SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 30 Week ending Friday, 17th August 2001 Welcome to the latest news from Science Year, and particularly warm greetings to all new subscribers to the newsletter... Here it is, hope you enjoy it - and please feel free to contribute any time over the coming weeks and months. Here at Science Year HQ, the week has been packed with Giant Jump activity and much Cape Canaveral-style intensive scurrying about, telecommunicating and contingency planning in preparation for our multi-faceted, media-extravagant offical launch on 7th September. We're not quite ready to commence ignition sequence - but we're getting there ... THE GIANT JUMP ... is of course the centrepiece of the Science Year launch. Many thanks to the thousands of schools and other organisations who have already registered. If you haven't heard of, or haven't signed up for our World-Record attempting, UK-wide earth-quaking experiment yet - go straight to Giant Jump and register. Do not pass Go, do not collect £200 until you have. We need more schools and more people to take part, and that means you. Yes YOU! All those who have registered will receive a pack of information through the post at the beginning of September. In the meantime, Please visit our newly-expanded Giant Jump webpages for everything you need to know. It's packed full of additional information, fun facts, instructions for building you own sensors, and most importantly essential information for the day. NB This is a must-read for all participants, detailing how the Giant Jump can be fun, safe and count towards the world record. And for those who can't jump we've given alternative ways to make an impact. MEDIA FRENZY We have received a HUGE number of enquiries from national and regional press and broadcasters, all wanting to cover the Giant Jump on the 7th September. What they all want, is the names of some of the schools taking part in it… but we obviously won’t give out any names unless we have your permission first. So if you’re signed up for the jump and you don’t mind your local media knowing about it, please send us an email asap, with your school’s name and your own contact name and number. RECORD BREAKERS Our friends at Guinness World Records are leaping with anticipation at the thought that all those participating in the Giant Jump will - we hope - soon set two new world records. Not only are we aiming to set a record for the 'Largest Number of Jumpers' but we're also going for 'The Largest Experiment Ever'. To celebrate Guinness World Records will issue official certificates for every school taking part - should look good on the notice board! TIDAL WAVES IN CHINA? What do you think will happen when everyone jumps up and down simultaneously during the Giant Jump? We want to hear your thoughts. Email: predictions@scienceyear.com and let us know. You could win a groovy prize ... DESIGNER Meanwhile, talking of prizes, if you've got a class of students or a family that you'd like to keep busy on a little project, get them into the Giant Jump Design Challenge. Here's the brief: design some Great Gear for the Giant Jump. What sort of gear should a Giant Jumper wear to really make an impact? Cool clothes? Special safety equipment? Boots with springs to make you bounce higher? Whatever crazy and creative ideas you have, we want to hear them - as ever, best ideas will be rewarded. Send your designs, along with your name, address and age to Science Year Giant Jump Design Challenge, 11 Tufton Street, London SW1 3QB. And PS there's no upper or lower age limit for this. SCIENCE TEACHING JUST GOT EASIER... Included in the ambitious plans for Science Year, are new, strategic alliances with key business partners to make the year really go with a swing. The partnerships with leading companies are currently being firmed up ready for announcement by Ministers on the day of launch, but we can reveal that three companies have given their commitment to being Friends of Science Year. Their substantial cash and in-kind contributions will form the basis of the Kit Pot - offering teachers across the UK outstanding cutting-edge resources to use in the classroom. Watch this space to find out more about sophisticated interactive learning environments for science teachers, free electronic microscopes, continuous professional development for science teachers, heavily subsidised interactive whiteboards and biotechnology kits! NOT SUCH A ROUGH LIFE A team of five scientists have just finished tackling their latest mind-bending scientific challenges for a new series of the Open University's "Rough Science" programme, coming to BBC 2 in science year next February. The five, who include two physicists, a virologist, a chemist and a botanist, have been co-operating to create back to basic experiments with time, transmitters, temperatures and even underwater light bulbs. The filming schedule was demanding with so much to do ... but we can't feel too sorry for them since the filming location was the beautiful turquoise-ocean'd, palm-tree'd bijou island of Carriacou, off Grenada. Science Year will be collaborating with the Rough Science team on some challenges for YOU to try your hand at - watch this space for further details closer to the broadcast date ... In the picture they are (L to R) Kathy Sykes - Physicist • Mike Bullivant - Chemist • Jonathan Hare - (Chemistry Physics and Environmental science) • Mike Leahy - Virologist • Ellen McCallie - Botanist RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK Many thanks for all the website recommendations that have come in this week. Our library re-vamp is now in hand and will be with you shortly. For this week though, we'd like to direct your attention to the ever-expanding science/technology site How Stuff Works for everything you ever wanted to know about ... how (most) stuff works. Check it out - and let us know your thoughts. The url is: http://www.howstuffworks.com GWEFAN GWYDDONIAETH ARBENNIG AR GYFER SIARADWYR CYMRAEG Or for the benefit of non-Welsh speakers ... here's news of a website specifically created to provide answers in Welsh to all kinds of scientific questions sent in by the public. It was set up by BBC Wales, and is called Gwifren Gwyddoniaeth. It's based on the existing Science Line service (http://www.sciencenet.org.uk), and the idea's the same: people of any age, and with any level of scientific knowledge can send in e-mailed questions to be answered by a panel of more than 1,000 scientific experts. Those questions for which answers can be found are then displayed, in Welsh, on the website. Although it's only two weeks' old, the service is attracting a lot of attention, and has already dispatched answers on such challenging questions as 'how long would it take to get to the edge of the universe?' and 'is it possible that computers can think?'. BBC Wales' Grahame Davies has been up to his particle physics in enquiries but seems to be enjoying himself. He told us, "It's good to see things as complex as the quantum physics being discussed in Welsh - although it has stretched my translation abilities somewhat!" The url is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/gwyddoniaeth/ JOKE OF THE WEEK Is from Peter West ... on a somewhat Michael Faraday theme, perhaps? Q. How many kite flyers does it take to change a light bulb? A. As many as you need ........ no strings attached. Can you do better? Come on then if you think you're funny enough! ANY OTHER BUSINESS As ever, we welcome any comments or thoughts you have about the newsletter, and any information you want to send us about about forthcoming events, websites you like - or any other Science Year-related ideas or tips. Please drop a line to: anne.mcnaught@scienceyear.com Thank you! Return to archive