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01. NEW GAME!!
Yes, with no expense spared we bring you.... another brilliant interative adventure to challenge your co-ordination and cyber-craftiness: Earth Rock Hunter! It's the Year 2510, and the Earth Has exploded. But don't worry, life on Earth has all been transferred to our new home - called Planet Science (what else?!) The explosion scattered famous chunks of Earth rock throughout the universe, and now collectors will pay lots of credits to the brave men and women known as Earth Rock Hunters. You'll have to be hard as flint to get through onslaught after onslaught by weird and wonderful space enemies - and well clued up on your basic geology too if you want to get through the levels. The answers are all in the rocks... To locate the game, visit this page and it's at the top of the list as you scroll down the page. It's a fast and furious game, so may the force be with you, Earthling!  |
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| 02. FEELING DISORIENTATED? This summer's crazy temperatures are enough to cause anyone to lose their bearings a little ... but our very kind friends at Geomatics have donated ANOTHER Global Positioning System Receiver to help you navigate your way around... It's small, it's yellow and it's only the size of a slightly chunky mobile phone - it also has a backlit screen and waterproof casing too which might come in handy if you're really planning a wild and crazy August! They don't come cheap either, so if you'd like to win it, you're going to have to do a spot of map-consulting to prove your interest in navigational matters... What you need to do is get your hands on a map of the UK and put the following ten UK towns in order, from the most southerly to the most northerly. Here they are: BELFAST ... IPSWICH ... JOHN O'GROATS ... ST ALBANS ... LEAMINGTON SPA ... PORTMEIRON ... BALLYCASTLE ... WARRINGTON ... KILMARNOCK ... and ... SWANSEA. Please send your list, beginning with the most southerly town, and running in order through to the most northerly one, to anne@planet-science.com. Give your email the title: I'M WELL-POSITIONED! And remember to tell us your name and address - because we'll those details to send your prize to if you win... |
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| 03. AND SPEAKING OF THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THE UK... Although Planet Science newsletter subscribers from all four corners of the world have always been more than welcome to this weekly email service, up until 31st July we were 'officially' only aimed at readers in England, for reasons relating to funding. However, the PS tentacles are reaching out and if you're based in Scotland, Wales or N Ireland and have contributions for future newsletters please get in touch, as we will be aiming to cover the whole UK from hereon in... We'll also be sourcing freebies from venues, publishers and other purveyors of goodies right across the four nations. (So feel free to step forward if you have any possibles up your sleeve!) Watch this space... |
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| 04. PARENTS AND PRIMARY TEACHERS - please help! The Planet Science website, http://www.planet-science.com, has a new Editor, Katie Walsh, and she's on the lookout for some groovy individuals to form part of a Email Feedback List she's assembling to bounce new ideas off relating to content on the website. If you're a primary teacher or a parent (science teachers who are also parents most welcome too) and you might have a few minutes to spare every now and again to email Katie with your thoughts about the website please contact her on katie@planet-science.com . She says it will all be very informal and there's no pressure to reply if you have nothing to say or are just too rushed off your feet! So send that email if you'd like to be involved. |
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| 05. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: Cocoa Craters This is an easy and very satisfying demo that demonstrates how craters are created by impacting meteorites (think of the Moon's surface, it's covered in them...) It's also slightly messy and just the thing for alleviating boredom when it's too swelteringly to use your cocoa powder for actually making hot drinks. What you'll need: • Flour • Cocoa powder • Baking Tray • Marbles • Newspaper What to do: • Spread the newspaper out in all directions, and put the baking tray onto it. This activity is known as 'protecting one's carpet' ... • Make a thick layer of flour in the baking tray. Smooth it out, and then completely cover this layer with a thinner layer of cocoa powder. • Stand by for action! Drop the marbles onto the cocoa one by one from different heights and observe the craters they make. What's happening? What does your tray of baking ingredients have in common with the Moon? The circular features you can see on the Moon's surface are impact craters just like what you've just done in the flour and cocoa. They were formed when impactors (ie incoming objects) smashed into the surface, and on the Moon, you can see layers upon layers of these craters have been created over the millennia. Check out some images of the Moon's surface and see how your cocoa craters compare... |
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| 06. THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE HISTORY Need an excuse to throw a party? If so, did you realise that the planet Mars will be the closest it's been to Planet Earth since human cave-dwelling times very shortly? And that August 11th is also the anniversary of us sighting the first of Mars' two moons? Science Line have been looking into these Martian matters, and you can read all about it here. |
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| 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK Hard hats on! First of all, for any budding engineers, we recommend this site created by PBS in the States. It's called BUILDING BIG and it can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/ . "Bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, tunnels" is their boast, and there are information files, challenges, career profiles and links to the websites of some of the grooviest and biggest engineering feats around the world. Secondly, check out the kid-friendly fact-files and activities on offer courtesty of the BLUE PETER EXPERTS. There are the 'Science Sisters'; Anton Vamplew - the BP astronomer; and Joe Inglis - pet man. Look them all up. As you'd expect the pages are very friendly and easy to navigate and there are plenty of bits and pieces to explore and participate in... |
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| 08. LUCKY WINNERS - PING! The winners of the 'Wave Machine' booklet about microwave science have just been drawn and they are as follows: Tony Terry from Cumbria; Jean Smith from Devon; Trevor Nunes from London; Jane Hillyer from Devon; Ken Longden from S Yorkshire; Mrs J Cooke from Lenzie; Derek Chartres from Ipswich; Terry Graham from the West Midlands and Sally Colston from Surrey. Congratulations - the books will be in the post to you shortly. |
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| 09. JOKE OF THE WEEK This week a new format of joke. It's a Wanted poster in PhysicsLand. Here it is: WANTED $10,000 reward. Schroedinger's Cat. Dead or Alive ... the gauntlet has been thrown down, and the best follow-up(s) Wanted posters, say from BiologyLand or ChemistryLand will be announced next week. And there are book tokens on offer as prizes too so could be well worth a bit of a sci-comedy mull over the weekend! A.O.B. As ever, we're always on the look-out for contributions to forthcoming newsletters, so if you'd like to get in touch, send an email to Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com . Have a great week! |
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