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| STARDATE 332 | Friday 20th November 2009 25 November kicks off National Tree Week. Let’s hear it for ma’ man, the oak! Yo’ bro - slip me some bark. Wass happening saps? Well, plenty as it turns out, checkout the events list and don’t forget your spade - y’dig? The line-up this week:
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1. Planet SciCast 
We were so giddy about our news for SciCast last week we plain forgot to write about it. We'll come to that in a moment, but first a reminder:We're still looking for participants willing to give a little of their time to help with the SciCast evaluation. It's impossible to overstate just how important this exercise is - it could be key to the survival of the whole project. If you've used SciCast, or even if you haven't but want to earn a bit of good karma by helping us out, please read the instructions in the Noticeboard below. It shouldn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes of your time, honest. Now, the news: we're up for an award. All of us. The whole thing. OoooooOOOOOooooh! SciCast has reached the final stage of the MEDEA Awards, a pan-European effort to recognise innovation and good practice in the use of media in education. Which perhaps sounds like it should be a rather small affair, but with over 250 entries from 39 countries, apparently not. They're flying us out to Berlin to talk about the project and attend the awards ceremony, and everything. Terribly exciting. We head to Berlin at the beginning of December, and of course we'll let you know how we get on. In the meantime, here's NESTA's press release about the event ...and here's the MEDEA website: www.medea-awards.com Back to Top  |
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2. Gimme Five... fascinating facts about the rainforest
2. A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than are found in the entire United States. 3. The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world. 4. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. 5. One single tree in Peru was found to harbour forty-three different species of ants - a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles. These facts came from www.rain-tree.com Have you got FIVE facts about anything/everything? Preferably science-based of course (we’re not called Planet Science for nothing y’know). If so, send it along to us at planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk with GIMME FIVE in the subject line. Back to Top |
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| 3. Stump the Scientist |
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4. Mouses at the Ready 
Here’s a bit of fun for you. Leading on from a jungle theme and with a nod to the Celebrities in the jungle who are eating less than conventional nutritious snacks... (for that, read witchetty grub)Greedy Gorilla is a game for the whole family that teaches children healthy eating in a fun way. Using the healthy eating cards you can create nutritious meals with your children and post the junk food into the gorilla’s mouth. The gorilla makes real burping noises when the junk food is posted into his mouth. Oops. I beg your parsnips. Tee Hee! If you want to win it, send your name and address and the words ’GREEDY GORILLA’ in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. The draw will take place at 4pm on Wednesday 25 November. Back to Top |
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5. Planet Pick of the Week |
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Every so often you come across a trusted favourite on the Planet Science website and for this Newsletter Editor it’s got to be
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6. Activity of the Week 
The Bernoulli EffectYou will need: • A hair dryer • Some light balls; ping pong balls or very light foam balls. They need to be smaller than the nozzle of your hair dryer. What you do 1. Turn the hair dryer on to a cool setting and point it upwards. 2. Take your light ball and place it in the stream of moving air. Watch as your ball apparently levitates over the stream of air, and does not get blown off... 3. If you want to see your ball spinning in the air you might want to draw on it. 4. Now tilt your hair dryer at an angle and see how the ball still appears to defy gravity. What's going on? The hair dryer produces a fairly uniform stream of air in a column. While the air in the stream is moving reasonably quickly, the air around it is pretty much stationary. At first glance you might think that the air would simply blow the ball up and out of the air flow (and in fact this does happen occasionally). Or, if the ball is perfectly balanced in the air flow, you might expect the ball to fall if the hair dryer is tilted to one side. Instead, the ball bounces around in the air flow as if it were contained in an invisible cylinder. The reason the ball levitates is due to the force exerted up on the ball by the moving air, balancing the weight of the ball. This is why you need a lighter ball if you are using a small hair dryer, or if your ball is too light it will get blown off. This balanced force, however, does not explain the invisible cylinder which seems to keep the ball in place as the hair dryer is tilted. Bernoulli's principle states that faster moving fluids are at a lower pressure than slower moving fluids. So the air flowing out of the hair dryer is at a lower pressure than the still air around it. The higher air pressure around the cylinder of moving air pushes on the ball and keeps it in place if the ball tries to escape. It is relatively stable even when you add another ball. Special Safety advice Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot setting of the hair dryer, and always be careful when using equipment plugged into mains electricity. This activity came from the Bernoulli Effect activity on the Planet SciCast site. Keep checking back for new films and, whilst you’re about it - how about submitting one of your own? Back to Top
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• Learn about how UCL scientists are contributing to the advancement of our knowledge of the Universe, from extra-solar planets to the mystery behind dark energy.
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8. Recommended websites of the week 
This week Dr Roy Lowry sent us a great website that not only helps you to brush up your knowledge of chemical symbols but gives you a smug sense of satisfaction to boot.
www.freerice.com Click on “subjects” then either “Chemical symbols (Basic)” or “Chemical symbols (Full list)”. For every correct answer, 10 grains of rice are sent to the third world. To tell us about your favourite science websites - drop us an email with the words ‘RWW’ in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. Back to Top |
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| Remember... If you would like to view the Planet Science Newsletter Archive click here. You can also read back issues of Randomised for younger teens here. Or you can read back issues of Hay-Wire for Under 10s. PS if you would like to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, just reply to this email with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the title. Back to Top  |
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