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01. QUIZ WEBSITE
Many apologies if you tried to enter the February Filter Quiz last week and found you were directed to a dead end in cyberspace. There was a crucial bit missing from the url given, sorry. Click here to go straight to it. Please have another try! As you may remember, the questions are all about filtering, purifying or otherwise straining one substance out of another, and the prize on offer is a desktop coffee machine to enable you to do a spot of filtering whenever you feel the need...  |
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| 02. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: BERNOULLI'S APPLES This week, a demonstration of the law of physics that enables sportsmen and women to bend it like Beckham... You will need: * 2 apples with stalks * 2 pieces of string about 30cm long * 2 drawing pins or some tape * Something horizontal to hang the apples from (using the drawing pins or string so perhaps not anything fragile or valuable.) What to do: 1. Tie one end of a piece of string around the stalk of one of the apples. Then do the same with the other piece of string and the other apple. 2. Use the drawing pins or tape to hang the two apples up - about 7cm apart. 3. Select a volunteer with good lungs to blow between the two apples. But wait a second - before they blow, get everyone else to guess what will happen to the apples? Will the volunteer be able to blow them apart? Will they stay where they are? Or will they move closer (oh surely NOT?) 4. Get the volunteer to blow as hard as he/she can... What happens? 5. Observe the apples moving closer together. Hmmmmmm - weird. WHY? What's going on? It's all about air pressure. When someone blows between the apples, the air pressure between them is lowered. The air that's pushing on the outer sides of the apples therefore causes them both to move inwards towards the area of lower pressure. The faster the air, the lower the air pressure, and the greater the movement will be. (You could ask for more volunteers and challenge them to see whether they can get a bigger apple-movement than the first person.) This effect of air pressure was discovered in 1738 by Daniel Bernoulli, a physicist from Switzerland. His law can also be used to explain what happens when you put 'spin' on a ball in sport, and it's commonly invoked to explain how the curve of the wings enables planes to fly. The latter however is a more complicated story than it seems, and you can read a good overview of the situation on the HOW STUFF WORKS website here: http://travel.howstuffworks.com/airplane2.htm But if it's a spinny tennis serve you want, or a free kick to make the opposition's knees' tremble... there's only one thing that'll do it: practice! |
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| 03. GET BOOKING FOR THE NEWCASTLE SCIENCE FESTIVAL What are your plans for the middle of March? As you'll probably be aware (and maybe even muttering in your sleep by now) National Science Week takes place from 12 - 21st March, and a widespread bubbling up of scientific activities and events is forecast for the whole UK. If you're in the North-East however, you're in a particularly good spot, because the Newcastle Science Festival will be taking place during those dates, and the organisers have pulled together a dazzling calendar of events for you. Nick Arnold, for example, the man behind those 'Horrible' science books will be performing some truly ghastly experiments, before peeping into the undergrowth to explore the tricky tricks of the animal kingdom. The vampire bat, for example. How does it drink blood? And our stripey friend, the tiger. How to escape one if it's after you? (Both of those questions incidentally relate directly to jokes you'll find in the animal section of the Planet Science jokebook right here - but you'll find Nick's explanations are somewhat more robust!) Adam Hart-Davis and Dr Bunhead are two of the other media celebrities who will be bringing science to life in engrossing ways, and throughout the city there will be yet more activities and talks on subjects as diverse as luck, dinosaurs, the nightsky, stem cells, risk, ancient art and gemstones. Truly, something for everyone... Most events are free, but places may be limited so the time to get booking is NOW. Here's where you'll find all the information, including an online form for ordering a copy of the official guidebook: http://www.newcastlesciencefestival.co.uk |
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| 04. MOUSES AT THE READY FOR: THE LIFE CENTRE Meanwhile, and not unrelatedly, we have six 4-person family passes for the LIFE CENTRE in Newcastle. As you'll know if you've been before, the Life Centre is a fabulous place for a family day out, full of science-related interactive exhibits, demonstrations and displays. At the moment, in an unashamed bid to reel in chocoholically-challenged children, there's a half-term exhibition called 'The Science of Chocolate'. Further investigation reveals that it's not just chocolate either, it's all sorts of sweets - and yes, there is some tasting involved. This series of events and displays runs until 29th Feb ... and on the 5th April, the famously revolting 'Grossology' exhibition moves in for a while, like some sort of stinking, burping temporary houseguest you just can't help loving. (If you can't wait until April, there's a preview of the Grossology exhibit on the Life Centre's website at: http://www.lifesciencecentre.org.uk ) The family passes we have secured are valid for a year, and you can use them any time you like, whether there's a special exhibition on or not. Fancy one of them? If so, send an email to anne@planet-science.com with the title: THAT'S LIFE! and a note of your name and address. The draw will take place next Thursday at 5pm and the tickets will be posted out to the winners thereafter. |
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| 05. THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE HISTORY: NYLON HITS THE SHOPS Nylon - it's so MODERN! Well, that's what they were saying in 1938, when on February 24th, the first nylon product went on sale. Guess what it was first used for? a. Ladies' tights b. Toothbrush bristles c. Washing lines The correct answer is: b - toothbrush bristles. Today, however, this amazingly versatile material can be found in anything from carpets and swimwear to parachutes and surgical thread. Here comes the science: Nylon is a polymer and is known technically as 'polyamide'. Polymers at substances which are made of long chains of carbon atoms tightly linked together. Different polymers are created when different types or numbers of atoms attach to each of the carbon atoms in these chains. Depending on what these atoms are, the results can be plastics like polythene, polystyrene or polyester. Nylon has a chain of carbon atoms too, but each short chain of carbons is stuck together with a special group of atoms called an 'amide group'. These extra links make nylon incredibly strong. The word "nylon" isn't a chemical name, and there are several theories as to why the manufacturers, DuPont, decided to call it that. One story has it that 'ny' part comes from New York and the 'lon' bit is an abbreviation of London, the two cities where nylon was first manufactured. Another is that the name came from 'no run' (as in ladies tights), but since DuPont couldn't claim this for the fabric they changed a few of the letters. Whatever the reason, the name 'nylon' is a lot zingier than 'polyamide' and the material would still have been as useful and as famous whatever it was called. For a brief history of Wallace Carothers, the inventor of nylon, have a look at this website: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980325.htm If you want to know more about polymers and plastics look here: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/plastics/ It's fun and it's gross, what more could you want? Make your own polymer in the form of gooey slime... click here. |
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| 06. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK If you're in charge of teaching sex education to a class for whom the word "hormone" is enough to provoke a lesson's worth of nervous sniggering, here's a site that can help. If you're a parent, you might find it handy too... It's called THE FACTS OF LIFE, but one of the clever things about it is that it's not just about the 'birds and the bees' (to borrow a particularly euphemistic phrase that would fortunately never be found on this site.) The topics of puberty and sex are indeed explored and explained but it's all done within the biological context of life itself; the cells, genes, chromosomes and characteristics of all living things. And speaking of which, Mrs Gren, sporting a surprisingly funky hairdo, has been cast as the tourguide around the site. She pops up from time to time with bits of information, and the areas she presides over are: Life, Cells, Food, Puberty, Sex and Variation. Each one contains information relevant to the topic, plus a 10-question quiz to check what you've learned. There's also a Teacher's Zone, with all sorts of information and resources to help make the most of the site, and a Parents' Zone. (PS If you've temporarily forgotten some or all of what M.R.S.G.R.E.N. stands for, you can read all about it on the site, in the 'Life' section.) Oooh-matron-fnar-fnar sex education be gone!  Secondly, play with your retinas, through the medium of afterimages. You may have tried this kind of optical activity, but here are two that are particularly colourful, and in the case of the second one, awwww SO pretty. They're both in the 'Fun Stuff' area of the Society of Dyers and Colourists' website, and here's where to click through: TRAFFIC MAGIC: http://www.sdc.org.uk/museum/fun/lights.htm NOW YOU SEE IT: http://www.sdc.org.uk/museum/fun/shamrock.htm Have fun! PS do these work at all if you're colourblind? We'd be interested to know... |
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| 07. WINNERS, WINNERS, WINNERS Thanks for all the many, many entries for the 'Nature Detectives' draw. This has now taken place and the winners were: Phillipa Gilfillan of Northwick Manor Infants' School in Worcester, Michelle Leek of Queen's C/E Junior School in Nuneaton and David Simon of Brighton. Congratulations - your books and posters are on their way! |
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| 08. JOKE OF THE WEEK Thank you, once again, to Dave Hart from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. He says, "While having dinner on Valentine's Day, I remembered this rather cryptic joke: Q: What do hypochondriacs do at weekends? A: Go to champagne parties. Get it? Sham pain? Okay, so it wasn't a very good date." (Are you sure it's ok to let everyone know about that last bit Dave?!) In case one pun is not enough to see you through the weekend though, here's a longer one: A man, let's call him Dave Hart, has a dishwasher that suddenly breaks down, so he calls a repairman. Since he has to go to work the next day, he tells him on the phone, "I'll leave the key under the mat. "When you've fixed the dishwasher, leave the invoice on the table, and I'll post you a cheque. By the way, don't worry about my doberman. He wont bother you. But whatever you do, do NOT under ANY circumstances talk to the parrot!" When the repairman arrives at Dave's house the next day, he discovers the biggest and growliest looking doberman he's ever seen. But just as Dave had promised, the dog just lies there passively on the carpet, watching him go about his business. The parrot, however, drives him nuts the whole day with its incessant squawking, swearing and name-calling. Finally the repairman can't contain himself any longer and yells, "Shut your beak, you stupid ugly bird!" The parrot looks at him, fluffing up its feathers calmly... and says, "Get him, Spike!" And that's it, the show's over and it's time to go home. If you have any contributions for future newsletters please send them in to Anne McNaught on anne@planet-science.com. Have a great week! |
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