1. Sooo Random – Science news straight to your Inbox…
1 gigabyte = 1 073 741 824 bytes Did your cat come home last night? If not, your feckless feline could have been having an electrifying adventure like Freddy the cat who spent 18 hours stuck at the top of a power line. He climbed up the 7m pole but then was too afraid to climb down. Instead he clung on to wires – just a paw away from a live cable! Electricity engineers, firefighters and the RSPCA were called in to rescue the petrified puss. >>> Back to top 2. Over 2U! – – Science experiments for you to try at home...Hot Air BalloonYou will need:
What to do:
Special Safety adviceTake great care with the boiling water. What's happening?The hot water heats the cold air in the bottle. As the air gets warmer, each of the molecules of air is given more energy, and so they travel faster. As the molecules are travelling faster they each have a higher momentum, which means they hit each other - and the side of the container - harder. Without the bottle and balloon containing them, the air molecules would all start moving away from each other: the hot air would expand. Since the balloon is stretchy, the expanding gas contained in the bottle and the balloon forces the walls of the balloon out and then it starts to inflate. Alternatively, you can look at this situation as an increase in pressure. The pressure of the air in a container is measured by the force that the molecules exert when they hit the sides. If they all have a greater momentum they hit the sides harder and the pressure increases. This pressure increase pushes on the inside of the balloon, and you have a slowly inflating balloon man. This activity came from the Breaking News film on the Scicast site. Check it out – and whilst you’re there how about submitting one of your own? >>> Back to top 3. Gear Giveaway – You’ve got to be in it to win it...
Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield is the first book in an exciting new adventure series published by Quercus on 3rd July. We’ve got a copy to give away. Want it? If so - Email us with your name and address, and the words ‘LONDON SPIRIT’ in the subject line, to randomised.news@nesta.org.uk The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 9th July. For more details about the book and other space-ey stuff go to www.johnnymackintosh.com >>> Back to top 4. Wot’s Hot? – Wicked websites and net-nonsense
However, if you’re too lazy –sorry, busy to play the game yourself then veg out in front of your PC and try out these two virtual tennis games: Toppopgames Tennis, Miniclip Tennis-grand-slam. Game Set and Match! >>> Back to top 5. Winners – Has your name been picked out of the bag?Last time we were offering a £15 iTunes voucher. The winner is Alex White of Andover. Enjoy! >>> Back to top 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! |
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Sixty
years ago the world welcomed a new arrival but had no idea how this would
impact on our society. Yes the ‘modern computer’ is sixty years old and was
born in a lab in Manchester! The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or
"Baby", was the first to contain memory which could store a program. Rather
amusingly, the ‘Small Scale’ Experimental Machine was the size of a room. On 21
June 1948 it successful ran its first program – to find the highest
factor of a number – using just 128 bytes of memory. Many modern memory
sticks are the size of your little finger with 2GB of memory. 
Can
you imagine what it would be like to leave Earth in a space elevator? Or to travel
back in time to the very day that marked the end for the dinosaurs? When Johnny
Mackintosh discovers an alien signal on his computer, it proves to be the
beginning of a rollercoaster ride through time and space in which all this, and
much more, happens. 
Wimbledon
is all around. If you’re not watching tennis then you’re probably playing it.
So is there any science there? Checkout the