Science
Writings dealing with science are nonfiction works that explore the natural world. These writings explain a principle, theory, or phenomenon.
Have you ever been watching when a tv weatherperson points to a large, white spiral of storm clouds spinning over the Earth on their video screen? If so, then you’ve gotten a small look at what the most powerful storm in the world looks like: a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones start as…
Robots-machines capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically- have gone from a science fiction concept to a part of everyday life. These machines show up everywhere from children’s toys to exploration vehicles on Mars. Robots are important in many fields, including the manufacturing, automotive, and medical industries. …
Over the years, movies and books have used tornadoes to sweep their characters off to magical lands, to destroy entire cities, or to defeat a superhero’s dangerous super villain. All of these tornadoes have one thing in common: they are incredibly powerful. Tornadoes are large, destructive columns of spinning air…
Orangutan means “person of the forest” in the Malay language. Orangutans are great apes. They belong to the family of primates that includes gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. Wild orangutans live on two islands-Sumatra and Borneo-in Southeast Asia. Both Sumatran orangutans and Bornean orangutans are primarily arboreal. This means they spend…
Loggerhead sea turtles glide gently through many of the world’s oceans. They are known for their beauty and graceful nature. Once widely hunted, they continue to face threats both in the water and on land. Largest of the hard-shelled turtles, adult male loggerheads usually weigh about 250 pounds. They are…
Do you like to drink orange juice for breakfast? If you do, you are like many other kids. Orange juice is a very popular drink! It is sweet and tasty. It can help keep you healthy, too. Let’s find out how orange juice gets to your breakfast table! Orange trees…
Mountain gorillas are some of the most threatened animals on the planet. Only two groups of mountain gorillas remain. One population lives in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The other group lives in the Virunga Mountains. This mountain range of extinct volcanoes borders the African countries of the…
Noted zoologist and wildlife conservationist William Temple Hornaday wrote a book on the state of the American bison, or buffalo, for the Smithsonian Institution. Hornaday’s concern was that the dramatic drop in population of the buffalo might likely lead to its extinction. An estimated 60 million buffalo lived in the…
Skylab was America’s first space station. The 169,950-pound station orbited Earth from 1973 to 1979. Astronauts lived aboard the station and conducted scientific experiments. They also studied the Sun using the station’s solar observatory. Skylab proved that it was possible for astronauts to spend extended periods in space. On May…
There are billions of telephones in the world today. They have been around for a long time. In fact, not a single person on Earth today was alive when the telephone was first invented. The word telephone is even older than the device. It comes from the ancient Greek words…