WARNING: This newsletter contains the best giveaway yet!

There’s nothing like a break from the old routine to recharge the batteries! So here we are, bright-eyed and bushytailed and springing around like a Jack Russell waiting for the postman. What’s in store this week? Well this weekend is the London Marathon of course! But how about running a marathon in space?  American astronaut Sunita Williams completed the Boston Marathon’s 26.2 mile race aboard the International Space Station in just four hours, 23 minutes and 46 seconds. She signed up for it before she went into space and ran the race tied to a treadmill with elasticated ropes to stop her floating away. There’s always someone who goes just that one bit further, isn’t there? Sigh.

The line-up this week:

1. Stump the Scientist: plant cancer and salt and vinegar crisps
2. Activity of the Week: Science Sweet Science
3. Mouses at the Ready for Royal Society 2007 General Prize longlist
4. Noticeboard: FYI
5. Recommended websites of the week
6. The Winners’ Enclosure
7. Joke of the Week

Nick Baker asked, “Why don't plants get cancer, or do they?” 

Dr Sarah McLusky (ex-plant pathologist) replies

Also NESTA’s own Kamini Plaha adds

“Don’t know if this counts but I think/believe the reason why plants don’t get cancer is because they regulate their own growth.”

We also had another stumper. Caroline told us

Well according to Richard Bryan

”I assume that this is not an attempt to separate the vinegar but merely to convert a salt & vinegar crisp into just a salted crisp. (Hmmmmm – not sure about that. Ed)

This method relies on the fact that vinegar is an acid (ethanoic acid) and can therefore be removed by reacting it with a suitable base.  An example of such a base is bicarbonate of soda (sodium hydrogencarbonate).  Open the packet, add one teaspoonful of bicarbonate and shake the bag.  Leave for an hour for the reaction to happen and then try one of the crisps.  If there is still a vinegary taste, just add another teaspoon of bicarbonate and wait a bit longer.

Water is one of the products of the reaction so you will get soggy crisps unfortunately.  The other products are carbon dioxide gas and sodium ethanoate.  In large doses sodium ethanoate is harmful so it is not a good idea to eat too many crisps!”

Interesting…

And Dr Alan P Glaze further adds to the argument by stating, “It's possible that there is no vinegar.............. - sodium diacetate (E262) is used as a 'vinegar' flavouring agent.“

What?! After all that effort? Are you going to tell Richard Bryan or shall we?

So thank you one and all.  On this occasion, and for two questions, the scientist was NOT stumped!

If you can help or have a burning question of your own then send us an email with STUMP THE SCIENTIST in the subject line to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk

Whilst you’re gawping at this artistic little activity you can also wonder at the very complicated process that all plants use to survive.

You will need:

• Small dishes or saucers.  (White will show up best)
• Different coloured lollies that have a coloured sugar coating
• Water

What to do:

1. Fill your containers with water, around one two centimetres deep.
2. Drop three or four lollies gently in the water, evenly spread around the dish.
3. Watch what happens.
4. Resist the temptation to scoff your experiment.

What’s going on?

The sugar and the colour in the lolly coating stick together. As this coating dissolves, it sinks to the bottom of the dish because it is heavier than water. It’s then pushed outwards as more sugar dissolves on top of it, and the colour spreads out.

Another factor to consider is diffusion. In a fluid like water or air, things like to spread out so there is an even amount of them everywhere. Think of a bad smell that is not happy staying in one spot, but must travel through the whole room, or a drop of food colouring that slowly spreads out in a glass of water. They both want to spread out so they are everywhere evenly.

This is called diffusion, and it is where something from an area of high concentration moves to an area of low concentration. It does this by catching a ride on the fluid it's in, which is in constant and random motion at a molecular (very small) level.

The colours stop when they meet each other because their concentrations are the same, so they are no longer moving from an area of high concentration to low concentration and have nowhere to go. The water will eventually go a pre-school brown as all the colours eventually mix up.

So what does this have to do with plants?

All living things are made of cells. They are the basic unit of structure and function in living things. Most cells are too small to be seen with the naked eye. The cell walls (membrane) are selectively permeable (leaky), which means that some substances can pass through it while others cannot (a bit like kids’ selective hearing which handily filters out phrases such as ‘Go and do your homework’ whilst allowing those such as ‘Here’s your pocket money’). Oxygen, food molecules, and waste products must all pass through the cell wall. These three substances move in and out of a cell by one of three methods: diffusion, osmosis, or active transport.

Diffusion is essential to plant life. It is the main way small molecules move across the cell wall. Cells need oxygen to survive. They get the oxygen they need from their surroundings. There are many more molecules of oxygen outside a cell than inside, and the cell membrane is permeable to oxygen. So, oxygen moves into the cell by diffusion. It moves from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration.

This activity is taken from the fabulous Science by Email.

Brace yourselves! We have the most incredible prize up for grabs!

The Royal Society General Prize judges announce their shortlist on 26 April 2007. The overall winner will be announced on the evening of 15 May 2007.

But which ones will make it on to the shortlist?

The twelve books selected by the General Prize judging panel as the long list are:

1. A Mind of its Own by Cordelia Fine (Icon Books)
2. Bang! The Complete History of the Universe by Brian May, Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott (Carlton Books)
3. Francis Crick, Discoverer of the Genetic Code by Matt Ridley (Harper Press)
4. Giant Leaps  by Jack Challoner and John Perry (Boxtree)
5. Homo Britannicus by Chris Stringer (Penguin Allen Lane)
6. In Search of Memory  by Eric R. Kandel (WW Norton & Co)
7. Lonesome George  by Henry Nicholls (Macmillan)
8. One in Three  by Adam Wishart (Profile Books)
9. Stumbling on Happiness  by Daniel Gilbert (Harper Press)
10. The Goldilocks Enigma  by Paul Davies (Penguin Allen Lane)
11. The Rough Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson (Rough Guides)
12. The Science of Doctor Who by Paul Parsons (Icon Books)

If you want to read more details then check out the Royal Society website.

And those fantastic folks at the RS have given us a set of all twelve books to give away! It’s unbelievable! Worth over £100. Who in their right minds wouldn’t want to win such a tremendous prize?

If you want to win then send an email with your name and address, and the words ROYAL PRIZE in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.

The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 25th April.

We need to have a quick lie down now.  All that excitement was just too much.