How much does Santa's Sleigh weigh? | #SciSparksAdvent

7 days to go!

If we're trying to work out how much his sleigh actually weighs, you need to make a lot of assumptions. Lets say that every child on Earth receives Buzz Lightyears - these have a boxed weight of 1.2kg - in total that's 840,000 tonnes of toys. These require a staggering 5.6 million reindeer to pull. Each reindeer weighs around 600lb - so the whole procession has a mass of 2,363,310.33 tonnes - Santa needs a few more than 7 reindeer!

What is our nervous system? | #SciSparksAdvent

Without our Nervous System, our life would be very, very different. For a start, we simply wouldn’t be able to feel pain. Take a candle for example, if we couldn’t feel pain then we would just leave our hand far too close to the flame but because we do have a very advanced Nervous System we’re able to take our hand away as quickly as possible without becoming too burnt!

Your body is home to a network of neurones and passages which send messages all over your body – all to keep you out of harm’s way. Your nervous system is one huge evolutionary product – the first nervous tissue actually came about in wormlike organisms 550 to 600 million years ago.

Your nervous system is made up of two components - the CNS (Central Nervous System) and the PNS (Peripheral Nervous System).

The CNS – This contains the brain and spinal cord. Most of your central nervous system is enclosed within your body that is apart from something called the “olfactory epithelium”. It’s a specialised area of tissue inside the nasal cavity involved in smell. Scientists say that because it is exposed this might be a potential avenue for further treatments relating to your CNS.

The PNS – This mainly consists of nerves, pairs of nerves that originate from the brain, enclosed in bundles of long fibres. It connects the CNS to every other part of the body.

Surprisingly your nervous system controls your heart rate. The job of which is done by chemoreceptors. These are found in the walls of your carotid arteries. They detect changes in pH as a result of a change in CO₂ concentration. When your blood CO₂ concentration is too low, your chemoreceptors detect a pH drop. They then send impulses to the section of the medulla oblongata ( a region of the brain) responsible for increasing heart rate. This section of the brain then sends impulses to a node in your heart. Your heart rate is now faster and the pH can return to normal.

Christmas Countdown: 21 sleeps to go!

The Scent of Brussels Sprouts #SciSparksAdvent Day 16

(via http://www.compoundchem.com/2014advent2/#day2)

Fighting the Ebola Virus #SciSparksAdvent Day 8

Finally we seem to be getting the Ebola Virus under control, as the number of deaths increases the need for a vaccine has become desperate. Trials have been launched in Sierra Leone and Liberia where they hope thousands of doses will be ready by mid 2015.

The disease can only be transferred if you come into contact with someone's bodily fluids, here's what the WHO has to say about how to protect yourself:

" To protect yourself, your family, and your community from EVD transmission, immediately report to the nearest health facility if you develop symptoms indicative of EVD, including high fever, body aches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, or haemorrhaging. Isolation and professional clinical treatment increase a person’s chance of survivalTo protect yourself, your family, and your community from EVD transmission, immediately report to the nearest health facility if you develop symptoms indicative of EVD, including high fever, body aches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, or haemorrhaging. Isolation and professional clinical treatment increase a person’s chance of survival"

The Microscopic Ebola Virus

Organ's don't grow on trees.... #SciSparksAdvent Day 3

Well they don’t grow on trees but in the near future you may well be seeing stem cells grow a whole range of organs. Perhaps stem cells are known mostly for their ability to grow into any type of cell. This development although it’s comparatively new is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible; we’ve even managed to grow a new heart entirely from stem cells.

Between April 2013 and March 2014 nearly 5,000 people had organ transplants. Although one major problem we have is that sometimes the person’s own immune system detects that the organ is a foreign object and rejects it. The hope is that if the organ is made from your own cells the success rate will be much higher.

Currently around 120,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant - stem cell organs could mean organs would be available in days rather than potentially years. To grow a new heart (or any other organ), it all starts off with a donor organ that doesn’t necessarily have to come from a human. They then remove all the cells, this leaves the scientists with a protein scaffolding which is then repopulated with the patient’s own stem cells.

This image shows a new heart being grown in a lab