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The What on Earth? Project

How often do you really look around your garden or local park? Rediscover your surroundings in as little as 10 minutes, and open your eyes to the huge variety of different plant and animal species on your doorstep. To celebrate International Year of Biodiversity, why not join in this nationwide activity to map and learn about local plant and animal species in the UK.

What on Earth? is a call to action: take your camera out into your garden/local park/ hedgerow and snap the wildlife you don’t recognise, then simply upload it to the What on Earth? website for identification. The aim is to map the range of species found by the public across the UK, highlighting the most unusual species that are found. Taking part is simple and easy. To find out more visit: http://www.whatonearth.org.uk  

All those who take part will be sent  a free packet of biodiversity-friendly seeds (subject to availability) and a Biodiversity Information and Activity Pack.  

What on Earth has been launched for 2 months only for National Science and Engineering Week in conjunction with nature-spotting website iSpot.org.uk. NSEW has teamed up with sponsors Sika Sarnafil to offer a biodiverse green roof to a school in the area of the UK that uploads the most photos. So support your local school and get uploading! 

How can your organisation get involved in What on Earth?

Getting involved couldn’t be easier. You could encourage your staff/students to explore your site and discover some of its local wildlife, uploading photos of them onto the What on Earth? website. For visitor centres, this may be an activity that can be done during National Science and Engineering Week with your visitors  - invite some local experts along and see what you can identify.


Get involved in National Science and Engineering Week: 12–21 March 2010

www.nsew.org.uk

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National Science and Engineering Week is a 10-day long celebration of science, engineering and technology that sees people of all ages taking part in, and organising, a vast array of events across the country. In 2009, over 1.4 million people took part in 3,500 events throughout the UK. Coordinated by the British Science Association, in partnership with Engineering UK, with funding from BIS (the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), National Science and Engineering Week aims to inspire and engage people from all walks of life directly with science, engineering and technology. 

The theme for National Science and Engineering Week 2010 is ‘Earth’. This year’s theme is designed to coincide with International Year of Biodiversity. We would like to encourage organisers to celebrate this during National Science and Engineering Week. 

Events:

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/NSEW/WhatsOn/index.htm

 Free Resources:

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/NSEW/GetInvolved/index.htm

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  The European Space Agency


A lesson from space: capillarity in action

Tuesday, 09 March 2010
In space, many things work differently, but not always. Take the movement of liquid in fine tubes. Gravity has something to do with this capillary action, but what? Students using ESA’s 'Take Your Classroom into Space' kit can now find out.
Read full article

Herschel readies itself for the Orion Nebula

Tuesday, 02 March 2010
ESA’s Herschel observatory is back to full operation following the reactivation of its HIFI instrument. HIFI, having been offline for 160 days while engineers investigated an unexpected problem in the electronic system, is now perfectly placed to resume its study of forming stars and planets.
read full article

How ESA got its tweet back

Monday, 08 March 2010
On Friday, Esa Alanen and family visited the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, as guests of ESA, to say thanks for relinquishing the Twitter name www.twitter.com/esa.
Read full article

Phobos flyby season starts again

Monday, 01 March 2010
Today Mars Express began a series of flybys of Phobos, the largest moon of Mars. The campaign will reach its crescendo on 3 March, when the spacecraft will set a new record for the closest pass to Phobos, skimming the surface at just 50 km. The data collected could help untangle the origin of this mysterious moon.
read full article

Earth from Space: Icebreaker event

Friday, 05 March 2010
This animation, made up of eight Envisat radar images, shows the 97-km long B-9B iceberg (right) ramming into the Mertz Glacier Tongue in Eastern Antarctica in early February. The collision caused a chunk of the glacier’s tongue to snap off, giving birth to another iceberg nearly as large as B-9B.
Read full article

First journey for Alphabus

Monday, 01 March 2010
The service module of the new Alphabus generation of telecommunication satellites has completed its first journey – from Cannes to Toulouse, in France. The three-day trip was completed last Friday.
read full article

New investment fund backs space technologies finding uses on Earth

Friday, 05 March 2010
For years, ESA has been bringing space technologies down to Earth through its Technology Transfer Programme and Business Incubation initiatives. Now, the Agency will strengthen these initiatives by supporting new businesses using space innovations through a dedicated venture capital fund.
Read full article

Craters young and old in Sirenum Fossae

Monday, 01 March 2010
The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera has imaged craters both young and old in this view of the Southern Highlands of Mars.
read full article

Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos

Tuesday, 02 March 2010
ESA’s Mars Express will skim the surface of Mars’ largest moon Phobos on Wednesday evening. Passing by at an altitude of 67 km, precise radio tracking will allow researchers to peer inside the mysterious moon.
read full article

Mars, methane and mysteries

Monday, 01 March 2010
Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ESA plans to find out which it is. Either outcome is big news for a planet once thought to be biologically and geologically inactive.
read full article

Phobos flyby season starts again

Tuesday, 02 March 2010
Today Mars Express began a series of flybys of Phobos, the largest moon of Mars. The campaign will reach its crescendo on 3 March, when the spacecraft will set a new record for the closest pass to Phobos, skimming the surface at just 50 km. The data collected could help untangle the origin of this mysterious moon.
read full article

Cassini finding hints at ocean within Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Monday, 01 March 2010
European scientists on the joint NASA/ESA Cassini mission have detected, for the first time, sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn’s E-ring, which is primarily replenished by material from the plumes of water vapour and ice grains emitted by Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The detection of salty ice indicates that the little moon harbours a reservoir of liquid water, perhaps even an ocean, beneath its surface.
read full article

First journey for Alphabus

Tuesday, 02 March 2010
The service module of the new Alphabus generation of telecommunication satellites has completed its first journey – from Cannes to Toulouse, in France. The three-day trip was completed last Friday.
read full article

Europeans experts at Mars school in China

Monday, 01 March 2010
As the launch of the first Chinese mission to Mars gets closer, an ESA-sponsored Mars Advanced School will be held next week in China. Students will have the chance to learn more about Mars from experts, including ESA scientists.
read full article

Craters young and old in Sirenum Fossae

Tuesday, 02 March 2010
The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera has imaged craters both young and old in this view of the Southern Highlands of Mars.
read full article
Click here to see our full newsfeeds index

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The full article index is here. Want to write an article for Science File? Read this.

H1N1, Small Pox, Ebola—Oh My!

In Life - Biology
By Cara Brookins
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Toxins, pathogens, and bio-researchers are popular targets for fictional terror plots, but researchers take extreme measures to keep us safe.

The New Solar System

In Universe - The Solar System
By Andy
altHow has our view of the solar system changed since the beginning of the space age, and what can it tell us about solar systems around other stars?

A Complex Systems Metatheory for Abrupt Climate Change

In Earth - Climatology
By Robert
 
altThere is a Neils Bohr aphorism - 'prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future'.  Climate is a 'cascade of powerful mechanisms' that is characterised by abrupt, rapid, frequent and sometimes extreme change:    classic behaviour of a dynamic and complex system in chaos theory.  The limits of predictability of climate may be much broader than we think.     

Science in the City of Light

In Special Reports - Science Places
By Andy

ValenciaOpened in 1997, the City of Arts & Science in Valencia has become one of Spain's biggest tourist attractions. So what's the science like? Science File goes to find out...
 

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