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Friday 3rd March 2006 Issue: 42

It’s Wired Up time! Friday again and March is here! What’s with the wintry weather?  Just because we were talking about the Winter Olympics last time doesn’t mean we want to join them!  Have you noticed all the wonderful patterns that ice makes on car windscreens?  Now you can replicate it for yourself – read on…

  1. The Wire – Fore! Yep – it’s a hole in one…space station!
  2. Make a Date – All spaced out in Science Week?
  3. Try This! – Frosted glass
  4. Gear for Grabs – Eureka! We’ve done it! One family pass.
  5. Winners – Science of Aliens.  ET phone home…
1. The Wire  – Science news straight to your Inbox…

Russian spacewalkers want to hit a golf ball from the International Space Station, in what they hope will be the longest ever golfing drive. If Nasa gives them the go-ahead, the attempt will happen during one of three spacewalks planned for 2006.

They'll use a gold-plated golf club, made of the same material used to build the ISS itself.

But there's one danger - the ball could come right around the earth and slam back into the Space Station! The ball could be going so fast it would be like a head-on collision with a 6.5-tonne truck moving at nearly 100km (62 miles) per hour. If it doesn't hit the station, the ball should travel for millions of miles as it orbits the Earth, before plunging into our atmosphere and burning up.

The club would be donated to a charity on Earth if the plan is approved.

If you want to know more about the International Space Station then check out this fantastic animated guide

Look out! It’s Jurassic Beaver!  Doesn’t really instil the same amount of fear as Jurassic Park does it? However, the discovery of a beaver fossil, thought to have lived when dinosaurs roamed the earth, could change scientists' theories on evolution. The Castorocauda lutrasimilis, which was unearthed in China, is a previously unknown species of mammal. At 164 million years old it has the oldest mammal remains ever found. But as scientists thought mammals didn't evolve until dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago they now have to rethink their theories.  The fossil was found by German scientists in China and is 45 cm long.

If you have been following the story of bird flu aka the H5N1 virus then you will know that a dead cat has tested positive for the disease in Germany. The French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has urged cat owners not to let their pets stray into areas affected by bird flu. France is already vaccinating thousands of free-range poultry after 15 wild swans were found to have H5N1.

Click here for full details about bird flu and there’s an excellent interactive guide showing how bird flu has spread over time on the BBC news site.
2. Make a Date – Things to see and do…

National Science Week is on its way (10-19 March) and Eureka! has a weekend of special space-themed events on 11 and 12 March:

OUT OF THIS WORLD! includes rocket-themed 'science-busking', space-themed storytime and two special FREE events for all the family:

THE STARDOME is suitable for children age 6+
Shows at 11.30, 1.00, 2.00, 3.00
Embark on a journey of discovery through space and stars without ever having to leave Eureka! and discover the stories behind our unique constellations. Presented by Dr Marti Lunn, Curator of Astronomy at Yorkshire Museum.

GIFTED THE SPACE CADET
Saturday 11 March only and at various times throughout the day
This lycra-clad superhero is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Bearing strange gifts from faraway galaxies, he will entice audiences into a comic gameshow of cosmic proportions with a mind-bending finale!

For more details contact Eureka! http://www.eureka.org.uk/

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3. Try This! – Science experiments for you to try at home…

Do you remember the days before central heating?  Jack Frost painting pretty pictures on the windowpanes? No? Well lucky you! Anyway it is all due to the formation of crystals.  Try it for yourself.

You will need:

  • glass jam jar
  • glass bottle or jar
  • Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) available from chemist shops
  • water
  • paint brush

What to do:

  1. Dissolve Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) in a jam jar of hot water until no more will dissolve.
  2. Brush a small amount of the liquid onto the bottle or jar.
  3. Leave for 15 minutes or so and the liquid will quickly evaporate, leaving behind a patchy pattern of delicate crystals.
  4. When it is dry, paint on another layer and continue until the glass or jar is covered with a film of beautiful needle shaped crystals.

What’s going on?

Epsom salts is a common name for magnesium sulphate heptahydrate, MgSO4·7H2O, a water-soluble bitter-tasting compound that occurs as white or colourless needle-shaped crystals. It was first prepared from the waters of mineral springs at Epsom, England; it also occurs as the mineral epsomite. Epsom salts is used medicinally as a purgative; hence the phrase “through you like a dose of salts”!

The salt solution is called ‘saturated’ - it is holding as much salt as it possibly can. As some of the water slowly evaporates, the water that’s left can’t hold all the dissolved salt.  The Epsom salts recrystallise and appear as an intricate pattern of needle shaped crystals on the glass surface.

Crystals are a 3-dimensional organised array of atoms or molecules.  They grow in particular shapes depending on how each face of the crystal develops. Magnesium sulphate is orthorhombic in shape.  In some cases other crystals start to form on top of the faces to give extraordinary patterns such as those seen in snowflakes.

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4. Gear for Grabs – You’ve got to be in it to win it...

What have we got for you this week? Those wonderful people at Eureka! Halifax have given us a family pass plus free entry to Mission: Active Future.

Housed inside a giant customised lorry, Mission: Active Future will provide children aged 5-12 with a unique interactive experience, helping them understand the importance of good health and regular exercise through a series of innovative multimedia exhibits and activity-based challenges.

The exhibition will be at Eureka! until 7 May, when it is due to begin an 18-month tour of schools and community venues across Yorkshire and Humber.

It will return to Eureka! in August for the summer holidays.

So to enter you’ll need to email us with your name, age and address to: randomised.news@nesta.org.uk with ‘EUREKA!’ as the subject. The winner will be picked at random at 5pm, on Thursday 16th March.

For more information about Mission: Active Future visiting your area, and advice about how to apply for a Local Network Fund grants to hold a group Mission: Active Future activity day, please contact project co-ordinator Cathy Everard on 01422 330069.

Good luck!

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5. Winners – Has your name been picked out of the bag?

Remember issue no. 41? We were giving away a family ticket for the Science of Aliens exhibition at the Science Museum in London. The winner is Peter Myers from Dorset.  Well done!

And remember, keep entering ‘cos next –it could be YOU!

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THAT’S ALL FOR NOW

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