the Stennis Space Center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Mr. Acaba has learned that he has to trust the facts, not his fears. He says, “It does take a little bit of work while you’re doing a spacewalk to realize, okay, it’s okay. You are not going to fall.”

Of course, space has no gravity. Because of that, Mr. Acaba wouldn’t really fall if he came disconnected from the space station. But he could float away!

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. ― 1Timothy 1:7

(AP Photo: Joe Acaba rests in a chair in Kazkhstan after landing back on Earth on February 28.)

Posted: May 7, 2018

Molten lava chews its way through forest land. It bubbles up on paved streets. Mount Kilauea is erupting!

 Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea started erupting on April 3. Footage from local television stations shows lava spurting to the sky from a crack in the road. Resident Jeremiah Osuna captured drone footage of the lava burning through a forest. He says it looked like a curtain of fire. “It sounded like if you were to put a bunch of rocks into a dryer and turn it on as high as you could,” says Mr. Osuna. He says you could smell sulfur and burning trees.

In the days before the eruption, hundreds of small earthquakes rumbled through Hawaii’s Big Island. People knew the volcano might blow. Some people have houses right on the side of the mountain! Now they have evacuated to safer parts of the island.

Scientists can’t predict exactly how long the eruption will last. But they know any point lower on the mountain than the place where the eruption started could become covered in lava. No one wants to be around for that!

(AP Photo: A plume of ash rises from the Puu Oo crater on Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano on May 3.)

Posted: May 4, 2018

Sunscreen might protect your skin from the Sun’s burning rays. But what does it do to coral reefs? Officials in Hawaii worry about that. They think sunscreen makers need a new recipe.

Some Hawaiian lawmakers made a decision last week: People in Hawaii should not sell certain kinds of sunscreen—kinds made with ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate. Scientists have found those two substances can be toxic to coral. Coral is a hard, stony substance created by teeny-tiny animals called coral polyps. Coral polyps root into the ocean floor like plants. But they don’t make their own food. Like many animals, they live on algae. Many sea animals make coral reefs their home. So when coral suffers, other animals suffer. People do too. Coral reefs help protect coastlines from waves and storms. Tourists visit coral reefs, bringing business to people who live nearby.

Scientist Craig Downs says as much as 14,000 tons of sunscreen ends up in coral reefs every year. “Lots of things kill coral reefs,” he says. “But we know oxybenzone prevents them from coming back.”

The governor of Hawaii has not signed the new bill yet. He has not said whether he will. If he does, the rule will not go into effect until 2021.

(AP Photo: This kind of sunscreen contains oxybenzone.)

Posted: May 3, 2018

The calendar page turns from March to April, then from April to May. People in Oklahoma watch the sky nervously. It’s twister season. When will the first tornado arrive?

As far as people know, the state of Oklahoma has never gone this far into the year without a tornado. But on May 1, people near Buffalo, Oklahoma, sent in reports. They say the first twister finally arrived. The National Weather Service hasn’t yet confirmed that the storm was actually a tornado.

Tornados have already struck nearby in Texas and Arkansas. Why have no twisters come to Oklahoma yet? One climatologist says it’s just chance. Weather systems don’t know or care about the man-made lines separating states.

But nothing happens by chance in God’s world. He controls every part of the weather in every place at every moment. Oklahoma has probably lacked tornados partly because of drought. Tornados can’t form without moisture.

Oklahomans have enjoyed the peace and quiet while it has lasted. Meteorologist Rick Smith says, “Every day in April or May without a tornado is a wonderful day.”

(AP Photo: A tornado touches down near Francis, Oklahoma, in May of 2015.)

Posted: May 2, 2018

These fish need fattening up!

Fishermen look at their catches from the Colorado River. The fish are long and skinny. They don’t put up much of a fight, even with hooks in their mouths. Why? Scientists say they don’t have enough to eat.

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey perform an experiment. It will take months. They release flows of water from Glen Canyon Dam in the Colorado River. They hope the extra water will help bug eggs survive in the river. It may seem strange for people to bring more bugs into the world on purpose. But in order for the fish to thrive, they need a bug buffet—a big one! Insects attach their eggs to hard surfaces like rocks, wood, or cattails near the river’s shore. Without plenty of water, eggs dry out. Even an hour without water will kill them.

Right now, the river’s fish are so hungry that they can’t swim well. They don’t have energy to reproduce or fight. And they’re not the only species who will benefit from more bugs. Bats and birds need them too.

(AP Photo: In 2013, river guide Steph Jackson holds an endangered humpback chub near the spot where the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers come together.)

Posted: May 1, 2018

A monster wave rolls toward a shore in Portugal—and Rodrigo Koxa is there to catch it. Afterward, he finds out he broke a record. He caught the biggest wave ever surfed!

Judges at the Big Wave Awards in Santa Monica, California, just determined the wave Mr. Koxa surfed on November 8 was 80 feet high. That beat the previous record of 78 feet, which American surfer Garrett McNamara set in 2011.

Mr. Koxa says riding the big wave was a dream come true. How did he catch it? He had to be in the right place at the right time. But he also had to know what he was doing. Surfers looking for waves watch the horizon. They get used to the way the water is moving. At a break between waves, they paddle out into the water as fast as they can. They swim over the top of the wave then slide down its back . . . before it slides over them!

(AP Photo: The wave Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa rode in Nazare, Portugal)

Posted: April 30, 2018

Or better yet, say ice.

The European Space Agency released this image on April 26. It is the first picture taken by the Trace Gas Orbiter. The spacecraft is designed to do what its name describes: look for gasses—specifically methane. Methane could show biological activity on Mars. Organisms on Earth produce methane when they digest food.

But the orbiter isn’t looking for gases yet. For now, it’s taking pictures. The new image shows the ice-covered edge of a huge crater. If you visited Mars, the crater might not look quite the same to you as it does in the photo. The photo’s colors have been adjusted to best resemble those visible to the human eye. The camera has another purpose as well: scouting for a good future landing spot for missions to Mars.

If the spacecraft finds methane, does it mean there’s really life on Mars? Not necessarily. Other processes caused by minerals can make methane too.

(AP Photo: The rim of Korolev crater on April 15)