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Friday 8th September 2006 Issue: 52

It’s Friday and it’s Haywire!  That should cheer you up.  How’s your first week been? Put your bags down, grab a packet of Monster Munch (or an apple of course – yeah right!) and tell us all about it. You had to sit next to who? A boy?  Never in this world!  Just as long as it isn’t Horrid Henry, you’ll be alright. Anyway, it’ll all settle down in the long run and in the meantime – look what we’ve got for you…

  1. Planet Picks – the Galapagos Day Quiz
  2. The Buzz – why stingrays are dangerous
  3. Crash Bang! – Sock seeds
  4. Up for Grabs – Flipside magazines
  5. Winners – Dino Tube

1. Planet Picks - News from the world of Planet Science...

It’s a new month so that must mean a new quiz from Planet Science. It’s called the Galapagos Day Quiz. Did you know that 27 September is Galapagos Day? Well you do now. It’s a difficult word to say isn’t it? Sounds like someone sneezing. The Galapagos Islands are on the equator off the west side of South America. They are where Charles Darwin started to develop his theories of natural selection. This means survival of the fittest. (A bit like the people at first sitting getting the best choice of lunches). If you get all the answers right you go into the draw to win a cuddly Galapagos tortoise and a map of the islands.

So

Galapaready?
Galapaset?
GalapaGOs!

If you’d like to know about the Galapagos Islands and the strange creatures that live there then read the story of Azul the blue-footed booby. Don’t laugh, it really is called a booby and it’s a type of bird.

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2. The Buzz – Science news delivered to your inbox…

It was a sad week after Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin died in a freak accident involving a stingray while making an underwater film off Australia's Great Barrier Reef. He was famous for his love of animals and doing daring displays where he got close to crocodiles, alligators, tigers, snakes and spiders. You may have seen his TV show The Crocodile Hunter. He also tried to save endangered species.

The stingray is a flat, triangular-shaped fish, commonly found in tropical waters. It gets its name from the razor-sharp barb at the end of its tail, coated in toxic venom, which the animal uses to defend itself with when it feels threatened.

Five facts about stingrays

  1. They are mostly found in tropical seas
  2. They feed on molluscs and crustaceans on the sea floor
  3. They swim with a flying motion using large pectoral wings (remember Mr Ray the teacher on Finding Nemo?)
  4. They are usually docile and not known to attack aggressively
  5. They have a venom-coated razor-sharp barbed or serrated tail, up to 20cm long

Steve Irwin was passionate about crocodiles, snakes and other rather uncuddly creatures. He grew up at his parents' reptile park and became fascinated with animals after he was given a python as a present on his sixth birthday. Do you think they wrapped it? If they did, do you think he would have guessed what it was? So you see, children can find an interest that can lead to them doing great things with their lives.  After all, even Einstein was a child once.

For the full story click here.

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3. Crash Bang! – Exciting experiments for you to try at home…

Sock seeds

Nothing succeeds like sock seeds.

Ask an adult to help with this

You will need:

  • an old sock (not too smelly!)
  • a shoebox
  • plastic bag
  • potting soil
  • scissors

What to do:

  1. First, find an old, fuzzy, worn-out sock that will fit over your shoe.
  2. Go for a walk in the garden, the park or the country.  Walk back and forth through an area where plants are growing. Don’t trash the flowerbeds!
  3. Take the sock off and examine the kinds of seeds that are stuck to the sock.
  4. Now, to plant your sock. Line a shoebox with a plastic bag.
  5. Fill the shoebox with potting soil.
  6. Cut a slit down the side of your sock.
  7. Then flatten your sock and plant it with the seeds pointing up. Cover it with a thin layer of soil and then water it.
  8. In a week or so, the seeds should begin to sprout.
  9. Try different environments because you get something different every time.

What’s going on?

The seeds caught on the sock will germinate and grow.  Some seeds attach to the sock more easily than others.  These are the types of seeds that catch on the coats of animals and are then transported to other areas. Plants such as burdock have hooks to which the seed is attached. These hooks easily get caught in the fur of mammals as they pass by the plant. At some point the seed will fall, often a considerable distance from the parent. If conditions are right the seed will germinate and grow into a new plant. If you want to know more about seed dispersal then check out the Offwell Woodland & Wildlife Trust website.

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

This week we have FIVE copies of Flipside magazine to give away. The latest issue is an Alex Ryder ‘Stormbreaker’ gadget special, plus features on rollercoasters, poisonous snakes to celebrate the Movie ‘Snakes on a Plane’, a chimp black-belt (did they say ‘chimp’? Amazing), and top tennis tips.

All you have to do is send us an email with your name, age and address to: Hay-wire.Clubhouse@nesta.org.uk with ‘GIMME A FLIP’ as the subject. The winner will be picked at random at 5pm, on Thursday 14th September.

And if you want to see more then check out the Flipside website.

Good luck!

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

Remember Issue 50 when we were giving away a Dinosaur Discovery Tube? The lucky winner is Rhiannon Humphreys (age 8) of London. Well done Rhiannon! What do you call a dinosaur that smashes everything in its path? Tyrannosaurus wrecks!

So remember – keep entering ‘cos next time it could be you!

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Information Overload

Planet Science has gone Hay-Wire and now you have too!

That’s all for this issue. The next issue of Hay-Wire will be with you in two weeks time so until then, why not ask your friends to join the Hay-Wire Club?

They can visit the Clubhouse for more details at:
http://www.planet-science.com/wired/hay-wire/clubhouse

Bye for now!