Thank Planet Science for that Wired-Up Friday feeling! Here’s what’s coming up:

1. PLANET PICKS – Celebrate Black History Month on Planet Science...
2. SPOTLIGHT ON – Profiling a face in space history.
3. YOU WHAT – These facts might make your blood boil...
4. WIRED BYTES – Your Q&A corner. This week we ‘lighten’ Dan’s load.
5. GEAR FOR GRABS – Yet another chance to win an Air Hogs Eradicator.

Today marks the beginning of Black History Month, and if you didn’t visit the Planet Science website last October then be sure to sneak a peak at the Black History Scientist profiles at:
http://www.planet-science.com/outthere/black_history/index.html

All eight profiles focus on African American scientists of the past and the impact they had on society. The profiles detail the struggles the scientists faced, as well as their pioneering work and commitment to the community. What made them so great is that no matter what they were up against they never said, “I can’t”. Instead they looked for ways to overcome the problems that stood in their path.

Moving from scientists of the past to scientists of the present, Planet Science has also put together the profiles of seven African/Caribbean scientists in the UK today. Read how Tony puts his cadet skills into practice when designing award-winning inventions or how Stephanie got involved in the fascinating subject of Sports Material Science …

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s more yet to come because as you’ll see, we’re giving all Wired Up readers the first glimpse of a new Black History profile, before it finds a home on the website...

Guion Stewart Bluford was the first African American astronaut in space...

Bluford was born in 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from university with a degree in aerospace engineering. He then joined the US Air Force and served as a pilot during the Vietnam War. In 1974 Bluford earned a masters degree in aerospace engineering and a Ph.D. degree came later in 1978. Not stopping there, he went on to achieve an M.B.A degree in 1987.

Bluford became a NASA astronaut in 1979, after being picked from around 8000 other applicants. His first flight in space was aboard the Challenger Space Shuttle mission STS-8, as a flight specialist. The Challenger spent six days in space, during which time Bluford and his fellow crew members launched a communications satellite for the Indian government, made contact with another satellite, performed scientific experiments and tested the shuttle’s robotic arm.

In 1985 Bluford flew aboard the Challenger space shuttle again – this time on a mission dedicated to German scientific experiments. His third flight was aboard the Discovery space shuttle, in 1991, where he supervised scientific experiments for the US. His last space shuttle mission was in 1992, and was also aboard Discovery. His studies included how muscle, blood and bone are affected by the microgravity of space and a test of how small space debris can be tracked from the earth. After these four space missions he retired from NASA in 1993.

See a photo of Guion here: http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/space_level2/guion_bluford.html

PS The first black cosmonaut in space was Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, who flew into space aboard the Soviet Union’s Soyuz 38 mission.

PPS The first reader to write in with the answer to this question will win a prize: What is the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut?

Continuing with Black History Month, 2004 sees the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Richard Drew – an African American who created the first blood bank. Read his profile on the Planet Science website by following the link above. In celebration we’ve put together some gory facts about blood and blood banking – and it’s not even Halloween for another 30 days:

• Blood makes up about 7% of your weight.
• A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in his or her body.
• There are around one billion red blood cells in one drop of blood.
• The UK National Blood Service collects 10 000 units of blood every day.
• Blood transfusions were first attempted around 1600 when animal blood was transfused into humans. It had disastrous consequences.
• The fear of blood is called hematophobia.

If you were paying attention to last week’s Wired Up then your memory will be well and truly jogged at the mention of the Air Hogs giveaway. The winner of last week’s draw was Ped Saunders from Milton Keynes, who correctly answered that ‘aerofoil’ was the name of the teardrop-like shape of the cross-section of an aeroplane wing.

This week we have another Air Hogs Eradicator up for grabs and here’s how to be in with a chance of winning. Carefully read the following clues, which should lead you to two names that are synonymous with human flight:

• They were born in Indiana, America.
• They were brothers.
• They were engineers.
• They owned a bicycle shop called the Wright Cycle Co.
• They were fascinated by flight.
• In 1903, they invented the first powered aeroplane. 

Send the two names to: wired-up.news@nesta.org.uk with ‘DON’T GET FLY!’ in the subject box. Then keep your fingers crossed for the draw on Thursday at 5pm.

For your last chance to win an Eradicator, look out for next Friday’s Wired-Up...

First up a question from Dan in Chester:

Q. “What is a light year?”

A. This probably doesn’t make a lot of sense at first, but a light year is used to measure distances in space - not time.

The closest star to Earth, apart from the Sun, is around 38 000 000 000 000 kilometres away and there are other stars which are billions of times further away than that. So when astronomers start talking about distances that big – it’s just not practical to write or talk about numbers that are 20 digits long, and that’s where “light years” come in handy!

A light year is the distance light could travel in a year. Light always travels at 300 000 kilometres per second, therefore a light second is 300 000 kilometres. So if you work it out and do the correct sums, a light year is a distance of 9 460 800 000 000 kilometres, and that’s a very long way away!

Thanks for the question!

Finally, just before we go, here’s a joke worth telling your mates – or your science teacher at least! Thanks to Halev for this one:

Q. What is zinc?

A. It’s what happens when you can’t swim!

Got Wired-Up? Got clued up!

See you in seven...

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