|
 |
 |
|
|
||
 |
||
 Welcome to the 100th Planet Science newsletter. While I try to light all the candles and await the postman's delivery of a card from the Queen, here's what's coming up: 01. NEWSLETTER MYSTERY: with clues and everything! 02. FREE STUFF FOR TEACHERS: celebrate the launch of Hay-Wire 03. BIOLOGY CONFERENCE: with 'Really Wild' guest speakers 04. SCOTTISH SMALL GRANTS SCHEME: money up for grabs 05. READER'S REQUEST: please help! 06. MOUSES AT THE READY: for Young Scientist subscriptions 07. NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD #6: Mount Everest 08. RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: Scienceonestop.com 09. WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS: spooky IMAX tickets 10. AWKWARD QUESTION: and last week's answer 11. JOKES OF THE WEEK |
||
|
||
|
01. SPOT THE THEME
While Anne has been away I've been perched at her desk and this week she has left me strict instructions to open a box she has left for me in the storeroom. Inside the box are a bunch of clues, a sealed envelope with the answer and a bizarre selection of stuff: * A banana split * A Gillette razor * A Rolls Royce badge * A periodic table with the element, fermium, highlighted. * A model of a human brain * A model of the 'City of Truro' steam train. Wonder what that's all about? There's probably some really obvious connection...  |
||
|
||
| 02. FREE PLANET SCIENCE STUFF: SPREAD THE WORD! I've been the guest editor of this newsletter for just three editions, but it has become clear from your emails that the Planet Science website is an invaluable resource. So we want you to spread the word of Planet Science even further and to assist in the process, we're offering you free gorgeous stickers and groovy postcards. Over to Planet Science editor Katie Walsh, who will explain all: "We're on a bit of a publicity drive at the moment, and so in order to get our name about the place we've had some very colourful stickers made, some with Planet Science content logos and some with an Andy Warhol version of the PS logo. If the reaction from our normally sedate office companions is anything to go by these will be horribly popular! Tune in next week for news of a downloadable multi purpose wall chart if you fancy using the stickers in a 'reward chart' way. There are also three rather attractive postcards on offer - two of which you could send to teaching colleagues far and wide to tell them about the Planet Science website and newsletter. The third postcard marks the launch of Hay-Wire - Planet Science's new newsletter for primary aged children. The Hay-Wire postcards are available in packs of 35 so if you think your primary class might like to sign up then these postcards will make it everso easy." Thanks Katie! To get your mits on the free stuff then follow this link, but be quick as the offer is only available until stocks last: http://www.planet-science.com/sciteach/postcards There'll be more about Hay-Wire next week, but in case you have primary aged kids chomping at the bit for one of the free frisbees for the first 500 to sign up, the direct address is: http://www.planet-science.com/wired/hay-wire MYSTERY CLUE: The banana split recipe was invented by David Strickler, at Strickler's Drug Store in Pennsylvania... |
||
|
||
| 03. BIOLOGY NOW! CONFERENCE FOR BIOLOGY STUDENTS AS and A Level biology students will have the opportunity to hear top rate speakers in the world of biology at the Biology Now! Conference. The conference will be taking place at Ferneham Hall, Fareham, Hampshire, on Monday 15th November. The guest speakers include Chris Packham (Really Wild Show presenter), Ian Brown (scientific consultant for BBC's Superhuman), Bill Indge (biology writer, lecturer and examiner) and Steve Jones (Professor of Genetics at the Galton Laboratory, University College, London). The tickets are priced at just £5 each so if you would like more information then please contact Dr Linda Garratt by telephone: 0239 258 8311 or by email: lgarrat@stvincent.ac.uk Linda has very kindly offered five free places to the first school to make a booking if they mention the Planet Science newsletter. MYSTERY CLUE: King Camp Gillette (5th January 1855 - 9th July 1932) developed and patented the safety razor. |
||
|
||
| 04. SCOTTISH SMALL GRANTS SCHEME Round 2 is now open in the Science Small Grants Scheme for Scottish schools. The scheme is part of a NESTA Learning project with the Scottish Executive and aims to boost enthusiasm for science, as children move from primary to secondary schools. The scheme offers funding to school clusters that have innovative ideas that will enhance science teaching and learning during the transition process. Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis and range from £500 to £2,500 Application forms and all details are available from the Science Education 3-18 website at: http://www.scienceeducation3-18.com Or you can contact the Science Small Grants Administrator by telephone: 0141228 2264, or by email: ssgs@scienceeducation3-18.com MYSTERY CLUE: Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. |
||
|
||
| 05. READER'S WEBSITE REQUEST Here at Planet Science we're always willing to help our faithful readers, so when we received a special request from newsletter regular, Mark Daly, we jumped at the chance to help him. Mark writes: "Do you guys know of any websites that provide science-related content best accessed with a high-speed Internet connection? The reason for my asking is that I have recently upgraded my 56Kbps dialup to a 1Mbps broadband connection and I want to use it to full effect with some no-doubt amazing websites that I hope you can inform me of. Thanks in advance!" If any websites (other than Planet Science of course!) spring to mind then please email the usual address: planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with 'I know a good site!' in the subject box and Anne will feature the top sites in a forthcoming newsletter. MYSTERY CLUE: The periodic table was created by Dmitri Mendeleev. |
||
| ||
| 06. MOUSES AT THE READY: FOR YOUNG SCIENTIST SUBSCRIPTIONS Treetop Media have been in touch and they are offering you the chance to win a three month subscription to their monthly Key Stage 2 science magazine, Young Scientist, which has just been launched in the newsagents and supermarkets. Young Scientist covers a diverse range of scientific subjects - from biographies of famous scientists to home experiments and from fascinating facts about our bodies to astounding astronomy, so the magazine makes a good classroom and/or homework companion. Planet Science has three subscriptions to give away so if you want to be entered into the draw then send an email with 'Young Scientist' in the subject box to: planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk The draw will take place next Thursday at 5pm. MYSTERY CLUE: What is fermium's atomic number? |
||
|
||
| 07. NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD #6: Mount Everest, frontier of Nepal and Tibet. This natural wonder of the world makes the list just by virtue of being a number one. It's the world record everyone knows, a mountain that rises almost 9 km above sea level. Pedants may care to note that the world's tallest mountain could in fact be considered to be Mauna Kea in Hawaii, if you count in terms of height from base to tip. But in terms of height above sea level, Everest wins out, at over double Mauna Kea's height above sea level. Like the Matterhorn featured in this series a couple of weeks ago, Mount Everest is, geologically speaking, relatively young. It's made of layers of gneiss, metamorphosed shale and limestone rock that is being slowly folded up due to the movement of landmasses beneath. This process, which began around 45 million years ago, continues today, and so Everest gets a few millimetres higher each year as a result. The mountain is named after Sir George Everest, a British surveyor general of India. Tibetans call the mountain 'Chomolungma' and the Nepalese call it 'Sagarmatha'. Attempts to climb Everest began in the 1920s, when Nepal opened its borders. The first expeditions were mainly British or Swiss. But it was not until 1953 that Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa tribesman, safely made it to the summit and back down again. The eventual success was partly due to technological advances including better-insulated clothing and portable oxygen cylinders. (Romantics would like to believe the first climbers to stand on the 'roof of the world' were Mallory and Irving in 1924. They both died on the mountain. Mallory's body was found in 1999. Sadly, it yielded no proof of a successful ascent.) The dangers of the climb include extreme weather, avalanches, crevasses and the continuous problems of sickness due to the high altitude. While the percentage of oxygen in the air is the same, lower air pressure at altitude means the air only holds a third of the oxygen that it does at sea level. This shortage makes most climbers progress slower than a baby can crawl. There's a risk of pulmonary oedema (lungs filling with fluid) and cerebral oedema (the brain swelling up). They have headaches, their judgement is impaired and they may hallucinate. With good reason, any height above 8,000 metres is said to be in the 'death zone'. If you die on Everest, your body stays there. Due to the cold, little or no decomposition occurs. It was not until 1978 that the first climber made it to the top without supplementary oxygen. Everest is said to be the home of the Yeti, a.k.a. the Abominable Snowman, but no climbers have ever seen it, which is hardly surprising as conditions on the mountain are so inhospitable to life. A nice collection of Everest facts to drop into conversation: http://www.factmonster.com/spot/everest-facts1.html Find out about expeditions tackling the mountain and the names of recent summiteers: http://www.everestnews.com/ ANOTHER MYSTERY CLUE: How many billions of neurons are inside the human brain? |
||
|
||
|
08. RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: something from the ASE |
||
|
||
| 09. WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS The draw took place at 5pm yesterday for last week’s competition. The prize was 4 pairs of tickets to see the new IMAX film, Haunted Castle, at the Science Museum IMAX Cinema, London. The lucky winners were: Sally Rushworth from Wilton Middle School, George Price from Soham Village College, Charles Woods from Hanwell, and Paula Keen from Kent. Congratulations to you all and expect the tickets in the post soon! The Planet Science Quiz, the 'Hawaii Hula' for August, is being kept on for another week as so many potential winners of the stylish skateboard prize missed the quiz by being on holiday. Let them know and send them to: http://www.planet-science.com/wired/comp_quiz/08_04_Pacific/index.html LAST, HUGE MYSTERY CLUE: How many years ago did the City of Truro steam train achieve this record-breaking speed? |
||
|
||
| 10. AWKWARD QUESTION AND ANSWER Here's a reminder of last week's question from Elizabeth Hayden: Why does even the sweetest pure orange juice taste so foul just after you've brushed your teeth? Are you ready for the answer? This one is down to chemistry. Even the sweetest juice contains acid (in citrus fruit like oranges the acid is citric acid). Acid conditions in the mouth are bad news for dental health as the acid attacks tooth enamel. Acid conditions in the mouth can be a result of plaque bacteria working on the sugar left on the teeth after eating sugary foods. Toothpastes normally contain an alkali for example, bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate), to fight acid conditions. Alkalis are the chemical 'opposites' of acids and neutralise them. The general reaction when a neutralisation reaction happens is: acid + alkali > a salt + water The salt formed is the reason why you're left with that funny taste. The orange juice will taste better if you save drinking it for a while if you've only just brushed your teeth. The first glass of wine when having a meal out is sometimes accused of being poor tasting, but this could be because you brushed your teeth before heading out, and a reaction's happened similar to the one above. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> OK - that's it - I'm ripping open the answer envelope to see if I'm right... This year it has been 100 years since: The invention of the banana split recipe. The Gillette safety razor was patented. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met and formed the Rolls Royce business. Dmitri Mendeleev died. The 'City of Truro' steam train reached 100 miles an hour. It is estimated there are 100 billion neurons in the human brain and 100 is the atomic number of the element, fermium. Yup! It's the 100th Planet Science Newsletter so the theme was 100! It WAS something obvious! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> And, rather less obvious, on to this week's Awkward Question - thanks to Ian Francis for this contribution: You heat water in a pan, and then tip it into a bigger pan that is partly filled with cold water and then measure the temperature. How does this compare to the temperature you'd have measured if you carried on heating the water in the first pan for a while longer, before tipping it in the second pan with the cold water? Find the answer in next week's newsletter. |
||
|
||
| 11. JOKES OF THE WEEK The first joke I have been sent this week is rather fitting with the start of the school term so many thanks to Chris Parry from Summit Saturday School. Here goes: A little boy worrying through his very first day at school raised his hand for permission to go to the toilet. The boy then returned to the class a few moments later to report that he couldn't find it. Dispatched a second time with explicit directions, he still couldn't find it. So this time the teacher asked a slightly older boy to act as a guide. Success crowned his efforts. "We finally found it," the older boy told the teacher. "He had his pants on backwards!" Thanks also to Andy Ingham from Penketh High School for this joke, although he denies all responsibility for it and blames it instead on the late great Tommy Cooper: The police arrested two young boys the other day - one was caught drinking battery acid and the other was eating fireworks. They're charging one but they've let the other off! And 'just like that' the 100th Planet Science newsletter comes to an end...  Thanks for all your contributions while I have stood in as editor over the last few weeks! Anne will be back next week for the 101st edition. In the meantime please keep in touch, especially if you have any news, ideas, recommended websites, jokes or indeed freebie offers. Please send them to: planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk Have a great week! |
||
|
||
 |
