woodchurch science

nasa scientists think they are on the verge of being able to predict earthquakes. they are looking at electrical signals in the atmosphere linked to seismic activity in the earth’s crust. just such a signal was received before last months china earthquake. they are working on a possible space based early warning system. read more here.

we’ve had a question from abbie wilson in year 7 about bees. einstein once said that if all the worlds bees died out then humans would follow within four years! here are a couple of articles about this problem which is worrying conservationists worldwide. article one - last flight of the honeybee, and article two - so what’s plan bee?

but here’s something to look into…did einstein really say that? here’s a letter in this weekend’s guardian:

Alison Benjamin states in Last Flight Of The Honeybee? (May 31), “According to Albert Einstein, our very existence is inextricably linked to bees.” There is no evidence for this being true, as can be found easily by reference to the myth-busting snopes.com. Snopes’ conclusion is that the supposed quote was probably concocted as part of a campaign by European beekeepers protesting about perceived threats to their livelihoods. Martin Whittaker, Edinburgh

this link should contain the most recent news in the nanotechnology area.

an advert will be in the papers next week looking for europe’s first astronaut to walk on the moon. this will mark the beginning of one of the most exciting recruitment drives in more than 40 years. the european astronaut centre needs more astronauts, and if you’re physically fit, cool under pressure, willing to work away from home and have a good head for heights this could be just the job for you. read the rest of the article here

a team of scientists have met to discuss the biggest challenges of the next 50 years. top of the list is clean energy; in particular harnessing the power of the sun: just 1/10000 of the suns energy hitting us each day could provide 100% of our energy needs. read much more here

fruit flies that develop homosexual tendencies when drunk may help reveal how alcohol loosens human sexual inhibitions, claim researchers. they show in this video how flies lose their inhibitions after just one dose of alcohol, after six they’re well….you’ll have to see it to believe it.

perfectly timed for panto season, a team of scientists has come up with instructions for how to make a flying carpet. the magical device may owe more to walt disney than to the arabian nights, but it is not pure fantasy, according to researchers at harvard university.
no such carpet is going to ferry humans around, though. the researchers say that, to stay afloat in air, a sheet would need to be typically about 10 cm long, 0.1 mm thick, and vibrate at about 10hz with an amplitude of about 0.25mm. making a heavier carpet ‘fly’ is not absolutely forbidden by physics, but it would require such a powerful engine to drive vibrations that the researchers say “our computations and scaling laws suggest it will remain in the magical, mystical and virtual realm.” so don’t put your order in just yet…

is this right? should scientists be doing this? what do you think?

forget spiderman, geckoman is the stickiest superhero. according to the university of turin, the secret of making a sticky yet non-stick material could lie in the branching bristles from fine carbon nanotubes. these would mimic the sticky nature of a gecko’s feet allowing to hang effortlessly upside down on even the smoothest of surfaces. coming soon? who knows we may all be able to chase each other up walls and across ceilings.

at last the problem of discarded chewing gum may soon be over. chemists have invented a completely biodegradable type of chewing gum that washes away within a week. revolymer claims its product is easier to remove from pavements, shoes and carpets than gums currently on sale.