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Good morning and welcome to KidNews.
I'm Tori. Today is Tuesday, October 29, 2024.
And we begin with a new sheriff in town and it's not even human.
Three robots that each stand six feet tall are now patrolling the grounds of one facility belonging to the Cobb County Sheriff's Office in Georgia.
The robots are part of a 90 -day pilot program to test new ways of monitoring the area.
And if it goes well, more robots could be added.
It's just the latest example of how cyborgs are helping out with security tasks.
In Las Vegas, robots are being used to greet visitors and answer questions in the new MSG sphere, a huge structure that hosts concerts and displays impressive visuals on its outer skin.
Five robots are located at the venue's Grand Atrium, and greet guests as they enter and answer questions with lifelike facial expressions.
If you live in the east, you might be treated to a downright balmy Halloween.
Those in the west, however, might be tricked into a jacket.
According to AccuWeather, the October surprise starts today, with temperatures in the midwest soaring as much as 25 degrees above normal, potentially breaking records that have stood for decades.
That warm air will then track east, meaning Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston could all see Thursday trick -or -treating weather in the 70s to mid 80s.
Different story in the west, though.
A cold front is moving in off the Pacific, and bringing with it cool air, rain, strong winds, and at the highest elevations, maybe even snow.
Sobering news from nature, more than a third of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction, according to a thousand experts from around the world and reported yesterday in the New York Times.
The biggest threats are from logging, agriculture, and urbanization.
That news follows a recent study by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which found that animals everywhere, from deserts to arctic regions and from birds in the air to fish in the sea, are under threat.
The report blames rapid human expansion and a warming planet.
But the news isn't all bad.
Two new studies released yesterday by the United Nations suggest that some countries are making good progress on pledges to increase biodiversity by rebuilding their dwindling populations of animals and plants.
A new finding in Arkansas could change the world's energy picture.
Lithium, a valuable resource needed to make many of today's batteries, has been found in the state in enormous quantities.
The discovery means the U .S.
may have so much lithium it could potentially power the world's electric needs for decades.
But scientists need to figure out how to extract the material without damaging the surrounding environment.
Lithium is hard to mine and has been linked to pollution, water depletion, and other environmental issues.
Energy companies are already working to find ways to get at this new resource of power safely and cleanly.
It could be a fashion find of the decade and it didn't happen in Paris or Milan but in Greece.
Some archaeologists believe they have found the tunic of none other than Alexander the Great.
Alexander was born in 356 BC in Macedonia, now part of modern -day Greece.
He was one of history's biggest military leaders who changed the map of the world and combined many territories into one vast empire.
Now archaeologists analyzing a piece of purple fabric from a royal tomb say the item probably belonged to Alexander, who died when he was 32.
He, however, was not in the tomb.
Most likely the robe was inherited by a close family member after Alexander died, which is how it ended up at that location.
Still to come? NASA gets a cat video from the depths of space, but first today's kid news quiz.
What is patrolling the grounds of a sheriff's facility in Georgia?
Three human -sized robots.
What part of the country may get an extra warm Halloween?
The East Coast. Why is the recent discovery of lithium in Arkansas so important?
Lithium is used to make batteries that power our devices.
A robe belonging to what famous historical person may have been discovered in Greece?
In today's kid news kicker, NASA probes are collecting increasingly complex information in space.
That means they need to transmit more data faster.
So when scientists wanted to test a new way to do this, they used a cat video.
The video is placed in a probe launched last year called Psyche.
It showed taters the cat chasing a laser pointer for 15 seconds.
When Psyche reached a point in space as far from the Earth as Mars, they beamed the signal back in high definition to see how long it would take.
The result? Just 58 seconds.
The transmission would have taken seven minutes the old way.
This means in the future we'll be able to get data from missions a lot faster and maybe cat videos too, if they ever find cats in space.
The spacecraft is on a mission to study an asteroid that's also named Psyche.
Before we go, a big shout out to some of our kid news teachers and classrooms, Ms.
Jordan and her Air Jordans at Smokey Row in Carmel, Indiana, Mrs.
Gunn and her Tyler Run Tigers at Tyler Run in Powell, Ohio, and Mrs.
Constin and her Cougars at Hiawatha in Hiawatha, Iowa.
Thanks for listening.
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We'll see you back here for more kid news tomorrow morning.
