Wednesday – 2 posts. One amazing. One revision

IBM have made the World’s Smallest Movie  by pushing carbon atoms around with a scanning tunnelling microscope. It’s called ‘A boy and his atom’ and here it is:

Wednesday – Another post?!

Just had to post a link to this great website:

A superb site from the folks at UCL about materials science that showcases some amazingly futuristic ‘stuff’.

Wednesday – In Memory of Sir Patrick Moore

An inspiration to so many. He’ll be missed.

Thursday – Amazing Images…

…From the Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest:

Monday – A Summer Challenge

Fancy winning yourself £1000 over the summer holidays? You could do just that in this ice cool challenge from the Royal Society of Chemistry:

You only have to solve a puzzle that’s been bothering some brilliant scientists for thousands of years – Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water? A problem known as the Mpemba effect.

Monday – Olympic spirit for everyone doing exams!

The above image shows an AFM image of the molecule Olympicene, which was first synthesised at the University of Warwick after the RSC commissioned chemists there to make it in celebration of the London Olympics!

Hopefully the sight of this and news of such superb chemistry will encourage those of you with exams left to sit! Best of luck!

Thursday – Welcome back after 1/2 term?!

A belated return to blogging for me – Apologies for that! Science never stops though:

Scientists are well on their way to creating the first ever test tube burger – purely grown in the lab – meat that was never living. Would it be ok for vegetarians? Click the delicious hunk of beef and join the debate on the BBC.

Scientists in Italy may have found a flaw in their experiment that seemed to show neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light, which was always thought to be the universal speed limit. They’re not completely sure yet though. Click Homer to find out more (again from the BBC).

Sunday – Bang!

Two really exciting things happened in a really busy week: On Tuesday we went to Broadstairs to be extras in the BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory (@bbcbang) science program. I won’t give too much away but it involved a race between tow slightly modified motorbikes. It was really cold but everyone had fun (I think!).

And then on Thursday, I drove up to Oxford for a meeting and we we’re lucky enough to be hosted by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory where the Diamond Light Source is based. Our meeting room actually overlooked the ISIS particle accelerator!

Monday – Are you up for another challenge?

What’s happening?

1. Stir a cup of hot chocolate and then tap the bottom of the cup. The sound changes as you tap. Why?
2. Now make a different hot drink e.g. tea or coffee or just water. Stir and tap. What difference does it make? Why?
3. Now add 2 spoonfuls of sugar to one of the drinks. What difference does it make? Why?

Challenge courtesy of Miss Monk – Try it out yourself and put your answers on a postcard… or more simply just post them as a comment right here!

Sunday – A fiendish challenge!

But first an interesting fact: Apparently if you took all of the electrons that are currently transferring data on the internet and put them together, they’d weigh the same as…

A medium (free-range) egg

Which is amazing! But can you use that fact to calculate how many electrons are in the internet right now?

The best answer – with a full explanation of the working out and any assumptions used might just get a prize!