Did you know that it’s twenty years since The Chuckle Brothers hit our TV screens?  If that’s not cause for celebration we don’t know what is. A lesson in friction for children (and the not so young) everywhere is the good old slipping-on-a-banana-skin gag as demonstrated by the chucklemeisters themselves. Perhaps not so amusing for Mrs P. Throckmorton in Ward 6B spending three weeks in traction with a dislocated hip after a similar episode with a wayward melon skin.  Opposing forces eh? Where would we be without them?

The line-up this week:

1. Stump the Scientist: Green monkeys
2. Creature Feature: Hagfish
3. Activity of the Week: Tennis ball popper
4. Mouses at the Ready:  IMAX tickets for Transformers
5. SciCast Seminars
6. Noticeboard: FYI
7. Recommended websites of the week
8. The Winners’ Enclosure
9. Joke of the Week

This week’s question comes from Clare Christie who ponders

‘On the topic of questions from thoughtful Year 6 students, I was asked (during a discussion about camouflage) why monkeys aren't green... I've still not really been able to think why this might be!  Any ideas?’

We have some answers for Sarah who asked

‘If the Coriolis effect affects the direction in which large things like hurricanes turn, in which direction would a hurricane spin on the equator?
Or what would happen if one started south of the equator and moved northwards above it?’

Nigel Bowen answers
‘Cyclones cannot form on the equator, because in the equatorial region the coriolis force is small, and exactly zero on the equator.

The fact that the Coriolis force is zero at the equator and very weak near the equator, explains why tropical cyclones such as hurricanes and typhoons won't form on the equator even though the other factors there, such as warm ocean water, would make them likely. But, the idea that you don't have to worry about tropical cyclones in the zone about 180 miles north and south of the equator isn't a sure thing, as Typhoon Vamei showed in December 2001.
Also, note that the pressure gradient force in the Northern hemisphere is usually larger than the Coriolis force - so storm systems tend to rotate anticlockwise around low pressure areas rather than clockwise. If a hurricane started south of the equator and then moved north of the equator, the hurricane would blow itself out before it reached the equator because the Coriolis force would become too weak to keep it rotating. Hope that helps!’

Mrs. Charlotte McBride of the South African Weather Service says

‘There is no Coriolis "force" at the equator. This means you can't get the storm rotating at the equator. Hurricanes or tropical cyclones rarely form or move within about 5 degrees of the equator due to this lack of Coriolis "force".’

Thanks for your help everyone.  On this occasion 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

Hagfish

Hagfish belong to the Mixinidae family.  The hagfish is notorious for its slimy skin. When disturbed, it oozes a chemical from its skin that rearranges the molecules in the slimy outer coating, expanding it into a huge mass of slime. This makes them very unsavory to predators. One scientist researching this biochemical phenomenon concluded that a single hagfish could fill an entire paint bucket with slime in less than ten minutes. (Muse magazine, 2006).  Now that’s what we call a party trick! Also, it has to sneeze just to keep the slime from clogging up its own system. 

When this primitive boneless fish is born it is both male and female.  That way, if the number of males or females start to dwindle out, it can turn into that sex to increase breeding chances.  This underwater wonder can lay up to 30 hard shell eggs at a time. It is eaten in Japan and other Asian countries.

The hagfish has feelers that enable it to find food more easily. It is an opportunistic feeder, and enjoys dead and rotting animals that float down from the pelagic zone of the ocean. Swarms of hagfish will descend upon the carcass and devour it from the inside out. This efficient mode of marine waste disposal helps to keep the ocean floor clean of rotting animals, which helps to regulate the global cycles of phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen.

In many parts of the world, including the US, hagfish-skin clothing, belts, or other accessories are advertised and sold as "yuppie leather."

For more information visit the Recommended Site of the Week.

Have you visited the Planet Scicast site yet? You don’t know what you’re missing. Here’s an activity made into an amusing little clip by schoolchildren in Northern Ireland. 

Tennis Ball Popper

You will need:

• An old tennis ball
• A sturdy pair of scissors
• A lightweight ball such as a table tennis ball

What to do:

1. Cut the tennis ball in half. Ask an adult to do this bit as it can be very tricky.
2. Trim the hemisphere down to make a piece that you can invert and it will keep its shape.
3. Place the inverted ‘popper’ on a table and place the lightweight ball on top of the indentation.
4. Move back and wait!
5. The tennis ball will pop back to its normal shape and the lightweight ball will fly into the air!

What’s going on?

Work is required to turn the hemisphere inside-out.  When you flex the popper inside out, this work is stored as potential energy which is released suddenly as kinetic energy when it pops back the other way, sending the (lightweight) table tennis ball shooting off.

This activity is on Planet Scicast. Keep checking back for new films and how about submitting one of your own?

Other ideas

Experiment with plastic popper toys.  If you turn the popper inside-out and drop it, bulge-side-up, on a hard surface. the ball will snap and rebound to a height much greater than that from which it was dropped.

If you place the popper bulge-side-down on the table then it will not jump so high.  This is because it needs something to push against.  If you are using one of the smaller toy poppers (about 3cm in diameter) try launching the popper from the edge of a film canister – it won’t work.

TRANSFORMERS come to the IMAX Bradford!

For centuries, two races of robotic aliens – the Autobots and the Decepticons – have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake.  When the battle comes to Earth, all that stands between the evil Decepticons and ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky. An average teenager, Sam is consumed with everyday worries about school, friends, cars and girls.  Unaware that he alone is mankind’s last chance for survival, Sam and his friend Mikaela  find themselves in a tug of war between the Autobots and Decepticons.  With the world hanging in the balance, Sam comes to realize the true meaning behind the Witwicky family motto – “No sacrifice, no victory!”

Box office: 0870 7010200

www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Thanks to those nice folks at the National Media Museum we have two pairs of tickets for Transformers at 5.15pm on Monday, October 8th to give away.

If you’d like to win a pair then email us with your name and address, and the words TRANSFORMED in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.

The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 3^rd October.

Calling teachers, technicians and all potential Speilbergs. If you’ve been inspired by any of the films on  Planet SciCast  and really fancy making a film but need a bit of knowledge and encouragement, we still have places on our free SciCast Seminars. See below for dates and locations. We need to fill these up with keen SciCasters, so please do pass on the info.

Seminar 1: Mon 15th October - Newcastle, Centre for Life, 10:00 to 16:00
Seminar 2: Wed 17th October - Birmingham University, 10:00 to 16:00
Seminar 3: Fri 19th October - Norwich/Cambridge/Ipswich area, venue TBC.
Seminar 4: Tue 23rd October - London, NESTA, 11:00 to 16:30
Seminar 5: Wed 31st October - Southampton, venue TBC.

The day-long seminars will tell you everything you need to know about filming demonstrations. Covering planning, equipment, and editing techniques, we'll also look at how you might use SciCast in your classroom/lab, passing on observations and experience from the schools' workshops we ran last term.

If you’d like to attend please email us at scicast@nesta.org.uk with the seminar number in the subject line. There's no charge for the seminars and lunch will be provided, but we’d ask that any commitment you make to attend should be serious, please! We've previously had to turn people down only for 'confirmed' attendees not to show up.

First come, first booked - so please, pass on this information to colleagues and contacts or anyone you think might be interested.

Oceanlink is a fantastic marine biology website. So if you like all things sub aqua then this is the site for you. You will find all kinds of interesting information about things like: the biggest sea animals, marine biology careers, answers to common ocean/animal questions, and much more!!  Enjoy 15 year old Farlyn’s journal as she volunteered to see what it’s like to be a biologist. Plus who would have guessed there was so much to know about Sensational Seaweeds. The Underwater Acoustics section is a must – can killer whales really speak in dialects?