Ok, what’s this?

‘Click – click – click – click’

Any ideas?

No, it’s not Michael Jackson trying to find a TV station that’s not talking about his baby-dangling activities … or Anne Robinson trotting past you in the corridor in her steel-toed stilettos…

It is: the sound of the amazing ‘SuperSampler’ camera by Lomo. Which is? Which is a very groovy and street-cred device that has four lenses and a timing mechanism that enables it to take four pics in very quick succession. When developed, the prints comprise of four time-lapse motion ‘slices’ of the subject – so as you can imagine, movement and people work particularly well. If by any chance that description makes no sense to you at all – have a look at the the Lomo site here and all will become clear.

How can you win one? Just enter our Tick Tick Tick Time Quiz here, answer 10 easy questions, click click click click, and if you get them all right, your name will go into the prize draw. We’ve got three to give away.

So don’t delay – it’s all in the TIMING!

And so to tongues. Can you curl your tongue into a tube-like shape? Give it a go (check who’s watching first).

No matter how much you try or how much you exercise the muscles, this is something you either can or can’t do. It’s genetic.

But what about how your tastebuds work? Each tongue is an individual, and some people’s tongues can taste things other can’t (know anyone who HATES almonds and diet drinks…?). What we all have in common though is that different parts of our tongues taste different things. Try this out and make a “taste-map” of your tongue.

You will need:

• Salty water
• Sugary water
• Black coffee (you can use decaffeinated for kids)
• Vinegar (you can water this down a little if you want)

2. Make ‘pipettes’ out of a straw cut in half (you’ll need four different ones, one for each taste-liquids, to keep the experiment “scientific”). To use these, cover the top of the straw with your fingertip when it’s dipped into one of the taste-liquids. This will hold in some of the liquid, and when you release your finger the liquid will run out.

3. Draw out a basic diagram of your friend’s tongue. Carefully release drops of the salty water onto the front, back, middle and sides of his/her tongue. Note on the diagram where they taste it most. Get them to dry their tongue with bread in between drops.

4. Repeat with the sugary water, coffee and vinegar, remembering to wash your mouth out with water between each taste-liquid.

5. Try it with food of more varied tastes, and map them on to your diagram. Where do you taste ketchup?

Want to know more about how your tastebuds work? Have a look at this animated movie at one of our favourite sites, BrainPop, here.

Amazing Extra Fact: some insects “taste” with their feet!


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MOUSES AT THE READY

Guess what? We’ve been clearing up a bit around the office and a few freebies have come to light. Some people might call them leftovers, as they have undoubtedly been leftover from previously fab newsletter offers. But that doesn’t mean they’re not still fab…

We have:

• 4 family passes to the Look Out Discovery Centre in Bracknell
• 1 family pass to the Woburn Safari Park in Woburn
• 1 family pass to the Techniquest in Cardiff

If you would like to scoop up one of these, all you need to do is email David Tasker at david@planet-science.com - with I NEED A DAY OUT! in the subject field.


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ROUGH SCIENCE – WIN SOME GOLD

If you’re a fan of ‘Rough Science’ on BBC2, you’ll know that the team can currently be seen on their third mission. This time they’re in New Zealand, and they’re finding and investigating that lovely metal GOLD

The TV progs are on at 7.30pm on Fridays – but they have asked us to tell you that if you want to get even more involved, there’s a web challenge you can take part in. And the prize isn’t bad either – you could win the gold that the scientists have found and smelted during their expedition.

Log on to http://www.open2.net/roughscience3 and answer the questions in the competition. In the final week of transmission, pictures of the gold objects you can win will be posted up. (And PS all of the answers to the questions can be found on the Rough Science 3 website.)


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SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS

And talking of adventures, this week’s news spotlight falls on James Bond and one of his most famous stunts, the bungee jump at the beginning of ‘Golden Eye’.

Science Line have been investigating the ups and downs of life on the end of a bit of elastic, and you can read all about it here.


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RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

If you’ve not bookmarked it already, check out KEVIN’S PLAYROOM. This is quite a famous site by now, and has the trophy cupboard to prove it.

Kevin’s Playroom is a well-structured signpost site that pulls together good weblinks for every subject involved in the National Curriculum. The site was produced by school children, and proves once again that older isn’t necessarily wiser when it comes to webby matters.

It’s not just all about schooly subjects though – have a look in the ‘Big Kids’ area and there’s a host of ‘lifestyle’ related links about cookery, personal finance, fashion and other essentials!


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SCRABBLE CHALLENGE

Words don’t come easy. Not if you’ve just pulled the crummiest clutch of letters out of the bag at Scrabble.

As the holidays are approaching, we are keen to put together a master-list of scientific (and high-scoring) words to give newsletter readers everywhere an perfectly fair advantage when faced by relatives brandishing the famous boardgame. We will be producing a print-offable list of words and official definitions closer to D-Day but first we’re stocking up the cupboard.

And thanks for your contributions so far…

First of all hats off to Scott ‘Triple Word Score’ Keir, in-house literary genius at Copus who has supplied us with three crackers…

First of all:

‘STEATOPYGIA’ – meaning “the accumulation of large amounts of fat on the buttocks – aka lardarse!” (yes, thank you no need to get personal)

and on similar note:

’CALLIPYGIAN’ – which is an adjective meaning “having shapely buttocks” (you old smooth talker)

And thirdly, a historical and clever non-sciencey one:

‘SCART’ – “That's an acronym” your opponent says. “Aha,” you say, “it also means ‘to scratch’ - especially one's fingers down one's opponent's buttons - as a challenge. Hence ‘scart-free’ (escaping without a scratch)...

Thank you Scott. And thanks also to Caroline Marriage for the following:

‘CAZIQUES’ – which are “black-and-red or black-and-yellow orioles of the American tropics (from www.dictionary.com)” and Caroline’s own favourite ‘ai’ – which is “a three toed sloth and a very useful word for filling in corners at the end!”

Please send any similarly devilish (and preferably vaguely scientific) Scrabblicious words to us for next week. A literary prize is in the offing for all good ones…

Send to: anne@planet-science.com


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JOKE OF THE WEEK

And again: thank you thank you thank you. A million thank yous for the recent torrent (well medium sized trickle) of OK jokes. They will keep us going at least until later on in December!

Here’s one for school technicians everywhere. Sent in by Sue Oliver, herself one of that chosen breed of topcats…

An engineer, a physicist and a technician are each paid £50 by a man to ascertain the height of a building.

The engineer spends the £50 on a clinometer and ruler and tells the man the height of the building through calculations.

“The physicist spends the £50 on a calculator and a ball. He tells the man the height of the building by dropping the ball from the top, timing how long it takes to reach the bottom and calculating the height.

“The technician pockets £40 and bungs the last £10 to the doorman who tells him the height of the building!”

Excellent, thank you Sue – your Selection Box is in the post to you.


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ANY OTHER BUSINESS?

Nope, just to say, please send us in any news, activities, events or anything else you think would be of value to other newsletter readers.

Send them to: Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com

Have a great week!


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