Why Rudolph really does have a red nose...

Happy Christmas!! 

It's no wonder Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is the most famous member of Santa's reindeers - on top of being a skilled flyer, as his name suggests, his nose glows bright red. This unusual variation on the normal reindeer is said to have all kinds of benefits, the most important of which being to guide Santa's sleigh. So, even if the weather is bad, Santa is cleared for flight, thanks to the brightness of Rudolph's nose.

Scientists at Lund University in Sweden have been using thermal imaging cameras to study the physiology (the workings) of animals, they have found that Rudolph's red nose may have actually been based on fact. They discovered that animals noses glow bright orange when viewed with an infrared light, which is sensitive to heat. Scientists say that this is because they have 25% more blood vessels compared to human noses. This helps to keep their noses warm and sensitive as they rummage through the snow for food beneath. Extra blood flow to their noses and lips can cause a red flush that is visible with our own eyes, hence "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"

This is a infrared image of a Reindeer.

 

Why do stars twinkle?

We've all heard the nursery rhyme, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" but how do stars twinkle? Just before it reaches your eyes, the starlight that has crossed the cosmos has to travel through a few hundred kilometres of the earth's turbulent atmosphere. As the air moves around the light is refracted, or bent causing the apparent position of the star to 'wobble' slightly. This is why astronomers go to such effort and costs to put their telescopes in orbit, to avoid distortion because of the Earth's atmosphere.

This is a image of the Crab Nebula (M1) taken from Earth

 

The Latest Moon Landing

Recently, China has hit the headlines for the most recent moon landing for decades. They successfully managed to land the moon rover, called the "Jade Rabbit" on Sunday last week. The rover was named the "Jade Rabbit" after an ancient Chinese myth. Some of the youngest lava flows on the Moon are within reach of a leading US lunar scientist.

Officials in charge of the project have said that five of the eight pieces of scientific equipment on the moon currently have begun their observations. The observations could unlock key pieces of information into both the history of Earth and the Moon.

 

The Moon Landing - "One small step for man, one giant leap for human kind"

The Apollo 11 mission was the first to land humans on the moon. Neil Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface on 20th July 1969. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Buzz Aldrin slightly less. They managed to collect 21.5 kg of lunar material for return to Earth. The third member of the mission, Micheal Collins piloted the command spacecraft alone in orbit until the pair returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth. 

The spacecraft was launched by a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 16th July. This mission was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The spacecraft consisted of three parts, the command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that was brought back to earth, the Service Module (SM). This supported the command module for things like propulsion, electrical power, oxygen and water. The last component being the Lunar Module (LM) which landed on the moon. 

After being propelled to the moon, the astronauts were separated from Saturn V and traveled towards the moon for three days until they entered the lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into the Lunar Module and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. They stayed on the moon for about 21 1/2 hours. The mission ended as they landed in the Pacific Ocean on 24th July. 

US President John F Kennedy set proposed this as a goal in 1961 to the US Congress by saying: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". This goal was fulfilled in a broadcast live on TV to a world-wide audience which then ended the Space Race. 

The Death of Captain Scott - "I fear we have shipped up – a close shave."

It may be over 101 years since Captain Scott's death, but on this anniversary a letter written by the dying Captain Scott inside h

is final Antarctic camp in March 1912, went on display.

The letter is addressed to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman, who was Scott's former commanding officer in the Royal Navy. In the letter he expresses his anxiety for his wife and two-year-old son, asking Bridgeman to ensure they are looked after in his absence.

Scott poignantly writes that he is at the end of his adventure, writing: "I fear we have shipped up – a close shave."

The letter was bought by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge for £78,816, with donated funds.

Scott wrote eight letters as he faced death. There is one still in private ownership, addressed to Edgar Speyer, after it was sold last year in auction for £165,000.

It is believed the explorer died on 29 March, after writing his final diary entry, where he wrote: "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. Scott. For God's sake look after our people."

Captain Scott's last letter to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman

My dear Sir Francis,

I fear we have shipped up – a close shave. I am writing a few letters which I hope will be delivered some day. I want to thank you for the friendship you gave me of late years, and to tell you how extraordinarily pleasant I found it to serve under you. I want to tell you I was not too old for this job. It was the younger men that went under first.

Finally, I want you to secure a competence for my widow and boy. I leave them very ill provided for, but feel the country ought not to neglect them. After all we are setting a good example to our countrymen, if not by getting into a tight place, by facing it like men when we were there. We could have come back through had we neglected the sick. Goodbye and goodbye to dear Lady Bridgeman.

Yours ever, R Scott

Excuse writing, it is minus 40, and has been for nigh a month.

"There has been nothing but a common desire to work for the common good" ~ Captain Scott

Today we  went to the Polar Research Institute's Museum in Cambridge which is a free museum set up near the University's Chemistry department. 

The Museum focuses on the people that live in the arctic area and expeditions that have taken place to get there. Antarctica is around twice the size of Australia, therefore more than double the size of Europe. 

One famous explorer, Robert Falcon Scott went to the south pole in 1901 as part of the Discovery expedition.  He was born at Outlands on 6th June 1868 to John and Hannah Scott. Throughout his childhood he had many weaknesses viewed as shameful in his era, for example his uneasiness at the sight of blood and of suffering in animals. He tried hard to conceal these problems, but he never really overcame these problems. One of his biographers mention that as a boy he was "shy and deffident, small and weakly for his age, lethargic, backward and above all, dreamy". This considering he had a good childhood with a good strong family around him. 

Robert F. Scott joined his first seagoing ship in August of 1883 at the tender age of thirteen. The ship that he set sail on, HMS Boadicea was the first time that he earned money, as he worked as a Midshipman, earning about £30 a year. The training was intense, as Admiral Sir William Jameson wrote that midshipmen were "up aloft in all sorts of weather and away for long hours in boats under oars and sail. In spite of rigid barriers, young officers learnt the lower deck point of view in a way which is often difficult to achieve in these more democratic days"

To find out more click here: http://www.south-pole.com/p0000089.htm

The DISCOVERY Expedition 1901-04 Scott went on leave for a few weeks to prepare for the expedition. He then started work by taking a course in magnetism at Deptford. Before he set sail he was living with his two sisters and mother over the shop in Chelsea. Scott started his day by jogging across Hyde Park for exercise. He plunged himself into the planning of the expedition. Some extraordinary details had to be worked out and even Hugh Robert Mill, distinguished librarian of the Royal Geographical Society (1892-1900), thought that Scott "if anyone, could bring order out of the chaos which had overtaken the plans and preparations". The Crew The Crew began to be appointed on May 29, 1900 Albert Armitage was appointed to serve as second-in-command and navigator. Armitage, aged thirty-six, came from the Merchant Navy where he had been an officer in the P and O fleet. His previous experience came from his participation, as navigator, with the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition in 1894. The doctor on the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition had been Reginald Koettlitz, a six foot tall man with drooping mustaches of German heritage. At the age of thirty-nine, Koettlitz received his appointment in 1900. Markham described him as "a very honest food fellow, but exceedingly short of commonsense". However, Koettlitz was in agreement with other notable doctors that scurvy (caused by a vitamin C deficiency), the plague of all polar expeditions, was caused by a poison resulting from a diet purely consisting of preserved food. The remedy being freshly cooked and prepared pure food. The assistant surgeon was a young man recently qualified at St. George's Hospital. He had a wonderful talent for drawing and painting in water colors, was a religious man and had a huge passion for birds.  His name was Edward Adrian Wilson, son of a doctor in Cheltenham. As a courageous young man, Wilson spent too many chilly nights bird-watching, too many long nights with his studies to make up for time spent in art galleries, too much starving himself so he could give money to beggars or to buy books, and probably too much smoking. This had totally ruined his health and as a result he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. After he spent two years in Norway and a Swiss sanitarium. He did manage to recover from the disease but as soon as he began his duties as junior house surgeon he contracted blood poisoning which resulted in a painful abscess in his armpit. When Scott met him in 1900, he was obviously still in a bad way and his arm was still in a sling. To many peoples suprise, Scott appointed him on the spot but he still had to pass an Admiralty Medical Board.  He failed the first time and the second exam, only weeks before sailing, reported "Mr. E. A. Wilson unfit on account of disease in the right lung". Scott told Markham he must have him and Wilson told Scott "I quite realize it will be kill or cure, and have made up my mind that it will be cure". Dr. Wilson's contributions to the expedition were enormous and his incredible gallery of original artwork left for our enjoyment is highly prized and very valuable. Scott then went to appoint other commanders for the ship still leaving three scientific positions to be filled. The first of which was offered to a Scot, W.S Bruce, unfortunately he was busy organising his own expedition (the SCOTIA in 1902) so he therefore declined. The position was then offered to Thomas Vere Hodgson who was 37 and a director of the marine biological laboratories in Plymouth. Secondly a geologist was also appointed, Hartley Ferrar (22). The last position to be filled was in fact a physicist, Louis Bernacchi (25) whose appointment was so late coming that he had to join the ship in New Zealand. he spent a very adventurous childhood on a mountainous island that was uninhabi His father was a silk merchant from Lombardy and he brought an island from the Tasmanian Government for £20,000.  Discovery, by E. A. Wilson . The position was then offered to Thomas Vere Hodgson, aged thirty-seven, director of the marine biological laboratories in Plymouth. ("Young to have a polished bald head, sometimes needing a skull cap, but otherwise apparently strong and healthy" as Markham wrote). The geologist, Hartley Ferrar, aged twenty-two, had just graduated from Cambridge with an honor's degree. Born in Ireland and raised primarily in South Africa, Markham felt he was capable but "very young, very unfledged, and rather lazy; however, he most likely could be "made into a man in this ship" by "the young lieutenants". The physicist was Louis Bernacchi, aged twenty-five. His appointment was so late in coming that he had to join the ship in New Zealand. He had spent a very adventurous childhood on a mountainous island that was uninhabited except for his family and their dependents. His father was a silk merchant from Lombardy and had bought the island from the Tasmanian Government for £20,000. Louis studied physics and astronomy at the Melbourne Observatory and was the only member of the expedition to have prior experience in the Antarctic.  L to R: Lt. Armitage, Lt. Mulock, Lt. Shackleton, Dr. Wilson, Lt. Skelton, Capt. Scott, Lt. Royds, Dr. Koettlitz, Mr. Bernacchi and Mr. Ferrar on board Discovery The DISCOVERY was built at Dundee. She was the sixth of her name and the first to be specifically designed and built for scientific work.  She had to be a wooden ship to withstand the pressure of the ice since steel would simply buckle. The ship was to be exceptionally strong, built from a variety of timbers:  English oak for the frames, eleven inches thick; Riga fir for the lining, eleven inches; Honduras mahogany, pitch pine or oak for the four-inch-thick lining, all sheathed with two layers of planking--twenty-six inches of solid wood in all. Her bow was incredibly strong; some of the bolts running through the wood were eight and a half feet long. The vessel was 172 feet long and 34 feet wide.  She had to have room to store fuel, oil, 350 tons of coal, fresh water, dog food, medical supplies, scientific instruments, axes and saws, a sectional wooden hut, a piano and a library.  The final cost, including engines, was £49,277.   Food for the 47 men was stored aboard:  150 tons of roast pheasant, 500 of roast turkey, whole roast partridges, hare, duck and green peas, rump steak, wild cherry sauce, celery seed, black currant vinegar, candied orange peel, Stilton and Double Gloucester cheese, 27 gallons of brandy, 27 gallons of whiskey, 60 cases of port, 36 cases of sherry, 28 cases of champagne, lime juice, 1800 pounds of tobacco, pemmican, raisins, chocolate and onion powder. On March 21, 1901 Lady Markham, with a pair of golden scissors, cut the tape and the DISCOVERY was launched. Discovery launched March 21, 1901 The huge quantities of food meant that the DISCOVERY was so heavy in the seas that she could not make more than seven knots. This was an immediate concern as New Zealand was 14,000 miles away. Her first stop was at Madeira Island where they would take on more coal. After leaving Madeira, the men were shocked to find that the DISCOVERY was leaking water into the hold and, as a result, had ruined a significant amount of food. What could be dried was saved and the rest was thrown overboard. The ship, which then arrived in Cape Town on October 3, 1901 where nearly everyone proceeded to get drunk. Owing to the slowness of the voyage, Scott decided to cut out part of the journey and sail directly to to Lyttleton, New Zealand. As a result of this decision, Dr. Murray was left in Cape Town so that he could return to his post at the British Museum. The vessel arrived at Lyttleton at the end of November where the attention was at last paid to the leak.  Scott wrote that the drunken men "disgust me, but I'm going to have it out with them somehow"   While in New  Zealand the men had decided that a relief ship would be needed to resupply the DISCOVERY in the following year.  Then just before midnight on 8th Janguary 1902 they had crossed the Antarctic circle.  When they reached the summit, a blizzard came up and reduced visibility to nearly nothing. They pitched their tents and since they couldn't get their cookers to work, frostbite began to set in. An experienced crew would have remained, no matter how uncomfortable, but as a novice crew, they decided to head out into the storm. They soon found themselves on a steep slippery slope where Evans stepped on a patch of bare ice and tumbled out of sight. Barne sat down and slid after him with Quartley following close behind.  All three men miraculously came to a halt when a patch of soft snow stopped them at the edge of a precipice with the sea pounding below. A howling dog flashed past and disappeared over the edge. Frank Wild took charge of leading the remaining five who were left at the head of the slope. He led them off in the direction of the ship but suddenly came upon a cliff with the dark sea below; another step and he would have gone right over the edge. Unfortunately, Vince could get no grip on the slippery ice and, like the dog, he vanished over the edge and into the sea. Wild, Weller, Heald and Plumley were able to fight their way back to the ship.  Of the original twelve, only four had returned.  A search party was quickly organized and two days later a figure came walking down the hill towards the ship. Incredibly, it was Hare and with not even a trace of frostbite. It seems he had fallen down and simply gone to sleep. The snow covered and preserved him as he slept for thirty-six hours! One more sledging trip was undertaken before winter set in. On Easter Monday, Scott started off with Armitage, Wilson, Ferrar and eight men with three sledges and nine dogs. The objective was to lay depots towards the south for use of the sledging parties in the spring. The dogs refused to work , partly as the temperature had dropped to -47°F!  When they became exhausted, the men crawled into their sleeping bags.  As Wilson put it, "Once in, one can do literally nothing but lie as one falls in the tent. Reindeer skin hairs get in your mouth and nose and you can't lift a hand to get them out". At night the men would sweat which would produce a puddle beneath them and since nothing could be dried, by morning "you put on frozen mitts and frozen boots, stuffed with frozen grass and rime. There's a fascination about it all, but it can't be considered comfort". Two more days of this and Scott decided enough was enough. They packed up their gear and headed back to the ship with everyone learning from this experience.  On April 23, 1901 the sun sank below the horizon and would not reappear for more than four months. "...it can't be considered as comfort" ~ Wilson Left to Right: Shackleton, Scott, Wilson   TERRA NOVA and MORNING reach the DISCOVERY "There has been nothing but a common desire to work for the common good". On 7th November, Scott gave his first big lecture to 7,000 invited members and guests of the two Societies at Albert Hall. Now the praise was raining down for Scott. He was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the RGS, was made a member of the French Legion of Honour amongst many others. His most prized including an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Cambridge University. When he left London he headed for Edinburgh for more lectures and the Royal Geographical Society's Livingstone Medal.  Meanwhile, many pleaded with the Government to retain the DISCOVERY for future polar work but his remarks fell on deaf ears. The ship used in the voyage was sold to the highest bidder, the Hudson's Bay Company, for £10,000, about one-fourth her original cost. Scott continued to travel around the country giving lectures and making preparations to publish a book about the expedition.  Scott wrote, "Of all things I dread having to write a narrative and am wholly doubtful of my capacity; in any event if I have to do it, it will take me a long time. I have not...the pen of a ready writer".  By the start of 1905 his book was nearly completed. On October 12, 1905, in an edition of 3000 copies, the Voyage of the Discovery was published. An incredible piece of work, the two-volume edition was profusely illustrated with Wilson's drawings and Skelton's photographs from the expedition. Scott needlessly worried about his abilities for writing as nearly all the critics praised it.  His former crewmembers each received a free copy and they all loved it.  Scott even insisted on sending Wilson a check for £100 as a fee for reproducing his drawings; Wilson refused but Scott made him take it anyway. (Today, a single one of his drawings can fetch $10,000 or more.) The book sold reasonably well; the first edition sold out immediately so 1500 more copies were printed the following month. But then the sales fell dramatically; when the book went out of print in 1919, total sales amounted to 5,272 copies. Scott's home in Chelsea, London can be found standing today, marked by a blue commemorative plaque on 56 Oakley Street. Scott was single and thirty-seven years old when, in April 1906, he announced at an RGS meeting that: "I am sorry to say that my lines are cast in such places that in all probability I shall not return to those regions". But there was a great deal of emotion as in the same speech he touched on "those fields of snow sparkling in the sun, the pack-ice and bergs and blue sea, and those mountains, those glorious southern mountains, rearing their heads in desolate grandeur. The movements of the pack, those small mysterious movements with the hush sound that comes across the water, and I hear also the swish of the sledge...I cannot explain to you, they will always drag my thought back to those good times when these things were before me".

Why do galaxies collide?

Well, they collide due to their 'mutual gravitational attraction' in other words they collide because gravity draws them together. However in general galaxies are moving away from each other at an ever increasing rate, basically because of the Universe expanding at an ever increasing rate. This can be modeled simply by drawing stars or dots (imagine these as galaxies) onto a deflated balloon then blowing up the balloon. An idea that has sprung from this is the Red Shift. This is where astronomers have found that the further away a star is the more it's light has been red shifted. So this tells us that distant galaxies are moving away from us and that the further away a galaxy is the faster away its moving away from us.

The Red Shift is an example of the Doppler effect, named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed this theory in 1842 in Prague. You may have noticed that as a police car comes towards you the siren becomes high pitched and low pitched as the car drives away. This effect is where there is a change in frequency and wavelength. So when a source moves towards an observer the observed wavelength decreases and frequency increases and vice versa. In terms of Astronomy the results of the Doppler effect are used to identify if a nearby star is what astronomers call a binary star. This is two stars orbiting around a 'common center of mass' which is where the relative position of the distributed mass adds to zero. The brighter star is called the 'primary star' and the other the 'secondary star'

In our own 'Local Group' of galaxies for example some of the galaxies are moving away from us and some are moving towards us. Take our nearest galaxy the Andromeda galaxy for example which is currently moving towards the Milky Way at 402, 336 km/h and is due to hit us in 4 billion years.

Why does skin stick to frozen metal?

If you put your tongue on any frozen metal, the high conductivity of the metal removes the heat from your tongue much faster than your body can supply it. This makes the saliva freeze into ice very quickly. This ice creates hydrogen bonds between the metal and your skin, just like water does, so the whole surface bonds together and resists as you pull away. This same thing will happen with your fngers because your fingerprints provide the roughness needed and your fingers always have some moisture due to sweat. However very smooth, dry skin won't stick. 

Why does a mint make ice cream even colder?

All mints contain the chemical menthol, which binds to the TRP-M8 receptors in your skin which sense cold, the temperature doesn't change it's the menthol that causes false cold signals to be sent to your brain. This feeling is intensified because the ice cream also sends cold signals to your brain and this increases the number of cold receptors that are firing at once. This is similar to the reaction caused by chilli which is caused by the chemical capsaicin which binds to the TRP-V1 receptors for heat. 

Can animals be allergic to humans?

Yes, they can. Scientist's don't know much about allergies with wild animals but it has been known that dogs and cats develop allergies to their owners. Like when humans are allergic to animals, the main culprit is the dander or dandruff that falls of us. Around us everyday there's dust that contains varying amounts of dead skin. When cats are allergic they show symptoms such as coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. Dogs show symptoms such as itching, sores and skin infections. This problem is increasing a lot because we are steadily domesticating our pets where they are continuously exposed to human allergens. 

How do scientists communicate with deep space probes?

Communicating with something over 11.2 billion kilometres (7 billion miles) away is no mean feat. It involves a huge network of worldwide radio antennas. These are strategically placed across the Earth so there will always be one that the probe can send signals to, 

Likewise space probes (e.g Pioneer 10) need radio antennas to send pictures, weather information and much more to. However power constraints mean the the probes transmit very weak signals that get weaker the further away the probe gets. Antennas have very large dishes to capture the probe's signal. Yet greater amplification and noise reduction is needed to boost the signal to a readable level.   

How do gorillas raised in captivity know what's safe to eat in the wild?

By instinct. Similar to how we have evolved to enjoy the taste of the safe foods and dislike the poisonous ones, gorillas have done just the same. In the wild mountain gorillas eat leaves,shoots and stems so much so an adult male can chomp through a massive 18kg of vegetation in a day. In experiments gorillas were given over 2000 pairs of foods and they then had to choose between them. Throughout the experiments they demonstrated consistent food choices in high sugar fruits with a high ratio of sugar to fibre, this is even the same using pictures of the fruit! 

Why can cold drinks give us a headache?

We may finally have an explanation of this phenomenon, that you may have referred to as "brain freeze"  which is a cold stimulus headache, officially know as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia A team of researchers led by Havard Medical School asked 13 brave volunteers to sip ice water through a straw aimed at the roof of their mouth while an ultrasound captured the flow of blood to the brain. Their findings have shown that just before the headache hits blood rushes through the anterior cerebral artery in the brain (a front region of the brain). The evidence isn't conclusive but it's likely that the headache is in response to the extra pressure in that region of the brain, and this is our way of warming up the blood to keep our brain at the optimal temperature, 

Do carrots help you to see in the dark?

Yes and no. Carrots contain vitamin A or retinol which is needed for your body to make rhodopsin which is a pigment in your eyes which operates in low light conditions. If you had a vitamin A deficiency you would develop nytalopia or what we might call "night blindness". Eating carrots would correct this, but only to the point of an ordinary person's vision at night - it won't ever let you see in complete darkness.

This idea first came about because of the Air Ministry in WWII. To prevent the Germans finding out that Britain was using radar to intercept bombers on night raids. They issued press releases stating that the British pilots had been eating a lot of carrots to give them exceptional night vision which fooled the entire British public as well as the German High Command, there an old wive's tale was born! 

Britain: The Isle of Wonder

The British population makes up just one per cent of the world’s population. Yet our small collection of rocks poking out of the Northern Atlantic has thrown up beaters in virtually every field of human endeavour.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in Science and Engineering. Edward Jenner came up with vaccines, Sir Charles Darwin came up with the Origin of Species, Sir Isaac Newton pioneered the basic laws of motion, Sir Tim Berners-Lee who pioneered the world-wide web, Michael Faraday and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the list is gloriously long.

Why do so many great minds emerge and flourish from Britain? This is an extremely important question to ask ourselves, not only our past, but our future economy hangs on further technical advances being made and developed. Our successes can be traced back almost 800 years ago when The University of Oxford and Cambridge were founded.

In 1660 The ‘Royal Society’ was formed, backed by Sir Christopher Wren who was a Professor of Astronomy and an architect at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The aim was to pursue a radical idea for the time, that the workings of nature can be best understood by observations and experiment. So any theory about the world should be tested and if it disagrees with the observations, then it is wrong. Even today that is radical the theories of powerful and important people could end up being undermined by science. So central to science is this idea that it is enshrined in the Royal Society’s motto: “Take nobody’s word for it”

Shortly after the Royal Society was formed, Sir Isaac Newton developed this approach in his work of “The Principia” which contains of his laws of gravity and the foundations of what we now call classical mechanics, the tools you need to calculate things from the forces on bridges and buildings to the paths of artillery shells, arguably the first modern work of physics. 

Scientists grow a heart

Scientists at the University of Pìttsburgh, PA have managed to grow a functioning mouse heart from pluripotent stem cells. These are adult stem cells that act like embryonic stem cells. The team achieved this by stripping the mouse heart of its cells and replacing them with human cells.  The heart then began to beat just as before. This could then lead to stem cells being used in the future for human organ transplants. Although there are a number of ethical issues surrounding the use of stem cells.  This technological advance could be used to replace heart tissue damaged during a heart attack.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein pencil sketch
 that I have drawn 

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them"

 ~ Albert Einstein 

The German born physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14th 1879 in Württemberg, six weeks after his birth he moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at Luitpold Gymnasium. As a child he enjoyed classical music and even played the violin. 

One story that Einstein enjoyed telling about his childhood was of a wonder that he saw when he was about four or five years old: a magnetic compass. Okay this may not seem much with today's technology but the compasses needle's northward swing, guided by an invisible force fascinated Einstein, this wonder could even have been what inspired him to bigger and better things in his adulthood. 

In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich where he trained as a teacher in physics and maths. Later, in 1901 he gained a diploma which went on to earn him a Swiss Citizenship. Unfortunately he was unable to find a teaching post so he accepted a position as a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. This led him to work towards a doctor's degree in 1905. 

During his time at the Swiss Patent office, and his spare time he produced a lot of his remarkable work including his famous equation. He also became 'Professor Extraordinary' at Zurich. In 1911 he became 'Professor of Theoretical Physics' at Prague. When he returned to Zurich he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and a Professor at the University of Berlin. 

When anyone mentions Einstein, his famous equation - E= mc squared is probably one of the first things to jump into your head, but what does it mean? 

This famous equation pops up everywhere, it even appears as the title of one of Mariah Carey's 2008 albums. For starters the 'E' part of the equation stands for energy and the "M" mass (which is a measurement of the quantity of matter inside something). The C squared  part of the equation stands for the speed of light squared. The whole equation breaks down into this: Energy is equal to matter multiplied by the speed of light squared. 

The speed of light is a colossal number, illustrating just how much energy there is in just a tiny amount of water. One common example that physicists use is just 1 gram of water (1 ml). If the entire mass of the water (1 gram) was converted into pure energy using Einstein's equation, then the water could contain as much energy as 20,000 tons of TNT (which is an explosive) exploding. This is why such a small amount of Uranium or Plutonium can create such disastrous effects, such as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster where one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl power station exploded. 

Einstein's equation does actually have relevance to twenty first century science. Einstein has provided, via his equation, a huge advancement in various fields of science including nuclear power. He has also allowed us to discover more about the inner workings of the Sun. This equation has shown us the relationship between Energy, matter and the speed of light like we have never before and this could well help us research into other areas of science in the future. 

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The People Who Want to go to Mars (And Never Return)

It’s safe to say that the majority of scientists worldwide believe that there is life way beyond Earth, but would you want to travel the 140 million miles to get to Mars and regularly endure the temperatures of -153^oC at the poles of Mars? Well, tens of thousands of people have applied and prepared to leave their families, jobs and lives behind for a one-way trip to Mars all to never return to Earth.

Home to the solar system’s biggest volcano, Olympus Mons, Mars has  around 687 earth days each year and at night, the surface temperature of Mars in the summer can get as low as -53^oC. Rovers on Mars have even discovered Martian spherules which have been nicknamed ‘blueberries’ which may even unlock the key to the elements that Mars once had, although scientists haven’t discovered these for certain yet although they do know that these spherules are iron rich. This is also shown because of Mars’ classic red colour which shows an extremely high percentage of iron

This “Mars One” mission (launched back in May 2012) aims to send humans on a one- way trip to the Red Planet. You might think that this amazing opportunity is a science-fiction story and wouldn’t happen for a good while yet but this programme aims to send a selected number of the public up to Mars by 2023, fully equipped with the right training needed to survive on Mars. Anyone worldwide over 18 was eligible to apply for the trip and 202,589 applications were received throughout the application process!

The selection process consists of three rounds including an interview with the ‘Mars One’ committee members and a series of challenges to prepare candidates for the potential mission that will be broadcast on TV and online.

The brave volunteers will be sent in groups of four, starting with two men and two women from four different continents. From 2023 when the first group is sent up, ‘Mars One’ (the company organising the trips) are planning to send an extra four up every two years!

However the trip isn’t without its risks, radiation exposure is particularly a concern as it can lead to an increased cancer risk, lower immune system and possible infertility. This could mean that before the applicants reach Mars, their health may be worse than when they took off from Earth! Being on Mars they wouldn’t have access to doctors and hospitals so would need to manage their own health using restricted medical supplies.

The Dutch group wants to launch a supply mission to land on Mars as soon as October 2016, and then another mission that they have called a ‘settlement rover’ to land in 2018. By 2033 the colony could reach 20 settlers on the Red Planet, although the mission could prove very costly! NASA spent £1.8 billion on Mars’ Curiosity Rover which is the biggest most advanced Rover to travel across Mars, but ‘Mars One’ has a budget of £4 billion for this project but it could prove the most worthwhile and open up so many more opportunities and avenues for exploration in science. 

Olympus Mons

At a height of 25 km Olympus Mons (on Mars) is the highest volcano in the solar system. It's nearly three times as tall as Mount Everest. 

It is thought that the volcanoes on Mars are a lot higher than on Earth because Mars doesn't have any tectonic plates unlike Earth. This means that magma rises in the same place each time. So, over time the volcano gets bigger and bigger due to the build up of magma. Therefore the height of the volcanoes on Mars are so much bigger than on Earth. 

However on Olympus Mons, the height of this particular volcano is thought to have stopped growing because of the cooling of Mars' core. 

Why is sugar so addictive?

We all know how tempting it can be to have that extra slice of cake, but what makes sugar so addictive? Well there are a number of reasons to explain this age old addiction to sugar.

Scientist believe that we are driven to sugar as it plays a vital role in our survival, along with salt, fat and sugar. This is because when we eat food the simple sugars are absorbed from the intestines into our bloodstream, so it can be distributed to all cells in the body. Glucose is also very important to the brain as it provides the only source of fuel to the one hundred billion nerve cells in your body.

These neurons (nerve cells) need a constant supply of fuel from the bloodstream as they can't store the glucose. Diabetics with low blood sugar can collapse into a coma.

Bizarrely scientists have even discovered that just the taste of sugar can give our brains  our boost. They discovered that participants who swirled water sweetened by adding sugar perform better on mental tasks than those who don't! 

"Molecular Basis" for jet lag is finally explained

Scientists at Oxford University believe they have finally found out why it takes us so long to adapt when we travel to new time zones.

Researchers say they have found the "molecular brakes" that prevent light resetting the body clock when we fly - which is what causes jet lag.

Experiments that they have carried out which was reported in the journal Cell, showed that "uncoupling" these brakes in mice allowed them to rapidly adapt. Researchers are hoping that this discovery will help with the invention of new drugs to treat jet lag and mental health disorders. 

Our Circadian Rhythm (body clock) helps us keep in tune with the pattern of day and night, this basically controls when we sleep and also what chemicals are produced at certain times. 

Light acts as sort of a 'reset' button to keep the clock in time, but when we travel, particularly on long haul flights can result in fatigue which can last for days known as jet lag.  

The team of researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust were attempting to figure out why people don't instantly adapt to the difference in time. The research looked into mice, this was because all mammals have the same core body clock as humans do. They focused on what is known as the "master clock" part of your brain which keeps the rest of the body in sync, to scientists this is known as the suprachiasmatic nuclei. During their research they were looking for parts of the DNA that had altered activity levels in response to the light.

Their experiments found that huge numbers of genes were activated but a protein named "SIK1" went round turning the genes off. This acted like a brake which limited the effect of light. 

So reducing the function of this protein meant that the mice would be able to rapidly adjust their body clock, even when it was shifted six hours. This would be an equivalent flight from the UK to India.

Researchers reduced levels by 50-60%, which is big enough to get a very, very big effect. What we saw was the mice would actually advance their clock six hours within a day. The untreated mice would take six days to do this.

He said some mental health disorders including schizophrenia were linked to an out-of-tune body clock, so these findings may open up new areas for research and a lead into possible treatements for these mental health disorders. 

"We have drugs which can make the clock shorter or longer, what we need is to shift it to a new time zone and that is what they have done

The moon that is 40% empty space

Saturn's moon Hyperion has been described by scientists as a "fluffy snowball". Saturn's moon was closely monitored by the Cassini spacecraft that flew closer to Saturn late last year. The spacecraft found that there was a high proportion of craters which has created a irregular appearance which scientists have described as a "fluffy snowball". On board the Cassini spacecraft they have different types of cameras which they used to discover a network of underground tunnels full of empty space which is what makes the Hyperion moon 40% empty space. 

Saturn's moon Hyperion is a jumble of icy rubble (Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

If the Sun's gravity was reduced what would happen to us?

A sudden reduction in the Sun's gravity would trigger massive earthquakes on earth as we were shifted along with Earth's altered orbit. However finding something that would cause this would be very difficult! A slow reduction in gravity would mean that the earths orbit would slowly be altered. In fact what happens is the Sun's mass decreases very slightly converting it into heat and light. To put this into context the mass that the sun looses each year is about 0.25% of the sun's mass since it first was formed. Also as the Sun grows older the Sun also gets brighter which means the Earth stays warm.

What makes human and chimp brains different?

The average weight of a chimpanzee brain is 384 grams (13.5 ounces), but human brains are around 3 and a half times heavier. Although each species has a differently structured brain, for example the brain cells in a rodent are much less efficiently packed so would therefore mean that  Rodents would  need a brain at least 35 times bigger than ours to have the same number of brain cells as an average human.

Chimps on the other hand are closely related to humans, so we share a very similar brain structure to them, however they still have around 3 and a half times less brain cells than a human - roughly 49 billion.

Chimpanzees have a lot less brain dedicated to white matter in the temporal cortex which means they have lot fewer connections in the brain (neural connections) so then they have a lesser ability to process information to the same level that humans can.

The Perseids Meteor Shower will leave "celestial pollution"

In the last couple of days you may have wrapped up warm and gone outside to view the Perseids Meteor shower if you were lucky enough to have clear skies. During these last couple of nights, in some locations up to 60 were visible in an hour. These are caused by comet dust burning up and vaporizing in the atmosphere. These 'shooting stars' can be travelling up to speeds of 36 miles per second as it begins to burn up in the atmosphere. 

This Perseid Meteor shower are byproducts from the comet: Comet 109/Swift-Tuttle which passes earth every so often. 

Scientists at the 'Gemini Observatories' believe that they will leave behind a trail of what is known as 'celestial pollution' which is a mixture of gases. One of these being Sodium which collects in a layer in our atmosphere about 60 miles up from ground level. 

Scientists have found this to be true because they can use Sodium lasers to 'excite' the sodium so they can actually create artificial meteor showers anywhere in the world that they have these lasers and whenever the scientists want. 

Why microbes could be changing the world's weather patterns?

Microbes are everywhere, both good and bad, and scientists at NASA believe that these microbes could be changing our weather patterns, both  here in the UK and worldwide.  

Research has been carried out across NASA compounds. One these in Texas.To carry out the experiment they send up, into space, a balloon and a mesh which collects the samples of the microbes. They collect samples at heights 70,000 ft to 10,000 ft. Scientists have analysed the aerodynamic properties of these microbes and they have found that these particular molecules can be suspended in our atmosphere for up to three weeks. 

A process called "Ice Nucleation" is happening all of the time in our atmosphere, this means that any solid particles in our atmosphere makes it a lot easier for ice to form around the solid particle however big or small this is.

 For crystals, whatever sort they are need something solid to form around, if this happens then the ice crystals can be a lot bigger than without the solid particle (in this case the microbe). When ice forms in our atmosphere, clouds form. This will eventually make it rain. 

So, if there are more microbes in the atmosphere it is easier for ice, therefore clouds to form. More clouds, mean that it will rain more. 

Mars' atmosphere was "oxygen rich"

Scientists at NASA have discovered using their Spirit Rover that Mars once had an oxygen rich atmosphere 4 billion years ago. This was 1,500 million years prior to the formation of earth. The scientists came to this conclusion because they had analysed samples that the Spirit Rover had collected, they also compared these samples with Martian meteorites that have crashed into earth. The Scientists then were able to examine the composition of the meteorites and the samples collected, they then discovered a high percentage of oxygen. Also  Mars' distinct red colour, shows evidence of a process called oxidation, which obviously as the name suggests needs a high quantity of the oxygen. It is likely that the Red Planet was warm, wet and rusty, billions of years before Earth's atmosphere became oxygen rich, enough for life to develop on Earth. 

This could mean that life did exist on Mars, and it could mean that at some point we could end up living on Mars! 

How does the sun "burn" if there is no oxygen in space?

At first glance, an image of the sun may resemble a roaring fire. However when astronomers talk about the sun "burning" they are actually talking about a process called nuclear fusion. This process involves the forcing together of tiny hydrogen nuclei in the core. Nuclear fusion takes place in the core as nuclear fusion need high pressure and high temperatures, both of which are present in the sun's core. 

Why has the UK had such hot weather this July?

June saw the weather across the UK as decidedly mixed with some good weather, but interspersed with this, we saw many spells of wet and windy weather. This was due to the jet stream being across the Atlantic, slightly further south than what is normal for this time of year. 

A major change took place just after the start of July as the jet stream took a dramatic shift northwards. This meant that the newly placed jet stream deflected the bad weather towards Ireland and Scandinavia. Then high pressure was dominant across the UK, in meteorological terms this is known as a blocked pattern. At this time of year, high pressure generally signals good weather and this coupled with the strength of sun can bring very high temperatures 

One thing unusual for the UK is that most of the UK has benefited from this good weather, and these high temperatures haven't been confined to one area. Also we have had very few thunderstorms in the last few weeks. Most people think that these always accompany the hot weather, in this case it is because the hot weather isn't from France or Spain. 

However this hot weather isn't good for everyone, the Met Office and Public Health England have been collaborating to provide advice through the Heat Health Watch. 

Compared to last year, this hot weather is in complete contrast when we experienced a succession of weather systems that we got from the Atlantic. There was no recorded change to the position of the jet stream it was a constant feature throughout the summer of 2012.

What are black holes?

Black holes vary in size. Some are only as big as a single atom, but their mass is huge. The mass is just the amount of matter or "stuff" in the object. 

There is another type of black hole that's called "stellar" these have up to twenty times more than the mass of the sun. There might be many stellar black holes in the Earth's galaxy (the Milky Way) 

The largest black holes are called "supermassive." This type of black holes have masses that total to more than 1 million suns together. Scientists have found proof that every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its centre. The supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside a very large ball that could hold a few million Earths. 

NASA is using satellites and telescopes that are traveling in space to learn more about black holes.

How Do Black Holes Form?

Scientists believe that the black holes were formed when the universe was first formed. Stellar black holes are made when the center of a very big star falls in upon itself, or collapses. When this happens, it causes a supernova. A supernova is an exploding star that blasts part of the star into space. 

Scientists think supermassive black holes were made at the same time as the galaxy they are in, so for example made at the same time the Milky Way was formed. 

This image of the center of the Milky Way galaxy was taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K. Baganoff et al.

If Black Holes are "black" why do scientists know they exist? 

A black hole can not be seen because strong gravity pulls all of the light into the middle of the black hole. However scientists can see how the strong gravity affects the stars and gas that surround the black hole. Scientists can study stars to find out if they are flying around, or orbiting, the black hole.

When a black hole and a star are close together, high-energy light is made. This kind of light can not be seen with human eyes. Scientists use satellites and telescopes in space to see the high-energy light. 

Could a Black Hole Destroy Earth?

Black holes do not go around in space eating stars, moons and planets. Earth will not fall into a black hole because no black hole is close enough to the solar system for Earth to do that. 

Even if a black hole the same mass as the sun were to take the place of the sun, Earth still would not fall in. The black hole would have the same gravity as the sun. Earth and the other planets would orbit the black hole as they orbit the sun now. 

The sun will never turn into a black hole. The sun is not a big enough star to make a black hole.