Natio onal Re ecycling Wee eek
THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO Advertising & news enquiries: Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au Available early Tuesday at: http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 22 #23 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2007 22,300 copies every week
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Sam knows more than the science of spoons
Nove vember e 12-18 18 – see e pages 24-25 2
Dressing for the planet Margo Sutton
Story & photo Lou Beaumont It’s a sign you’re getting on when you are impressed with a teenager’s maturity. Sixteen year old Sam Wightman from Mullumbimby High is a kid who clearly knows himself and is quietly proud of his achievements. As he should be. Sam just won second prize with his Year 10 Student Research Project (SRP) at the STANSW Young Scientist of the Year Award in the Earth Science and Environment division. And while he is obviously conscientious, he is no nerd. In fact, the contrary is true – he is socially adept, quite the charmer. Wightman’s winning experiment titled ‘Corn Growth and the Effect of a Recyclable Material on Countering Soil Salinity’, submitted by MHS Head Science Teacher Mrs Dawson, investigated the effect of varying pro-
portions of newspaper mulch and soil on the growth of the corn and the salinity of the soil. Sam found a balance of mulch and soil the best bet for fast corn growth. Too little mulch meant high salinity, slow corn growth and long roots (as they stretch to find water in the soil). Too much mulch was too much of a good thing as although the corn shot up, growth soon halted as the roots ran out of soil to grow in. Once assured that no Echos were harmed in the mulching process, I asked him what inspired him to conduct this particular experiment. ‘The soil salinity problem in the Murray-Darling basin was in the news a lot at the time so I decided to do an experiment that was relevant and topical.’ This experiment also won him
the Year 10 SRP prize at school this year. Wightman also took out the Year 9 SRP Prize last year. Sam has always been into the sciences, in fact for three years in a row he and a team from MHS have achieved second, first and second place consecutively in the Tournament of Minds competition in the Maths & Engineering category. The prize for coming second in a division of the Young Scientist Award was some prize money and vouchers. But the biggest prize for Sam was to be presented with his certificate at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney surrounded by his peers. Sam met and played mind games, such as spoon bending, with science celebrity Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Richard Saunders, past president of Australian Skeptics.
Sam’s dad, Peter Wightman, said his son’s spoon bending is becoming a bit of a habit: ‘Sam likes to practise his skills during the washing up, as well as investigating Newton’s Law of Gravity on the plates!’ Sam hopes to pursue a combination of science and law at university and is keen to make a difference in the fields of earth and environmental science. Sam told The Echo, ‘I was proud to be representing public schools at the awards in Sydney. I really want to thank all of the sponsors too as it is great young scientists are supported in this way.’ It could be our planet and our climate has something to look forward to with this guy in its corner. Hopefully other young adult minds also will be inspired to look closer at the nature of things.
Here at The Echo the (women) workers unite when we meet and greet. Our ritual hellos are followed by something like this: ‘Love your dress/top/pants/shoes/earrings/bag.’ ‘Thanks,’ is the reply, followed, quite proudly, by ‘found it at Vinnies/opshop/market/ preloved clothes shop.’ It has been ever thus, and we are proud of our ability to dress attractively at low cost. It’s not only that some of us can’t afford expensive new clothing, it’s that incessant, overpriced consumerism is not for us. Now that Life on Earth is heading towards Death by Greed, even the most egotistical have to take notice. Mindless magazines like No Idea, Women’s Daze and Vague are still relentlessly portraying people in expensive new clothes, but there are a few signs of hope. Eco-fashion is a growing trend in well-off countries. In England, for example, the Shaftesbury Youth Club had exposure on national TV when its Eco Fashion Project made it onto the catwalk recently on World Environment Day. Kids from 9 to 19 recreated clothes from stuff donated from a local Green Community Shop. Outfits included a skirt made from an old badminton net and a reconstructed Armani dress. Rebecca Earley, associate director of the Textile Futures Research Group based at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, investigates new techniques and theoretical approached to environmentally friendly textile design. Her focus is the reuse and recycling of fabrics and the reduction of chemicals and waste in small production runs. Here are some of her facts: • cotton cultivation accounts for around 10% of all pesticides and 20% of all insecticides used in agriculture; • cotton farmers experience everything from rashes to blindness continued on page 2