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Science Problem of the Week

The Science Problem of the Week will be kept on line for not less than 1 week. After 12 problems have been posted, the person with the most correct answers will win a fabulous prize!

Last Round's Winners: Seth Berry and Ryan Lavender

The 29th round of the Science Question of the Week Competition was won by Seth Berry and Ryan Lavender, who correctly answered 12 out of 12 questions! Congratulations, Seth and Ryan!



Now, on to the current competition. The prize for this round is the winner's choice of the following:

Fuel-Cell-Powered RC car Khet - The Laser Deflection Game Watch that is also a camera and 2-Gigabyte USB drive LiveWire - Bendable wire of light


Please note that you are allowed to do research to find the answer to this question, but you CANNOT post the question in a public forum in order to get the answer.

This is the SECOND problem that goes towards this prize.

Nematodes are tiny roundworms that eat a wide variety of things. Some eat plants, some eat fungi, some eat smaller animals, and some even eat bacteria. There are also some nematodes that are parasitic. Some of these parasitic nematodes infect people, some infect other vertebrates, and some infect invertebrates, including insects. Obviously, there is a lot of diversity in this group of amazing animals.

Interestingly enough, scientists have studied some parasitic nematodes that infect an insect, the infection causes the insect to die, but the nematode doesn’t eat any part of the insect.

Question:
Why do these parasitic nematodes infect an insect that they don’t eat?

This question will be replaced on or about March 15th.




If you can answer this question, please use the reply form below. Once again, the Science Question of the Week is for students of age 13 - 18 years. Your E-MAIL address must be supplied in the reply form below, or your answer will not count!

Note:
Compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule prevents us from accepting entries from children under the age of thirteen. By pressing GO you acknowledge that you are age thirteen or older. We are sorry for this restriction.

EMail
Name
Answer

Last Week's Question:
Recently, archaeologists found several stone tools on the island of Crete. According to the archaeologists, the find was a big surprise, because the tools are supposed to be at least 130,000 years old, probably more like 175,000 years old.

Question:
Why were the archaeologists surprised to find stone tools that old on the island of Crete?

Answer:
They were surprised to find these tools on the island of Crete because human beings capable of making such tools were not supposed to have lived on the island that long ago. According to the evolutionary timescale, Crete has supposedly been an island for 5 million years. If the tools are really that old, then the only way humans could have ended up on the island is to have traveled there by boat. The problem is that according to evolutionary assumptions, ancient humans were not supposed to have developed seafaring capabilities until about 50,000 years ago or so.

Thus, the technology required to get to the island was supposedly out of reach for humans from 130,000 or 175,000 years ago. As Boston University archaeologist and stone-tool expert Curtis Runnels said, "The idea of finding tools from this very early time period on Crete was about as believable as finding an iPod in King Tut's tomb." This is yet another example of a failed evolutionary prediction. Evolution predicted that humans who made tools like the ones found on Crete had not "evolved enough" to be capable of seafaring. The presence of the tools on Crete shows this prediction to be wrong.

Dr. Cornelius Hunter has cataloged many other failed predictions of evolution here.

Last week's question was answered correctly by:
Levi Adema, Laura Albury, Brittany Amelia, Jaden Anderson, Gabriel Anderson, Naila Avila, James B. Hendrik Bakker, Andrew Barnard, Alexis Bedrosian, Ben Berry, Kara Bloom, Jacob Bosse, Abigail Butler, Geoffrey Ching, Ezra Compere, Elizabeth Compere, Isaac Daudelin, Timothy Daudelin, Gavin Donley, Phil Dreste, Dan Dreste, Aaron Funk, Benjamin Hackett, Joshua Harm, Johannes Harnisch, Martin Harnisch, Erin Hobbs, Jeremiah Hoffman, Ryan Hoogmoed, Mary K, Megan K, Brittany Kasprzak, Barbara Kaufmann, Michael Koenig, Aslan Konsavage, Elisha Kossove, Josiah A. Kowles, Bradley Kyzer, HannahLeah Lambert, Paul Lambert, Nicholas Lubbe, CJ Lues, Joshua MacDonald, Jacob MacDonald, Arden, Marcus, Kevin Martens, John Martin, Patrick McCracken, Steven McCracken, Scott Mokris, Nicole Ng, Harrison Nobles Augustine Payne, Joshua Place, Anna Place, Dominic Rankin, Michael Renga, Brennan Requist, Franco C Saddlery, Sarah Sanders, Caleb Sleadd, Ian Springer, Matthew Staley, Quentin Stoyel, Nadiyah Suleiman, Seth Sutherland, Jamie Tucker, Jacqueline Vidosh, Logan Visser, Hanway Wang, Luke Warta, Stephen Warta, Rachel Weider, Jonathan Willing, David Wulff, Subhi Younes, Abigail, Erich, Gabriel, , and Kate.

Congratulations to all of you!