Stardate Friday 6th June 2008 Issue 279

Sunny June at last! What better time to get out and immerse yourself in the local wildlife? For the next two weeks it’s Wildlife Week (yes we know that means a fortnight really – but hey! We don’t make the rules!). Have a look and see if there are any events near you. We know one example of wildlife that we wouldn’t like to immerse ourselves in, or indeed be within a 100 miles of. We refer of course to that thumping great elephant beetle found in a consignment of bananas the other week. The size of a hamster?! Per-lease!

The line-up this week:

  1. A Spot of Agri-Culture: earning your daily bread
  2. Scicast
  3. Stump the Scientist: headlice and nettles
  4. Activity of the Week: Edible Fake Blood
  5. Mouses at the Ready: Flipsides
  6. Noticeboard: FYI
  7. Recommended websites of the week
  8. The Winners’ Enclosure
  9. Joke of the Week

1. A Spot of Agri-Culture

This week Guy Smith, who farms in Essex, has parked up his sprayer to tell us what’s happening this month…

Britain has the best weather in the world for growing cereal crops such as wheat and barley and consequently we have higher yields than most other countries. In East Anglia wheat crops will yield more than twice what they will in the mid-west of America. Our mild maritime climate means the winters are not so severe as to kill the crop and the summers not too harsh to stress it. Having said that there is an old stereotype about how the farmer is never happy with the weather. It is not without basis as the farmer wants perfect growing weather which, naturally, he seldom gets. This is particularly true in June as the wheat crop starts its final growth stages before harvest. What the farmer requires at this time is dry sunny weather to help the wheat plant flower and stay free of disease. At the same time he wants rain so that the plants have enough moisture as they start to fill the grain sites in their ears. But outside of growing wheat in irrigated greenhouses (which would not be economic) the farmer has to make do with the weather he is given. One thing he can do is use fungicides. These are materials that are designed to combat diseases such as mildew and rust so that the leaf area stays green so that it might maximise its ability to photosynthesise the suns energy. Most wheat crops will receive two or three fungicide applications. Fungicides are expensive and the farmer does not want to be driving his sprayer through his crop unnecessarily. So disease in the crop is carefully monitored so that fungicides are only used where they are cost effective.

Finally a topical maths puzzle for you. The wheat price doubled between May 2007 and May 2008 from £100 to £200 a tonne (1000 kg). This has been widely blamed for the increase in the price of bread.

If you need one kilo of wheat to mill the flour needed for an extra large loaf, what should be the proportionate price increase? (Clue – it’s nothing like how much an extra large loaf has actually gone up in price).

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.

Simply email us with your correct answer and your name and address, and the words BREADWINNER in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. The winner will be picked at random on Wednesday 18 June at 5pm.

Thanks Guy, see you next month!
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2. SciCast

From the department of 'spread the lurve':

Videos, videos everywhere

A busy time in the science web video world. Here are the highlights:

  • The second annual Phylm (Physics Film) competition is underway. Find the rules, enter your film, and view and judge the other entries all at the Phylm website. Deadline for submissions and voting is July 1st; all welcome to enter; $100 cash prize for the winner.

  • An even quicker turn-around needed for Films For Learning’s Capture It! science film competiton: June 13th is your cut-off. Entry is open to schools affiliated with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, with excellent prizes on offer.

  • Don’t forget the National Physical Laboratory’s Water Rocket Challenge, with their fabulous scene-setting promo film on SciCast. The date for your diary is 25th June, at the NPL in Teddington.

If this is all too intimidating and you don’t know where to start, sign up for one of our free film-makers' packs. Once you’ve cooed over the giant glossy posters and laughed at the ‘quiet on set’ sign, you’ll find a neat little handbook jam-packed with helpful advice to get you started. Just the thing for end-of-term fun, or that day during the summer holidays when you can’t work out what to do.
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3. Stump the Scientist

Last time’s week’s stumper came from Mrs S Clarke who says

“I am sending this e-mail on behalf of my daughter Imogen who is 8 years old. The question is: Where do Head Lice come from ????”

No answers yet Mrs C although we’re sure plenty of scientists have been scratching their heads over that one…

In the meantime... Judy Vincent asks

“re: nettles. I always assumed until someone challenged me, that nettles were acid and dock leaves were alkaline. Then I tried it, and found two written up experiments, one agreed with me and one didn’t, which is right and what is the best way to prove it? We pounded the leaves in a mortar and used indicator but the result wasn’t compelling!”

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

Edible Fake Blood

Here’s an activity to celebrate our new quiz – The Bloody Quiz. Don’t faint – it’s not real!

You will need:

  • 100g cornflour
  • 100 ml water
  • Bowl or jug
  • Spoon to mix with
  • 4 tablespoons (about 80 ml) golden syrup
  • Red food colouring
  • Green food colouring

What you do

  1. Make sure that your equipment and the surface you are working on are clean, so that it's quite safe to eat the 'blood' if you want to.
  2. Mix the cornflour and the water together in a bowl or jug. (If you're wondering why the cornflour behaves the way it does, take a look at the Custard Gone Crazy! experiment on this website.)
  3. Stir in the golden syrup.
  4. Add two teaspoons of red food colouring and a few drops of green food colouring. Does your blood look realistic enough yet? You will need to play around with the quantities of red and green food colouring. Adding more red food colouring will make the blood look more pink and adding more green will give the blood a more browny colour.
  5. Add a drop of peppermint essence to give the blood a lovely minty taste.
  6. Use to decorate horror style cakes or as a realistic addition to a costume.

What's going on?

What makes blood that wonderful vampire-attracting colour? Real blood gets its colour from haemoglobin, a protein containing iron that's found in red blood cells. These cells are pretty essential for human life as they carry oxygen from our lungs to tissues all around the body.

Blood appears red because when white light falls on it, it absorbs all the colours except red, which it reflects.

Red food colouring is more of a pinky colour than blood, so you need to add green to remove the pink tinge. Green food colouring absorbs all colours apart from green. When you mix green with the red colouring it absorbs some of the red light that would have been reflected, giving your fake blood that realistic brown tinge.

More ideas

Put some of your fake blood into a glass jar in the fridge and leave it for a few weeks, checking every couple of days. Write down your predictions - what you think will happen to the mixture. Does it behave the way you expected?

This activity was taken from the Little Book of Experiments.
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5. Mouses at the Ready

This week we’d like to offer you a brilliant two for one offer. Oh yes – it’s not just supermarkets that have that prerogative y’know. So how about two Flipsides, a May and a June issue? We have ten two-packs to give away.

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

The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 11th June.

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Noticeboard

 

The Bloody Quiz

Blood and thunder! Another quiz? It’s enough to make your blood boil! Still, this month sees the anniversary of the birth of Karl Landsteiner who was born in Vienna on June 14, 1868. We’ve got a lot to thank this man for – ‘O’ yes! ‘A’ great man! So ‘B’ positive – if you get all the answers right you could win a pair of cuddly blood cells.

 

 

Primary Science Teaching Awards 2008

Have you entered the AstraZeneca Science Teaching Awards 2008 in conjunction with the ASE yet?

Open to all Primary Teachers who:

  • are innovative and creative in teaching science
  • contribute to developing science in their school
  • engage pupils in the excitement and fascination of science
Awards will be presented during...

ASE Annual Meeting, 8th - 10th January 2009 at
The University of Reading on Saturday 10th January 2009

5 Awards each of £1000 for the school and £1000 for the teacher - plus a certificate and ASE Membership for one year.

Closing Date: 31 July 2008
 
 

Extended Closing Date for RSC Bill Bryson Prize

The closing date is now 14th June 2008.

This year’s competition theme is the science of sport.

You can submit:

  • Posters
  • PowerPoint® presentations
  • Work from a science or after school club
  • Essays
  • Websites

Open to all UK school and college students (aged 5-18) the competition will be judged in two categories: primary school and secondary school.

For more information please see the RSC site or email them education@rsc.org.
 

 

Water Down the Plughole!

This is just a ‘heads up’ for anyone looking for short fun activities for the summer end of term or the holidays. We are opening a database to share with our Aussie friends to input your data about which way your water runs down the plughole, and there’s loads of info about the Coriolis force and more on the way. More next week!
 


7. Recommended website of the week

Every so often a site comes along that makes you stop in your tracks. Such is Your Planet Earth a site aimed at 14-15 year olds and providing FREE PowerPoint presentations, background notes and practical exercises.

Funded by Shell, the Geologists’ Association have launched the first set of talks for free use by earth sciences professionals as a basis for engagement and outreach science shows in schools.

So if you’d like to involve more SEAs (Science and Engineering Ambassadors), university or industrial visitors and partners in your school then this could be a good place to start.

The first five talks are

  • Volcanoes
  • Dinosaurs
  • Natural Hazards
  • Plate Tectonics
  • Climate Change

The slides are beautifully illustrated and each talk carries a full commentary/ script in the associated panels.

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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Winners Enclosure

Remember last time when we were offering you a book called Nets, Puzzles, and Postmen by Peter M Higgins (Oxford University Press)? The lucky winner is Sue Norminton of Plymouth!

The winner of the packet of seeds from April’s Spot of Agri-Culture is Sarah Plusnin of Devon. Happy planting!
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9. Joke of the week

Do you remember these old favourites from the Planet Science Jokes section?

WANTED
$10,000 reward.
Schroedinger's Cat.
Dead or Alive

WANTED
Lord Kelvin
Fee for collection: Absolute zero

WANTED
Hydrogen and Oxygen Combined
(Not really, I just wanted to see your reaction...)

WANTED
Atoms
Fee for collection: No charge

WANTED
Leaky Valve
No pressure

WANTED
New web-based laboratory
Virtually unused

WANTED
Breath fresheners
Mint condition

WANTED
More jokes like the above

Send your best to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with JOKES in the subject line

Have a great week!
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