Pendulum Catch Trick

How does this work?

Write your conclusions as a comment below (only first names please).

Balancing Utensils Table Trick

Flame fart kid

Why ABS brakes make your car safer

Most kids may have noticed the ABS logo on the dashboard of the family car. Some might even know that it stands for 'Anti-skid Braking System'.

Watch and learn more: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/11/18/3069035.htm

Toothpick magic?

Scale of the Universe

One of the best 'scale of the Universe' sites I have seen - take a look yourself!
http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/universcale/index_f.htm

Drag and drop images into google docs!

At last, you can now drag and drop images into google docs. It only works for safari, chrome and firefox at the moment though. Read more on this link:

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html

What's the link between waves and animals drying?

Watch this amazing video and learn some of the physics behind animals drying themselves using SHM!

Back to School apps for the iPhone

Shocking results!

An electric shock from a 240 volt power point can kill you, but on a dry day your car door can zap you with 10,000 volts and just make you swear. What gives? Read more....

Making polymer worms

Read more....

Belly button key to success in sport

Scientists have found the reason why some people dominate on the running track and other in the swimming pool: It's all to do with their belly-buttons. Read more....

Does a bowling ball float or sink?

The most precise 3D map of the Earth's surface

The spacecraft was launched from Kazakhstan on Monday on a mission to make the most precise 3D map of the Earth's surface. The pictures demonstrate the platform is in excellent health and ready to team up with the TerraSAR-X satellite launched in 2007. Together, the pair will trace the variation in height across the globe to a precision of better than two metres. Read more.....

Nano-lasers to light homes of the future

Scientists have come up with a way to 'print' lasers that could one day be used to create wafer-thin televisions and lighting panels. Read more....

LHC smashes beam collision record

The world's highest-energy particle accelerator has produced a record-breaking particle collision rate - about double the previous rate. The collider is now generating around 10,000 particle collisions per second, according to physicist Andrei Golutvin. Read more

Goce satellite views Earth's gravity in high definition

It is one of the most exquisite views we have ever had of the Earth. This colourful new map traces the subtle but all pervasive influence the pull of gravity has across the globe. Read more....

Edit youtube videos on the fly

Journey of an electron by 8A.......

Amazing fire tornado - do not try this at home!

Stand inside a bubble!

Perfect Bubbles

Shocking Experiments!

Ok, so some of these experiments are shocking! To survive the shocks these students underwent rigorous training for up to two years. Make your own Van der Graaf generator on this link and learn more about how they work on this link. Enjoy the show!

Treehopper

Treehopper (Cladonota benitezi) on a leaf. Treehoppers (family Membracidae) are insects whose bodies often take on bizarre forms thought to aid in camouflage. They are related to cicadas and leafhoppers. There are over 3,000 known species in over 600 genera, found on all continents except Antarctica. Photographed in South America. More photos here.

The Year's Most Amazing Scientific Images

Inner ear hair cells. Colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of sensory hair cells from the organ of corti, in the cochlea of the inner ear. These cells are surrounded by a fluid called the endolymph. As sound enters the ear it causes waves to form in the endolymph, which in turn cause these hairs to move. The movement is converted into an electrical signal, which is passed to the brain. The V-shaped arrangement of hairs lies on the top of a single cell. Magnification: x21,000 when printed 10cm wide. More images.....

Symphony of Science

The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. Here you can watch music videos, download songs, read lyrics and find links relating to the messages conveyed by the music. The project owes its existence in large measure to the wonderful work of Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steve Soter, of Druyan-Sagan Associates, and their production of the classic PBS Series Cosmos, as well as all the other featured figures and visuals.

Never miss an exam!

Keep on track with all your exams and tests with this friendly free iPhone app:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/exam-countdown/id372962356?mt=8

What colour are butterfly wings?

Butterfly wing scales. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of scales from the topside of a wing of an aega morpho (Morpho aega) butterfly. Layers of wing scales are transparent but tiny ridges on the scales break up and reflect light to give the scales their shimmering iridescent appearance. Magnification: x235 when printed 10 centimetres wide.
Credit: POWER AND SYRED / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Gained a few kilos? Don't be too hard on yourself - an invisible force field and a boson called Higgs could be the real culprits.

Newton thought he had gravity nailed when the apocryphal apple fell on his head in 1665. But 250 years later a young upstart called Einstein declared that gravity wasn't a property of the Earth or any other matter — gravity is what you get when matter distorts space-time. Read more...

Coke and Mentos Explanation - the results are in!

Ok -we tried to find just one winner, but it was impossible to decide between two of the explanations! So I will award one coke and mentos launcher to each person (I will send them to you in the internal mail!). Congratulations to the following students:

• Alyssa Campbell in 4G


• Jessica Lazaro in 4E

Their explanations are below:

Alyssa: "There is carbon dioxide in Coke. On the surface of the mentos there are tiny holes in which the carbon dioxide goes into and then creates bubbles. By the time the mentos reach the bottom of the bottle they go right back up and out in the explosion."

Jessica: "Here is what I think about the mentos and coke experiment. don't think that it was the chemicals that reacted. I think it was because of the mentos which had an incredibly rough surface [lots of miniscule little bumps]. When you add the mint mentos to the coke, millions of bubbles appeard at a very high speed. This is because of the rough surface on the mentos. When the bubbles appear the only place they can go is out of the hole in the top. This experiment does not work with fruity mentos because they have a very smooth surface. And that is why the coke comes out of the bottle like a fountain.

I used this website to help me under stand what happened.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke_and_Mentos_eruption#cite_note-1

Thanks to all of you that emailed me with your explanations. Hope to see you next year!

Mr Taylor

Red blood cells

Stacked red blood cells, coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM). These stacks of red blood cells, known as 'rouleaux', are abnormal and symptomatic of an underlying disease or condition. The stacking occurs because red blood cells have large flat surface that enable them to stick together. Conditions that lead to this include infections, inflammatory disorders, cancer, diabetes and anaemia. Magnification: x1800 when printed at 10 centimetres wide.

C006/5948 Rights Managed

BBC News - 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA.

Read more...

Supermassive black holes......

Click this link to read more..........

Great Year 7 revision website

Click the image or here: http://www.scibermonkey.org/

Play & Learn at the same time?

This is the best website I have seen for a long time. Some great animations and good key word games in the Scientific Literacy section. Try some as part of your revision for your annual exams.....

http://www.freezeray.com/index.html

What will you look like in 20 years time?

This is a bit more fun that Science, but there must be some complicated face recognition software running behind the application? I put my photo in this and the results were not pretty, not to be shared with the world! Try it and see how you will look in 20 years time......

http://in20years.com/

Are you ready for the global school?

More information on this link: http://www.thinkglobalschool.com/

Viewing stomata on a leaf with Year 8

This is the x40 magnification view taken using an iphone of a nail varnish imprint of the underside of a leaf. Notice the stomata as small back dots. Why are there many more stomata on the underside of the leaf than the top? Why does a leaf need holes? Learn more about stomata on this link.

Where on Earth?

Where do you think this amazing photograph came from? Click this link to find out.

Weird Science in Action

Quantum entanglement

Exploiting a principle that Einstein derided as "spooky action at a distance," physicists claim to have devised a machine that generates genuinely random numbers. Read more...

Virtual owl pellet dissection

You can actually buy owl pellets to do this as a practical. Nonetheless this a good alternative; a nice way to learn the names of the bones too. Here is the link:

http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/flash/v4/index.htm

How much water is needed to make a burger?

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/embedded-water/

Can you believe this much water is needed to make a burger? This interactive display from National Geographic (this month's issue is all about water) allows you to compare products too. Perhaps we will think about the food we throw away at lunchtime?

Blurring the lines between Art and Science

I am a big fan of things which blur the lines drawn between Art and Science. Tom Shannon's mixed-material sculpture seems to levitate -- often it actually does -- thanks to powerful magnets and clever arrangements of suspension wire. I would love to do this as an ECA at school!

less = more

Watch the video about schools in Finland having the shortest number of hours but some of the best results. Plus they don't even start until around 7 years old. Two things: #1 I want to be a teacher there, #2 I would have loved to go there as a student. Oh well, we can only dream.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8601207.stm

Videos about symbols in Physics

If you ever wanted to know what Schrodinger's cat was then this is the site for you. Is the Professor's hair real? http://www.sixtysymbols.com/

Hydrogen peroxide gone crazy!!

Make you own larva lamp.......

The known Universe in 6.5 minutes!

Amazing Levitating Orb Science Experiment!

8A Chemical Reaction posters

Another great science project perhaps?

What a science project this would be......

A British inventor, Robert Harrison, managed to film pictures of earth by using a digital camera, loft insulation, a balloon and some duct tape.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8588156.stm