Einsteins Army

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Research Into Cosmic Rays.............................1 Dreaming Makes Perfect?...............................2 Car of the Future?............................................2 Mysteries of the universe ................................3 Earthquake in Japan.........................................4 Flying Teabags?...............................................4 Bitten by Bugs for Science!.............................4 Mind Reading - Were one Step Closer..........5 Nuclear Disaster for Japan...............................5 An Invisibility Cloak?.....................................6 Lunar Eclipse...................................................6

SEE INSIDE...
NASA has made a new break- the remains of the supernova and through as they have researched how the cosmic rays are produced. on a supernova remnant where By Sana Bhatia they have found X-ray stripes. These X-ray stripes have never been seen before and the NASA This is the remains of the Tycho Supernova. team have started their research on This was the supernova where the X-ray Chandra the supernova. NASA believes stripes were found from the were evenX-ray Observatory. These remains seen that the magnetic field around the by astronomers four centuries ago. supernova becomes very tangles and due to the waves of the supernova the subatomic particles around it start to gain a lot of energy, and they become cosmic rays. Most of the cosmic rays are protons. The electrons are also a major part of the research, as the electrons get trapped near the supernova and they emit the X-rays. NASA has begun their research on

Research into Cosmic Rays.

What are Cosmic Rays? Cosmic Rays are charged subatomic particles which are protons, electrons and neutrons. Cosmic Rays create gamma rays when they hit the Earths atmosphere. These gamma rays which are produced are a risk to all living organisms as gamma rays are very penetrating. These subatomic particles surround the Earth beyond its atmosphere. These rays are usually made out of hydrogen nuclei but they can be made out of helium nuclei and only 1% are made out of heavier elements. These rays give off light. The Formation of Cosmic Rays Cosmic Rays have been an unknown to most People, however

Practise Makes Perfect or Dreaming Makes Perfect?

Dreams. What are they? Why do we dream? The actual truth is that in fact nobody yet has discovered why we dream, but some dreams may be connected to the mental processes that allow us to learn. In a study in May 2010, scientists discovered a connection between nap-time dreams and a stronger memory in people who were learning a new skill. In the study, 99 college students between the ages and 18 and 30 spent one hour on a computer, aiming to get through a virtual maze, which was intentionally made difficult. Each time they tried, they had to start in a different place to one they went in before, making the task even more difficult and agitating. In addition, they were told to find a certain picture of a tree and memorise where it was within the maze. The participants were given a five -hour break and for the first 90 minutes, half the participants stayed awake whilst the other half were told to take a short nap. All

the participants then had to describe their thoughts, and those who went to sleep were asked to describe their dreams. The purpose of the study was to discover what people were dreaming when their eyes were not moving this is REM sleep (rapid eye movement). The results were that 4 out of 50 of those who went to sleep said that their dreams were connected to the maze. Some dreamt about the music that that been playing during their time with the maze and the rest said that they dreamed about seeing people in the maze. These four people returned to the computer to battle the maze once again, and they were able to find their tree much

faster than before their naps. Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist and the leader of the team carrying out the study stated, I was startled by this finding. He suggested that the dream itself doesnt help a person to learn, but the reverse. The dream was caused by the brain processes associated w i t h l e a r n i n g . People use to say that practice makes perfect, but maybe the time has come to say that dreaming makes perfect. By Amna Farid

Car of the Future?

Can you imagine driving this car? This is the Hyundai blue2 car. Nearly all of the materials that were used were recycled or eco friendly. With a blue 2 sports 90kW fuelled engine with 34.9km/L of hydrogen. The tires and wheels and aerodynamics, everything has been based around the theme of being eco friendly. The environmentally friendly car has low resistant tires, an d increase in efficiency. This car will not only help the driver but the environment as well, putting less by products in to the atmosphere. This could be the car of the future. By Saher Bhatti

Mysteries of the Universe

Do you know whats at the centre of our Galaxy?
The Black Hole! Did you get it right? Scientists think that black holes can be smaller than an atom, or a billion times more massive than our Sun. A black hole is a place in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can get out, ( nd you know how fast light can travel, 300,000,00 m/s) . Their huge gravitational pull can rip stars apart! What is happening over there? No one knows. That's for the next generation of physicists you - to work out. By Shifa Mugloo

Can You Solve Einsteins Riddle?

ARE YOU IN THE TOP 2% OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD? SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND FIND OUT!

There are no tricks, just pure logic, so good luck and don't give up. 1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours. 2. In each house lives a person of different nationality 3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, has a different job and keep a different pet. 4.Who owns the fish? HINTS 1. The Brit lives in a red house. 2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets. 3. The Dane drinks tea. 4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house. 5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee. 6. The person who is a policeman rears birds. 7. The owner of the Yellow house is a teacher. 8. The man living in the centre house drinks milk. 9. The Norwegian lives in the first house. 10. The man who is a doctor lives next to the one who keeps cats. 11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who is a teacher. 12. The man who is a lawyer drinks juice. 13. The German is a scientist. 14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house. 15. The man who is a doctor has a neighbour who drinks water. Suggested by Zahrah Massood

Magnitude 9 Earthquake Hits Japan

On March 11 2011, a series of earthquakes shook the East coast of Japan, about 400km North-East of the capital city, Tokyo. The worst quake struck at 14:46 local time and measured 8.9 on the Richter scale, a scale used to measure the size of earthquakes It was apparently the worst earthquake to hit Japan in more than 100 years, and the fifth largest earthquake in the world since 1900. Over 350 people have been found dead, but there are fears that the death toll may be much higher. Alongside that, 500 people have been reported missing. Earthquakes are caused by continental plates. The Earths crust is made out of several pieces, called continental plates. These plates float around on the mantle, a thick layer of molten rock, called magma that is below the surface. This enables the plates to move slightly. When the plates bash into and slide past each other, earthquakes occur. Japan is on a faultline, a line where two plates meet. This is why they are vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters. Other places that are situated on a faultline include the West coast of North and South America, New Zealand, Iceland, The Philippines, Indonesia and some parts of Asia.

By Lizzie Pengelly

Teabags can fly?

You will never look at teabags in the same way again.
You already know how to make a rocket out of a film canister. Now, you can make a tea bag fly! Lighting the top of the teabag cylinder heats the air inside the cylinder. The air molecules start to move more quickly and spread out to take up more space. As the air molecules spread out, the air inside the cylinder becomes less dense. Warm, less dense air rises above cool, dense air. The ash of the teabag is light and doesn't require much force to lift it. As the warm, less dense air rises, it has enough force to lift the ash of the teabag. Did you know this is the same principle for hot air balloons? Well now you do. By Shifa Mugloo

Bitten by Bugs for Science!

Would you get bitten by a mosquito for science? What if you had to feed 500 of the biting bugs? Feeding 500 hungry mozzies is what Leslie Vosshall does. A neuroscientist at Rockerfeller University, Leslie is studying mosquitoes to help fight mosquito born diseases. Leslie aims to discover why some people smell better to mosquitoes than others. Wild mozzies can carry parasites that cause malaria. Malaria parasites manipulate the host's biology, send a signal to mosquitoes saying "Bite this person!". This helps the parasite to be transmitted from person to person. By Shifa Mugloo

Mind Reading - Scientists One Step Closer

Brainwaves - the patterns of elec- What emotion do you think this Professor Philippe Schynes, who trical activity created in the brain - woman is showing? led the study, said: "It's a bit like can easily be measured. It's much unlocking a scrambled television harder to work out the information channel. Before, we could detect encoded in the brainwaves. What the signal, but couldn't watch the do they mean? How and where are content; now we can. they produced? Scientists at the University of Glasgow showed volunteers lots of images of people's faces. The faces displayed different emotions such as happiness, fear and surprise. Some of the faces were covered up so that, for example, only the eyes or mouth were visible. Volunteers were asked to identify the emotion being displayed and their brainwaves were measured whilst they were viewing the images. "How the brain encodes the visual information that enables us to recognise faces and scenes has long been a mystery. While we are able to detect activity in certain areas of the brain when particular tasks are performed, we've not known what information is being carried in those brainwaves. "What we have done is to find a way of decoding brainwaves to identify the messages within." By Shifa Mugloo

Scientists showed that the type of brainwave varies greatly according to which part of the face was being looked at. When you looked at the picture of the mouth above, you made a 'theta' - slow frequency - brainwave. The brain produces different brainwaves patterns to encode different visual features. Information is encoded by the frequency and timing of brainwaves.

Nuclear Disaster for Japan

On March 11, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred off the east coast of Japan. A subsequent tsunami struck the coast, killing thousands of people and causing serious, widespread damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant and to buildings, roads, and power lines, particularly along the east coast of the Tohoku region. Damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami has resulted in an ongoing leak of radiation from this facility. The Japanese government has evacuated hundreds of thousands of residents of Fukushima Prefecture living within 20 km (12 miles) of the nuclear power plant. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends that all Americans remain a minimum of 80 km (50 miles) away from the plant. At this time, the risk of exposure to radiation and the risk of contamination from radioactive materials are believed to be low, especially for anyone outside a 50-mile radius of the nuclear power plant. Some countries have started blocking imports of produce from Japan, fearful of radiation contamination. The plant, battered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that has left 23,000 people dead or missing, has still not been brought under control, and workers were forced away from the complex when black smoke began rising from one of its six reactors. As concern grew over the risk to food safety of radiation from the nuclear plant, the United States became the first nation to block some food imports from the disaster zone. It is stopping imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of the plant. Hong Kong, a major importer of Japanese food, also banned produce and milk imports from the disaster zone. It has been said that Hong Kong authorities had found radioactivity levels in spinach and turnip samples up to 10 times above the safety limit. By Angelica Sharma

An Invisibility Cloak?
This cloaking device may not work as great as Harry Potters famous invisibility cloak, but scientists at Birmingham University have developed an invisibility cloaking device to make objects appear as if they arent there. The whole concept it truly pure physics with the use of a natural transparent looking crystal called calcite. This cloak uses two calcite prisms joined together to make a pyramid with a little recess in the base. The underneath of the pyramid is coated with gold to make it reflective. This clever crystal has double refraction (birefringent) properties meaning when light rays enter this crystal, the rays split into two rays of different polarizations that travel in different directions in which the light waves oscillate. It exploits the refraction of light. We can see an object because light rays hit it and some rays enter our eyes from that point onwards. Calcite also works by bending light so that the rays Calcite with its birefringent dont bounce of the object and properties enter our eyes therefore giving the illusion of invisibility. larized in a particular plane. This means that object can There has been an attempt be- only seem invisible when fore to produce the effect of viewed through a filter. Also invisibility using artificially for the effect to work the obmade meta-materials however; jects and the crystal have to be it was not that useful as it placed on a flat surface and could only hide really small the size of the objects is limobjects made on a really tiny ited by the size of the crystal scale, as large as the waves (which is actually visible). length and only work for cer- However it may be possible to tain kinds of electromagnetic make the crystal less visible as waves, such as microwaves or in- under water, the crystal is alfra-red light. "By using natural most completely invisible. So crystals for the first time, the crystal can be put to more rather than artificial meta- use under water where light materials, we have been able tends to be polarized already. to scale up the size of the Nonetheless it is definitely an cloak and can hide larger ob- exciting and new way forward jects, thousands of times big- in the world of science. Its a ger than the wavelength of the really exciting demonstration light," stated Shuang Zhang of how we can take theoretical who led the research at Bir- ideas and actually make them mingham University. Even physical. though this is a vast improveBy Zahrah Massood ment, the crystal needs some strict criteria to work. Firstly, it only works when light is po-

Magic? Nope, just one of the fascinating the tricks of physics!

Lunar Eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth blocks the sun's rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a full moon. This year the lunar eclipse took place On 15th June, but unfortunately Britain was not able to see the eclipse as it was only seen in parts of the world near Australia. Form more details about the Lunar eclipse watch this video: http://www.nasa.gov/ mission_pages/LRO/news/eclipse -video.html

By Aleesha Luthra

And...
Chemistry Word Search (by Lizzie Pengelly)
(If youre reading this on a computer just print screen it and paste it into Photoshop or Paint)

H N C C L A E A I N L L T P O N I T MO B I A D A T I P N T R T D L A C R R S S T E E I R N R E O A A E R O O MC R R K E C E D MA C V R A L S N L E N E E G A I U N I S A N O O N C A T P K L O E O E S U E O S A T E R P S L N A L U I I R N B L U H A O A C N E D E C R L A O I P L S O E N L MD E T C S T C L T A O A A E C L A MC E S P E N A T N N E H R N N E O L D ME H P K I E R O G MU C L E T R A A I E N U P O T N R R E A H T A C E O E L N A P D I L E MMS R I E E N S T I S A E N P C O D E E R H E O O E G Y A D C U P N L R N L E T I I N L C I E G A G K L B E E I L T E L O O I I N O I E E N A O T E R E C E E D N N A R T O E R A A T C L T H R A T I O H N L U T O I L O O T O G C C T B E I E ME C ML A C E N E O A R E L N L T I R A A S N B S O E E T I N T S C O P D T Y C I A O T R O S N P A A G O T K P L T C K Y O R L V T N C N T U C O R ME MR A R L N A A ML T T I H V I R O T O E N C A O A O O I E T S R C S P T N C D A P P N T N L H T P T E G L O E H T I T Y N O O C E A A L G K E I T B L N A L O N I MI N T C I R E L U O S L A G E I T A V T N E C E E T N T R ML L S I N E D E D U C O O T E E A H E MI L E L L A O N I C O A T H T E C N E A R C E N R I P C S A T A N A P T T N T S I E N L C O A L E C L S E E T L L E O E E A A N P

A man was to be sentenced, and the judge told him, "You may make a statement. If it is true, I'll sentence you to four years in prison. If it is false, I'll sentence you to six years in prison." After the man made his statement, the judge decided to let him go free. What did the man say?

What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you take away four of its five letters? If I say "Everything I tell you is a lie," am I telling you the truth or a lie? What is broken every time it's spoken?

Chemistry Science Atom Electron Proton Neutron Nucleus Shell Covalent Particle

Periodic Table Element Compound Reaction Halogen Alkali Metal Ion Isotope Noble Gas Radioactivity

Dont forget, if you have any suggestions for the articles that we should write next time, or if you want to write one for us, contact Mrs. Egan or speak to Lizzie in 9JWa (V12) .

How Sensitive are You?

What you need: A willing volunteer Two toothpicks How to: 1. Get your volunteer to close their eyes. 2. Press two toothpicks, point downwards, lightly on the volunteer's arm - make sure they're around 5 cm apart. Don't press hard - that would hurt! Ask the volunteer how many toothpicks they can feel. 3. Move the toothpicks closer together and keep asking the volunteer how many toothpicks they can feel. 4. At a certain distance apart, the volunteer will only be able to feel one toothpick - even though there are two! 5. When this happens, measure the distance between the two What did you find? toothpicks. Record your results in On some parts of the body, such as the index finger, the distance a table like this: between the two toothpicks should be much smaller. This means that the volunteer has more sensory Distance between Area of the body toothpicks receptors in that part of their body. Sensory receptors are specialised cells. They detect changes Arm in the environment, called stimuli, Hand and turn them into electrical impulses. In this case, the sensory Index finger receptors are detecting pressure. Feet Sensory neurones - nerve cells Knee carry these electrical impulses to the spinal cord and brain. Repeat the experiment on different To be really sensitive, each senparts of the body - you could try the back of the hand, index finger sory receptor must connect to a different nerve cell. and feet - if they're not too ticklish! By Shifa Mugloo

Chocolate, lots of Chocolate!

Leftover chocolate from Easter? Try this! in other places - how long does it

take to melt in your mouth? What does this tell you about the temperature of your body? the same size Try melting the chocolate and then Paper plates letting it go solid again. What hap Thermometer (optional) pens if you melt this again? How Pen and paper to record your results long does it take? How to: What happens if you use different 1. Put the each piece of chocolate on a types of chocolate - white, milk paper plate. and dark? Does one type take 2. Put the paper plates in different longer to melt than others? What you need: Small chocolate pieces - all around
places - outside in the shade, outside in the sun, on a sunny windowsill. 3. If you're using a thermometer, you can record the temperature at each of the places where you put the chocolate. 4. Record how long it takes for the chocolate to melt.

chocolate depend on how the chocolate is made. If you let chocolate melt and re-harden, it forms a different structure. This gives it a different taste, texture and melting point. By Shifa Mugloo

What's happening? At a certain temperature, chocolate begins to turn from a solid to a liquid - it melts. If it's a hot day, sunlight can melt chocolate Where does the chocolate melt How long does it take your chocosomething you don't normally quickest? late to look like this? want to happen! Experiment with putting chocolate The taste and melting point of