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SCIENCE YEAR NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 72 Week ending Friday, 21st June 2002  What? Back so soon? Many apologies for last week's newsletter reaching your inbox only on Monday lunchtime (technical as opposed to human error - honest guv.) Hope you can stand the sheer excitement of two lots of science-related news in one week... Today we have news for you about: Codes & Spies online, discounted CDRoms for schools, a starry-eyed competition for astro-buffs and a few things to make and do on a rainy afternoon. Well, Wimbledon does start on Monday after all. OK ladies and gentlemen... quiet please. Science Year to serve. • CODES, SPIES and BORN TO BE BOND... • GET FORENSIC at Tomorrow's World Live • Royal Society SCIENCE ON SHOW • 3 for 2 CDRom OFFER - approaches closing date • SEEING STARS - check them out in Chile • PACK-ATTACK - what to do with Easter Egg wrappers • PAST WINNERS of online quizzes • Have you got FOOTBALLITIS? • RWW: THINGS TO MAKE AND DO • SCIENCE LINE Q of the W • GOLF JOKE • AOB CARRY ON SPYING If you've been watching Spooks and can't believe the series could have ended - and on such a cheery note too - we have something to take your mind off your troubles. (If you didn't like Spooks, don't worry, this isn't much like it!)  Cue James Bond theme: the new 'Undercover Science' area on the Science Year website has just been unveiled and let's just say you might just find yourself in posession of some verrrrrrrry interesting information if you were to visit the site right now... OK it may not contain much that would worry MI6 unduly, but the world of codes and espionage has been one of those areas of science and technology which has been driven by an arms-race mentality on the part of those involved, so there's plenty of good material. And on the homefront, Science Line have done us proud with some secretive activities you can try for yourself. So, enjoy the groovy graphics and at the same time: * Try the online Enigma Machine devised by Russell Schwager, and two code-engines courtesy of Simon Singh, the best-selling author of 'The Code Book'. * Learn how to make invisible ink, see round corners and spot when someone's lying. * On a slightly less scientific basis, find out what sort of a spy you'd make: Q, M or James Bond...? * And if you've not tried the SPY GADGET quiz yet, give it a go. Nearly 200 people have already, but we can reveal that no-one in the UK has yet got all the answers correct... (There's one other spytastic feature coming shortly but needless to say, Mum's the Word. Careless talk etc etc...) >top GET FORENSIC AT TOMORROW'S WORLD LIVE  As mentioned before, the Tomorrow's World Live mega-show is getting ready to hit Cardiff, Bristol, Glasgow and Birmingham, and a host of top science operatives (including the Science Year team) will be keeping the place buzzing..If you'd like to go, you can find all the details below but we'd like to draw your attention to Science Line's FORENSIC SCIENCE SHOW in advance. Science Line as you'll be aware are the talented organisation who undertake to answer your science-related questions posed on the phone or web, and for no charge at all. (Their question of the week is coming up later.) But as you'll be able to see from the aforementioned 'Spy Box' they're also keen on the hands-on stuff, and at TWL they're inviting the audience to join them and uncover the clues to a crime, then test out the evidence in a forensic science lab. To join in the supersluething please email caitlin.watson@bss.org, and state your preferred date and time (10.30am, 12 noon, 1.30pm or 3pm). And don't leave it too late! There are still some free tickets for the show itself, and to book your group in free to one of the shows call 0800 378985. The locations are as follows: NEC, Birmingham - Wed 3rd July - Sat 6th July Earls Court, London - Wed 10th July - Sat 13th July National Indoor Athletics Centre, Cardiff - Wed 17th July - Sat 20th July SECC, Glasgow - Wed 24th July - Sat 27th July. Opening times - Wednesday 10.00am - 7.30pm / Thursday - Saturday 10.00am - 5.00pm. >top ROYAL SOCIETY SUMMER SHOW Yet more free tickets for a scientific summer... The Royal Society have just been in touch to tell us about an event you may be interested in if you're in or around London in July. Here's what they say: "There are a limited number of free tickets available for teachers to attend 'Science on Show', an evening reception and private view of the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition 2002. The event takes place on Tuesday 2 July at the Royal Society in London, from 7pm - 9.30pm. It's a great chance for you to explore cutting edge research in science and technology, and talk to the scientists behind it all. It's also a good opportunity to meet colleagues and enjoy the food, wine and music."
You can find out more information about all the exhibits at: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/events/exh/jul02.html Tickets will be sent on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you would like to attend, email your name, school address and telephone number to education@royalsoc.ac.uk by the end of Wednesday 26 June. If you have any questions please contact Kirsty Brown on 020 7451 2561 or email the address given." >top GOING GOING - ALMOST GONE... And also for teachers: As you may know already, PLATO Learning currently have a special offer relating to their CyberEd science series for Key Stage 4 and post-16 learning. What it means is that as part of the Science Year KitPot, if you order any three CyberEd CD-ROMs, you will receive the cheapest one free. But you'll need to hurry hurry hurry.... The offer runs out on 30th June, 2002. The CyberEd range includes interactive resources available on CD-ROM, covering 38 Biology and 16 Chemistry subjects. Each CD-ROM contains a presentation, interactive lessons and pre & post-test options. These allow learners to interact in problem-solving and learning activities and gain a thorough understanding of key concepts. To view the full range of CyberEd titles, visit http://www.cybered.net >top WIN A TRIP TO CHILE  Andrew Harmsworth of The Leys school in Cambridge, has alerted us (again - thank you Andrew) to a competition that may be of interest to schools - particularly if you're astronomically inclined and fancy a trip to South America ... The competition's called 'Catch a Star!' and here's what they say: "The European Southern Observatory and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) welcome all European schools to this exciting web-based programme with a competition. It takes place within the context of the EC-sponsored European Week of Science and Technology (EWST) - 2002." The prize is a trip to the Paranal Observatory in Chile, home of the ESO Very Large Telescope - or the "VLT" as its known in the biz. "Groups of up to four persons (e.g., three students and one teacher) have to select an astronomical object - a bright star, a distant galaxy, a beautiful comet, a planet or a moon in the solar system, or some other celestial body. Like detectives, they must then endeavour to find as much information as possible about "their" object. This information may be about the position and visibility in the sky, the physical and chemical characteristics, particular historical aspects, related mythology and sky lore, etc." Read all about it by clicking through from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich's website. The competition deadline is 1st November. >top PACKAGING EXCESSES - WE STILL NEED YOUR NOMINATIONS  Are you happy with the amount of packaging that makes its way into your life? We've not had many nominations for the Packaging Hall of Fame so far, so perhaps that means things are not as bad as they once were...However, Easter Eggs have come in for special criticism (as have toiletries). But Claire Hill Holmesdale of County Infant School in Reigate has found at least one way of recycling them - into educational resources. "Don't start me on the subject of packaging," she says. "I asked my class of 30, as part of out topic on waste and recycling, to bring in Easter egg packaging after the holiday. With what we collected, we made stained glass windows and sculptures out of the plastic and collages from the foil and still had five plastic bin bags full of packaging left over!!! "We did some investigation on an Easter Egg and I nominate all Easter Eggs for the largest waste of resources ever! "The Easter Egg cost £1.99. It weighed the same as a bar of chocolate costing 30p. The packaging consisted of... a cardboard outer.... a huge plastic shell.... foil wrapping and a plastic bag inside with sweets in more foil. The packaging weighed four times as much as the equivalent chocolate bar and we worked out that with the cost of the enclosed sweets, the packaging cost £1.19 out of the £1. 99. The class worked out that you could buy 4 more bars of chocolate for that... and my 5 - 6 year olds say they would rather have the chocolate bars next year!" Claire you win a solar-powered garden lamp, and thanks to everyone else who wrote in too. >top BIOMIMETICS AND INVENTORS QUIZ WINNERS If you took part in the recent Biomimetics and Inventors quizzes on the Science Year website, you could soon be in possession of, respectively, either a Camelbak portable water supply OR an icecream maker... The Camelbak winners were: Barbara Thompson of Caterham, Paula Barnes of Salisbury and Thomas Cash of Bristol. The icecream maker winners were: Philip Whitehead of Oxford, Rebecca Moore of Cheshire and Sarah Williams of Pinner. Congratulations everybody, hope you have a lovely summer with your new toy! >top HAVE YOU GOT FOOTBALLITIS?  Barry Marshall has. He writes, "Having watched all the World Cup matches so far I thought I was suffering from some psychological illness when I began to stare at the goal nets and all I could see was the structure of graphite - I think I need to get out more!!" Er, well maybe after this morning he will... But anyone else got similar symptoms? Anyway, we have something to keep Barry and any other footie-frenzied readers occupied away from the telly. Namely... >top RECOMMENDED WEBSITE OF THE WEEK This is the best science-papercraft site we've ever come across! But if you know of any others, please let us know. This one's from Canon, and it's brilliant (if it's meant to be an incentive to buy yourself a printer, we predict success!) There are instructions for building all manner of sciencey items, such as a sundial, globes, a volcano cross-sectioned, stegasaurus etc, and they don't just give you all the instructions, you can print off the paper layouts too. http://bj.canon.co.jp/english/3D-papercraft/nature/index.html The science objects are good ... but dare we say, the buildings are possibly even better... Have a look. Let us know how long Sydney Opera House takes you! >top SCIENCE LINE QUESTION OF THE WEEK  This week, it's a cyber-headscratcher ... "Will we ever be able to build a chess computer that knows all possible moves? If we could, would it always win? And if two played each other, which would win?" Em... 42? Nope the correct answer can be found here: Read more science Q&As at http://www.sciencenet.org.uk - and post your own one if you feel so inclined... You could be reading the answer here next week! >top JOKE OF THE WEEK We've searched high and low on the web for a good tennis joke for you, or even anything remotely amusing about Tim Henman, but all we've come up with is a million variations on that one about the jogger with the punchline "that must be painful, I had tennis elbow once." (If you're not familiar with it, you should still be able to work it out, it's not tremendously complex...) So instead, here's a golf joke. The professional at a posh golf club is always challenging the club members to a game, and loves to bet and take as much money off them as possible. One day one of the members comes in to the clubhouse with a gorilla. "I've been training him to play golf," he says, "and we'd like to challenge you - bet you £1000 the gorilla wins." "You're on," says the pro.  The day of the match arrives and all parties are ready. The first hole was a par five of 575 yards. The pro tees off and the ball lands some 270 yards away. The gorilla lumbers up to the tee. He places the ball on the ground and takes a mighty swing at it. The ball rockets off the clubface and flies through the air 100, 200, 300, 400... 500... 575 yards. It stops just 5 inches from the hole. The pro freaks out as it looks like he's going to lose his bet very speedily. He makes an excuse about having urgent business to attend to and gathers up his clubs. As they're walking away from the tee, an admiring observer asks the gorilla's owner, "How does he putt?" "The same as he drives," comes the reply, "about 575 yards". >top A.O.B. Any contributions for next week’s newsletter should be sent to anne.mcnaught@scienceyear.com. Have a great week! New balls please... >top  |
