News archive

Interesting topical science stuff

My very easy method just speeds up naming...
So for a long time everyone was taught there were 9 planets in our solar system. Then some astronomers claimed to have found a 10th (see: Astronomers discover 'new planet') in 2004, and then in 2006 they decided Pluto wasn't a planet anymore (see: Pluto not a planet), thus thoroughly destroying all those carefully-created school mnemonics. Well for the moment they've left our solar system in peace and, instead, managed to take pictures of some new planets! These are believed to be the first pictures of planets outside Earth's solar system and show white dots which scientists say are gas giants not unlike our Jupiter. None of the four planets are believed to be habitable but they raise the possibility that more hospitable planets could be found elsewhere.

 • Exoplanets finally come into view (BBC News)
 • Hubble Directly Observes Planet Orbiting Fomalhaut (Hubblesite.org)
 • First images taken of 'new' planets (Al Jazeera)


Is aspirin really a wonder drug?
For many years we've been hearing that aspirin is a cure for everything from headaches to heart attacks, but recently it appeared that perhaps it isn't quite the miracle drug that everyone thought. The British Medical Journal reported that for 1,300 adults with no symptoms of heart disease aspirin, which can cause stomach bleeds and other potentially dangerous side-effects, had no benefit. However several organisations have since warned patients not to stop taking their medication without first discussing it with their GP.

 • Diabetes aspirin use questioned (BBC News)
 • Diabetics told to continue with their prescribed aspirin (Belfast Telegraph)
 • The Asprin Foundation website


Biofuels bad or good?
We only ever seem to hear negative things about biofuels on the news.  The media seems to do nothing but report the fact that valuable cropland is being used to grow plants which will later be used for fuel rather than food.  But did you realise that biofuels can be made from algae?  Algae biofuels can potentially produce 30 times more energy than those from crops, and algae beds can be set up on desert land, not interfering with crops at all.

 • Wikipedia page on algae biofuels
 • Algal biomass organization
 • Solix biofuels
 • News article: Enterprise Rent-A-Car invests in algae biofuel research

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September-October 2008

The Big Bang machine
On Wednesday the 10th of September the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was activated for the first time.  The LHC is the world's largest, and highest-energy, particle accelerator.  Scientists think that the collider might eventually produce the elusive Higgs boson, which is the only standard model particle that has never yet been observed.  If it does, it could tell us a lot about physics.  Some scientists have speculated that the collider might produce stable micro black holes, leading some people to worry that it could be dangerous.  Don't worry though - Nature routinely produces higher energies in cosmic-ray collisions than will be produced in the collider.  Over the past billions of years, Earth has been bombarded with about a million LHC experiments worth of cosmic rays, and the planet is still here!

On the 20th of September it was reported that plans for the first collisions in the LHC have been set back due to faults with some of the superconducting magnets and a helium leak (liquid helium is used to cool the magnets), so it may be some weeks before we see any sign of the Higgs, or anything else...

 • Wikipedia page on the LHC
 • Times newspaper: CERN delays atom-smashing
 • The LHC homepage
 • Cern's page on the LHC
 • The safety of the LHC (summary report from CERN)

Creative chemistry
Ever thought that some of the chemicals we use in chemistry are just really beautiful? Well, the artist Roger Hiorns does. This summer he took over a condemmed flat near the Elephant and Castle in London. He reinforced the walls and covered everything with plastic sheeting. Then he pumped 70-80,000 litres of copper sulphate solution through a hole in the ceiling from the flat above. He and his team waited for about three weeks, until the temperature of the solution dropped and the crystals began to precipitate. Finally, any remaining liquid was pumped back out, to be recycled by the chemical industry. The result was an entire room coated in the most beautiful, blue crystals.

 • Guardian newspaper article on Hiorns's art installation
 • Growing crystals from architecture (how the project was completed)
 • Roger Hiorns's exhibition at the Milton Keynes Gallery

Featured links

Visit the Periodic Table of Videos from the University of Nottingham to watch videos on (nearly) every element in the periodic table.

Check out the Freezeray website to see lots of really useful science animations.

Have a look at Discovery Education's PuzzleMaker: an excellent way to make a puzzle on any topic.  This is a brilliant way to revise - make puzzles and swap them with your friends!

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