It’s the January Quiz. Do you know how many oranges would you have to eat in a year to obtain all your recommended vitamin C? You do?  Well that’s good – you’ll have no trouble with this month’s quiz then.

If you get all the questions right you’ll go into the prize draw for a Blue Glow Brick. This absorbs daylight and gives off a blue glow at night – perfect for those dull, dark January evenings!

Enter here

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If you think you may have had too many crisps and chocolates over the holidays then spare a thought for Seahook the walrus. He is just one of the animal attractions at America’s Sea World Park. Seahook needs to do something about his excess blubber.

He even has a personal trainer to put him through his paces by doing push-ups and sit-ups, although swimming is still his favourite workout. Okay Seahook – drop and give us five!

If you want to know more about walruses then look at the BBC Science & nature site

Dolphins, pigs and dogs at the park are also adopting healthier lifestyles. Spinner, a six-year-old border collie, has started skipping with his trainer, pigs at the zoo are snacking on fresh fruit and watermelon, while the dolphins and pilot whales are having regular weigh-ins. Don’t tell me – the fish are off to Skate Watchers…

If you thought 2006 was hot then brace yourself for 2007! Experts say 2007 is going to be the hottest year on record. There are two reasons for this - greenhouse gases and something called El Nino. We are releasing more gases like carbon dioxide, which trap heat in the atmosphere. El Nino is caused by warmer than usual water in parts of the Pacific Ocean, and causes unusually hot weather. 1998 was the hottest year ever for the whole year, and there was an El Nino then too. Watch out though, as the heat could bring heavy rain, meaning parts of Britain could be flooded.

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Cocoa craters

Create a miniature moonscape with the help of some marbles and cocoa

 You will need:

• Flour
• Cocoa powder
• Baking tray
• Newspaper
• Sieve or flour shaker (optional)

What to do:

1. Wash your hands.
2. Spread the newspaper out, and put the baking tray on it. This activity is known as ‘protecting one’s carpet’ in scientific circles!
3. Make a thick layer of flour in the baking tray. Smooth it out, and then cover this layer with a thinner layer of cocoa powder. (If you have a sieve or flour shaker you can shake the cocoa through this onto the flour. It will help to get an even layer of cocoa.)
4. Standby for action: drop marbles from different heights and observe the craters they make.

What’s going on?

What does your tray of baking ingredients have in common with the Moon? The circular features you can see on the Moon’s surface are impact craters just like what you’ve just done in the flour and cocoa. They were formed when impactors (i.e. incoming objects) smashed into the surface. On the Moon, you can see layers upon layers of these craters have been created over time. (Check out some images of the Moon’s surface at the NASA photo gallery.)

The explosion and excavation of materials at each impacted site creates piles of rock (called ejecta) around the circular hole, as well as bright streaks of target material (called rays) which can be thrown great distances out of the crater.

This experiment came from the Little Book of Experiments

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