Kids News - Articles for Grades 11-12

Paul Allen, one of the world’s most brilliant minds, died on Monday, October 15, 2018. According to the statement released by his representatives, the 65-year-old succumbed to complications related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that originates in the lymphatic system. Though best known as the co-founder of Microsoft, the company that revolutionized the personal computing industry, Allen’s legacy extends beyond technology to science, sports, and even music....

A rocket malfunction that forces astronauts to evacuate after its launched may sound like a plot straight out of a Hollywood movie. However, that is precisely what happened to Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague on October 11, 2018. Fortunately, the “movie” had a happy ending with both scientists returning to Earth safely....

Natural blue light, which lies in the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye, has several health benefits. These include regulating the body’s circadian rhythm, boosting alertness, and increasing one’s overall feeling of wellbeing. However, the same cannot be said about the stronger artificial blue light, which has permeated our households by way of digital devices such as televisions, smartphones, laptops, and gaming systems. Previous studies have shown that extended exposure causes eye strain, fatigue, headaches, and sleeplessness. Now, new research by Ohio’s University of Toledo (UT) has found that the blue-tinted screens of our addictive gadgets may be accelerating macular degeneration – a condition that results in significant vision loss, eventually leading to blindness....

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, made history on September 21, 2018, when its unmanned probe Hayabusa2 successfully landed two moving robots, collectively called MINERVA-II1, on asteroid Ryugu’s surface. A few weeks later, on October 2, the spacecraft repeated the feat by deploying a third, slightly bigger, rover called the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT). The information collected from the primitive asteroid could help shed light on the origins of our solar system and how the first life forms arose on Earth....

The sale of a Banksy painting for $1.4 million, the highest-ever paid for the British street artist’s solo work, was the perfect finale for Sotheby’s “Frieze Week” evening contemporary art auction on October 5, 2018. But before the auctioneers had time to celebrate, an alarm sounded and then, to everyone’s dismay, the artwork began to self-shred while sliding down the frame....

The Klondike region in Canada’s Yukon territory, which is famous for its gold mines, was once home to a large variety of animals. They included the long-extinct saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths, as well as creatures like gray wolves, whose descendants still roam the Arctic territories. Hence, it is not uncommon for miners to stumble upon fossilized remains of the Ice Age inhabitants while unearthing the precious metal....

A few years ago, the idea that a Korean pop, or K-pop, group would perform to sold-out shows worldwide, top the Billboard 200 charts, and dethrone global phenom Taylor Swift's YouTube record for the biggest music video debut, would have been met with some skepticism. But the Bangtan Boys, or BTS as they are popularly called, have managed to accomplish all three feats, proving beyond doubt that music is a “universal language” which transcends across countries, languages, and cultures....

The Southeastern nation of Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, is no stranger to earthquakes, many of which trigger tsunamis – powerful waves capable of immense destruction. However, the towering 18-foot wave that crashed into the island of Sulawesi on September 28, 2018 is one of the deadliest to hit the country in recent years....

Columbus Day, which is celebrated annually on the second Monday of October to honor the Italian explorer credited with “discovering” the Americas, has always been somewhat of a controversial holiday. That’s because while Christopher Columbus stumbled upon what we now call the Caribbean on October 12, 1492, he never set foot on the mainland – even on his subsequent three journeys. Besides, North America had already been “discovered” by the Native Americans, who had been living there for many generations....