SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 60 Week ending Thursday, 28th March 2002 Happy holidays are here again - and in this relatively lightweight edition of the newsletter we'd like to send you packing with a few fun activities, competitions and science factoids to think about. But first we have a few serious concerns we need to raise with you. April fool! We don't have any serious concerns this week - we asked around, but there were none. This week. Anyway. Let's crack on. Here's what's in store: • HOWZAT FOR GENIUS?! - our new inspiration quiz • Wannabe a LIGHTING DESIGNER? Here's your chance... • Heavens above - could that be a COMET? • GUIDING the way to top science activities for girls • Go take a COLD SHOWER with this week's Science Line question • As EASY AS FALLING OFF A LOG? Hmmmmm - cryptic • An X-rated Recommended Website of the Week • JOKES OF THE WEEK • Any Other BUSINESS? INSPIRATION / PERSPIRATION James Watt had it, James Dyson has it, Thomas Edison had it, and Hedy Lamarr did too*... Inspiration, that is - plus motivation, elbow grease and that key factor the late great Victor Kiam referred to as 'sticktuitiveness'. Without inventors we'd still be in the pre-wheel, pre-Stone Age so we have a lot to thank such people for. And the latest quiz on the Science Year website aims to celebrate their spirit of creativity and ingenuity... All you need to do is click here and answer 10 questions correctly. Simple, huh? Three lucky winners will each win two of the most nifty recent UK inventions: Trevor Baylis' exceedingly useful wind-up torch that (obviously!) never needs batteries, and Sir Clive Sinclair's X1 Button Radio that'll sit neatly in your ear and allow you to listen to the Archers while you're windsurfing, no trouble at all. Go for it! (And if you like, you can also find out about other inventors in the Inventors area of the Science Year link library). * Still scratching your head about Hedy Lamarr? If so you're wondering what an actress is doing in that list ... If so, you're probably unaware that as well as acting and running through woods naked, Hedy also invented the radio-controlled torpedo - check out the New Scientist if you don't believe us! (And if by any chance it's an April Fool, be assured we will get ya back, New Scientist!) Here's the link: http://www.newscientist.com/weblinks/categories/biography3.jsp >top LIGHTING DESIGNER "I'm lost in music, caught in a trap ..." sang Sister Sledge, as a trillion 80s club-goers shimmied their way to oblivion. But you can't just blame the boogie for that heady feeling of letting go and just doing what feels natural... What about LIGHTING? Brand new on the Science Year website is an interactive funky lighting-generator game, called 'Lighting Designer'. There's information about how lighting and colour affects the brain in subconscious ways - and you can have a play at manipulating a stageful of lights, then add the music to complete the experience. If you like the club scene, you'll love this ... if you prefer Mozart's Clarinet Concertos - well, you should still give it a go! >top COMET OVERHEAD! We may be in for some clear skies over the Easter holidays, perfect of course for a bit of evening comet-spotting. So thought we'd give you a bit of advance warning on Comet Ikeya Zhang, which is making another pass through the solar system nearly 350 years after its last entrance. It was discovered on February 1, 2002 and will be visible to the naked eye from mid April. It will be brightest on April 25 and will pass through the well known constellations of Pisces and Cassiopeia as it flits across the night sky. If you want to have a go at spotting it, have a look at (or better still, print off) the star chart on: http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/images - it's the line through the middle you need to concentrate on, that's the path of the comment, with the dates showing where it'll be when. The easiest landmark/skymark to identify is the Cassiopeia constellation which is nearby and is very bright. >top SCIENCE FOR GIRLS Not just girls, of course. But the reason the Society of Chemical Industry teamed up with the UK Guiding Association was to try and address the perennial disparity in numbers of girls and boys studying science and taking up full time careers in the subject. What they decided to do was combine skills to come up with a range of fun science activities that can be enjoyed outside a school setting, including of course by companies of Guides, Brownies and Rainbows (Rainbows being those girls too wee to be Brownies - in case you hadn't heard of Rainbows before. Bless!) The activities are appearing throughout Science Year in Guiding magazine, but are also being made available for everyone to download free from the SCI website. There are three months' worth there already, including instructions for creating your own lava lamp, making butter, and an experiment to investigate which (drinkable) substances will get your 2p pieces the cleanest... Especially Guide-like activities including making a compass, and making a coolbox. Both essential on those camping trips of course. Download the whole lot at the SCI website - http://www.soci.org - and click through where it says 'Science Activities from SCI and the Guide Association', or go through the link on the education resources page. >top SCIENCE LINE QUESTION OF THE WEEK If all those top Science Line questions of recent weeks have been getting you a little hot under the collar, here's one of a cooler nature: Why do we feel breathless when we enter a cold shower? (Or could we perhaps make that: "Why do we feel breathless when we've been standing in a nice warm shower and suddenly it turns to *7%?!>& freezing?") The answer can be found at: http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Biology/0106/b00964d.html >top QUIZZICAL 4-YEAR OLD'S TYPE OF QUESTION OF THE WEEK The Science Line staff are standing by to answer all your science-related questions, and they are game old birds as you can see. Here's a question-and-answer they completed recently: How easy is it to fall off a log? http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Physics/0202/p01559d.html So there you have it. Silver birch, eh? >top RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK As all X-files fans will be aware, the Truth Is Out There. And it's online! The Science of the X-files is a comprehensive site featuring synopses from a vast number of episodes - and associated clickthroughs to other websites that will bring you bang up to date on the 'real world' (ie non TV-world) scientific research being conducted in those redhot X-filey topics. From necrotizing fasciitis, to autistic sauvants, to aneuploidy and exsanguination - you'll never be lost for words or understanding again. Here's the link: http://huah.net/scixf/xbetts.html Enjoy! >top JOKES OF THE WEEK Let's get chemical ... It was time for the final exam and the student was depending upon getting at least one right answer on the chemistry test. The question was "If H20 is water, what is H204?" This was a quick question for most, but it took the student some thinking time. Finally, he wrote down his answer: "For drinking, washing, and cleaning." And here's another, just because there's a Bank Holiday coming up: Q. What sort of ghosts do you get in a chemistry lab A. Methylated spirits! >top ANY OTHER BUSINESS? No none! Just to say - remember to send in any notes, queries, oldies, goodies, information, events or other inspirational items you'd like to share with other readers. And there's still a £25-shaped carrot for the best Cool School Science Idea for an activity or assembly that others could copy (full instructions if poss, and pictures would be brilliant.) Bye for now - and have a great bank holiday weekend! >top