Einstein's Army

8/6/2019 Einstein's 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...

Research into Cosmic Rays.What are Cosmic Rays?

Cosmic Rays are charged sub-

atomic particles which are pro-

tons, electrons and neutrons. Cos-

mic Rays create gamma rays when

they hit the Earths atmosphere.

These gamma rays which are pro-duced are a risk to all living or-

ganisms as gamma rays are very

penetrating. These subatomic par-

ticles surround the Earth beyond

its atmosphere. These rays are

usually made out of hydrogen nu-

clei 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 un-

known to most People, however

NASA has made a new break-

through as they have researched

on a supernova remnant where

they have found X-ray stripes.

These X-ray stripes have never

been seen before and the NASA

team have started their research onthe supernova. NASA believes

that the magnetic field around the

supernova becomes very tangles

and due to the waves of the super-

nova the subatomic particles

around it start to gain a lot of en-

ergy, 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 su-pernova and they emit the X-rays.

NASA has begun their research on

the remains of the supernova and

how the cosmic rays are produced.

By Sana Bhatia

This is the remains of the Tycho Supernova.

This was the supernova where the X-ray stripes were found from the Chandra X-ray

Observatory. These remains were even seenby astronomers four centuries ago.


2/8

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 mentalprocesses 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

l e a r n i n g a n e w s k i l l .

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 differ-

ent place to one they went in be-

fore, 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 de-

scribe their thoughts, and those

who went to sleep were asked to

describe their dreams. The pur-

pose of the study was to discoverwhat people were dreaming when

their eyes were not moving this

is REM sleep (rapid eye move-

ment). The results were that 4 out

of 50 of those who went to sleep

said that their dreams were con-

nected 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 re-

turned 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. Hesuggested 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

Practise Makes Perfect or Dreaming Makes Perfect?

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 environ-

mentally friendly car has low resistant tires, an d

increase in efficiency. This car will not only

help the driver but the environment as well, put-

ting less by products in to the atmosphere. Thiscould be the car of the future.

By Saher Bhatti


3/8

The Black Hole! Did you get it

right? Scientists think that blackholes 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 gravita-

tional 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 starsapart! What is happening over

there? No one knows. That's for

the next generation of physicists -

you - to work out.

By Shifa Mugloo

Mysteries of the UniverseDo you know whats at the centre of our Galaxy?

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 whodrinks water.

Suggested by Zahrah Massood


4/8

On March 11 2011, a series of earth-quakes shook the East coast of Japan,about 400km North-East of the capital

city, Tokyo. The worst quake struck at14:46 local time and measured 8.9 on the

Richter scale, a scale used to measure thesize of earthquakes It was apparently theworst earthquake to hit Japan in morethan 100 years, and the fifth largest earth-

quake in the world since 1900. Over 350 people have been found dead, but thereare fears that the death toll may be muchhigher. Alongside that, 500 people havebeen 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 magmathat is below the surface. This enables theplates to move slightly. When the plates

bash into and slide past each other, earth-quakes occur.

Japan is on a faultline, a line where two

plates meet. This is why they are vulner-

able 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

Magnitude 9 Earthquake Hits Japan

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 cyl-

inder heats the air inside the cylin-

der. The air molecules start to

move more quickly and spread out

to take up more space. As the air

molecules spread out, the air in-

side the cylinder becomes less

dense. Warm, less dense air rises

above cool, dense air. The ash of

the teabag is light and doesn't re-

quire 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

Teabags can fly?You will never look at teabags in the same way again.

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 neuroscien-

tist 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 biol-

ogy, send a signal to mosquitoes say-

ing "Bite this person!". This helps theparasite to be transmitted from person

to person.

By Shifa Mugloo

Bitten by Bugs for Science!
http://www.planet-science.com/categories/over-11s/technology/2010/12/three,-two,-oneblast-off!.aspxhttp://www.planet-science.com/categories/over-11s/technology/2010/12/three,-two,-oneblast-off!.aspx


5/8

Mind Reading - Scientists One Step Closer

Brainwaves - the patterns of elec-

trical activity created in the brain -

can easily be measured. It's much

harder to work out the informationencoded in the brainwaves. What

do they mean? How and where are

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 sur-

prise. Some of the faces were cov-

ered up so that, for example, onlythe eyes or mouth were visible.

Volunteers were asked to identify

the emotion being displayed and

their brainwaves were measured

whilst they were viewing the im-

ages.

What emotion do you think this

woman is showing?

Scientists showed that the type of

brainwave varies greatly accord-

ing 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 fre-

quency - brainwave. The brain

produces different brainwaves pat-

terns to encode different visual

features. Information is encoded

by the frequency and timing of

brainwaves.

Professor Philippe Schynes, who

led the study, said: "It's a bit like

unlocking a scrambled televisionchannel. Before, we could detect

the signal, but couldn't watch the

content; now we can.

"How the brain encodes the visual

information that enables us to rec-

ognise 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 knownwhat 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

On March 11, a 9.0 magnitudeearthquake occurred off theeast coast of Japan. A subse-quent tsunami struck thecoast, killing thousands ofpeople and causing serious,widespread damage to the Fu-kushima nuclear power plantand to buildings, roads, andpower lines, particularly alongthe east coast of the Tohokuregion. Damage to the Fuku-shima nuclear power plant fol-lowing the earthquake andtsunami has resulted in an on-going leak of radiation fromthis facility. The Japanesegovernment has evacuatedhundreds of thousands of resi-

dents of Fukushima Prefectureliving within 20 km (12 miles)of the nuclear power plant.The US Nuclear Regulatory

Commission recommends thatall Americans remain a mini-mum of 80 km (50 miles) awayfrom the plant. At this time,the risk of exposure to radia-tion and the risk of contamina-tion from radioactive materi-als are believed to be low, es-pecially for anyone outside a50-mile radius of the nuclearpower plant. Some countrieshave started blocking importsof produce from Japan, fearfulof radiation contamination.The plant, battered by a 9.0magnitude earthquake andtsunami that has left 23,000people dead or missing, hasstill not been brought under

control, and workers wereforced away from the complexwhen black smoke began risingfrom one of its six reactors.As

concern grew over the risk tofood safety of radiation fromthe nuclear plant, the UnitedStates became the first nationto block some food importsfrom the disaster zone.It is stopping imports of milk,vegetable and fruit from fourprefectures in the vicinity ofthe plant. Hong Kong, a majorimporter of Japanese food,also banned produce and milkimports from the disasterzone. It has been said thatHong Kong authorities hadfound radioactivity levels inspinach and turnip samples upto 10 times above the safetylimit.

By Angelica Sharma

Nuclear Disaster for Japan


6/8

This cloaking device may notwork as great as Harry Pottersfamous invisibility cloak, butscientists at Birmingham Uni-

versity have developed an in-visibility cloaking device tomake objects appear as if theyarent there. The whole con-cept it truly pure physics withthe use of a natural transpar-ent looking crystal called cal-cite. This cloak uses two cal-cite prisms joined together tomake a pyramid with a littlerecess in the base. The under-

neath of the pyramid is coatedwith gold to make it reflective. This clever crystal has doublerefraction (birefringent) prop-erties meaning when light raysenter this crystal, the rayssplit into two rays of differentpolarizations that travel in dif-ferent directions in which the

light waves oscillate. It exploitsthe refraction of light.

We can see an object because

light rays hit it and some raysenter our eyes from that pointonwards. Calcite also works bybending light so that the raysdont bounce of the object andenter our eyes therefore givingthe illusion of invisibility.

There has been an attempt be-fore to produce the effect ofinvisibility using artificially

made meta-materials however;it was not that useful as itcould only hide really smallobjects made on a really tinyscale, as large as the waves

length and only work for cer-

tain kinds of electromagnetic

waves, such as microwaves or in-

fra-red light. "By using naturalcrystals for the first time,rather than artificial meta-materials, we have been ableto scale up the size of thecloak and can hide larger ob-

jects, thousands of times big-ger than the wavelength of thelight," stated Shuang Zhang

who led the research at Bir-mingham University. Eventhough this is a vast improve-ment, the crystal needs somestrict criteria to work. Firstly,it only works when light is po-

larized in a particular plane. This means that object can

only seem invisible whenviewed through a filter. Alsofor the effect to work the ob-

jects and the crystal have to beplaced on a flat surface andthe size of the objects is lim-ited by the size of the crystal(which is actually visible).However it may be possible tomake the crystal less visible asunder water, the crystal is al-most completely invisible. Sothe crystal can be put to moreuse under water where lighttends to be polarized already.

Nonetheless it is definitely anexciting and new way forwardin the world of science. Its areally exciting demonstrationof how we can take theoreticalideas and actually make themphysical.

By Zahrah Massood

An Invisibility Cloak?

Calcite with its birefringent

properties

A lunar eclipse occurs when themoon passes behind the earth sothat the earth blocks the sun'srays from striking the moon. Thiscan occur only when the Sun,Earth, and Moon are aligned ex-actly, or very closely so, with the

Earth in the middle. Hence, a lu-nar eclipse can only occur thenight of a full moon.

This year the lunar eclipse tookplace On 15th June, but unfortu-nately Britain was not able to seethe eclipse as it was only seen inparts of the world near Australia.Form more details about the Lu-nar eclipse watch this video:

h t t p : / / w w w . n a s a . g o v /mission_pages/LRO/news/eclipse-video.html By Aleesha Luthra

Lunar Eclipse

Magic? Nope, just one of the

fascinating the tricks of physics!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun


7/8

And...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." Afterthe 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 let-ters?

If I say "Everything I tell you is alie," am I telling you the truth or a

lie?

What is broken every time it's

spoken?

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) .

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

Chemistry

Science

Atom

Electron

Proton

Neutron

NucleusShell

Covalent

Particle

Periodic Table

Element

Compound

Reaction

Halogen

Alkali Metal

IonIsotope

Noble Gas

Radioactivity

H N C C L A E A I N L L T P O N I T M O 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 M C R R K E C E D M A 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 M D E T C

S T C L T A O A A E C L A M C E S P E N A T N N EH R N N E O L D M E H P K I E R O G M U 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 M M S 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

M E C M L 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

M E M R A R L N A A M L 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 M I 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 M L L S I N E D E D U

C O O T E E A H E M I 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


8/8

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 volun-

teer'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 vol-

unteer 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

toothpicks. Record your results ina table like this:

Repeat the experiment on different

parts of the body - you could try

the back of the hand, index finger

and feet - if they're not too tick-

lish!

What did you find?

On some parts of the body, suchas the index finger, the distance

between the two toothpicks should

be much smaller. This means that

the volunteer has more sensory

receptors in that part of their

body. Sensory receptors are spe-

cialised cells. They detect changes

in the environment, called stimuli,

and turn them into electrical im-

pulses. In this case, the sensory

receptors are detecting pressure.Sensory neurones - nerve cells -

carry these electrical impulses to

the spinal cord and brain.

To be really sensitive, each sen-

sory receptor must connect to a

different nerve cell.

By Shifa Mugloo

Area of the bodyDistance between

toothpicks

Arm

Hand

Index finger

Feet

Knee

Leftover chocolate from Easter? Try this!

What you need:

Small chocolate pieces - all around

the same size

Paper plates

Thermometer (optional)

Pen and paper to record your resultsHow to:

1. Put the each piece of chocolate on apaper plate.

2. Put the paper plates in differentplaces - outside in the shade, outside in

the sun, on a sunny windowsill.

3. If you're using a thermometer, youcan record the temperature at each of theplaces where you put the chocolate.

4. Record how long it takes for thechocolate to melt.

Where does the chocolate meltquickest?

Experiment with putting chocolate

in other places - how long does it

take to melt in your mouth? What

does this tell you about the tem-

perature of your body?

Try melting the chocolate and then

letting it go solid again. What hap-

pens if you melt this again? How

long does it take?What happens if you use different

types of chocolate - white, milk

and dark? Does one type take

longer to melt than others?

What's happening?

At a certain temperature, choco-

late begins to turn from a solid to

a liquid - it melts. If it's a hot day,

sunlight can melt chocolate -

something you don't normallywant to happen!

The taste and melting point of

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

How long does it take your choco-late to look like this?

Chocolate, lots of Chocolate!

How Sensitive are You?

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