Kate Burgess, age 16, of Mesa, Ariz., for her question:

HOW LONG HAS THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY BEEN OPERATING?

The world's largest scientific and educational organization is called the National Geographic Society. It was formed in 1888 to gather and spread geographic information throughout the world. It has more than 8 million members in 185 countries.

The National Geographic Society has sponsored and supported more than 2,000 expeditions and research projects that have expanded man's knowledge of the earth, sea and sky.

A monthly journal called National Geographic Magazine is distributed by the society.

Among the projects the society has sponsored are the historic polar expeditions by Richard E. Byrd and Robert E. Peary. It also sponsored excavations in East Africa that uncovered fossils of a primitive being called Homo habilis that lived about 1.75 million years ago.

The society also helped back the first successful United States expedition to the top of Mount Everest and aided in the construction of living quarters under the ocean.