Aurora borealis and Aurora australis, also known as the Northern and Southern lights, are amazing displays of light in the sky, most often seen towards the polar regions. The colour displays range from green, to reds to purples and vary from small wisps to large dramatic streaks through the sky.
To understand how these light displays happen we need to understand a little about solar winds. The surface of the sun is constantly bubbling and boiling. Sometimes particles of plasma are released from the sun’s surface at areas called sun spots. This plasma escapes the pull of the sun’s magnetic field and is released into space as solar winds.
These solar winds can travel to Earth where they are attracted to the Earth’s magnetic fields, particularly at the north and south poles. When particles from the solar winds enter the Earth’s atmosphere they collide with particles of oxygen and nitrogen giving off these wonderful displays of colour.
The colour of the Auroras depends on the particles that interact with the solar wind and their altitude. Green and yellow colours are typically associated with collisions with oxygen, while red, violet or blue colours result from interactions with nitrogen. While these displays are best seen in regions closer to the poles we are sometimes lucky enough to catch site of them right here in the skies over Ireland.
Have you ever seen them? Next time you hear of a lot of solar flares it might be worth remembering to look to the skies in the hope of catching these spectacular light shows.
Soil is the outermost part of the Earth’s surface, where plants grow. Without it we could not survive! Soil is made up of rock material of various sizes (from powdered rock to sand, pebbles and stones). Soil also contains minerals, rotting plants and animals and living organisms. It contains all the nutrients required for plants to grow and survive!
Why is soil so important?
Plants need soil to grow, not just for the nutrients that the soil provides but also as an anchor, a stable place where the plant can place its roots and support its growing structure.
The soil has many other important functions too…
Soil acts as a natural water filter, cleaning water as it passes through it
The soil provides billions of organisms with a place to live
The soil is very important in the cycling of nutrients – especially carbon and nitrogen
How is soil made?
There are a lot of factors that influence how soil is made. The first of these is what type of material the soil is being made from… the type of rock that the soil is made from is called the parent material.
Other factos that influence how soil is made are…
the weather,
the topography of the land,
what living organisms are around and….
time!
Did you know… it can take up to 1,000 years for just one inch of soil to form?
Soil is made when the parent material (rock) is broken down by the weather (wind, rain, sun, snow) eventually forming fine powder, sand and small rocks. The decomposition of organic matter and the activity of a variety of organisms help to improve the soils nutritional quality.
The soil is like a big recycling plant
Soil is not just for growing plants. It contains billions of other living organisms too… some can be very small like bacteria, fungi and algae and some can be very large like insects and even mammals.
All of these inhabitants help to break down dead plants and animals so that all the nutrients contained within them are returned to the soil.
Did you know… that in a tablespoon of good soil there are as many as 50 billion bacteria?
The earthworm plays a vital role is maintaining healthy soil and is often called “nature’s plough”.
Did you know… there are approximately 3000 species of earthworm in the world?
Learn more at home… make a wormery
You will need…
A large see-through container, sand, soil, worms, leaves and other vegetation, card or paper.
What to do…
Fill a large, see-through container with alternative layers of soil and sand.
Put a layer of leaves on the top.
Add enough water to keep the soil damp.
Collect some earthworms from your garden and add them to the wormery.
Cover the outside of your container with a large piece of card or paper to block out the light.
Put the wormery in a safe place and check on it every day- remember to keep adding water to keep the soil moist.
You should soon notice that the different layers of soil and sand are getting mixed together.
What is happening?
The earthworms mix the layers of sand and soil as they move through the wormery. This helps to distribute nutrients throughout the soil, making it more fertile.
Remember to return the worms safely back into the garden once you have finished.
Or you can watch the “how to” video…
A version of this article originally appeared in Science Spin, Issue 63, March/April 2014
I am just back from a week in Malta. I was attending the annual Science Expo and I was really impressed with how well it was organised and the level of enthusiasm and knowledge among the children. From primary school level, right up to third level, students came up with some great ideas, prepared, tested, recorded and then presented their projects with confidence.
The ideas presented varied widely from what conditions help us on memory tasks to investigating the use of apples to combat dust mite allergies (a subject close to my own heart). The place was abuzz with invention, innovation and imagination.
This project investigated the best herb or spice to combat a sore throat.
One project looked at the effects of smoking on a number of levels. The team involved went as far as to set up a Facebook page to emphasis their research, a really great idea, you’ll find it here.
WORKSHOPS
There were also a number of workshops running for the week. I ran an interactive one on acids and bases, a workshop created to show children how easy it can be to do science experiments with things you may have in your own kitchen… because science is an anywhere kind of thing.
I was lucky to have my daughter with me for the week, she was a great help and even got to demonstrate the first experiment to the class.
(video credit: Iris Nijman)
This Inflating balloon experiment is a really simple one but I love the squeals of excitement when the balloon starts to grow, even when the children have anticipated what is to come.
The children enjoying their first experiment (Photo credit: Irish Nijman)
One class to visit my workshop was from the International School in Malta. I was charmed when at the end of the workshop, each child thanked me in their own language. There was 16 kids in total, and I received a thank you in 14 languages!
There were many other great workshops throughout the week, I was just disappointed that I could not sneak in and have a look at them all.
On a national level there was the forensics division of the Maltese police force, explaining to children some of the techniques they use as well as allowing children try some forensic experiments themselves. There was also a very informative shark exhibition run by the shark research centre on the island. My daughter attended their workshop and came back with lots of great facts to share with me.
There was also plenty of international outreach programs represented at the Expo.
Iris Nijman of Universe Aware ran a workshop informing children about the conditions on the planets in our solar system, then the children got to create their own alien that was adapted to life on one of the planets they had learned about. This was a great way to make the workshop interactive for the children and a unique way to make the information much more memorable.
In João Retrê’s workshop children got to make their own planets from the solar system and then place them in their correct location on a scaled model. A great way to get a grasp of the perspective of each planet and its size and distance from its neighbouring planet. This workshop was part of the Portuguese Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences outreach program.
Mel Evans, from Cheltenham University, posed some very interesting questions as part of her PhD studies… how accurately is science portrayed in films and what is our interpretation of it? Does the film industry have a moral obligation to depict science with accuracy or is it acceptable to go well beyond the realms of possibility? Do we think that what we see in a film is possible in reality? Mel posed all these questions as she shared and discusses a number of popular film clips and received some very interesting responses from the children and their teachers.
Simon Guilliams from Belgium presented his self-built tri-copter at the Expo. Simon was a winner at the Belgian Science Expo with the tri copter he built in his back yard, starting at the age of 14 and building and improving it over the last four years. His prize was a trip to the Maltese Expo and a chance for him to share his creation.
SOME OF THE SITES OF MALTA
Of course our week in Malta was not all about science, we also got to see some of the island. We were a mere 15 minute bus drive from the beautiful capital, Valetta. We viewed this first by night, on a very informative walking tour of the city (organised by the NSTF). It was lovely to return again and see the same sites by day, soaking up the atmosphere as well as the Sun’s rays. There were many other activities organised for us by the NSTF, including a country walk at the North end of the island and harbour boat trip.
I know I haven’t been blogging much lately, I am trying to work on a little something else that I have wanted to do for a very long time. If I ever get the other project finished I’ll be sharing it right here so watch this space (not literally, it’s taking me a LONG time!).
There is still plenty of science going on in the background though, as is common enough around here. This week we repeated an old favourite, an experiment demonstrating water flow and transpiration in plants… our coloured flower science experiment. I spotted a bunch of pretty white tulips in my local super market and that was all the reason I needed. I had also spotted a set of little bottles while away in Westport last weekend and had to buy them for this experiment, which, I think, elevates my geek status to a whole new level.
I have blogged about this topic before, so if you want more information you can check out this post.
YOU WILL NEED:
Some white flowers*
Food colouring (I usually use the Goodall’s ones, available in most supermarkets)
Water
Glasses, cups or other containers, one for each colour you will use
*This will work with all (or almost all) white flowers but it works better with some than others. You can of course use other coloured flowers, daffodils are a popular choice. I have achieved good results with roses, carnations, oxeye daisies and some Chrysanthemums. You can choose the flowers based on what you want to achieve but if working with children (particularly young children) or doing this as a classroom project them I would definitely recommend the tulips. The results are rapid so children will be able to see the colour arriving into the flowers within a fairly short time frame.
WHAT TO DO:
Choose how many different colours you want to use. Place one colour into each glass and add water. I usually use at least 10 mls of food colouring to 20 mls of water (if unsure use a 50:50 ration of food colouring to water).
Choose your flowers, one for each glass, and trim them to the desired length. You will get a more rapid result with a shorter stem.
Then simple place a flower in each glass and wait! With these tulips I began to see a result within less than an hour. I set this experiment up overnight and went from this…
… to this…
WHAT IS HAPPENING:
Water is transported up the stem of the flower through little tubes called xylem. The coloured water will travel through the xylem all the way up the stem to various parts of the plant and right up to the flower. The coloured water stains the plant as it moves through it and this is most apparent when the white flowers change colour. The water ultimately evaporates out of the plant through little pores called stromata. This process is called transpiration and is much like perspiration in humans.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS:
If you want to take this one step further you can try to make a multicoloured flower, like I did with this rose last year. Just click on the image to go to the post with full instructions.
If you try this experiment, or a version of it, I would love to hear how it you get on!
This week’s Mystery Creature was the indian Purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis). A very unusual looking frog found in certain parts of India;
Here are ten facts about this unusual creature…
1. The Indian purple frog is so called because it tends to have a dark purple colouring. It is also referred to as the purple frog or the pig-nose frog.
2. Unlike most frogs the body of the purple frog is round and bloated looking, with a very small head and short, whitish snout like nose. The legs of the purple frog are short and protrude out from the side of the body, the hind legs are strong with wart like lumps that appear to aid digging. They have partially webbed feet with rounded toes.
3. The tadpoles of the purple frog have oral suckers to allow them live in fast flowing streams.
4. The purple frog spends almost it’s entire life underground – only emerge for about two weeks at the start of the monsoon season (around May) for mating; The frog’s strong hind legs are used for digging, acting like shovels and scooping the earth out of the way, as the frog reverses into the newly created tunnel. It can burrow up to 3.7 metres below the surface. The frogs need soft, moist soil; a dry, hard terrain makes digging impossible for them.
Unlike most other burrowing frogs the purple frog feeds underground. They eat mainly termites which they are thought to suck up with their fluted tongue. The diet also includes ants and small worms.
6. Purple frogs grow to no more tham 7cm in length. They are sexually dismorphic, the males are smaller than the females (about a third of the length of females).
7. During the mating season the males use sound to attract females. They start their calls from underground, giving a very unusual sound, like a chicken or wild fowl.
8. These reclusive creatures are listed as endangered species – threatened mainly by deforestation for coffee, cardamom and ginger.
9. The purple frog is considered a living fossil. It provides evidence that Madagascar, the Seychelles and India were all part of the same land mass at one point. Genetic analysis confirms that their closest living relatives are frog species found in the Seychelles.
Ancestors of the purple frog shared the earth with the dinosaurs; These frogs are unique in that they have evolved independently for over 130 million years, surviving mass extinctions and the break up of a continent. Their solitary life underground has probably been their saving grace.
10. Despite the fact that the purple frog species has been around for 130 million years, it was only formally recorded as a species in 2003.
It seems the subject of space travel is everywhere at the moment. Here are just a few topics that have cropped up in my time line in the last few weeks.
COMETS
Firstly there was the timely and obliging space probe that landed on a comet right in the middle of our national Science Week, but for a while it looked like an inappropriate fashion choice would overshadow the momentous occasion.
Image credit: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab
It was always an ambitious project of the European Space Agency (ESA), to get the rosetta spacecraft to rendez vous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but, after ten years in space it arrived at its destination on 4th August 2014. Even more spectacularly, Rosetta sent out her Philae Comet lander which successfully landed on the comet on 12th November. The initial joy turned to fear as the science team involved, watched by the rest of the world, realised that Philea did not stay in the initial landing point but “bounced” along the surface on the comet, coming to rest, finally, in the shadow of a cliff. There was much worry as to whether the probe would receive enough sunlight in that location to power all its scientific equipment expected to perform a series of investigative experiments on the surface of the comet. In the end all fears were allayed and all data was collected and transmitted back to earth. The team were able to heave a collective sigh of relief, marking a new line in the history of space exploration. Hopefully the event will be remembered for its scientific breakthrough rather than the #shirtgate hash tag it spawned.
MARS
I really enjoyed a conversation last night with my nine year old and his friend as we discussed what our favourite planets were and could we really live on Mars. When I spotted this video I had to share it with him and it certainly made him giggle.
THE MOON
Speaking of space travel, it would seem that the moon is now back on the map for space exploration, this time spearheaded by the UK and funded by the general public. The very ambitious Lunar Mission One project plans to use crowd funding to finance a trip to the moon. The original mission will be a robotic exploratory project with plans to drill deep into the moon’s surface (possibly as deep as 100 Metres). The lunar rock that will be mined from these depths is expected to be about 4.6 billion years old and it is hoped that it will shed new light on the original formation of the moon and indeed the earth and the entire solar system.
The incentive for potential funders is obviously to be part of such exploration, but, as an added bonus, each person who pledges money will be able to include something into a public archive, a type of time capsule that will be buried on the moon during the mission. This archive will include information on must of our planet’s historical events, as well as DNA from people who have funded the project.
NASA SPIN OFF TECHNOLOGY
Of course NASA take credit for the original moon landing and a lot more besides, but did you know that a lot of items of everyday use stem from technology originally created for space exploration? This infographic lays it out really well and I was certainly surprised at a lot of the items listed.
INTERSTELLAR – SPACE EXPLORATION ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR CHRISTMAS
It would seem that space exploration is a hot topic in Hollywood too with the recent release of Interstellar. In the movie the mission is to travel farther than ever before to find a new home for humanity as earth will cease to support life within one generation. To travel these distances the team must use wormholes, a theory that some hope will one day become a reality. The expert advice on this one however is that wormholes, as we know them would never be able to support human travel. They would require more negative energy than space can provide, in order to stay open long enough to allow such travel.
And we’re off! Science week 2014 officially kicks off today. Dr. How’s household has been busy preping for two weeks of school science fun, bringing The Science of Sound into 15 schools. I had a house full of kids today, all happy to help me put the finishing touches to things 😉 The children made a bowl of oobleck and I showed them the effect of sound on this non Newtonian fluid. I love the reaction from children and teachers when we do this experiment in school and I will share it with you later in the week.
The fun of ooblecks
The workshops will include buzzing balloons, singing pipes and a whole lot of making noise! If I am not coming to your school you can still catch the workshop at the NUIG Science and Technology Festival Exhibition on Sunday 23rd November.
Back to the sea for this week’s Mystery Creature, a walking lump of jelly to some. Cute or ugly, what do you think and can you name it?
Photo credit : Ocean Networks Canada
If you know the answer do share, or if not it can be fun to try to find it out before I reveal all at the end of the week. Want a clue? Just ask in the comments below.
This week’s Mystery Creature was cracked in record time by Eco Evolution. It was the Panda ant, did you get it? Here are five facts about this interesting little insect…
Firstly the Panda Ant is a misnomer, as it is not an ant at all, but a wasp of the family Mutilidae.
It is sometimes called the “cow killer” because of the strength of its sting, which, it has been said, can take down an animal the size of a cow.
The Panda Ant exhibits sexual dimorphism – the male is a lot bigger than the female and is predominantly nocturnal. The female is more active during the day. It is only the females that are wingless and also only the females that have stingers.
Panda ants feed mainly on nectar.
Despite the fact that the female lays about 2000 eggs a year the species is considered endangered. The majority of the young ants are eaten by ant eaters. Those that do survive have a typical life span of 2 years.
Halloween midterm has officially started and with perfect timing, so too has the cold and wet weather. Fear not, there are so many activities available to keep little ones entertained for the season.
For the “stuck indoors” days why not try a little Halloween Quiz. Click on the link below to retrieve a printable copy of the quiz. it is guaranteed to keep the kids occupied for quite a while, and there is plenty of opportunity to get adults involved too. If the questions leave some a little stumped why not try finding the answers on line or through your favourite reference source.
It is always nice to double check the answers which is why you will find a second document below, giving the answers to all the questions, just so no one is left frustrated!
There is a nice Halloween linky over at the Where is my mind gone blog with lots more Halloween activities and ideas for the mid term break. Just click on the image below to check it out.
Of course if you are looking for some Halloween Science experiments for the break, you can find a round up of the Science Wows team’s Top Five, right here.
