Nano journeys

"A virtual discovery journey into the worlds of micro- and nano-cosmos"....fascinating stuff!

Nanoreisen

ScienceFest

REMINDER.....Newcastle ScienceFest is on the near horizon. Most of the events are free but you need to book tickets. Check out what's on here

Going down!

Explore the oceans with Google Earth. Just launched (sorry!) a couple of days ago. You can...

• Dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench
• Explore the ocean with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC
• Learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species
• Discover new places including surf, dive, and travel hot spots and shipwrecks

You'll need to download Google Earth v5 from here, but then forget the snorkel and flippers!

Clever stuff

Get educated at Academic Earth

Looking up

A couple of free downloads for looking at the night sky.....if the clouds clear!

"Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go."

Download page

"The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X"

Celestia homepage

Lots to look at

The National Film Board of Canada has launched a video archive.... "From entertaining shorts and cartoons, to deeply moving or disturbing documentaries - they're all there for free, with more being added every week."

Link to the "Explore all films" page

The Sky at Night

Just been watching a daytime, probably repeat, episode of "The Sky at Night" (it's Saturday, I was washing dishes at the same time, and anyway I'm allowed, OK?), hadn't realised there was a programme archive here

From RGB to a picture

Click here for a clever Flash animation illustrating how those old cathode ray tubes worked. (Stand well back for the full effect!)

Newcastle Science Fest 2009

Advance notice of the upcoming Newcastle Science Fest (website not yet open for business but there's details of how you sign up to be emailed with more information sometime in February)

One event that IS being advertised is the first ever UK Maker Faire on the 14-15th March (more details here).

"Maker Faire seeks to inspire, inform, connect and entertain thousands of Makers and aspiring Makers of all ages and backgrounds through the public gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, students, authors and commercial exhibitors."

The scientific guide to gift wrapping

The New Scientist explains all

Simon's Sister's Dog

Made for the RSPCA.....and probably also true for christmas cats, gerbils and anacondas!

Popular Science

Read every issue of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics since the 1870's online....so that's your holiday reading sorted then!

Link to Popular Science archive

Link to Popular Mechanics archive

Where on earth am I?

Well, Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.00pm I'm precisely here. MyGeoPosition.com does the number crunching, you just drag the marker.

The 'DO' Lectures

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never!

"The Do lectures are all about getting a handful of speakers together in one place, in the hope that they may inspire you to go Do something. To give you the tools and the desire to change the things you care about."
The lecures are all online here

Here's a sample
Andy Cummins....Surfers Against Sewage Campaign Officer
"Andy started surfing way back in 1992 in the North East. Back then surfing in the North Sea was similar to surfing in an open sewer. This served as great inspiration and drive to bring about change, but at 15 he never thought he could be an active part of that movement, so the most he did was join Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) and tag along to actions and events in his area.
Since then, travelling, experience and education has helped open his eyes to the scale of abuse our oceans and seas suffer at our hands. He has been a full time SAS campaigner since 2003, working on over 50 campaigns."

Spooky sounds from Saturn

NASA has posted some spooky sounds from the solar system....

So, how does that Large Hadron Converter thingy work then?

But to be honest, I still got well and truly lost about half a minute in....maybe you'll do better! In the meantime I think I'll get myself a t-shirt with this on the front....

Available from the Neatorama shop

Icons of England

"ICONS is a rich resource of material about our lives and cultural heritage. Teachers use it to stimulate classroom learning. Inspiring content continually sparks visits to arts venues and events. It whets the appetites of tourists and provides valuable reference material for students. The content for the site has been created by the ICONS team and our partner organisations, as well as valued contributions from you - the public."

Link

BBC Big Bang Day

"Radio 4 joins CERN on 10 September 2008 as scientists attempt to discover more about the origins of the Universe by recreating the aftermath of the Big Bang.
The experiment is one of the most complex and significant of modern times - and one that raises a lot of questions!"

Check out the website to find out what's on. I'll definitely be listening in to some themed drama in the afternoon, "Torchwood comes to Radio 4 in a specially-commissioned drama. Martha Jones, ex-time traveller and now working as a doctor for a UN task force, has been called to CERN. Join Captain Jack and friends in a series of strange events around the activation of the world's largest particle accelerator." Link (also available as a podcast)

Time lapse video of slime mold and mushrooms

Britain from Above

"Andrew Marr takes to the skies exploring Britain from above.
An epic journey revealing the secrets, patterns and hidden rhythms of our lives from a striking new perspective.

Britain looks very different from the skies. From a bird's eye view of the nation, its workings, cities, landscapes and peoples are revealed and re-discovered in new and extraordinary ways.
Cutting edge technology allows you to see through cloud cover, navigate the landscape and witness familiar sights as never seen before."

Britain from Above homepage