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01. NEUTRINO GAME
It's not every day you get the chance to enhance your knowledge of physics at the same time as pitting your reaction times against a tricky - very, VERY tricky - computer game. But now you can. Our new concentration-zapper, NEUTRINO, has successfully passed all its safety checks and been loaded into the Planet Science pixel accelerator, where it's currently quietly humming away to itself, waiting to explode into action the moment you hit the 'Start' key. Neutrinos, as you maybe already know, are exceedingly small, exceedingly fast particles, and they're a source of great intrigue because they're just so difficult for scientists to get a good look at. They're roughly the same size as electrons, but the big difference is that neutrinos don't carry any charge, so like students free from dependents, mortgage or career hang-ups, they are free to travel extensively to infinity and beyond. Not just through the air either, they can pass through seemingly solid objects too - like the Earth, for example, or your left leg. In fact, there could be zillions of them shooting through the molecular "holes" in your body right this instant... Find out more and try out the neutrino lifestyle out for yourself by clicking here Gamewise, there are six journeys, each a little faster than the one before, and your job is to stop the journey at the right place and in the right order the get to the next level. Each stop will reveal a little neutrino-sized science bite, so you should emerge on the other side of the world a bit better informed!  |
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| 02. BEAM ME UP SCOTTY? There certainly are a lot of strange things in the subatomic world, as one of this week's news stories demonstrates perfectly... Scientists, in the current edition of the esteemed science journal 'Nature', report that for the first time they have managed to transfer the properties of one atom to another without physical contact between the two, using a laser beam. The headline-writers are describing this as a possible forerunner to beam-me-up-Scottie style human teleportation, though the scientists themeslves are vehemently talking down any such expectations. What they are excited about though is the exploitation of what's known as "quantum entanglement" between particles - a concept that even Einstein found hard to get his head around, describing it as "spooky action at a distance" Here's one summary of the story, on BBCi: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811785.stm |
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| 03. ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK: FEELING THE PRESSURE And so to matters meteorological. With Wimbledon around the corner, changeable conditions are bound to be in store. Oh to be able to predict those breaks for bad weather... Sadly we can't promise you Met Office-rivalling weather forecasting abilities, but here's a fun way to learn about the way that air pressure changes around us, and how it relates to those curvy lines that squiggle across the map on tv weather forecasts. It might even enable you to predict a storm before it happens, you never know. You will need: * A balloon * A narrow-mouthed jar (or Snapple bottle) * String or an elastic band * A straw * A pin or toothpick * A piece of card * Some glue * Scissors What to do: 1. Cut the balloon carefully to give you a flat-ish piece of rubber. 2. Stretch this bit of rubber over the neck of the jar, and fasten it with the string or elastic band. 3. Now glue the straw to the centre of the piece of rubber, so that it points out horizontally beyond the edge of the jar. 4. Attach the pin or toothpick to the other end of the straw (this is your barometer's pointer). 5. Now position your card so that the pointer is just in front of it. You can then draw marks on the card to record the highs and lows of the pointer. 6. Over the next few days and weeks, you should see the pointer moving up and down, and this should, in theory, correspond to the weather heading your way. * When the pointer's high, look out for nice weather; when the pointer is falling, take an umbrella with you! (If you create your barometer during particularly high or low pressure conditions, you might not get the pointer moving both ways, in which case, try again.) What's going on? In periods of atmospheric high pressure, the balloon skin will curve into the bottle slightly, as there's more pressure outside the bottle than inside. This will make the pointer higher. During low pressure, the balloon skin will bulge slightly outwards, with the opposite effect. * Weather warning: Weather prediction is a tantalisingly difficult thing to get right, so don't plan a California-style outdoor wedding based on what your barometer says! Even the Met Office gets things wrong from time to time, despite having some of the world's most cutting edge instrumentation. It's still fun to have a try though... |
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| 04. MOUSES AT THE READY: FOR THE BEST KIDS' SCIENCE BOOK IN THE UK Congratulations by the crate-load go to Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles this week for winning prestigious Junior Prize for the Aventis Prizes for Science Books 2004, with their book, 'Really Rotten Experiiments'. If you've been lucky enough to see it already, you'll know that the book is a larger-than-life treasure trove of activities, crammed full with instructions and ideas for experiments and demonstrations, with lots of explanations, little known facts, and things to make you ponder the world and its inner workings. It's very funny too - and festooned with groovy cartoons that make every page distinctly different from every other. Head of the judges, Kate Heavenor's comment on the book was: "Really Rotten Experiments is an exceptional title which will keep children entertained for hours. Nick keeps his readers engaged by explaining scientific experiments in a fun and humorous light and the outstanding illustrations really add to the book's appeal. Congratulations to Nick and Tony for a truly compelling book." You may remember we held a prize draw for a number of these books a couple of months ago, and, following supreme grovelling to the publisher (Scholastic Children's Books - whom we LOVE!) we are delighted to announce that we now have a further EIGHT books to give away. If you'd like to get in the draw to win one, please send your name, address, and your school's name if you're associated with a school, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. Give the email the title REALLY ROTTEN PRIZE DRAW, and make sure it gets to us by 5pm next Thursday, as that's when the draw will be taking place. Good luck! |
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| 05. THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SPIT Question: how do you turn a watery solution of an enzyme, mucus and salts into a plane ticket home? On Monday, Italy's Francesco Totti discovered the answer to that one when he was given a three match ban by UEFA for spitting at Christian Poulsen during his country's Euro 2004 game against Denmark. Totti will only get to play again if Italy progress as far as the semi-finals. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of a flying glob of warm gob, so it's perhaps not surprising that society at large, and UEFA officials in particular, take a very dim view of spitting. But their concern about germs - or more about ungentlemanly behaviour? Ian Francis, our footballing science correspondent has been finding out: Saliva contains the usual germs found inside the mouth cavity, and may have additional microbes that have been trapped by mucus in the nose and throat if someone spits a 'greenie'. However, as a means of spreading disease, spitting isn't very good. The volume of spit is small, it doesn't spread over a wide area, and the spit directed at a footballing opponent may just land on clothing or hair. Your skin is a good barrier against infection and other parts of your body's natural defences will help protect you in the massively unlikely chance the spit goes in your eye, up your nose or in your mouth. If you really want to spread infection, try sneezing instead, it's loads more efficient: the aerosol of germ-laden droplets can travel some distance and can readily be breathed in deeply by other people. Our revulsion at spitting is mostly cultural, rather than based on health grounds. It's seen as a degrading act and while the practice of spitting at others is thankfully rare, the revulsion lives on in choice insults like "I wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire" and the promise that you'll spit on someone's grave when they've died. Handbags at 20 paces, anyone? |
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| 06. RECOMMENDED WEBSITES OF THE WEEK This week, a couple of sites that'll suit you right down to the ground if you've got an enquiring mind, and an hour or three free sometime soon. Both sites are packed with ideas for activities, and in both cases the presentation is upbeat and inspirational. The first is HUNKINS EXPERIMENTS. This is engineer/illustrator/Renaissance man Tim Hunkins' collection of fun science activities, suitable for use whether you're in the office, the kitchen, or the great outdoors. Some are like tricks (eg. how to decapitate yourself without your head falling off), some are real scientific demonstrations (eg. exploring the world of surface tension and air pressure), and some will just give you a psychological boost whenever you need one (thinking in particular of the activity that lets you recreate the sound of a clapping audience using just a matchbox, some candle wax and a bit of thread). There's also a link to Hunkins' RUDIMENTS OF WISDOM ENCYCLOPAEDIA, which is always good for a peruse... Here's the link: http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com * * * * * * * Secondly, we really like REEKO'S MAD SCIENTIST LAB. It may not have as many cartoons as Tim Hunkins' site but it's just as friendly, and much more structured in terms of using experiments to explore scientific principles such as buoyancy, gravity and momentum. There are clickable bits and pieces all over the place, just to keep you on your toes, and lots of links to other good sites too. The url is: http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/ NB. Reeko is particular is very good on alerting visitors to safety issues, but we can only underline the need to be safety-conscious at all times, and if you're a young person, tell a sensible adult about the activity you're proposing before you start - and get their help if you need it. |
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| 07. AWKWARD QUESTION OF THE WEEK Last week we left the irascible Mr Arty Pooper in a bit of a fix... Here's a reminder of the question: 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? Think you got it? Ok, here comes the answer... Arty should encourage them to have the party during the day, for two reasons. The first reason is because daylight hours are usually noisier anyway than the hours of darkness. There will be the usual background noises (ambience) and this will slightly mask the music from the party. The second reason is due to refraction. This is the science behind the watery mirage you see that always manages to stay a kilometre or so away as you go down a hot, straight road. Light rays aren't travelling in their usual straight lines here, as they are travelling through air at different temperatures and densities. The 'water' of the mirage you're looking at is actually a patch of sky - the light has followed a curved path from the sky and then along over the road which has warmed the air above it, but your eye just sees the light as though it's come straight from the road surface. Refraction happens with sound as well as light. During the day the air nearest the ground is likely to be warmer than air higher up. Sound waves travelling in this air will tend to be refracted upwards, creating a 'shadow zone' on the ground where the sound won't be as loud. At night, the temperature of air near the ground will drop faster than the temperature of air higher up. With the air nearest the ground coldest, refraction will tend to be in the opposite direction. This means the sound from an evening party would be bent down back to the ground, greatly annoying Arty and disturbing his attempts to get a decent night's beauty sleep. * * * * * * * Our stock of Awkward Questions is currently running low, but fortunately we've just taken delivery of a special space-related conundrum ... Here it is: An eclipse happens when the Sun, moon and Earth line up. The moon orbits the Earth once a (lunar) month. So in theory, there should be two eclipses each month; one solar (when the moon casts a shadow on Earth) and one lunar (when Earth's shadow falls on the moon). In practice, eclipses are much rarer than this. In particular, why are solar eclipses so rare that when they do happen that they're a major news story? Answer next week! |
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| 08. JOKES OF THE WEEK Chris Parry, of Summit Saturday School, has been in touch with another couple of jokes for you: A woman walks into an optician to return a pair of spectacles that she purchased for her husband a week before. The assistant asks, "What seems to be the problem, Madam?" The woman replies, "I'm returning these spectacles I bought for my husband. He's still not seeing things my way." NB the gender roles can be switched around for re-telling that one! Q. Why do potatoes make such good detectives? A. Because they always have their eyes peeled. Just time for two space jokes... Q. What did Neptune say to Saturn? A. Give me a ring sometime. Q. Why was the thirsty alien hanging around the computer? A. He was looking for the space bar! * * * * * * And on that cosmic note we must say goodbye... Any contributions for future newsletters should be sent to Anne McNaught on planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. Have a great week! |
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