PLANET SCIENCE NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 19 Stardate: Friday 31st January 2003 Did you know you can choose to receive this weekly news update free by email? sign up here Welcome, welcome we are proud to present you with another shining edition of the Planet Science newsletter. Issue 19 will forever be remembered (whether for good or bad is yet to be seen) as the one that was guest edited by myself, Joanna Edwards, so thank you for your patience and understanding! This newsletter is so full I can barely squeeze in this intro. We’ve mixed up goose bumps, poetry and chemistry for a recipe that is bound to get you fizzing! Read on……… 01. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Valentines Science Fun 02. NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK rolls round again 03. Activity of the week: BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE 04. MOUSES AT THE READY for Catalyst: Science Discovery Centre 05. LAST WEEK’S WINNERS 06. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS – Catch Leo De Cap if you can! 07. RWW – “Is it heavier than a duck?” 08. CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK 09. JOKE OF THE WEEK 10. AOB O1. VALENTINE’S DAY SCIENCE FUN Yes – Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us and to celebrate we’ve dedicated a brand new section in ‘Out There’ to the romantic side of your soul! With the help of some amazing science trickery you will be able to…………… • Turn Valentine sleuth by learning how to forensically tell who sent you that card • Go coy and learn how to send the ultimate in anonymous valentine cards including writing an invisible message inside – lets see someone work that one out! • Start seeing red and turn ALL flowers into Valentine flowers • Drive people blooming crazy playing ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ and winning EVERY time! • Get creative and grow your own crystal hearts So what are you waiting for? Only 13 shopping days to go and you need time to perfect those flowers! Click here to put some romance in your life! Back to top 02. ALL SCIENCE, ALL WEEK DURING NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK Don’t forget National Science Week is coming up soon (7-16 March 2003) so, if you’re a teacher, it’s time to start deciding how your school or class can get involved. There’s already an extensive range of events planned throughout the UK including science shows, special museum trips, discovery tours and interactive experiments involving whole classes or even whole schools! Although National Science Week isn’t a Planet Science initiative we’re behind it all the way and think it’s a great opportunity to get kids and adults enthusiastic about science. For the ones who are already enthusiastic it’s a great chance for them to show off their skills! For more information on what’s going on and how to get involved go to The British Association’s website or click on this link to go to NSW 2003 programme and hover over any bit of the map to find out what’s going on in your area and to inspire you to set up your own event. Back to top 03. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK – Goose Pimples This week we bring you an activity that you need the cold weather for (see – it has to be good for something!) Here’s what you need……………… • A cold day • A large bowl of warm water (bath temperature) • A load of students with their sleeves rolled up (or if you’re a parent – your own kids!) Instructions: As simple as anything, ever – get a willing volunteer (!) to dunk a cold arm, covered in goose-bumps, into the bowl of warm water and observe. So, what’s the point? This activity is designed to show the difference between things happening all over your body (systemic) or just in one place (local). Surprisingly - for some of us anyway - the goose bumps on the arm in question stay put even though the water is warming the arm. They would disappear eventually but this would be due to the water warming your blood and therefore making the goose bumps disappear from all over your body! This shows that goose bumps are an all-or-nothing experience, they’re not specific to one part of the body This experiment was recommended to us by Dr John McLachlan at the Peninsula Medical School, Plymouth and is one of loads of great activities and demonstrations in our affectionately named ‘Little Book’. If you would like to peruse the rest online then go here. Back to top 04. MOUSES AT THE READY Roll up, roll up, this week we have two family passes to the excellent Catalyst: Science Discovery Centre in Widnes, Cheshire. This is a great day out for the whole family, with a groovy mix of education and fun – and a 100ft tall glass lift, which has fab views of the Mersey and the surrounding countryside too. It has over 100 interactive exhibits in four galleries, offering an insight into the region’s industrial and social history. Here at the Planet Science offices we particularly like the look of the Scientrific section because it lets you mix some magical chemicals without doing yourself (or other people) any damage! Check out all four areas (Scientrific, Birth of an Industry, Chemicals for life and The Observatory) at www.catalyst.org.uk. So, if you’re in the Cheshire area and fancy a chemtastic day out, e-mail joanna@planet-science.com with IT’S ALL ABOUT CHEMISTRY in the subject line and your name and address in the message. The first 2 names pulled out of the virtual hat after 5.00pm on Monday will swiftly receive two awesome family passes. Back to top 05. LAST WEEK’S WINNERS………… (Actually it was two weeks ago but who’s counting?) Of the five family passes to the ‘Centre for Life’ in Newcastle were, The Montgomery Family, Liz Lawrence, Asim Mohammed, Dr Alan Brennan and Mr Andrew Wildes. Congratulations to you and if you don’t already have your tickets you should be receiving them very shortly. Back to top 06. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS One of this week’s big film releases is ‘Catch Me If You Can’ with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks and it promises to be a corker. It’s set in the 60’s and is all about a very charming but very crooked crook who forges cheques to subsidise his glam lifestyle. Inspiring Science Line to find out all about modern day forgery and the measures taken to prevent it... See for yourself at: http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/slup/CuttingEdge/Jan03/cheque.html Back to top 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK Chemistry, poetry and Twenty Questions!! CREATIVE CHEMISTRY http://www.creativechemistry.org.uk Some great educational resources, like colourful worksheets, question sheets and practical guides for GCSE chemistry. But, more to the point, it also has an excellent selection of chemistry-related games! Second, a Japanese poetry site to help you through the ‘Challenge of the Week’ section (all will be revealed when you read on!) Click on... HAIKU POETRY http://www.haiku.insouthsea.co.uk/index.htm A haiku website with clear and concise writing and content approved by the NGfL. And finally: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral anyone? 20Q.net http://www.q.20q.net This is a great site that will leave you wondering. It's the internet version of the game '20 Questions' and is an exercise in artificial intelligence. The site’s been going for about 10 years and all the information the programme has comes from users answering its questions. The site is basic but succinct and includes the recent addition of a censor. If you are playing this with kids then make sure they register on the site, then you can set your own censor level. We’ve tried our best to out-fox this ‘intelligent’ website, but to no avail. It guessed I was thinking of ‘hamster’ in 13 guesses, got ‘lightning bolt’ after 20 questions and got 'swede' in 23 guesses. At the end of each turn it tells you ‘things I didn’t know’ which is information the computer hadn’t previously learnt (before we played, the programme didn’t know that a lightning bolt is not a herb!). It also lets you know where you’ve got things wrong (apparently I don’t know as much about swedes as I thought – who knew they don’t contain vitamin C?!). This site is fascinating, a bit scary and some of the questions are hilarious – “Is it heavier than a duck?” Back to top 08. CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK Talk about your brand new newsletter sections. Although this particular section may only last for a couple of weeks, we think it will be worth it! We have managed to beg, steal and borrow five (yes, five) Intel Play Digital microscopes to give away. One of these was sent to each school as part of Science Year so if you’re a science teacher then you should already have one at your school. However, if you would like another because the first one was sooooo fantastic and science classes are fighting over it, or if you’re a parent or a pupil then now’s your chance to show off your poetry skills and get a fab microscope to boot. Before we go any further, we must just mention that the microscope must be used with a PC which has a USB port (for more details on which programmes the microscopes are compatible with see here. Unfortunately we can’t offer any alternative prizes). Ok, now for the challenge…………………………… Want to win a prize? Microscope for a haiku – Peace & inner calm, free Don’t you just love a good haiku? Well we do, hence the challenge! Haiku is a form of poetry that has its roots in the ancient Japanese poetical form of ‘Tanka’. By the beginning of the 19th Century the name haiku was given and this beautiful, simple poetry started to gain popularity throughout the Western world. Although a much debated issue (mainly due to the translation problems from Japanese to English language), we have come up with the following rules for this particular challenge: 01. Try to use no more than 17 syllables in total 02. Arrange these syllables in 3 lines of five, seven and five syllables (or thereabouts) 03. Keep it simple and try to avoid metaphors and similes 04. Must be either science or nature based 05. Try to base it on an experience you’ve had (or an experiment you’ve done!) 06. E-mail all entries, with your details, to joanna@planet-science.com So, there you go – have fun, haiku’s are easy to write and kids tend to be good at them because they’re short and simple and don’t need to rhyme! This was going to be purely science based but traditional Japanese haiku deal with nature and besides we’ve come up with a nature one to get you going! This one is inspired by my walk at sunset this weekend over hills and fields in Quinton, Birmingham………… Sun filters through trees Sky divided, pink and blue: Turn away and walk Good Luck!!! Back to top 09. JOKE OF THE WEEK This week………………………………………CHEMISTS! As it’s been a (very) loose theme this week we have decided to pick on chemistry and chemists for this week’s jokes. First some oldies but goodies; What do you do with a dead chemist? Barium What happens when electrons lose their energy? They get Bohr’d What’s the difference between chemistry and cooking? In chemistry you should never lick the spoon And now something to get all those chemists out there riled enough to send us some jokes in that will get their own back! You know you’re a chemist when………………………… • you carry your lab safety goggles around with you at all times, just in case... • you don't drink water, you drink H2O. • you start disagreeing with movies and TV shows on scientific aspects. • you carry a base solution around with you at all times, just in case one of those freak Hydrochloric acid spills happen. • you become very agitated when people refer to air as Oxygen, and proceed to list all of the components of air. • instead of writing ozone you write O3. • you start referring to the smell of nail polish remover as an acetone smell. Back to top 10. AOB Ok, we’ve had just about enough news for this week, I don’t think we could squeeze any more in we tried! However, we do have a blank sheet waiting for next week’s news so if anyone has anything they’d like to share (like physicist jokes for example!) then e-mail joanna@planet-science.com. We would especially appreciate any info on what you’re all up to in National Science Week so that we can inspire others! Don’t forget your haiku and have a great week! Back to top