Carbon dioxide is a compound in which two oxygen atoms are connected to acarbon atom. At normal temperatures it is a colourless gas that exists naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere. The air that we breathe has about 0.03% of carbon dioxide in it. Carbon dioxide is an important part of the carbon cycle and essential for life on Earth. Without it temperatures on our planet would be very low. Plants […]
Whales have been hunted for their meat and oil for centuries. In the 18th and 19th century, whaling became an industry. As time went on, whaling fleets caught more whales than the animals could reproduce. By 1930, 50,000 whales were killed every year. In the 20th century factory ships revolutionized the whaling business. Whales were caught and processed on board. Advanced technology made it possible to track whales in the water. […]
Some American high schools have a dropout rate of up to 50%. There are many reasons for students leaving school : For two thirds of the dropouts motivation is the problem. They can’t just work hard enough. Almost half of them said that they had missed so many classes that they could notcatch up any more. Many said that […]
A research report says that virtual worlds can be important places where children practice what they will do in real life. They are also a powerful and attractivealternative to more passive adventures like watching TV. The research was done with children using the BBC’s Adventure Rock virtual world, aimed at those aged 6-12.It surveyed and interviewed children who were the first to test the game. The […]
How do you sell things in a time when the economy is down and people just don’t want to buy? Try the 99 cent approach. Steve Jobs, boss of Apple Computers tried it and probably saved the music industry. He chose a standard price of 99 cents for each song that he wanted to sell on iTunes […]
President Barack Obama has signed a bill which he hopes will get the United States economy moving again. At a ceremony in Denver, Colorado Obama signedthe American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). About 787 billion dollars will be pumped into the economy. ARRA is to fight the worst American economicdisaster since the Great Depression. The President said that the new law is not the end of the nation’s economic problems but it is […]
Karl Marx was one of the most important thinkers of the 19th century. As one of thefounders of Communism he predicted that workers world rebel against theowners of factories and take over the economy and the government themselves. In the 1900s Marx’s ideas influenced many Communistgovernments. Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, Germany. He came from a Jewish family but his father converted to Lutheranism before Karl was born. In […]
Each human needs about 20 litres of water a day for the basics – washing, cooking and drinking. But there are many places around the world, where people get five litres of water and less to live on. The situation is worst in Africa, especially some communities of Eastern Africa. Why do some places have so little water and how will the availability of water […]
Older people often talk about how cheap things were when they were young. Abrand new car may have cost only $5,000 compared to $20,000 today, or petrol that cost only a few cents in the 60s costs over a dollar today. Inflation happens when money loses some of its value. We measure the rise of inflation in percent. For example, 2% inflation means […]
One of the biggest problems about buying a car is that you often have to borrow a lot of money so that you can pay for one. In most cases new cars cost tens of thousands of dollars, a price that not everyone can afford. In India car maker Tata Motors have brought out the cheapest car in the world: the Nano, […]