Headington School Oxford
Issue 1 May 2015
Headingtonium WELCOME Welcome to the first edition of Headingtonium, HSO’s newsletter covering the year’s main science events and much more. It gives us great pleasure to share with you the diverse and innovative approaches girls across the school have shown in their pursuit and enjoyment of science. Many of those participating in these events and initiatives have devoted further time writing the articles here. We hope you enjoy reading the articles as much as the girls enjoyed participating in the events. If you like science and wish to find out more of what’s going on, why not speak to one of our Science Ambassadors and get involved!
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Non-Newtonian Fluids.................2 Mummification.............................2 Clinical Medicine..........................3 Engineering Education Scheme. .3 Big Bang @RAL.............................4 Chemistry & Cancer Research......4 ISSC...............................................5 Young Scientists of the Year.........6 Interactive Science Fair................7
Best Wishes
U5 Silver Crest..............................8
Head of Science & Ambassadors
What goes on at Harwell..............9 Gods, Devils & Alcohols..............13 Oxford Climate Forum................15 Bath Bombs.................................16
AMBASSADORS This year a new team of Lower 6th Science Ambassadors was appointed to spearhead whole school initiatives such as Eureka Science Club and the Science and Medics Networking Event. Following the scheme’s success we plan to offer a number of ambassador roles to girls in U5 during 2015-16. Our current team can be found on the back page.
The Science of Pain.....................17 Expanding Foam.........................18 Science Enrichment Lecture.......19 Eureka Science Club...................20
AND MORE…..
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EUREKA CLUB At Monday lunch time this year I have been going to Eureka club. This term we have been having fun and researching non-Newtonian fluids. These are fluids that act like solids and like liquids. When you push your finger through it slowly, your finger just sinks in like a liquid. However, if you hit the fluid with your finger with force, the fluid seems hard and solid. We also looked at bouncing things off the surface. Once again, if you only drop the object it slowly sinks in but if you throw the object at the surface it bounces off. This is one of many of the exciting experiments and research topics that we do at Eureka and I am now working on flotation in air with balloon aerial photography. Eureka is a fun and informative way to spend your lunch break and there is a variety of different experiments to choose from so you can join whichever catches your eye, or even start your own!
“Eureka is a fun and informative way to spend your lunch break”
Solid but yet liquid—Non-Newtonian Fluids
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ENGINEERING EDUCATION SCHEME LAUNCH The 2014 Engineering Education Scheme (EES) launched with an event hosted by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL). Headington’s team of four (Holly, Arina, Hannah and Jenny) met with their industry collaborators Oxford Instruments with whom they will be working over the next 7 months. The girls also rose superbly to school team challenges set by RAL’s leading space scientists, engineers and academics.
EES team work with an OI engineer
Tour of the main neutron facility at RAL
Final touches
Arina - “Coming to the RAL Laboratories was a scary experience, as I wasn't sure if I am clever enough, educated enough, prepared enough to participate in such schemes. But after the first day, I realised that I have great team mates, who I can get support from and at the same time develop myself and solve a real life problem, which is very interesting.”
Our girls are the first to complete and test their car design
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OTHER BIG BANGS Most astronomers believe the
BIG BANG @ RAL
Universe began in a Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. At that time, the entire Universe was inside a bubble that was thousands of times smaller than a pinhead. It was hotter and denser than anything we can imagine. Then it suddenly exploded. The Universe that we know was born. Time, space and matter all began with the Big Bang. In a fraction of a second, the Universe grew from smaller than a single atom to bigger than a galaxy. And it kept on growing at a fantastic rate. It is still expanding today. As the Universe expanded and cooled, energy changed into particles of matter and antimatter. These two opposite types of particles largely destroyed each other. But some matter survived. More stable particles called protons and neutrons started to form when the Universe was one second old. Over the next three minutes, the temperature dropped below 1 billion degrees Celsius. It was now cool enough for the protons and neutrons to come together, forming hydrogen and helium nuclei. After 300 000 years, the Universe had cooled to about 3000 degrees. Atomic nuclei could finally capture electrons to form atoms. The Universe filled with clouds of hydrogen and helium gas.
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Caption describing picture or graphic
While the rest of school went back in time to 1915 two intrepid teams of U3 and L4 scientists were very much in the modern world participating in a fun packed day of Big Bang Science at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories. Activities included: designing a wind powered car, a close
encounter with Blattodea, making U.V. sensitive bracelets (see above), Guess the Gadget (see below) , STEM’s Got Talent and making a comet in RAL Space .
4TH ISSC On 6th March four lower sixth Headington scientists presented at the 4th International Student Science Conference (ISSC) at Radley College. Hannah, Jenny, Arina and Holly inspired their audience with an overview of their collaboration with Oxford Instruments within the Engineering Education Scheme (EES). Covering six months work the girls spoke lucidly about their project management, R&D, manufacturing techniques, computer aided design (CAD), programming and 3-D printing in their aim to re-design a heat exchanger for ultra-low temperature components. The girls will be presenting their work in London later this term as part of their Gold Crest Award.
THE EES TEAM ABSTRACT Triton Dilution Refrigerator - in collaboration with the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) and Oxford Instruments. The objective of this project is to design a heat exchanger that can be attached to an Oxford Instruments (OI) Triton dilution refrigerator. This research is required in order for OI to compete with another company who have recently created an alternative all-welded design similar to their own. The research conducted involves looking into materials which would be suitable for various different applications, some of which need to be excellent conductors of heat and others which should be high grade insulators. In addition to this, different welding and joining techniques are being investigated, including electron beam welding and metal additive manufacturing in order to join the various parts of our design. A CAD model has been produced over the course of a visit to Southampton University engineering department, permitting our team to learn and use ‘SolidWorks’ (a type of CAD package)
in a very short period of time. From these designs, blueprints were produced which would allow a manufacturer to construct the actual heat exchanger which we designed. Using school 3D printers and driven by information generated in SolidWorks, a plastic, scaled model has been created, comprising separate components of one section of the heat exchanger; the foil, two layers of sinter and two outer shells. This model will be available for inspection at ISSC and eventually presented to the research engineers at OI. Overall the project team researched, designed and manufactured a model of an alternative design of a heat exchanger for use in world leading, high precision, ultra-low temperature scientific research.
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STEM
YOUNG SCIENTISTS OF THE YEAR
Over the course of the year there will be a number of STEM events, some national and some local to Oxford. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics and is extremely important today since there is such a crossover between these four areas in research, industry, business and at school. The Science Faculty at Headington is very keen to promote STEM and offer you the chance to get involved. If you think you might be interested, then why not search up some of the STEM items below: The Royal Photographic Society International Images for Science Competition Royal College of Science Union - Science Challenge Nuffield Research Placements
L-R Alba, Jenny & Alex
Congratulations go to Headington U6, three of whom received awards for Young Scientist of the Year. Jenny Wark, Alba Landra and Alex Emsley were selected for their outstanding efforts and achievements in Physics, Biology and Chemistry respectively.
Headstart The Year in Industry Industrial Cadets National Engineering Competition for Girls National Schools Geology Challenge WISE Campaign Women’s Engineering Society
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CHEMISTRY
This year’s high profile award ceremony at Oxford’s Natural History Museum hosted guest speakers including the world renowned Prof. Helen McShane of the Nuffield Department of Medicine who inspired the students with a fascinating talk on her worldleading vaccination research.
INTERACTIVE SCIENCE FAIR @ NDM
Phenotype Tree
L6 Medics
Making DNA bracelets
Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine
Quotes of the day: Joyce Lee—“We had such a great time visiting the Nuffield Department of Medicine. During the trip, we were allowed to see the working places of the scientists in the institution. The technology there impressed me a lot; there were many extremely powerful pieces of equipment that were running in realtime. We got a chance to explore the ways scientists investigate medicines and chemicals in reality. The tour guide gave us excellent explanations on how the processes actually work and the purposes of each of the machines present in the laboratories.” Natalie Lau - “The Science Fair provided me with the opportunity to know more about the research in translational medicine that has been taking place within the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine. The interactive activities in the fair were interesting and were able to involve people of all ages in the world of science. One of the activities was to make bracelets which model the double helix shape of a DNA molecule. I was particularly impressed by the Structural Genomics Consortium which had set up a corner in the fair explaining its work for drug discovery by studying the structure of protein and the human genome.” Allison Tai - “I particularly enjoyed building models for viruses in the interactive fair because it was much easier to learn the structure of viruses by visualising and making one by myself. Extracting DNA from strawberries was equally amazing as I realised how science is closely related to our daily life!”
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U5 SILVER CREST Investigation on the rate of regeneration in different parts of plants (excerpts from a much larger investigation spanning several months)
Initial samples
Sterile preparation
Broccoli growth
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Conclusion: From isolating the total average growth of height and width from the cultures of broccoli and cauliflower florets, the graph above was produced. It allowed us to compare the growth between the cauliflower and broccoli tissues. Through the results one can infer that the broccoli cultures appear to have a higher growth rate than the cauliflower cultures. After speculations, we agreed that the reason for such a result is that broccoli floret cells contain more chloroplast than cauliflower, which, in turn, contains few or no chloroplasts, as one can see from its colour.
Therefore broccoli undergoes photosynthesis at a higher rate, and is able to produce more energy and nutrients for cell regeneration, ultimately leading to a higher growth rate. Furthermore, the results prove that the disinfectants used are unlikely to cause severe damage to the plant cells that contain more pigment, which was our initial speculation. U5 Silver Crest team members: Agnes So, Andrea Mak, Felicia So, Jenny To, Joy Chow and Shirley Chiu
A DAY AT HARWELL It was 8:30 in the morning. I was sitting in the minibus with 14 other girls and Mrs. Quirk, to go to the Harwell research complex. I must admit I was not expecting much, considering my past experience of lab visits were not extremely inspiring. That morning I thought to myself, ‘Here we go, walking around endlessly, listening to people talk about something sophisticated that will not make any sense to me’, but the day actually turned out to be tremendously different to what I had presumed it would be.
Lab work is multi-disciplinary
Harwell is stranded in the middle of nowhere, throughout the minibus journey, I could only see mostly fields and small houses. Therefore I was not expecting what I actually saw. When we stepped down from the minibus onto the parking lot in the centre, I was just awed by my surroundings. In front of me was the Diamond Light Source building, behind me was the Rutherford Appleton research centre, to my left was what will soon be the European Space centre and ISIS, the neutron scattering source somewhere in the back corner. These structures are just what I saw standing from one spot. The site actually had much more buildings and facilities, but unfortunately we did not have enough time to look around (it would probably take days to look around all of them!) We were led into the reception area of the Diamond light source centre — a place which cost £383 million to build and has the annual operation cost of around £40 million (2012-2013)1. The interior was actually as impressive as how we portrayed professional labs in the movies. The atrium was large, allowing you to see the higher floor above, tall glass windows, fully letting the light in and a scaled mock-up of the Diamond light source prominent in the centre of the atrium. I looked around the room: to my surprise, I saw such a variety of people. People from all different corners of the world were gathered here, different genders, different ethnicity. One thing they had in common, their love for science and their knowledge. I could just feel the brain power vibrating in the place, and that was when I started to get very excited ; since I imagined that the woman who just walk passed me might become the world’s most influential scientist of the next century, and I’ve seen them in person! We were then taken into a theatre by staff, and our day officially started with a talk. The talk introduced us to the diamond light source, it being the one and only UK’s national synchrotron light source. The talk explained the researches that went on in the Diamond centre, focusing more towards the biological side (being the biological open day). The researches at the centre range from: testing the structure of the Rolls Royce’s plane component, under the simulated condition of flying, to looking at crystallised protein structures by x-ray diffraction.
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INSIDE STORY ISIS is the world’s most successful pulsed spallation neutron source. The facility provides beams of neutrons and muons that enable scientists to probe the microscopic structure and dynamics of matter. The benefits of neutron scattering coupled with the strengths of the ISIS pulsed source have been responsible for the emergence of a world-class research programme at the facility, covering topics at the forefront of Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Earth Science, Engineering and Biology.
The method of shooting x-rays at a sample and looking at the diffraction pattern to work out its structure actually has existed for a very long time. It was the exact same method that Rosalind Franklin used to find the structure of DNA, and that Henry Moseley used to form Moseley’s Law. So the technique that the research centre is based on has actually been around since at least the 20th century; when Max Von Laue, a German physicist, discovered the diffraction of X-rays by crystals he won the Nobel prize in atomic physics in 1912.
we can actually try to use it, we all jumped with excitement, in contrast with our teacher who looked quite anxious that we might end up breaking something... We looked at the engineered cells through the different filters of the microscope and saw that the cells accepted the fluorescent gene quite well. About 80% of the cells accepted them, but most of these cells will end up dying rather quickly, since to an extent, the foreign gene can be toxic to them.
However what makes the Diamond light source more exceptional was the intensity and quality of the electromagnetic waves that are produced. The highly condensed rays allowed the images to be crisper and clearer, allowing the researchers to extract more information from it. The more advanced level of technology and machinery allowed much more to happen, such as creating 3dimensional images of the sample’s structure by taking multiple images and running it through computer algorithms.
“Why don’t you have a play around with the digital microscope?”
Our group started off in the Cell Investigation Laboratory; where they cultured, modified, engineered, cloned, investigated cells. I looked first at the cell culture lab. It is a level one sterile environment lab, thus we had to wear lab coats and gloves, looking extremely professional. We were shown the cells that they have engineered and cultured. They used insect cells and have input a fluorescent gene (obtained from jellyfish) into the cell, and then allowed them to multiply. The fluorescent gene made the cells easier to observe; these cells are then used for experiments and observations. I was surprised when the scientist in charge said “Why don’t you have a play around with the digital microscope?” knowing that all these equipment are very expensive. So when we were told
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We were then shown electrophoresis and gel chromatography. We were instructed how to do electrophoresis and we all had a turn in doing it using a micro-litre pipette. (The micro-litre pipette was definitely one of the best parts of the day.) The scientists then explained to us the process of cell cloning; and to my surprise, I actually understood what she was saying. Since the day was actually designed for A-level students, the staff knew exactly the knowledge level that we were studying and so they explained it at the level they know we can understand, but they have stretched the content further, so that it’s intriguing and enriching. This was what made the visit to Harwell different from visits to many other labs. We then went on to the next lab work at the MPL (Membrane Protein Lab). Here, they specifically research on the membrane structures, meaning they work with anything that is classified as a membrane; whether it’s the plasma membrane or the organelle membranes. What made this facility special was that it was located right next to the synchrotron light source. MPL looks at protein structures and membrane structures by crystallising them , and then shooting x-rays at the crystals to look at their x-ray scatter patterns.
We were lucky enough to get to try the crystallography method for ourselves. We crystallised Lysozyme, since it was quickest and easiest to crystallise, we were told however, that some proteins may take days to many months to crystallise (some will not), just to be destroyed in half a millisecond by the condensed xray beam. We had a look at our crystals under a microscope, and the scientists then showed us how to fish the crystals out using a pin, a skill which few can do since it requires very stable hands. After lunch we were actually let into the area around the synchrotron to have a tour. We were lucky enough to see one of the researches going on, and one of the machines being used for x-ray diffraction. Our tour guide happened to be a physicist, who was very passionate about the physics behind the synchrotron. However, since none of us did physics, he had to explain the logic behind the synchrotron to us very simply. The synchrotron is basically source to produce very condensed beams of ultraviolet light, infrared and x-rays. It works like a grand scale microscope. Since light waves’ wavelength is too long to investigate very small structures such as atoms or molecules, scientists need to use special light generated by the synchrotron instead. The light from the synchrotron can be 10 billion times brighter than the sun, producing up to 3GeV (Giga-electronvolt) electron beam, thus classifying as a medium energy synchrotron. The light synchrotron works by having electrons generated by an electron gun. They are then fired out into the booster synchrotron, where they are accelerated to nearly the speed of light through a series of 3 particle accelerators. The electrons then enter the storage ring where, they are moving so fast they could travel around the world 7.5 times in a second.2 Electromagnetic waves are released in the electron’s path when the electron is deflected by very powerful electromagnets. Those waves are then filtered and focused into more intense beams.
DIAMOND LIGHT SOURCE Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. The facility is used by over 3,000 academic and industrial researchers across a wide range of disciplines including structural biology, energy, engineering, nanoscience and environmental sciences.
One of the most remarkable things was when we walked on top of the synchrotron, following the path the electron took exactly, which was marked on by a single yellow line on top of the synchrotron. We walked then around the outside of the concrete lead walls of the synchrotron, but unfortunately, we could not go inside, since the synchrotron was operating and we would sadly die of over-exposure to x-rays if we were to go in. We wrapped off the day with a brainstorming activity. We summarised what we had learnt in the day and put it into context. We looked at different types of pathogens and ranked disease according to different interests of different stakeholders; such as the pharmaceutical interest, or the public interest, and looked at how they differ. We looked at how research would be valued by different stakeholders, and how both target orientated researches (such as cure for cancer) and blue sky researches (such as Higgs Boson), are both very important to humanity as a community. On the minibus journey back to school, I sat reflecting on the day. The experience confirmed that I chose the right subjects, I am now more confident on what study and career path I want to have. It definitely has been a highlight for me, and if possible I would like to go back to the Harwell research centre, but not as a visitor next time... maybe as an intern… Avika Pulges (6JL)
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MUMMIFICATION Last term in Eureka a few students have been mummifying a rat. The project led by Alba Landra, Jenny Wark and Rose G-T involved many younger girls who took part at different stages, especially, in the dissection process. The project was inspired by a talk that we all went to in late September in the Ashmolean Museum. The speaker discussed the many different and famous theories behind King Tutankhamun’s death.
Alba and Alex explain the dissection process to U3 and L4.
WHAT WE DID….. Naming: There was quite a lot of deliberation on the name of our rat especially as we had all finally agreed on Scabbers (inspired by Harry Potter) only to find out our rat was a girl. After realizing this problem we went back to the drawing board and decided on the name Scabetta. Dissection: Instead of using the typical ancient Egyptian method of removing the organs, through a small slit in the side of the chest, we decided to do a full dissection so that the younger students, who wanted to, could study Scabetta’s insides. However the brain is not normally removed in school dissections so we had to crack Scabetta’s skull to remove her brain.
“We went back to the drawing board and decided on the name Scabetta”
Salting: After we dissected Scabetta, removing all her internal organs, we filled her insides with linen salt packages and surrounded her completely in salt, inside a box that we sealed and left in a biology lab for 3 weeks. After that we had to change Scabetta’s salt every weeks for about 4 weeks. Wrapping: We wrapped Scabetta in linen so she started to look like a real mummy. Burial: We buried Scabetta in her very own tomb, which we built her and plan to dig her up on our 10-year reunion to see the results of how well our mummification went. We thoroughly enjoyed doing our project and if anyone has any wacky ideas, it can be anything, come along to science club on Monday and join in. If you want to find out more about the science behind how the mummification process preserves the body here are some link to great websites. http://science.howstuffworks.com/mummy1.htm http://www.egyptartsite.com/mummy.html If you are more interested in the religion behind the mummification process here are some really great websites covering the basics of Ancient Egyptian religion and burial.
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GODS, DEVILS & ALCOHOLS A group of L6 and U6 Chemistry students attended a talk by the 2012 Royal Society of Chemistry Lecturer, Dr Peter Wothers, from the University of Cambridge. The talk was entitled “Gods, Devils, and Alcohols – their influence on chemical nomenclature”. Students were impressed by the talk and enjoyed it immensely, gaining a different and wider perspective on organic chemistry.
Organic chemistry is a chemistry sub-discipline involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.
Rebecca Colquhoun (L6) commented: ‘I found Dr Wothers’ talk … a great experience. It was particularly interesting to see how he proposed swapping the names of hydrogen and oxygen around, as “oxygen” in fact means 'acid creating'. However, we now know that it is hydrogen ions that are responsible for acidity. And “hydrogen” means 'water-creating', which oxygen is too, as they are both present in water.’ Avika Pulges (L6) also reflected on the talk: ‘When we think of science, we mostly think of the present and the future. What is and what will be. We never really thought of how it came to be. The talk really taught me to understand the background and history of the elements and compounds we recognise today. How they came to be, how crucial they are, and how long some of them have been an important part in our lives! These elements are not just in science, but they also influence and are embedded in history, religion and nearly everything!’ Jenny Bae
Seventeenth century alchemical emblem showing the four Classical elements in the corners of the image, alongside the tria prima on the central triangle
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WORDSEARCH
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OXFORD CLIMATE FORUM A group of sixth form students attended Oxford University’s fifth annual Climate Forum, the leading student-run conference that brings together top speakers to discuss climate change and raise awareness of one of the most significant challenges facing the whole of society. The conference included a range of lectures, debates and workshops to stimulate discussion. Students were very impressed with the range of talks on offer.
“The forum opened my eyes to how there are so many actions we do every day that have an impact on the environment”
WHAT THE GIRLS THOUGHT “ The forum opened my eyes to how there are so many actions we do every day that have an impact on the environment that we do not even think about. It was amazing to see speakers with so much passion about the future of our planet that they want to invest in young people to change the way we live”.
“I found the Food Security talk fascinating. The current and future situation of food sources and distribution was described as an "emergency". The speakers covered many topics, such as the sustainability of meat production, food wastage, obesity and undernourishment, Genetically Modified food sources as well as the role of governments in regulating the food companies with their so-called "dirty tricks". For instance, I learned that the British government will, as of next week, impose a law that companies must specify the type e.g. "palm oil", rather than just saying "vegetable oil" on a list of ingredients. The panellists discussed how increasing level of transparency between producer and consumer
will benefit us all in finding out more about what goes into our food and where it comes from. This conference was a real eye-opener as to the urgency of the global food conundrum: "What is the future of food?", motivating me to take an active part in this change and become more involved with the choices of food I con-
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INGREDIENTS FOR A BATH BOMB 2 cups of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). 1 cup of cream of tartar. 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or plain oil. food colouring. essential oils (lavender etc) dried lavender. water in a spray bottle.
BATH BOMBS ARE MADE OF CHEMICALS WHICH CAN CAUSE HARM TO THE EYES DURING THEIR CREATION—ALWAYS USE GOGGLES AND SEEK ADVICE FROM A CHEMISTRY TEACHER BEFORE TRYING TO MAKE YOUR OWN AT HOME
BATH BOMBS I have participated in the Eureka Club leading and planning the sessions which has been a fun experience for me. I am a bath bomb addict, so bath bombs have been a subject that I am particularly interested in. Therefore, I started investigating the chemical theories behind it on how the carbonate within the bath bomb reacts with the water and make it fizz. After all the research for the list of ingredients needed, I started an investigation with some U3 girls which led them to create their very own bath bombs. They all enjoyed it a lot and had excited smiles as they observed
U3 discover the chemistry of the bombs
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how the bath bomb fizzes within the water and listened closely to my explanation on what is happening in the reaction. “I am a bath bomb addict”
I think what is most interesting in this project is that it proves that science is within everything we do in daily life and Eureka Club is indeed a newer way to approach it by letting the girls have a hands on experience with some fun science. Etain Au
PAINFULLY BAD
THE SCIENCE OF PAIN The world of anaesthesia and pain medicine was
previously explained that depression can be a side
unveiled to students in April when Dr Peter Cole
effect of pain, so one girl was intrigued to know if
gave a master class on the biology behind why we
depression can induce pain. However, the biggest
feel pain. He discussed and compared nociceptive
question on all of our minds was asked by the fan-
and neuropathic pain symptoms and treatments,
tastic Mrs Quirk – “Do women have a higher pain
including Fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that
threshold than men?” And the answer was......no!
causes pain all over the body.
“ Do women have a higher threshold than men? And the answer was…..no!” He gave us an insight into his typical working week, including his work as an Anaesthetist and pain consultant, and also described his work with plastic surgeons. Everyone was fascinated by what he said, and the images he showed gave us a true insight into life in an operating theatre. We particularly enjoyed the fascinating, but slightly gruesome pictures showing before and after a tumorectomy on a woman’s arm. At the end of the lecture, there were some stimulating questions asked by the girls. Dr Cole had
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Q—WHAT’S THIS GOT TO DO WITH SURFBOARDS?
CRAZY EXPANDING FOAM
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In the expanding foam experiment we made, each bubble was filled with oxygen. The yeast used acted as a catalyst, which speeds up reactions to remove the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide.
a result of that, the bottle got warm, that’s because our experiment created a reaction called an Exothermic Reaction which means it not only created foam, it released heat energy
Since this reaction happened very fast, it created lots of bubbles. As
Markha Mezhieva and Mila Mananolhar L4
SCIENCE ENRICHMENT LECTURE On Wednesday 21st January 2015, it was a privilege to have Professor Helen McShane, Professor of Vaccinology and Wellcome Trust senior Clinical Fellow at Oxford University, visit Headington School to give students a science lecture. The presentation focused on the world leading research on HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and Ebola, titled “Vaccines for old and new pathogens”. It was a precious opportunity to learn more about the scientific background of vaccines. The main theme of the talk was the epidemiology of tuberculosis, which has always been one of the world’s major infectious diseases. It is a challenging task to develop vaccines for TB as Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB, has many different types of strains. The current vaccine may be ineffective with other strains because there are more than 400 types of proteins in the bacteria. Currently, Professor McShane is working on alternative TB treatments such as an inhaled version of TB vaccine. Furthermore, she is one of the leading scientists in the UK who work with people in Africa testing Ebola vaccines using various methods like efficacy and double blind trials.
WHAT’S A VACCINE? Vaccination involves exposing the body’s immune system to a weakened or harmless version of the pathogen in order to stimulate white blood cells to produce antibodies. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. Bacteria can mutate and become resistant to antibiotics. This is one reason why new drugs are constantly being developed.
Prof. McShane “I was really impressed with the girls...their questions were better than I often get from an undergraduate audience”
Ebola Virus
At the end of her speech, students were eager to ask a wide range of questions, concerning how well the consent form for vaccine trials is understood by volunteers despite the high illiteracy rate in South Africa. Questions based on topics in the news were also asked such as the relationship between MMR vaccine and autism. Professor McShane explained all the answers clearly with well supported statistics based on her professional firsthand experience. It was a lovely evening and all the students greatly enjoyed it.
Tuberculosis Virus
Smile 6MC and Charmaine 6JM
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EUREKA SCIENCE CLUB If you would like to become more involved with science outside your normal lessons, then this weekly club gives you an ideal opportunity to do fun science of your own choosing. The club is open to all age groups in the senior school and is essentially run by girls for girls. Staff are merely there to guide you and offer advice about equipment and Health & Safety.
SCIENCE AMBASSADORS
Headington School Oxford Headington Road Oxford OX3 7TD
Phone: 01865 759100 email: enquiries@headington.org email: jmorris@headington.org
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