There is no avoiding it. Stores have been stocking shelves for it for months....
Gentlemen (and ladies), we are approaching Christmas. So how do we celebrate Christmas and science at the same time?
Fear not, and be of good cheer, the 2012 Christmas Lectures are all about chemistry,so the theme for this RI calendar is peoples favourite chemical element.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Cool Food Planet resource by @EUFIC
Educational resource on health, nutrition & food safety created by European Food Information Council:
About Cool Food Planet
Cool Food Planet is an educational website where children, aged 6-12 years, can learn about health, nutrition and food safety. Educating children about nutrition is one of the most important steps towards good health and helping them to grow to their potential.Cool Food Planet is designed for children to use independently. However, information is also provided for parents and teachers to help them support children’s learning in the classroom and at home.
Cool Food Planet does not feature any food or drink brands on the website.
About EUFIC
Cool Food Planet is a product of the European Food Information Council (EUFIC). EUFIC is a non-profit organisation which provides science-based information on food safety and quality and health and nutrition in a way that promotes consumer understanding.EUFIC extensively researched children’s perception of nutrition and their internet usage to inform the website design and to ensure it delivers children’s educational needs in a fun and engaging way. All the content is developed in partnership with science, nutrition and teaching professionals to ensure it is reliable and relevant.
EUFICs priorities:
- Enhance public understanding of nutritional quality and food safety.
- Raise consumers’ awareness of the active role they play in safe food handling and choosing a well-balanced and healthy diet.
- Educate, engage and empower parents to take responsibility for their own and their kids’ health and to develop good lifetime nutritional habits.
- Provide scientifically sound, useful and constantly updated information gathered from credible science and nutrition professionals.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Tomorrow's Mathematicians Today 2013
Courtesy of the Open University:
Tomorrow's Mathematicians Today 2013
Friday, 23 November 2012
Women in Science and the Media Course 4-6th Jan 2013 (Windsor)
This may be of interest to early career researchers (Female or Male):
Given the recent amount of coverage and discussion about
the issues facing female scientists in their careers and in the media, I hope
you don't mind if I draw your attention to a new course I've co-developed with
colleagues at Imperial College, Warwick Uni and Quercus Training. It's called
"Women in Science and the Media" and it aims to help female
scientists tackle some of the factors that can hold them back.
Through the medium of science radio and TV production and
science writing training, the course helps participants increase their personal
impact and develop their communication and presentation skills, as well
as deconstructing the media portrayal of science and female researchers.
Although we're using science media as a vehicle, this isn't primarily a media
skills course: it's about developing transferable skills that will be
invaluable for an academic career. While the course is aimed at early career
female scientists (postdocs), men are also very welcome to attend.
The course will take place on 4th-6th January 2013 at
Cumberland Lodge (a lovely venue in Windsor) and culminates in a recording
session in a radio studio at BBC Broadcasting House.
Places are filling up, so please pass on this information
to anyone who might be interested. There is more information here: http://bit.ly/TMjKQT and here: http://bit.ly/womenscis, feel free to
contact us if you have any questions.
Friday, 16 November 2012
RI's #scienceclub animations available here
Inheritance and The History of Physics are up and others will doubtlessly be uploaded here as the series progresses.
Enjoy!
Uni. of Bath & RSC Spectroscopy in a suitcase resource
This may be of interest to (primarily) chemistry teachers:
Spectroscopy in a Suitcase - free activities
Any chemists / teachers out there who have used / have
access to the Royal Society of Chemistry's excellent Spectroscopy in a Suitcase
outreach resource, may be interested to hear that the University of Bath has
developed a range of complementary activities which can be run using infra-red
and UV/Vis spectroscopy.
The free activities (which include descriptions, student
worksheets and teacher guides) can be downloaded at:
To access a range of other free widening participation
and public engagement resources, see:
Thursday, 15 November 2012
#scienceclub episode 2
OK, a quick review of the second episode. Please forgive any omissions as I didn't take notes and had my two young sons creating their own brand of mayhem in the room...
The show was themed on Einstein (The real one not the Yahoo Serious one). A brief animation of his work and the History of Physics was shown. We were brought into a conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili (Whose excellent Shock and Awe series on electricity is being repeated at the moment - recommended viewing) about 'nothing' or rather what does space consist of (so ideas like dark matter & dark energy and vacuum energy featured). The findings about how the universe is expanding even more rapidly that previously thought heading towards a theoretical 'Big Rip'.
Experiments included measuring the speed of light using micro-waved cheese on toast and Mark M. did some fridge dis-assembly(!).
The funding of big science (e.g. applied physics) got a similar treatment to last episodes piece on the Human Genome project (i.e. can we afford to fund it, what practical use is it etc) and included a disappointing sound-bite from Sir David King implying that we should fund more practical science rather than 'Big Science'.
Finally, a consideration of the fate of Albert's brain after he died and what made it different from 'normal' brains occurred.
All in all, a good episode, but in my own personal view,not quite as good as the first episode (but then I'm a biologist :-)).
Next episode will have the theme of life, death & extinction (sounds cheerful!).
Experiments included measuring the speed of light using micro-waved cheese on toast and Mark M. did some fridge dis-assembly(!).
The funding of big science (e.g. applied physics) got a similar treatment to last episodes piece on the Human Genome project (i.e. can we afford to fund it, what practical use is it etc) and included a disappointing sound-bite from Sir David King implying that we should fund more practical science rather than 'Big Science'.
Finally, a consideration of the fate of Albert's brain after he died and what made it different from 'normal' brains occurred.
All in all, a good episode, but in my own personal view,not quite as good as the first episode (but then I'm a biologist :-)).
Next episode will have the theme of life, death & extinction (sounds cheerful!).
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
School Competitions
This may be of interest to schools (From SchoolScience web-site):
Diamond Light Reading
A short story writing competition for pupils in Key stage 3 and 4. The winner in each category will win £500 for their school and a Kindle Touch for themselves. Stories can be insprired by Diamond's building, science, scientists or applications. The deadline for entries is January 30th 2013.
MRC - Imagine the Future
Diamond Light Reading
A short story writing competition for pupils in Key stage 3 and 4. The winner in each category will win £500 for their school and a Kindle Touch for themselves. Stories can be insprired by Diamond's building, science, scientists or applications. The deadline for entries is January 30th 2013.
MRC - Imagine the Future
(MRC Centenary Schools Competition) Imagine The Future is open to all primary schools,
nationwide from: Friday 14th September – Friday 21st December 2012. The
Medical Research Council (MRC) is inviting UK primary school children to
exhibit their ideas about future through a forthcoming public
installation at Imperial College London.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
@Debatingmatters Regional round judging
As per the motto of the University of East Anglia, I did something different last night.
IFR hosted the Norwich qualifying round of Debating Matters and I was privileged to be on the judging panel.
There were a few hiccups (one school pulled out beforehand reducing us to 3 schools & accidents/roadworks delaying teams (and our caterers) getting to IFR) but Jason (our chairperson) pulled out all the stops to get us going and kept us on time.
We had judges with a wide range of experience (albeit all but one were DM judge newbies - myself included).
The three topics (minimum pricing of alcohol, copyright protects the arts & state regulation of party political funds) were challenging and were strongly contested.
This certainly made judging a non-trivial task but eventually the Langley School were declared the winners and go through to further rounds (Read their blogged report here).
Regardless of whether they won or not, I hope that all the teams enjoyed themselves on the night and found the experience useful. I was genuinely impressed with the ability of all the pupils and wish them well.
There were a few hiccups (one school pulled out beforehand reducing us to 3 schools & accidents/roadworks delaying teams (and our caterers) getting to IFR) but Jason (our chairperson) pulled out all the stops to get us going and kept us on time.
We had judges with a wide range of experience (albeit all but one were DM judge newbies - myself included).
The three topics (minimum pricing of alcohol, copyright protects the arts & state regulation of party political funds) were challenging and were strongly contested.
This certainly made judging a non-trivial task but eventually the Langley School were declared the winners and go through to further rounds (Read their blogged report here).Regardless of whether they won or not, I hope that all the teams enjoyed themselves on the night and found the experience useful. I was genuinely impressed with the ability of all the pupils and wish them well.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Review of #scienceclub
Watched the first episode of the BBC's new science series "Science Club" last night (it's viewable on Iplayer here and is broadcast on BBC2 on Tuesdays at 9pm). The post programme web-chat is available here.
Dara O'Briain was the host with four additional presenters. This episode was themed on the science of Genetics and started with a brief gentle introduction to how our understanding has grown from the Greek era to modern day. There was then a discussion of how genetic diversity has increased due to ability to travel wider to find mates (starting with the bicycle and moving on to air travel).
This was followed by a brief appreciation of that ground-breaking invention - the bike.
There then was an investigation of the audiences parental diversity with some interesting results.
Another experiment tried blending the audiences faces to get an 'average' face that according to one theory should be more attractive as it lacks asymmetry. This was dismissed at the end of the programme when the resulting images were displayed...
Next there was a consideration on the number of genes in different organisms and similarities between species. A simple test using Boar scent illustrated that certain people had a gene that enabled them to smell it (either nice or nasty) which was reminiscent of the IFR Taste & Flavour activity.
It was followed up by a critical evaluation of the Human Genome project and illustrated the difficulty in explaining to non-scientist politicians why an area of science should be publicly funded.
Next the team extracted human DNA from cheek cells using washing up liquid (fat dispersant), pineapple juice (protease) and 88% proof Polish vodka (With due deference to our Polish PhD student, Dara demonstrated that DNA extraction was a better use for this than drinking it :-)).
This was followed up by a report on how the sequencing of Neanderthal DNA illustrated that before they died out, there was some inter-breeding with homo sapiens.
The equivalent of the "Top Gear Cool wall" was displayed with pictures of scientists who have made significant contributions to genetics.
Another aspect of genetics was then explored - epi-genetics which illustrates that diet and lifestyle CAN affect expression of our genes. Results seemed to indicate that effects our diet & lifestyle could be passed on affecting even our grandchildren. Sadly, it stopped short of exploring our extended genome provided by the commensual bacteria in our gut (An area of interest to scientists at the Institute of Food Research).
To summarize, a very good and promising start at a very accessible general science programme.
Dara O'Briain was the host with four additional presenters. This episode was themed on the science of Genetics and started with a brief gentle introduction to how our understanding has grown from the Greek era to modern day. There was then a discussion of how genetic diversity has increased due to ability to travel wider to find mates (starting with the bicycle and moving on to air travel).
This was followed by a brief appreciation of that ground-breaking invention - the bike.
There then was an investigation of the audiences parental diversity with some interesting results.
Another experiment tried blending the audiences faces to get an 'average' face that according to one theory should be more attractive as it lacks asymmetry. This was dismissed at the end of the programme when the resulting images were displayed...
Next there was a consideration on the number of genes in different organisms and similarities between species. A simple test using Boar scent illustrated that certain people had a gene that enabled them to smell it (either nice or nasty) which was reminiscent of the IFR Taste & Flavour activity.
Next the team extracted human DNA from cheek cells using washing up liquid (fat dispersant), pineapple juice (protease) and 88% proof Polish vodka (With due deference to our Polish PhD student, Dara demonstrated that DNA extraction was a better use for this than drinking it :-)).The equivalent of the "Top Gear Cool wall" was displayed with pictures of scientists who have made significant contributions to genetics.
Another aspect of genetics was then explored - epi-genetics which illustrates that diet and lifestyle CAN affect expression of our genes. Results seemed to indicate that effects our diet & lifestyle could be passed on affecting even our grandchildren. Sadly, it stopped short of exploring our extended genome provided by the commensual bacteria in our gut (An area of interest to scientists at the Institute of Food Research).
To summarize, a very good and promising start at a very accessible general science programme.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
4Growth - petition to invest 4G auction proceeds into hi-tech growth
4Growth - Reinvest the 4G auction proceeds in unlocking high-tech growth
4Growth - Reinvest the 4G auction proceeds in unlocking high-tech growth
Please SUPPORT, SIGN and SHARE!
The Government is about to receive up to £4bn from the upcoming 4G spectrum auction. We need your help in arguing that the money, which is a return on past generations’ investment in science and technology, should be reinvested in helping the UK become a growing, high-tech economy.
The ‘4Growth’ campaign is led by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) and Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation.
A number of leading figures who have joined forces in support; physicist, Brian Cox; former Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, Lord Rees; former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Science Minister, Lord Waldegrave; British doctor and science writer, Ben Goldacre; and Nobel laureate Andre Geim.
You can find out more about the campaign on: www.its4growth.org.uk
Please SUPPORT, SIGN and SHARE!
The Government is about to receive up to £4bn from the upcoming 4G spectrum auction. We need your help in arguing that the money, which is a return on past generations’ investment in science and technology, should be reinvested in helping the UK become a growing, high-tech economy.
The ‘4Growth’ campaign is led by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) and Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation.
A number of leading figures who have joined forces in support; physicist, Brian Cox; former Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, Lord Rees; former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Science Minister, Lord Waldegrave; British doctor and science writer, Ben Goldacre; and Nobel laureate Andre Geim.
You can find out more about the campaign on: www.its4growth.org.uk
After signing the petition, please ask colleagues and contacts in your networks to do the same. It would also be great if you could help promote through any comms channels (websites/e-newsletters/blogs/social media).
You can find the campaign on twitter at: @its4growth / #4Growth
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