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01. SUPERSLEUTH WINNER
The main prize-winner of the Whodunit SuperSleuth Training Challenge has now been drawn! And it is.... James Crowley of Enfield in Middlesex (15-19 age bracket). James receives the bumper Busted prize of a Fender guitar in lovely padded case, amplifier, strap and teach-yourself-guitar book. As James recently taught himself how to play the guitar, it sounds like a perfect match - and who knows this could prove to be the launch of another meteoric rise to fame, fortune and frenzied fans falling all over themselves ... Congratulations James! Runners up will receive a mixture of other quality items including DVD's, games, belts, bags, badges, posters and other sundry items.  |
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| 02. MOUSES AT THE READY... FOR IMAX TICKETS Still on the subject of wondrous goodies, the Science Museum in London have been in touch to offer us yet more tickets to their IMAX cinema. This time the film concerned is 'T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous' - a time-travelling tale of archaeologists, newly discovered dinosaur eggs... and a time-travelling journey back to the Jurassic period. Does it feature 3D dinosaurs? You bet it does! (And while the dinos are certainly the most eye-boggling bit of the film, even the more ordinary everyday archaeology scenes are engrossing because they're in 3D too and somehow leave all the other movies you've ever seen looking rather flat...) So - if you're going to be in London this summer, you should check it out! And we have five pairs of tickets to give away. Want one of them? If so, send an email right away to anne@planet-science.com with the words 3D DINOSAURS! in the title, and a note of your name and postal address. Winners will be drawn at 3pm on Tuesday 29th July so hurry hurry hurry. (PS multiple entries from the same email address will be disqualified to keep things fair and square ...) |
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| 03. MOUSES AT THE READY ... What MORE??! As Planet Science prepares to wind up the majority of its project activities next Thursday, we are finding more and more as-yet unclaimed treasures in the back of the cupboard - and EVERYTHING MUST GO! First of all, we have two very well-made 'book chairs' on offer. A book chair, if you've not heard of them before, is a device which will hold your book open for you at the right page, allowing you to be hands-free while you read... Might be able to position it on the soap rack as you bathe perhaps, or more likely we think it would be useful for propping open a cookbook in the kitchen so you don't get salsa verde or whatever all over it mid-recipe. Want one? Then send an email to anne@planet-science.com with the words BOOK CHAIR PLEASE in the subject heading and a note of your name and postal address. And here's an idea for a book you could prop up on your book chair: 'Surf Science' by Tony Butt and Paul Russell. We have two copies to give away, which were very kindly donated by the publisher Alison Hodge. Full of lovely photos and illustrations - and some fascinating science too about how waves are generated, which may or may not help you stay on your board in the face of the Big Kahuna! If you'd like a surfy science book, as with the book chair, send an email to anne@planet-science.com but this time with the words SURF'S UP! in the subject heading and your name and postal address. Winners for both of these two freebies will be drawn at 3pm on Tuesday 29th July. |
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| 04. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: HONEYCOMB TOFFEE Some people call it a Crunchie Bar ... but we call it a practical demonstration of carbon dioxide in action. Tastes good either way. What you need: • 450g granulated sugar • 300ml water • 3 tbsp golden syrup • 50g butter • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda • 4 tbsp white wine vinegar • A large, heavy-based saucepan • A baking tray • Butter / vegetable oil to grease the baking tray with • A wire tray What to do: • First grease a baking tin. • Put the butter, water and vinegar into the saucepan. Boil these together, stirring until the butter has all melted. Add the sugar and golden syrup and allow them to fully dissolve. Bring to the boil. Continue to boil without stirring until the mixture reaches the 'hard crack' stage - you can test the mixture by dropping a few drops into a cup of cold water, the toffee solidify and form hard, brittle threads. Now remove it from the heat. • Add the baking soda and watch it froth up ... • Stir the mixture until the bubbles subside a little and pour into the tray. When set but still warm, break them into squares. • Whey it's all cooled down, insert square(s) into mouth and move jaws up and down, up and down, up and down. • (Now brush your teeth!) What's going on: Bicarbonate of soda reacts with acidic liquids to produce bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. This general reaction is often used in baking to help a mixture rise. Sodabread, scones and many sponge cakes all rely on this reaction to produce a light, edible morsel rather than a dense brick. In this case tartaric acid acts as the acid, but other acids include lemon juice, vinegar, or lactic acid in sour milk and yoghurt. (Baking powder is a dry mixture of bicarbonate and acids which reacts when wet to make cakes rise...) |
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| 05. SCIENCE BEHIND THE NEWS Earlier this week Tanya Streeter took a deep breath and set a new world record for in the adventure sport of 'free diving' record... How on earth did she manage to do it? Is she superhuman and not require oxygen like the rest of us mere mortals? Science Line have been investigating the physiology of free diving and you can read all about it here. |
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| 06. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK DIGGER AND THE GANG. The BBC schools site is huge, but this is just a small (and fully animated) part of it. There are learning adventures for children from 5-11 in age - related to all three 'core' curriculum subjects, namely science, English and maths. It's great fun ... try for yourself! Fancy a quick mental arithmetic challenge or three? It's designed for junior mathematicians, but it doesn't get particularly easier if you have older rustier grey matter up top! MAKE IT COUNT is the name and it's a game on the 4Learning s ite at Your mission is to use four number given, in combination with maths functions addition, subtraction, division and multiplication to try and reach the target number. Have fun! |
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| 07. JOKE OF THE WEEK Dave Heppell from Whitehill Secondary School in Glasgow has two electrifying football teams for you: A.C. Milan and Moscow Dynamo! (Any more suggestions?) And Mark Langford has another one. He says: Well what about the mature student having trouble with weight and mass? He couldn't tell his old tons from his Newtons ... (cue groaning) Heavens above. Keep them rolling in - but please bear in mind the terms of our Quality Control Assurance Policy. Our Quality Control Assurance Policy is: ... er... we don't have one! |
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| 08. LUCKY WINNERS The two bird-brains who were selected at random from the draw for the bird-feeder gazebos were: Sally Thurlow from Greendown Community School in Swindon and Linton Austen from Breckenbrough School in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. (PS the answer is: the lapwing is also known as the 'Green Plover'.) The winners of the Dorling-Kindersley Aventis Prize-winning book, 'The DK Guide to the Ocean' are: Alex Nicholson from Northumberland, Gill Brown from Wrexham, Karen McQuillan from Stubbington, Keith Norman from Cheltenham and Linda Galvin from Southampton. And the winners of the two ThinkTank family passes are: Mrs R Hanvey & family from Berkhamstead and Alison Wood from Walsall. All prizes should be with their new owners within the next week (if they've not arrived already.) That's all for this week. Next week is a sad one for us here at Planet Science as it's the official end of the project and we're packing up and leaving our cramped but friendly offices with their lovely views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from the fire escape. Many staff members are going off to pastures new and we'll be scattered all around the world in a few months time... A legacy programme of PS activities will continue on however, and a small team will continue to look after these plus the Planet Science website and this newsletter too. (As ever, any contributions for forthcoming newsletters should be sent to Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com.) Have a great week - but in the meantime warm wishes and goodbyes from everyone in the Planet Science team!! |
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