Posted: September 19, 2018

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

This year, New England has lots of squirrels—and farmers don’t like it one bit! The squirrels have beechnuts and acorns for breakfast, berries for lunch, apples for dinner . . . and they’re still hungry! They eat away at farmers’ peaches, blueberries, pumpkins, and gourds. They even head into fields and drag ears of corn away!

Both red and gray squirrels live in New England. Last year, New England had a bumper crop of acorns and other foods squirrels love. The extra food led to more squirrel births this year. The squirrels look for food everywhere—even places squirrels wouldn’t normally look.

“It is crazy. You see squirrel tails everywhere,” says Greg Sweetser, who has an apple orchard in Cumberland Center, Maine. In the past, squirrels have sometimes nibbled on apples that had fallen to the ground. But this season they're skittering into the trees, scurrying to and fro, and making their mark. Often, the squirrels will take a single bite, then move on. But a single bite is all it takes to ruin fruit.

You’ll see another sign of the squirrel boom too: lots and lots of roadkill.

(AP Photo: A squirrel runs with an acorn in Portland, Maine.)

Posted: September 18, 2018

All weekend, Hurricane Florence parked over North and South Carolina. She sucked up water from the ocean and hurled it down on land. Storm surges, winds, and flash floods brought destruction to everything they touched.

By now, much of Florence’s strength is spent. The storm is a tropical depression, not a hurricane. That means its strongest winds blow 38 miles per hour or less. But the storm can still cause harm. Rivers and streams swell from huge amounts of rain. Some places got up to two feet of rainfall!

The city of Wilmington, North Carolina, is close to where Florence touched land. The city is cut off from the rest of the state by floods. Officials plan to bring the people of Wilmington food using airplanes.

It can be dangerous to live near the ocean during a hurricane. But it can be dangerous to live near rivers too. All the extra rain makes rivers swell. Rivers—even 250 miles inland—may still burst their banks!

(AP Photo: Rescue workers evacuate residents as flooding continues in Spring Lake, North Carolina.)

Posted: September 18, 2018

Alright, goats. You’re going to migrate—whether you like it or not!

Goats were introduced to the Olympic National Park in Washington almost 100 years ago. But they make difficult neighbors. They eat and trample sensitive plants. They disturb soil and even hurt hikers! Between 2004 and 2016, the goat population in the park more than doubled. Now about 725 goats live there. That’s just too many.

So people shoot goats with tranquilizer darts. They capture them with nets. They blindfold the goats and put them into specially made slings. The goats dangle from helicopters on the way to their new home in another part of Washington, where they came from in the first place. The transplanted goats will help goat populations there grow.

The goal is to relocate 100 goats by September 24. Between now and next year, officials hope to move several hundred more.

(AP Photo: Goats are sedated, blindfolded, and put in harnesses on September 13.)

Posted: September 17, 2018

These ladies are looking at a picture of themselves 84 years ago. They were two of the first incubator babies!

Jean and Jane Harbaugh are twin sisters. They were born prematurely in 1934. They weighed just four pounds each. Back then, most people did not have good ways of keeping tiny babies alive. But Dr. Martin A. Couney did. He invented the incubator, a box-like structure. Today, incubators include heaters, fans, and a container to add humidity to a baby’s environment. Dr. Couney put premature babies into his incubators. He displayed them at the World’s Fair in Chicago.

An author just wrote a book about Dr. Couney’s work caring for tiny babies. When he invented the incubator, some people thought he was crazy! But now hospitals all over the world use his life-saving invention.

(AP Photo: Jean Harrison and Jane Umbarger in McHenry, Illinois. They have different last names now because they have been married. But they still feel thankful to Dr. Couney after all this time.)

Posted: September 14, 2018

People on the U.S. East Coast get ready for Hurricane Florence. Meanwhile, people in the Philippines prepare for a monster storm of their own—Typhoon Mangkhut!

The typhoon could hit the country of islands on Saturday. Typhoon Mangkhut’s winds are blowing between 165 and 200 miles per hour. People in the Philippines cover glass windows with wooden boards. They strengthen houses with rope and braces. They move fishing boats to safety. Farmers scramble to save the last of their harvests before the storm hits land.

Hurricanes and typhoons are the same type of storm. They have different names because they form in different parts of the world. Mangkhut is a Thai word for the sweet, tangy mangosteen fruit. This typhoon is the 15th storm this year to batter the Philippines. The country gets hit by about 20 storms a year!

(AP Photo: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, second from left, watches predictions about the coming typhoon.)

Posted: September 14, 2018

Many wild animals travel back and forth from one region to another. They migrate, or move to a new area, when seasons change. Animals move around looking for food. How do they know where to go?

To find out, scientists start watching. They use GPS tracking collars to follow 267 sheep and 189 moose wandering around Wyoming, Idaho, and South Dakota. Some of the sheep and moose are from old herds. These herd families have been together for around 200 years. Other herds are only 30 to 50 years old. The animal families that have been around longer do a great job migrating. They know where to look for food. They are survivors. Sadly, the sheep and moose from younger herds don’t do so well. They can’t find food. Only a few know how to migrate.

Scientists realize: Animal families have secrets to share! Older herd members teach young family members by showing them what to do. This takes a long time. That’s why the younger herds in the study have a harder time finding food. Older herds have the advantage of passing down herd secrets for hundreds of years. Those big family secrets help wild animals survive.

(AP Photo: A pair of bull moose pause while feeding in New Hampshire.)

Posted: September 13, 2018

In 1969, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew returned from the Moon. They brought home Moon rocks. NASA investigator Joseph Gutheinz wants to know: Where are the Moon rocks now?

Each U.S. state got a tiny sample. Every sample was mounted on a wooden plaque with the state flag. Some were placed in museums. Others went on display in state capitols. But almost no states kept records of them. Many were lost. Mr. Gutheinz started searching for the lost rocks in 2002. Around 40 states had lost track of the Moon rocks!

Mr. Gutheinz is surprised people did not keep better track of the precious rocks. But after all these years, he is finally close to finding them all. In the last weeks, two of the rocks were found in Louisiana and Utah. He is still on the hunt for the rocks given to New York and Delaware. Mr. Gutheinz hopes to find each rock before the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission next summer.

(AP Photo: Moon rocks coated in acrylic at the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Posted: September 13, 2018

What can you fit inside a 7-foot long box? Amazon is an online company that sells and ships items. It plans to ship huge boxes containing fresh Christmas trees. Starting in November, customers can buy Christmas trees from amazon.com. A 7-foot tree will cost $115. The boxes the trees will be shipped in will not have water. Fresh trees need water, so trees will be delivered quickly.

Some families think chopping down the Christmas tree themselves and hauling it home is half the fun. Would your family buy a Christmas tree online? Could opening an Amazon box become a new Christmas tree tradition?

(AP Photo: Fog drifts through a Christmas tree farm near Starks Mountain in Fryeburg, Maine.)

Posted: September 12, 2018

A train rolls into the new WTC Cortlandt subway station. People cheer! The tunnel has not been open since it was destroyed in the World Trade Center attack 17 years ago.

Terrorists attacked New York City on September 11, 2001. They crashed planes into the World Trade Center. Nearly 3,000 people died during the attacks on September 11. Many more were injured. The old Cortlandt Street station was buried under the rubble of the collapsed buildings.

New Yorkers had a lot of rebuilding to do after the attacks. The new station cost $181 million dollars. In the subway tiles on the walls, you can read words from the Declaration of Independence.  

(AP Photo: A train pulls into the newly-opened WTC Cortlandt subway station in New York on September 8.)

Posted: September 11, 2018

People watch closely. Where will Hurricane Florence hit land?

The storm turned quickly into a hurricane on Monday. Its winds roared 115 miles per hour. Florence could strike North or South Carolina this week.

For people who live near the storm, it’s a good idea to assume the hurricane will hit hard. So locals put out red flags on beaches, warning swimmers to stay out of the water. People fill prescriptions they may not be able to fill if stores are destroyed. They rush to supermarkets to buy bottled water, plywood to cover windows, and generators for electricity. Some are warned, “Get out of town!”

You can pray for the people in Hurricane Florence’s path.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. ― I Timothy 2:1

(AP Photo: Hurricane Florence seen from the International Space Station on Monday, Sept. 10)

Posted: September 10, 2018

This shark isn’t just a ferocious predator. It also enjoys a good salad.

Bonnethead sharks eat seagrass while chomping fish and crabs. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, made a discovery. The sharks don’t just eat the grass. They digest the plant and get nutrition from it. Most carnivores don’t have many enzymes that break down fiber and carbohydrates. That makes the bonnethead the first omnivorous shark people know about. (Omnivores eat plants and animals.) Before now, people thought bonnethead sharks ate seagrass by accident while grabbing other prey.

Bonnethead sharks are the smallest species of hammerhead shark. They grow on average about two or three feet long.

(AP Photo: UC Irvine grad student, Samantha Leigh, handles a bonnethead shark in Irvine, California.)

Posted: September 7, 2018

Villagers in a tiny Alaska town are getting an unusual amount of company—from polar bears and people.

A new report says more than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik last year. They came to see polar bears in the wild. Sea ice is moving more quickly than usual near Kaktovik. Polar bears usually live on sea ice. As ice moves away, polar bears stay on land to look for food. Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik. But as years have passed, people have noticed a change. Female bears are making dens in the snow on land instead of on the ice.

Most tourists visit in the fall. Bears are forced toward land then because sea ice is farthest from shore. People come from China, Europe, and the lower U.S. states. Some visitors see something else unusual: local people hunting whales!

(AP Photo: A polar bear in Kaktovik on September 2)

Posted: September 6, 2018

All summer, this small boat, the SB Met, drifted across the North Atlantic Ocean. It started in Newfoundland. Finally, it landed on the coast of Ireland. It is the first sailboat to cross the Atlantic with no driver!

Self-driving cars have to watch out for people and other traffic. Driverless boats have other problems like sea storms. The North Atlantic is a tough sea to cross. Before now, more than 20 unmanned boats have tried to make the journey. The robot boats were caught in fishing nets, retrieved by ships, or lost.

Robot boats can be used as a cheaper, easier way to do research on the ocean. The SB Met’s success means many more robotic boats may soon take to the sea.

(AP Photo: The unmanned boat near Bergen, Norway)

Posted: September 5, 2018

Frederic Chopin could play the piano very well by the time he was six. At eight, he performed his first concert. And now people are performing a Chopin concert again—using the same kinds of instruments he did.

Thirty pianists from the U.S., Japan, Russia, and across Europe meet in Chopin’s country, Poland. They play old, rebuilt pianos from the 1800s, the time Chopin lived. Chopin loved Poland. Much of his music came from traditional Polish songs. People want to hear Chopin’s music just like it sounded back then.

The pianists will play works by Chopin and other Polish composers. The best player will win thousands of dollars. He or she might become a famous pianist too.

(AP Photo: Tourists admire the Chopin monument in Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland.)

Posted: September 4, 2018

Destination ahead!

New Horizons spacecraft hurls through space on the outskirts of the Solar System. It snaps photos. They show a tiny, icy world: Ultima Thule (pronounced, THOO-lee).

New Horizons is aiming to fly by Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day. It will be the farthest people have ever sent a spacecraft. New Horizons will travel four billion miles from Earth and one million miles past Pluto.

In 2015, New Horizons became the first spacecraft to visit Pluto. Compared to Pluto, Ultima Thule is tiny. It measures only 20 miles across.

(AP Photo: Stars surround the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule.)

Posted: September 3, 2018

Have you ever heard a cow burp? They do it a lot!

Researchers at the University of California are trying to make cows less gassy. They feed them seaweed. They use molasses to cover up the taste. Their goal is to make cows produce less methane. Methane is a gas that helps trap heat inside Earth’s atmosphere.

Not everyone agrees that methane-producing cows are a problem for Earth. But farmers in California do have to cut their cows’ methane production. A state law says livestock methane must decrease by 40 percent from 2013 to 2030.

Will seaweed do the trick? A study this past spring showed seaweed-eating cows were more than 30 percent less gassy. Starting in October, researchers will try the experiment again.

(AP Photo: Cows are milked at a dairy farm at the University of California, Davis, in Davis, California.)