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1. SciCast - And the winners are...
 By the time you get this newsletter, at the SciCast ceremony the golden envelopes will have been rustled, opened, winners announced, trophies and Amazon vouchers handed over - laughter, tears, etc. etc., well done all!
So, in no particular order...
The Institute of Physics Best SciCast Physics Film
Physics of Roundabouts
Team DIZZY
Best Chemistry Film
Combustion and Stoichiometry
Helston Science
Best Biology Film (Prize sponsored by the Institute of Biology)
Grow Your Own Body Parts
Queen Mary
Best Engineering Film (Prize sponsored by the Engineering and Technology Board)
Magnets and Rollercoasters
Team: Go
Best Entertainment Film
Refraction
Vibrant Films
Best Film by a Team Including Primary School Students
Around the Universe in 2.5 Minutes
Marshions
Best Film by an All Adults Team
Combustion and Stoichiometry
Helston Science
Best Technical and Artistic Achievement
Refraction
Vibrant Films
Best Unpublishable Film (sorry, still unpublishable even though it won...)
Bermuda Triangle
Best Film
Physics — Stronger Than The People Who Study It?
Starlink
All absolutely brilliant! Here’s to next years crop of films - if you’d like to know about making short films in teams, in or out of school, you can order a free handbook and posters etc.
The deadline to get a film to us in time for next year's Awards is January 9th 2009
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2. The Five Kingdoms of Life
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 This week Guy Smith, who farms in Essex, has parked his tractor up just long enough to tell us what’s happening this month...
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 April is a nervy month for the sugar-beet farmer. He walks his fields anxiously checking to see if he has the number of newly emerging plants he wants and at the right spacing. Sugar-beet seed is ideally sown in late March. The trick is to sow it early enough so it has a long growing season and late enough so it avoids any late frosts. If the emerged plant experiences too much cold weather it "bolts" and instead of producing the desired fleshy root, the plant thinks it has experienced a winter and so puts all its efforts into producing seeds which is the last thing the farmer wants. The other complication is that chitted sugar beet seeds are a bit puny so if the seed-bed caps (i.e. forms a crust on top from strong rainfall) then the emerging shoot struggles to break through into the sunlight. Thirty years ago, farmers would plant more seeds per square metre than the desired plant population per square metre. The assumption being only a percentage would grow into strong seedlings. When the beet emerged, gangs would be sent out into the fields to hoe out the excess so that optimum plant densities would be achieved. Today beet seeds are more vigorous than they were and are given little clay coats to make them easier to place. This means emergence and establishment is better and, mercifully, the unpleasant back breaking job of hoeing is no longer necessary. Despite these advances, the sugar beet farmer doesn't sleep properly until he can see orderly rows of cotylenes running up and down his field.
After that, there are only minor things to worry about such as keeping the weeds at bay with herbicides and giving the plants proper amounts of boron, nitrogen, potash and manganese fertilisers to optimise their growth. There is also the issue of praying for enough rain so the beet puts on weight and the right amount of sunshine so it has the right sugar content. The latter fact is a good reminder how sunshine on green leaves produces sugar in the root. By the late autumn hopefully he has achieved 50-60 tonne of roots per hectare with 15-20% sugar content.
The reaction of photosynthesis can be written as the following chemical equation when sugar is being made:
12 CO2 + 11 H2 O = C12 H22 O11 + 12 O2
carbon dioxide + water = sugar + oxygen
If you can find a sugar beet (ask a local farmer) then it might be interesting to show the beet to the students and then get them to devise an experiment to get the sugar out of it. Basically the process is a matter of chopping the beet up then boiling it at the right temperature which gives you a sweet liquor. If the water is then evaporated off it will eventually crystallise into sugar. Sugar production is a tricky business combining biology and chemistry. A word of warning, it is best to do this in theory explaining the principles of distillation and crystallisation. Attempts to do it in practice are not recommended and would probably end up in a lot of steaming hot pans containing a nasty brown sludge.
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Thanks Guy.
If you send us the right answer to this question you could win a packet of seeds from Garden Organic, the leading charity dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food.
‘What month is a nervy month for the sugar-beet farmer?’
Simply email us with your correct answer and your name and address, and the words SUGAR SEED in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. The winner will be picked at random on Wednesday 21 May at 5pm.
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3. Stump the Scientist
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 No answer yet for Sue Hollands who says
“My six year old son asked me why rain drops stick to windows. I came up with a reply involving surface tension but I’m sure there’s more to it.”
What do you think?
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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4. Activity of the Week
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Safety Note: This activity should be done in a laboratory but you can always watch the video clip if you can’t actually do it yourself.
 Turboturds
Before you start
This website contains all the safety information you might need to carry out this experiment. If you are at all unsure please follow the instructions on the web page - the chemicals involved in this are corrosive and will burn skin.
You will need:
- 50g table sugar
- 20ml concentrated sulphuric acid
- A 100ml glass beaker
- A glass stirring rod
- Lots of protective wear: a lab coat, gloves, goggles, a fume cupboard or fume hood.
What you do
- Work in a fume cupboard because this will produce sulphuric acid vapour. Both the person performing the experiment and those watching should be wearing goggles to protect their eyes, and the audience should be standing well back in case the reaction is too fast.
- Put the sugar in the glass beaker.
- Keeping the beaker on the table add the sulphuric acid and stir for about 30 seconds.
- The acid / sugar mix will turn from yellow to brown and then begin to turn black. Make sure you don't spill the mixture over the edge. Once well mixed (30 seconds, or when it just starts to turn black - whichever happens first) stop stirring, stand well back or close the fume cupboard, and wait.
- Watch as the carbon erupts over the edge of the beaker.
- The beaker, and the carbon eruption will become very hot, there may also be some residual acid. Do not touch it until it cools down and dispose of it carefully - you will need to neutralise any remaining acid, remove and dispose of the solid and residual liquid separately according to your lab's safety procedures.
What's going on?
Sugar crystals are composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The sulphuric acid extracts the water component of the sugar (the hydrogen and oxygen) leaving only carbon.
C12H22O11 = 12C + 11H2O
The sulphuric acid itself does not really react although it is affected by the extreme heat of this exothermic reaction. Instead, the sulphuric acid extracts the water from the sugar to hydrate itself - basically becoming more dilute. But the heat causes both the sulphuric acid and the water to evaporate - seen as steam coming off the tower of carbon.
The heat comes from the very strong hydrogen bonds formed between the water and the sulphuric acid. Much more energy is given out by these bonds forming than is required to break the bonds in the sugar molecules; hence the reaction is very exothermic.
But why should removing the water from the sugar cause it to grow to more than three times its original size? The gases given off create the carbon foam, like shaving foam escaping it's can. Once the gases have escaped the result is a long thin, hard, carbon sponge.
Special Safety Advice
Carry out a risk assessment before carrying out the experiment. The concentrated sulphuric acid is corrosive, so avoid spilling it or the sugar / acid mixture. The experiment needs to be done in a fume cupboard or under a fume hood as the heat turns some of the sulphuric acid into a gas. The beaker and its content become very hot so do not attempt to handle until it is cool. What the sulphuric acid does to the sugar it will do to bare skin, eyes and clothes: make sure they are protected.
This activity was taken from the Planet Scicast site.
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5. Mouses at the Ready
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Techniquest is the interactive science centre in Cardiff Bay where children discover an appetite for science. Its education programme is linked to the National Curriculum. Every visiting school group will see a show or presentation in the Science Theatre or Planetarium and have time to explore the main hall which houses more than 100 hands-on exhibits. Visits are supported by written material for teachers and pupils. Areas can be set aside for children to have a packed lunch, and time can be set aside for pupils to visit the Techniquest gift shop before they leave.
Among the highlights of the summer term are the Forces Show in the Science Theatre which delves into the world of friction, pushes and pulls, gravity and magnetism; and Flash Bang Wallop! an action-packed performance all about materials.
We have two family tickets to give away!
If you’d like to win one then email us with your name and address, and the words ‘QUEST’ in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.
The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 30th April.
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Spring Quiz
It may be hard to tell, what with April's snowy surprises, but officially it's Spring. Which is when all sorts of plants and animals (and humans) rouse themselves and get on with stuff - like writing a new quiz for example. If you get all the answers right then you go into the rain hat for winning a radio clock with built in weatherperson to help you decide how many spring layers you need to put on in the morning.
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Help needed – media research project
Head over and watch a few video clips, answer some questions on what you thought, and whether you gained any knowledge from them. Click here.
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Forensic Family Funday – Free!
'The History and the Mystery of Forensic Science'
- Take your own fingerprints
- Examine forged documents
- Learn how a person can be identified from their bones
- Discover cutting edge forensic technology
- Listen to a fascinating talk on the history of fingerprinting (sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science)
- Decide if Dr. Crippen was guilty or innocent!!
- Meet real-life experts from Keele and Staffordshire Universities Forensic Science Departments and much, much more!
Further details available at: http://www.keele.ac.uk/forensic-fun-day/
Saturday 10th May, 10-4pm
The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
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7. Recommended website of the week
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Fancy the idea of science in cartoon form? Look no further than Howtoons. The cartoon strips are very engaging, then you can download the pdf to tell you how to do it. Brilliant! We like “The Infamous Marshmallow Shooter”. Maybe we might try it out around the office… Hold it right there, pardner! Splat!
The Blog section is well worth a visit too. We found a brilliant feature about robots at work on a Chinese farm. Giving you any ideas Guy? Checkout the Youtube clip of Paul Merton’s visit where he goes to check it all out and ends up having a ride in a robot-driven rickshaw. Hilarious!
By the way, if you’ve got a good website to recommend then send it along to us
at planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with RWW in the subject line. Thank you very gladly.
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Remember last time when we were offering you two sets of cell trump cards, postcards and badges to give away from Centre of the Cell?
The lucky winners are Dawn Louise Metcalf of County Durham and Jo Clark of Huddersfield. Well done both!
The winner of the packet of seeds from last month’s Spot of Agri-Culture is Susan Skidmore of London. Happy planting!
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9. Joke of the week
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A young entrepreneur had just set up in business. He rented swanky new premises and furnished them with antiques. On his first day at the office he sat at his desk and admired his surroundings. A man came in to the outer office. Wishing to appear the hot shot, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he was closing a big deal. He gesticulated wildly, throwing large figures around and making giant commitments. Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, “Can I help you?”
The man said, “Yeah, I’ve come to activate your phone lines”.
Have a great week!
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