There were a few correct answers to this week’s Mystery Creature – but in case any of you are still waiting in anticipation it was the Blanket Octopus (Tremoctopus)
Photos Credit: Steve Hamedl
This creature is a real marvel of nature.. here are three reasons why…
1. As the name suggests the blanket octopus has a cape like web that extends down its longest arms. This cape can be spread out behind it as a dramatic deterrent to predators… it makes the animal look a lot bigger and more daunting.
2. That is not to say that the animal is not pretty daunting already. It is lucky in that it is immune to the poisonous sting of the Portuguese Man O’ War. Rather than just counting its blessings and moving on it turns this round to its full advantage and actively removes the stinging tentacles from the creature and carries them around with it, wielding them as weapons when threatened.
3. The female of the species can grow to an impressive two metres in length, but the male… well, he comes in at little more than two centimetres in length making the species one of the most sexually dimorphic in the animal kingdom.
Check back tomorrow for a new Mystery Creature to keep you guessing!
With a name like “Glowing Monster Slime” you just know this experiment is going to be fun! Just look at the photos if you need any convincing!
You will need
You will need…
two small bowls or cups
one large bowl
PVA glue (white or clear is you can get it)
*Borax Powder
Fluorescent paint (you can get non-toxic fluorescent paint in most craft shops)
something to stir or mix with
*You can pick up the borax powder in your local chemist (See note below)
What you do…
To the first cup add half a cup of fluorescent paint and half a cup of PVA glue and mix well.
Mix the glue with the flourescent paint
In the other cup add half a teaspoon of borax powder to one cup of water and mix well until all the powder is dissolved!
Dissolve the borax in the water
Now for the fun bit… pour the glue mixture into the bowl then add the borax solution, mixing all the time.
Mix together the glue mixture ans the borax solution
After a while you can use your hands to mix and mould until you have one big lump of slime and there is little, or no liquid left!
The fun bit
You can store your slime in a ziplock bag or clean jar, it lasts a very long time once you do not let it dry out. You may notice a small layer of liquid separating off the top of the stored slime. This can just be poured off and the slime will become a little more rubbery and less sticky.
When you have finally finished playing just store away
If you have a UV light (black light)** you can make this experiment even more fun by checking out how your slime glows in the dark once the lights go out and the UV light is turned on.
Sooo much fun!
So what is happening?…
Congratulation… you have just experimented with polymers!! In simple terms a polymer is a substance made up of lots of molecules arranged in long chains. If you imagine that the glue is like cooked spaghetti, it slides and slips around the place quite easily. When we add the borax to the glue it causes some of the molecules in the glue to stick together making the glue more rubbery and less liquid! Imagine if you took those strands of spaghetti and tied them together in places, the strands would not be able to slip and slide around nearly as much! The borax and glue mixture is just like your knotted spaghetti!
*Where can I get Borax powder?
In Ireland you need to buy Borax powder in a pharmacy. The production is a little erratic and the larger volumes are no longer available! You should be able to get a 100g tub in any pharmacy and it costs between €2 and €3.
**Where can I get a UV light?
This experiment is lots of fun without the UV light but the glow in the dark bit really does take it to a different level. My youngest nearly burst waiting for the night to fall so we could do that part of the experiment. If you are considering buying a UV light you should be able to get one fairly cheaply. I got mine from Maplin. I will be sharing lots more glow in the dark experiments, so if you do get one remember to check back here for some more ideas.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we did and please let us know if you do try it out!
UPDATE 2017: Borax powder is no longer as readily available in Ireland. here is one alternative, using very simple ingredients… check out this post on how to make silly putty.
Or check out our Ultimate Slime Guide for lots of fantastic slime recipes using contact lens solution or laundry detergent.
Schools, children, parents, teachers… listen up! There is a great competition (by Reel Life Science) running at the moment where pupils from both primary and secondary schools are invited to make a three minute science video with a chance to win €1000 for their school.
The competition is a wonderful way to get pupils, their schools, and families interested in Science from a new perspective… from behind the video lens. Launched last year in Galway the competition was so successful it has now gone nationwide!
The competition is broken down into a number of different categories so there is a lot of scope to develop and document your own favourite scientific topic.
If you need some inspiration there have been a number of guest posts from professionals in each area sharing some of their research or opinions on each topic. You can check them out here.
There is even a post from Dr. How’s Science Wows to help inspire you on the topic of Science in the Garden. However, I enlisted the help of some resident “experts” so you may find it more humorous than inspiring. Check it out here if you want to see what happens when you combine “mischief” and science!
This is a fantastic opportunity and is a very unique competition in Ireland, so please spread the word and get your school or classroom involved.
CLOSING DATE FOR VIDEO SUBMISSION IS FRIDAY OCTOBER 17th SO DUST OF YOUR LENS AND PUT YOUR THINKING CAPS ON AS IT IS TIME TO LET THE CAMERAS ROLL.
Happy Autumn Equinox! With all this lovely weather we have been having it was easy to forget it. I thought it was apt that the weather became more chilly today as it is the official Autumn Equinox, marking, for many, the start of Autumn.
I have written before of how we Irish like to define the seasons in our own bizarre ways. The same post also describes what an equinox is, if you want the nitty, gritty detail. Personally, I judge the seasons more by the cues in Nature and I certainly have noticed the birds starting to gather for their migration, the days beginning to shorten and the leaves on the trees beginning to change colour. I always thing the colour display of Autumn is worth the colder nights and darker days.
Did you ever wonder why and how the leaves change colour? Well it turns out I wrote about that too, in my first ever blog post. Today I get to share it with you again while joining in a blog linky by lovely fellow Galway blogger, Aedin, over at Minis and Mum, as she invites people to share their first ever post in celebration of her lovely blog’s three year anniversary.
So here is a repost of mine…
CARROTS, CABBAGES AND CUPS OF TEA…
It’s funny how Autumn comes around every year and I realise how much I love this time of year…. it’s as though I seem to forget I like it all throughout the other seasons. Of course we have had a particularly nice Autumn this year in the West of Ireland and maybe that has re-enforced my happy memories of the season. The days have been bright and crisp showing off all the beautiful colours in all their glory and splendour.
photo credit: Stellas mom via photopin cc
I grew up in Co. Wicklow surrounded by some beautiful deciduous woods and forests and this Autumn has really brought my childhood memories flooding back. My mother brought us often to the woods as children and we would hunt around for hidden treasures and delights to bring home and turn into some “masterful” collage in homage to the season. There was also the foraging, a distinctive primordial instinct in us all, there is nothing as pleasing as returning home with your bounty… be it blackberries or sweet horse chestnuts- to be turned into jams and tarts or painstakingly peeled off all nasty layers to reveal the divinely sweet, fruity, nutty delight beneath. In fact the joy that came with eating the nut always made it suddenly worth your while to start the arduous task of peeling all over again!
…and I hope that I will never outgrow the delight of running, kicking, shuffling through a crisp new crop of fallen leaves!
As many people know, the lovely green of most leaves is caused by the pigment chlorophyll… green in colour (obviously) and capable of using sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into energy (sugar) for the plant. However, when the sunlight hours fade coming into winter so too does the chlorophyll in the leaves of trees, or, to be more precise, the pigment begins to degrade and is not replaced. Once the green colour is gone other pigments that are often present in the leaf come into view… carotenoids are pigments responsible for the yellow/orange colour of leaves, anthocyanins are responsible for the redder colour of leaves and tannins are responsible for the brown colour of leaves. There is, within this pigmented system, a sense of hierarchy, at least in part. But did you ever wonder about the science behind those wonderful colours? I did… why the green suddenly disappears, where does it go and how do the other colours get there in its place? So, if like me, you ever wondered about these things… here is some insight into the why and what of Autumn!
Carotenoids are the pigments responsible for the orange colour of carrots. If carotenoids are present their colour tends to dominate leaving the leaves yellowy and orange.
In the absence of carotenoid, anthocyanin is the dominant pigment. Anthocyanin (the same pigment found in red onions, red grapes, red apples and red cabbage) is a natural pH indicator, meaning that it can change colour depending on the levels of acids or bases/alkali in its environment. In fact one of my favourite experiments that I often do with children is to demonstrate this colour changing using anthocyanin extracted from red cabbage (but that’s a whole other blog in itself). At the beginning of Autumn the levels of sugar in the leaves tends to be quite high, increasing the acid levels in the leaves, this strengthens the red colour of Anthocyanin if it is present in the leaves.
At the end of Autumn the leaves die off and the levels of carotenoids and anthocynins die off too, leaving another pigment to dominate… and this is the brown pigment of tannin, the same pigment that give a cup of tea it’s colour!
So there you have it… next time you are crunching through those leaves you may wonder why you are suddenly thinking of carrots and cabbages and cups of tea!!!
There are lots of lovely “first steps” posts to read in this linky, just click on the image below to find some more.
How is the back to school phase going for you? Have you started complaining about making lunches yet (tiresome isn’t it?) How about the homework? We have only one day done so far and I have managed not to loose my patience or mutter complaints under my breath. So far so good. There is a lot of stress and strain involved in going back to school and I have a tendency to take it badly and moan and groan about the little things. I often forget to see the bigger picture…
…my three children are getting an education!
Education! We take it for granted, don’t we? We take it as our entitlement within this country and yes, it is an entitlement, but it is one that is not always available!
Focus Ireland has teamed up with Aviva Healthcare to run a wonderful campaign highlighting one important factor often connected with homelessness – the importance of Education. This Education Matters Programme aims to help vulnerable children finish their education or at least stay in school longer than they otherwise would. Lack of education is not the only cause of homelessness, but it is one contributing factor. Did you know, for example that…
…25% of adults experiencing homelessness didn’t progress beyond primary education,50% didn’t complete their secondary education and 8% had no formal education at all*
The campaign kicks off with this short, witty video… featuring a few faces you might know 😉 …
“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows” (Sydney J. Harris);
Wouldn’t it be nice if education could also add walls, a roof and a warm, safe place to sleep!
Does Education Matter? Yes it does!
Please help to shine a light on this issue by sharing the information or video on social media or anyway you can, you can use the hashtag #EducationMatters
This egg experiment is a new take on an old favourite. We have made bouncy eggs before, we even made them fluorescent! This year we decided to add more colour.
This is a really simple experiment, you probably have everything you need already in your kitchen and it is guaranteed to entertain both the young and the young at heart!
You will need:
Clear malt vinegar, a glass or cup, a whole raw egg, food colouring
What to do:
Place the raw egg in the glass and cover with vinegar, making sure the egg is completely covered.
Leave overnight or up to 48 hours if necessary.
After this time, remove the egg carefully and rinse it in a bowl of water.
The vinegar will have dissolved all the shell of the egg, leaving just the egg membrane keeping the structure together. The “naked” egg will be soft and bouncy and a little delicate so do be carefully when washing any remaining shell off.
A bouncy “naked” egg after the first stage of the experiment
Next place the egg into an empty glass and cover with water, add at least two teaspoons of your chosen food colouring (we used red here) and leave overnight again.
The next day carefully remove the egg from the coloured water, rinse and pat dry (you may find your fingers will get a little stained from the food colouring but it will wash off).
After step 2 of the experiment our “naked” egg has a little more colour
Now you have a coloured, bouncy egg, but be carefully when you bouncy it…
What has happened:
When the egg is in the vinegar you will notice some bubbles forming and eventually a foam will appear at the surface of the vinegar. The eggshell is made up of calcium carbonate. The vinegar (an acid) reacts with the calcium carbonate (a base) producing a salt and a gas called carbon dioxide (these are the bubbles you see). The vinegar will keep reacting with the calcium carbonate until it is all gone, leaving the egg contained in just the cell membrane.
A delicate, but bouncy egg.
When the egg is then placed in coloured water the water will travel into the egg by a process called osmosis. The egg will swell a little with the extra water.
I hope you have fun with this one, and please do let us know if you try it out. We are currently repeating the experiment as my Junior Scientists want to see the eggs with different colours… we will keep you posted!
My three year old got up from kneeling the other day and started to wiggle and jiggle a little, when I asked him if he was OK he said…
…”Mummy, I’ve got sparkly toes!”
“Mummy I’ve got sparkly toes”
That has to be the cutest description of pins and needles I have ever heard. He looked at me a little confused and wanted to know why his toes were sparkling… I gave him a simple explanation but even as I was talking… I could feel a blog coming on!
So what are pins and needles and why do we get them?
Parasthesia is the medical term for pins and needles. The pins and needles that most of us experience, just as my son did, are a result of pressure on a nerve, restricting its blood supply. This pressure is usually a temporary pressure caused by us leaning on a limb or part of the body in an awkward way.
This pressure on the nerve restricts its supply of blood and therefore prevents it from “charging up” and “firing off” in the usual manner. The signalling pathway gets interrupted resulting in the nerve firing off incorrectly or at a modified rate… and we feel this as a fuzzy, tingling, spiking sensation. If the nerve is suppressed for too long its signalling function stops all together and the area becomes numb. These sensations can usually be quickly and easily reversed by simply changing position and moving the area that is affected, thereby returning blood supply to the nerves.
A closer look
So now we have a general understanding we need to know how nerves operate to explain the phenomenon a little further. Nerves carry messages around the body; these messages can be transferred from one part of the body to another or from a part of the body to the brain, or vica versa. Nerves are made up of bundles of cells called neurons.
Unlike most cells in the body, neurons do not regenerate, this makes them among the oldest cells of the body
The longest cells in the body are neurons
Neurons are very specialised cells: they transmit electrical signals (nerve impulses)
Nerve impulses travel at a speed of approximately 25 metres per second
Neurons have a very high metabolic rate
When the sensation is a little more serious
It is this high metabolic rate that causes the nerves to start to shut down their process. If the blood supply to the nerve is cut off or reduced (as is the case when we are sitting on a limb) they cannot produce enough energy to keep recharging themselves so the smallest neurons start to operate more erratically. These small neurons are the ones that transmit signals of pain, hence the first sensation of pins and needles.
Certain medical conditions are associated with prolonged or chronic pins and needles. The sensation may be due to a trapped nerve or nerve damage or infection. It may also be due to exposure to certain toxins or medical drug treatments or alcohol. Chronic parasthsia can be a side effect of diabetes, hyperventilation, vitamin B 12 deficiency or malnutrition.
The sensation of pins and needles usually goes very quickly once the blood supply is re introduced to the area affected, however if the symptoms persist or reoccur it is best to seek medical advice.
Hope you enjoyed the blog, if you have a question, a comment or an idea for a topic you would like me to cover in a future blog please leave a comment!
