Author: Monique Conrod

Health News

New York City Bans Extra-Large Pop

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Last fall, New York City banned the sale of extra-large servings of pop and other sugary drinks in restaurants and movie theatres.

They did it to help fight the problem of obesity in the city.

The ban, which is set to begin on March 12, 2013, was proposed by New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and approved by the New York City Board of Health in September 2012.

Under the new rule, businesses that have food-service licences – such as restaurants, theatres, delis, fast-food places, hot dog stands and sports stadiums – would not be allowed to sell pop in containers larger than 16 ounces.

People would still be able to buy supersized drinks at convenience stores, vending machines and some newsstands.

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Environment News Science Technology

Hadfield Brings Space Life Down To Earth

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When Chris Hadfield was nine years old, he watched Apollo 11 land on the moon and decided he wanted to become an astronaut.

That was in 1969, and about half a billion people around the world watched the same grainy images of the moon landing on TV.

It seems incredible, but with today’s technology and social media websites, people can see and hear what the astronauts are doing on the International Space Station every day.

We can watch videos of them, check out the view of Earth from the space station, and even have casual “conversations” with the astronauts.

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Environment News Science

Scientists Criticize Iron-Dumping Experiment

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Scientists around the world have criticized a group of Canadians for dumping more than 100 tonnes of iron dust into the Pacific Ocean last summer.

The group, called the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, is supported by the village of Old Massett, British Columbia.

About 700 people live in the village, which is located on the Haida Gwaii islands.

They used to make their living by fishing for salmon, but now there are not enough salmon and 70 per cent of the villagers don’t have jobs.

Last July, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation paid $2.5 million to an American businessman named Russ George to dump a mixture of iron sulphate and iron oxide dust into the ocean about 370 kilometres west of the islands.

They hoped the iron would cause more plankton to grow in that part of the Pacific.

They believed that more plankton would help increase the number of salmon in the area.

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News Science

Canadian Astronaut To Take Charge Of Space Station

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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will soon become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

Hadfield and two other astronauts – Tom Mashburn from the United States and Roman Romanenko from Russia – docked at the ISS on Dec. 21, 2012.

Their Soyuz spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 19.

It took them two days to reach the space station.

The space station is a satellite which orbits the Earth. The size of the crew varies from three to six astronauts at a time.

The crews stay on the space station for up to six months and then are replaced by other astronauts.

Hadfield and his crew will stay for five months.

This mission is Hadfield’s third trip into space and his second visit to the space station.

When he takes over command of the ISS in March, he will become the first Canadian ever to command a spacecraft.

Hadfield can already claim several “firsts” in space.

In 1995, Hadfield was the first Canadian to serve as “mission specialist” on a space shuttle.

He was also the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm while in orbit, and the first Canadian to board the Russian space station, Mir.

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Kids Sports

Banning Bodychecking Makes Hockey Safer For Kids

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Changing the rules of hockey to reduce aggressive behaviour like bodychecking is the best way to keep kids safer on the ice, according to a group of Canadian researchers.

In hockey, body checking is when one player charges into another player.

The researchers looked at the different ways people have tried to reduce injuries among young hockey players.

They found that the most effective method is to introduce a “no bodychecking” rule, or at least raise the age when players can begin to bodycheck.

The number of young hockey players suffering brain and spinal cord injuries has increased in the past 15 years.

On some teams, as many as one-quarter of the players will suffer a concussion during a season.

These injuries are often caused by bodychecking.

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Animals News

Lonesome George May Not Have Been The Last Of His Kind

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When the giant tortoise known as Lonesome George died last summer, people thought he was the last of his kind.

Lonesome George lived on Pinta Island, one of a group of islands called the Galapagos, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.

He belonged to a species called Chelonoidis abingdoni, which was native to that island and not found anywhere else in the world.

When he died, scientists believed the species became extinct.

Now a group of researchers has found giant tortoises, who may be related to Lonesome George, living on another Galapagos island.

These scientists studied the DNA of a group of giant tortoises living on Isabella Island, about 60 kilometres away from Lonesome George’s home.

They found 17 tortoises that had some DNA from the same Pinta Island species as Lonesome George.

These tortoises also had DNA from a different species, which means they had ancestors from both species.

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Environment News Science

No Signs Of Life On Mars… Yet

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Scientists have not found any signs of life on Mars yet, but they say a robotic vehicle called “Curiosity” is helping them learn a lot about the planet’s history and climate.

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012 after travelling through space for more than eight months.

It was sent to Mars by scientists from NASA in the United States.

Curiosity is a motorized vehicle called a “rover” which is controlled by scientists back on Earth.

It is about the size of a car and has six wheels that allow it to travel across the planet’s surface and climb over sand and rocks.

It also has a robotic arm, cameras, and instruments such as a scoop, drill and microscope that allow it to examine things it finds on the surface.

Then it transmits the information back to Earth.

The main purpose of Curiosity’s mission is to find out if anything could live on Mars, either now or in the past.

On Nov. 2, NASA scientists held a press conference to discuss what Curiosity had found in its first two months on Mars.

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News Technology

Google Puts Cambridge Bay, Nunavut On Street View

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People around the world will soon be able to see what life in a small northern community looks like, thanks to Google Street View.

The hamlet of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, was photographed for Google Street View in August.

Street View is a feature of Google Maps which allows users to see panoramic street-level photographs of the places on a map.

In Street View, the user can click on arrows and “travel” along the streets, seeing the buildings, houses and sidewalks.

Many places around the world have been mapped by Street View but Cambridge Bay, which is located on the southeast coast of Victoria Island in Canada’s Arctic, is the farthest north so far.

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Environment News Science

Neil Armstrong, First Man On The Moon, Will Long Be Remembered

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Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died. He was 82 years old.

Armstrong was an American astronaut and the commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on its mission to put men on the moon.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969, and began orbiting the moon three days later. On July 20, Armstrong and his co-pilot, astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, took off from Apollo 11 in a small landing craft called Eagle. A third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained in the main ship, orbiting the moon until they returned.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched on TV as the Eagle landed on the moon. When Armstrong stepped out of the ship and onto the moon’s surface, he said, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”*

Armstrong and Aldrin explored the moon for more than two hours and collected about 50 pounds of moon rocks. They left behind a plaque which said: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

The Eagle remained on the moon for about 21 hours and then rejoined Apollo 11 for the return trip to Earth. Once the astronauts were back on Earth, they spent 16 days in quarantine to make sure they had not brought back any germs from space.

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Animals Environment News

Endangered Right Whale Population is Growing

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North Atlantic Right Whales are one of the most endangered whale species in the world.

But now their numbers are growing again, thanks to a plan to keep large ships away from the whales’ nursery and feeding grounds.

For many years the whales were hunted for their oil. Hunting was banned in 1937, but by the 1990s there were only a few hundred North Atlantic Right Whales left.

The whales live in the Atlantic Ocean, off the eastern coast of Canada and the United States. They spend the winters in warm southern waters, where most calves are born, then migrate north in the spring.

Many Right Whales spend each summer and fall in the Bay of Fundy, a large inlet of the Atlantic Ocean between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The water there has large amounts of plankton – tiny organisms that are an important part of the whales’ diet.

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