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21st January 2005 Issue: 17

It’s a little later than promised, but Wired-Up is back and BETTER than ever before! Here’s what’s coming up in the first issue of 2005:

  1. PLANET PICKS – Resolve all 10 questions and you could win a prize!
  2. THE WIRE – What does 2005 have in store for you?
  3. SCINET – This website should get you in the mood for physics!?
  4. GEAR FOR GRABS – Relativity rhymes in the uniVERSE competition!
  5. RIB BUSTERS – Weird and wacky Einstein quotes for you to ponder over...
1. PLANET PICKS – News from the world of Planet Science...

But first, if you (like me) have broken all your New Year’s resolutions already then it’s not too late – you could still enter the Planet Science RESOLUTION REFRESHER!

It’s the title of this month’s quiz, which features questions on some of the New Year’s resolutions you may (or may not) be sticking to at the moment. There are questions on keeping fit, healthy eating, being environmentally friendly and looking after your body – which brings us to the prize....

If you answer all ten questions correct then you’ll be entered into the draw to win £30 worth of Body Shop vouchers to spend on yourself or your nearest and dearest. Enter the quiz here and your body will thank you: http://www.planet-science.com/wired/comp_quiz/01_05_NewYear
2. THE WIRE – Science news straight to your inbox...

Talking of resolutions here’s one you just might stick to:

Put a bit of Einstein in your life in 2005!

This is the year we pay homage to the world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein, and in particular to three of his theories. ‘Einstein Year’ marks the 100th anniversary since the science superstar published papers on special relativity, Brownian motion and the photoelectric effect – theories that have changed the way we understand the world.

To mark the start of Einstein Year a unique BMX stunt, called the ‘Einstein Flip’, was performed for the first time at the Science Museum. The stunt was created by a leading physicist, Helen Czerski, and one of the UK’s top BMX stunt riders, Ben Wallace. In the stunt, Wallace launched off a 2-metre high ramp and spun backwards through 360 degrees while simultaneously folding his bike underneath him!

(Einstein was also a keen cyclist and it is claimed that inspiration for his theory of Special Relativity came to him while riding his bicycle!)

Einstein Year is being coordinated by the Institute of Physics and with 344 days of activities left you should be well and truly fired up about physics by 2006. Read on for details of the website...
3. SCINET – You don’t have to surf the Internet alone...

Einstein Year has its very own website at: http://www.einsteinyear.org where you’ll find details of what’s on near you and how to get involved. Or if you want to take part in the comfort of your own home then you can try the experiments, hold online discussions, visit the recommended websites or play the games – and this is where the fun begins...

The first game to be added to the site is ‘Time Twins’. Aliens have stolen your time machine so it’s up to you to get it back and save your twin on Earth before they become old and wrinkly!

The game is based on Einstein’s theory that if you travel close to the speed of light in a spaceship but leave your twin behind on Earth, when you return you’d be younger than your twin!

If only the Olsen twins would agree to test this theory out for us...
4. GEAR FOR GRABS – You’ve got to be in it to win it...

If they did then an entry to the BA’s poetry competition might go something like this:

In space Ashley travelled, near the speed of light,
To test if Einstein’s theory was indeed right.
But when she returned to see her twin,
Poor Mary-Kate Olsen was getting thin,
She was frail and old and her hair was white,
And she even kept her teeth in a glass overnight!

I imagine you could do a LOT better than my attempt so why not visit the uniVERSE Poetry Competition here: http://www.the-ba.net/universe

To enter the competition, all you need to do is make up a poem based on the theme of SPACE, TIME and ENERGY. Your poem can be in any style, but it must not be longer than 40 lines.

There’s plenty on the website to inspire you so if you want to get your hands on one of the prizes then submit your entry online or by post by 5pm on Friday 11 February.
5. RIB BUSTERS – Sometimes ‘funny ha ha’ and sometimes ‘not so funny ha ha’...

Finally, here are some Einstein quotes which you may find ‘relatively’ amusing.

There are the wild Einstein quotes:

  • “If one studies too zealously, one easily loses his pants."
  • "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours – that's relativity."
  • "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Then there’s the wacky Einstein quotes:

  • “Gravity is not responsible for people falling in love.”
  • "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
  • "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

And then there’s the downright weird Einstein quotes:

  • "If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."
  • “You cannot love a car the way you love a horse.”

Yup, thanks for that Albert...?!

For more about Einstein Year and the fab Time Twins game check out http://www.einsteinyear.org/
THAT’S ALL FOR NOW

Got Wired-Up? Got clued up!

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