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1. CosmicSpace
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 NESTA awardee CosmicSpace will be at the Gallery Oldham until the 6th March.
If you’ve not experienced the wonder of the universe or the beauty of nature lately then do go along. It’s free, and you’ll get a chance to meditate in the custom made dome and revel in a full dome projection of astounding images and sounds, with poetry, story and philosophy and the opportunity to contemplate your connection with it all. (Man.)
CosmicSky productions is a recently formed collaboration between astronomer Dr Francisco Diego, planetarium educator and artist, Dr Gill Russell and poet/storyteller, Brian Hill, who stunned NESTA staff to silence when they visited us before Christmas to give us a taste of their work. It really was breathtaking.
http://www.cosmicsky.co.uk/ukvenues.html for more info.
http://www.galleryoldham.org.uk/information/information.htm for Gallery Oldham’s location.
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2.Activity of the Week
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 Jonathan Sanderson, freelance kids science TV producer, strikes again; with a not-so-taxing-as-last-week little something for you.
Warning – you may have to open a bottle of wine in the course of this activity |
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 Many physicists admire the precise manner in which toast contrives to land butter-side down when knocked off a table. The true connoisseur of domestic dynamics, however, will point to the humble wine-bottle cork as a bringer of even greater delight and fascination. To join the aficionados in their investigations, you will need: a cork. (Not one of those new-fangled plastic faux 'corks'; only a traditional, flat-ended cork will do. None of your fancy flared champagne corks, either.)
The Challenge
Drop the cork onto a table, lab bench, or other hard, flat surface, such that it lands standing upright rather than rolling around on its side.
Go on, try it. Not so easy, huh?
What's Going On?
As you will have discovered through empirical observation (i.e. you tried it, and it didn't work), the cork will bounce, tumble, and invariably settle on its side. Attempts to circumvent this behaviour by dropping the cork onto its flat end will only succeed for drops of a few miserable and unimpressive millimetres.
The knack is this: drop the cork on its side, from a height of about one-and-a-half times its own length.
Only very rarely will the cork land absolutely flat-on along its length. We'll call that situation by its technical name - a failure. Much more likely is that one end will strike the table first, so as the cork bounces, it'll start to rotate.
Judge the drop height right, and the amount of rotation will be just enough to bring the cork upright before it strikes the table a second time. The cork will rattle around before coming to settle upright. It's all rather satisfying when it you do it right.
Too high a drop will induce enough rotational momentum to spin the cork through far more than 90 degrees, at which point all bets are off. Too low a drop and you'll feel like an idiot as the cork pretty much just thuds to the table. But the range of heights over which the trick works is rather large (which is interesting in itself), and with a little practice it's possible to succeed about two times out of three.
I once found myself doing this in a bar, with a presenter from German children's TV, at a stuffy conference for science television types. It's rather good fun to have dozens of seasoned, serious, and terribly professional documentary-makers yelling 'Cool! Let me have a go!'.
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3. Notice board
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A competition, free places for technicians at Kew course and learning how to argue!
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4.Mouses at the Ready – Chocolate and Flipsides
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 If you’ve ever said – “Oh, I don’t really like Chocolate, I prefer savoury” then skim the next bit and go straight to the Flipside offer below it. The rest of us normal people wouldn’t want to waste this offer on you
Yes, back by popular demand! This half term Science of Chocolate, at Newcastle’s Centre for Life, uncovers the science of your favourite snacks. Between 18 – 26 February get ready for plenty of sweet surprises and find out how chocolate is made, if it can really alter your mood and how long it takes to burn off a single Smartie.
Put your love of chocolate to the test by trying a chocolate dipped bug or something more appetising at the chocolate fountain. There is also an opportunity to get your hands on even more of the sweet stuff in the Food for Thought Lab, which will use experiments to investigate if chocolate really can change the way you think!
And while you’re there, this is your last chance to see Mars Quest, an amazing exhibition which takes you on a journey to uncover the mysteries of Mars.
For more information please call (0191) 243 8210 or visit www.lifesciencecentre.org.uk
Newcastle’s Centre for Life have kindly given us 10 Centre for Life Family passes (1 adult and 3 children, or 2 adults and 2 children) to the Centre for Life, for you! If you’d like to go into the Centre for Life prize draw please email planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with CHOCOLATE HALF TERM in the subject line and the answer to this question:
Question: Where is Science of Chocolate taking place?
 FLIPSIDE MAGAZINE OFFER
In a mad frenzy of generosity we’ve decided to offer a massive 20 Flipsides to 20 lucky prize draw winners. Issue 9 features Jets, Bad Hair, Atlantis, Robobug and Top Trump Animals. Irresistible! This NESTA funded project has really grabbed the teen market – especially boys – so if you have a teen who might like it, write to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with JET COVER FLIPSIDE in the subject line and your address for posting. And don’t forget to check out http://www.flipside.org.uk/, for subscription info and more.
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5.Fatal Foods - Never eat an ugly fish!
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This week we start a series all about foods that are out to get you. Nutritionist Simone Baroke investigates six foods you may like to avoid. First up, the terrifying fugu fish roulette.
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 If you thought all fish was good for you, you might want to reconsider. Ever heard of fugu? It’s a traditional Japanese delicacy, a type of puffer fish (genus Takifugu), the only food the Japanese emperor is forbidden to indulge in. The taste of fugu is said to be quite bland, unless it’s been prepared in the “right” way, in which case the diner experiences a slight tingling sensation and subsequent numbness of the lips and tongue. The tingling is caused by tetrodotoxin (anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin), a powerful nerve poison. The flesh of the fish is harmless – the poison is mainly stored in the liver, the reproductive organs, the intestines and the skin. One fish may contain enough tetrodotoxin to kill 30 people. Only licensed chefs are allowed to prepare and sell fugu to the public, and they train for about three years to learn how to avoid contaminating the edible parts of the fish with lethal amounts of poison. Still, accidents do happen, and there are an estimated 50-100 fatalities each year.
Death by tetrodotoxin poisoning is anything but a quick’n’easy way to exit, and there is no antidote. So, what would happen to you? The toxin disables your entire electrical signalling system by blocking your nerves’ sodium channels, inhibiting the propagation of action potentials. In other words, it shuts down your nervous system. First symptoms usually occur around 20 minutes after ingestion, but could take up to three hours to set in. The initial sensation of tingling and numbness spreads from your mouth over the rest of your face, working its way down your arms and legs. Headache, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting follow. Paralysis encroaches, you won’t be able to scream, never mind speak, and soon you will be unable to move. But don’t worry, you won’t miss a thing – you’ll remain fully conscious throughout. Breathing will become increasingly difficult, and once your respiratory system fails, you’ve pretty much had it. Not all fugu poisonings are fatal, of course, and if you make it through 24 hours, you will most likely recover completely. Occasionally stories surface in the Japanese press about fugu poisoning victims knocking from inside coffins minutes before their cremation.
As you’d expect, fugu is fairly expensive – sometimes over £100 for a full meal, although you can sample it as part of a less elaborate culinary affair for under £20. And to be fair, fugu poisoning is rare and mainly happens when untrained people catch and prepare the fish. So, next time you’ve in Japan, give it a try! Or maybe just have a burger instead.
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Thanks Simone. I’ll have the salad.
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6. Recommended Websites of the Week
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Poetic Licence
Here’s a giant collection of poems which all have a science theme, however tenuous! If you’re seeking inspiration for a lesson starter or to spark off some arty thinking about your science subject, or you just want to hide in the staff loos with something beautiful for five minutes, this may be the page for you. The poems cover nearly everything: nature, fish tanks, snow, stars, memory, war, flowers, philosophy, lobsters – it’s seriously eclectic.
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8. Winners Enclosure
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Ooooh! Just by a nose….
Last week we offered two software prize draws. The winner of Fable’s chemical modelling Odyssey (http://www.fable.co.uk/odyssey.htm for more info) was Linton Austen from Thirsk. Sugar lump for you.
The winner of Granada Learning’s Simulation Explorer was Judith Willis from Stalybridge. Polo mint for you.
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9. Joke of the Weak
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Many thanks to NESTA colleague Vicki Costello for passing on this classic.
A guy is driving around Tennessee and he sees a sign in front of a house: "Talking Dog For Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a Labrador retriever sitting there.
"You talk?" he asks.
"Yep," the Lab replies.
"So, what's your story?"
The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.
I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running.
But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security wandering near suspicious characters and listening in.
I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.
"Ten dollars," the guy says.
"Ten dollars? This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"
"Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff"
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That’s all for this week, hope it’s been fun. If you have anything you'd like to contribute to next week’s Newsletter, jokes, news, free stuff for teachers of science, please send an email to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk
PS if you would like to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, just reply to this email with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the title.
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The European Commission's '
ICT guru Roger Frost is back for the last in this series of Winning Whiteboard sites. If you have a whiteboard winner you use, please write to 