Science magazine for children: Packed with science stories, science facts, science features, and other science learning resources for children. Discover the known, the unknown, and little-known facts in our science articles. Learn the how and why of everyday things and explore rare and exotic living species.
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What is Mad Cow Disease?
In 1996, doctors detected 10 cases of a rare and fatal human brain disease in Britain and they diagnosed that it was probably due to eating beef from animals with “mad cow disease”. Scientifically, this cow disease was termed bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE while the disease affecting humans was termed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The disease caused panic in Europe both among people eating beef and the farmers who were selling it. The European Union, which is the administrative body and includes all countries in Europe, responded immediately by banning imports of British beef....
Why are Some Reptiles Brightly Coloured?
Most animals have skin colour that makes them merge into their surroundings. They become near invisible unless you look very closely. But some reptiles such as the sea-snakes, coral snakes and frogs of Central and South America are brilliantly coloured or have bright bands like deep yellow, orange, pink on their bodies. They are easily visible among the green leaves or brown earth. This is because these animals are poisonous. The colouring is a warning to other animals, especially their natural enemies, to avoid eating them....
Mosquito Menace
Guess what besides fat raindrops, rain clouds in Mumbai bring? Those tiny terrors, mosquitoes. Result: nights spent tossing and turning, and swatting the insects. But the next morning you wake up with those tell tale red marks on your arms, pause to think if you took a bath or not the previous night. That’s right. Human sweat turns mosquitoes on more than anything else. Research carried out by scientists in The Netherlands say that mosquitoes are actually quite finicky about whom they sting and never ever nibble at random....
How Did Santa Claus Originate?
Its nearly midnight and with a jingle of bells a sled comes streaking from the north, pulled of course by Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. Sitting in the sled is a jolly round red robed figure with flowing white beard and a bag slung over his shoulder that lands on the rooftop with a merry ho-ho-ho. Hey! Its Christmas and its Santa Claus. If you’ve been nice, he slides down the chimney and loads up little stockings hung there with lots of toys and goodies....
Dinosaur eggs Found in Patagonia
The film Jurassic Park is peanuts compared to this: Last month, Argentine scientists found thousands of dinosaur eggs in hundreds of nests at Patagonia. A report in the journal New Scientist says that it is the biggest nesting site of dinosaurs found thus far. Each nest contained 15 to 30 eggs the size of a grapefruit each. The eggs contained bones of titanosaurs which would have weighed about 15 tonnes when fully grown. Close to 100 million years old dinosaur egg....
Robot That Changes Form
Did you know that the word robot is derived from the Czech word robota? It means compulsory labour or work. The word robot was first used in a Czech drama in 1921. It described a mechanical device that looked human but lacked emotions. It worked mechanically. Modern-day robots do not necessarily look like humans. But they are programmed to handle tasks that are normally carried out by humans, especially in big factories that manufacture products like cars....
Why do some Rivers Flow Underground
From ancient times, people have settled down along the banks of rivers, since they provide water to drink, to irrigate their fields, and to use as waterways to go from one place to another. But hidden away, below the earth, are rivers that we rarely see, until they surface near the sea, or when they merge with another river. Some have names and are talked of with a sense of mystery, but many are nameless streams that flow through the nooks and crannies of the earth....
Why is the Ball-point Pen Called So?
Writing is one of the most important inventions. Humans first used brushes for writing, then thick reeds were used. Feathers were used in medieval Europe for writing. In the mid-19 century, metallic pens and nibs were widely used, while the fountain pen was produced in 1884 by the American, LE Waterman. However, these pens had a lot of problems. The ink would spill and blot very frequently and writing was cumbersome. The first ball-point pen was invented by an Hungarian journalist, Ladislo Biro, in 1938....
Why are Some Plants Non-vegetarian?
Are you scared of going to the forest because you think there are man-eating tigers in the forest? What would you do if there were man-eating plants too? Don’t worry. Man-eating plants do not exist. But insect and animal-eating plants do. They are what you would call non-vegetarian plants. In fact, there are 500 varieties of plant species that trap prey and eat it. The most famous among these carnivorous plants are sundews, pitcher plants, bladderworts and the Venus flytrap....
What is Blood Pressure?
The heart is a live pump that delivers blood to different parts of the body. Blood flows in or flows out when the heart contracts and expands. The blood is forced into the arteries, which expand to receive the oncoming blood. The force with which the blood moves through the arteries is knows as blood pressure. The arteries have a muscular lining which resists this pressure. The blood is thus squeezed out into smaller blood vessels....