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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Coolest Inventions of 2006

Spanish Translation

Vote for the cool new invention that you'd most like to own!

Allergy-proof cats? Paper-thin lights? Drinkable water from thin air? Not too long ago, these concepts might have sounded dreamlike - even a little crazy. But this year, they are as real as can be. Inventors came up with these and other ingenious ways to improve life as we know it, and to bring more fun to our world. Check out their work on these pages. What will they think of next?

Waterpowered Toy
Carmakers have yet to develop an environmentally friendly passenger vehicle that runs on hydrogen fuel. But this toy car does just that. The six-inch-long H-racer is designed by Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, based in Shanghai, in China. The car uses hydrogen from plain tap water as fuel. The little speedster is available now and travels more than 300 feet in a single fuel-up. Go, H-racer, go!

Easy Rider
This scrappy guy weighs just 11 pounds and stands only 20 inches tall. But Murata Boy does something that no other robot can do. He rides a bike. Sensors in his body and a camera in his head help keep him upright and riding in a straight line. Murata Boy is not yet for sale.

Talking Head
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's that knocking at my door? The Magic Message Mirror will not turn your life into a fairy tale. But it will tell you when a car pulls into the driveway. For $19,995, this mirror ought to tell you that you're the fairest one of all!

ONE SMART VEHICLE
This smart car is a cross between a motorcycle, a compact car, and a spaceship. But the aluminum-framed Clever doesn't just look cool. It's Earth-friendly too. The three-wheeled vehicle, which seats two, runs on compressed natural gas. When natural gas is burned, it releases fewer harmful gases than regular fuel does. The Clever can travel up to 108 miles on one gallon of fuel and cruise at speeds up to 80 miles per hour.

FLAT LIGHT
CeeLite's paper-thin, flexible lights can turn almost anything into a light source. The super-thin panels can be wrapped around a pillar or spread on the floor. They can also dim, fade or flash.

DIVING DOLPHIN
The Innespace Sea Breacher can jump, dive, roll and swim underwater. The vehicle travels at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. This version is 16 feet long and seats two. Joystick controllers work the mechanical fins, while foot pedals operate the tail.

DINO BOT
It's alive! Well, not quite, but sometimes it's hard to tell. Pleo is a lifelike robot dinosaur. It is modeled after a baby camarasaurus. The toy growls when it is hungry, cries when it is scared and even gets sad when it is ignored. Pleo goes on sale next spring for $250.

HOSPITAL HELPER
Someday, robots could replace humans as nurse's aides. Japan's Ri-Man is a good candidate for the job. The bot can lift an 80-pound person, and researchers hope to strengthen the motors in its arms. Ri-Man uses sensors to see, smell and hear its environment. It has 320 pressure points on its arms and chest to help it sense the position of whatever it holds.

NO SNEEZING!
Say bye-bye to cat allergies. Allerca, a company in California, is breeding naturally hypoallergenic cats. These cats produce less of the protein that can trigger allergic reactions in humans. The purr-fect pals will not be available until next year. The sniffle-proof kitties cost $3,950 each!

WATERWORKS
Presto, change-o: Turn air into water! The Aqua Sciences machine (hidden inside the blue container) can pull up to 500 gallons of drinkable water from thin air in a day. The machine mimics the way salt absorbs moisture from the air. That's what makes salt clump in saltshakers. The waterworks costs $300,000.

CATCH THE DRIFT
Snow is nice to look at and fun to jump around in. But clearing it away takes a lot of hard work. Enter the Wovel, a new kind of shovel built on a 36-inch wheel. The Wovel works like a seesaw. Just push down on the handle to raise the blade. Without much effort, you can send scoops of snow flying!

Next: Bush Takes a Trip