Articles for Grade 8

On Tuesday morning, millions of people all over the world woke up to the horrifying images of the destruction caused by Frankenstorm Sandy that made its landfall on the shores of New Jersey on Monday night, a few hours earlier than had been expected. While it had been downgraded to a 'post' tropical storm by the time it arrived, Sandy proved to be as powerful as promised, flooding thousands of homes and businesses and leaving millions of people all the way from West Virginia to Atlantic City and Connecticut without electricity....

The countless ways in which animals and insects adapt and thrive in environments that would normally be hostile to them is amazing. There are the tiny insects and bacteria that have adapted to living without oxygen, the lizards that shrunk in size when food sources dried up and now, a 'Scuba diving' spider that lives underwater....

Last weekend, visitors to the New York Botanical Garden were in for a real treat. That's because in addition to admiring the beautiful exhibits, they got a chance to see the Michelangelo of pumpkin carvers, Ray Villafane transform oversized gourds into spine-chilling exhibits....

Though you may not know (or fess up) to the fact that you are a worrywart or stubborn as a mule, the position in which you spend the night sleeping, reveals it all - At least that's the conclusion reached by England's leading body language expert, Robert Phipps....

If you are a fan of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, you will recall the scene where Dave sets up a Tesla coil after which, he and Becky step inside a chain-link Faraday box and get 'hit' by powerful electric currents that magically seem to zap right through them. That is exactly what American illusionist and endurance artist David Blaine did this month for his latest stunt that he fittingly called 'Electrified - One million watts always on!...

At first glance, Jason deCaires Taylor's sculptures seem quite ordinary - After all any artist worth his/her salt can carve out figures, cars and even design suburban looking homes. However, look closer and you will realize that all these have been carefully crafted not just for humans to admire, but for marine life to thrive in....

Though humans have been able to send man to the moon and even a giant sized robot all the way to Mars, they have yet to explore an area that lies just 6km (3.7 miles) beneath the surface of the sea floor - The Earth's Mantle, the 3,000 km thick highly viscous layer that sits between the outer crust that we reside upon and the Earth's core. However, if some scientists have their way that is about to change....

On Tuesday October 9th, people all over the world will watch with abated breath as 43-year-old Austrian Skydiver Felix Baumgartner attempts his history-making jump from the edge of Space. If successful, he will break four records including, the first man to break the speed of sound in a free fall....

Scientists have always known that in order to forage for nectar as efficiently as they do, the tiny bumblebee had figured out the perfect solution to what is commonly referred to as 'The Traveling Salesman Problem' - that is figuring out the shortest routes from flower to hive. While this may sound simple it is actually a complex mathematical problem given that there are hundreds of different routes - One that takes even humans, seek out the help of computers to solve!...