War Dogs

Dogs have a very long history in warfare, beginning in ancient times. From being trained in combat, to their use as scouts, sentries, messengers, mercy dogs, and trackers, their uses have been varied, and some continue to exist in modern military usage. (From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_warfare )

A soldier parachutes with a dog

From Scholastic News

One night in 2011, a team of United States soldiers carried out a daring raid in Pakistan. They found and killed the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden had planned the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.

What Were the September 11, 2001 attacks?

Short Video About the September 11, 2001 Attacks

The team included 30 to 40 highly trained soldiers, all outfitted with the latest technology. But one of the team’s most important assets was a four-legged soldier—a dog named Cairo. Cairo’s main job was to find anyone who tried to escape.

The U.S. military uses about 2,700 dogs like Cairo. These dogs use their powerful sense of smell to sniff out bombs, weapons, drugs, and enemies. By finding hidden dangers, they help keep soldiers safe.

The Nose Knows
When a dog sniffs the air, odor molecules enter its nostrils. These tiny, airborne particles travel to a membrane that contains scent-detecting cells. Dogs have about 220 million scent cells. That’s 40 times more than humans have. That’s why a dog gets much more information from a whiff of air than we do.

Dogs’ noses are so powerful that they perform even better than machines. “Dogs find stuff that our sniffing technology can’t find,” says U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Greg Massey. Massey is in charge of the Military Working Dog Program at the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters in Virginia.

A Working Dog’s Life
Military dogs go through months of tough training. They learn things like obedience, defense, and how to sniff out certain scents. Then each dog is paired with a military handler, with whom it forms a special bond. Finally, the hard work begins.

On the battlefield, dogs often walk far in front of their units to sniff for bombs. They’ll also enter buildings first to see what’s inside. Dogs will even parachute out of airplanes with their handlers! Dogs usually go to war several times, until they are about 9 years old. Then they retire and are adopted by families—a fitting reward for years of putting their lives on the line.

“These dogs do great things,” says Massey. “They are heroes.”

Scientists Discover Water on the Moon

From Teaching Kids the News:

(2011) 

Scientists recently found out there is 100 times more water on the moon than they thought there was. Scientists discovered the water when they looked at some pieces of moon rock. They found water in tiny samples of magma, which was trapped in crystal. Magma is a rock made from cooled lava.

Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield told Teaching Kids the News (TKN) that the water is a very valuable discovery. “It’s like finding diamonds or gold in a remote frontier,” Hadfield said. He said that water could be a sign of other life, although probably not in the case of the moon. “Because there is no atmosphere or magnetic field, (the moon) gets bombarded with radiation,” said Hadfield. That radiation would kill off anything that was living.

Scientists use powerful telescopes to look for water vapour on other planets, said Hadfield, adding that they haven’t yet found life on other planets. The scientists looking at the moon rocks found that some parts of the moon have as much water as the Earth’s “upper mantle.” The Earth’s upper mantle is a rocky shell under the Earth’s crust.

Water is made of two elements called hydrogen and oxygen. These two elements are essential for human life. The water on the moon doesn’t look like the water on the Earth found in rivers, lakes, oceans or ice sheets; instead, it is mixed with dirt and rock. It’s not easy to use as it is. “Like if you are floating in a dingy in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” said Hadfield. “You are surrounded by salt water but you can’t drink it.”

The moon rocks the scientists were studying were brought back to Earth by Apollo 17. Apollo 17 is a space flight that went to the moon in 1972. Not just anybody can look at these moon rocks, said Hadfield. “We treat those like the very rare resource that they are.”

Hadfield told TKN that going to space is a wonderful, magical feeling, as if you have superpowers. You can fly, hover, and do a thousand somersaults if you want to, he said. He said one of the most interesting things is that you can see the whole world like a “kaleidoscopic gift” out your spaceship window.

“It’s better than I dreamed it would be when I was nine years old.”

https://teachingkidsnews.com/2011/06/16/scientists-discover-water-on-the-moon/