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01. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: READING BETWEEN THE LINES
Magnifying glasses don't need to be made out of glass or plastic - and here's a quick demo to prove it, utilising a very cheap substance that's readily available from your local tap. You will need: A paperclip A glass of water A smidgeon of butter (optional - but said to improve the result) A newspaper, a fiver, a teabag and other items with an interesting texture or fine details... What to do: 1. First straighten the paperclip out. 2. Shape one end of it into a small loop (keyword: SMALL!) and with no gap. 3. Rub a little butter on it. 4. Now dip the loop into the glass of water and lift it out. Careful... 5. You now have a mini-magnifying glass. Use it to examine the newspaper and the other objects - the tiny dots that make up newspaper photographs come up particularly well... What's going on: You have created a lens. This works in exactly the same way as a glass or a plastic lens, by bending light rays as they travel through it to the eye. The way the light is bent with a convex lens (ie a bulging one, like you've formed with the paperclip and water) has the effect of making the object you're looking at appear bigger than it is in reality. (Your insta-lens may not be ideal for reading 'War and Peace', but hey it could get you out of a tight spot if you ever need to suddenly double-check that micro-dot sized clause at the bottom of the glamour modelling contract your agent wants you to sign... 'Hold on a moment - pass me that glass of water and a paperclip..." Very useful indeed.)  |
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| 02. THE SPEED-SNATCH CHALLENGE: EXTRA DIMENSION You may remember our Activity of the Week a fortnight ago, the 'Speed Snatch Challenge'. This involved measuring people's reaction times by looking at how quickly they could grab a falling ruler. Science teacher Anne Brown has been in touch to suggest a way in which even more scientific investigation can be wrung out of this activity. She says: "Further to your recent activity to test reaction times when dropping a ruler: this can be extended to see the effects of caffeine on reaction times. Pupils do the test, then drink either caffeine free cola or normal cola, repeat the test 15 mins later. Although there is some variability, over a class of 30 Pupils I usually show a significant improvement in reaction times with the pupils who had caffeine." Caffeine is in fact classified a 'prohibited drug' by the International Olympic Committee for just this reason... You can check out the official line on this on the UK Sport site at: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/did/showStatus.asp As this is the site many elite sportspeople and other professionals consult, you will have to fill in certain information before viewing the drug enquiry pages (you don't have to pay any money though.) In brief, what they say is: Caffeine above a certain level is prohibited. We are unable to advise on a safe dose. Caffeine is a prohibited substance and the definition of a positive is a concentration in urine greater than 12 micrograms per millilitre. Other sites we have found suggest you may be able to have up to 3-10 cups of tea or coffee a day and still be under the prohibited level. You will certainly be running very fast to the loo if you imbibe all those before a race, it's true. But it all depends on the concentration. Two extra suggestions from the Planet Science team for this activity are: 1. test reaction times again, not just at 15 mins later but also at say 30 mins, 1 hour, and 2 hours later too. 2. for fun, you could try testing those 'sleep promoting' night time drinks too... By the way, Anne has another tip for all teachers. She says, "It is advisable to discuss the experiment carefully with the pupils. One year I had a confused pupil who went home and told parents that they were experimenting with drugs in science lessons!" |
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| 03. THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE HISTORY On 26 November 1966, Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal power station in Rance, Brittany. This may seem a surprising advance into renewable energy given that France is well known for getting most of its electricity from the unpopular nuclear power. But with only a few drawbacks and as long as you don't mind having to build a dam, tidal power is a non-polluting, limitless supply of energy. Tidal power stations work in a very similar way to hydroelectric power stations. Falling water turns turbines that generate electricity. Withtidal power a high tide fills up the basin behind the dam, and at low tide the water is released through the dam, turning the turbines. The end result is a supply of clean electricity. As with any energy resource, however, there are a number of damaging side effects of the process. Pollution from tidal power is small, but wildlife is affected when areas are flooded and food-providing mudflats are lost. Perhaps the best hope is the world's first offshore turbine, recently built near Devon. This works like a wind turbine, using the tidal currents under water to generate electricity. Barely visible above the surface and posing no danger to wildlife, these generators really could give us clean electricity with no guilt. Weblinks: For information about how electricity generators work and about renewable and non-renewable resources have a look at: http://www.learn.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=Unit&WCU=3072 This is great site for everything for sustainability and energy use to climate change and ozone depletion, you can pick your own level too: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/eae/Sustainability/sustainability.html To find out more about the world's first offshore tidal power station have a look here: http://www.marineturbines.com/home.htm |
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| 04. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK If a collapsible bin, a pen made out of a single piece of plastic, and a Batmanesque pair of swimming goggles have been preoccupying you lately, you've probably been getting all too caught up in 'Innovation Nation'. This is the BBC's new series which follows three teams of amateur inventors in their quest to develop, with expert help, a brand new item for the UK market which will have genuine commercial wow-factor. The live final takes place on December 17 so there's still time to get hooked on the programme if you've not already. It's on on BBC 1, 7pm Wednesdays. The main website for the programme can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/innovation/ As you'll see, there's information on how to proceed if you reckon you've got a good idea up your sleeve, as well as links to a quiz which will test your psychological millionaire potential and thinking styles... An even more detailed toolkit for would-be inventors, however, can be found on the site of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. NESTA as you may or may not already know, funds all sorts of inventors and innovative ideas in the UK, and worked closely with the BBC on Innovation Nation too. (NESTA also currently manages Planet Science, incidentally, but that's another story!) Anyway, the NESTA site can be found at http://www.nesta.org.uk - click through on the words 'Inside NESTA' and find the link to 'Invention and Innovation' and look for the handbook. Tips and techniques include '20 great ways to blow your chances', how to assess your prototype and information about royalties, marketing and selling your product. For even more on inventors and the history of invention, have a look at this site from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, world-famous of course for their own plentifull leading edge technological innovation. (Robo-tuna, the super-fast robotic fish comes to mind, but that's just one of a zillion examples.) The address is: http://web.mit.edu/invent/invent-main.html Inventors come in all shapes and ages of course, so here's a really easy-to-use site that helps parents help their children, both to think big and harness good ideas, to develop, design and test these ideas for real. It's at: http://www.invention-engine.com/ice?p=parents/index.jsp May the invention muse settle on your shoulder this weekend, with lucrative results! |
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| 05. CAREERS LESSONS WORKSHEETS Was it human error? Was it computer error? Who knows and who cares anyway (but let's blame the computer!) The web address given last week for those teachers' resources about science - and other - careers was incorrect. The correct url is as follows: http://www.planet-science.com/nextsteps/index.html?page=/nextsteps/PHSE/ Many apologies for any confusion and time-wasting caused... |
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| 06. EVERY ONE'S A WINNER The winners of the family passes to the Eureka! science centre in Halifax were: Nigel Bowen from Telford, Mrs R Hodson from Worcester and Carol Porter from Manchester. The tickets will be sent out to you next week - enjoy your day out! And the winners of our Black History Month Quiz were Sherin Malick of London and Cathy Edge of Midsomer Norton in the West Country. Your prizes are on their way. And if you didn't win anything - don't worry, there's a great new quiz coming along next week.. |
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| 07. JOKE OF THE WEEK It seemed appropriate to feature a rugby joke this week - a clean one, that is. This one has been pinched, with grateful thanks, from the BBC's website. Hope you like it! A rugby referee died and went to heaven. Stopped by St Peter at the gates he was told that only brave people who had performed heroic deeds and had the courage of their convictions could enter. If he could describe a situation in his life where he had shown these characteristics, he would be allowed in. "Well," said the ref, "I was controlling a game between Wales and England in Cardiff. Wales were two points ahead with a minute to go. Ben Cohen made a break, passed inside to Martin Johnson. Johnson was driven on by his forwards, before he passed out to Lawrence Dallaglio who went over in the corner. But Dallaglio dropped the ball before he could ground it. As England were clearly the better side all game, I ruled that he had got it down and awarded the try." "OK, that was fairly brave of you, but I will have to check it in the book," said Peter, before disappearing to look it up. When he came back he said: "Sorry, there's no record of this. Can you help me to trace it? When did all this happen?" The ref looked at his watch and replied "45 seconds ago." That's all for this week. Please get in touch if you have any contributions for next week or beyond. Send them to Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com. Good luck to anyone involved in rugby activities over the weekend... Have a great week! |
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