Whether it’s charades, board games or pictionary, most people love to play games, and even if you don’t Christmas will probably mean that there’s no escape! If you’re being encouraged to play scrabble, you’ve got science on your side – science words that is. Here are a few tricky tips to help you rack up a high score … Scrabble Scrabble originated in America in 1931, created by an unemployed architect in Connecticut . Despite its popularity now, when the game was first launched it wasn’t a big hit. Initially it was rejected as being ‘too intellectual’. The name ‘Scrabble’ was introduced in 1947, but it wasn’t till 1952, when Jack Strauss the Chairman of Macy’s played and enjoyed it on holiday, that the game took off. He was astonished to find his own store did not sell such a great game, and demanded they start to stock it! Scrabble was subsequently introduced to the UK in 1954. Scrabble is the world’s best selling word game – over 1 million sets have been sold. Scrabble is played in 121 countries. Lots of people play Scrabble – including the Queen and Mel Gibson. (Though we don’t know whether they’ve ever played in the same game). You can find out lots more interesting facts about scrabble on the official scrabble website – www.mattelscrabble.com

	Science can provide you with lots of fantastic high scoring words. Get yourself a science dictionary and amaze your friends... make sure you convince your fellow players to allow science words before you start though! (And be warned, they may not a second time – once you’ve whipped their hides!) Here are a few to get you started:
	YLEM Proposed by George Gamow, Ylem is the hypothetical primordial matter from which all the elements have formed.
	JANSKY The jansky is a unit of radio flux density (the rate of flow of radio waves). A typical radio source has a spectral flux density of 1 Jy.
	KILOPARSEC A kiloparsec is a unit of distance equal to 1,000 parsecs or 3,260 light-years. The diameter of the Milky Way is about 61 kiloparsecs
	QUAGGA The Quagga is an extinct relative of the zebra and the horse.
	ISTHMUS An isthmus is a narrow strip of land with water on both sides that connects two large landmasses.
	ABAXIAL Abaxial means that something is on the side away from the axis!
	XYLEM Xylem is part of a plant that transports water.