Kids News - Articles for Grades 11-12

Every month, NASA Observatory’s Earth Matters challenges viewers to describe a mysterious satellite image, the answer to which is posted on the website a week later. However, even the experts could not come up with a definitive explanation for the April puzzler, a photo featuring mysterious ice circles in the Arctic....

On Friday, April 27, 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in made history by promising to formally end the Korean War this year and rid the peninsula of all nuclear weapons by 2021. The Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification, hailed by Mr. Kim as a “new era of peace,” is the culmination of reconciliatory efforts between the two countries, which began in January at the request of the North Korean leader....

If you're a gamer, you've probably spent more than a few hours playing Fortnite or, more specifically, Fortnite: Battle Royale. Introduced less than a year ago by Epic Games, it now boasts over 45 million users, or nearly a third of PC gamers, worldwide. What makes the numbers even more impressive is that the game has yet to be officially released in the world’s biggest gaming market — China — which is home to a mind-boggling 600 million enthusiasts! How did Fortnite: Battle Royale become the Internet’s biggest game in such a short period of time? Read on. . ....

While birds may appear to flutter about in the world, magically finding their way to food and other members of the flock, the reality is, species migrate to the same destination, time and again. Over the years, researchers have established that the animals use Earth’s magnetic fields as guides. However, how they sense these fields has been a mystery....

On Saturday, April 22, over 1000 mourners, including four of the five living former presidents, from across the country, gathered at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, in Houston, Texas to honor and remember Barbara Bush. The 92-year-old who suffered from a series of health complications, passed away peacefully in the comfort of her Houston home on April 17 with the love of her life, former president George H.W. Bush, by her side....

Scientists have long maintained that the skin, which makes up roughly 15 percent of a person’s body mass, is the largest organ in the human body. However, now researchers from New York University's School of Medicine appear to have stumbled upon what they believe may be an even larger organ. Called the interstitium, it is not solid like the heart or liver, but a network of fluid-filled spaces that is present throughout the body to protect the rest of our organs....

The Earth Day Network may have an unexpected ally in its quest to solve the global plastic pollution crisis: bacteria. More specifically, an enzyme produced by the Ideonella sakaiensis microbes. Dubbed PETase, it can expertly break down PET (polyethylene terephthalate), one of the most common types of plastic, within days, instead of the over 450 years it takes the synthetic material to decompose naturally....

Over the years, Germany’s Festo has engineered some incredibly cool and functional bio-inspired robots, including ones that mimic ants, butterflies, flying jellyfish, and seagulls. On March 27, the electrical automation company added to the impressive list with two new creations — a realistic flying fox bat and a somersaulting robotic spider....

On Sunday, April 22, more than a billion people around the world will celebrate Earth Day by participating in neighborhood clean-up efforts. The grassroots movement began in 1970 when twenty million Americans took to the streets to voice their concern about the deteriorating environment and to urge lawmakers to take action before it was too late. Now boasting over 50,000 partners in 195 countries, the Earth Day Network (EDN) is credited with instigating many of our current environmental policies, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act....