woodchurch science

a british-led team of scientists has won eu approval to seek to make nuclear fusion, the physicist’s dream, a reality. nuclear fusion has the potential to solve the world’s energy crisis with carbon-neutral technology by harnessing the process that drives the sun. so far, decades of research have generated little more than hype. the energy needed to stoke the vast temperatures at which such reactions can occur still outweighs the energy they produce, and supposed breakthroughs such as “cold fusion” have turned out to be false dawns. physicists joke that they have been predicting the technology is “30 years away” for the past 30 years. read more here. to read how nuclear fusion works you could also visit this site.

36 pupils attended a full day of science sessions aimed at boosting sats levels from 4 to 5. many did datalogging for the first time, collecting temperature, light, dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide levels using pasport dataloggers. leaflets were handed out, copies of which are available here.

woodchurch were one of nine schools across the country, who were selected as winners for the rolls-royce science prize for the years 2006-2007, and that was out of over 300 applications. we were given an immediate grant of £5000, to get our project ‘up and running’. with that money, we bought a 18 servo robot, called geoff, all the necessary tools and equipment to help create our robot, a laptop especially for robotics and with £1,500 of the money, we paid for all supply covering costs. in june of 2007, we find out whether or not we have won an extra £15,000 to expand and develop our project further, and to help facilitate our future needs. also if we win, we will have a day out with the red arrows, and we will also have a trip to the rolls-royce major factory, where they develop air-craft engines. You can get more information about the project here. you can also meet the team in their own video clip.

we need a photo of geoff!!

flue gas desulphursation systems are used to remove sulphur dioxide. “wet scrubbers” are the most widespread method and can be up to 99% effective. a mixture of limestone and water is sprayed over the flue gas and this mixture reacts with the SO2 to form gypsum (a calcium sulphate), which is removed and used in the construction industry.

…is apparently a complicated business. usually steel hardness is measured using the rockwell hardness test. this site tells you all about it. HRC is the one normally quoted for steel.

these ancient buildings are made of limestone. why do you think the egyptians needed to build pyramids if they wanted to build high buildings?

see how versatile limestone can be. all of these beautiful buildings have been made from concrete and glass, both products of limestone.




this company (thermit welding) join railway lines together using the thermit process. a classic example of a displacement reaction in action. visit the link and see some photos of the equipment they use to join the tracks in-situ.

this link has a video of the thermit reaction made by some year 10 students from the thomas hardye school in dorchester

this site gives a printable explanation of the process of converting vegetable oil into biodiesel. the printout is not that easy to find so here’s the link

if you are studying chemistry in year 10 then you will know that oil is not just for energy. you will learn that scientists are developing new plastics and so-called ’smart’ materials.

kettles that change colour and signs that glow-in-the-dark are two recent examples of products becoming ‘smarter’ as a result of new materials. colour-changing thermochromic pigments are now routinely made as inks for paper and fabrics – and incorporated into injection moulded plastics. a new type of phosphorescent pigment, capable of emitting light for up to 10 hours, has opened up entirely new design opportunities for instrumentation, low-level lighting systems etc. more examples can be found here, here for power boots, stunners and minority report stuff and here for more news on new materials.