1. Sooo Random - Science news straight to your Inbox...
Now the keepers are taking turns to take the pair home at night to look after them. Pied tamarins are the most endangered of all the Amazon primates. The babies will need round-the-clock care for another six weeks before they can be reintroduced to their parents, Leia and Jedi. The monkeys may be small, but in proportion to their body size, the pied tamarins have bigger brains than humans! So why haven’t they sussed that if they don’t look after their young they will die out? Not so brainy after all, eh? Zookeepers in Germany who are hand-rearing a polar bear cub say it is growing well and putting on weight quickly. The female cub was taken away from its mum because of fears she may harm it, after another polar bear at Nuremburg Zoo ate its cub. Eek! Now the baby is being fed every four hours by four keepers looking after it. Zoo bosses are trying to find a name for the cub, and say they have been sent thousands of ideas by email. And how many of thousands do NOT say ‘Snowy’? 2. Gear Giveaway - You've got to be in it to win it...
Giveaway 1: We have a family pass for the Glasgow Science Centre! If you’d like to win it then send us your name, age and address to: randomised.news@nesta.org.uk with ‘SCOT SCIENCE’ as the subject. The winner will be picked at random at 5pm on Wednesday 30th January 2008. Giveaway 2: We have 10 packs of three Flipside mags to give away (October, November, and December issues). What a brilliant idea! If you’d like to win a pack then send us your name, age and address to: randomised.news@nesta.org.uk with ‘THREE PACK’ as the subject. The winner will be picked at random at 5pm on Wednesday 30th January 2008. 3. Over 2U! Science experiments for you to try at home...
Spinning StrawsWhat you need
What you do
What's going on?To understand what is happening here it is useful to think about the molecules in the air making collisions. The motion of the straw comes from conservation of momentum and the tiny impacts that the air makes with the straw before it escapes. As you blow down the straw the air exits out the other end. If the straw were straight the air would flow out the end and the straw would stay still. But the air molecules make numerous collisions on the way down the straw - most importantly with the final corner before the air escapes. As the air molecules hit the bent end of the straw they collide with each other and are sent off in all directions. Some try to head back up the straw and are faced with more collisions, some hit the far end again and some head out towards the exit. Crucially some hit the side of the bend, and this is where the force comes from which moves the straw. As they hit the side, momentum is conserved, they change direction and some of the momentum is transferred to the straw during the impact. As more air molecules hit the side the straw starts to spin. Those molecules that do make this collision rebound off and may escape or may make loads of other collisions before they finally leave the straw. If you can get the experiment to work by sucking (it is harder to give the air enough velocity - and therefore momentum and force during the collision) the same effect happens. It is the massive number of collisions within the straw at the lower bend which creates the movement. In the case of sucking the molecules are moving up the straw instead of down but the physics and the motion is exactly the same. Watch as the Scicasters show how. And while you’re at it, why not think about contributing your own film to the site? 4. Wot's Hot? - Wicked websites and net-nonsense
Not too much effort required (you’ll be relieved to hear), all you need to do is watch your garden or local park on either Saturday 26 or Sunday 27 January 2008. Simply spend an hour counting the birds, recording the highest number of each species seen in your garden (not flying over) at any one time. You can download a counting sheet or even checkout the website for events that might be happening near you. Come on, do your bit for your feathered friends! 5. Rib Busters - Funny ha ha AND sometimes funny weird!What is a bird after he is five days old? Six days old! What happens to a duck when he flies upside down? He quacks up. How does a bird with a broken wing manage to land safely? With it's sparrowchute! What happened when the owl lost his voice? He didn't give a hoot! THAT'S ALL FOR NOWYou've been Randomised! Send any questions, comments, jokes or experiment ideas to: randomised.news@nesta.org.uk Bye for now! | ||||
What is it about mothers abandoning their young these days? Two tiny endangered monkeys are being hand-reared at a zoo in Devon. The cute little pied tamarins, which are smaller than an adult's hand, were born on New Year's Eve at Paignton Zoo. Padme and Chewie started off well, but when their mum started neglecting them they had to be rescued by keepers.
To celebrate our first issue of our new newsletter we’d like to offer you TWO giveaways! Yay!
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