Kids News - Articles with 400-600 Words

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse and important ecosystems on Earth. Not only do they provide food and habitats for the fish and seafood we eat, but they also shelter many other organisms that are crucial for ocean food chains. Experts estimate they contribute about $30 billion USD to the global economy annually, through tourism, fisheries, and coastal protection. Unfortunately, warming ocean waters, acidification, and over-fishing are killing the beautiful reefs at unprecedented levels....

Listen up Potterheads! Muggle student scientists from the U.K.’s University of Leicester have been researching some critical matters: do the spells and potions that Harry Potter and his fellow wizards use really need magic to work or do they have a scientific basis? The research papers, “Gillyweed – Drowning with Gills?” and “Revealing the Magic of Skele-Gro,” published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics in May, investigated the magical plant and potion that helped the wizard in the popular book series....

Looking for some inspiration for your Halloween pumpkin? Then you might want to check out American sculptor and artist, Ray Villafane’s masterpieces. The two-time winner of the Food Network show, “Outrageous Pumpkins,” does not just “carve” pumpkins. He transforms them into 3-D sculptures — ghoulish ones of course!...

Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski’s fascination with the Hranická Propast, or Hranice Abyss, an underwater cave in the Czech Republic, began in 1999. The diver, who once held the record for the deepest dive (283-meters) with a closed circuit rebreather, says the cave’s limestone unusual formation led him to suspect that it was a lot deeper than his dives had taken him....

Legendary artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, who conducted the first systematic study of friction, has always been credited as the pioneer in Tribology. But while his famous machinery design sketches reflected the inventor’s knowledge of the benefits and drawbacks of friction, precisely when and how Leonardo developed these ideas, has remained a mystery....

The first clue that the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season would be an active one came in January, when Alex, a Category 1 hurricane, arrived six months before the season’s official June 1st start date. Since then, there have been 13 named storms and three hurricanes. However, none have been as devastating as Hurricane Matthew, which has left a trail of destruction all the way from Haiti to North Carolina....

On Wednesday, October 5, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard L. Feringa won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating machines that are a thousand times thinner than a hair strand! What is even more impressive is that the nanomotors are not made of pistons or gears — just a handful of molecules!...

In August, a team of Mongolian and Japanese researchers unearthed the world’s largest dinosaur footprint in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. The print that measured 3.6-feet long and 6.4-feet wide, is believed to be that of the titanosaur, a diverse species of sauropod dinosaurs that inhabited Earth during the Cretaceous period, between 70 and 90 million years ago....

Mourning the loss of a loved one was initially thought to be just a human characteristic. However, over the years, experts have observed similar behavior in terrestrial social animals like gorillas and elephants. In one case, a herd of wild elephants spent hours trying to lift the body of their dead matriarch. After accepting her death, the elephants covered the body with leaves and tree branches and kept vigil for two days before finally dispersing. Now, scientists have discovered that even whales undergo tremendous sorrow when they lose an offspring or companion....