Talk Science

Faced with mounting concerns over climate change and global warming, we look to the scientists for answers, to explain what exactly is going on and what can be done to remedy it.

This is how we know what we know about climate change today: scientists, like good detectives, have to look  into the past to find clues to help them form a better picture of what is taking place now. By doing this they can ascertain what environments and climates were like on our planet millions of years ago, and so helping us understand where we stand today.

Can scientists travel through time?

Yes, but not in the “Doc Brown” way you are imagining.

 In a technique that is similar to the way we determine ages of trees and  have given a time of extinction for the dinosaurs , a sample of ice, known as an ice core is taken. This is basically a cylindrical cross section of ice, showing various layers of ice that were laid down over hundred of thousands of years. From this we can see what our world was like back before humans even existed.

The ice core in the Atmosphere gallery

How is this possible?

As scientists peer at this ancient shaft of ice they explore the various layers. Each layer corresponds to a year or sometimes a season. Within these layers lay trapped everything that fell that year including dust, pollen and atmospheric gases. Seasonal swings are detected and thus our past weather patterns are indicated, which gives us a clue as to what we should be experiencing now.

This is one of the reasons we know something is wrong. If we were to go by previous climate patterns, our planet should be getting colder not warmer, bu the unexpected turn has been attributed to the increased production if greenhouse gases.  

The Atmosphere gallery houses the first ice core sample in the world to be put on display! Taken from the Antarctic, almost 200ft beneath the top of the ice in 1989.

If you had all the money in the world, what would you do to preserve the environment?

In fact, is it more important to save the environment or learn to adapt to a changing climate?

Where will you live when the sea levels rise?

And if you’re going to be looking at climate change with your students, you can use Cloud Control, a game about geo-engineering the climate, to get them started on the topic. Cloud Control is part of our new online game suite Futurecade, launching next week!

The ice core is in the Atmosphere gallery, on the 2nd floor of the Wellcome wing

-James Carmody

Well, that’s what happens if you are colony of genetically engineered E.coli bacteria!

Scientists have given the bacteria genes that make it convert complex sugars in the seaweed into alcohol, which can then be used as a fuel. Seaweed is plentiful, and grows naturally in our oceans. A very good thing indeed!

Mmm, seaweed! Germ food?

Up til now, biofuels like ethanol have been made by fermeting sugarcane and maize (no E.coli involved), but that means using valuable food crop land (not to mention, food crops!) to produce the alcohol. Very controversial of course… And in the case of maize, it actually takes more energy to grow and process the crop than the energy gained from the ethanol produced!

The next step in this synthetic biology research is working out how to make this seaweedy process scaleable: biofuel production would need billions of tonnes of seaweed. A pilot plant is being built in Chile- we will stay tuned to hear how it works!

In the meantime, try your hand at engineering E.coli in Bacto-Lab, one of Futurecade‘s 4 games about current and future science. Futurecade launches next week (we are incredibly excited!!) with background science notes for each game so you can use it in the classroom to engage your students in a really fun way, and get them talking about how science that shapes their lives.

If you find a bottleneck in Making the Modern World there is one likely culprit: the Apollo 10 capsule. It is impossible, even for staff, to walk by without taking a sly glance at this magnificent object. Whilst unassuming – with its battered, singed red exterior – it tells us so much about the potential for human endeavour and scientific exploration.

Apollo 10 Command Module- what space dreams are made of

Piloted by a three man team – Commander Thomas P Stafford, Command Module Pilot, John W. Young and Lunar Module Pilot, Eugene Cernan – Apollo 10 took to the skies on May 18. 1969, their mission: to test all the components and procedures of a Moon landing, without actually landing on the moon (known as an F type mission – a ‘dry run’ for the later Apollo 11 mission).

Upon reaching lunar orbit – carrying the first colour television camera inside the spacecraft to beam live broadcasts back to earth – Young remained in the command module, Charlie Brown, while Stafford and Cernan flew separately in the lunar module.

Interesting fact: throughout the mission the astronauts used call-signs from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts (the command module, Charlie Brown, and the Landing Module Snoopy) Schulz had created some special mission-related artwork for NASA.

Whilst orbiting, the crew monitored the craft’s radar and ascent engine, momentarily rode out a gyration in the Lunar Lander’s motion and surveyed the landing site in the Sea of Tranquillitywhich would be used by Apollo 11.

The crew returned safely, splashing into the Pacific Ocean on May 26, 1969.

All crew members went on to fly in subsequent missions: Staffordon the Apollo Soyuz test project, Young on Apollo 16 and Cernan as commander of Apollo 17 which made him, to this day, the last man on the moon. If you would like to hear more about Cernan and his mission, why not come visit our Gene Cernan drama character at the museum. And whilst you are here, visit the amazing Exploring Space gallery to see the other people and objects that have boldly explored the universe!

In 2011, the USA ended its space programme; the approximate cost of the programme being 7 billion a year – the equivalent of about 28 million Playstation 3 consoles.

• Was it worth it? Should this money be spent on exploring the universe?
• If you had this money for scientific investigation, what would you explore?

See Apollo 10 in Making the Modern World near the Wellcome Wing.

-Christopher Whitby

In our mission to share useful resources with you, the time has come to talk about the Royal Institution’s  brilliant Ri Channel- packed with engaging videos on loads of different themes.  Beautifully made films tell tales of leaping lizards and criminal penguins, mending a broken heart and what’s inside your head.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Plus scientists talk science (of course)  in the lecture series.

Wonderful. Enjoy!

What can you buy for $1000, or £646? A laptop…A moped… A holiday to Iceland… How about your genome?

fancy sequencing your genome, quickly and cheaply?

Now for that price you can sequence and own the complete genetic instructions that make you, you.  What can you do with it? You can find out if you have genes that make you susceptible to certain illnesses, like lung cancer, diabetes or arthritis.

The machine, which can sequence your genome in under a day, is smaller than a desktop printer and could be used in hospitals across the world to test for genetic mutations, and help doctors develop better therapies for, or even prevent, particular diseases. It has made personal genome sequencing a reality- quick and affordable.

The same machine was used during last year’s European E.coli outbreak to identify the strain’s drug-resistant genes and help discover where it originated.

Personal genome sequencing, on a desktop.

Would you like to know if you were prone to developing certain diseases? How would it affect your life? And who should have access to your genetic information?

Explore the topic of genetic testing with our discussion activity Do you want to know a Secret? , where students discuss the ethics and science of genetic tests, and consider the impact that a genetic test could have on their lives.

A great big happy 2012 to all!

Here’s hoping your holiday was relaxing (unlikely I’m guessing, unless you were hibernating) and everyone is revving their engines for the ASE conference!

The Science Museum will be at stand B29. Come along and have a go with some of our resources, find out what we can offer teachers and students visiting the Museum, or just say hello.

Come visit us at stand B29!

We are also running 2 sessions during the conference.

The Carbon Cycle Caper: 930-1030 on Thursday 5th Jan in the Sir Alistair Pilkington Building Room 114… participate in the carbon cycle with balls. Really. This activity demonstrates the carbon cycle in a tangible (and fun!) way.

How to Punk your Science: 1400-1500 on Thursday 5th in the Sir Alistair Pilkington Building, Room 111. A workshop packed with ideas to help you spice up your science lessons.

Hope to see lots of you very soon…

Safe travels everyone!

It’s been a great year for the Talk Science team: we have travelled far and wide, worked with - and learned from- loads of brilliant teachers on our courses, and been busy-busy-busy developing new (and improved!) resources to bring extra zing to your science teaching!

Our Punk Science films are now all available online. Bring their special brand of humour into your classroom with Healthy Living, Medical Trials, The Ends of the Universe, Nanotechnology song, Selective Breeding… Have you had enough of Jon and Dan yet? They even share their top tips on How to Punk your Science.

News + Views got a bit of spiffing up! This popular resource gets your students into the role of journalists to explore a a hot science topic. It’s a great way to get your students discussing current science issues and give them ownership of the research as they work to a deadline to create attention-grabbing display posters, in which they also express their own opinions.

And, Futurecade will be released in 2012!! Yes, FUTURECADE IS COMING  (we’re only a little excited!!)

Bacto-Lab is just one of Futurecade's 4 fun games.

Futurecade is a suite of 4 online games based around current and future technology, that you can use to stimulate discussion around topics like space junk, geo-engineering, and synthetic biology. Keep your eyes peeled for them at the start of February.

We hope you will use Futurecade to help communicate How Science Works, that science impacts our lives, and our future will be shaped by technology (and decisions) made now. Use the games to provoke your students’ thinking and help them formulate opinions about the science and what it will mean for them.

The games are incredibly fun, and we think your students will find them really engaging. I am actually finding it a little hard to STOP playing one of them in particular, but I don’t want  to influence your preferences. Can’t wait to hear which one YOU like best!

And we arent the only ones who think games will be big in 2012!

We will be at the ASE conference in January so come find out about what we’ve been up to, and much more, on our stand, B29.

From everyone in the Talk Science team, thank you for your support and see you in 2012!

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the object below looks a bit boring. It is, in fact, an actual piece of the M1, cored by the Transport Research Laboratory. Everyone knows the M1 as the backbone of Britain, but who likes it? Very few I suspect. Although, where would we be without motorways? Probably not stuck in a traffic jam “somewhere on the M1” I’d say!

M1 core - I wonder if drilling this core sample has left a hole in the road somewhere along the motorway?

The M1 was the first full-length motorway to open between Watford and Rugby in 1959 and was later extended to London and Yorkshire. It is fair to say that the opening of the M1 revolutionised motor travel in the UK, becoming a national lifeline linking the North and the South. When built, it was expected to carry 13,000 vehicles a day, but now carries over 88,000! This causes no end of congestion, misery and above all: a negative impact on the environment.

So, what can be done to make our motorways handle this increasing volume of traffic? Many think that it is not the motorways themselves that are the problem, but the sheer amount of vehicles that use them. Others think that we do need to adapt Britain’s motorways to meet today’s demands of travelling and logistics, but how? What is the future of Britain’s motorways? 

The government has committed to a six year, £6billion investment programme to improve strategic roads. However, the AA argues that there should be no need for new major motorways across green fields. So what’s the answer? Well, some say that using the hard shoulder at busy periods will increase the desired capacity. Also, introducing ‘pay lanes’ would diminish the need to destroy countryside in order to build new roads or widen existing ones. The AA says that motorway widening would represent good value for money by reducing congestion and may be more sustainable than temporary fixes like using the hard shoulder. 

Would you give up your school grounds to make way for a motorway?

Imagine you had £6 billion to invest- what technology would you use to manage traffic?

Would increasing the usage of Britain’s railways and building new lines (such as the High Speed 2) be more environmentally friendly than building new roads?

Should people who drive without passengers be forced to carpool or take trains?

If you want to think more about our relationship with travel, transport and modernity, take a look at our Stories from the Stores blog written by the museum’s curatorial team. The Curator of Transport, David Rooney has blogged about the M1 segment too.

The M1 core is in the Making the Modern World gallery, ground floor.

-Denise Cook

Small but remarkably powerful… Objects come in all shapes and sizes and in one of our newest galleries, Atmosphere, you can find a small but amazingly powerful object, the high efficiency solar cell. 

Tiny but huge: the high efficiency solar cell

The Sun provides the Earth with more energy every hour than humans use in a year! Therefore, with fossil fuels running out, the heat and light from the Sun has potential to be a great replacement energy source. We just need to be able to capture it. So how do we do this?

The answer is with solar cells, which are electrical devices made using layers of silicon that convert light into electricity. Incredibly, the first solar cell was created in 1883, although this was very inefficient, converting only 1% of light into electricity. Scientists largely ignored them until the 1950s when those working on the space program needed a way to power satellites in orbit. Solar cells were the best option for this and since then, much work has gone into improving their efficiency. 

Solar cells are now found in many places, you may have seen them on rooftops or on your calculator. But how do they work? In a nutshell, they absorb light into the layers of silicon, which is treated so that one side is more attractive to electrons than the other. The light energy knocks electrons loose and allows them to jump between the layers of silicon, thus creating a current. They have real potential as an alternative energy source; however, at present they can only convert about 15% of light energy into electricity.     

Will they get any better? Research is currently underway at Imperial College London into how we can improve their efficiency. Using nanotechnology, scientists are able to artificially alter the properties of the materials in the cells. They can then ‘tune’ them so that they can absorb and convert more of the available light into electricity. By using nano-structures researchers have increased the efficiency of the solar cell to 40% with potential for even more! So it just goes to show that sometimes, the best things really do come in small packages!

Do you think that solar cells are the best alternative energy source for the UK? Or do you think that there are other renewable energy sources that could be more effective? 

What would you power with solar cells if you could?

The high efficiency solar cell can be found in the Atmosphere gallery on the 2^nd floor of the Wellcome Wing. 

-Kate Davis 

Planning a discussion about biofuels?

Veggie power! Will biofuels save the world?

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has a set of teaching resources you can use if you are getting your students to explore the topic.

They have actually split the material up into 2 lessons’ worth: one where your students familiarise themselves with various forms of biofuel, and the second which involves a role-play exercise about the impacts of biofuel production on countries around the world.

The resources contain a wealth of content such as case studies, important questions, and background science, plus helpful scaffold material for presenters, all of which you may find useful even if you don’t follow the lesson plans to the letter or don’t have time to dedicate 2 lessons to the topic.

So take a look at what is available, as you can really adapt the material to your needs.

If you are looking for a way to add a bit of ‘spice’ to the discussion, throw in some Talk Science techniques- for example, you may like to use our powerful question generator to help you come up with some great hook questions that make the topic of biofuels directly relevant to your students, or begin and conclude the discussion with a vote or a human barometer exercise to encourage your students to voice their own opinions in the debate.

Good luck!