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Stardate Friday 11th May 2007 Issue 230
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It’s small, it’s grey and it’s smug. Yes we’re talking about the grey, short-tailed opossum which has become the first marsupial to have its DNA read by scientists. Since there are about 3.4 billion base-pairs in the opossum genome it must have taken quite some time. At least now we might find out how they perform such mind-blowing biological tricks e.g. regrowing their spinal cords even if they are completely severed. Anyway, on to this week’s newsletter. But first … an apology. To all you keen compers who dived on the May Mayhem Quiz with relish only to find it was mucking about – sorreeee! We messed up on that but you’ll find it’s OK now. So to make amends we have not ONE but TWO giveaways this week in Mouses Part 1 and Part 2. Note to selves: Must try harder…The line-up this week:
- Stump the Scientist: see you later, insulator
- Activity of the Week: Cheesy Waves
- Mouses at the Ready Part 1: Junior Science Prize books
- Planet-SciCast
- Noticeboard: FYI
- Recommended websites of the week
- Mouses at the Ready Part 2: Okido magazine
- The Winners’ Enclosure
- Joke of the Week
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1. Stump the Scientist
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 In last week’s stumper, Peter Roberts told us:
“I was asked by a Year Six boy whether air was a thermal conductor or insulator. He had been asked the question in a revision guide and was not happy with the bald statement – insulator. I had my doubts about it, but am really not sure. To a logical mind, it would seem that a radiator proves that air is a thermal conductor – if it wasn’t, how would we feel the heat from the radiator or fire against our bodies
Can you help please, as I would love to be able to give him a valid answer. Many thanks"
Help? We should say so! Scientists have been going crazy to get in touch. Our e has never been so mailed. We’ll let Janet Dowle deal with this one:
“Air is a very good insulator, but it must be trapped (like when you wear layers of clothes) to allow it to be a good insulator. If air is allowed to move it will carry heat with it in a convection current. That is why the heat is carried around the room from the radiator. If you hold your hands near a hot object you feel heat being given off by the process of radiation. This is infrared radiation, and part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This can travel through space (a vacuum), let alone air. Incidentally, radiators are not very good at radiating as they are usually painted white. They should be black to be better at radiating heat. Most heat is carried from radiators by convection. Hope this helps.”
Sharon Colpman comments
“It just goes to show that exam questions are often over simplified and are not always written or checked by good scientists.”
And the last word to Alan Glaze
“Thumbs up to the questioning mind - isn't that what science is all about?”
We couldn’t agree more Alan and thanks to everyone who wrote in with such interesting and comprehensive explanations. We have kept all your emails on file for the future.
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
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2. Activity of the Week: Cheesy Waves
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 Microwaves in a microwave oven are the kind of waves that don’t travel anywhere but just stay in one place. These are called standing waves. You can make standing waves with a skipping rope or by banging a drum. In this experiment you can see standing waves by melting cheese in a microwave oven. Plus of course afterwards there is the added bonus of eating it!
You will need:
- A microwave oven
- Some slices of processed cheese
- A (microwaveable) plastic tray
What to do:
- Remove the turntable from the microwave.
- Lay strips of cheese on the tray and put it into the oven.
- Either give it a quick blast (about 10 sec) on high power or try leaving it in there for 1 min on a low setting like defrost. (This is better if your microwave timer doesn’t have seconds on it).
- Take the tray out of the oven and look to see where the cheese has melted. The places where the cheese has melted show where the microwaves inside the oven are biggest (where the waves have maximum amplitude).
What’s going on?
In some parts of the oven, the waves have a high amplitude and the cheese gets hot and melts. In other parts, the amplitude is small, or zero, and the cheese doesn’t melt.
This is why you need a turntable in a microwave oven. If the food isn’t turned round it doesn’t get cooked evenly all over.
(We did this experiment in a microwave with an ‘Intellowave even heat system’ and we still saw parts where the cheese didn’t melt.)
This experiment came from Planet Science’s Little Book of Experiments.
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3. Mouses at the Ready. Part 1
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 It’s nearly time to find out which book has won the Royal Society Junior Science Prize!
Here’s the shortlist:
- Can You Feel the Force?
- How Nearly Everything Was Invented by The Brainwaves
- It's True! Space Turns You Into Spaghetti
- KFK Natural Disasters
- My Body Book
- Science Investigations - Electricity
The winner is being chosen by judging panels of young people in 119 organisations across the UK. And did you know that 25 of the 119 groups taking part were supported by Nesta's Planet Science? So who’s going to win? Well you can find out by listening in, as the ceremony will be webcast live from http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/live at 7.30pm on Tuesday 15 May!
And those lovely people at the RS have given us all six books to give away!
If you want to win the set then send an email with your name and address, and the words JUNIOR PRIZE in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.
The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 16th May.
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Places available at our DEVON SciCast workshop
If you’d like to spend a day in Devon learning filming and editing, and making a mini movie of a science related demo, there’s places going at our Devon SciCast workshop (Commercial rate for this workshop would be about £250, but to you lovely Planet Science teachers, it’s FREE) at St Luke’s Science Centre and Sports College, Exeter. Open for teachers or technicians, who are welcome to bring a colleague. You’ll be taught by Jonathan Sanderson, who is a seasoned TV producer of kids science programmes. Great fun, as well as much learning, will be had by all. First come first served. RSVP ASAP please to scicast@nesta.org.uk
www.planet-scicast.com
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<<< Back to Top |
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May Mayhem Quiz
So do you fancy another bash at the May Mayhem Quiz? Come on, don’t be like that – it was just a technical error, y’know how it is. Answer the ten questions and you could win one of two Platinum Bedlam Cubes.
The Bedlam Cube is the hardest & most addictive 3-D puzzle ever... You'll pull most of your barnet out trying to reassemble the gleaming little brain mangler.
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LiMinted Edition
There’s only a few Mint Packs left now, so if you haven’t ordered one for fun or to take part in the Making a Mint competition, go for it, ASAP! Go here to order, www.planet-science.com/outthere/mint.
If you have ordered one already, write to makingamint@nesta.org.uk and let us know about extra packs and we’ll add you into the mailing list by hand.
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Free trees!
Tree For All is the most ambitious children's tree-planting project ever launched in the UK, with plans to help plant 12 million trees over the next five years. Don’t hang about! Woods are under threat and we need to inspire our children to become future guardians of their natural environment.
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7. Mouses at the Ready. Part 2
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 This week we have a fantastic giveaway. A year’s subscription to a brand new magazine aimed at 2-7 year olds. OKIDO is published every 2 months. In each issue children will meet their favourite heroes, dream, experiment and discover new science pages to encourage their curiosity, scientific thinking and much much more.
If you want to enter then send an email with your name and address, and the words OKIDO SUB in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.
The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 16th May.
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Last week we were offering ten periodic table placemats from RGB Research.
The lucky winners are Bob Granfield from Telford, K. Miller from Glasgow, David K. Thomson from Aylesbury, Fiona Gilbank from Leeds, Jenny Lyons from London, Kirsty Price from Nottinghamshire, Ben Larke from Basildon, Lesley Wilkes from Huddersfield, Bernard Forrester from Essex and Sam Hollis from Hemel Hempstead. Congratulations and watch where you’re dripping the tomato ketchup, you could wipe out the whole of Group IV!
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9. Joke of the week
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A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip on to the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes and bows down in prayer.
His friend says: ‘Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man.’
The man then replies: ‘Yeah, well we were married 35 years’.
Don’t blame us! This came from the book ‘Laughlab – The Scientific Quest for the World’s Funniest Joke’. And there’s plenty more where that came from…
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PS if you would like to unsubscribe from the newsletter please reply to this email nsonawane@nesta.org.uk with unsubscribe as the subject line.
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