PLANET SCIENCE NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 13 Stardate: Friday 6th December 2002 Did you know you can choose to receive this weekly news update free by email? sign up here Had enough of royal butlers, ex-Blue Peter presenters and even Michael Barrymore? Here’s the antidote … bring on this week’s Planet Science Newsletter! Packed with moral fibre, with a sprinkling of celebrity beauty news... 01. AKA SCIENCE - more free teachers' resources online 02. TESTING TIMES - experimenters wanted 03. Young, gifted and GOOD AT SCIENCE JOURNALISM? 04. GIMME SOME SKIN - activity of the week 05. BE A VIP SPACE-PROBE OBSERVER - competition 06. Science Behind the News - SOMETHING FOR LIAM TO SMILE ABOUT 07. RWW: Dinosaurs and Mega-brains 08. SHAKEDOWN lowdown 09. JOKES of the week O1. AKA SCIENCE - FREE RESOURCES If you're a science teacher, you'll be interested to know that the ASE's fifth and final specially-created set of resources for secondary schools is now available online. The pack is called 'AKA Science' and as ever, despite its compact appearance, you can spend HOURS just exploring what's there, let alone working through it with students. Issues covered include the relationship between science, proof and 'truth'; science fiction and how it sometimes comes true, and attitudes to science. And that's just the tip of the iceberg... There are also lesson ideas and activities like: • How to explore science through art • How to make the most of the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the elucidation of the structure of DNA... ... and our in-house favourite at Planet Science, • 'Chemwars', an interactive Sumo wrestling game which enables pupils to become emotionally involved in the reactivity properties of metals...! You can find the resources online at http://www.sycd.co.uk/titles.htm. Just click on 'AKA Science' in the menu. Meanwhile, hard copies of the CD-rom are being sent out to registered schools this term. Back to top 02. WE NEED TESTERS! Meanwhile... fancy yourself as an experiment tester? If you're a teacher, into your science demonstrations and not short on opinions, we would love to hear from you. We have a range of (potentially, hopefully) exciting experiments that we would like to unleash on the public over the next few months, and which sometime before Christmas need to be tested by Experts In The Field who can report back and tell us what they think. Teachers at KS3 or above would be best-placed as the experiments require access to a lab or to equipment and a number of chemicals you just can't get from your local chemist's. If you can do this for us, we will not only be eternally grateful and you will also win a £25 CD voucher or book token (your choice). Interested? Please send an email to lbe@planet-science.com... And we'll be in touch very shortly with everything you need to know. Back to top 03. CAN YOU TURN SCIENCE INTO PLAIN ENGLISH? And are you aged between 16 and 28? If so, here's your opportunity to make an impact on the science-writing scene, kickstart a rewarding career, or just enjoy an all expenses paid trip to the USA and a generous share of the overall cash and prizes worth over £7,000... The Daily Telegraph / BASF Science Writer Awards, are for the second year running being proudly supported by Planet Science. We're involved because we want to do whatever we can to help find the next generation of individuals who can communicate science clearly, accurately and enjoyably - and we want YOU to get involved and check it out because we know there's a lot of talent out there in the Planet Science galaxy. (And hey £7000 is a lot of money up for grabs!). Just log on to http://www.science-writer.co.uk for further details and all the background information you need to get started. Back to top 04. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: TRICK YOUR OWN SKIN Skin. Where would we be without it? All over the place. It's great stuff - and it does its best but that doesn't mean it gets things right all the time, as this experiment shows... What you need: • Three bowls • Water - hot and cold • Two hands attached to same person (preferably YOU!) What to do: 1. Fill one bowl with hot (but not boiling) water. Fill another with really cold water, and a third one with a mixture of the two. 2. Put one hand in the hot bowl and one in the cold bowl. Leave them there for 45 seconds. 3. Then put them both straight into the bowl of tepid water. What temperature do they feel? They don't feel the same, right? What's going on: The hand that was in the hot water will experience the tepid water as cold, and vice versa. That's because the temperature sensors in your skin don't really tell you whether things are hot or cold, just whether they are hotter or colder than the skin itself. So even when you know that both your hands are in the same bowl of water, your skin can send contrary messages to your brain... Back to top 05. WIN A TRIP TO FRENCH GUIANA - AND SEE A SPACE LAUNCH While you're drying your hands off, here's news of a competition with a rather spectacular prize. Don't say we don't line up some good stuff for you... Well, OK then, this one is courtesy of the BBC and PPARC, but they did get in touch specially to tip off all Planet Science newsletter readers so you don't miss out! What's happening is, BBCi Science and PPARC have between them created a competition in which you could win a trip for two to French Guiana to watch the launch of a important space probe. 'Rosetta' is its name, and it's the latest space probe from the European Space Agency. Its mission is to carry out investigations into the origin of the Solar System... and it's going to do this by landing on a comet. Yes - you read that right, LANDING ON A COMET. This has never been done before outside a sci-fi film, so if successful, it'll be a serious landmark in space exploration, and a good story to tell your young relations if only you could be there to see the launch...! And maybe you can! The Rosetta probe is being carried into space by an Ariane 5 rocket - and you could be there when it goes up... Not only will the competition winner plus guest have a VIP reserved seat at the Rosetta press launch in London on 6 January 2003, but between 12-16 January, they'll travel on a specially chartered ESA flight along with project scientists and reporters to French Guiana to witness the launch on 13 January 2003. You can find the competition online http://www.bbc.co.uk/science, and what you have to do is answer clues in order to crack a code and unearth a secret word. New clues will be published each week until the competition closes on 19 December, and the winner will be announced at the press launch on 6 January. But the competition is only open for 3 weeks - so don't dilly-dally! Good luck Earthling! Back to top 06. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS Liam Gallagher’s “nightclub scuffle” is the basis for this week’s science behind the news as Science Line explore the science and technology involved in modern day tooth replacement. And things aren’t looking too bad for LG, give or take a possible prison sentence… Here’s the dental news anyway... http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/slup/CuttingEdge/Dec02 /Liamsteeth.html Back to top 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK First, one for little kids: DOWNLOAD A DINOSAUR http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html Select a dinosaur, print off the outline, cut and paste … and hey presto, Bob’s your pet Stegasaurus. Should be good over the weekend if it really is too cold to go out anywhere… And for further information all about dinosaurs, the Walking With Dinosaurs http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/ site continues to be a goodie. Meanwhile, guess who said: "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving..." Could be anyone, right?! (Though obviously a MAN and one living well before feminism made its mark…) Guess again. OK, it was Albert Einstein… Much chronicled of course. A EINSTEIN: IMAGE AND IMPACT http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/ This is a neat introductory website that enables you to load up on all the main events and achievements of Einstein’s life, and includes an illustrated essay in which he looks back at his life. And it may help you with certain quiz questions over the holiday period, who knows what Chris Tarrant may have up his sleeve…? Back to top 08. SHAKEDOWN LOWDOWN Have you visited the Planet Science December Shakedown yet? If you're a regular, you'll be glad to know there are heaps of good things hidden behind every snowflake to be revealed as the month progresses... If you haven't, you have missed: Day 1: GET DECORATING: Paper-folding masterclass Day 2: MAKE A BIRD'S DAY: how to keep our feathered friends happy Day 3: MIRROR MIRROR: how mirrors work, and how to pep up your party Day 4: ANTARCTIC LIFE: Life with the British Antarctic Survey Day 5: RATTLING GOOD FUN: Satsumas are full of surprises! And today it's ... NOT TELLING! Go and look for yourself in WIRED here Back to top 09. JOKE OF THE WEEK Following on from last week’s mathematical one-liner, Angus Gregson has sent in another: “You can divide the world into 3 groups: those who can do maths and those who can't". Meanwhile Ross Bofinger emailed to say, “I emailed the binary joke to several friends that I thought would appreciate it. One, a civil engineering lecturer at the University of Nottingham replied, "I am one, you are nought." And Jeremy Renals in Oxford wants to know: ‘What do Australian mathematical physicists drink?’ ‘Castlemaine d/dx 2x squared +c’ of course! And finally, Marc Atkinson from Annacotty in Limerick sent us a lovely (biology?) joke… “A panda walks into a restaurant and asks for a table. The manager says “We don't serve pandas.” But when the panda shows him he has money, he lets him sit down. When his meal comes, he eats it really fast and then pulls out a gun and shoots the piano player. After that he just gets up and walks away without paying. The manager comes running after him and says "Hey you can't do that" and the panda says "Yes I can - check the encyclopedia" so the manager checks it he finds ‘Panda’ and reads "Panda eats shoots and leaves." Boom boom. Back to top A.O.B. Sadly that’s all we have time for this week, as they say. Except to give an honourable Scrabble-tastic mention to John Pickersgill who says, “Following your mention of XYLEM, I thought you might be interested in a 15 letter scrabble word, XYLOPYROGRAPHIC (of pictures burnt onto wood) which I once used in a one player game of Scrabble whose sole purpose was to use this word. (Am I sad or what!) With the game built up to put LOP and GRAPH down the right hand side of the board I was able to put the remaining 7 letters down using all 3 triple word boxes simultaneously for a score 1076 for that one move (tile score 38, x27 for the three triples, plus 50 for the 7 tile drop) Is this a record?” Sadly we’ll never know! Because that is the END of our Scrabble-challenge feature this year. Thank you to everyone who took part - those book tokens will be with you shortly… Please send any NEW items for the newsletter to Anne McNaught at anne@planet-science.com And have a great week! Back to top