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History for kids - Free history network for kids

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki - History for kids

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Atomic Bomb Background Before the war, many scientists had been investigating the possibility of generating energy and even weapons from the atom, the building block of the universe and everything that surrounds us. The famous scientist Albert Einstein represented these leading thinkers by writing to the American president Franklin Roosevelt in August 1939. He told

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Virtual Tour of International Space Station

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Virtual Tour of International Space Station

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Cell vs. virus: A battle for health - Shannon Stiles

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Climate change describes a change in the average conditions in a region over a long period of time.

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An activist is anyone who sees the need for change and devotes their time to doing something about it. And, as successful teen activists prove, structural, social, or economic barriers don't have to stop you from pursuing your passion and creating positive change. If you are interested in making a difference for a cause you care about, you can do so by educating yourself about the issue, finding ways to get involved in-person and online, and possibly even pursuing a career in a field related to your cause.

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Is registering people to vote a form of activism?

Bridget Connolly has volunteered on political campaigns at the local and federal level for over 10 years, most notably for the 2008 Obama campaign in Nevada and Josh Harder's Congressional race in 2018. She has gone door-to-door to help register voters and get out the vote in both California and Nevada.

Yes! Registering people to vote helps remove barriers for people who have been marginalized by educational systems, culture, and misinformation about the importance of their vote. I've had so many experiences where every vote counts. If 500 people are registering people to vote in a specific county, and we each get 1 person, and somebody wins by 400 votes, that's a really big deal. I think it's a civic duty for people who understand how politics work and understand that voting is at the bedrock of all of that. The people who don't vote are essentially disenfranchised; they aren't playing a part in what's happening with their tax dollars and who is representing them at the local, state, and federal level. All levels. It takes a lot of work to stay informed, but that's how our system is set up. You're voting people into power, so it's a civic duty.

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This article was co-authored by Bridget Connolly and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD. Bridget Connolly has volunteered on political campaigns at the local and federal level for over 10 years, most notably for the 2008 Obama campaign in Nevada and Josh Harder's Congressional race in 2018. She has gone door-to-door to help register voters and get out the vote in both California and Nevada. This article has been viewed 888,355 times.

Updated: November 19, 2023

If you feel passionately about an issue and want to become an activist, start by contacting local or online organizations with a similar mission. Ask them if you can volunteer your time or donate your money to contribute to the cause. Alternatively, you can also promote your cause on social media, share news articles, and circulate online petitions to raise awareness. Be sure to stay well-informed by keeping current with any news related to your cause! For tips on finding organizations that support your cause, read on!

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 888,355 times.

"I was doing a schoolwork about teen activism, and all of these thoughts and ideas helped me with what I could write about! I loved how you explained it, and it's a really well-written article. Congrats, you should be proud!" ..." more

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An activist is anyone who sees the need for change and devotes their time to doing something about it. And, as successful teen activists prove, structural, social, or economic barriers don't have to stop you from pursuing your passion and...

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Physics for Kids: Nuclear Energy and Fission

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Physics for Kids: Nuclear Energy and Fission

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Kids learn about nuclear energy and fission in the science of physics including E=mc2, power plants, uses of nuclear power, and fusion.

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DK Learning: Make every lesson your best yet

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DK's uniquely visual approach engages students, enhancing their learning experience

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Genetic EngineeringA guide for kids by Tiki the Penguin Genetic engineering is a way humans have found to modify the genes which you find in all living things. Genes are the instructions for building the body that contains them. That body can be a shrimp, a snail, a whale, a human, a potato...

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Rachel Atcheson is the Humane League's Philadelphia director. I wanted to interview her to shine a light on her incredible work as an animal rights activist and, hopefully, encourage and inspire teens to take action on behalf of animals.

Why did you decide to become an animal rights advocate?

I decided to help animals because they are the most underrepresented group of beings in today's society. Some might think that animals get sufficient attention, but cats and dogs receive the bulk of it. When we hear of a hoarder with 100 cats and none of them sufficiently nourished, we empathize with those cats. But farm animals are suffering every day in factory farms and we rarely hear their stories. I decided to help farm animals because they need a louder voice.

How did you think you would be able to make a difference?

I didn't start out thinking I could make much of a difference. I began volunteering with a local animal protection group (the group I work for now, the Humane League), but I had no idea the ripple effect my activism would have in the world. With the help of many mentors, I've been able to hone my activism skills and influence many people to be more involved in activism.

Has your life changed since you started helping animals?

My life has changed dramatically. I have become more compassionate and more empathetic toward the plight of both human and non-human animals. I have taken on the role of an activist - and I think this is the most important change in my life, because now I understand that no matter how much a person wants to change the world, it's the hard work, the elbow grease, that really creates meaningful change.

What is the main problem animals face right now?

These issues of confinement and mutilation are common for farm animals everywhere. All factory farms treat animals as if they were commodities, property, and this is, I believe, the biggest problem facing farmed animals right now.

I'd love to tell you the story of one animal in particular. Buttercup is an egg-laying hen who has lived her entire life in a cage smaller than a piece of paper. She has never met her mother. Because of her close confinement with other chickens, Buttercup's beak was seared off with a hot blade soon after she was born so she wouldn't peck any other chickens in her cage. Ever since she was young, Buttercup has lived in this battery cage. She has never been outside, never felt the sun on her feathers or the grass beneath her feet. And she'll remain there for her whole life. Her feet might become mangled in the wire mesh she stands on. If she develops an infection, she will not receive veterinary attention.

On a typical egg-laying farm, there could be 500,000 chickens, so Buttercup is just one of many chickens who will never see the outside of that warehouse.

What does it take to become an effective activist?

Be positive, set a good example, read literature on effective activism and, most of all, practice. If you want to learn more about animal activism, consider getting involved with groups such as the Humane League, Mercy for Animals, or Compassion Over Killing. All of these groups are very effective in their work.

How can we make a difference in the lives of animals?

The number-one way you can make a difference in the lives of animals is to cut back on the amount of animals you eat; consider trying Meatless Monday. And if you already do not consume much meat, consider going vegetarian. Are you already a vegetarian? Cut back on the amount of eggs and dairy you consume. And finally, try veganism.

While it may seem daunting to do anything in this list, if you take it one step at a time, one meal at a time, you'll find it easy, exciting, and fulfilling. We have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of animals three times a day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and with your help, we will see changes for farm animals.

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Rachel Atcheson is the Humane League’s Philadelphia director. I wanted to interview her to shine a light on her incredible work as an animal rights activist and, hopefully, encourage and inspire teens to take action on behalf of animals.&nbs

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Kids learn about the history of the Atomic Bomb during World War II. Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan to end WW2.

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You've now reached the outer edges of our own solar system

It would take you about 23 million years of continuous scrolling on this scale to get to the farthest regions of the observable universe, another 435,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km
or 46 billion light years away.

We think we'll stop here.

Live long and prosper

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Buckle up and ride a rocket through our interactive view of the Solar System to explore our cosmic neighbourhood

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A genetically modified organism, or GMO, is an organism that has had its DNA altered or modified in some way through genetic engineering.

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What's the difference between bacteria and viruses?

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What's the difference between bacteria and viruses?

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Ask Smithsonian: Whats the Difference Between Bacteria and Viruses?

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Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye | National Geographic

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Nine stories made by and about young people making a difference

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Nine stories made by and about young people making a difference

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Nine stories made by and about young people making a difference

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Teen producers find and tell stories of young people making a difference in their communities for this special PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs feature.

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While Germany had surrendered, the continued. One of the most significant events of World War Two happened in 1945. This was the dropping of on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American forces.

The decision to drop the atom bomb was taken by President Harry S. Truman, who had replaced Franklin Roosevelt following his death in April 1945. On 6 August 1945, Truman ordered an atom bomb to be dropped on the city of Hiroshima. It was dropped by a bomber plane named the Enola Gay. It is thought that at least 140,000 people were killed, of a total population of around 350,000.

When the atom bomb was dropped:

The temperature at the centre of the explosion reached 3000ºC - 4000ºC - three times hotter than volcanic lava.

Everything within a mile of the centre of the blast was flattened.

Fires spread and around 67 per cent of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed.

Three days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second one was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by a bomber plane called Bockscar. A further 74,000 people, at least, were killed. The Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, announced that Japan would surrender on 15 August. They formally signed a surrender agreement on 2 September.

This brought World War Two to an end.

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Find out about World War Two with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

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Could we survive prolonged space travel?

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Could we survive prolonged space travel?

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Could we survive prolonged space travel? - Lisa Nip

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Prolonged space travel plays a severe toll on the human body: microgravity impairs muscle and bone growth, and high doses of radiation cause irreversible mutations. As we seriously consider the human species becoming space-faring, a big question stands: even if we do break free f…

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Overview of the Process of Genetically Engineering Plants

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Overview of the Process of Genetically Engineering Plants

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The improvement of crops with the use of genetics has been occurring for years. Traditionally, crop improvement was accomplished by selecting the best looking plants/seeds and saving them to plant for the next years crop.

Once the science of genetics became better understood, plant breeders used what they knew about the genes of a plant to select for specific desirable traits. This type of genetic modification, called traditional plant breeding, modifies the genetic composition of plants by making crosses and selecting new superior genotype combinations. Traditional plant breeding has been going on for hundreds of years and is still commonly used today.

Plant breeding is an important tool, but has limitations. First, breeding can only be done between two plants that can sexually mate with each other. This limits the new traits that can be added to those that already exist in that species. Second, when plants are mated, (crossed), many traits are transferred along with the trait of interest including traits with undesirable effects on yield potential.

Genetic engineering is a new type of genetic modification. It is the purposeful addition of a foreign gene or genes to the genome of an organism. A gene holds information that will give the organism a trait. Genetic engineering is not bound by the limitations of traditional plant breeding. Genetic engineering physically removes the DNA from one organism and transfers the gene(s) for one or a few traits into another. Since crossing is not necessary, the 'sexual' barrier between species is overcome. Therefore, traits from any living organism can be transferred into a plant. This method is also more specific in that a single trait can be added to a plant.

The process of genetic engineering requires the successful completion of a series of five steps. Step 1: DNA Extraction

Step 2 : Gene Cloning
The second step of the genetic engineering process is gene cloning. During DNA extraction, all of the DNA from the organism is extracted at once. Scientists use gene cloning to separate the single gene of interest from the rest of the genes extracted and make thousands of copies of it.

Step 3 : Gene Design
Once a gene has been cloned, genetic engineers begin the third step, designing the gene to work once inside a different organism. This is done in a test tube by cutting the gene apart with enzymes and replacing gene regions that have been seperated./span>

The modified gene is now ready for the fourth step in the process, transformation or gene insertion. Step 4 : Transformation

The new gene is inserted into some of the cells using various techniques. Some of the more common methods include the gene gun, agrobacterium, microfibers, and electroporation. The main goal of each of these methods is to transport the new gene(s) and deliver them into the nucleus of a cell without killing it. Transformed plant cells are then regenerated into transgenic plants. The transgenic plants are grown to maturity in greenhouses and the seed they produce, which has inherited the transgene, is collected. The genetic engineer's job is now complete. He/she will hand the transgenic seeds over to a plant breeder who is responsible for the final step.

Step 5 : Backcross Breeding
The fifth and final part of producing a genetically engineered crop is backcross breeding. Transgenic plants are crossed with elite breeding lines using traditional plant breeding methods to combine the desired traits of elite parents and the transgene into a single line. The offspring are repeatedly crossed back to the elite line to obtain a high yielding transgenic line. The result will be a plant with a yield potential close to current hybrids that expresses the trait encoded by the new transgene.

Want to learn more about the process of genetic engineering?

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AgBiosafety at UNL - Biotech Basic The Preocess of Plant Genetic Engineering

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The improvement of crops with the use of genetics has been occurring for years. Traditionally, crop improvement was accomplished by selecting the best looking plants/seeds and saving them to plant for the next years crop. Once the science of genetics became better understood, plant breeders used what they knew about the genes of a plant to select for specific desirable traits.

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How do cancer cells behave differently from healthy ones?

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How do cancer cells behave differently from healthy ones?

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How do cancer cells behave differently from healthy ones? - George Zaidan

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"Do you think this is the right color ribbon?" asked a petite brunette, her hair pulled back in a haphazard ponytail, her college sweatshirt engulfing her tiny frame. "And do you think these are the right length of sections I'm cutting? I don't want it to be all funky when we pin them on."

"Mmm ... I'm not sure," said the guy next to her, sucking on a lollipop, his football-player physique totally evident in his tight band T-shirt.

"Looks good to me," his roommate said without even glancing over at the ribbon or the girl.

Meet the college anti-war movement.

I just got back from a two-week campus speaking tour during which I had the privilege of hanging out in a women's center at a Catholic college, eating bad Mexican food with Mennonite feminists, and chatting with aspiring writers and activists at a college in which half the students are the first in their families to experience higher education. I heard the stories of transgender youth in Kansas City, jocks with food addictions in Jacksonville, and student organizers who are too overwhelmed to address all the world's problems in Connecticut.

When my plane finally landed with a resounding bump at LaGuardia, I felt totally inspired by the earnest enthusiasm that beamed out of almost every student I encountered -- and also terrified that the university system is sucking the life out of them. At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me (I am usually paid to speak, in part, by student organizations and women's centers), I have to attest that the institutionalization of activism on college campuses seems to be a key culprit in the absence of visible youth movements in this country.

The scene above illustrates just the kind of vibe you can find at an anti-war or nonviolence club on college campuses any day of the week. It is sweetly collaborative, mainly focused on raising awareness among students, very keyed in to particular dates (Love Your Body Day, Earth Day, Black History Month), and most of all, safe. This is not terribly surprising considering that these clubs are sanctioned and funded (sometimes with upward of thousands of dollars a year) by the school administration through a formal application process. They are structured to legitimize but also to domesticate student passions and actions from the start.

And students do have passions, contrary to what some hippies-turned-well-paid-pundits argue. A survey conducted just this year by the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) found that 98 percent of students at their annual meeting saw the war in Iraq as one of the issues most important to them. Erin Wilson, the director of communication for NACA, reports that student involvement in campus activities is increasing all the time and adds that among their 1,040 member schools, a yearly total of $150 million is spent on campus programming.

As great as it might seem that colleges and universities are supporting student causes, I actually believe that it has tamed the critical energy necessary to be young, outraged, and active. When you're being funded by a team of white-haired academics in suits, taking real risks -- acts of civil disobedience like sit-ins, hunger strikes, boycotts -- don't seem like such a smart idea. Students rightly wonder whether they will "ruin it" for the next class if they cross the line and lose the school leadership's support. Plus, it's so much easier to just eat the free pizza and cut the three-inch ribbons than to mastermind a rebellious and potentially dangerous student uprising.

The academy, in general, encourages specialization, intellectualization, civility -- not exactly the key ingredients for effective social action. Students are surrounded by professors reminiscing about the glory days of youth activism, when groups like Students for a Democratic Society, the Weather Underground, and the Black Panther Party really ignited social change. But the professors don't seem to make the connection that none of these were school-sanctioned organizations.

Today's youth activism is largely enacted within the gated fortresses of higher learning. Students are overwhelmingly and often motivated by applying to law school or resumé-building. (How do you think they got into these undergraduate institutions in the first place?) They funnel their outrage into weekly club meetings and awareness campaigns that look good on paper -- activities that convey to future employers and institutions that they are socially involved and aware but not at odds with the system. Students seem to join sanctioned, existing clubs, rather than launch their own radical actions, without much resistance or critical questioning. Perhaps they've been socialized to accept the status quo, but even more, I believe they simply don't have the time or energy to start innovative revolutions from scratch because they are so busy taking standardized tests and building their resumés with internships and assistantships.

I watched a group of them sort through a brightly colored stack of anti-war quotations to make sure that every single one, literally, bore the stamp of approval from the college activities office so they could hang them around campus without getting in trouble. It made me cringe. This is where their energies were being diverted during the deadliest month yet in the Iraq War.

It made me reflect on my own undergraduate days -- just about five years ago now. I wasn't a rah-rah student government officer, but I certainly did my share of club activities: school newspaper, writing fellows program, resident assistant, volunteering at a Harlem preschool, even the hip-hop club (talk about taming outrage). I remember feeling so busy, so responsible, so important. Now I realize that there was a real cost to that frenzy of school-sanctioned productivity. I rarely thought beyond the borders of folding tables that lined the student activities fairs. I rarely put my body or my future on the line. While I was tutoring fellow students in grammar and composition and making door tags for my residence halls, I missed the escalation of a bogus justification for a messy war in my name.

In one of the largest studies ever conducted of Generation Y, psychology professor Jean M. Twenge found that college students "increasingly believe that their lives are controlled by outside forces" -- called "externality" in the psychology field. Twenge writes, "The average college student in 2002 had more external control beliefs than 80 percent of college students in the early 1960s."

Is it any wonder? We were raised to organize our adolescent lives in pursuit of external approval: church awards, athletic scholarships, and college admissions. More than any generation in history, we've been signed up, roped in, and overscheduled. When we get to college, many of us rush to join clubs in an attempt to recreate this safe feeling of sanctioned activity, of organized energies, of potential approval by authorities. Our innate passions and spontaneous actions have essentially been bred out of us.

The LearningWork Connection, a consulting firm on youth issues, reports that from September 2004 to September 2005, 79 percent of first-year males and 87 percent of first-year females described themselves as "volunteers." They add, however, that "Gen Y is less engaged with civic and political activities than they are with other causes."

Which prompts me to ask, what are "causes," really? The word stinks of bureaucracy and timidity, of the most educated, wanted generation in history sprawled across standard university furniture -- not planning the next revolution, but eating free cookies and voting on whether buttons or ribbons will be less destructive to students' clothing.

I saw the surefire glimmer of pure passion in these students' eyes. I know they are capable of great and ingenious uprisings, a type of protest that is totally 21st century, a trademark Generation Y invention. Viruses in campus administrators' computers with pop-up windows demanding no more expansion into poor, local neighborhoods? Mock draft cards sent home to their parents? A dance party -- 1 million youth strong -- on the Washington lawn? It all seems possible.

They need to stay out of the student center long enough to figure out what their version of outraged activism really is. Small as it may sound, big change would happen if college students today could protect their purest intentions from the pacifying force of free pizza and resumé kudos. Our generation needs to step into our raw power -- the priceless power of being young and mad. We need to stay hungry long enough to get angry.

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The institutionalization of activism on college campuses is a key culprit in the absence of visible youth movements in this country.

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The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week killed thousands of people and caused incredible damage to homes, schools, roads and office buildings. But the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and another nearby plant has put words such as radiation, nuclear reactors and fuel rods on the front page of the newspaper and all over the Internet and television. KidsPost answers some questions you might have about nuclear energy and what's happening in Japan.
What is nuclear energy?
It's the energy in the center (or nucleus) of an atom. Atoms make up everything in the universe and are held together with great force. In a process called fission, atoms are broken apart, and the energy released can be used to generate electricity at power plants, including the one in Japan that was damaged. Atoms of uranium, a common element that can be mined from the Earth, are used in nuclear reactions. In fission, a tiny particle called a neutron hits a uranium atom; the atom splits, releasing more neutrons and generating a chain reaction. That reaction releases huge amounts of energy. That energy can boil water to create steam, which in turn causes turbines to spin, generating electricity in a power plant.
What is a nuclear reactor?
A nuclear reactor is the device in a power plant where fission takes place. Pieces of uranium about the size of your fingertip get stacked up in 12-foot-long metal tubes, called rods. Bunches of rods form the core of the reactor.
So what happened in Japan?
Rods are normally kept under water, which keeps the reactor core cool. When the earthquake hit last Friday, the entire electrical grid went down, just as it can here when we have an ice storm. The nuclear plant switched to a backup system of generators. But an hour after the earthquake, the tsunami hit the plant, knocking out the generators. Backup batteries lasted only eight hours. Without power, the water couldn't circulate and began to boil away, allowing the rods to get hot. The inability to keep cooling water on the fuel rods led to explosions and fires. Those events have sent radioactive elements into the air. High levels of radiation can be dangerous, even deadly. Close to the reactors, the radition levels have gone up and down. About 50 workers trying to fix the problem are risking their lives to save their fellow citizens.
Are people getting sick now?
No. People within 19 miles of the plant have been told to stay indoors. There is medicine that can treat the effects of radiation sickness, but it has not been given to people yet.
What will happen next?
Nobody knows for sure. If there isn't water available to keep the fuel rods cool, the fingertip-size pellets can melt, like candles. This melting damages the core, which could lead to the release of more radioactive gases.
Is nuclear power safe?
That question has been asked for many years, and you will hear much more debate about it now because of the events in Japan. Nuclear power is very efficient. For example, one of those small uranium pellets can produce as much electricity as 150 gallons of oil. Many people see nuclear power as an alternative energy source. The situation at the Japanese reactors will have people talking about developing other power sources, including solar and wind.

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The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan killed thousands of people and caused incredible damage. But the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has put words like radiation, nuclear reactors and fuel rods on the front page of the newspaper KidsPost answers some questions you might have about nuclear energy and what's happening in Japan.

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What happens to the human body in space?

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What happens to the human body in space?

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For more than 50 years, NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) has studied what happens to the human body in space. Researchers are using what they learn to design procedures, devices, and strategies to keep astronauts safe and healthy throughout their missions.

NASA engineers use the lessons learned to better design spacecraft and improve the fit and functions of spacesuits. The research also aids in the development and assessment of medical standards, physical fitness programs and standards, physiological and psychological adaptation training, sensorimotor training, and nutritional health protocols.

Understanding the effects of spaceflight on humans is essential as astronauts move from the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit to deep space destinations on and around the Moon, and beyond. With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before, gathering new data while keeping astronauts healthy and safe.

NASA is particularly interested in investigating how the body reacts to long-duration spaceflight as the agency plans for extended missions on the Moon and Mars. Scott Kelly and Christina Koch were the first American astronauts to spend nearly one year in space onboard the space station, twice the previous average. Scott, Christina, and seven other astronauts have spent more than 200 days in space during a single spaceflight.

In addition to spending almost a year in space, Scott was involved in the unique Twins Study. Scott participated in several biomedical studies onboard the space station while his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, stayed on Earth as a control subject, someone who provides a basis of comparison.

The study provided valuable data about what happened to Scott, physiologically and psychologically, as compared to his brother Mark. Their contribution to science helped generate data that researchers will use for decades to come.

NASA is planning more dedicated extended-duration research on the space station. The studies are expected to shed light on how the body adapts to living in the spaceflight environment for various longer time periods, which will be pivotal for future deep space missions.

What exactly happens to the body in space and what are the risks? Are the risks the same for astronauts who spend six months on the space station versus those who may be away on a Mars mission for years?

The simple answer is: No. NASA is researching risks for Mars missions which are grouped into five human spaceflight hazards related to the stressors they place on the body. These can be summarized with the acronym " RIDGE," short for Space Radiation, Isolation and Confinement, Distance from Earth, Gravity fields, and Hostile/Closed Environments.

Space Radiation

On Earth, we are shielded by the planet's magnetic field and atmosphere from the majority of particles that make up the space radiation environment. Even so, everyone on Earth is exposed to low levels of radiation every day, from the food we eat to the air we breathe.

In space, astronauts are exposed to varied and increased levels of radiation that are different from those on Earth. Three major sources contribute to the space radiation environment: particles trapped in Earth's magnetic field, solar energetic particles from the Sun, and galactic cosmic rays.

A big challenge in reducing the risks of radiation exposure is that some space radiation particles (especially galactic cosmic rays) are difficult to shield against. Exposure to increased radiation can be associated with both short- and long-term health consequences, depending on how much total radiation astronauts experience and the time frame in which they experience that exposure.

Increased risk of cancer and degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cataracts, have been observed in human populations exposed to radiation on Earth. Health risks for astronauts from radiation exposure in space are mainly driven by long-term impacts.

Additionally, animal and cellular research indicate that the type of radiation in the space environment has a larger impact on health outcomes compared to the radiation experienced on Earth. Not only will astronauts be exposed to more radiation in space than on Earth, but the radiation they are exposed to could pose increased risks.

The Key: The current strategy to reduce the health risks of space radiation exposure is to implement shielding, radiation monitoring, and specific operational procedures. Compared to typical six-month space station missions, later Moon and Mars missions will be much longer on average. Consequently, the total amount of radiation experienced and associated health risks may increase.

NASA is developing new radiation detectors to monitor and characterize the radiation environment, which will provide better estimates of the dose and type of radiation to which the crews are exposed. Scientists and engineers are optimizing and implementing operational procedures that use available vehicle stowage and materials to reduce radiation exposure effectively.

To investigate the health risks of space radiation exposure beyond low-Earth orbit, NASA supports research that analyzes the biological effects of simulated cosmic rays at ground-based research facilities. Research at these facilities helps NASA understand and reduce the risk of space radiation, ensure proper measurement of the doses that astronauts receive on the space station and in future spacecraft, and develop advanced materials that improve radiation shielding for future missions.

Studies of radiation-exposed human cohorts are also being conducted to estimate the health risks in populations relevant to astronauts.

Isolation and Confinement

Expedition crews selected for a stay onboard the space station are carefully chosen, trained, and supported to ensure they will be able to work effectively as a team for the duration of their six to 12-month missions. Crews for a Moon or Mars mission will undergo even more careful assessment, selection, and preparation since they will travel farther and potentially for longer than previous humans in an isolated and confined environment, with only a few other people. Additionally, crews will likely be international and multi-cultural, making cross-cultural sensitivity and team dynamics paramount to mission success.

Ensuring astronauts get quality sleep is also important; otherwise, their internal biological clocks, or circadian rhythm, might be altered by factors like different dark and light cycles, a small and noisy environment, the stress of prolonged isolation and confinement, and a 37-minute extended day on Mars.

It is important to prepare for the fatigue astronauts may experience during spaceflight, given that there will be times with heavy workloads and shifting schedules. To prevent crew boredom, NASA considers the kinds of activities in which the astronauts will participate during a multi-year round trip to Mars.

Communication and understanding among crew members are vital to the success of the mission, and changes in morale and motivation are possible as the mission unfolds. This may relate to reduced stimulation, the longing for loved ones, or feeling unable to assist with family emergencies back on Earth, regardless of how long the mission lasts.

Using spaceflight analogs on Earth, NASA's research has revealed that both the duration and type of confined and isolated experience are important to consider. The more restricted the space, and the less contact with people outside the environment, the more likely humans are to develop behavioral or cognitive conditions or psychiatric disorders.

The Key: NASA has been studying people in isolated and confined environments for years, and has developed methods and technologies to counteract possible problems.

NASA scientists are using devices, such as actigraphy, that help assess and improve sleep and alertness by recording how much people move and how much ambient light is around them. New lighting, spurred by the development of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) technology, is used on the space station to help align astronaut's circadian rhythms and to improve sleep, alertness, and performance.

A 10-minute self-test of vigilance and attention assesses the effect of fatigue on performance. Astronauts write in journals as a safe place to vent frustrations and provide researchers a tool to study behavioral issues that are on the minds of crew members who are living and working in isolation and confinement.

Researchers are also looking into using virtual reality to simulate relaxing environments to help improve the mood of crews in isolation. Engaging in relevant, meaningful activities, including learning a language or learning new medical skills, could help ward off depression and boost morale. Crews may even tend to a space garden, which could have positive behavioral health benefits in addition to providing a fresh source of food and helping to purify the air.

Researchers are using Earth-based analogs to investigate how muchprivacy and living space will be needed on longer missions where crew members will be restricted in a relatively small spacecraft together. NASA is also determining strategies to formulate the best crew by studying individual and team attributes, composition, and dynamics.

Distance from Earth

The space station orbits 240 miles above Earth. The Moon is 1,000 times farther from Earth than the space station. In contrast, Mars is on average 140 million miles from Earth. With a communication delay of up to 20 minutes one-way while on Mars, astronauts must be able to solve problems and identify solutions as a team without help from NASA's mission control.

The types of food and medicine to be packed for a multi-year trip without access to a grocery store or pharmacy are also important to consider. Unlike space station crews, which regularly receive supplies from cargo flights from Earth, astronauts going to Mars will have to bring all of the food, equipment, and medical supplies they need.

The Key: NASA is using its human spaceflight experience on the space station to figure out what types of medical events happen in space over time and what types of skills, procedures, equipment, and supplies are needed so that they will have a good idea of what to pack for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Space station astronauts already receive medical training before and during space missions that teach them how to respond to health problems as they arise. For example, astronauts learn how to use onboard space station equipment to produce an intravenous (IV) solution from purified water, which can be used for medical administration.

Crew members also perform ultrasound scans on each other to monitor organ health. If one crew member becomes sick during the mission, crews are ready to perform laboratory testing to help make the right diagnosis and guide treatment.

NASA is working on developing a medical data architecture for spacecraft that enables the capabilities of clinical decision support tools, which could use artificial intelligence and machine learning to further help diagnose and treat various illnesses. Researchers are also looking into the role that virtual assistants could play to help crews identify and respond to spaceflight anomalies quickly for more distant missions.

Additionally, the agency is studying and improving food formulation, processing, packaging, and preservation systems to ensure the nutrients remain stable and the food remains acceptable for years. Space-resilient medications and packaging systems that preserve the integrity of pharmaceuticals for long-duration missions are another significant part of NASA's research.

Gravity Fields

Astronauts will encounter three different gravity fields on a Mars mission. On the six-month trek between the planets, crews will be weightless. While living and working on Mars, crews will be in approximately one-third of Earth's gravity. Finally upon returning home, crews will have to readapt to Earth's gravity.

Transitioning from one gravity field to another is trickier than it sounds. It affects spatial orientation, head-eye and hand-eye coordination, balance, and locomotion, with some crew members experiencing space motion sickness.

Landing a spacecraft on Mars could be challenging as astronauts adjust to the gravity field of another celestial body. When shifting from weightlessness to gravity, astronauts may experience post-flight orthostatic intolerance where they are unable to maintain their blood pressure when standing up, which can lead to lightheadedness and fainting.

NASA has learned that without Earth's gravity affecting the human body, weight-bearing bones lose on average 1% to 1.5% of mineral density per month during spaceflight. After returning to Earth, bone loss might not be completely corrected by rehabilitation; however, their risk for fracture is not higher. Without the proper diet and exercise routine, astronauts also lose muscle mass in microgravity faster than they would on Earth.

Moreover, the fluids in the body shift upward to the head in microgravity, which may put pressure on the eyes and cause vision problems. If preventive or countermeasures are not implemented, crews may experience an increased risk of developing kidney stones due to dehydration and increased excretion of calcium from their bones.

The Key: By analyzing how the body changes in weightlessness and after returning to Earth's gravity, NASA is developing protective measures against these changes for a Mars mission.

Functional task testing is in place to help detect and improve balance control after landing on a gravitational surface. Fine motor skill testing is done to detect any changes in the ability of astronauts to interact with computer-based devices.

Distribution of the fluids in the body is closely monitored to help evaluate any connection to changes in vision. Compression cuffs worn on the thighs help keep the blood in the lower extremities to counteract those fluid shifts. A lower-body negative pressure device could help draw fluids from the head into the legs as well.

Back pain, which some astronauts have reported experiencing during spaceflight, is monitored by obtaining spinal ultrasounds. Muscle size and bone density are assessed for deterioration using MRI and high-resolution imaging techniques, before and after flight. Crew members perform periodic fitness self-evaluations to help researchers better understand the decline in heart function that can occur during spaceflight.

Medicines that NASA is studying, such as potassium citrate, may help combat the physiological change that could increase the risk of developing kidney stones. Bisphosphonate medications have been shown in NASA studies to be effective in preventing bone loss.

NASA has also designed an efficient way to collect and measure how much urine a crew member produces in space, which is essential to human research since it reveals key information about a person's health. For example, researchers can analyze different levels of certain substances in an astronaut's urine to determine whether they are at risk of developing a kidney stone in space, and make modifications to the diet, exercise routine, and water intake as preventive measures.

Aerobic and resistive exercise has been shown to keep the heart healthy, bones and muscles strong, the mind alert, as well as maintain a more positive outlook, and may even help with balance and coordination. Software-generated workout partners could be used to help motivate astronauts to exercise regularly for longer space missions. NASA has even completed a joint Earth-based bed rest study to determine whether centrifuge artificial gravity may be an effective way to counter the physiological effects of weightlessness.

Hostile/Closed Environments

NASA has learned that the ecosystem inside the spacecraft plays a big role in everyday astronaut life in space. Microbes can change characteristics in space, and micro-organisms that naturally live on the human body are transferred more easily from person to person in closed habitats, such as the space station. Stress hormone levels are elevated and the immune system is altered, which could lead to increased susceptibility to allergies or other illnesses.

Earth-based analogs do not perfectly simulate the spaceflight environment, making them insufficient for studying on the ground how human immune systems react in space. However, NASA-funded Antarctic analog studies could provide insight into how certain spaceflight stressors may affect the human immune system. What is known is that spaceflight changes the immune system, although crews do not tend to get sick upon returning to Earth. Even though astronauts' acquired immunity is intact, more research is needed into whether spaceflight induced altered immunity may lead to autoimmune issues, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the healthy cells, organs, and tissues present in the body.

Beyond the effects of the environment on the immune system, every inch and detail of living and working quarters must be carefully thought-out and designed. No one wants their house to be too hot, too cold, cramped, crowded, loud, or not well lit, and no one would enjoy working and living in such a habitat in space either.

The Key: NASA is using technology to monitor the air quality of the space station to ensure the atmosphere is safe to breathe and not contaminated with gases, such as formaldehyde, ammonia, and carbon monoxide. Thermal Control Systems function to maintain temperatures of the space station and keep astronauts comfortable.

Blood and saliva samples are analyzed to identify changes in the immune system and the reactivation of latent viruses during spaceflight. NASA uses advanced molecular techniques to evaluate the risk of microbes that may cause illness for crew members. Various parts of the body and the space station are swabbed regularly for analysis of the microbial population that inhabits the environment. Crews change out air filters, clean surfaces, and treat the water to prevent illnesses that may result from the accumulation of contaminants.

Astronauts are advised to get a flu shot to boost their immunity and are quarantined before their missions to avoid catching any sort of illness before launch. During the Twins Study and One-Year Mission, Scott Kelly administered a flu vaccine to himself while his brother received his on Earth. The immunization proved to work as well in space as it does on Earth, which is a good finding for longer missions to the Moon and Mars.

Living quarters and work environments are carefully planned and evaluated to ensure that designs balance comfort and efficiency. Lighting onboard the space station is similar to what would be experienced naturally on Earth, thanks to the new LED lighting system.

NASA is taking action on all of these risks and working to solve the challenges of human spaceflight with some of the most brilliant minds in their fields. The results garnered from laboratories, ground analogs, and space station missions will provide more insight into these adaptations and present a stepping stone for longer missions.

On upcoming Artemis missions to lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, even more data will be collected as this work continues. On future longer duration missions to the Moon and Mars, astronauts will benefit from years of research that will ensure they will be able not just to survive, but thrive on their spacefaring missions.

Click here for an infographic summarizing the risks of human spaceflight and the safeguards against them.
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NASA's Human Research Program, or HRP, pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, and the International Space Station, HRP scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives HRP's quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as space travel expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
For a 508 Compliant PDF of this post, follow this link.

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For more than 50 years, NASA's Human Research Program has studied what happens to the human body in space.

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Can you think of some possible risks of growing plants that contain genes from other organisms? Let's examine our earlier examples: the beetle-resistant tomato, the vaccination banana, and the saltwater rice plant. We've already covered the potential advantages of these plants, but what are the concerns?

Cross-breeding with wild populations. For all of these examples, a primary concern is preventing genetically modified versions from mixing with the naturally existing populations of plants from which they're derived. Plants rely on the transfer of pollen, via insects or the air, to breed and produce offspring, and it's difficult to control how they cross-breed in the wild.

In most cases, it's not yet clear how introduction of the non-native gene would affect wild populations. Critics of genetically modified plant technology cite the need to learn more about the potential long-term impacts of genetically modified plants on the environment before mass-producing them.

Toxicity or allergic reactions. Many people suffer from allergies to various food items, including nuts, wheat, eggs, or dairy products. There is concern that the protein products of introduced genes may be toxic or allergenic to certain individuals.

When farmers start growing genetically modified crops, they stop growing the old varieties. These old varieties are important sources of diverse genes that give plants other desirable characteristics. For example, a new pest or disease could come along and destroy the genetically modified rice. If one of the old rice varieties has a gene that makes it resistant, it could be cross-bred to make the saltwater rice resistant as well. If we lose the old varieties, we also lose their useful genes.

It has been estimated that 70% of all processed foods in the United States contain at least one genetically modified ingredient-usually a product of soy plants. There are initiatives afoot to require food manufacturers to provide clear labeling on processed food products that contain genetically modified ingredients. This would make it easier for people with allergies to avoid foods that might pose a danger to them, and it would allow those who oppose genetically modified foods to opt out of buying them.

Unlike countries such as Australia and Japan, the United States currently has no laws requiring companies to label products containing genetically modified ingredients.

Despite the controversy surrounding them, genetically modified plants have taken root in our world. As with any new technology, members of society have the responsibility to become informed about genetically modified plants, in order to make decisions about their responsible use and regulation.

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Can you think of some possible risks of growing plants that contain genes from other organisms? Let's examine our earlier examples: the beetle-resistant tomato, the vaccination banana, and the saltwater rice plant. We've already covered the potential advantages of these plants, but what are the concerns? Cross-breeding with wild populations.

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Kids learn about infectious diseases including pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi as well as transmission and other types of diseases.

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Six Graphics that Explain Climate Change

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Six Graphics that Explain Climate Change

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A breakthrough deal to attempt to limit global temperature rises was agreed at a conference of world nations in December 2015. These charts from the time show how and why the Earth's climate is changing.

1. What is the problem?

The world is getting warmer

The average temperature of the Earth's surface has increased by about 0.85°C (1.4F) in the last 100 years. Up until 2015, 13 of the 14 warmest years had been recorded in the 21st Century. 2015 then became the hottest year on record, but was surpassed by record-breaking 2016.

10 warmest years

10 coldest years

20th Century average temperature

Hotter

Colder

Source: NOAA

2. Why is this happening?

Greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide

Scientists believe that gases released from industry and agriculture (known as emissions) are adding to the natural greenhouse effect, the way the Earth's atmosphere traps some of the energy from the Sun.

Human activities such as burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Carbon-absorbing forests are also being cut down.

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is now higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years and reached a record high in May 2015. But 2016 marked five consecutive years of CO2 increases of at least two parts per million.

Scripps CO2 Program, data from the Mauna Loa Observatory

3. What are the effects?

Arctic sea ice melt

Higher temperatures, extreme weather events and higher sea levels are all linked to a warming climate and could have a drastic effect on the world's regions.

Since 1900, sea levels have risen by on average about 19cm globally. The rate of sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades, placing a number of islands and low-lying countries at risk.

The retreat of polar ice sheets is an important contributor to this rise.

Arctic sea ice is also shrinking because of higher temperatures, though it makes little contribution to raised sea levels.

An area of sea ice roughly 10 times the size of the UK has been lost when the current day is compared with average levels from the early 1980s.

Arctic sea ice min. extent: 1980, 7.8 million sq km. 2015, 4.6 million sq km

Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center

4. What does the future hold?

Higher temperatures and more extreme weather

The scale of potential impacts is uncertain.

The changes could drive shortages in freshwater, bring about major changes in food production conditions and cause a rise in the number of casualties from floods, storms, heat waves and droughts.

This is because climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather events - however linking any single event to global warming is complicated.

Projected temperature change (1986-2005 to 2081-2100)

If greenhouse gas emissions peak between 2010-2020 and then decline substantially (RCP2.6)

If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise throughout the 21st century (RCP8.5)

Source: International Panel on Climate Change - Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)

5. What can be done?

World's top ten greenhouse gas emitters

The top 10 greenhouse gas emitters make up over 70% of total emissions

Source: Carbon Brief, figures are for 2012

6. Limiting the damage

By the end of October 2015, 146 countries had submitted national climate plans on curbing emissions that are expected to form the cornerstone of a binding, global treaty on climate change.

According to a UN report, submissions in their current form point to a rise of 2.7°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

Scientists have determined that if temperature rises surpass 2°C, this will lead to substantial and dangerous climate impacts, which will hit the world's poor in particular.

Average warming (°C) projected by 2100

Source: Climate Action Tracker, data compiled by Climate Analytics, ECOFYS, New Climate Institute and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

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Six graphics that explain climate change as world leaders gathered in Paris for COP21.

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Volunteering Can Reduce the Risk of Substance Abuse in Kids

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Volunteering Can Reduce the Risk of Substance Abuse in Kids

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Having trouble with your rebellious teen? Get them involved in community volunteer work. A new study from the University of Missouri found that this type of prosocial activity makes youth less likely to turn to drugs and alcohol.

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 report the highest rates of substance use and dependence, the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health says. Gustavo Carlo, a professor in the University of Missouri's Human Development and Family Studies Department, found that prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering and donating to charity, serve as protective factors against adolescents engaging in risky behaviors as young adults. His study was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Good deeds pay it forward

Carlo examined data from surveys of 531 youths in rural Pennsylvania counties. The group was surveyed over a seven-year period as participants moved through junior high school to young adulthood.

"Prosocial behaviors are good for society and communities, but also they are a marker of moral development," the professor says. "Parents want their kids to be kind, selfless, considerate and respectful. We now have evidence that these prosocial behaviors make adolescents less likely to break moral codes and engage in illegal activities."

Youth in rural communities are more at risk

The study focused on rural youths because research shows they may be more likely to use illicit substances earlier. Positive, prosocial activities are less available. Rural communities tend to be more spread out, making it difficult for teens to get transportation to events and activities. These communities often have less access to recreation centers, spaces for meetings, volunteers to run programs and funding for organized activities.

Community groups and schools need to organize activities

"We need to organize prosocial activities in schools and communities," Carlo says. "If we start early in childhood, kids can practice and learn to reap the rewards of prosocialness so that it becomes normative and habitual. These opportunities are not costly and kids are very creative and can contribute to the development of these activities. In the long run, kids can become invested in their communities and become engaged community citizens."

Teens can volunteer to do community clean-up work, yard work and chores for seniors, mentor younger kids in reading or math, or help coach community sports teams.

Substance abuse prevention is less costly than treatment

The research has important implications for substance use prevention and intervention programs aimed at teens, Carlo says. "The emphasis on prevention is far less costly and likely more effective than treatment after the problem presents itself. It involves transforming the culture of our schools so that we emphasize both academics and psychological and behavioral well-being."

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Volunteering reduces teens' risk of addiction

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Having trouble with your rebellious teen? Get them involved in community volunteer work. A new study suggests volunteering makes youth less likely to turn to drugs and alcohol.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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wheat photograph ©h. david sewell/corbis
new content copyright ©2001 pbs online and wgbh/frontline/nova

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The best step you can take to prevent influenza (flu) and its potentially serious complications is getting a yearly flu vaccine.

Flu Vaccine Benefits:
While flu vaccines vary in how well they work, flu vaccination is the best way to prevent flu and its potentially serious complications.

Flu vaccines prevent millions of illnesses, tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths every season.

Flu vaccines are safe. Hundreds of millions of flu vaccines have been safely given to Americans for more than 50 years.

CDC kicks off the 2019-2020 seasonal flu vaccination campaign on Thursday, September 26 at 10 a.m. at the National Foundation for Infectious Disease (NFID) press conference in Washington, D.C.

Vaccination helps protect women during and after pregnancy. A CDC multi-year, multi-country study showed it reduced the risk of flu hospitalization among pregnant women by 40% on average. Flu vaccination during pregnancy also helps protects babies from flu for the first several months after birth when they are too young to be vaccinatedFlu vaccination can lower the risk of serious outcomes from heart disease and diabetes.

Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, including those who are more vulnerable to serious flu illness, like babies and young children, older people, and people with certain chronic health conditions.

While some people who get vaccinated do still get sick, there is a growing amount of data showing that vaccination makes illness less severe, helping to prevent serious outcomes.

For more information, visit What are the benefits of flu vaccination?

CDC kicks off the 2019-2020 seasonal flu vaccination campaign on Thursday, September 26 at 10 a.m. at the National Foundation for Infectious Disease (NFID) press conference in Washington, D.C.

What flu vaccines are available this season?
For the 2019-2020 flu season, options include:

CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommend providers use any licensed, age-appropriate flu vaccine with no preference for one vaccine over another.
Where to Get Vaccinated:
Flu vaccines are offered in many locations, including doctor's offices, clinics, health departments, pharmacies, and college health centers, as well as by many employers, and even in some schools. To find flu vaccine in your area, use the HealthMap Vaccine Finder.

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Everything you need to know about the flu illness, including symptoms, treatment and prevention.

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This page will help you understand the science behind climate change, the impacts of a changing climate, and how you can help slow climate change and prepare for it. We've also created a list of resources and activities for educators and students of all ages.

The Science

Science paints a clear picture: Climate change is happening; it is caused mostly by humans; and it creates many serious and damaging effects. The primary cause of climate change is human activities - like driving cars, creating electricity, and cutting down forests - not natural changes in the climate. These human activities release gases into the atmosphere called greenhouse gases, which slowly warm the planet, creating climate change.

The climate is very complex, and there are still some things we don't know about it. But through centuries of studies and experiments, we've been able to create a strong understanding of how the system works, and how humans are changing it.

The Greenhouse Effect

Imagine a greenhouse made of glass used to grow plants, like flowers and vegetables. The greenhouse keeps the plants inside warm even when it's cold outside because it traps heat from the sun. The earth's atmosphere acts like a greenhouse: When light from the sun passes through the atmosphere, some of it is absorbed by the Earth's surface to heat it, but some heat is also trapped in our atmosphere by certain gases. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases, and they act like a blanket, keeping the earth warm. This greenhouse effect is a natural process that makes the planet comfortable to live.

But human activities are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. One type of greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, has reached a level in our atmosphere that the Earth hasn't seen for more than 400,000 years! Plants, soils, and the ocean can absorb carbon dioxide, but they can't keep up with all the extra greenhouse gases that we have been releasing. And some greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for a long time, from hundreds to even thousands of years. All these gases are making things hotter than natural, so we need to stop producing them to avoid climate change.

Weather vs. Climate

Weather refers to the state of the atmosphere in a short period of time, like minutes or days. It includes lots of things we are familiar with, like temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind speeds. The weather changes every day, but the climate is much more consistent because it measures the patterns of weather over long periods of time (at least several decades). Let's say you were going to visit Florida for a few days in June. You would expect it to be hot and humid, because that's what the climate of Florida is usually like in June. It might turn out to be hot during your trip, or it could rain or be cloudy. All of those are examples of possible weather during those days.

The Greenhouse Effect Explained

Where do greenhouse gases come from?

Up until about 150 years ago, humans did not produce many greenhouse gases. That changed as the human population grew, we cut down forests to make way for cities and farms, and important inventions and technology, like in-home electricity and cars, transformed the way we live.

These inventions and technologies need energy. Some types of energy called fossil fuels - like coal, oil, and natural gas - have become important sources of that energy. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We call the release of these gases emissions.

Today in the United States, electricity and transportation (cars, trucks, and planes) are responsible for almost 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The rest comes from agriculture, industry - such as factories that make products we use - and from energy we use in our homes and businesses.
Learn more about U.S. greenhouse gas emissions here.
Greenhouse Gases

The most common types of greenhouse gases are:

Carbon Dioxide (CO ₂): Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas created by human activities. It makes up 80 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Most carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere when fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) are burned for electricity and transportation, and because of other processes like making cement. Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored when it is absorbed by plants, soils, animals, and the ocean as part of the carbon cycle.
Learn more about how energy emissions are controlled in the United States.

Methane (CH ₄): Methane is the next most common greenhouse gas emitted by human activities. It makes up 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Most methane emissions come from raising livestock (like cows), but methane is also released when coal, natural gas, and oil are produced and transported, and when organic waste (like food) decays in landfills. Methane is a stronger gas than carbon dioxide, meaning it creates more warming, but it stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time.
Learn more about how industrial greenhouse gases like methane are controlled in the United States.

Nitrous Oxide (N ₂ O): Most nitrous oxide is emitted by agricultural activities, like applying fertilizer, but it also comes from industrial activities, burning fossil fuels, and other sources. It makes up 6 percent of U.S. greenhouse emissions. Nitrous oxide is even more powerful than methane and carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6): Try saying these gases three times fast! They're called "fluorinated gases" for short. These gases combined make up only 3 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. That may sound small, but they are very important to solving climate change because they stay in the atmosphere for a very long time (sometimes for thousands of years!) and are much more powerful warmers than all other gases. These gases are made by humans and are used to cool our refrigerators, freezers, buildings and cars.

U.S. Greenhouse Gases by Gas Type and Sector, 2021

Impacts of a Changing Climate

Because of increases in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures are rising. Each of the past four decades has been warmer than the previous one. 2016 and 2020 were the warmest years on record, and the six warmest years have all been since 2010.
Learn more about the relationship between extreme weather and climate change.
The following charts show how emissions and temperatures have gone up since 1900, and how they could continue to change in the future. If we continue to emit more and more greenhouse gases, the temperature of the Earth will rise a lot - maybe as much as 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. Even if we reduce our emissions right now, the temperature of the Earth will still rise slightly, but we might be able to keep the rise below 2 degrees Celsius (or about 4.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Two degrees might not sound like much, but scientists agree that even that small amount of warming can have large impacts on humans and the environment.

Past and Projected Changes in Carbon Emissions and Temperature

Rising global temperatures affect many things, like extreme weather, human health, food supply, and ecosystems. These impacts are already being felt today, and groups like the poor, elderly, and others are especially vulnerable.
Impacts of climate change include:

Heat waves. Heat waves are long periods of time with temperatures that are hotter than normal. As the Earth warms, more areas will be at risk for hotter and more common extreme heat waves. Learn more about the link between climate change and extreme heat.

Heavy precipitation and storms. Heavy precipitation - like rain or snow - is becoming more common in many locations, which can lead to flooding and other dangerous weather. As seas warm, coastal storms like hurricanes are also becoming more frequent and damaging. Learn more about the link between climate change and heavy precipitation and hurricanes.

Sea level rise. Sea levels have risen about 8 inches since 1880 because glaciers and ice sheets are melting and seas are warming. Scientists predict that, with 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, sea levels could rise by as much as 1.8 feet this century, which would harm communities living on islands and near coasts. These rises could be even higher if glaciers in Greenland or Antarctica melt very quickly.

Threats to habitats and animals. Warming temperatures, rising seas, melting ice, and other impacts of climate change can threaten the habitat of many plants and animals. Some species are moving to new habitats, but others may struggle to adapt and become endangered or extinct.

Ocean acidification. Extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans, making them more acidic. This can make it difficult for corals and organisms that form shells to survive, which can create problems in the food chain for other sea animals.

Wildfires. These are fires that burn large amounts of forests and brush. When they are not controlled, wildfires can destroy homes and be deadly. The number of large wildfires and the length of the season when they're most likely and threatening have been increasing in recent years. Find out how climate change will worsen wildfire conditions.

Drought. A drought is a period with little rain and not enough water. Global warming will increase the risk of drought in some places and make it harder to grow food. Learn about the links between climate change and drought.

How can you help?

Even though climate change sounds scary, we still have time to avoid some of the worst impacts. Everyone can play a part, including government, businesses, and you.

There are two main things we need to do:

The first is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. By choosing cleaner ways to power our homes, offices, and cars, and being more efficient and less wasteful, we can produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

There are lot of things you can do to help, like turning off the lights when you leave a room to reduce the electricity you use, walking or biking where you can, or planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide. If you do any of these things, make sure you communicate with other people (like your family, teachers, and friends) about why you're doing them! Communication can inspire more people to change their habits and help save the climate.

Look for more ideas on what we can do together and individually.

The second is to prepare for life in a changing climate. Even if we could stop creating greenhouse gases tomorrow, the climate would still change some because of our past emissions. So we need to make sure our buildings, roads, businesses, and communities are ready for the climate changes that we can't avoid. This includes things like helping cities on the coast prepare for floods, preventing wildfires in our forests, and more.

Learn how communities and companies are preparing.

The power of YOUth

Around the world, young people are learning about climate change and taking action. In fact, young people are some of the most important voices in the climate movement because you can inspire powerful people to create a better future for you.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a politician to make a difference in the fight against climate change. Whatever your talents are, there's a role for you to play. Some young people, like Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, and others, are leading the Fridays for Future movement to tell their governments to create strong policies to fight climate change. Other students are inventing new technologies to cut emissions and reduce waste. And others are using their creativity to bring awareness to climate change by writing music and creating art.

You can also look for ways to get involved in your community - maybe you can help your school set up a composting program to keep food waste out of the landfill. Maybe your synagogue or mosque needs help switching to energy efficient lights. Maybe you can write a letter to your local government to encourage your community to prepare for extreme weather or wildfires. Everyone can do something to fight climate change.

Check out our Educator Resources page for activities you can do to learn more about how climate change works and how you can be a part of the solution.
C2ES thanks the Alcoa Foundation for its support, which allowed us to develop our Climate Classroom content. As a fully independent organization, C2ES is solely responsible for its positions, programs, and publications.

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This page will help you understand the science behind climate change, the impacts of a changing climate, and how you can help slow climate change and prepare for it. We've also created a list of resources and activities for educators and students of all ages.

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Kids are Making a Difference in the World: The Real Story of Gabriel

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Kids are Making a Difference in the World: The Real Story of Gabriel

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Ingenuiously Charting the Horrifying Power of Today's Nuclear Bombs

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Ingenuiously Charting the Horrifying Power of Today's Nuclear Bombs

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Ingeniously Charting The Horrifying Power Of Today’s Nuclear Bombs

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The mushroom cloud of Russia’s biggest nuke was 8 times the height of Mt. Everest. This infographic will give you a visceral feel for that that means.

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Here's what your food would look like if it weren't genetically modified over millennia

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Here's what your food would look like if it weren't genetically modified over millennia

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Next time you bite into a slice of watermelon or a cob of corn, consider this: These familiar fruits and veggies didn't always look and taste this way.

Genetically modified foods, or GMOs, inspire strong reactions nowadays, but humans have been tweaking the genetics of our favorite produce for millennia.

While GMOs may involve splicing genes from other organisms (such as bacteria) to give plants desired traits - like resistance to pests, selective breeding is a slower process whereby farmers select and grow crops with those traits over time.

From bananas to eggplant, here are some of the foods that looked totally different before humans first started growing them for food.

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Here's what your food would look like if it weren't genetically modified over millennia

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Bet you've never seen fruits and veggies that look like these before.

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11 Gross Things that Can Happen when you Don't Wash Your Hands Enough

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11 Gross Things that Can Happen when you Don't Wash Your Hands Enough

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Even though it isn't guaranteed to cause health problems, there are quite a few gross things that can happen when you don't wash your hands. Because, as we all know, germs are everywhere. And it often doesn't take much to pick them up throughout the day, or pass them along to others.

Thankfully, the immune system usually steps in before bacteria and viruses can do any real damage. But if you aren't washing your hands regularly, you may be unnecessarily putting yourself at risk. After all, "the number one way to prevent disease is hand washing," Dr. Elizabeth Trattner, tells Bustle. So even though it can be easy to put it off, it's much healthier to pop off to the bathroom and give your mitts a quick scrub, especially after coming in contact with dirty surfaces or if you happen to be sick.

"The best hand washing technique is to rinse hands under warm water, then lather with soap for 20 to 30 seconds, getting all areas of the hands," Brianne Bell, registered dietician and food service supervisor, tells Bustle. "Rinse under warm water and dry with a clean towel." That should help reduce the risk of all the gross things below, which may be more likely to happen if you don't wash your hands.

1. You Might Catch More Colds

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 80 percent of infectious disease is spread by touch. And really, all it takes is the simple act of grabbing a germ-riddled doorknob and then touching your nose, in order to get infected. So let this serve as motivation to whip out the soap on a more regular basis, not only for your own sake, but for everyone else's health as well.

Of course, that doesn't mean you need to become paranoid. Most of the time your body protect you from germs, especially if your immune system is strong. But even still, washing up whenever you've been around someone with a cold is always a good idea.

2. Fecal Matter Can End Up In Your Food

It's a gross truth, but fecal matter is lurking in more places than you might think - including your hands. And rather disgustingly, those particles can get into food and make you sick, according to the CDC.

It may not be something you want to imagine. But as long as you're washing your hands after using the bathroom, changing a diaper, walking your dog, or even using public transportation, you should be able to lower your risk.

3. You Could Get Or Spread Food Poisoning

There are many ways to come down with a case of food poisoning, including eating undercooked meats, or food that has gone bad. You can also get pretty darn sick by preparing meals with dirty hands. (See above information about fecal matter).

According to the CDC, a large percentage of food-borne disease outbreaks are spread by contaminated hands. But appropriate hand washing practices can reduce the risk of food-borne illness and other infections. So do yourself, and everyone else, a huge favor by washing before you handle food.

4. You're Infecting Everyone You Touch

Sure, it's polite to cover your sneeze with your hand than it is to let if fly. And yet, how often do you really wash up after doing so? It's easy to forget, or to touch a few surfaces first - and just like that the germs spread.

Again, hand washing is the best way to prevent the transfer of disease, which is why "this is one of the first things you learn in medical school or in any health profession," Dr. Trattner says.

In a pinch, using hand sanitizer can cut back on the transfer of germs, Bell says. But nothing beats a good ol' scrub when it comes to reducing the amount of bacteria and viruses on your hands.

5. You Can Get Pink Eye

Pink eye, also known as conjunctivitis, is an eye infection many people catch in elementary school, mostly because it's highly contagious and thus spreads like wildfire among kids. But adults can get it, too.

In fact, often all it takes is a quick moment of hand-to-eye contact when you have an infected person's secretions on your hand, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, before the typical symptoms of redness, itchiness, and pus in the eyes will begin.

6. Your Snacks Can Get Contaminated

Think of all the times you've plunged a dirty hand into a bag of chips, box of crackers, or bowl of popcorn. If you aren't washing your hands, it's so easy to contaminate these shared foods with germs, according to the New York State Department of Health.

This is also why you may not want to share food or utensils with someone who is sick, especially if they have the norovirus. According to the CDC, if you get the norovirus illness, you can shed billions of norovirus particles that you can't see without a microscope, and it only takes a few of these particles to make people sick.

7. You Might Pick Up Hepatitis A

Not washing your hands can also lead to hepatitis A. "This is a serious liver virus that spreads when people do not wash their hands before making food and drinks," Dr. Tania Elliott, board-certified allergist/immunologist at NYU Langone Health, tells Bustle. "It also spreads through sexual contact with people who have hepatitis A, and by eating foods contaminated with the virus."

You can, however, make it less likely to happen. As Dr. Elliott says, "Washing your hands with soap and warm water after using the bathroom, changing a diaper, or before making food and drinks can help stop the spread of hepatitis A."

8. Diarrhea May Become A Frequent Visitor

Not washing your hands regularly can increase your chances of catching an illness that leads to diarrhea. One of these might be shigellosis, a bacterial infection with symptoms that include watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever, according to the CDC.

There is good news, though, in that simply washing your hands - especially after coming in contact with germ-y surfaces - can prevent about 30 percent of diarrhea-related sicknesses, the CDC says.

9. You Might Catch The Epstein-Barr Virus

We talked about poop in your food. Now what about urine, or saliva? Turns out, these are carriers of diseases like typhoid, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus, which are spread by contaminated hands, according to the CDC.

Epstein-Barr is the virus that causes mononucleosis, AKA the "kissing disease," which can lead to fever, weakness, swollen neck glands, and fatigue that lasts for weeks. "This is spread through saliva, so kissing, sharing food or beverages, or touching something with saliva on it are all ways in which it can be transmitted," Dr. Elliott says. "Hand washing, especially after touching the face and mouth [...] can help prevent the spread."

10. It Could Contribute To Antibiotic Resistance

According to the CDC, reducing the number of infections people get by washing your hands can help prevent the overuse of antibiotics, which is the single most important factor leading to antibiotic resistance around the world.

"Antibiotics are often overused when someone has a viral infection (remember, antibiotics only fight bacterial infections, not viruses)," Dr. Elliott says. "So, the fewer viral infections (by proper hand washing and other sanitary measures), the less use of unnecessary antibiotics."

In fact, hand washing can also prevent people from getting sick with germs that are already resistant to antibiotics and that can be difficult to treat, according to the CDC. So help out everyone on the planet, and wash your those hands!

11. Acne Can Crop Up

Not washing your hands can also increase the chances of an acne breakout, all thanks to the way bacteria can transfer from your hands to your face.

"Touching, rubbing, and picking [at the] face are common causes for more acne," Dr. Yoram Harth, board-certified dermatologist and medical director of MDacne, tells Bustle. "When the hands are not washed, the bacteria on the skin of our hands spread to the face and can cause more acne."

Germs truly are lurking around every corner. And they can obviously cause and spread all sorts of diseases, from the common cold, to the norovirus, and even hepatitis A. But by getting into the habit of washing your hands regularly - especially before touching food - you may be able to enjoy a more germ-free life.
This post was originally published on 4/12/2016. It was updated on 6/7/2019.

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A little more than 40 years ago, an American astronaut climbed down the ladder of his lunar landing module - the Eagle - and became the first human to touch the moon's surface. As he steadied himself, he said: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Around the globe, an estimated 530 million people watched on their televisions as Neil Armstrong uttered those now-famous words. On August 25, this American hero died at age 82.

Armstrong and fellow moon walker Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin briefly became the first ambassadors to another world on July 20, 1969. Setting foot on another celestial body was a massive and breathtaking achievement. And Armstrong's words brought the human scale of that accomplishment to households around the world.

"Neil was among the greatest of American heroes - not just of his time, but of all time," said President Barack Obama. "When [Armstrong] and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation." These men showed the world "that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible," the president added. And these brave individuals "delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."

Preparing for a life of exploration

Armstrong fell in love with flying at a young age. By 15 he was already taking lessons. He picked up odd jobs around his hometown to pay for flight time in a small airplane. He got his student's flying permit, at 16, before he got his driver's license.

In college, he trained as an aeronautical and aerospace engineer. In this field, people learn how to design and control not only aircraft but also jets and other propulsion systems.

But before he could finish college, Armstrong was called up for military service. He signed on to become a Navy fighter pilot. He flew 78 combat missions in Korea. During one, his plane was hit and he had to parachute out. It was an event that could have killed him. But it didn't frighten him off of flying. Instead, he went back to school and finished his studies. Then he joined a federal agency that would become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.

There, for 17 years, Neil Armstrong held a number of different jobs. He started as a test pilot for many pioneering aircraft. These included the X-15, an experimental vehicle that could zoom through the atmosphere at more than 4,000 miles per hour! He made seven flights on that space plane, at one point reaching an altitude of 63,198 meters (207,500 feet). That's about six times higher than today's standard jumbo jets. And he didn't just pilot the X-15. He also worked closely with the aircraft's engineers and designers to improve the plane's flight controls. In all, Armstrong flew more than 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, helicopters and gliders.

That all changed in 1962 when Armstrong joined NASA's astronaut corps. Suddenly, his focus became rocketry and space exploration. Within four years, he was given the command of the Gemini 8 spacecraft, from which he controlled the first successful docking, or linkup, of two vehicles in space.

But the highlight of his career was Apollo 11, that famous mission to the moon. And almost 1 in 5 people alive at the time shared in the excitement, watching as blurry television images showed Armstrong descending to the lunar surface.

His team's landing module had set down in a region known as the Sea of Tranquility. Within 20 minutes, Aldrin joined him. There, the two took photos, collected moon rocks and set up some science experiments.

They also left mementos for future space travelers. These included a patch carrying the names of Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee - Apollo 1 crew members who died in a launchpad fire. Armstrong and Aldrin also left medals inscribed with the names of Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin, two Russian astronauts (called cosmonauts) who died during space flights in 1967 and 1968. Finally, they left a small silicon disc that carried a miniature goodwill message from 73 world leaders (its message is so small that you would need a microscope to see the words).
Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for the first time.
Aldrin returned to the Eagle after 93 minutes on the moon's surface. Armstrong, the mission's commander, stayed 40 minutes longer. He savored the last bits of this huge adventure. Then the pair rejoined Michael Collins aboard the Apollo 11 space capsule for their return trip home. In all, the team spent more than eight days in space and traveled 953,054 miles (more than 1.5 million kilometers).

And still their trip wasn't really over. The men couldn't step out of their space suits and rush to hug their families for another three weeks. Once back on Earth, the men had to remain in quarantine. It was a precautionary measure to make sure no one had picked up a dangerous germ during their lunar trek and carried it home.

After his Apollo 11 trip to the moon, Armstrong stayed on at NASA and eventually rose to become its deputy associate administrator, in Washington, D.C. Later, he became a college professor, teaching aerospace engineering. He then worked for several aerospace companies. It seems the man never could get enough of the idea of cruising through - and occasionally outside of - Earth's atmosphere.

After his death, Armstrong's family issued a statement. They said, in part: "While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves."

Observes NASA Administrator Charles Bolden: "As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own."

As a mark of respect for Armstrong and what his achievements represented, President Obama ordered that flags throughout the country and at U.S. embassies abroad be lowered to half-staff on the day Armstrong is buried.

aerospace A research field devoted to the study of Earth's atmosphere and the space beyond or to aircraft that travel in the atmosphere and space.

astronautics A research field specializing in the design and construction of aircraft - including those created for space travel.

Apollo missions NASA's third human spaceflight program. It sought to develop the technologies needed for long-distance space travel. It got a big kick-start after President John F. Kennedy proposed in 1961 creating the national goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

astronaut People trained to travel into space for research and exploration.

celestial body Any naturally formed objects of substantial size in space. Examples include comets, asteroids, planets, moons, stars and galaxies.

cosmonaut Russian term for astronaut.

docking The act of bringing together and inserting one thing into another.

engineer An individual who applies science to practical purposes, such as the design or development of machines, structures or systems.

lander A special, small vehicle designed to ferry humans between a spacecraft and the celestial body they will explore.

lunar Relating to Earth's moon.

propulsion The act or process of driving something forward, using a force. For instance, jet engines are one type of propulsion for keeping airplanes aloft.

Janet Raloff is the Editor, Digital of Science News Explores. Prior to this, she was an environmental reporter for Science News, specializing in toxicology. To her never-ending surprise, her daughter became a toxicologist.

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Forty-five years ago, an American astronaut climbed down the ladder of his lunar landing module - the Eagle - and became the first human to touch the moon's surface.

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Genetically Engineered Salmon Approved for Consumption

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Genetically Engineered Salmon Approved for Consumption

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Genetically Engineered Salmon Approved for Consumption (Published 2015)

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The F.D.A. approval clears the way for the first genetically altered animal to enter the American food supply, despite strong opposition.

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Keeping Space Missions From Infecting Earth and Other Worlds

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Keeping Space Missions From Infecting Earth and Other Worlds

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alien A non-native organism. (in astronomy) Life on or from a distant world.

annual Adjective for something that happens in every year.

astronaut Someone trained to travel into space for research and exploration.

constant Continuous or uninterrupted.

Enceladus The sixth largest of Saturn's more than 50 moons. Enceladus is bright white and covered with a thick shell of ice. Deep beneath that ice sits what appears to be a global ocean of salty liquid water. Enceladus is a round sphere, 500 kilometers (310 miles) across. It is a little less than one-third the width of Earth's moon.

environment The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or some device and the condition those things create for that organism or device. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature, humidity and placement of components in some electronics system or product.

Europa One of the moons of Jupiter and the sixth-closest satellite to the planet. Europa, 1,951 miles across, has a network of dark lines on a bright, icy surface.

extraterrestrial (ET) Anything of or from regions beyond Earth.

extremophile A microorganism that lives in conditions of extreme temperature, acidity, alkalinity or concentrations of chemicals.

germ Any one-celled microorganism, such as a bacterium, fungal species or virus particle. Some germs cause disease. Others can promote the health of higher-order organisms, including birds and mammals. The health effects of most germs, however, remain unknown.

geyser A vent (opening) in Earth's surface that intermittently sends up a tall spray of steam or hot water. The sometimes explosive discharge of water and steam is propelled by the geothermal heating of water below ground.

Jupiter (in astronomy) The solar system's largest planet, it has the shortest day length (10 hours). A gas giant, its low density indicates that this planet is composed of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium. This planet also releases more heat than it receives from the sun as gravity compresses its mass (and slowly shrinks the planet).

lander A special, small vehicle designed to ferry humans or scientific equipment between a spacecraft and the celestial body they will explore.

Mars The fourth planet from the sun, just one planet out from Earth. Like Earth, it has seasons and moisture. But its diameter is only about half as big as Earth's.

microbe Short for microorganism. A living thing that is too small to see with the unaided eye, including bacteria, some fungi and many other organisms such as amoebas. Most consist of a single cell.

NASA Short for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Created in 1958, this U.S. agency has become a leader in space research and in stimulating public interest in space exploration. It was through NASA that the United States sent people into orbit and ultimately to the moon. It also has sent research craft to study planets and other celestial objects in our solar system.

orbiter A spacecraft designed to go into orbit, especially one not intended to land.

organism Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.

planet A celestial object that orbits a star, is big enough for gravity to have squashed it into a roundish ball and has cleared other objects out of the way in its orbital neighborhood. To accomplish the third feat, the object must be big enough to have pulled neighboring objects into the planet itself or to have slung them around the planet and off into outer space. Astronomers of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created this three-part scientific definition of a planet in August 2006 to determine Pluto's status. Based on that definition, IAU ruled that Pluto did not qualify. The solar system now includes eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

robot A machine that can sense its environment, process information and respond with specific actions. Some robots can act without any human input, while others are guided by a human.

satellite A moon orbiting a planet or a vehicle or other manufactured object that orbits some celestial body in space.

Saturn The sixth planet out from the sun in our solar system. One of the four gas giants, this planet takes 10.7 hours to rotate (completing a day) and 29 Earth years to complete one orbit of the sun. It has at least 53 known moons and 9 more candidates awaiting confirmation. But what most distinguishes this planet is the broad and flat plane of seven rings that orbit it.

science fiction A field of literary or filmed stories that take place against a backdrop of fantasy, usually based on speculations about how science and engineering will direct developments in the distant future. The plots in many of these stories focus on space travel, exaggerated changes attributed to evolution or life in (or on) alien worlds.

terrestrial Having to do with planet Earth, especially its land. Terra is Latin for Earth.

viable Able to live and survive. (in biology) Able to survive and/or live a normal lifespan.

weed (in botany) A plant growing wild in, around - and sometimes smothering over - valued plants, such as crops or landscape species (including lawn grasses, flowers and shrubs). Often a plant becomes such a botanical bully when it enters a new environment with no natural predators or controlling conditions, such as hard frosts. (in biology, generally) Any organism may be referred to as a "weed" if it enters an environment and begins to overwhelm the local ecosystem.

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Keeping space missions from infecting Earth and other worlds

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Scientists are always looking for ways to stop Earthly microbes from polluting other planets. The same goes for bringing bits of other planets back to Earth.

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Lesotho Is An Example of How Climate Change Disproportionately Affects Developing Countries

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Lesotho Is An Example of How Climate Change Disproportionately Affects Developing Countries

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And it's large countries, like the United States, contributing the most to climate pollution.

Before the humanitarian workers came to his village just outside of Maseru, Lesotho, 24-year-old Makalo Makara and his neighbors mistook climate change for divine punishment.

"We thought what was happening here was a calamity of God," he tells Teen Vogue, poking a wooden staff at a hard patch of dirt. "I have been a herder almost my whole life. I started when I was 8. I would go after school." Like many other young men his age in Lesotho, to step into the profession of herding is considered a rite of passage into manhood.

In the morning, Makalo gets up before the sun with his seven cows and walks until dark while they graze. He does this in every type of weather: rain, sun, or, in recent years, occasionally abrupt snow.

It was only a few years ago that he started to see a marked difference in the soil and grass in his village because of the erratic change in weather. The rainfall, which for most of his life ushered in the planting season in September, has become unpredictable. "The rains are late this year," he says, pointing at a barren patch of dirt that in years past has been speckled with green buds by now. "It affects the way we till the land and my herd doesn't have enough to eat now. Because they don't have enough to eat, [the cattle] are getting thinner and it's harder to use them for plowing." He gestures at a bull standing feet away, whose ribs are showing through a mat of bristled hair.

Lesotho is a country where more than 70% of people are dependent on just 10% of arable land, whether for commerce or to feed their families. Countries with large economies have long been the largest contributors to climate change that threatens the livelihoods of those everywhere, but a broader awareness about the issue within developing countries and their ability to act against it has been a more recent development.

Makalo's testimony is one of many, another page in the endless story of climate change and the impact caused by neglect of the world's second-largest climate polluter: the United States. In November 2017, Syria became the latest country to sign the Paris climate accord, leaving the United States as the only country to proclaim it will not align with the landmark deal. The Trump administration's decision to pull out of the agreement in June of 2017 has been felt worldwide, causing a ripple effect in countries like Lesotho, where the effects of climate change are felt the hardest. "This has been very disappointing for us for several reasons," said Moeketsi Majoro, minister of finance to Lesotho. "It sends a damaging message that the U.S. cannot be counted upon to deliver leadership in matters of global importance. So we are wondering and other countries are asking, can we still count on the U.S. at all?"

Lesotho isn't a country popularly known to the West. Nicknamed "the Kingdom in the Sky" and surrounded by South Africa on all sides, its mountainous landscape covers a space slightly larger than the state of Vermont. Farmers and herders here, similar to many other African countries, are waging war against the elements. When the delayed rains do come, they appear with increasing force that often wash away the nutrient-rich topsoil necessary for most plants to grow.

At the current rate, Lesotho is losing 3-5% of its topsoil every year. "It looks minuscule, but it's actually a huge amount and it's expected to get worse," Eshan Rizvi, who runs the Natural Resource Management Program for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in country, tells Teen Vogue. He's worked in the field for 12 years to help communities become more resilient in the face of climate change. Citing findings from a recent CRS study on soil degradation, Ehsan says, "soil-loss rates are going to increase because of high temperature, less vegetation cover, and more intense rainfall."

While Lesotho battles a slow crawl to the death of its land, its figurative big brother, South Africa, fights a much more urgent war. Day Zero is tentatively scheduled for July 9 in the port city of Cape Town, South Africa's second-most populous area. It's the moment when city officials will cut off the water to businesses and homes in an effort to save what little is left. Roughly 4 million residents will have to go to one of around 200 water collection points where they will be rationed just 25 liters (about 6.6 gallons) a day. Now in the third year of the worst drought in a century, Cape Town has a water system that has long relied on rain water, rendering locals helpless.

"What is happening in Cape Town is just one example of how climate change is affecting the continent," Dan Shepard, an information officer who works on climate change for the United Nations, tells Teen Vogue. "We are also seeing coastal erosion in Western Africa and changing currents in the water off South Africa, which affects everything from fishing patterns to penguin populations. Climate change exacerbates things, so as temperatures are rising across the continent, it causes more extreme weather, intense droughts, the list goes on."

CRS says it runs climate and agricultural programs in 43 countries reaching over 9 million people. In Lesotho, they are possibly the only organization in-country that is focusing efforts on the youngest generation of agricultural workers to change their behavior to adapt to the changing ecosystem. They start by teaching farmers what climate change is, enlightening communities on how pollution that occurs thousands of miles away is linked to the increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns at home. Experts also ensure that locals understand not only the global impact of human behavior on their land locally, but also new farming techniques that are more resilient to global climate trends.

For the rising generation of farmers, that means learning how to plant smart crops and use the land as wisely as possible. "As crop production declines with the change in rainfall, people make up for losses by cutting down more trees to expand their land. But that just makes things worse because it releases more carbon into the atmosphere," Ehsan says. "Those trees also prevent water-run off which keeps the soil moist, so they are taking away an important preventative mechanism that they might not know they need."

CRS also trains farmers on how to diversify crops. Corn is often a staple crop because it is hearty and cheap to plant, but farmers are now learning that it isn't good for the soil, Ehsan says. Environmental experts are promoting climate-smart agriculture by recommending intercropping, planting things like beans alongside other crops to put more nitrogen in the soil. Experts also show farmers how to rotate their crops, making them more resistant to pests. "All of this is good insurance against [the changing] weather, and people get excited about it. They see the economic returns," Ehsan says.

CRS is also arming Makalo and his fellow herd boys with an unlikely tool that both helps them economically and works to reduce the impact of climate change on the land: seeds for trees. Using apple, peach, and acacia seedlings, herder communities are trained to create nurseries that grow the trees, which they sell to the government. The Ministry of Forestry, Range and Conservation (MFRC) then plants the trees in local areas as part of an effort to restore the degraded ecosystems.

The success of the new agriculture practices is clear. "It's a win-win with long lasting impact," Ehsan says. "Farmers get another way to make money, they learn importance of trees in fighting climate change, while helping to restore and protect their land in the process."

Makalo says after all he's learned about why the land is changing, it's a small relief to know there is something he can do. "For me this is a difficult situation, because those polluters are far away," he says, frustration in his voice. "We have no way to contact them to tell them or speak with them about it. So what we have to do is focus on planting trees, to absorb the carbon emissions. We have to focus on how to be part of the solution here."

To do your part to help counter climate change, address your congressional representative here.

Related: How Climate Change Is Impacting Animals in the Canadian Arctic
Check this out:

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Poor Countries Are Suffering the Most From Climate Change

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Climate-change effects are mainly felt by small, poor countries that rely on a farming economy, such as Lesotho in Africa. It is large countries, like the United States, that are contributing to these negative effects the most.

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Alex Lin (Courtesy of Alex Lin) Living on Earth interviews Alex Lin, who won the Brower Youth Award for his pioneering work on electronic waste. Lin recycled and refurbishes computers for kids in the U.S. and around the world.
Transcript

CURWOOD: One kid who needs no New Year's resolutions on the environment is 14-year-old Alex Lin. When he was 11 he came across a newspaper article about the massive piles of E-waste-that's waste from electronics and computers that's generated around the world.

When the electronic devices we use every day get taken apart or dumped, toxic substances, like lead, leech into the environment. Alex decided to attack E-waste, starting at home. He founded WIN - Westerly Innovations Network (named after his town of Westerly, Rhode Island).

And this year he received the prestigious Brower Youth Award for young environmental leaders. Alex Lin, welcome to Living on Earth.

LIN: Thanks a lot.

CURWOOD: So one day you're reading the newspaper. You see this article about E-waste and you decide to do something about it. What was it that grabbed you? What made you decide to make this your mission?

LIN: I think what helped me choose to do this was that it's such a little known problem, really. When we started our project in our town, like, when we found out how many people knew about it, it was just less than 15 percent. It was like, ten percent or so of residents even knew what E-waste was, so I mean, just the fact that it's so little known and that by raising awareness we could just do so much to help it. That kind of grabbed our attention when we started the project.

CURWOOD: So how many computers are you guys recycling?

LIN: Recycling-wise we're not really sure about the amount. We just kind of hear back from CR2 Recycling because they weigh the trucks and they let us know how much we've been recycling every month or so. Because whenever a container fills up, the people at the transportation station they call them and they'll send down a truck to bring it to the facility in Massachusetts.

CURWOOD: So it's what-5,000 pounds a month or something like that?

LIN: Something like that. I mean it varies between month and month. I mean, some months it's like 25 hundred, some months it's a lot more. It all depends.

CURWOOD: Now you're working internationally. You've taken the whole thing that you started in Westerly, Rhode Island and you've taken it to people around the world. How's that working?

LIN: Yeah, it's working really well right now. Right now one of our contacts and friends in Cameroon-Rosemary-and she's been helping us to establish WIN teams in Africa and she's been looking around in Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon. Right now we have two definite set-up WIN teams in Kenya and Cameroon and the rest are on the way. And she's also helped us a lot by looking for schools that need computers so that computers in the U.S. used by companies in large numbers can be reused and sent to people across the world who really need these computers to help better their lives. And we have a Mexican WIN team who's raising awareness. And right now I think Rosemary's been talking with a team in the UK about starting a group there and we're just kind of dealing with it as it comes because it's been coming pretty fast for the past couple of months. But we're going to have to do the work and we're ready to do it, I guess.

CURWOOD: Hey, Alex. Can you tell me a story of where you know one of your computers helped change somebody's life?

LIN: Yeah, I definitely have a pretty good one that we did. You know, after the tsunami in 2004 there was a lot of shortages of computers, learning equipment, schools, teachers. We actually had a local pediatrician from our area-she went to Malaysia and Sri Lanka I think at the time to help out and she met an English teacher there and he contacted us saying there's a need for computers over there and we ended up sending five computers and a laptop. And it was really cool because he sent us some pictures afterward of the children singing to like Barney software and other educational stuff that we put on there and afterwards they named the school the WIN learning center after our team and that was just like really cool that we could have such an impact on the other side of the world.

CURWOOD: By the way, how do you find the time to do all this work on top of what-homework, sports, piano, and well, let's face it, being a kid?

LIN: Yeah. I don't know. It kind of just depends. Like it's more of a-I remember one of my friends I met at Brower in Boston-Carlos. He said it's more of a lifestyle and I totally agree with him. Environmental justice community work is like a lifestyle. You kind of incorporate time to do it into every day and if not every day, definitely on a regular basis because I mean, sure there are times where I would have projects, reports, tests the next day. Or, even sports games and stuff that I need to get with, but usually I'm able to find time during the week to do the work.

CURWOOD: Alex Lin's organization is called WIN, Westerly Innovations Network. Alex received the prestigious Brower Youth Award for young environmental leaders. Congratulations Alex, and thank you so much for taking this time.

LIN: Thanks a lot, Steve.

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Living on Earth interviews Alex Lin, who won the Brower Youth Award for his pioneering work on electronic waste. Lin recycled and refurbishes computers for kids in the U.S. and around the world.

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What it was like to survive the atomic bomb in Hiroshima

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What it was like to survive the atomic bomb in Hiroshima

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In this Aug. 6, 1945, file photo, survivors of the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare are seen as they await emergency medical treatment in Hiroshima, Japan. (AP Photo, File)
This post was originally written last year to mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima. It has been updated in conjunction with President Obama's visit to the shrine on Friday.
Seven decades ago, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It almost instantly leveled most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. Three days later, on Aug. 9, another American bomber dropped a nuclear device on the city of Nagasaki, killing 40,000 to 80,000 people.

The devastation was followed by World War II's swift conclusion. It's seared into the collective global memory -- no other time in history has a nuclear weapon been used in war. The simple fact of the atomic bomb's awesome power went on to shape a half-century of Cold War geopolitics.

The justification for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings remains the source of perennial historical study and debate. As the world marks the events' 70th anniversary this week, the legacy of what was first unleashed above Hiroshima now looms over newer conversations about disarmament and the nuclear programs of emerging powers.

But what of the victims? Swaths of Hiroshima disappeared in a blistering flash, yet there were survivors. Here are some of the eyewitness testimonies of what took place on that terrible day in August 1945. (They have been gleaned from a number of oral history projects, all of which are easily accessible online.)

Yasuhiko Taketa was on his way to middle school, like many of the "hibakusha," or survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who live to this day. At a train station, according to a speech he later delivered, he saw a "dazzling flash of light, brighter than even the sun," and then "an earsplitting roar" followed by a seismic explosion that shattered glass everywhere.

"My forehead felt hot, and I unconsciously touched it with my hand," narrates Taketa. "When I looked at the sky over Hiroshima, I saw a tiny, glittering, white object, about the size of a grain of rice, tinged with yellow, and red, which soon grew into a monstrous fireball. It was travelling in my direction, and I felt as though it was going to envelop me."

Akiko Takakura, a 20-year-old at the time, was near the hypocenter, or "ground zero" of the bomb. This was how she described the apocalyptic moment:

What I felt at that moment was that Hiroshima was entirely covered with only three colors. I remember red, black and brown, but, but, nothing else. Many people on the street were killed almost instantly. The fingertips of those dead bodies caught fire and the fire gradually spread over their entire bodies from their fingers. A light gray liquid dripped down their hands, scorching their fingers.

Those who found shelter after the explosion entered a strange, hideous world, where everyone's hair was literally fried and human shadows were etched onto stone.

"I felt the city of Hiroshima had disappeared all of a sudden," said Akihiro Takahashi, a 14-year-old at the time in line for school, whose testimony was recorded by researchers in the late 1980s. "Then I looked at myself and found my clothes had turned into rags due to the heat. I was probably burned at the back of the head, on my back, on both arms and both legs. My skin was peeling and hanging like this."

Michiko Hachiya was then the director of a hospital in Hiroshima. He recorded the dazed, stumbling confusion of those still alive in the aftermath of the explosion. It was published in English in 1955.

"There were the shadowy forms of people, some of whom looked like walking ghosts. Others moved as though in pain, like scarecrows, their arms held out from their bodies with forearms and hands dangling," Hachiya wrote. "These people puzzled me until I suddenly realized that they had been burned and were holding their arms out to prevent the painful friction of raw surfaces rubbing together."

So many had, in an instant, lost those dearest to them. Eiko Taoka, then 21-years-old, was carrying her 1-year-old infant son in her arms aboard a streetcar. He didn't survive the day. "I think fragments of glass had pierced his head," she recounts. "His face was a mess because of the blood flowing from his head. But he looked at my face and smiled. His smile has remained glued in my memory."

Miyo Watanabe, then a volunteer at a steel factory, endured the initial blast by lying on her stomach. When she came to, she walked through a desolation.

Watanabe remembers this chilling scene:

...a woman lying dead at a house by the river bank, her neck stuck through with a piece of glass blown by the blast. The glass must have cut the artery. Blood was scattered around her. She had been suckling her baby. The baby was still absorbed in sucking the breast.

And she describes the horrific sights in makeshift hospital wards, where all the living victims ached with a desperate thirst:

They were delirious, begging for water. Those whose backs were burned lay on their stomachs, and those whose front was burned lay on their back. They could not even move to change their position. Their wounds and burns were covered with countless flies laying eggs there. Those eggs hatched into maggots, and these crawled all over their bodies causing them infernal agony.

Burn injuries were ubiquitous, recounts Hiroshi Sawachika, then a 28-year-old army doctor.

"The smell was quite strong," he said. "It's a sad reality that the smell human beings produce when they are burned is the same as that of the dried squid when it is grilled."

Sawachika tended to hundreds of patients that day, with limited knowledge of what to do. The exposure to radiation suffered by countless survivors would have a range of ill effects in the decades to come.

"I learned that the nuclear weapons which gnaw the minds and bodies of human beings should never be used," he concludes. "Even the slightest idea using nuclear arms should be completely exterminated."

Archive footage from the plane that dropped 'Little Boy' on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the aftermath of that detonation. (Video: Internet Archive)

Related on WorldViews How the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler In defense of Neville Chamberlain, hindsight's most battered punching bag The dark side of Winston Churchill

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What it was like to survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

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What survivors from Hiroshima endured seventy years ago.

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On July 20, 1969, millions of people gathered around their televisions to watch two U.S. astronauts do something no one had ever done before. Wearing bulky space suits and backpacks of oxygen to breathe, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the moon.

After the two stepped onto the lunar surface, Armstrong proclaimed these famous words: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

SPACE RACE

Humans were only able to make that small step after several other space firsts happened. In 1957 the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into space by Russia. The United States launched several satellites of their own afterward. Both countries hoped to be the first to send a human into space.

It wasn't until 1961 that a person went to space: On April 12, Russia's Yuri Gagarin became the first. Less than a month later the United States' Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Following these milestones, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to put a human on the moon in 10 years or less.

NASA went to work. On July 16, 1969, the spacecraft Apollo 11 prepared to launch a crew of three astronauts into space ... and the history books.

MOON WALK

NASA officials selected Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins as the astronauts who would make the historic trip from Earth on Apollo 11. Just four days after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the spacecraft neared the moon's surface.

Before touching down, the three men split up. Collins boarded Apollo 11's command module, the Columbia, where he would remain in orbit around the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin boarded Apollo 11's lunar module, the Eagle, and began to descend to the moon's surface.

The Eagle made a risky landing in a shallow moon crater named the Sea of Tranquility. (Most people watching the landing on TV didn't know that the Eagle had only 20 seconds of landing fuel left at this point.) Armstrong and Aldrin looked out the windows of the module at the lifeless and barren lunar landscape.

After six and a half hours pass, the pair inside the Eagle prepared to exit the module. As mission commander, Armstrong stepped out first ... and became the first person on the moon.

Twenty minutes later, Aldrin climbed down the ladder and joined his partner. After reading a plaque that said they "came in peace for all mankind," the two planted the United States' flag on the surface. President Richard Nixon called to congratulate the astronauts.

Armstrong and Aldrin went back to work collecting samples of moon rocks and dust. After over two hours, the astronauts brought 47 pounds back onto the lunar module and prepared to rejoin Collins. It was time to go home.

DOWN TO EARTH

The Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. Over the next several years, 10 astronauts would follow in Armstrong and Aldrin's footsteps. The last mission to the moon was in 1972.

Though humans haven't returned to the moon since, they have continued to explore space. They even built the International Space Station (ISS), a space research station, where they can conduct experiments and study space up close.

Today NASA is working on sending humans to another planet: Mars. Thanks to the Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA is hopeful about its chances. The act of putting three people on the moon-and then safely bringing them back home-proved that successful human exploration in space is possible.

Text adapted from Ladders Earth Science: Exploring Above and Beyond by Stephanie Harvey and Space Encyclopedia: A Tour of Our Solar System and Beyond byDavid A. Aguilar and Patricia Daniels

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The historic event captivated the world-and helped people look to the future.

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NASA is hoping for potatoes to take root on Mars

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NASA is hoping for potatoes to take root on Mars

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Plague is best known as the killer disease that wiped out nearly half of Europe during the 1300s. But the germ infected people up to 3,000 years earlier than that, DNA from ancient teeth now show.

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Climate Change in National Parks Video Collection

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Climate Change in National Parks Video Collection

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The Science of Climate Change in National Parks Video Series - Climate Change (U.S. National Park Service)

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The discussion surrounding climate change is often focused on natural resources. The National Park Service is also tasked with preserving and protecting cultural and historical resources, and they are relevant to climate change too. In this video, National Park Service staff and partnering scientists talk about climate change in the context of Jamestown Island in Virginia, the site of the first permanent English settlement.

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Why Don't Men Volunteer as Much as Women?

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Why Don't Men Volunteer as Much as Women?

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Though Olivia Bryant, the CEO of YCore, had observed the gender gap at other nonprofits, she was still surprised at the discrepancy. She knew women often dominated volunteer spaces, but 95%? The YCore team set to work to recruit men, and they have since increased the proportion of applications from men to about 25%.

So are women just the more altruistic sex? Or is this a reflection of other social realities, like fewer women choosing to be in the labour force, or working part-time? Our data analysis reveals that no matter how you cut it, women do seem to have a higher proclivity for volunteering. We explore why this might be.

25.3% of Americans choose to volunteer at least once a year, and nearly half of the individuals that volunteer do so an average of more than one hour per week. These numbers come from a September 2014 of Americans ages 15 and older conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Volunteering is defined as any unpaid work performed for an organization. It can include anything tutoring English at the local library, coaching your child's basketball team, or helping your church with a fundraiser.

Not all Americans are equally likely to volunteer. The probability that a given person will volunteer is impacted by their age, income, education level and, not least of all, by gender. In 2014, 28.4% of women volunteered at least once, while only 22.2% of men did so.

The following chart displays the percentage of Americans that volunteer at any given age. We can see from this chart that the likelihood of volunteering changes a great deal over our lives, but that women are always more inclined than men.

The likelihood of volunteering rises again in the late 30s and reaches its zenith in the early 40s. Over 30% of Americans between the ages of 40 and 45 volunteer. This is related to the increased likelihood of volunteering when having children. While having a baby actually makes you less likely to volunteer - only 17% of people whose first child is 2-years-old or less volunteer - when their child reaches school age, people become dramatically more likely to volunteer. Over 35% of parents with children between 6-13 volunteer, often for a school activity.

Though women volunteer more than men at all ages, the effect of having children does seem to be greater for women. We can see in the chart above that the gender difference is largest between 35 and 45, when 10% more women volunteer than men.

Parents frequently volunteer for their kids' school.

Yet even when we only compare men and women who work full-time, we still find a large gender gap in terms of who volunteers. 30.1% of women who work full-time also find the time to volunteer in comparison to just 23.8% of men.

Given the importance of income on the likelihood to volunteer, we wondered whether the gender gap might disappear at different levels of family earnings. These next three charts display the percentage of adult men and women working full-time who volunteer by family income and age.

We wondered if looking at what women and men actually do when they volunteer might give us some insight into the gender imbalance. The table below shows the proportion of men and women, of those who volunteer, who volunteer for different types of groups. Only the primary volunteer organization of the individual is included, so each individual is only counted once. For example, the main volunteer organization for 35.1% of women is a religious one, while this is only true of 33.2% of men.

Overall, looking at the groups that women volunteer for does not give us much of a clue to the discrepancy, but it does point to the gendered nature of certain types of volunteering.

So what accounts for the volunteer gap between the sexes?

Jesse Eubanks of the non-profit Love Thy Neighborhood blames the "suspended adolescence" of young American men today. He sees a large number of young men unwilling to embrace responsibility. "Man-boys" who are not ready to take on the risks and relationships of being in a community. The guys in probably were not doing much volunteer work.

Energize Inc. , a consultancy for nonprofits, published an entire dedicated to helping volunteer organizations recruit men. They suggest that one problem is that much of the recruiting material from organizations is oriented towards women. Men may feel like the organization is a female space when they only see female faces in brochures and other materials. Another challenge is that many organizations already have a preponderance of women, and any new men will feel that they don't belong. Being the first guy can be be uncomfortable.

When asked it was important to have men volunteer, Bryant responded that it was the same reason she wanted people of different races and economic backgrounds participating in her organization. "We want our group of volunteers as diverse as possible," Bryant explained. "Men can bring a different perspective."

By any way you slice it, when it comes to demonstrating altruism through volunteering, women are simply dominating men. Regardless of whether they work or not, how old they are, or how rich they are, women just volunteer more.

For our next post, we tell the story of Esurance's old mascot, who was discontinued after being made into cartoon porn. To get notified when we post it →

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Why Don't Men Volunteer as Much as Women? - Priceonomics

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We analyze the female dominance of volunteerism in America.

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The Crew of Enola Gay on Dropping the Atomic Bomb

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The Crew of Enola Gay on Dropping the Atomic Bomb

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On August 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Twelve men were on that flight. Some chose to keep a low profile and others spoke out about their place in history. Almost all had something to say after the war.

The 509th Composite Group was formed by the U.S. Army Air Force to deliver and deploy the first atomic bombs during World War II. The group was segregated from the rest of the military and trained in secret. Even those in the group only knew as much as they needed to know in order to perform their duties. The group deployed to Tinian in 1945 with 15 B-29 bombers, flight crews, ground crews, and other personnel, a total of about 1770 men. The mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (special mission 13) involved seven planes, but the one we remember was the Enola Gay.

Air Force captain Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk did not know the destructive force of the nuclear bomb before Hiroshima. He was 24 years old at that time, a veteran of 58 missions in North Africa. Paul Tibbets told him this mission would shorten or end the war, but Van Kirk had heard that line before. Hiroshima made him a believer. Van Kirk felt the bombing of Hiroshima was worth the price in that it ended the war before the invasion of Japan, which promised to be devastating to both sides.

I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run. There were a lot of lives saved. Most of the lives saved were Japanese.

In 2005, Van Kirk came as close as he ever got to regret.

I pray no man will have to witness that sight again. Such a terrible waste, such a loss of life. We unleashed the first atomic bomb, and I hope there will never be another. I pray that we have learned a lesson for all time. But I'm not sure that we have.

After the war, Van Kirk got a masters degree in chemical engineering and worked for DuPont until his retirement. Van Kirk passed away in 2014.

Thomas Ferebee pushed the button that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He slept in the plane both before and after he did his part. After the war, Ferebee stayed with the Air Force, serving in the Strategic Air Command and in Vietnam. He retired as a full Colonel.

Colonel Ferebee, who retired from the Air Force in 1970, always argued that the Hiroshima bomb was necessary. "I'm convinced that the bombing saved many lives by ending the war," he told Newsweek magazine in 1970.

That doesn't mean he had no opinion on the further use of such weapons.

"Now we should look back and remember what just one bomb did, or two bombs," he told The Charlotte Observer in 1995, the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. "Then I think we should realize that this can't happen again."

Colonel Ferebee died in Florida in 2000, at the age of 81.

Army Air Force radar specialist Jacob Beser was the only man who served on both the Enola Gay in the Hiroshima bombing mission and the Bock's Car three days later when its crew bombed Nagasaki. He couldn't look at the detonation of the bombs because he was charged with monitoring for outside signals that could have detonated the bomb early and monitoring for signals of the proper detonation. This is addition for keeping an eye on radar for any enemy planes.

In this 1985 interview for the Washington Post, Beser was asked if he would do it again.

Given the same circumstances in the same kind of context, the answer is yes. However, you have to admit that the circumstances don't exist now. They probably never will again. I have no regrets, no remorse about it. As far as our country was concerned, we were three years downstream in a war, going on four. The world had been at war, really, from the '30s in China, continuously, and millions and millions of people had been killed. Add to that the deliberate killing that went on in Europe, [and] it's kind of ludicrous to say well, geez, look at all those people that were instantly murdered. In November of 1945 there was an invasion of Japan planned. Three million men were gonna be thrown against Japan. There were about three million Japanese digging in for the defense of their homeland, and there was a casualty potential of over a million people. That's what was avoided. If you take the highest figures of casualties of both cities, say, 300,000 combined casualties in Hiroshima [and] Nagasaki, versus a million, I'm sorry to say, it's a good tradeoff. It's a very cold way to look at it, but it's the only way to look at it. Now looking into tomorrow, that's something else again. I don't have any pat answers for that.

After the war, Beser was an engineer at Sandia Laboratories where nuclear research continued and at Westinghouse where he worked on classified projects for the military. He retired in 1985. In 1988, Beser wrote a book called Hiroshima and Nagasaki Revisited. He died of cancer in 1992 at age 71.

There isn't a lot of biographical information available on radar operator Joe Stiborik, except for some of his reminiscences of the mission.

Joe Stiborik remembered the crew sitting in stunned silence on the return flight. The only words he recollected hearing were Lewis's "My God, what have we done." He explained, "I was dumbfounded. Remember, nobody had ever seen what an A-bomb could do before. Here was a whole damn town nearly as big as Dallas, one minute all in good shape and the next minute disappeared and covered with fires and smoke...There was almost no talk I can remember on our trip back to the base. It was just too much to express in words, I guess. We were all in a kind of state of shock. I think the foremost thing in all our minds was that this thing was going to bring an end to the war and we tried to look at it that way."

Stiborik died of a heart attack in 1984 at age 69.

Morris Jeppson was only 23 years old when he was assigned to accompany the atomic bomb on the Enola Gay. It was his duty to arm the bomb and make sure it would work. Jeppson had the power to abort the mission if it didn't. It was his first and last mission of the war. Jeppson had worked in developing the mechanics of the bomb, and after the war he continued on the nuclear path. He studied physics at Berkeley and worked in the radiation laboratory there. Then he worked on developing hydrogen thermonuclear weapons at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Jeppson went on to invent and market hi-tech machinery for medical and industrial uses.

In 1995, Jeppson looked back at the Hiroshima mission.

Until the 509th reunion that year Jeppson hadn't given the mission much thought. "Those bomb plugs were just kicking around in a drawer" for years, he says. Still, he maintains that dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was a necessary means to help end the war. He points to wartime concerns that Germany was developing nuclear bomb technology. "If that had happened, the world would be an entirely different place (today)," he says.

Jeppson passed away in 2010.

Richard Nelson was the youngest of the Enola Gay crew. He was 20 years old in August of 1945. He relayed the news of the atomic bomb to his superiors in code, who forwarded it to President Truman: "Results excellent." After the war, Nelson got a degree in business administration and made a career as a salesman. Fifty years later, he had no regrets about his part in the mission.

"War is a terrible thing," he told The Riverside Press-Enterprise on the 50th anniversary of the bombing. "It takes and it destroys. Anyone feels sorry for people who are killed. We are all human beings. But I don't feel sorry I participated in it. If I had known the results of the mission beforehand, I would have flown it anyway."

Nelson died from emphysema in 2003 at age 77.

Enola Gay tail gunner Bob Caron wrote a book about the mission called Fire of a Thousand Suns. Despite his description of the bomb's effects, he never regretted being part of the mission.

In an interview with the Rocky Mountain News published two weeks before he died, Mr. Caron said he had no regrets about his role in the World War II bombing. "No remorse, no bad dreams," he said. "We accomplished our mission."

Caron died of pneumonia in 1995. He was 75 years old.

Wyatt Duzenbury kept tabs on the Enola Gay's engines and other systems while others tended the bomb and the mission itself. He considered it an honor to be chosen for the secret bombing mission that was to shorten the war. After 1945, he stayed with the Air Force. In his retirement, he looked back at the mission.

...he told the Lansing State Journal in 1985, "We were told to go, cranked up, dropped it, and came home." He told the newspaper that he didn't feel guilty about his mission, but did "not feel good about the 100,000 people who died." In an earlier interview, he said, "Personally, I feel that if we hadn't dropped that bomb, and the other crew hadn't dropped its bomb on Nagasaki, it would have cost thousand of US soldiers' lives establishing a beach head for the invasion of Japan."

Duzenbury died in 1992 at age 71.

Robert Shumard assisted flight engineer Wyatt Duzenbury in keeping the Enola Gay running. In a 1960 interview, Shumard said he didn't feel honored to do what they did, but he felt honored to be selected for the mission. And given the circumstances, he would do it again.

"Nobody actually wants to cause the destruction we caused," he said. "But it was through a necessity rather than a wanton type of destruction. It was something that had to be done. As much as a man has gangrene in his leg, and they have to cut it off. It's something that has to be done. It was a cancer in the world situation that had to be removed, that's all."

Naval gunnery officer William "Deke" Parsons was pulled from sea duty to work on the Manhattan Project in 1943. He helped turn the nuclear bomb into a weapon of war, from development to assembly to delivery. He armed the first atomic bomb while the Enola Gay was airborne. After the war, Parsons continued in nuclear weapons development, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. He oversaw the Operation Crossroads nuclear testing project and also served on the Atomic Energy Commission. Parsons witnessed seven of the first eight nuclear explosions. There are no quotes available from Parsons as he was still serving in the Navy when he died of a sudden heart attack in 1953. He was 52 years old.

Air Force flier Robert Lewis was a pilot first and foremost. He was upset that commander Paul Tibbets had named his plane the Enola Gay. But he was also dedicated to the mission, and earned Tibbets' respect despite the animosity between the two. Lewis wrote a diary of the mission in a notebook during the flight to Hiroshima, against orders. He later sold it for $37,000. It was resold in 2002 for almost ten times that much. He is often quoted:

"As the bomb fell over Hiroshima and exploded, we saw an entire city disappear. I wrote in my log the words: 'My God, what have we done?'"

Some sources say that quote was a revision after the fact. Later in life, Lewis defended the mission.

Over the past half century, some of the crew have returned to the city to take part in the annual commemoration celebrations. Lewis never did. For him "it was just a job of work. I helped make the world a safer place. Nobody has dared launch an atomic bomb since then. That is how I want to be remembered. The man who helped to do that."

Lewis died of a heart attack at age 65 in 1983.

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbets was chosen to head the bomb delivery mission in September of 1944, and he selected the rest of the crew. At that time, the Manhattan Project was preparing to drop a bomb on Europe as well as Asia. After the mission, Tibbets remained in the Air Force until 1966, achieving the rank of Brigadier General. He worked as an aviation executive until his retirement in 1970.

In a 2002 interview with Studs Terkel, Tibbets said he never had second thoughts about the mission:

Number one, I got into the air corps to defend the United States to the best of my ability. That's what I believe in and that's what I work for. Number two, I'd had so much experience with airplanes... I'd had jobs where there was no particular direction about how you do it and then of course I put this thing together with my own thoughts on how it should be because when I got the directive I was to be self-supporting at all times. On the way to the target I was thinking: I can't think of any mistakes I've made. Maybe I did make a mistake: maybe I was too damned assured. At 29 years of age I was so shot in the ass with confidence I didn't think there was anything I couldn't do. Of course, that applied to airplanes and people. So, no, I had no problem with it. I knew we did the right thing because when I knew we'd be doing that I thought, yes, we're going to kill a lot of people, but by God we're going to save a lot of lives. We won't have to invade [Japan].

Tibbets died in 2007 at age 92. He had requested cremation and no physical memorial, because it would become a pilgrimage site for nuclear protesters.
This post originally appeared in 2010.

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The Crew of the Enola Gay on Dropping the Atomic Bomb

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We rely on our muscles to walk, lift objects and climb stairs. However, in space muscles become weaker when there is no gravity to overcome. When astronauts come back to normal gravity on Earth, they suddenly feel very heavy and find it hard to keep their balance. Similar effects occur in elderly p…

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In the 1990s, a bunch of gene jockeys brought the first genetically engineered food to market.  The business crashed but biotech science has flourished far beyond the produce aisle.

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History is dotted with epidemics and plagues, but a certain number of them stand out as unique for their severity and impact on future generations. This is a list of the worst plagues in man's recorded history.

SEE ALSO: 10 Of Human History's Most Atrocious Plagues

The first signs of plague in Moscow appeared in late 1770, which would turn into a major epidemic in the spring of 1771. The measures undertaken by the authorities, such as creation of forced quarantines, destruction of contaminated property without compensation or control, closing of public baths, etc., caused fear and anger among the citizens. The city's economy was mostly paralyzed because many factories, markets, stores, and administrative buildings had been closed down. All of this was followed by acute food shortages, causing deterioration of living conditions for the majority of the Muscovites. Dvoryane (Russian nobility) and well-off city dwellers left Moscow due to the plague outbreak. On the morning of September 17, 1771, around 1,000 people gathered at the Spasskiye gates again, demanding the release of captured rebels and elimination of quarantines. The army managed to disperse the crowd yet again and finally suppressed the riot. Some 300 people were brought to trial. A government commission headed by Grigory Orlov was sent to Moscow on September 26 to restore order. It took some measures against the plague and provided citizens with work and food, which would finally pacify the people of Moscow.

The Great Plague of Marseille was one of the most significant European outbreaks of bubonic plague in the early 18th century. Arriving in Marseille, France in 1720, the disease killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces. However, Marseille recovered quickly from the plague outbreak. Economic activity took only a few years to recover, as trade expanded to the West Indies and Latin America. By 1765, the growing population was back at its pre-1720 level. This epidemic was not a recurrence of the European Black Death, the devastating episodes of bubonic plague which began in the fourteenth century. Attempts to stop the spread of plague included an Act of Parliament of Aix that levied the death penalty for any communication between Marseille and the rest of Provence. To enforce this separation, a plague wall, the Mur de la Peste, was erected across the countryside (pictured above).

The Antonine Plague (also known as the Plague of Galen, who described it), was an ancient pandemic, of either smallpox or measles, brought back to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. The epidemic claimed the lives of two Roman emperors - Lucius Verus, who died in 169, and his co-regent who ruled until 180, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, whose family name, Antoninus, was given to the epidemic. The disease broke out again nine years later, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius, and caused up to 2,000 deaths a day at Rome, one quarter of those infected. Total deaths have been estimated at five million. The disease killed as much as one-third of the population in some areas, and decimated the Roman army. The epidemic had drastic social and political effects throughout the Roman Empire, particularly in literature and art. (Pictured above is a plague pit containing the remains of people who died in the Antonine Plague.)

The Plague of Athens was a devastating epidemic which hit the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC), when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. It is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies. The city-state of Sparta, and much of the eastern Mediterranean, was also struck by the disease. The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/6 BC. Modern historians disagree on whether the plague was a critical factor in the loss of the war. However, it is generally agreed that the loss of this war may have paved the way for the success of the Macedonians and, ultimately, the Romans. The disease has traditionally been considered an outbreak of the bubonic plague in its many forms, but re-considerations of the reported symptoms and epidemiology have led scholars to advance alternative explanations. These include typhus, smallpox, measles, and toxic shock syndrome.

The Italian Plague of 1629-1631 was a series of outbreaks of bubonic plague which occurred from 1629 through 1631 in northern Italy. This epidemic, often referred to as Great Plague of Milan, claimed the lives of approximately 280,000 people, with the cities of Lombardy and Venice experiencing particularly high death rates. This episode is considered one of the last outbreaks of the centuries-long pandemic of bubonic plague which began with the Black Death. German and French troops carried the plague to the city of Mantua in 1629, as a result of troop movements associated with the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Venetian troops infected with the disease retreated into northern and central Italy, spreading the infection. Overall, Milan suffered approximately 60,000 fatalities out of a total population of 130,000.
SEE ALSO: 10 Twisted Facts About The Dancing Plagues
Before the European arrival, the Americas had been largely isolated from the Eurasian-African landmass. First large-scale contacts between Europeans and native people of the American continents brought overwhelming pandemics of measles and smallpox, as well as other Eurasian diseases. These diseases spread rapidly among native peoples, often ahead of actual contact with Europeans, and led to a drastic drop in population and the collapse of native American cultures. Smallpox and other diseases invaded and crippled the Aztec and Inca civilizations in Central and South America in the 16th century. This disease, with loss of population and death of military and social leaders, contributed to the downfall of both American empires and the subjugation of American peoples to Europeans. Diseases, however, passed in both directions; syphilis was carried back from the Americas and swept through the European population, decimating large numbers.

The Great Plague (1665-1666) was a massive outbreak of disease in England that killed 75,000 to 100,000 people, up to a fifth of London's population. The disease was historically identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through fleas. The 1665-1666 epidemic was on a far smaller scale than the earlier "Black Death" pandemic, a virulent outbreak of disease in Europe between 1347 and 1353. The Bubonic Plague was only remembered afterwards as the "great" plague because it was one of the last widespread outbreaks in England. Although the disease causing the epidemic has historically been identified as bubonic plague and its variants, no direct evidence of plague has ever been uncovered. Some modern scholars suggest that the symptoms and incubation period indicate that the causal agent may have been a disease similar to a viral hemorrhagic fever. (Pictured above is a list of mortalities from the time of the plague.)

The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine Empire, including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541-542 AD. The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the Black Death of the 14th century. Its social and cultural impact is comparable to that of the Black Death. In the views of 6th century Western historians, it was nearly worldwide in scope, striking central and south Asia, North Africa and Arabia, and Europe as far north as Denmark and as far west as Ireland. The plague would return with each generation throughout the Mediterranean basin until about 750. The plague would also have a major impact on the future course of European history. Modern historians named it after the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I, who was in power at the time and himself contracted the disease. Modern scholars believe that the plague killed up to 5,000 people per day in Constantinople at the peak of the pandemic. It ultimately killed perhaps 40 percent of the city's inhabitants. The initial plague went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean.

The "Third Pandemic" is the name given to a major plague pandemic that began in the Yunnan province (pictured above) in China in 1855. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately killed more than 12 million people in India and China alone. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1959, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year. The bubonic plague was endemic in populations of infected ground rodents in central Asia, and was a known cause of death among migrant and established human populations in that region for centuries; however, an influx of new people due to political conflicts and global trade led to the distribution of this disease throughout the world. New research suggests Black Death is lying dormant.

The Black Death (also known as The Black Plague or Bubonic Plague), was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis (Plague), but recently attributed by some to other diseases. The origins of the plague are disputed among scholars. Some historians believe the pandemic began in China or Central Asia in the late 1320s or 1330s, and during the next years merchants and soldiers carried it over the caravan routes until in 1346 it reached the Crimea in southern Russia. Other scholars believe the plague was endemic in southern Russia. In either case, from Crimea the plague spread to Western Europe and North Africa during the 1340s. The total number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 75 million people, approximately 25 to 50 million of which occurred in Europe. The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 1700s. During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe.

(This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from Wikipedia.)

SEE ALSO: 8 Fascinating Facts About Plague Doctors

Jamie is the founder of Listverse. When he's not doing research for new lists or collecting historical oddities, he can be found in the comments or on Facebook where he approves all friends requests!

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Top 10 Worst Plagues In History - Listverse

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History is dotted with epidemics and plagues, but a certain number of them stand out as unique for their severity and impact on future generations. This

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The greenhouse effect occurs when Earth's atmosphere traps solar radiation because of the presence of certain gases, which causes temperatures to rise.

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Think about the last time you volunteered your time and talents to an important effort or cause. How did it make you feel? With the busy lives we lead, just the thought of volunteering might seem overwhelming, but in reality it could be very beneficial. It's easy to think about the positive impact that volunteers have on others, but we don't often consider how rewarding it can be for a volunteer to reach out and make a difference in someone's life. As we approach the summer solstice, put those many hours of daylight to good use. Here are five good reasons for seniors and caregivers alike to volunteer:

1.Find Meaning and Purpose at Any Age: Sharing what you've learned with others can be a rewarding opportunity to give back. It's also an opportunity not relegated to the young. Between 2009 and 2011, the average national volunteer rate of older adults was 23.9% per year, as compared to baby boomers at 29.2% and young adults at 22.1%. Average older adult volunteer rates for states ranged from 17.4% to 39.3%. For older adults, a study showed that formal volunteering moderated the loss of a sense of purpose for those who had experienced the loss of major role identities, such as wage-earner and parent. Residents, and family members of residents, at Sunrise Senior Living volunteer through ongoing community service projects. At Sunrise, there are many family members who volunteer as 'family buddies' to give advice and encouragement to families of new residents in Reminiscence Memory Care Neighborhoods. They say that they receive satisfaction in knowing they are helping others and that sharing their own personal stories is therapeutic.

2.Experience Improved Health and Well-being: Many people who volunteer say that helping others gives them a good feeling inside, something that researchers call a "helpers high". There seems to be an actual physical sensation that occurs when people help others that makes them experience greater energy and strength, less depression and increased feelings of self-worth, reports Psychology Today. Another survey of a large group of older adults showed that while those who received social support did not experience a marked improvement in health, those who gave support to others had lower mortality rates. That means that caregivers actually benefit the most when they help others.

3.Make New Friends and Improve Your Mind: Volunteering provides an opportunity for seniors and caregivers alike to increase their social engagement as well as their brain power. A study conducted by the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center showed that there was a link between higher levels of social connections and participation in social activities with better cognitive function.

4.Learn New Skills: It's never too late to learn a new skill or develop a new hobby. Volunteering can open the door to new learning opportunities that you may have not previously considered or thought you were capable of doing. For example, I know someone at Sunrise that started as a volunteer who is now a memory care coordinator at a Sunrise community. Volunteering gave her the opportunity to discover just how much she loved working with the senior population and was a springboard to a fulfilling career where she has a positive impact on the quality of life of residents and their families every day.

5.Know That You Can Make a Powerful Difference: Regardless of your age or situation, you can also have a positive influence in someone's life. The simple act of visiting with a resident in a retirement home or dementia care neighborhood, holding their hand or offering a listening ear may seem like a small thing, but is actually quite powerful because that simple act of caring brings them immeasurable comfort, joy and encouragement.

In addition, volunteering not only provides us with the opportunity to get involved in a cause that we are passionate about, but also provides the chance to look beyond our own circumstances and appreciate what others are experiencing. The difference that you'll make in someone else's life will make an even bigger difference in yours.

Related

healthy living Volunteering impact caregivers Healthy Living Spirit

Senior Vice President of Memory Care & Program Services at Sunrise Senior Living

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Volunteering not only provides us with the opportunity to get involved in a cause that we are passionate about, but also provides the chance to look beyond our own circumstances and appreciate what others are experiencing.

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Testimony of Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors)

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Top > Foreign Policy > Japan's Security / Peace & Stability of the International Community > Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technology > Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation > Testimony of Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors)

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Astronauts are far from the shops, so they have to rely on regular deliveries of food. Every few months an automated spacecraft, such as ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle or the Russian Progress, arrives loaded with fresh fruit, water and pre-packed meals.

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A herbicide is a pesticide used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill certain targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often based on plant hormones. Herbicides used to clear waste ground are nonselective and kill every plant with which they come into contact.

History

The first widely used herbicide was 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, often abbreviated 2,4D. It first saw widespread production and use in the late 1940s. It is easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and kills many broadleaf plants while leaving grasses unaffected. Its low cost has led to continued usage today. Like other acid herbicides, current formulations utilize either an amine salt (usually triethyl amine) or ester of the base compound. These are easier to handle than the acid.

There are earlier examples of cultural controls, such as altering soil pH, salinity, or fertility levels to control weeds.

2,4D exhibits relatively poor selectivity, meaning that it causes stress to non-target plants. It is also less effective against some broadleaf weeds, including sedges and many vinous plants. Many other herbicides have been developed to address these limitations.

The 1970s saw the introduction of atrazine[?], which has the dubious distinction of being the herbicide of greatest concern for groundwater contamination.

Glyphosate[?], which is nonselective, was introduced in the late 1980s but did not become popular until the development of crop plants that were resistant to it. The pairing of the herbicide with the resistant seed led to the consolidation of the seed and chemistry industry in the late 1990s.

Uses

Herbicides are widely used in management of landscape turf and in agriculture. They are used in total vegetation control [tvc] programs for maintenance of way for highways and railroads. Relatively smaller quantities are used in forestry, pasture systems, and management of set-aside areas for wildlife habitat.

Classification of herbicides

Herbicides can be grouped by chemical family, mode of action, and type of vegetation controlled.

They are also classified by their activity:

Contact herbicides destroy only that plant tissue in contact with the chemical spray. Generally, these are the fastest acting herbicides. They are ineffective on perennial plants that are able to re-grow from roots or tubers.

Systemic herbicides are foliar-applied and are translocated through the plant and destroy a greater amount of the plant tissue.

Soil-borne herbicides are applied to the soil and are taken up by the roots of the target plant.

Pre-emergent herbicides are applied to the soil and prevent germination or early growth of weed seeds.

Application

Most herbicides are applied as water-based sprays using ground equipment. Ground equipment varies in design, but the greatest number of acres is sprayed with self-propelled sprayers equipped with a long boom (typically 60-80 feet) with flat fan nozzles spaced about every 20". Towed, handheld, and even horse-drawn sprayers are also used.

Herbicides can also be applied aerially using helicopters or airplanes, and can be applied through irrigation systems ( chemigation[?]).

Terminology

Control is the destruction of unwanted weeds, or the damage of them to the point where they are no longer competitive with the crop

Suppression is incomplete control still providing some economic benefit, such as reduced competition with the crop

Crop Safety, for selective herbicides, is the relative absence of damage or stress to the crop. Most selective herbicides cause some visible stress to crop plants.

Some major herbicides in use today

Glyphosate[?], a systemic nonselective herbicide used in no-till burndown and for weed control in crops that are genetically modified to resist its effects

Paraquat[?], a nonselective contact herbicide used for no-till burndown and in aerial destruction of marijuana and coca plantings. More acutely toxic to people than any other herbicide in widespread commercial use.

2,4 D[?], a broadleaf herbicide in the phenoxy group used in turf and in no-till field crop production. Now mainly used in a blend with other herbicides that act as synergists.

clopyralid[?], another phenoxy herbicide used mainly in turf, rangeland, and for control of noxious thistles. Notorious for its ability to persist in compost.

metoalachlor[?], a pre-emergent herbicide widely used for control of annual grasses in corn and sorghum; has largely replaced atrazine[?] for these uses

dicamba[?], a persistent broadleaf herbicide active in the soil, used in turf and field corn

picloram[?], a phenoxy herbicide mainly used to control unwanted trees in pastures and edges of fields.

atrazine[?], a triazine herbicide used in corn and sorghum for control of broadleaf weeds and grasses

Other herbicides of historical interest

2,4,5T was a widely used broadleaf herbicide until the 1970s. The manufacturing process for 2,4,5T contaminates this chemical with trace amounts of dioxin, which is a human carcinogen. For this reason 2,4,5T is no longer used. It was largely been replaced by dicamba[?], which is still in widespread use.

Agent Orange was a herbicide blend used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War as a defoliant. It was a mixture of 2,4,5T, 2,4D, and picloram; because of dioxin contamination it caused serious illnesses in many veterans who were exposed to it.

See also; Weed control, weed, farming, agriculture, FIFRA[?]- Federal insecticide, fungicide, and rodenticide act (USA) (also covers herbicides despite the title), Organic farming, Organic gardening

External links

Manufacturers and distributors

http://www.dowagro.com

http://www.syngenta.com

http://www.basf.com

http://www.monsanto.com

Regulatory policy http://www.epa.gov

Usage statistics http://www.nass.usda.gov

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Artic Voyage finds Global Warming Impact on Ice and Animals

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Artic Voyage finds Global Warming Impact on Ice and Animals

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween Tribune has been a valued educational brand of Smithsonian magazine, and we appreciate your continued support.

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

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The Benefits of Volunteerism, if the Service is Real

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The Benefits of Volunteerism, if the Service is Real

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The Benefits of Volunteerism, if the Service Is Real (Published 2010)

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Even community service done simply to build a résumé for college can be a good thing, but there needs to be a connection between the work and the overall issue.

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The unspeakable second's explosive sequence

0.0 second: Temperature at burst point reaches several million degrees F within one-millionth of a second following detonation. All bomb material becomes ionized gas & gamma rays.

0.1 second: Bomb explodes and fireball forms. In addition to heat and blast force, radiation was 3% of total energy, of which gamma rays & neutrons damaged living organisms, soil and ground structures.

0.15 second: Shock wave expands rapidly, heating air to luminous condition. Fireball visible for following 10 seconds.

0.2 second: Thermal energy, especially infrared wave-lengths, causes most of thermal burns to humans.

1.0 second: Fireball reaches maximum diameter of 200-300 meters.

Blast (50% of energy) is now complete. Overpressure at hypocenter (or "ground zero," directly below the burst point) in Hiroshima reaches an estimated 4.5-6.7 tons per square meter, and moves through the air and across the ground at the approximate speed of sound. Maximum pressure at Nagasaki's hypocenter may have been as high as 10 tons per square meter.

Recent research has found that in the initial "non-instant" (0.0 sec.) a powerful neutron burst struck a mile-wide area directly below burst point before the bomb casing exploded. This pre-explosion burst was caused by the initial impact of the uranium bullet with the core of uranium 235. This finding resolved a long-perplexing question of a young man near ground zero who died (Sept. 3) with symptoms of severe internal bleeding but no surface burns.

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash, like a photographer's magnesium flash. Then came a blast with a deafening bang, and I felt as though I had been kicked in the guts....The world was all black.- F.J.Johnson. Australian prisoner of war, Nagasaki.

Physical Devastation

The Hiroshima bomb was exploded over the city center, which was crowded with large public buildings and countless wood-frame residences and shops. Beneath the huge column of smoke that arose from the explosion, tens of thousands were already dead or dying. As fires raced out of control, destruction of wooden structures and reinforced concrete buildings alike was virtually complete within 2 km (1.2 mi.) of ground zero.

In Nagasaki, the more powerful bomb destroyed an estimated 12,000 buildings by blast and burning. Virtually nothing was left standing of the valley's homes, schools and factories. Worshippers in shrines, temples, and churches perished as they prayed.

In both cities, fires generated by the explosions' intense heat, and fed by broken gas and electrical lines, raged out of control. Fire stations and equipment had been destroyed, fire fighters were dead or injured, and water pipes were ruptured.

Many corpses were found at places where there was some water-rivers, old wells, fire-safety cisterns, ponds, and the like. People who did not die instantly had, it appears, exerted themselves to the limit just to find some water.- Marina Transport Rescue Team member, Hiroshima.

Hiroshima's gigantic firestorm leveled 13 square kilometers (5 sq. mi.), destroying some 92% of the city's structures. Nagasaki's firestorm, hemmed in by the valley, consumed some 22.7% of the entire city's structures. The bodies of many people who were close to ground zero in the two cities were shattered by blast or burned beyond recognition in the firestorms.

Houses and trees were leveled as far as the eye could see, and fires began breaking out in the ruins. At the roadside I saw the corpse of a man who had been leading a horse cart, still on his feet, with his hair standing on end like wire.... The river was filled with the dead and half-dead; burned children were screaming, 'Mommy! Mommy!' and mothers searched for their children, calling their names in faltering voices.- Ms. Hide Kurokawa, Nagasaki

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0.0 second: Temperature at burst point reaches several million degrees F within one-millionth of a second following detonation. All bomb material becomes ionized gas & gamma rays. 0.1 second: Bomb explodes and fireball forms. In addition to heat and blast force, radiation was 3% of total energy, of which gamma rays & neutrons damaged living organisms, soil and ground structures.

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The International Space Station is the biggest object ever flown in space. It travels around the Earth at an average speed of 27,700 km/h, completing 16 orbits per day. At night it can easily be seen from Earth, as it flies 320 kilometres above us. 16 countries, including the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada and many ESA member states worked together to build the Station.

The largest part of the ISS is a central truss to which 16 huge solar panels are attached. The modules where the astronauts live and work are attached to the centre of the truss. Europe's biggest ISS project is the Columbus science laboratory, where astronauts can carry out scientific experiments in weightless conditions. Many different types of experiments can take place both inside and outside this space laboratory.

ESA also makes the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), a series of uncrewed spacecraft designed to take supplies to the ISS. The cargo craft delivers food, fuel, equipment and other supplies.

Last modified 02 May 2014

SPACE STATIONS

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The International Space Station is the biggest object ever flown in space. It travels around the Earth at an average speed of 27,700 km/h, completing 16 orbits per day. At night it can easily be seen from Earth, as it flies 320 kilometres above us.

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Is it time to label foods that use GMOs?

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Is it time to label foods that use GMOs?

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Newsela | PRO/CON: Is it time to label GMO foods?

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Plague was one of history's deadliest diseases, then we found a cure

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Plague was one of history's deadliest diseases, then we found a cure

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Plague is one of the deadliest diseases in human history, second only to smallpox. A bacterial infection found mainly in rodents and associated fleas, plague readily leaps to humans in close contact. Plague outbreaks are the most notorious epidemics in history, inciting fears of plague's use as a biological weapon.

Today, plague cases still pop up sporadically around the world-including in the United States or China, where a suspected case was recently reported in the Inner Mongolia region. But the disease is no longer as deadly as it can be treated with antibiotics when available.

Here's what you need to know about the plague, including how it spreads, the difference between bubonic and pneumonic plague, the most infamous plague pandemics in history, and why it's not all that unusual to see modern cases of the disease.

Stages of plague

For hundreds of years, what caused plague outbreaks remained mysterious, and shrouded in superstitions. But keen observations and advances in microscopes eventually helped unveil the true culprit. In 1894, Alexandre Yersin discovered the bacterium responsible for causing plague: Yersinia pestis.

Y. pestis is an extraordinarily virulent, rod-shaped bacterium. Y. pestis disables the immune system of its host by injecting toxins into defense cells, such as macrophages, that are tasked with detecting bacterial infections. Once these cells are knocked out, the bacteria can multiply unhindered.

Many small mammals act as hosts to the bacteria, including rats, mice, chipmunks, prairie dogs, rabbits, and squirrels. During an enzootic cycle, Y. pestis can circulate at low rates within populations of rodents, mostly undetected because it doesn't produce an outbreak. When the bacteria pass to other species, during an epizootic cycle, humans face a greater risk for becoming infected with plague bacteria.

Rats have long been thought to be the main vector of plague outbreaks, because of their intimate connection with humans in urban areas. Scientists have more recently discovered that a flea that lives on rats, Xenopsylla cheopis, primarily causes human cases of plague. When rodents die from the plague, fleas jump to a new host, biting them and transmitting Y. pestis. Transmission also occurs by handling tissue or blood from a plague-infected animal, or inhalation of infected droplets.

Bubonic plague, the disease's most common form, refers to telltale buboes-painfully swollen lymph nodes-that appear around the groin, armpit, or neck. The skin sores become black, leading to its nickname during pandemics as "Black Death." Initial symptoms of this early stage include vomiting, nausea, and fever.

Pneumonic plague, the most infectious type, is an advanced stage of plague that moves into the lungs. During this stage, the disease is passed directly, person to person, through airborne particles coughed from an infected person's lungs.

If untreated, bubonic and pneumonic plague can progress to septicemic plague, infecting the bloodstream. If left untreated, pneumonic and septicemic plague kills almost 100 percent of those it infects.

Infamous plagues

Three particularly well-known pandemics occurred before the cause of plague was discovered. The first well-documented crisis was the Plague of Justinian, which began in 542 A.D. Named after the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, the pandemic killed up to 10,000 people a day in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey), according to ancient historians. Modern estimates indicate half of Europe's population-almost 100 million deaths-was wiped out before the plague subsided in the 700s.

Arguably the most infamous plague outbreak was the so-called Black Death, a multi-century pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe. It was believed to start in China in 1334, spreading along trade routes and reaching Europe via Sicilian ports in the late 1340s. The plague killed an estimated 25 million people, almost a third of the continent's population. The Black Death lingered on for centuries, particularly in cities. Outbreaks included the Great Plague of London (1665-66), in which 70,000 residents died.

The cause of plague wasn't discovered until the most recent global outbreak, which started in China in 1860 and didn't officially end until 1959. The pandemic caused roughly 10 million deaths. The plague was brought to North America in the early 1900s by ships, and thereafter spread to small mammals throughout the United States.

The high rate of fatality during these pandemics meant that the dead were often buried in quickly dug mass graves. From teeth of these plague victims, scientists have pieced together a family tree of Y. pestis, discovering that the strain from the Justinian Plague was related to, but distinct from, other strains of the plague. ( Read how modern plague strains descended from a strain that arose during the Black Death pandemic.)

Plague in modern society

Plague still exists in various parts of the world, popping up sporadically and followed actively by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases have appeared in Africa since the 1990s.

Between 2004 to 2014, the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported the majority of plague cases worldwide, with 4,630 human cases and 349 deaths. Scientists link the prevalence of plague in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ecosystem-primarily mountain tropical climate. More recently, plague broke out in Madagascar in 2017, causing more than 2,300 cases.

The United States, China, India, Vietnam, and Mongolia are among the other countries that have had confirmed human plague cases in recent years. Within the U.S., on average seven human cases of plague appear each year, emerging primarily in California and the Southwest.

Today, most people survive plague with rapid diagnosis and antibiotic treatment. Good sanitation practices and pest control minimize contact with infected fleas and rodents to help prevent plague pandemics.

Plague is classified as a Category A pathogen, because it readily passes between people and could result in high mortality rates if untreated. This classification has helped stoke fears that Y. pestis could be used as a biological weapon if distributed in aerosol form. As a small airborne particle it would cause pneumonic plague, the most lethal and contagious form.

Of conservation concern, federally endangered black-footed ferrets contract another form of the plague, sylvatic plague, from nearby prairie dogs. Plague can decimate prairie dog populations, which are a critical food source for black-footed ferrets. Scientists have started to administer a vaccine to prevent plague outbreaks in prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on August 20, 2019.

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Plague (Black Death) bacterial infection information and facts

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Known as the Black Death, the much feared disease spread quickly for centuries, killing millions. The bacterial infection still occurs but can be treated with antibiotics.

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The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof

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Definitive answers to the big questions.

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Teen Vogue's Political Coverage isn't Surprising

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Teen Vogue's Political Coverage isn't Surprising

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The publication's recent shift toward social issues, identity, and activism is giving its readers what they want.

On Saturday morning, Teen Vogue published an op-ed by Lauren Duca titled "Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America." The tone and message of the piece, which compared the ways in which the president-elect talks about his record to the ways abusive spouses psychologically manipulate their partners, struck a notable chord with readers on social media, garnering almost 30,000 retweets from Teen Vogue 's account, and getting shared by personalities from Patton Oswalt to Dan Rather. Many people tweeting the story did so with an incredulous tone, seeming surprised that a teen-oriented magazine was publishing incisive political coverage rather than makeup tutorials or One Direction interviews.

.@teenvogue may be an unlikely source for a detailed look at "Gaslighting" + Donald Trump, but there you have it... https://t.co/mgh534J8AG
- Dan Rather (@DanRather) December 11, 2016

Did not expect this exegesis of gaslighting and its relationship to current day politics from Teen Vogue https://t.co/cwNhZ6wvJH
- David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) December 10, 2016

But the tone of Duca's piece was representative of a larger shift Teen Vogue has made over the last year. In May, 29-year-old Elaine Welteroth took over as editor from Amy Astley, who helped found the magazine in 2003. Welteroth, the digital editorial director Phillip Picardi, and the creative director Marie Suter have moved the magazine more aggressively into covering politics, feminism, identity, and activism. Together, the three have shepherded a range of timely, newsy stories, including an interview exploring what it's like to be a Muslim woman facing a Trump presidency, a list of reasons why Mike Pence's record on women's rights and LGBTQ rights should trouble readers, and a video in which two Native American teenagers from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe discuss the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The pivot in editorial strategy has drawn praise on social media, with some writers commenting that Teen Vogue is doing a better job of covering important stories in 2016 than legacy news publications. But the move is also an intelligent one from a business perspective. Teenagers who've grown up on the internet are as likely to be informed about social issues as their parents are, and just as eager to read and share stories that reflect their concerns about the world. While some casual observers might seem surprised that a teen fashion magazine is focused on racism and sexism rather than on "hairstyles and celebrity gossip," their assumptions dismiss how attentive young readers are to politics-an interest Teen Vogue is astutely capitalizing on.

T een Vogue was founded in 2003 at the behest of Vogue's editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, who tasked Astley, the magazine's beauty editor at the time, to conceive test issues of a spinoff publication for teens. The publication's early focus was fashion. "We are going to do what we do well, which is fashion, beauty, and style," Astley told The New York Times 's David Carr shortly before its launch. "A lot of other teen magazines are focused on relationships, boys, sex, and embarrassing moments. That is not our equity."

At the time, Carr noted, many rival teen publications were struggling. And since Teen Vogue debuted, a number of them- Elle Girl, CosmoGirl!, Teen People, Teen-have folded. * One of the challenges is that teen audiences tend to evolve faster than the adults catering to them can catch up. "It's always been such a volatile market because your audience morphs so rapidly," John Harrington, a publishing consultant, told in 2013. The genius of the current iteration of Teen Vogue is that it's caught on to its current readers' enthusiasm for topical issues in a timely enough fashion to actually engage them.

"I think in 2016 we found our footing and our voice as a publication in a strong way," Picardi, the publication's digital editorial director, told me via email. "Obviously, the election has provided unique circumstances and a real need for someone to dissect the news for young people. Since we are, in particular, a brand that speaks directly to millions of young women, we have a responsibility to do right by them and view the news through that very specific lens."
The September issue featured a personal essay by Hillary Clinton, a conversation between Amandla Stenberg and Gloria Steinem, and an interview with Loretta Lynch.
Teen Vogue's two strongest traffic days in 2016, Picardi says, were November 9, the day following the election, and Sunday, as Duca's piece about Trump picked up steam. (The publication's traffic is up 208 percent over the last 18 months; it reached 9.4 million uniques in November.) But he notes that the publication's coverage of politics is of a piece with its coverage of fashion, beauty, and entertainment. Its top five most-read pieces of the year speak to the myriad subjects Teen Vogue covers, as well as the diverse interests of teen girls:

1. Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America
2. How to Apply Glitter Nail Polish the Right Way
3. Netflix Arrivals October 2016: See the Full List
4. Mike Pence's Record on Reproductive and LGBTQ Rights Is Seriously Concerning
5. Dark Marks and Acne Scars: Your Complete Guide

In engaging with social issues, though, the magazine isn't breaking entirely new ground. On Sunday, Tavi Gevinson, the editor of Rookie, appeared to acknowledge other publications' debt to the magazine she founded at the age of 15. "Why should it be shocking that mainstream pubs reckoning w/ accountability culture & the rising currency of feminism are suddenly feminist?" she tweeted. (Gevinson was on the cover of the September issue of Teen Vogue, in a shoot styled by the longtime Vogue creative director Grace Coddington.) Later, she followed up with a lengthier statement:

Good will can and does coexist with wanting to make profit. I am saying that as the cultural currency/relevance of feminism goes up, confusing fiscal interest with moral interest and keeping our expectations of mainstream women's mags so low will make us more and more likely to confuse magazines doing what they need in order to stay relevant, with advancing the cause of feminism. Media literacy is more important now than ever, and we should never stop asking ourselves, after everything one reads, "how does it benefit this publication to post this?" this is an exciting moment in which places with lots of money and reach-in many industries: publishing, film, TV, art, etc.-have finally understood that women and teens do not, in fact, want to see stuff that makes them hate themselves. What a relief! But I would be remiss not to enjoy it all with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Rookie was launched in 2011 as a deliberate counterforce to much of the existing journalism for teenage girls. In creating Rookie, Gevinson-whose ability to connect with her peers and whimsical approach to clothing drew both praise and irritation within the fashion world- aimed to respect "a kind of intelligence in the readers that right now a lot of writing about teenage girls doesn't." Over the past five years, Rookie has published work by writers including Sady Doyle, Amy Rose Spiegel, and Jenny Zhang, in themed issues covering topics from "Action" to "Work" to "Consumption" to "Invention." But while traffic to rookiemag.com has declined recently, with Gevinson pursuing other acting and music opportunities, Teen Vogue's has been steadily climbing. This fall, Condé Nast announced its print magazine would be reduced to four issues a year, with the publication focusing more on digital readers.

Teen Vogue's recent September issue, typically the month in which fashion magazines focus on upcoming trends, was noteworthy for its politically oriented content. It featured a personal essay by the presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a conversation between the actor Amandla Stenberg with the feminist Gloria Steinem, and an interview with the U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch, conducted by the black-ish star Yara Shahidi. The issue also introduced " 21 Under 21," the magazine's "official guide to the girls and femmes changing the world." The list of young activists, artists, and advocates featured few household names, but a notable majority of young people of color.

If the magazine is finally gaining recognition among adults for its thoughtful, nuanced coverage of topical issues, it's less surprising to teen readers who've been for months taking in (and sharing) stories about the Standing Rock Protests or Texas's campus-carry laws. In many ways, Teen Vogue is simply doing what a fashion magazine does best: observing trends, and disseminating them. But it's also giving young women valuable information about issues they care about, not to mention taking them-and their manifold interests-seriously.

"When it comes to news and politics, we look at ourselves as an ally and a platform-particularly to young women, and young people from marginalized communities," Picardi said. "I think young people, and perhaps particularly young women are so wildly underestimated by the world at large, and I want us to be a platform that challenges that idea."
* This article originally referred to CosmoGirl! magazine as Cosmo Teen. We regret the error.

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Teen Vogue's Political Coverage Isn't Surprising

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The publication's recent shift toward social issues, identity, and activism is giving its readers what they want.

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THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMBS: "Little Boy"and "Fat Man"

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THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMBS: "Little Boy"and "Fat Man"

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THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMBS: "Little Boy"and "Fat Man"

There were actually two new bombs, one using uranium, the other plutonium, with different triggering devices for each. The main research and production sites were Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The entire project operated under top secrecy, mobilizing top scientists and engineers, and at unprecedented high costs.

The Hiroshima bomb

Nicknamed "Little Boy"(for President Franklin Roosevelt), the bomb's size was 3 meters in length by 0.7 meter in diameter, using uranium 235 as its critical material. Inside a shortened smooth-bore 76.2 mm (3 in.) naval gun, a subcritical projectile of U-235 was fired at a subcritical target of U-235. At the moment of impact, a supercritical mass was formed, triggering a nuclear chain reaction, or atomic explosion. The gun barrel and heavy casing gave it a weight of over four metric tons (8,900 lbs). The subcritical material was an alloy called Oralloy, a code named derived from the secret laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it was fabricated.

For use in the gun device, the fissile materials had to be made into geometric shapes capable of withstanding the violence of being shot down the gun's tube, then stoipped abruptly at the target, and held together long enough to detonate.

The Nagasaki bomb

Nicknamed "Fat Man" (for England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill), this bomb had a core of plutonium 239, was 3.5 meters in length by 1.5 meters in diameter, and it weighed 4.5 tons. Its plutonium core was surrounded by 64 explosive charges arranged in an inner and outer shell. The explosive charges were fabricated in geometrical shapes in a configuration similar to a soccer ball-an extremely difficult and demanding procedure. When the two shells were detonated, the shockwave slammed into a tamper surrounding the plutonium nucleus, causing a rapid increase in density that compressed the slightly sub-critical plutonium core, rapidly increasing its density, making it supercritical, thus exploding in a nuclear chain reaction.

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There were actually two new bombs, one using uranium, the other plutonium, with different triggering devices for each. The main research and production sites were Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The entire project operated under top secrecy, mobilizing top scientists and engineers, and at unprecedented high costs.

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ESA - Space for Kids - Would you like to be an astronaut?

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You do not have to be superman or superwoman to fly in space. Many men and women, from many different countries, have become astronauts. ESA, for example, now has 14 astronauts from eight different countries.

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Ancient DNA Could Return Passenger Pigeons to the Sky

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Ancient DNA Could Return Passenger Pigeons to the Sky

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Advertisement

The last lonely bird of a species that once numbered three billion or more died on September 1, 1914. Martha, as she was known, had been the last passenger pigeon since her mate George died in 1910. The last of a social species, she lived out her days in solitary confinement in a cage in the Cincinnati Zoo. Her corpse-stuffed and primped-can now be seen at the Smithsonian Institution.

But what if the passenger pigeon could be brought back?

That's the idea behind de-extinction. Take DNA harvested from specimens stuffed in museum drawers, like Martha. Figure out which genes matter and then use the fast growing field of genetic engineering to edit the DNA of a closely related species into some version of the extinct species. If all goes well, a chimera of the long-lost Martha could be born and, one day, flocks of passenger pigeons could be restored to the regrown eastern North American woodlands.

Would-be de-extinction pioneer Ben Novak is working at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to make this exact scenario come true. A joint venture between the Revive and Restore effort of The Long Now Foundation (an organization dedicated to long-term thinking) and the ancient DNA lab at U.C. Santa Cruz, Novak's effort is focused on acquiring genetic information from stuffed passenger pigeons and sequencing the genome of the closely related band-tailed pigeon. So far, 32 samples have had the genetic code in their mitochondria sequenced. All of the samples come from birds killed between 1860 and 1898, according to Novak. "That's right in the range when the bird was going extinct," he notes.

Outside efforts have helped as well, including nearly complete sequencing of three individuals that showed passenger pigeons have been through booms and busts before. "If passenger pigeons survived through several population bottlenecks during their evolutionary history, perhaps we don't need to create billions of them in order for their populations to be sustainable," notes paleogenomicist Beth Shapiro of U.C. Santa Cruz, whose lab hosts Novak and this effort.

"All of our birds are all very, very similar to each other-like everybody being cousins, essentially-which is the effect of this recent rapid population expansion," Novak adds. "What we're really interested in is figuring out when that population expansion happened."

If the population explosion happened more than 400 years ago, then it is unlikely that the European arrival in North America precipitated the boom that produced billions of birds, as some have suggested. To figure out when the last boom occurred will require finding DNA from fossil samples thousands of years old-a few of which Novak has begun to examine. With ancient samples and those from the 19th century, Novak and his peers could begin to piece together the actual ecology of the bird in the wild. And understanding how the passenger pigeon existed makes it more likely people could bring the bird back and have the species thrive in the woods that are available today as well as in the future as the climate changes. "Nothing in the data so far to shout at us to turn back now and not bring back the passenger pigeon," Novak says.

The team has not yet completed the band-tailed pigeon sequencing required to begin resurrecting the passenger pigeon, but experiments in cell cultures from the band-tailed pigeon may begin as soon as next year, Novak says. This work would be similar to experiments being done at Harvard Medical School to see if the woolly mammoth might be resurrected through its still living relative, the Asian elephant. And the passenger pigeon work may be helped along by similar germ cell efforts in the chicken and houbara bustard-a rare bird prized by oil sheikhs with the funds to attempt a genetic rescue.

If cell cultures thrive and genetic engineering works, the only remaining challenge would then be to teach the resulting hybrid band-tailed and passenger pigeons how to be passenger pigeons. This will likely even more challenging than the genetic work, given experience from rearing California condors with puppets or teaching cranes to migrate with ultralight airplanes. That's why Revive and Restore, for one, is not putting all its de-extinction eggs in the passenger pigeon basket (as it were). The foundation-funded outfit might undertake a similar effort to revive the heath hen in Martha's Vineyard, if they can get funding from outside donors. But, assuming breeding, sequencing and cell-culture experiments go well, birds that carry the now extinct genes of the passenger pigeon could be flapping around a California facility by the end of the decade, according to Novak.

These de-extinction projects may prove too ambitious, however. Similar efforts that stretch back 30 years have so far failed to produce a quagga, an extinct species of zebra, although acquiring quagga genetics from museum specimens did kick off the entire ancient DNA field in 1984. And the 2003 experiment that resurrected a bucardo for seven minutes has yet to be repeated. Nevertheless, even the International Union for Conservation of Nature has set up a committee to examine how the genetics used for de-extinction might be used to preserve endangered animals and plants or bring them back if they die out.

De-extinction is not just for extinct species, after all. It could also be used to save a plant or animal that is on the verge of extinction. The black-footed ferret has been bred back from just seven viable individuals in the 1980s to thousands today, but the species may need a genetic transfusion to protect the new animals from the perils of inbreeding, which include reproductive problems, susceptibility to disease and genetic drift. So Revive and Restore has sequenced four ferret genomes, including two that had been stored in cell cultures from deep freeze at the Zoological Society of San Diego for the Frozen Ark Consortium, a global project to save the DNA and viable cells of endangered species. If genetic information from such frozen samples could be used to infuse robust genetics into a living population, it would be a first in the annals of conservation. "The northern white rhino has only four living individuals left. They are not viable," says Ryan Phelan of Long Now, who has petted the last individuals of this functionally extinct species. "Do we use genomic techniques and advanced genetic technology to keep that species alive or let it march over to the right on the continuum of extinction and become extinct?"

But there are advantages to work with an animal that is already extinct, not least of which is the absence of urgency. After all, Martha died 100 years ago. "If we succeed, the world gets a new organism," Novak says. "If we fail, we learn things that are valuable and the world isn't left with another extinct species."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

David Biello is a contributing editor at Scientific American. Follow David Biello on Twitter

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Ancient DNA Could Return Passenger Pigeons to the Sky

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Haters gonna hate. Teen activists shake it off and try again.

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Haters gonna hate. Teen activists shake it off and try again.

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Ruhy Patel, 17, lives in Doylestown, Pa. When she was 15 she was planning to run for student council office. "All the other people running were boys," she says, "and people were like, 'Well, you're not going to win.' You feel intimidated because you're the only girl in the room. It makes you question if you'd be OK in the field of politics."

Did she drop out? No.

Did she win? "I did!"

"I feel like it kind of makes you want to try harder when people say no," says Patel.

That could be the motto for the activists of Girl Up. There are nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 66 countries who volunteer for the U.N. Foundation group. They speak out and raise money so every girl can go to school - there are an estimated 62 million who don't - and can receive official government identification papers, can get proper health care and gain the skills to pursue her dreams.

This week, we met with 13 "teen advisers" from Girl Up. They were a few of the 225 members in Washington, D.C., for the annual leadership summit.

Unlike the 62 million out-of-school girls, these Girl Up girls are all in school. They're thinking about college; they lead comfortable lives. Sometimes their friends can't understand their activism. "They don't think we're able to make a difference," says Janet Ho, 18, who lives in Los Angeles. But that's not true, she says.

Kennede Reese, 18, from Denver, mentions a SchoolCycle fundraiser. The proceeds were used to send bikes to girls in Malawi: "Because even though they have the school supplies, there's no way to get to school to get the education they need. We think of the small things."

The girls we spoke with all live in the U.S., but some have roots in the countries they're trying to help. So they know firsthand what life can be like outside the American bubble.

"My family is from the most rural part of China," says Amy Gong Liu, 18, of Alameda, Calif. "My dad was chosen to go to school instead of my aunt. My aunt was very brilliant, very outspoken about women's issues." But she never learned to read and write.

"When [my dad] told her he was going to have a daughter - me - she said, 'Make sure you educate her, keep her in the loop at the dinner table, make sure she has a voice.' "

Liu pauses: "It's hard not to think, 'What if I was born in China and my aunt was born in America, and she had the opportunity [for] success and I didn't?' "

Does the unfairness of it all make the teen leaders feel guilty?

The unanimous reply: Yes, yes, yes!

Yet they've learned that even though girls in low-income countries face many obstacles, they have a sense of hope and gratitude.

Ishana Nigam, 17, from Charlotte, N.C., visits India every year or so. That's where her parents are from. The girls she meets have "a lack of education, poor health care," she says. "But they're not jealous of me. They always tell me, 'I'm thankful for what I have, thankful just to be breathing.' And that takes a toll on me because I have so many more things than they have."

Meanwhile, all the girls bond over pop culture.

"I tutor refugees in Chicago," says Celia Buckman, 16. "They're 10 to 12, from all over, Malaysia, Kenya, India, Iraq. And they like to listen to ' Shake It Off' by Taylor Swift. They come from all over the world, they practice different religions, speak different languages, but they can all sit down and watch Taylor Swift videos, and that's great!"

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Haters Gonna Hate. Teen Girl Activists Shake It Off And Try Again

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These Girl Up leaders know that it's hard being a girl anywhere in the world - whether you're fighting to go to school or convincing boys that yes, girls can run for student council, too!

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The major explosive energy forms that dominate research and reports on the atomic bombings are three:

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What happens to you in space without a space suit?

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What happens to you in space without a space suit?

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Ask Smithsonian: What Happens to Your Body in Space Without a Spacesuit?

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Obviously it's a bad idea to go out into space without a trusty spacesuit, but what exactly happens?

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Genetic engineering - Variation - AQA - GCSE Biology (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Revise how variation in species can be generated by genetics and environmental influences for GCSE Biology, AQA.

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Flea bite is likely cause of Oregon teen's bubonic plague

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Flea bite is likely cause of Oregon teen's bubonic plague

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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People are seeing change all over the world. Arctic sea ice is melting earlier and forming later. Glaciers are disappearing. Heat waves, storms and floods are becoming more extreme. Insects are emerging sooner and flowers are blooming earlier. In some places, birds are laying eggs before they're expected and bears have stopped hibernating.

So what's going on? Our planet is getting warmer, and even a small increase in temperature can change our climate. And when our climate changes, we're all affected.

A Natural Greenhouse

Earth is the only planet we know of that can support life. The reason Earth is different than the rest relies on a number of factors. We get just the right amount of energy from the sun (if we were any closer, we would burn up; if we were any further, we'd freeze). Our atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the Earth that absorbs ultra violet radiation and prevents temperatures from rising too high or getting too cold. The greenhouse effect is the process that causes the surface of the Earth to be warmer than it would be if we had no atmosphere. Without these three factors, most like on Earth couldn't exist.

The Greenhouse Effect

Natural Cycles

Several natural cycles of the Earth keep it and its atmosphere in perfect balance. Carbon is essential to life and the carbon cycle keeps it moving throughout all Earth's systems. Water is one of the most important things to our survival, and the water cycle keeps it moving around and around our Earth and atmosphere - even through our bodies.

Weather Versus Climate

Weather is what's happening with the atmosphere that surrounds us. It's not the same as climate, which refers to the pattern of weather we expect to see in a particular place. The weather is always driven by the sun's energy, whether it's warm outside or snowing due to the circulation of warm air to cold places and cold air to warm places by the atmosphere. This, combined with the movement of the oceans and the amount of moisture in the air creates everything from perfect sunny days to terror-filled tornadoes.

Even though the weather changes frequently, the climate of a particular place should always be about the same. In Alaska, for example, there shouldn't be any tropical-like weather. In California, it shouldn't snow too much in the winter.

The fact is, while the Earth's climate has changed many times over millions of years (ice ages, for example, happen naturally every 100,000 years or so), it really shouldn't be changing much during any one person's lifetime. We're still recovering from the last ice age, which is said to have wiped out the dinosaurs. While temperatures do rise gradually over time after an ice age, today our planet's surface temperatures seem to be rising faster now than they were 100 years ago. And this is what has many people worried.

Balancing Act

Our planet is always changing and its systems are constantly working together to keep a kind of balance. All forms of life, including humans, depend on this balance for their existence.

All living things are connected to each other in ecosystems by food chains and food webs. Plants get energy from the sun. Herbivores (species that don't eat meat) get energy by eating plants. Carnivores (that eat meat) get energy by eating herbivores. This is how energy flows through all ecosystems - starting from the sun.

When any one part of an ecosystem chain breaks, the survival of the entire system, along with every living thing that depends on it for survival, hangs in the balance. For example, if someone decides to spray a poisonous pesticide on plants to keep bugs from eating them, then lizards may accidentally ingest that poison when they eat the plants and cats may be poisoned, too, when they catch and eat the lizards. With no cats around, the rat population could explode - and rats carry diseases that are even more dangerous for humans.

Another example is when a volcano erupts. If the eruption is very big, it could do a lot of damage besides killing thousands of people. A volcanic eruption spreads huge amounts of ash and gases into the atmosphere and around the globe, which could cause temperatures worldwide to fall. And when temperatures change dramatically like this, it affects crop patterns and could lead to massive food shortages.

Temperature Rising

Whether you believe in global warming or not, the fact is that the 11 hottest years recorded in the last 100 years have all happened after 1995. The world is definitely getting warmer.

When the world's temperatures get warmer, a few things happen. The water cycle speeds up, causing more rain, droughts, wildfires and extreme heat waves. There will be more greenhouse gases in the air, as the atmosphere reaches capacity of how many gases it can absorb. Arctic ice will melt sooner and faster and won't be as thick or expensive when it reforms. The oceans will warm and cause sea levels to rise more quickly, which can cause flooding on land and water contamination. Glacier ice will melt.

Greenhouse Gases

These gases help keep the world from being too hot or too cold. But the amounts of some greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are increasing, making our planet warmer. Greenhouse gases include water vapor (mostly natural source), carbon dioxide (mostly human source), methane (mostly human source) and nitrous oxide (mostly human source).

Far North & South

The most global warming has been seen in the Earth's coldest places, like the Arctic, Antarctica, Alaska and parts of Canada, Scandinavia and Russia.

Arctic temperatures are rising twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth. There has been a huge amount of ice loss in the last 20-30 years. While some is natural, global warming seems to be the main culprit. Ice shelves that have been around for tens of thousands of years have collapsed due to lower temperatures, which causes sea levels to rise. Permafrost has started to melt, which results in forests and even towns and cities to crumble as the ground beneath them thaws.

Because the far north and south have very fragile ecosystems, when one part of the chain breaks the effects can be seen almost immediately. As the ice disappears, so are tiny sea creatures called krill are dying - and so are the many fish, birds and whales that eat them. Polar bears spend most of their time on sea ice hunting seals and other sea animals. As the ice melts, the bears' hunting season is shortened and female bears, with lowered body weights, can't seem to produce cubs. Warmer summers also mean certain pests' life cycles are longer than before. For example, the spruce bark beetle, which is only supposed to live for one summer, is now surviving for two. This tiny bug destroys an unimaginable number of trees in Arctic forests - and now it can do it two years in a row instead of just one.

Polar Bear on floating ice

The World Ocean

Most of the Earth's surface is covered by a single ocean. All forms of life - even those that don't actually live in the ocean itself - depend on it for survival. For example, our ocean helps control the Earth's temperature with its currents, by constantly keeping cold and warm water moving. Ocean water dissolves lots of substances, including carbon dioxide gas. All ocean creatures and even sea birds depend on microscopic plankton - tiny plants that take in carbon dioxide to grow - for food and survival.

But when the ocean warms (which it has been), it can't dissolve as much carbon dioxide, plankton can't survive and the currents change (which greatly affects the weather and other things on dry land). Also, the sea level rises, so certain islands that are currently above water may actually disappear in the next 100 years.

The effects of global warming on things that live in the ocean are massive. We already talked about plankton, but what about other species? Coral reefs - home to many ecosystems and living creatures - can die as water temperatures rise. Sea turtles depend on beaches to lay their eggs, but many beaches are disappearing thanks to rising sea levels. Whales, who depend on krill who depend on plankton, die. Fish stocks fall, translating into food shortages for humans.

Where is global warming going?

We All Live On Land

What changes are we seeing on land as a result of global warming? We're seeing longer periods of drought, more wildfires, growing deserts (which can't support farming), glacier melt and deforestation. In fact, every second a chunk of forest the size of a football field is cut down or burned somewhere in the world.

In terms of living things, the effects of global warming are causing huge changes and disruptions. Plants and insects are moving upward (north) and causing distress to the natural, original ecosystems of those areas. Birds are also moving further north and some are even laying their eggs earlier, which can be a problem when it's out of sync with insect hatchings (since birds are insects' main predators). The winter of 2006 was so warm that mountain bears in Spain decided not to hibernate (sleep for the winter).

And what about us humans? How does and will global warming affect us, our lives and our survival as a species? First off, all human needs fresh water to survive. But changing rainfall patterns and melting glaciers will cause severe droughts, during which crops will fail, causing huge food shortages. We can also expect more heat waves. In 2003, Europe experienced such an extreme spell of hot weather that more than 20,000 people died as a direct result of the heat. Also, mass extinction of many other species we depend on for survival will mean big trouble for humanity.

Our Energy Use

There is no doubt that it's our own fault the world's temperature is rising and global warming is happening. We depend too much on fossil fuels that release deadly amounts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We need to start considering alternative sources of energy quickly, like nuclear, solar and wind. We cut down trees, which use carbon dioxide in their natural life cycles, so less of the poisonous gas can be absorbed naturally.

Humans are high energy consumers. Every day, we each exhale 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of carbon dioxide into the air. We keep ourselves warm in cold places by burning huge amounts of fuel. We use tons of energy pumping, cleaning, heating and then disposing of water. The food we eat is a huge source of greenhouse gases: fossil fuels used in fertilizers and farm machinery, food processing, transportation, packing and cooking. Construction requires all kinds of building materials that can only be made with massive amounts of energy. Our major sources of transportation are huge consumers of energy - ships, jets and cars. Electricity isn't captured magically - it takes the burning of massive amounts of fossil fuel to convert energy into electrical current. And all the "things" in your life - clothes, cell phones, toothbrushes, etc. - are made using energy... and so are the packages all these things come in.

You CAN Help!

The problem seems so big, it may be hard for you to imagine that anything you do can really help at all. But it will. Here are some changes you can make in your life to help prevent global warming:

Plant trees

Start a seed bank (keep the seeds of many varieties of plants stored away safely)

Switch every light in your house to an energy-saving bulb

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat in your house

Wear lighter clothing when it's hot instead of turning on a fan

Turn lights, computers and all your chargers off and unplug them when they're not in use

Only do full loads of laundry

Take shorter showers

Skip the car ride and use your bike, or walk or take the bus

Don't buy bottled water; drink tap water, and filter it if you like

Eat lower on the food chain (less meat) and eat fewer processed foods

Knowledge is power. Change can only happen if all of us read about, listen to and discuss what's happening in the world today.

Planet Power

If scientists are right, each one of us is at least a little bit responsible for global warming. So each of us has to decide what we're going to do about it, and what kind of world we want to live in.

Our planet has been around for almost 5 billion years. It's gone through so many changes during that time - global warming may be the Earth's next big change.

No matter what changes lie ahead, our planet isn't going anywhere. And neither are we. But what we do now could have a big effect on what our lives could be like in the near future. This is our planet - let's make sure in the future it stays as wonderful a place to live in as it is now.

Related Stories:

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We are seeing change all over the world. Arctic sea ice is melting earlier and Glaciers are disappearing. Heat waves and storms are becoming more extreme. Learn all about Global Warming on Kidzworld!

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     Many teens consider community service a bore, a chore to complete in order to graduate or include on a college application. I see it as much more - it’s a way to help yourself and others. Each year I rack up 400 hours o

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Major population groupings

1. Persons present in Hiroshima or Nagasaki at bombing time. Of the regular resident population, many children and older persons had been previously evacuated, while certain outsiders were working in the cities on their specific bombing days. Overall, the estimated "physically present" population of Hiroshima on August 6 was 340,000-350,000. Nagasaki's estimated "physically present" population on August 9 was 90,000-120,000.

2. Early entrants into both cities following the bombings, mainly soldiers, firefighters, medical workers, and other helping personnel.

3. Persons who suffered radiation injuries in the areas surrounding the two bombed cities.

Almost all persons in the above groupings, young or old, also fell into one of the following groups: (1) broken families; (2) A-bomb orphans; (3) orphaned elderly.

Hiroshima

Of the city's 298 medical doctors, 270 (90%) became A-bomb victims. Casualty rates among pharmacists, nurses, and other medical professionals ranged between 80% and 93%. Eighteen emergency hospitals and 32 first-aid clinics were destroyed, and most of the workers needed to restore these health facilities were killed or injured. Nearby army medical facilities were also mostly destroyed.

In sum, approximately 90% of all medical personnel were dead or disabled, and remaining medical facilities were thrown into great disrepair and confusion.
All citizens faced desperate conditions; the young and old, all the more so.

Nagasaki

In the 2-km zone of total destruction around ground zero in Nagasaki's Urakami valley, the city's chief medical facilities were destroyed. These included Nagasaki Medical University and its related hospital, the Urakami branch of Mitsubishi Hospital, Urakami First Hospital, and some other smaller health care institutions.

Of the 70 or so doctors in private practice in the city, twenty were dead and twenty more seriously wounded; only 30 were available to help the mass of A-bomb victims.

As a major port city, Nagasaki was surrounded by various naval installations. Medical personnel from several naval hospitals (Isahaya, Sasebo, Omura, and other places) came with support personnel to give assistance, making the overall situation somewhat better than in Hiroshima.

Even so, food, clothing, medicine, and other relief supplies in Nagasaki were, as in Hiroshima, extremely scarce. Moreover, heavy rains hit both cities in September, making the struggle to survive desperately difficult and miserable.

Local ability to mobilize health care personnel and restore medical facilities was severely hampered by the overall loss of non-military economic wealth (65 billion yen nationwide). Of this total, Hiroshima (884 million yen) and Nagasaki (380 million yen) together suffered over 2% of the national total.

Political restraints on recovery

On top of the enormous physical, medical, and social damages imposed on Japan by the two atomic bombings, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Occupation (SCAP) imposed another onerous handicap: censorship. Formally termed the Press Code, officially issued by the Occupation GHQ on September 19, 1945, it prohibited the publication of all reports and studies of A-bomb damages, including medical and scientific studies of all injuries and losses suffered by A-bomb victims in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whether in newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, books, or other public means. Thus the A-bombed citizens struggled with ignorance of the many medical and social aspects of the decimated lives.

There were minor exceptions. The Hiroshima-based magazine, Chugoku Bunka, devoted its initial issue (March 10, 1946) to A-bomb damages. A Manhattan Project team published its report, The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on June 29, 1946. And the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey Team completed its report, The Effects of the Air Attack on the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the following day. These official documents, however, were printed in English and, in any case, did not touch deeply on the sufferings of the two A-bombed cities.

Most importantly, serious research on the extent and gravity of A-bomb damages and injuries could not be publicly printed and distributed by any Japanese persons or organizations, thus handicapping the surviving medical personnel trying to heal and assuage the thousands of A-bomb victims. The most revealing item, perhaps, is that the Japanese characters for "atomic bomb" ( genshi bakudan, or the short form, genbaku) could not even be used in public print. This applied to all forms: newspapers, magazines, books, public bulletins, and of course, movies.

Cameramen of the Japanese movie firm Nippon Eiga-sha were arrested by American MPs in Nagasaki on October 17, 1945, and two days later the photographing of A-bomb scenes was prohibited. A formal prohibition was issued by GHQ on December 12. It would be almost seven years later until, after the Occupation ended, the weekly magazine Asahi Gurafu ( Asahi Graph) filled an entire issue with heretofore unpublicized photographs of A-bomb damages and victims-the first A-bomb-related photos to be published in the postwar era.

One of the most moving instances of resistance to the Press Code was a small volume of tanka (a Japanese verse form of 31 syllables), penned by a hibakusha poet named Shinoe Shoda in Hiroshima. Titled Sange, it decried the cruelty of the bomb. As publication of all A-bomb-related materials was strictly banned, she took her manuscript to Tadao Nakamura, a clerk in the printing shop of a Hiroshima prison, who mimeographed 150 copies in December 1947. Shoda distributed copies to other hibakusha, all at her own expense and, of course, without SCAP permission. A hand-written copy of Sange was later donated to the Hiroshima Peace Cultural Foundation.

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Persons present in Hiroshima or Nagasaki at bombing time. Of the regular resident population, many children and older persons had been previously evacuated, while certain outsiders were working in the cities on their specific bombing days. Overall, the estimated "physically present" population of Hiroshima on August 6 was 340,000-350,000.

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Space probe transmits stunning new views of Pluto

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Space probe transmits stunning new views of Pluto

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Fists hit the air and tiny American flags fluttered overhead this morning as a huge crowd in a Laurel, Maryland, conference room cheered for the New Horizons spacecraft's closest approach to Pluto. At 7:50 a.m. ET, the spacecraft swept past Pluto's surface at a distance of about 7,706 miles, closer to the tiny world than most GPS satellites get to Earth.

After an afternoon of nervous anticipation, the jubilation hit a crescendo at 8:52 p.m. ET, as Alice Bowman, the mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, announced to the world that the spacecraft had made its anticipated "phone home" signal-confirmation that the flyby was truly successful and that the spacecraft is healthy and ready to transmit some of its first data from the encounter.

"There's a little bit of drama, because this is true exploration. New Horizons is flying into the unknown," mission manager Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute said during a morning briefing just after the flyby.

"If you think it was big today, wait until tomorrow and the next day. This is just the beginning," NASA's associate administrator for science missions, John Grunsfeld, later told the crowd during a post-signal briefing. "As a team, we all have made history. This can never be repeated. This is in the history books."

As part of its last safety check before the flyby, New Horizons beamed back one high-resolution color picture of Pluto, seen above, showing the surprisingly varied terrain on this alien world. With a resolution of about 2.5 miles per pixel, the stunning image hints at a dynamic planet with possible tectonic activity and strong atmospheric cycles, Stern says.

"This image is oriented with north at the top. The dark regions are near Pluto's equator," he says. "We can see a history of impacts, a history of surface activity. But by tomorrow we will show you images with ten times this resolution. Pluto has a lot more to teach us with the data coming down."

The reason for the long delay between the flyby and the signal home is tied to the long journey New Horizons was designed to endure, says Bowman. To ensure its health during the voyage, the team wanted the spacecraft to have as few moving parts as possible, and so the antenna that transmits data is a fixed instrument. The spacecraft must take aim to Earth whenever it wants to communicate, and that's not always the best position for collected data.

"This is the closest approach, and this is when it gets the best science," Bowman told reporters during the pre-encounter briefing. "We don't want it to turn to Earth and talk to us-we want it to do science." Even though the spacecraft is out of touch during this scientifically critical time, the mission team remains confident that everything in its choreographed dance is happening as planned.

"We always talk about the spacecraft being like a child, like a teenager," Bowman said at the time. "Right now there's nothing the operations team can do. We just have to trust that we have prepared it well and send it off on its journey."

Stern was also resolute, noting that the team had done hours of modeling and had collected reams of data on any safety hazards, like debris around Pluto that could damage the fast-moving spacecraft. The odds of something going wrong, he said, were extremely low. "The probability of loss has an upper limit at around 2 parts in 10,000-you could fly hundreds of New Horizons through the Pluto system and expect them to survive," he said.

On the chance that something did break, New Horizons had been taking failsafe data, collecting and transmitting key snippets for the main mission objectives each time it sent back a health status report. That includes the newly arrived image, as well as shots of the large moon Charon, mapping, spectroscopy, thermal data and information about the dust and plasma environments around Pluto and its moons. Tonight's signal, while a sign of success, did not include any additional teasers.

"The signal we got tonight was entirely engineering data ... no science data came home tonight," Stern said during the evening briefing. "We wanted that report to be as brief as possible because as soon as it was over, New Horizons went back to work to collect that data."

Now that mission managers know the craft is safe and loaded with data, the team is eagerly awaiting a fresh round of scientific wonders due tomorrow morning.

"It is truly amazing ... the recovery was flawless. We were up to the challenge-we met it," Bowman added. "And on a personal note, I can't express how I'm feeling to have achieved a childhood dream of space exploration. I'm pretty overwhelmed at this momet. Please tell your children and anybody out there: Do what you're passionate about. Give yourself that challenge and you will not be sorry for it."
Note: This story has been updated with news of the successful signal from the New Horizons probe.

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The New Horizons Probe Has Made Its Closest Approach to Pluto

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Mission scientists have received the confirmation signal that the pre-programmed event went as planned and the craft is healthy

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Bacteria and other microbes can make us sick. But there's a lurking danger with some germs that's far more frightening than a bout of food poisoning or an infected wound. Today, drugs exist to fight most of these germs. They're called antibiotics. Before these medicines came along, common infections frequently killed people. And that's where the danger lies: What will happen if antibiotics no longer kill germs?

Already some antibiotics have lost their superpowers. Many others are beginning to lose theirs. Biologists describe this problem as resistance. Across the globe, germs are becoming resistant to antibiotic medicines. In a sense, these "superbugs" have begun to laugh at those former wonder drugs.

But resistance is no laughing matter. As germs toughen up against drugs that are supposed to slay them, treatable conditions such as TB - tuberculosis - can spread. And surgeries that rely on antibiotics could turn from life-saving to life-threatening.

The threat is huge

"Alarming levels" of drug-resistant bacteria already exist in many parts of the world. That's the conclusion of a 257-page report published in April. It was issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This United Nations agency, based in Geneva, Switzerland, recently reviewed how well these germ slayers perform in 114 countries. In some places, it found, antibiotics no longer work for half of all people being treated against common diseases. Those diseases include pneumonia and gonorrhea.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based in Atlanta, Ga., also has been investigating the problem . It estimates that in the United States alone, antibiotic-resistant infections now sicken some two million people each year. At least 23,000 of them die.

But even antibiotic-resistant germs that don't kill can be a problem. Their infections become harder to treat - and more expensive. Consider one estimate - $233 million - published May 20 in the journal Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control. That's how much researchers calculated that it costs the United States each year to deal with just one resistant superbug. That germ causes a lung disease known as pneumonia.

Drug-immune bugs that flourish in the human gut can enter the environment with every flush of the toilet. Researchers discovered how big this problem is when they analyzed wastewater from 11 sites in one French city. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria tainted 96 percent of their samples. A May 1 paper in Clinical Infectious Diseases describes the disturbing details.

Some scientists have scouted for such germs in the environment. They collected superbugs at hospitals. Then they probed the germs, identifying parts of their genes that appear to make them resistant to antibiotics. Next, the researchers looked in the outdoor environment for that same genetic fingerprint of superbugs. And they turned up that superbug DNA in 71 places - from the soil and sea water to human wastes. The researchers reported their findings May 8 in Current Biology.

Why it's happening

Drug designers have created antibiotics to kill bacteria, as well as some fungi and other germs. But sometimes, a few treated germs survive. They survive because they're stronger. Or they may have certain genetic mutations that allow them to break down the drug. They might even have evolved a way to keep the drugs from harming their operational machinery. Over time, all germs susceptible to a drug will die off. That will leave behind only superbugs - those microbes that medicines can't kill.

This is not surprising. In fact, it's quite natural. Part of evolution, it's known as survival of the fittest.

Scientists stumbled onto the first antibiotic, penicillin, around 1930. Since then, research has produced a medicine cabinet full of additional ones. It appeared that these would make many of the worst bacterial infections ever more manageable. So, during the 1970s, drug developers began focusing on noninfectious health problems, such as cancer and heart disease. As a result, in the past 30 years, no new types of antibiotics have been developed.

Right now, bacteria are outsmarting antibiotics faster than developers can make new ones. And there are no signs things will change, says Stewart Cole. He directs the Global Health Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

Writing in the May 12 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, he argues that the "golden age" of antibiotic development "is a distant memory, and the likelihood of there being another seems slim." This lack of new types of germ killers, he says, has been allowing superbugs to morph and thrive.

One of the most famous of them is known as MRSA (pronounced MER-sah). The letters stand for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus . Methicillin is a widely used antibiotic. And Staph aureus is a germ that can cause boils, food poisoning, toxic-shock syndrome and more. These bacteria sicken (and sometimes kill) by releasing potent natural poisons - called toxins - into the body.

Despite its name, MRSA is resistant to far more antibiotics than just methicillin. That makes this superbug particularly nasty in hospitals and prisons. These are places where people often have open wounds or weak immune systems. Both increase a person's chance of picking up an infection.

Too much of a good thing

Drug resistance can develop at any time. But its likelihood climbs as the use of an antibiotic increases. And this is especially true when an antibiotic is overused. That's when a doctor prescribes it for infections it has no hope of curing.

For instance, doctors sometimes prescribe antibiotics to treat an infection before they learn if the disease is caused by bacteria. If viruses are responsible, then antibiotics will be useless. The reason: Antibiotic medicines do not kill viruses. Yet by giving an antibiotic to someone with a viral infection, that drug will reach good bacteria living in our bodies. And over time, some of these bacteria will become resistant to the drug.

Last year, the CDC reported that up to half of the antibiotics that U.S. doctors prescribed went to people who didn't actually need them.

Take, for example, someone who visits a doctor for a lingering cough. Viral infections cause most coughs. So a viral cough won't be helped by drugs and will tend to go away on its own. Yet 71 percent of the time, doctors will still prescribe antibiotics for patients coming in with a common cough, a May 21 study finds.

"I think there's this perception among both doctors and patients that coughs don't go away without antibiotic treatment," Jeffrey Linder told Science News for Students . Linder, who coauthored the new report, is a doctor at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. He and Michael Barnett, also from the hospital, tracked the drugs that doctors prescribed during more than 3,000 U.S. clinic visits between 1996 and 2010. They reported their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association .

A small number of people who visit a doctor with a cough turn out to have bacterial pneumonia. These cases do require antibiotic treatment. But Linder says doctors should easily be able to recognize these few from the hordes of people coming in with a routine, viral cough.

Perilous profit

Antibiotic overuse also has become a problem on farms. In the United States, animals - not people - receive about 80 percent of all antibiotics. Sometimes the drugs are used to save an infected animal or prevent disease from spreading through a herd. More often, though, feed suppliers put small amounts of these drugs into the food that will be given to healthy animals. These antibiotics help speed the animals' growth. And this has boosted farmers' profits.

But using antibiotics just to beef up livestock is "a direct threat to human health," argues Kellogg Schwab. He's an environmental microbiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Earlier, he and his coworkers detected bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics in the exhaust air blowing out of farm buildings. That suggests these superbugs can spread through the air from animals to people.

SteveOehlenschlager / iStockphoto

Germs that are immune to antibiotics also can hitch a ride into your body through ground beef or the chicken breast on your cutting board. Biologists have found that much of the fresh beef, pork and poultry sold in grocery stores contains bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

Even if those germs don't sicken us or cause other immediate harm, they can offload their resistance genes into other bacteria that normally live inside our bodies. Sometimes, like with the MRSA superbug, resistance is carried on circular pieces of DNA called plasmids. These plasmids can slip easily from one bacterial cell into another.

In this way, our gut microbes can become "a reservoir of resistance," says Sharon Peacock. She's a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge in England. Later, "when we actually get sick and need an antibiotic, we may already carry a resistance gene" that may keep that drug from working, she says.

In the United States, farmers have fought against banning antibiotics as growth promoters. They say it will reduce their profits because more animals will get sick, slowing their growth. But that's not been the experience in other countries.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has proposed banning antibiotic use in healthy animals. But for more than 30 years, the livestock industry and Congress have fought such action. Recently, the FDA stepped up its efforts to end this practice.

In December 2013, FDA laid out a plan to phase out within three years the use of antibiotics on farms to boost livestock growth. Its stated reason: concern that farm use of these drugs has made more germs immune to the antibiotics needed to fight life-threatening infections in people. And that's a worry because the same germs that sicken animals often sicken people.

Antibiotic resistance is a complex and growing problem. Many microbiologists worry that the time when antibacterial medicines no longer work could be coming. Thankfully, doctors and many patients are becoming more aware of the problem. Researchers also are hard at work creating new tools to keep superbugs from taking over.
Next: How scientists are trying to tackle the problem
Power Words

antibiotic A germ-killing substance prescribed as a medicine (or sometimes as a feed additive to promote the growth of livestock). It does not work against viruses.

bacterium (plural bacteria) A single-celled organism forming one of the three domains of life. These dwell nearly everywhere on Earth, from the bottom of the sea to inside animals.

boils (in medicine) A skin infection that starts as a hard, red, painful lump. Eventually, it gets bigger, softens and fills with pus. A common source of these is a bacterium known as Staphylococcus aureus.

bioengineer A researcher who applies technology for the beneficial manipulation of living things. Bioengineers use the principles of biology and the techniques of engineering to design organisms or products that can mimic, replace or augment the chemical or physical processes present in existing organisms. This field includes researchers who genetically modify organisms, including microbes. It also includes researchers who design medical devices such as artificial hearts and artificial limbs.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC is charged with protecting public health and safety by working to control and prevent disease, injury and disabilities. It does this by investigating disease outbreaks, tracking exposures by Americans to infections and toxic chemicals, and regularly surveying diet and other habits among a representative cross-section of all Americans.

cholera A bacterial disease that infects the small intestine, causing sever diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. It is spread by germs from feces that contaminate water or food.

DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

evolution A process by which species undergo changes over time, usually through genetic variation and natural selection, that leave a new type of organism better suited for its environment than the earlier type. The newer type is not necessarily more "advanced," just better adapted to the conditions in which it developed.

fungus (plural: fungi) Any of a group of unicellular or multicellular, spore-producing organisms that feed on organic matter, both living and decaying. Molds, yeast and mushrooms are all types of fungi.

gene A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

germ Any one-celled microorganism, such as a bacterium, fungal species or virus particle. Some germs cause disease. Others can promote the health of higher-order organisms, including birds and mammals. The health effects of most germs, however, remain unknown.

gonorrhea A serious disease that can infect the genitals, rectum and throat. This sexually transmitted disease is very common, especially among people between the ages of 15 and 24. Untreated, it can cause infertility or death. "Untreated gonorrhea may also increase your chances of getting or giving HIV - the virus that causes AIDS," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

growth promoter (in livestock agriculture) A medicine, usually an antibiotic, added in small doses to the feed given to animals raised for meat. Used as a preventive medicine, it can reduce the risk that animals will become sick, which would slow their growth. And that would decrease a farmer's profits.

immune system The collection of cells and their responses that help the body fight off infection.

infection A disease that can be transmitted between organisms.

influenza (or flu) A highly contagious viral infection of the respiratory passages causing fever and severe aching. It often occurs as an epidemic.

livestock Animals raised for meat or dairy products, including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and geese.

microbe Short formicroorganism. A living thing that is too small to see with the unaided eye, including bacteria, some fungi and many other organisms such as amoebas. Most consist of a single cell.

microbiology The study of microorganisms, principally bacteria, fungi and viruses. Scientists who study microbes and the infections they can cause or ways that they can interact with their environment are known as microbiologists.

mutation Some change that occurs to a gene in an organism's DNA. Some mutations occur naturally. Others can be triggered by outside factors, such as pollution, radiation, medicines or something in the diet. A gene with this change is referred to as a mutant.

plasmid A small circular loop of DNA that is separate from the main chromosomal DNA of bacteria.

pneumonia A lung disease in which infection by a virus or bacterium causes inflammation and tissue damage. Sometimes the lungs fill with fluid or mucus. Symptoms include fever, chills, cough and trouble breathing.

resistance (as in drug resistance) The reduction in the effectiveness of a drug to cure a disease, usually a microbial infection. (as in disease resistance) The ability of an organism to fight off disease.

superbug A popular term for a disease-causing germ that can withstand medicines.

toxic shock syndrome A rare and potentially deadly bacterial infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus. This bacterium release toxins - natural poisons - into the body of its host. Symptoms include a sudden high fever, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, a rash and sometimes seizures.

toxin A poison produced by living organisms, such as germs, bees, spiders, poison ivy and snakes.

tuberculosis A bacterial disease that causes unusual growths in the lungs or other tissues. Untreated, it can kill. The infection usually spreads when a sick individual coughs (or talks, sings or sneezes), spewing germs into the air.

virus Tiny infectious particles consisting of RNA or DNA surrounded by protein. Viruses can reproduce only by injecting their genetic material into the cells of living creatures. Although scientists frequently refer to viruses as live or dead, in fact no virus is truly alive. It doesn't eat like animals do, or make its own food the way plants do. It must hijack the cellular machinery of a living cell in order to survive.

World Health Organization An agency of the United Nations, established in 1948, to promote health and to control communicable diseases. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The United Nations relies on the WHO for providing international leadership on global health matters. This organization also helps shape the research agenda for health issues and sets standards for pollutants and other things that could pose a risk to health. WHO also regularly reviews data to set policies for maintaining health and a healthy environment.

Citations

E. Landhuis. " The war on superbugs." Science News for Students. July 16, 2014.

B. Harder. " Joining the Resistance: Drug-immune microbes waft over hogs." Science News. Jan. 1, 2005.

A.L. Mascarelli. " Infectious animals." Science News for Students. April 17, 2013.

J. Raloff. " Antibiotics afield." Science News. Nov. 26, 2005.

J. Raloff. " Growth-promoting antibiotics: On the way out?" Science News. March 23, 2012.

J. Raloff. " Retail meats host drug-resistant bacteria." Science News. Oct. 20, 2001.

N. Seppa. " Danes keeping drugs out of livestock." Science News. April 8, 2003.

Original Journal Source: M. Barnett and J. Linder. Antibiotic prescribing for adults with acute bronchitis in the United States, 1996-2010. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Published May 21, 2014. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.286141.

Original Journal Source: J. Nesme et al. Large-scale metagenomic-based study of antibiotic resistance in the environment. Current Biology. Published May 8, 2014. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.036.

Original Journal Source: S. Peacock. Health care: Bring microbial sequencing to hospitals. Nature. Published May 29, 2014. doi:10.1038/509557a.

Original Journal Source: B. Spellberg, J. Bartlett and D. Gilbert. The future of antibiotics and resistance. New England Journal of Medicine. Published Jan. 24, 2013. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1215093.

Original Journal Source: S. Cole. Who will develop new antibacterial agents? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Published May 12, 2014. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0430.

Original Journal Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Antibiotic-resistant threats in the United States, 2013.

Original Report Source: World Health Organization. Antimicrobial resistance global report on surveillance, 2014.

Teachers' questions: Superbugs: A silent health emergency

Esther Landhuis is a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She worked on her high school newspaper and spent a decade studying biology before discovering a career that combines writing and science.

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Have antibiotics become too popular? Overusing these medicines fuels resistant germs that pose a global health threat.

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How Climate Change is Impacting Animals in the Canadian Arctic

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How Climate Change is Impacting Animals in the Canadian Arctic

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Traditional practices have also undergone the impact of climate change. Before her grandfather died, Jennifer interviewed him about his favorite spot for hunting seals, which was only reachable when the water was frozen solid. "It doesn't get that cold anymore, so it doesn't actually freeze anymore," Jennifer says. "The traditional knowledge that has been passed down orally, telling stories of that particular place, it was gone with him. He was the last of his family to have known all the traditional knowledge of that specific place."

A week before we were in Cape Dorset, ice barricaded the Inuit community. Ships normally can get through the Arctic for only about six weeks in the summer. The only way out most of the year is by snowmobile or airplane, according to what locals told me.

In July, the roads are ditches of mud. Clouds of mosquitoes swarmed Brianna Rowe, 26, a shipmate I followed as she interviewed Inuit children and teachers about their lives, school, family, and traditions.

Brianna, who works for Reach the World and is director of the climate-change education project Disappearing Ice, connects classrooms with travelers via the Internet, so kids can travel the world virtually. She was using her vacation, as a student member of the Explorers Club, to connect U.S. classrooms with Arctic classrooms so kids can learn about one another's cultures - including how the U.S. is one of the main countries affecting the climate much farther north.

"The decisions that people make in the U.S. have a global impact," Brianna tells Teen Vogue. "It is important for everybody to be aware of their decisions, and their impact on the environment has an effect on the entire world's environment."

Kristin Gates, a park ranger who trekked alone across the Brooks Range, knows this all too well. Part of the year, 30-year-old Kristin patrols Denali National Park by dog sled, and she's making a short film about plastics pollution and garbage in the Arctic. "Climate change is something that affects us every day during the winter months," she tells Teen Vogue. Frozen rivers are Alaska's highways, and when they don't freeze solid, travel becomes dangerous and difficult.

Unfortunately, mushing (a form of travel that relies on dogs to pull a sled), which Kristin was hoping to learn about first-hand, is now almost nonexistent. Dog mushing as a practice mostly died out after Inuit communities were settled in villages by the Canadian government in the 1950s, so she heard stories about the old days but has not found anyone traveling by dog sled. Nowadays, travel mostly uses motors and gas, in four-wheelers, snowmobiles, and trucks. Kristin enlisted some of us from the ship and others from the community to clean up the beach. In about an hour we collected 17 bags of trash, a potential threat to seabirds and mammals.

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I Went to the Canadian Arctic and Saw Climate Change's Impact First-Hand

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In this reported piece, 12-year-old writer Roxanna Pearl Beebe-Center explains what she learned about the impact of climate change on animals while visiting the Canadian Arctic.

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When she arrived in the Eastern Washington farming community of Wapato last spring for a six-day school service trip, Overlake High School junior Caroline Spencer expected to learn about migrant farm workers' issues and work alongside them in apple orchards. What she didn't expect was that her experiences with the community's children, and seeing the challenges they face trying to succeed in school, would touch her so deeply. She would return to live in a Latino farming community the following summer for six weeks, tutoring young children to read in Spanish and English. "Volunteering opened up a whole new world for me," she says, "one that I plan on exploring in college and beyond."

Many public and private high schools in the greater Seattle area are asking teens to take part in community service as a graduation requirement. Some schools see volunteering as a way to show students that they can positively impact their community, or to build students' empathy and increase their awareness of the needs of others. Some counselors encourage volunteering as a way to gain valuable work experience. Parents and students may even hope it will strengthen a college application. Whatever the impetus, teens who embrace the experience find they get a lot more out of it than just fulfilling credits toward graduation.

Finding opportunities

There are probably as many ways to volunteer as there are student interests. School counselors can help their students find volunteer opportunities, often using the Web to point teens in the right direction. Seattle's Garfield High School website lists volunteer opportunities alongside its scholarship and internship opportunities.

Garfield's head counselor, Ken Courtney, advises students to pick an area of personal interest, such as the outdoors, for which they might enjoy volunteering, or to choose a possible future career interest, such as medicine or working with children. Serving in that area is a way to explore it and gain experience and skills that might help secure a job in the future, he says.

Websites such as those of United Way of King County, Mercer Island's Volunteer Outreach in Communities Everywhere (VOICE) and Teens in Public Service (teensinpublicservice.org) also list opportunities. And, of course, families can directly contact any organization they are interested in serving.

Austen Dowell, a junior at Ingraham High School in Seattle, started volunteering with the TOPsoccer program, which serves disabled children ages 6-17, to fulfill the 160 volunteer hours he needs to graduate from his school's international baccalaureate program. On most Sundays for the past year, he has been running drills and scrimmages for children with autism, in wheelchairs or with other disabilities. At first he felt trepidation: How should he interact with these kids? Would he feel awkward? How could he help?

"I learned that speaking calmly and not jumping around yelling like a typical coach worked best," he says. Dowell adds that he loves to see what his players can achieve and hopes to keep coaching in the future. "They really light up when they learn something new," he says. While it started as an obligation, Dowell says, coaching is now the best part of his Sundays.

Opening windows to the future

Volunteering is especially beneficial to low-income teens. According to a 2007 federal study, disadvantaged teens who volunteer feel empowered, and are more likely to become politically engaged and to believe they will graduate from college and make a difference in their communities.

Volunteering can also expand a teenager's perspective. "I learned that you don't have to go to another country to find people in need," Spencer says. She hopes her time in the farming community, coupled with her education, will allow her to engage in immigration and human rights issues more deeply in the future. She aspires to influence policy on behalf of people who might not have a strong voice in the debate.

Students who put more effort into volunteering may also benefit when it comes to college. Most students who apply to college these days list volunteer experience on their application, according to Paul Seegert, associate director in the admissions office at the University of Washington. The students who stand out, he says, are ones who have taken on leadership roles, shown a long-term commitment to service, or brought innovation or creative solutions to their work. Beyond showing up, students who have "helped make the service more effective" get more notice, Seegert says. While academics still trump activities in the college admissions process, he says, volunteering is taken into consideration.

Whether it is a one-time trail-maintenance outing in the rain, a weekly tutoring commitment or an organizational role in rallying classmates to pitch in, volunteering can help teens gain a sense of responsibility, feel more connected to their communities and prepare for the future. And the unexpected rewards of discovering a new interest, or feeling as though they've made a difference, can last a lifetime.

Julie Weed is a Seattle-based freelance writer for The New York Times and others.

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When she arrived in the Eastern Washington farming community of Wapato last spring for a six-day school service trip, Overlake High School junior Caroline Spencer expected to learn about migrant farm workers' issues and work alongside them in apple orchards.

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How the Hiroshima bombing is taught around the world

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How the Hiroshima bombing is taught around the world

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Seventy years after the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, its place in history remains secure. As The Post has written: "It's seared into the collective global memory - no other time in history has a nuclear weapon been used in war." But how do the United States and Japan, and the rest of the world for that matter, teach this seminal event so many decades after the world witnessed this incredible display of force.

For the occasion, we asked the users of the social platform Reddit, " How is the Hiroshima atomic bomb taught in your country?"

The post received more than 2,500 comments, and these were some of the common threads:

The bombing saved lives by ending the war more quickly and without a land invasion.

Although it may not have been necessary, especially the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki, the United States wanted to send a message to the rest of the world.

The bombing was only a small part of the overall coverage of World War II (or barely mentioned at all).

It was the start of the Cold War.

It led to independence.

A more scholarly approach to global viewpoints can be found in " History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History," which was published in 2004 and collected excerpts from textbooks in different parts of the world. Here's a sample from Asia, North America and Europe:

Philippines: "Horrible atomic bombs" brought Japan to her knees.

Canada: "Most Canadians are unaware of the crucial role Canada played in the development of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki." (A uranium refinery in Ontario supplied the Manhattan Project.)

Italy: "There was no doubt that in very little time the Japanese, already at the end of their tether, would have had to surrender ... What seems certain is that the show of force, made indiscriminately at the expense of unarmed people, increased the United States' weight in post-war tensions and decisions, especially concerning the Soviet Union. It is probably therefore that Truman's decision was inspired more by post-war prospects than by calculations on the most convenient method to put an end to the conflict with Japan."

Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology, said that although countries that were invaded by Japan were very much in favor of the atomic bomb, Europe generally takes a dim view. "They find it completely shocking that a majority of Americans still think Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified and morally correct." Meanwhile, an analysis of U.S. and Japanese textbooks in use during the 1990s concluded that "there is a gap between what the historical evidence presents, what academic historians now know and the evidence presented to pupils."

This account by a Reddit user reflects what this reporter learned in high school in the mid-1990s.

I am an American, which like 90% of the people who have commented so far were as well, so I don't know how helpful this will be.

By the latter half of the 2000s, though, American textbooks were taking on a more nuanced approach, offering perspectives from Japanese victims and even dissension by U.S. officials. The change is attributable partly to the passage of time and partly to the evolution in the way students are taught, says Christopher Hamner, who teaches history at George Mason University. "The textbook has walked away from this idea that it speaks with this omniscient voice and it tells you facts. Textbooks will have documents from both sides, they acknowledge that there are multiple perspectives." He added that students today "are just a little more skeptical, and I mean that in the best possible sense."

Archive footage from the plane that dropped 'Little Boy' on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the aftermath of that detonation. (Video: Internet Archive)

Interesting, a user claiming to be an American teacher offered a perspective of today's classroom:

I am from America, but I feel I can contribute because I am a high school history teacher. When I was in school, it was simply stated that we dropped two bombs, thus ending the war. When in college the focus around the bomb was an emphasis on the pacific theatre. Very much an idea of, "they won't quit so we must use the bomb, it will save many American and Japanese lives to do so." Last year when I taught U.S history to Juniors, we took the latter approach. We looked at casualties of each island, projected casualties, and discussed why the bomb was so effective. It is a more "matter of fact" that it was used and not a real dwelling point. However, the bomb is the heart and center of the Cold War section.

Also, these Reddit comment threads speak to the changing currency of textbooks, pillars of knowledge whose preeminence has dimmed in a world where books, articles and discussions are readily available to the curious mind. The comments are edited for length, but not for grammar or typos.
Japan
In response to comment asking for anyone taught in Japan:

My wife is Japanese, born and raised in Hiroshima. Her grandparents witnessed the bomb from two different locations just outside the city as children.

She has told me about how they were taught about the bomb in her school in Hiroshima. It seems they have special classes all about the bomb. She says they learn technically how it works, all about the effects of radiation, and about its development. She says they are taught about the decision making process behind the decision to drop it. She says they are taught in great detail about the physical and psychological effects of being directly affected by it. They are also taught about the aftermath of the bomb with regards to rebuilding the city.

It sounded very different from the lesson taught to me in U.S. schools - that the bomb was a "necessary evil" that was going to cost less lives than the supposed only alternative of an invasion of the Japanese main islands.

The Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima is visited by the young students. They can see the A-bomb Dome from their equivalent of Central Park. In other words, there are constant reminders of this tragedy that put their city on the map.

My wife told me that these special classes on the A-bomb are only taught in Hirishima and Nagasaki and are not part of the national curriculum in Japan in general.

The rest of the world
I am an Australian who learnt about the bombings primarily through japanese language class. As you can probably guess there was a bias toward the japanese with a focus on the lives lost (mostly stories about children during and born after the bombings).

Brazilian here. I remember this part of World History being very sad and polemic. Our teachers tried hard to show us the consequences and power of the bomb.

Canadian here. ... I remember being taught that the second bomb was unnecessary. My social studies teachers tended to vilify the U.S. for Nagasaki.

Chilean here. It was only pointed as the weapon that ended the war. Really brief

French here. Basically we see the bombings as part of the atrocious disasters of world war 2, through the technological advanced massive killings weapons "progress".

German here. In school, most of the history of war was about the German atrocities. ... Other atrocities (killing of native Americans, Hiroshima, CIA involvement in toppling democratic states leading to torture etc.) were not covered at all, or only very briefly.

In Greece, it goes like this: The WWII ended with the atomic bomb of Hiroshima and Nagashaki. That's it, really, just a reference.

What I was taught in India was that even though the Japanese never surrender, when there was a possibility of a nuclear threat, they were ready to surrender. However, the president at the time chose to do it anyway to send a message to the world (or mainly the USSR).

Nowadays, when we were taught this important moment in Indonesian history, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was seen as a stepping stone that eventually provided the opportunity to proclaim our independence.

Iranian here. They teach us that the U.S dropped one bomb, Japan surrendered, the U.S dropped the other bomb to test it.

Italian here. In 4th grade (10 years old) we studied it the first time, dedicating a lot of time to the victims and the horrors of the bomb.... Later on, in middle school and high school the message was always the same: the Americans compellingly "thought" the bomb was the ONLY thing that could end the war.

Korean here and I attended a school in Seoul. From what I remember being taught about the bomb while in Korea was 2 parts - first, to end a long drawn out invasion of Japan and any territories in order to secure a surrender. There were moral considerations but mostly the discussion involved the mechanics of using war technology developed during a time of war to save American lives. And secondly, to demonstrate to the world that the US had the technology and was willing to use it as the US considered a post war political climate.

Here in Lithuania it just said the US needed to finish the war with Japan quickly but at the same time they needed to show strength. So that they will be taken seriously in the future.

Malaysia. There wasnt much detail explained about the bombing, just that it happened after pearl harbour and the japanese surrendered after that and then the war ended.

I'm from Mexico, and I remember there was some emphasis on how the bomb was unnecessary (since the war was already drawing to a close) and how it was one of the many atrocities of the war.

Netherlands here. The main narrative in high school history was the cost of invasion and the political desire for a swift end to the war.

In New Zealand I was taught it was to speed the end of the war. The morality of it was questionable but understandable in the context of the time (i.e. no one at the time knew about black rain and the horrible drawn out deaths from radiation). The reasons for dropping it were to save American lives in a landing on the main islands after the high causalities in Okinawa and other island hopping campaigns.

Singaporean. The main questions raised were not why the bombs were dropped, but why they were dropped so late, and only after so many died and suffered.

Here in South Africa, we learned why the bombs were dropped, and whether that was reasonable as an action of war and as a prevention of even more deaths. We read/listened to countless primary sources, and ended the quarter with a week-long debate on whether or not it was justified.

Swede here. We were mostly just taught about the war going on in Europe from what I can remember. ... It almost felt like we were running out of time at the end of the semester; "The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor so the Americans dropped two bombs to end that fight".

I was taught in Switzerland. We were taught about them as more of a start to the Cold War, rather than as an end to the Second World War. This was because it was viewed as an American show of nuclear strength to the Soviets in order to act as a deterrent, rather than just an act of aggression against Japan.

UK History teacher here (secondary). I like to use it as an example to develop the student's argument formation. It's usually taught as a standalone lesson with the topic 'Was the dropping of the atomic bombs justified?'. Give the kids evidence, reports, accounts and let them make up their mind.
Read more: As their numbers dwindle, Hiroshima survivors have a plan to keep memories alive What it was like to survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima After the A-bomb: What photographers encountered in Hiroshima What it would look like if the Hiroshima bomb hit your city

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How the Hiroshima bombing is taught around the world

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Perspectives about the seminal event have evolved over time in classrooms around the world.

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NASA announces new name of Mars 2020 rover

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NASA announces new name of Mars 2020 rover

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Newsela | NASA announces new name of Mars 2020 rover

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“Perseverance” is the winning name for the Mars 2020 rover chosen by a seventh-grader from Burke, Virginia.

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There's No Getting Around It: The New Chipotle Ad Is Amazing

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There's No Getting Around It: The New Chipotle Ad Is Amazing

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(Abbas Dulleh / Associated Press)

Just over 13 months since Liberia's first case of Ebola, the West African nation Saturday was declared free of the deadly disease, 42 days after the burial of the last fatal victim on March 28.

In the world's worst outbreak since Ebola's discovery in 1976, more people were killed in Liberia than any other nation, as the disease swept through densely populated neighborhoods of the capital city, Monrovia.

Amid the celebration Saturday, there was a note of caution from the World Health Organization because neighbors Sierra Leone and Guinea continue to struggle with the disease..

"While WHO is confident that Liberia has interrupted transmission, outbreaks persist in neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone, creating a high risk that infected people may cross into Liberia over the region's exceptionally porous borders," the organization said in a statement Saturday.

After the first case in Liberia was reported in late March of 2014, the outbreak was at first limited and appeared contained. But by June, the contagious disease had hit Monrovia, the first time it ever spread to a densely populated African city. Thousands would die, and health experts feared the disease would spin out of control, and become endemic -- an awful new part of everyday life in Liberia -- before the number of infections finally began to decline in October.

Confirmed and probable deaths from Ebola have surpassed 11,000 in West Africa, including more than 4,700 in Liberia.

Guinea has seen 2,387 deaths attributed to Ebola, while Sierra Leone has seen more than 3,900, according to WHO figures.

Ebola first appeared in Guinea in December 2013, spread to Sierra Leone and then skipped across the border into Liberia. One reason the virus spread so rapidly was because of the large volume of cross-border traffic and the persistence of unsafe burial practices, with the touching of the dead an important part of the region's culture. People traveled across borders to attend funerals and returned home with the illness, infecting family members and neighbors.

Many of those who died were health workers, community nurses and faith healers, who treated people without protection, particularly in the early stages of the epidemic. In Liberia, 375 health workers were infected and 189 died. More than 500 health workers died in the region and more than 860 were infected.

The WHO said Liberia's eradication of the virus was "a monumental achievement" in dealing with the most complex outbreak of the disease ever seen.

The incubation period for the virus is 21 days, and a country can only be declared free of Ebola after twice the incubation period, or 42 days, has passed.

As of May 6, the total number of suspected cases during the outbreak was close to 27,000. As the disease peaked in Liberia in August and September, the number of cases was increasing rapidly, by 300 to 400 cases a week.

Patients often mistook their symptoms for typhoid or malaria and tragically delayed seeking treatment, infecting members of their families. Treatment facilities were swamped with cases, and patients often died in terrible circumstances at the gates of treatment centers because there was no room to treat them safely inside.

Taxis ferrying sick passengers for treatment may also have spread the disease.

Entire families were wiped out. Some orphans were left as sole survivors in their families.

To help stop the spread of the virus, schools were closed and public gatherings were banned. Ambulances struggled to reach patients on time. In some cases community members left bodies in the streets; in others family members carried their loved ones to the hospital in wheelbarrows.

Survivors of the disease told horror stories of the conditions inside treatment units, with people suffering and dying next to them, or mothers dying, leaving sick children behind. Other patients often stepped in to help when children were left alone in treatment centers.

As late as September, the world's response had lagged disastrously behind, and the lack of sufficient beds in treatment units resulted in a failure to avert thousands of deaths.

"At one point, virtually no treatment beds for Ebola patients were available anywhere in the country. With infectious cases and corpses remaining in homes and communities, almost guaranteeing further infections, some expressed concern that the virus might become endemic in Liberia, adding another -- and especially severe -- permanent threat to health," the World Health Organization said in its statement.

"It is a tribute to the government and people of Liberia that determination to defeat Ebola never wavered, courage never faltered. Doctors and nurses continued to treat patients, even when supplies of personal protective equipment and training in its safe use were inadequate.

"Local volunteers, who worked in treatment centers, on burial teams, or as ambulance drivers, were driven by a sense of community responsibility and patriotic duty to end Ebola and bring hope back to the country's people," the WHO statement said.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said for many in the country, it will take a generation before the pain and grief heal. She referred to the slow response of the international community when she told the Associated Press that the epidemic was a "scar on the conscience of the world."

A White House statement urged vigilance to prevent the return of the disease to Liberia.

"We must not let down our guard until the entire region reaches and stays at zero Ebola cases," the statement said.

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Liberia declared Ebola free, though risks remain, WHO warns

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Just over 13 months since Liberia's first case of Ebola, the West African nation Saturday was declared free of the deadly disease, 42 days after the burial of the last fatal victim on March 28.