Kids News - Articles with 400-600 Words

On December 30, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announced that elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are now approved to join the prestigious periodic table. Their addition completes the group of man-made elements that make up the table's 7th row, and brings the total number that will need to be memorized by students to 118!...

Food waste is a growing problem both in the United States and across the globe. In North America alone anywhere from 30-40% of perfectly edible food ends up in the trash each year. To put it in perspective that is almost 20 pounds of food per person, per month! While the fact that most ends up in our landfills is bad enough, what's worse is that over 48 million Americans, including 15.3 million kids, live in households that do not have sufficient food! Now, concerned citizens are trying to raise awareness of the issue with some innovative ideas....

A few years ago, Douglas Long and his colleagues from the California Academy of Sciences were helping D. Ross Robertson identify some chimaeras caught off the Pacific coast of Central America in 2010. Among the images were those of a mysterious pitch black shark. Intrigued, the marine ichthyologist asked the Smithsonian Institute researcher to lend him the preserved specimens so that his team could study the fish in detail....

Access to clean water is something many of us take for granted. However, for millions of people living in developing nations, it is a scarce commodity. According to the World Health Organization 3.4 million people, mostly children, die annually from water-related diseases. But that could change soon thanks to 'Row-bot', a tiny autonomous robot that powers itself by eating harmful water microbes....

Manatees or sea cows as they are often called, are large, rotund marine animals that can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. But despite their enormous size, the mostly herbivorous animals have no blubber to protect them from chilly winter waters. Hence, every winter, the gentle giants seek out warmer waters. For the approximately 6,000 Florida manatees that reside in the Gulf of Mexico it means heading to the balmy 72°F waters of the roughly one-acre Three Sisters Spring in Florida's Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge....

In November 1966, Fred Thrower, the President of New York-based television station WPIX was faced with a dilemma. He had to figure out some exciting Christmas Eve programming to replace a three-hour slot left vacant by the cancelation of the regular Saturday night college basketball game....

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Two weeks ago, representatives from 196 countries arrived in Paris to resolve one of the world's most pressing problems — Climate change. On Saturday, December 12th, the group emerged victorious with the first-ever global accord in the fight against global warming — One that U.S. President Obama hailed as the "turning point for the world" and the "best chance to save the one planet we've got."...

Mention snakes and the image that comes to mind is that of a stealthily gliding reptile. Turns out that this was not always the case. Ancient snake fossils indicate that the reptiles once had legs, just like the rest of us. So why did snakes decide to shed them in favor of the slither that sends chills down our spines? That is a mystery researchers have been trying to solve for some time....