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01. DARLING, YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT!
A new edition of the celebrity science magazine OH PLEASE! has arrived on the table in the Planet Science dentist's waiting room. You can find it here: ohplease. It's lying right beside last month's edition, the one with the "mystery tourist with the fruity figure". Once more, our glossy gossy glitz-gathers have been checking out the science - or otherwise - of some popular celebrity treatments, and our photographers have gone underground to find out who's doing what, and to which part of their body... This month, under the microscope: REHAB & ADDICTION - what really goes on... LIPOSUCTION - we suck out the facts BODILY PROTECTION - minders and more YOGA - its trendy to be bendy, but does it do you any good? And finally: BOTOX (don't look so surprised - you can't anyway with that forehead!) You'll never look at those famous faces the same way again...  |
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| 02. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: INVESTIGATING OCEAN CURRENTS And so to seafaring, in a small transparent dish. Two experiments for the price of one this week, exploring how temperature and saltiness affect ocean currents. EXPERIMENT 1: TEMPERATURE CHANGES You will need: * water * food colouring * a source of 'coldness' - (eg an ice pack or ice wrapped in foil) * A rectangular transparent dish What to do: 1. Fill the dish with warm water from the tap. 2. Place your cold source at one end of the transparent dish. 3. Carefully dribble some food colouring down the side of the cold source into the water. 4. As the colouring enters the water it will sink to the bottom then slowly spread along the base of the dish away from the cold source. 5. When the colouring reaches the far end it will rise to the top and journey along the surface back towards the cold source. What's going on: Water next to the cold source is cooled down. The cold water has food colouring in it. As cold water is denser than warm water it sinks to the bottom. This is what happens at the North and South poles. The cold water spreads along the bottom of the dish pushing the water in front of it out of the way. When it reaches the end of the dish it is forced up to the surface (eg. At the equator). Warm water is dragged in the opposite direction towards the cold source. This is called thermal circulation. EXPERIMENT 2: SALTY WATER You will need: * water * salt * food colouring * a rectangular transparent dish * a jug What to do: 1. Fill the dish with cold tap water 2. Make a very salty solution of water by pouring some water into a jug, adding a large amount of salt and stirring until it's all dissolved. Keep adding salt until no more can be dissolved and it's starting to settle in the bottom of the jug. 3. Colour the salty water with quite a bit of food colouring. 4. Gently pour the salty water into the dish by allowing it to flow slowly down one of the sides of the dish. 5. The coloured water will spread along the bottom of the dish, forming a distinct layer separate from the fresh water above it. What's going on: Salty water is denser than normal water so it sinks to the bottom. The layers remain separate - they take a long time to diffuse into each other unless you mix them. Sea water is particularly salty at the poles because when sea water freezes into ice, it leaves its salt behind in the remaining water. |
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| 03. MOUSES AT THE READY FOR ... DAN DARE IN MANCHESTER Classic 1950s sci-fi and cutting edge space exploration come together in Manchester this weekend at The Museum of Science and Industry. Dan Dare, local boy made intergalactic (did you know he was born in Manchester?), returns to his roots to feature in the biggest exhibition of Dan-Dare-tefacts ever. These include original artwork, memorabilia and merchandise never displayed before, in 'Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future'. This runs alongside another new exhibition, this time an interactive display firmly rooted in 2003, 'Destination Mars'. As the name suggests, the focus of this one is the latest news, images and discoveries about our friendly neighbouring Red Planet, and amongst other things, it attempts to answer questions like 'Could we ever live there...?'. The link between the two events is that over the decades science and science fiction have been intertwined - and in many cases the sci-fi came first, predicting what was around the corner in 'real' science. In Dan Dare's case, the comic strip anticipated the space shuttle and describe in detail the practical design of a garment called a 'space suit'. So. Fancy a double-whammy of a day out? If so, you could be in luck as we have four sets of four free tickets to the exhibitions. If you'd like one, send an email to anne@planet-science.com with the title TO OUTER SPACE AND BEYOND! and a note of your name and address. Please note multiple entries from the same email address will be zapped by our central scrutinizer as will emails with no name/address details. Otherwise, all entries received will go into a lucky draw to take place on Thursday next week. Good luck Earthling. |
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| 04. ROYAL SOCIETY PARTNERSHIP GRANTS The Royal Society has been in touch with news of their latest grants round. Here's what they say: "The Royal Society Partnership Grants Scheme offers grants of up to £2500 for teachers and scientists or engineers (above graduate level in university or with appropriate industrial experience) to work together on exciting projects and activities involving students from 5 to 16 years old. "The application process is simple and there are two rounds a year. We have an Outreach Officer who is able to offer guidance and support throughout the application and, if successful, during the project being funded. The grant is awarded directly to the school involved, enabling the school to pay for any specialist equipment needed for the investigation, travel expenses for the scientist/engineer and/or the school group and possibly teacher supply cover." The next closing date is Friday 24 October 2003. If you would like to find out more, or to request an application pack, contact Laura Fenton, Education Officer at The Royal Society. The address is: Partnership Grants, The Royal Society, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG. Tel: 020 7451 2561, Fax: 020 7451 2693, Email: laura.fenton@royalsoc.ac.uk. And for more information check out the website at: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/education/partnership.htm |
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| 05. UPD8 UPDATE Just a quick one about the Association for Science Education's great new free topical resource service for teachers, UPD8, which was featured in last week's newsletter. The latest materials explore the science behind Nike's new ultralight trainers, the impact of Hurricane Isobel, and the controversy of a dietary explanation for violent crime. Incidentally, last week we incorrectly said that UPD8 could be received by text - this service is not currently available. But email is - and full details are available on the ASE website at http://www.ase.org.uk. |
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| 06. INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD REVIEW If you're a teacher with an interest in using interactive whiteboards in the classroom, you might like to get involved in a project called REVIEW. This is aimed at collecting and disseminating examples of good practice so as to enable users to take full advantage of these modern miracles of technology. The REVIEW project (which stands for 'Research and Evaluation of Interactive, Electronic Whiteboards') has been underway for just over a year, with nearly 200 observations having been undertaken in schools. The idea is now to pass what's been learned on to schools, and to continue the research process with further observations and meetings with as many teachers and IT coordinators as possible. Contributions are welcomed from all teachers - whether these are about great ideas and inspiration ... or about hideous gaffs others could learn from! The REVIEW website can be found at http://www.interactiveteaching.org - and click through on the 'links' button to have a look at those other sites they recommend. As for Planet Science - here are the two more websites WE recommend this week: |
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| 07. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK First of all a really interesting and inspirational site from At Bristol, called AFRIKAN SCIENCE. This is a bright, beautiful and child-friendly website which allows users to find out about black scientists, engineers and technologists who have made significant contributions to the world today. (And the world of yesterday too - just look at the Pyramids in Egypt...) Take an animated virtual walk through the 'untold histories of Afrikan science' and when your cursor turns to a effervescent beam of pure inspiration, click through to discover more about that particular invention or discovery. Try for yourself, as too much information from us would spoil the surprises! However, we can say that there are also child-friendly photostories featuring some of the young people who were involved in creating the site, and several other resources for adults. Here's the link: http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/education/AfrikanScience Secondly, also aimed at children we have: THE MYSTERIES OF CATALHOYUK. We were alerted to this site from the Science Museum of Minnesota through its 10 out of 10 review on the New Scientist website. Try for yourself and you'll see why they gave it that high score. Catalhoyuk, if you've not heard of it before, was a Neolithic settlement in Turkey of a size and density that suggests it could have been the 'world's first city'. Archaeologists have been buzzing around it like bees around honey, and many intriguing artefacts have been discovered. The 'mysteries' referred to by the title include the presence of thousands of clay balls, murals, and owl pellets - and a range of lifestyle teasers such as 'what would they have eaten for dinner back then?' The site has been arranged as a colourful, exceedingly child-friendly guide to the archaeological and investigative process, and users can explore differing explanations, and get involved for themselves through games, animations and other materials. Here's the weblink: http://www.smm.org/catal/home.html |
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| 08. JOKE OF THE WEEK: ALL BAR NONE! That polar bear who walked into the bar with his 'big ............ pause' has provoked a flurry of other bar jokes. Such as, from both Andy Clifford of Gloucester and Dave Hart from IFR Norwich: A horse walks into a bar and asks for a pint of beer and the barman replies, "Sure, but why the long face?!" (Er, because that's the oldest joke in the WORLD, perhaps???!) And here are three from Ken Longden of Middlefield School of Technology in Gainsborough: A jump lead walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The bar tender says "Ok, but don't start anything" Two peanuts walks into a bar - one was assaulted (a salted!). And finally a chemistry joke that will surely be No 1 when the BBC gets round to doing 'The Nation's Favourite Science Joke' judging by how often it pops up: A hydrogen atom walks into a bar and says "I think I've lost an electron". The Bar man says "Are you sure?" and the hydrogen atom replies "Yes, I'm positive!". Sizzling! Next week's challenge is 'man' jokes. Here's just one example to give you the idea: 'What do you call a man who lays on the floor?' 'Matt.' Got any more? Particularly any sciencey ones? If so send them in to anne@planet-science.com and the best will appear right here next week... That's all for now but as ever contributions are more than welcome for forthcoming editions of the newsletter - send them through to Anne McNaught at the email above. Meanwhile, have a great week! |
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