PLANET SCIENCE NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 20 Stardate: Friday 7th February 2003 Did you know you can choose to receive this weekly news update free by email? sign up here From mushrooms, to mammals, to optical illusions and the future of spacecraft technology; this week’s newsletter covers a lot of ground and as ever we’ve rounded up a raft of news, offers, information and activities aimed at enhancing your week… Have a look: 01. Get ordering at the PLANET SCIENCE DINER 02. VALENTINE'S TIPS online 03. ‘HOW DID THE MUSHROOM GET ITS SPOTS?’ – free book 04. Mouses Ready: THE MAMMALS COME TO BIRMINGHAM 05. Activity of the Week: DO MY EYES DECEIVE ME? (yes) 06. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS: replacement Space Shuttle 07. RWW: countryside, personality and wind chill 08. JOKE OF THE WEEK O1. GET YOUR CHOPS ROUND THIS! Feeling hungry? Well, then: park up, come on in and sit yourself down in one of our lovely wipe clean vinyl booths ... the Planet Science Diner is open for business! Now - what'd y'all like? The 'science of cookery' is what's on the menu - sunny side up, easy over, or just click-click-PING if it's microwave action you're after... On the deliciously extensive menu, you'll find scientifically-aided recipes for a slap up 3-course meal, activities for those who want to play with their food, career options for those who want to get a whole lot more serious about it all. But that's only the tip of the iceberg lettuce... The Diner's interactive piece de resistence is the 'Microwhizz Oven' which allows you to investigate how microwaves work (and which foods make the most mess when they encounter those waves...) and Microwave Magic, which features recommended microwave show-off recipes and many a thing you'd never thought of doing in your microwave we just bet! So get in there and rattle those pots and pans. And - would y' like a coffee refill? Check it all out right here. Enjoy! Back to top 02. VALENTINES ONLINE Ooh - and if you were wondering where the link to the Valentine's Day activities was in last week's newsletter... it was ... erm ... in a new invisible font that we're just testing out at the moment. For those without X-ray Specs, it's probably best to give that link again... here. Have a look, you'll be tickled pink... if you're lucky. Back to top 03. ANYONE FOR FREE FUNGI FACTS? Have we got magic mushroom news for you... "How the Mushroom Got Its Spots: an explainers' guide to fungi'' is a book for anyone who wants to delve into the fascinating world of mushrooms, toadstools, moulds and other fungi. And if you're a teacher, or a leader of a wildlife group or science club, the publishers hereby invite you to help yourself to a free copy RIGHT NOW. The authors are Sue Assinder from the University of Wales, Bangor and Gordon Rutter, a schoolteacher in Edinburgh, and the publishers are the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC for short) and the British Mycological Society, so it comes with a sterling reputation. Fancy a copy? Go on, it won't take up mush room on your bookshelf! Order yours by sending an email to schools@bbsrc.ac.uk or by writing to Chantelle Jay, BBSRC, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wilts, SN2 1UH. N.B. you can download a copy of the book and other publications, at the BBSRC's education website, click to: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/schools Back to top 04. MOUSES AT THE READY The BBC's 'Life of Mammals' interactive exhibition is on the road and heading for Birmingham's brilliant ThinkTank science museum next week... So what an ideal time to nab a free family passes for a fantastic day out. And we have two such family passes to give away, so stand by your mousemats! The Mammals exhibition is smallish but perfectly formed, and highly interactive. For example, you can get to have a play at hiding-out under camouflage Attenborough-style to film unsuspecting animals, and then try editing the film you’ve shot; you can also take a ride in the Simulator for a ‘Hunting with Big Cats’ experience that’s about the closest you can get to the real thing, without actually being a big cat yourself. There are plenty of other displays and hands-on activities on offer, workshops are being run by the Mammal Society, and the programme’s producers are coming in to give talks on Saturdays and Sundays too, so if you’re a Midlands-based ‘Mammals’ fan, this is the place for you. The ‘Life of Mammals’ exhibition is free to all museum visitors, and with the aid of a free family pass, you’ll be able to wander throughout all of the ten award-winning galleries. These are full of past, present and future science and innovation, and there's oodles of interactive fun to be had, plus a lovely café of course for when your brain and body need a fuel-stop! Check it all out at the Thinktank website. And: if you fancy one of those 4-person tickets, all you have to do is send an email with your name, address and phone number, entitled ‘I WANT TO SEE THE MAMMALS!’ to anne@planet-science.com. On Monday at 5pm all emailers details will go into the hat and two winners will be selected… Good luck! Back to top 05. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: THE ILLUSORY PENDULUM ... Play with your mind and learn about the eye. An optical experiment this week, suggested to us by Professor Richard Gregory of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, a longstanding top cat on the block when it comes to perception... Here's what you need: • Two eyes (both your own) • String • White modelling clay • Dark filter (cheap sunspecs split in two will do) What to do: • With the string and a bob of clay, make a pendulum that swings in a straight arc across your line of sight • Sit about two meters away to view the swinging bob. It should be swinging across you - left, right, left, right... • Now place a dark filter over one eye, and look at the pendulum again. Amazingly, the pendulum will seem to swing in and out, as well as across, in an elliptical orbit - round and round and round... • Put the dark glass on the other eye - the pendulum's orbit reverses direction. Hmmmmmm... - how did that happen? Here's how: When you cover your eye with a filter it becomes more sensitive to light. The pupil gets bigger to allow more light in, and the signals to the brain are delayed slightly, to allow more light to enter the eye (just like a camera with a slower shutter speed). The eye with the dark glass sees the moving pendulum delayed in time and therefore in a different position from the other eye. The brain puts the two positions together, fooling you into thinking the bob is moving in and out in an ellipse. This is similar to when 3-D films put two images together to fool you into thinking things are coming out of the screen. Try filters which allow differing amounts of light through (perhaps using one or more filters on the eye together). Like that one? Want more? Check out our online treasure trove of experiments and demonstration, the Little Book of Experiments at http://www.planet-science.com/experiment. And if it's particularly optical illusions and perception experiments you're after, have a look at Richard's own site http://www.richardgregory.org Back to top 06. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS The Columbia disaster has cast a long shadow over science and technology in the news this week, and much has been written about the investigations underway at NASA, and the hypotheses as to what went wrong. Our experts at Science Line have been looking beyond the events of the past few days, to look at possible replacement technology for the future. Here's the link: http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/slup/CuttingEdge/ Feb03/shuttle.html Back to top 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK First of all for junior inhabitants of Planet Science, we've found several activities that may be just the thing for a rainy afternoon... COUNTRYSIDE FOUNDATION - Education Pages http://www.countrysidefoundation.org.uk/Activities/ Wholelactivities.htm Match the footprint to the animal, learn about the crops that are grown here in the UK, and don yourself a heavy disguise with three print-off-and-colour-in animal masks... Secondly, ever wondered exactly what "wind chill" is? (Apart from a freezing good reason to stay indoors with a cup of tea and a selection of holiday brochures...). BBC WEATHER CENTRE http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/wind_chill.shtml It's a concept that was developed to help them calculate conditions in Antarctica - but funnily enough it works well in the UK too, and it's one of the topics explained on the BBC WEATHER CENTRE website. And have a click around because there's plenty of other good stuff on the site too... And finally a personality quiz, courtesy of the Science Museum and the BBC, which will probe your mental abilities and tell you... 'What Sex is Your Brain?' http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/intelligence/quiz.shtml Don't worry it won't take you too long - and it's just for fun, they won't criticise you! Back to top 08. JOKE OF THE WEEK ... is sort of like a physics joke: Two sprinters are training for the 100 metres race. One says to the other: "You won't believe this, but I've just run 100 metres in 10 seconds." The other says: "But that's impossible, that's the world record." The first replies: "Aha, but I took a short cut..." And secondly, still on a sporty theme: "Why doesn't Robin play cricket?" "Because he lost his bat, man" Yeah right! Back to top ANY OTHER BUSINESS First of all, if you're wondering what happened to the Haiku Challenge, lovely Jo who set the challenge last week has been so overcome with emotion at the responses she's received, that she's had to have a couple of days off ill. So, watch this space and keep those haiku's coming... And same goes for recommendations for Website of the Week and, as ever, JOKES. Good jokes, that is... Another news-zap will be coming your way next Friday, and in the meantime: HAVE A GREAT WEEK! Back to top