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[wnycradiolab]

Guys, remember the edible cell?  Truly the most delicious of all elementary school science projects.  Looking at these is making me so nostalgic, I want to plan an edible cell party where everyone has to bring one.

(Full disclosure: one of these is a professional job.  Don’t feel bad if yours looked more like this.)

[teachingathome]

Learning about science, especially biology, can often be delicious. And whether making models of really huge things like the solar system or very small things like cells, a splash of colour helps make things more memorable. The insides of animal and plant cells really are filled with a bunch of strangely shaped things, called organelles, that perform different functions. However, their relative size and abundance is vastly different depending on the type of cell; these are generic models. I like the soup as a model, as it represents the often messy appearance of real cells and the dynamic nature of the bits inside; they move around constantly... The blog this is from is a really great one full of fascinating pictures:

[teachingathome]

In cows, male/female twins most often form a shared blood supply whilst in the uterus, leading to the female becoming an infertile animal with intersex features, called a freemartin. This is due to the effect of hormones secreted from the male called androgens, primarily testosterone. Long before the science behind the process was uncovered, some people once believed this effect also occured in human male/female twins. In fact the fusion of blood supply (forming a single chorion- the structure beneath the foetuses in the above picture) between male/female twins is extremely rare in humans, although it is sometimes seen in pigs and sheep.

[teachingathome]

This is a really good example of the amazing looking effect of eddy current braking on the speed of a moving magnet. The force of gravity would accelerate the magnet through the pipe much faster were it not for the conductive nature of the surrounding material. The net result of the electromagnetic induction produced during the fall is that some of the potential energy released by the magnet's fall to earth is converted into heat (within the copper pipe), rather than kinetic energy in the falling object. This effect is not just spectacular, it can be put to use for making brakes for trains and rollercoasters. I know this stuff can be pretty hard to get your head round, but it is an important part of many courses. On a more basic level, how do magnets work? is a common physics question from your average guy or girl. The answer is really complicated, but experiments show there are basic laws governing what different types of magnets do, and the effects seen are ultimately due to the properties of sub-atomic particles. In particular, the magnetic properties of moving electrons is at the foundation of our modern electrified society, so understanding magnetism is crucial for a huge number of scientists and engineers. Magnetism still seems really bizarre to most people. Why should two objects with nothing between them but thin air be attracted to each other, or repelled? Perhaps we would have a more intuitive understanding of this part of physics if we were amongst the animals who can sense magnetism directly.

[teachingathome]

This is one of the many excellent physics videos produced by veritasium. There's quite a few with different cool experiments, but I particularly like the series he has made about common misperceptions; they show how a lot of adults don't understand much about physics, although they often think they do. I think it's fair to say this is one of those subjects where students usually end up smarter than their elders. I hope that gives my students some satisfaction. 

[teachingathome]

This is a good basic introduction to Atomic chemistry, with a classic ragtime soundtrack. In one part it says that the idea of electron shells (the first with 2 electrons and the rest with 8) is shown to be nonsense at A-level. You don't need to worry about this much, but here is more information about what the maker of this video means. The person who made the video is called Evelyn, and she has made a few more, they can be found here on her youtube channel. 

[teachingathome]

A puzzle

I have a tricky picture quiz for you. See if you can figure out what these pictures are. (The answers are under the link...)

They are an HIV virus budding from the surface of an infected cell, and slime mould imitating the UK motorway network. You should know which is which.

More info about HIV/AIDS from the great website microbiology bytes.

Here is an article about the mould in New Scientist.  Copyright : 

The HIV pic was in National Geographic and the mould picture was taken  from New Scientist, originally found in this scientific paper:  Adamatzky, Andrew; Jones, Jeff. "Road planning with slime mould: If Physarum built motorways it would route M6/M74 through Newcastle". International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos 20(10): 3065–3084. doi:10.1142/S0218127410027568.

[teachingathome]

This is the first of a selection of informative, high quality videos I will post to this blog. These are very useful to learn more about the key subjects.

[teachingathome]

The start of something great

This blog has only just begun, but soon it will be filled with introductions to science topics, and answers to science questions. In the meantime, why not contact me and ask about my tuition service.