|
 |
 |
||
|
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
01. VENUS: LOOKING GOOD
Did you see it? What an amazing sight. It was lovely weather for an astronomical event and not surprisingly, pictures of Tuesday's Transit of Venus made the front pages of many newspapers. There are oodles of other images available now on the web, so have a surf. Here's a link to just of them, SPACE.COM, which features a range of photos taken from various locations around the world, with links to a load more and even an animation. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/venus_transit_040608.html Secondly, another collection of images, but this time children's drawings of the Transit. Magic! http://www.vt-2004.org/Gallery/  |
|||
|
|||
| 02. DOT DOT DOT - FREE POSTERS When is a picture not a picture? When it's a collection of cleverly arranged dots, or is a 'halftone' as they say in the graphics trade... Newspapers utilise this technology every time they publish a photo, and we've now put it to use on the Planet Science website in the form of four free downloadable careers posters. The idea is that you can print off and assemble each poster for yourself because it's been segmented into 18 A4 sheets. The sheets should take no more than a few minutes to download and print off (using a 56K modem) and the fun thing about them is that because a. it's a jigsaw, and b. they're only made up of dots, it's not easy to see what the full image will be until you've stuck the whole lot together - in the correct order of course - and then stepped back to admire your work. No clues are available as to what's on each poster, but the subjects available are: PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY and ENGINEERING. Have a look here. |
|||
|
|||
| 03. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: CREATE A WORMERY Beneath every manicured garden and velvet-smooth lawn, there's an army of wormy workers, maintaining the soil quality, recycling decaying material, keeping the top layers fresh and improving drainage. The humble earthworm goes about their business without fuss or publicity, but their role is vital, and they don't believe in understaffing - there are probably around 225 worms in every cubic metre! Building a wormery is a brilliant way to observe worms burrowing through the soil and going about their daily lives, and you don't need a special glass frame in which to do it. Taken from the Green Scene on the Planet Science website, here are instructions for how to make one using just an empty plastic drinks bottle. You will need: * Water - to catch worms * A large plastic soft drinks bottle (empty) * Scissors, to cut the bottle * Soil * Sand * Leaves * A tube of black paper or cardboard that fits round the bottle What to do: 1. First catch your earthworms! You'll need about ten. Worms come to the surface when it's wet and they prefer the dark, so you could either wait for a very rainy night and then go out hunting for them, or you could pour a couple of watering cans' worth of water onto a patch of soil and see what comes to the surface. Another idea is to place a piece of old carpet on top of the soil. Leave it there for a day or so before taking it off to see what creatures have collected underneath. (Be brave, there may be all sorts of creepy-crawlies, but they will scuttle away very quickly, leaving you to pick up the worms). 2. Cut the top (curved) part off the bottle. 3. Fill the bottle up with alternate layers of damp soil and soft sand, making each layer about 3cm deep. 4. Place some leaves on the surface of the top layer and then place your earthworms on top. 5. Worms like the dark, so cover the outside of the bottle with a tube made of a thick layer of black paper or cardboard to keep the light out. Make sure the soil is kept damp but definitely not wet, and store the container in a cool place. 6. You can check on the earthworms' activities by taking off the paper tube and seeing how they tunnel through the earth, churning up the soil and sand layers. They may also have dragged some of the leaves from the surface down into the soil. After a week or so it will probably be time to let the earthworms go. Release them back into your garden where they can continue their valuable work - but make sure they wriggle away before the birds can get them! |
|||
|
|||
| 04. MINTY FRESH FITNESS News just in: the battle for fitness can be a tough one, but a new ally may be at hand. Namely, the smell of peppermint. This week's Times relays a presentation given at the recent conference of the Association for Chemo-reception Sciences, in which evidence was presented that the smell of mint can "lessen fatigue and boost activity". Participants in two exercise studies quoted responded positively to the smell of mint, feeling slightly less cream-crackered by all the exercise they were taking, and more motivated to continue than with other smells, or none. Physiologically, the researchers found that "nasal and lung dilation was increased, allowing more blood and oxygen to reach the muscles, ultimately enhancing strength and endurance." The jury's out on whether these physiological effects were caused by the peppermint directly or whether this was just the natural results of the guinea-pigs pushing themselves harder because they felt that bit fitter. Either way, if the studies are confirmed, it looks like a sprig of mint, or a bottle of Peppermint Essence could be one's new best friend in the gym. (What about a box of After Eights?) |
|||
|
|||
| 05. FAULKES TELESCOPE PROJECT - COMPETITION The Faulkes Telescope Project is a scheme which enables school groups in the UK to take real-time control of telescopes during class time to explore the nightsky over Hawaii and Australia. To find out more, have a look at their lovely new website at http://faulkes1.astro.cf.ac.uk/. The reason they contacted us this week, however, was to let you know about a new competition they're running. It's open to all UK schools, and the challenge is to come up with an idea for an inspirational and exciting science and/or maths project that will stimulate school learning. A £300 prize is on offer, plus a free subscription to the project for the winning school. Here's what the organisers say: "Students are requested to write a letter to Dr. Faulkes outlining a project idea that will make studying science and maths more fun and exciting. The letter can be accompanied by a picture illustrating the idea if needed. Any ideas are welcome and the theme does not have to be based around astronomy. It could be a practical experiment or a game... whatever you find fun!" The competition is open to three age groups: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and post-16. A little more information and guidelines can be obtained at: http://faulkes1.astro.cf.ac.uk/competition.htm Entries should be sent to: Science Competition The Faulkes Telescope Operations Centre School of Physics and Astronomy Cardiff University 5, The Parade Cardiff CF24 3YB The closing date for the competition is 16th July 2004. Good luck! |
|||
| |||
| 06. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK You can't open a newspaper these days without a free all-colour pull-out guide to Euro 2004 slithering onto your lap. As you'll probably be aware by now, the action begins tomorrow at 17.00 hours, when homeboys Portugal take on the Olympic might of Greece... England's first match is on Sunday against France, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are saving their energies for Euro 2008 in which they will hopefully create a massive sensation by marching straight through to the semi-finals... Recognising that soccer is just one particularly popular branch of applied science, the BBC has devoted its latest online HOT TOPIC to the beaurriful game, and we think you'll like it. Discover the secrets of "plyometric" training, find out what your fingers say about your footballing potential, learn how to bend it like You Know Who and have a go at their penalty shoot-out game. Then find out about Arsene Wenger's scientific approach to diet, including his fondness for "pee-charts" (which are a bit like colour charts for paint, but for footballers' pee, instead.*) Dribble, shoot and score your way through the whole lot at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/football/ * Hold the phone! Arsene's just rung through with a joke he likes to tell his players at half time: Q. What's the difference between pea green paint and cha cha cha? A. Anyone can cha cha cha. Thanks, Arsene. That's a very old joke, you know... * * * * * If you're into your football, but keen to keep your bottom parked where it is, here's a quick reminder of our own multi-level football challenge game, UP FOR THE CUP. It begins at jumpers-for-goalposts level, but with success, you will rise and rise, eventually to World Cup standard and beyond. Be warned, you'll need top co-ordination to get there though... Click here for the game. |
|||
|
|||
| 07. AWKWARD QUESTION OF THE WEEK Ok, so we've covered how to impart ferocious spin on one's free kick, and how to maximise training through the power of peppermint. All that remains is to reveal the formula for success in athletics... A quick reminder of last week's question: Think about throwing and jumping events in athletics. What's best, to aim to jump or throw HIGH, so you're (or your shotput, javelin etc is) in the air for a long time, or to aim to jump/throw LONG to cover a lot of distance, but maybe not be airborne for as long as if you went mostly for height? Here comes the science... Mathematically, the answer is a perfect compromise between the two ideas: a 45 degree take-off lets you have the best of both worlds, covering the greatest horizontal distance as a result. In reality, the perfect angle is affected by other factors, most noticeably the height you launch from. In the hammer throw, the hammer is launched pretty much at ground level so the 45 degree angle is king. But in other events like the javelin, you launch from higher up. This gets you a bit more time in the air, so you're best going for an angle a little under 45 degrees, closer to the horizontal. For the long jump, too, an angle under 45 degrees is best as your centre of mass is already a metre or so off the ground. How did you do? * * * * * * Ready for another? Mr Arty Pooper lives in a house which looks onto a beach. Local teenagers have asked if he objects to them holding a beach party. There will be loud music at the party and although Arty doesn't want to say no, he wants the least disturbance from the music. Should he agree to a party during the day, or a party during the evening? Answer next week! |
|||
|
|||
| 08. WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS... Last week we had on offer five family passes for Techniquest in Cardiff. And the winners were: Sabine van Slageren from Lindfield Heather Janes from Bridgnorth Linda Garratt from Gosport Rhona Sutherland from Bossingham Nigel Bowen from Telford Congratulations to all of you - your passes will be in the post first thing next week. |
|||
|
|||
|
09. JOKES OF THE WEEK |
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
