PLANET SCIENCE NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 10 Stardate: Friday 15th November 2002 Did you know you can choose to receive this weekly news update free by email? sign up here Win a cosmic trip, win a camera, catch up with a car that’s careering round the country… and find out just what’s so good about that humble creature, the Axolotl. Safety goggles on? Right - here we go again with another top sante edition of goings-on on Planet Science: 01. SCIENCE SUPERSTARS - winner announced 02. MOUSES AT THE READY? - Cosmic Mancunian exhibition 03. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK - Psychedelic fruit & veg 04. SOLAR POWERED CAR - pitstops in Bristol, Bedford and Ampleforth 05. CHEMISTRY A-LEVEL CONFERENCE - Brighton rocks! 06. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS - Footballing brain injuries 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK - win a camera 08. SCI-SCRABBLE - winning ideas sought 09. JOKE OF THE WEEK (vast improvement on recent fare) SCIENCE SUPERSTARS First of all, it's time to reveal the winner of our 'Science Superstars' award. For the last couple of weeks we've asked newsletter readers to send in your nominations for non-teaching 'personnel' that have given of their all in the pursuit of excellent science teaching... Ah-hem! And the nominations are: (rustle of gold envelope) Jeanette Chapman - science co-ordinator ... Emma Cox - support assistant ... Deborah Frost - technician ... George Quayle - headteacher ... Janet Coats - technician ... Sarah Harper - Science Week co-ordinator ... Looi Leung - technician ... Sarah Keegan - technician ... 'Denny' - senior technician ... Tom Johns, Dave Hollah and Nigel Brock - pond helpers! ... Peter Robinson - web hero ... David Goddard - technician ... Jan Bralee - senior technician... All these people thoroughly deserve the award of the gorgeous huge Filofax from Paperchase, but only one person will be pulled out of the hat by lovely and very talented Joanna Edwards, Planet Science Office Administrator, and the winner is...... Janet Coats! Here's what Janet's Nominator Peter Blow said about her... "I would like to nominate the technician at my old school for an award. She has held together a department that has seen breakdowns and pregnancies in large quantities, she has supported NQT and GTPs at a time when the building is (almost literally) being knocked down around her. "She has helped to build a Department so ICT literate that Ofsted had to come and see and they went away full of praise. It's a Department where datalogging equipment is put out and used without a second thought, she checks the experiments, fixes the wires and puts it all away again - did I mention showing the teachers what to do ??" He concludes, "I am the Head of Science at another school now and have worked in a number of Hertfordshire schools BUT have never met a teachnician like her (even if she is a Biology technician)" So, take a bow Janet. And get ready to take delivery of a very high class bit of stationary kit! Back to top MOUSES AT THE READY? If you're in the Manchester area and would like to journey to the edges of the cosmos - here is your chance! As you may have read in the press, an exceedingly groovy and truly multi-media exhibition has just arrived at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It's called 'ScienceTunnel', it's been created by the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and this is ITS ONLY UK APPEARANCE. Wooh! You can check it out online here As the name suggests, there's a tunnel involved, but not like any tunnel you've ever seen before. This is 170m of the latest hi-tech exhibitionary hardware in the world, and within its tubey confines you will experience a zooming-through from the micro-world of atoms and molecules up-scaling through the proteins, enzymes and cells inside the human body... and up, up, up until you're face-to-face with the gigantic hugeness of the Universe itself. And there's an audioscape to accompany you on your voyage too... The aim of the exhibition is to convey the magnificence and mystery of the cosmos - and explore the sorts of scientific research that are being carried out to try and further our knowledge of such things. So for anyone with a basic knowledge of science, the ScienceTunnel should make for a pretty special day out, and schools and teachers are particularly encouraged to pay a visit. But never mind that now. We have 2 4-person sets of tickets to give away!! And all you have to do is send an email asap to anne@planet-science.com with your name, address and phone number. And the words I WANT TO GO THROUGH THE TUNNEL! in the subject field. Ready? Go! Back to top ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK - PSYCHEDELIC FRUIT & VEG And speaking of the wonders of the world we live in ... hope you had fun with creating your own petrol-station-forecourt true-blue flowers last week. This week, two more activities for advanced practitioners. Firstly, science education mega-guru John Adams from Pfizer emailed to say: "If you carefully split the end of the flower stem vertically for a few cms and put each stem half into a container of different colours, you get a bi-coloured flower head - the colours corresponding to which stem half is in which colour - if you get what I mean!! I've never done it with 3 or 4 colours, but I see no reason why that wouldn't work if care is taken." Well, we've tried it, it works - and it looks bonkers! (Will get you reported to the Society for Protection of Dignity for Flowers if you do it too often though...) And then there's that honourable salad-vegetable, The Celery. It does funky stuff with food colouring too! If you put a celery stick into colouring and leave it overnight, you'll see the colour climbs up inside it ... but distinctly only in those stringy bits that stick in your teeth. If you cut the stick crosswise into slices you'll just see points of colour, like the writing in a stick of rock. Or if you're nifty, you can de-thread those fibres out, and wave them at people in a triumphant gesture! Back to top THAT 'NUNA' SURE GETS ABOUT ... but then it is the futuristic solar powered car that won the 2001 World Solar Challenge across Australia. Last week you were invited to go visit Nuna at Ampleforh College on 3rd December. And we've now heard from two other 'Nuna Venues' - both of which are cordially inviting you along... Firstly: Frank Woolhouse has been in touch to say: "Nuna is at our school also on Wed 4th Dec! Anyone in the area of Mark Rutherford School in Bedford is welcome to bring pupils but please let me know numbers & time of day!" His email address is: dave.woolhouse@btinternet.com or you can call him on 01234 216412. And then: Angus Gregson emailed to say Nuna is also appearing at Sir Bernard Lovell School, Oldland Common, Bristol on Thursday, December 13th. Email him on angus.gregson@sblonline.org.uk if you fancy going. Tip: he says there are more spaces left in the morning than afternoon. What IS this Nuna thing? If you're feeling that the whole world seems to know about it except you - relax! Here's a link that should explain all... Click here! PS Ampleforth College - email Francisca Wheeler on mfsw@ampleforth.org.uk if you're interested in going along. Back to top BRIGHTON CHEMISTRY CONFERENCE What more invites? Yes yes yes! John Prideaux of Brighton College says you are warmly welcome to attend an 'Sixth Form Chemistry Conference' during Science Week 2003. The college, impressively well-organised, have already secured three prestigious speakers for the event. In the bag, so to speak, are two Univeristy Professors of Chemistry including Nobel Prizewinner Harry Kroto, and an A-level Chief Examiner. Plus you get tea! In order to cover expenses, the college are having to make a small charge of £5 per head for pupil participants, but staff go free. And they'll help you out with maps and parking reservations and be generally top hosts if you'd like to go along... Places are being issued on a first come, first served basis though so if you'd like to book up or just find out more, give the college a ring on 01273 704 235 on write to them at Brighton College, Eastern Rd., Brighton, BN2 0AL. Back to top SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS This week, Science Line have been delving behind the news to find out more about the tragic case of Jeff Astle, the footballer known for his header-ing skills who played for West Bromwich Albion and wowed the crowds back in the 60's and early 70's. As you'll have read in the papers, the coroner has determined that his untimely death in January was directly related to his football skills ... Read all about it here. Back to top RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK No Britney sites this week. But never mind, we've still rounded up two top cyber stop-offs for you. 1. PENTAX EDUCATION - you could win a camera! http://www.pentaxeducation.co.uk Pentax have just launched a new site which explores and explains the physics of light, particularly as it relates to photography (unsurprisingly). The site is unashamedly trying to promote an interest in photography amongst the – ahem - 'young' generation, but there are some really good demos and explanations there, and the site content was written by a practising physics teacher so as to tie in with National Curriculum requirements for KS3 Science sections on reflection, refraction, lenses, dispersion and filters. Check it all out in the Teachers' Notes. Another reason to explore the site is that Pentax are offering a lovely Pentax Espio 60S to one lucky newsletter reader. To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is find out from the site the answer to the following question: 'What size of camera lens is 'closest to natural human vision'? Please send all entries to David Tasker on david@planet-science.com with PENTAX COMPETITION in the subject field, and your name, address and daytime phone number in the body of the email. Good luck snappers! 2. WWW.SHOW.ME.UK This site for 4-11 year olds is the offspring of the v v good 'virtual museum' site, the 24 Hour Museum http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk and brings together kid-friendly cyber-adventures from museums and galleries around the UK. Plus features, news, competitions and activities. At the moment you'll find areas devoted to James Watt; the Tudor ship (and shipwreck) the Mary Rose; a link to the Imperial War Museum's interactive feature that let's you get a real feel for what it was like trying to shop for food in Britain during WW2, and soon the Natural History Museum's 'Discovery' game will be online too. Apparently it's all curriculum-linked and great as a homework resource. But if you're between 4 and 11, do not let those very uncool words put you off! Back to top SCRABBLE CHALLENGE We're still preparing the contents of our 2002 December Shakedown... designed to get you through the Festive Season with as high a fun-rating as possible. Thank you for your help so far, and new request! We're looking for some top scoring and legit words to help the scientifically inclined to trounce the opposition during Holiday Season Scrabble. So far we have compiled the likes of eg. 'JANSKY' (a unit of radio flux density), 'QUAGGA' (extinct relative of the zebra and the horse) and 'AXOLOTL' (salamander type creature w big gills not to everyone's liking but appears to have cult following on the web!). Can you suggest any more nifty high-scoring words that can be memorised and pulled out of one’s mental hat at key moment? If so, please send them in to anne@planet-science.com. Particularly impressive words will be awarded a literary prize. Back to top JOKE OF THE WEEK And finally… If you visited the online version of the newsletter last week, you'll have noticed our new Webmaster, Max Blackler, posted a poignant plea for a better quality of joke. Only because all the ones he's been called upon to format and illustrate since joining have been reminiscent of a dry old stick scraping the bottom of a scab-encrusted bucket... But Jane Wilson, or 'Fab Jane Wilson' as we call her around here, has come to his rescue, with an oldie-but-goodie. She says, "Are we still allowed to do Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman jokes? "Anyway, three men were in the pub and they got to discussing the World's greatest scientific/technical achievements. One said, 'The first landing on the moon, now that was really something!' The second one disagreed and said, 'No, antibiotics saved millions of lives'. However the third exclaimed, 'You're all wrong, it's the thermos flask'. The others laughed at him and asked him why, so he replied, 'Well, you put hot drinks in and it keeps them hot, you put cold drinks in and it keeps them cold. How on earth does it know the difference?' Back to top A.O.B. We need more good jokes! Send them to us now and you could win a Cadbury's selection box. If they pass our stringent tests (!) We also need news, activities, and any other contributions you'd like to 'share with the rest of the class'. And finally … BON VOYAGE to the Sarah Street and Nigel Milk our previous webmastering team, who are now winging their way towards cyber-adventures in Asia. Good Luck Top Stars!! (p.s. Sorry about the photo!) And have a great week wherever YOU are. Back to top