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How do you make sports exciting to watch? It’s not always enough to recruit talented athletes. The game itself needs to be well paced and full of action. Major League Baseball (MLB)’s new rules, which took effect with the opening of the 2023 season, are designed to bring a little more exhilaration to the ballfield.

Here’s how MLB’s new rules are designed to address some common complaints about baseball.

Not Enough Hits!

Batting averages have been declining, meaning that batters aren’t doing as well as they used to. MLB wants fans to see more hits (exciting) and fewer strikeouts (less exciting). 

“Fans want to see base runners,” Matt Duffy, infielder for the Kansas City Royals, told the New York Times. “They want to see first-to-third, they want to see triples, they want to see home runs. They don’t want to see strikeouts and nobody on base and 350 pitches thrown in a game.”

To increase the number of hits, MLB is putting a limit on “shifts.” In baseball, a shift is a movement of players from their traditional positions in the infield or outfield. Recently, teams have been more likely to move their infield players so there’s an extra player on one side—usually between first and second base. This puts left-handed batters at a disadvantage because it makes it harder for them to get a hit. 

The new rule is that there must be two infielders on each side of second base—never three on one side of the base.

Scientists are searching for Earth-like planets that could sustain life. But what if life could exist on planets that have little in common with Earth? Astronomers from the University of California, Irvine, are studying the possibility of life in areas called terminator zones.

Terminator zones exist on planets that don’t rotate, or spin. Earth’s rotation ensures that no one side of the planet is always facing the Sun. It’s the reason why we have days and nights. But on planets that are tidally locked, meaning they don’t rotate, one side is always facing the planet’s star while the other side is always dark. A thin strip, or belt, around the planet sits between the light and dark sides. It’s in this belt, the terminator zone, that conditions could be just right for liquid water—and life.

“You want a planet that’s in the sweet spot of just the right temperature for having liquid water,” said astronomer Ana Lobo, who led a recent study of such planets. “This [would be] a planet where the dayside can be scorching hot, well beyond [livability], and the night side is going to be freezing, potentially covered in ice. You could have large glaciers on the night side.”

How common are tidally locked planets? Pretty common, scientists say. These planets orbit M-dwarf, or red dwarf, stars, which scientists believe make up about 70 percent of stars in the known universe. That doesn’t mean all tidally locked planets have livable zones. But it does raise some interesting possibilities about what else is out there.

Chloe Ricketts just became a professional soccer player…and she’s only 15. On March 3, Ricketts became the youngest person ever to sign a contract with the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States. 

Ricketts signed a three-year deal with the Washington Spirit, after participating in the Spirit’s winter training program at the team’s invitation. Spirit leaders were impressed with Rickett’s ability to keep up with veteran players on a team that won the NWSL Championship in 2021.

“The opportunity to join the Washington Spirit on a professional contract is a dream come true,” Ricketts said in a statement on the Spirit’s website. “Now, let’s go win another championship!”

Because of her age, Ricketts will attend school virtually as part of her contract. She follows in the footsteps of Olivia Moultrie, who was three days older than Ricketts when she signed with the Portland Thorns in Portland, Oregon, in 2021. 

Ricketts had big goals at an early age. In 2022, she was the youngest person ever to sign with AFC Ann Arbor, which is part of a semi-professional league called USL League Two. At the time, she said she wanted to play for the U.S. women’s national soccer team, which plays national teams worldwide and is currently the best women’s soccer team in the world.  

“It’s a really high [aspiration], but I would like to be the best [player] in the world someday,” Ricketts told MLive in 2022. “Play on the national team, go overseas and play someday.”

At 15, she has plenty of time to make that happen.

In 2019, NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was set to make history by sending an all-woman team of astronauts on a spacewalk. But the plan was scrapped at the last minute. The reason? NASA didn’t have enough space suits that would fit the women. The first all-women spacewalk eventually took place—several months later, after NASA made sure the right space suits were available. These events made it clear that, in at least one way, space travel was set up without women in mind. 

But NASA now has plans for a redesigned space suit. The new suit will be more flexible and better able to fit people of many different sizes. And that means it will be more likely to fit women, who are, on average, smaller than men. This is the first time NASA has fully redesigned its space suits since 1981. 

When it comes to space suits, fit is extremely important. The suits need to be pressurized to provide oxygen so that the wearer can survive in space. If a space suit fails to work properly, an astronaut can die.

NASA aims to have the new space suits ready by 2025, in time for the space agency’s Artemis III mission. During Artemis III, astronauts will set foot on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. NASA has pledged “to land the first woman and first person of color on the surface of the Moon” as part of the Artemis III crew.

Bill Nelson, who leads NASA, said that the space suits “will open opportunities for more people to explore and conduct science on the Moon than ever before.”

TikTok is limiting the amount of time kids and teens can use the video-sharing app. The company says it made the decision in response to concerns that the use of social media is affecting the mental health of young people.

Under the new rules, TikTok users ages 13 to 18 are now able to use the app for 60 minutes a day. They need to enter a passcode if they want to extend their time on TikTok. TikTok says this extra step is meant to require teens to make an active decision to spend an extended period of time on the app. Users under 13 also have a 60-minute limit. They can extend their time by 30 minutes, but only if a parent or guardian enters a passcode. 

TikTok is one of many apps that have been criticized for its possible impact on younger users. Experts have expressed concern that using social media may have a negative effect on mental health. They say that looking at social media content can lead people to compare themselves to others and feel like they don’t measure up. One new study showed that when kids and teens take breaks from social media, they feel better about themselves. In the study, volunteers ages 17 to 25 who were experiencing anxiety or depression were asked to limit their time on social media to 60 minutes a day for three weeks. Another group of volunteers didn’t change their social media habits. The group that limited their screen time reported feeling happier and having a more positive self-image.

But Linda Charmaraman, a researcher who studies young people and social media use, says it’s not quite accurate to conclude that time spent on social media is a bad thing. Many users can get a lot out of connecting with other people on social media, as long as those connections are healthy.

“In that case, the motivation behind what you’re doing on social media is more important than how long you’re spending on it,” she told National Public Radio.

EpiPen auto-injectors are devices that deliver lifesaving treatment to people who are having severe allergic reactions. But do they work in space? A group of students in Canada did an experiment that suggests the answer is no.

The students wondered how the cosmic radiation in space would affect epinephrine, the medication inside an EpiPen. They applied—and were accepted—to iEDU and NASA’s Cubes in Space program, which lets young people send their science experiments into space. The students prepared samples of two substances. One was pure epinephrine. The other was epinephrine in a sterile solution, which is what EpiPens contain. NASA then launched the samples into space—one on a rocket and the other on a high-altitude balloon.

Crystalyne Curley just made history by getting elected to a powerful position in the government of the Navajo Nation. Now, she wants to use her influence to help enrich people’s lives.

In January 2023, Curley was elected Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, which is the legislative (lawmaking) branch of the Navajo government. The Council is made up of 24 delegates who represent the people living in different areas of the Navajo reservation. Curley was elected to her first term in the Council in 2022. She became Speaker after a vote within the Council. This makes her a leader within the Council. Curley appoints delegates to committees, calls special sessions, makes budget recommendations, and more. 

Curley has been in the public eye for a long time. She first ran for the Council several years ago. Previously, she was senior public information officer for former Navajo Nation president Jonathan Nez.

As Speaker, Curley wants to improve the quality of life on the Navajo reservation, where many people lack basic resources. American Indian groups say the lack of resources is due partly to U.S. government rules that make it difficult for American Indian communities to make improvements. Curley has firsthand experience with need.

“I’m one of the products of no electricity [and] no water, and to this day I still don’t have cell service within my home, and it’s these troubles that some of the leaders don’t know the struggle of,” Curley told AZ Central. “I wanted to use my platform to speak for those who live far off the highway, that live in the rural parts of our nation.”

Curley, who speaks the Navajo language, also wants to make sure that Navajo history is respected and preserved.

“We have to use our Navajo language, our culture,” Curley said. “That’s what drives me, is fundamentals of our values and our culture and our language. We need to teach that to our Navajo children to continue to speak our language.”

Could workers around the world soon get an extra day off every week? Recently, several studies have shown that reducing a workweek from five days (or 40 hours a week) to four days (or 32 hours a week) has a range of benefits for both companies and employees. 

In the studies, companies that normally operate on a five-day workweek agreed to try out a four-day workweek without lowering their workers’ pay. Most of the companies found that the employees got just as much work done in four days as they had in five days. In some cases, employees got even more work done. Some of the companies found they made more money. And employees said they had more time to rest, exercise, and be with their families. Overall, most of the companies and employees were happier with the four-day workweek—and most of the companies in the studies decided to stick with it.

A four-day workweek wouldn’t be realistic for everyone. The workers in the studies are paid a yearly salary that remains the same no matter how many hours they work. Many workers are paid by the hour. If they worked fewer hours, they would earn less money—unless their hourly wage was increased. And some industries can’t just shut down for an extra day each week. For example, cutting nurses’ hours would require hospitals to hire more people to take care of patients. 

But the buzz around the four-day workweek is getting louder. Researchers say that if the idea catches on, it could be a game changer for millions of workers worldwide.

Some ancient people were amazingly advanced. Scientists know this because they’ve studied civilizations like the Maya. More than 2,000 years ago, the Maya people of North and Central America built large cities with palaces and pyramids. They were successful farmers. They even studied the planets and came up with an accurate calendar. But a new discovery reveals that the Maya civilization was even more sophisticated than anyone realized. Scientists have learned that the Maya had a system of interconnecting roads. 

“[The roads are] the world’s first superhighway system,” Richard Hansen, a professor of anthropology at Idaho State University, told CNN.

A group of eighth graders came up with creative solutions to help family and friends who were facing challenges. And they used their engineering skills to do it. Teacher Mark Bolt calls this “engineering with empathy.”

Engineering with Empathy is a unit in Bolt’s engineering class at Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, Virginia. Empathy is the ability to notice and share in the feelings of others. Bolt says that engineers, who use science, math, and tools to come up with solutions to problems, need empathy.

“Engineers need to understand their users’ needs, and put themselves in the users’ shoes, in order to then build an effective solution,” Bolt explained in an article on the Fairfax County Public Schools website.

Bolt’s students did exactly this. Aasritha Duriseti saw her grandmother struggling to open a bottle cap and made a bottle opener that’s easy to grip. Roman Moreno-Hines noticed that his grandfather, who has arthritis, has trouble holding a coffee cup. He invented a robotic “third thumb” that holds onto the bottom of a mug.

Engineers go through a process to create, test, and then improve their inventions. When Rishab Nanduri made a back brace to help ease his dad’s back pain, his classmates suggested he improve it by adding foam material that could massage the wearer’s muscles.

According to the Washington Post, each device was adjusted several times as it was developed. Bolt says that when things don’t work as planned, it’s an opportunity to learn.

“If we want to do better, we have to have a chance to fail,” the teacher told the Washington Post.

Check out the slideshow to see some of the students’ inventions.