Oceans 5?

1. Largest Seaweed: Macrocystis pyrifera, a brown algae called the giant kelp. The longest recorded length is 54 metres long!
2. Largest Sponge: Xestospongia muta, the barrel sponge, found in tropical coastal waters. Some individuals in the Caribbean measure 6-8 feet tall, and 6-8 feet across.
3. Largest Jellyfish: Cyanea arctica, found in the North Atlantic
   Specimens have been measured up to 7 feet 6 inches across the bell with a tentacle of 120 feet.
4. Heaviest Crustacean: Atlantic Lobster Homarus americanus
   Several records exist of individuals that weighed over 20 pounds. The record, however goes to a lobster weighing 42 pounds, 7 ounces, which was caught in 1934 and nicknamed "Mike”.
5. Largest Fish: Whale Shark, Rhinodon typus
   59 feet, for a specimen captured in Thailand in 1919.  Larger sizes have been reported, but these are estimates, and may not be accurate.

<< back to top

Do you live in Daventry? How do you fancy being whisked off to school at the touch of a button? This is where the futuristic vehicles are being tried out. They don't have drivers, you just call for one by pressing a button, type in your destination and off you go. It's hoped the new vehicles will help to cut down traffic jams in the town. A network for the driverless cars is already being built at Heathrow Airport to link the car park to the fifth terminal, but officials in Daventry say they're hoping to be the first town to introduce the cars full-time.

Don’t you just love a story with a happy ending? Three homesick crocodiles have stunned scientists after making an epic journey of hundreds of kilometres. Scientists were looking at what happened to saltwater crocodiles in Australia after they were moved from near beaches or rivers.  They attached tracking devices and were amazed when one made its way home, more than 400km away. Three other crocodiles who were also tagged by scientists and taken away from their homes made similar huge return journeys. Now the scientists will try to find out how the crocodiles have such a good idea of where they are and how to get home. One theory is that they use smell and magnetic fields to help them.

TRANSFORMERS come to the IMAX Bradford!

For centuries, two races of robotic aliens – the Autobots and the Decepticons – have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake.  When the battle comes to Earth, all that stands between the evil Decepticons and ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky. An average teenager, Sam is consumed with everyday worries about school, friends, cars and girls.  Unaware that he alone is mankind’s last chance for survival, Sam and his friend Mikaela  find themselves in a tug of war between the Autobots and Decepticons.  With the world hanging in the balance, Sam comes to realize the true meaning behind the Witwicky family motto – “No sacrifice, no victory!”

Box office: 0870 7010200
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

Thanks to those nice folks at the National Media Museum we’ve got a pair of tickets for Transformers at 5.15pm on Monday, October 8th to give away.

If you’d like to win it then send us your name, age and address to: wired-up.news@nesta.org.uk with ‘TRANSFORM US’ as the subject. The winner will be picked at random at 5pm on Wednesday 3^rd October 2007. We will pass the winner’s details to the Box Office to reserve the tickets.

Good luck!

Wild West Fizz Out

Have you seen the fantastic Planet Scicast site yet?  Whaaaaat?  What have you been doing?  This activity comes from Planet Scicast and if you want to see how it’s done then look at the clip first.

You will need:

• An unopened can of soda - the warmer the better.
• A finger.
• Optional: a pencil or other tapping utensil

What to do:

1. Shake, shake, shake your can of soda (or simply use a can that has fallen or has been shaken accidentally).
2. Place the can on a tabletop and tap the sides of the soda can with your finger (or a utensil). Rotate the can as you tap. Five to ten raps on the side of the can should do it.
3. Wait a few seconds.
4. Point the mouth of your can away from your body, anyone else's body, and any thing that you don't want spritzed with soda. Open the can and see what happens.
5. Option 2 - try this with two cans of soda, side by side, both shaken but one tapped and one not.

What's happening?

When you opened the can, did the soda spray out of it? If you tapped the can it shouldn't have. However, if you didn't tap the can…watch out! The soda probably spewed out!

Carbonated drinks in a can are under pressure and contain a dissolved gas called carbon dioxide. At normal drinkable temperatures and atmospheric pressures this dissolved gas wants to leave the liquid. As it does, it makes tiny bubbles in your glass and when you drink the soda, these bubbles give you that tongue tingling sensation.

If the can has been shaken (particularly if it is warm) bubbles get trapped in the liquid, attached to the walls and bottom of the can. Tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide attach to these larger bubbles and the result is a drink / bubble mix. Opening immediately can have horrible consequences as these bubbles grow rapidly when the pressure is released. They rush to the surface bringing the liquid with them.

You can just wait before opening your can or tap. Waiting awhile gives carbon dioxide bubbles time to re-dissolve into solution. Tapping however allows the bubbles to detach from the sidewalls and bottom of the can so they can float to the top (Step 3, where you waited a few seconds, is where you gave time for the bubbles to float upwards). There they meet the largest, but most benign bubble of the bunch - the one right under the lid.

Special Safety Advice

Be careful not to spray fizzy drinks into your, or other people's, eyes.

This activity came from Planet Scicast.

<< back to top