Should Kepler 452b be hexagonal?

Some more information about Kepler from Oliver but this is about the man whose name was used for the Earth like planet Henrik told us about. Can anyone tell me if there are 451 others, and why b?

Hexagonal packing

In 1610 a man called Johannes Kepler, better known for his laws of planetary motion, was walking across the Charles Bridge in Prague when a snowflake fell on the lapel of his coat. This made him wonder why if all snowflakes are different they still have a six sided structure, he wrote in a paper ‘There must be a cause why snow has the shape of a six-cornered starlet.’  Kepler realised that this had to have something to do with nature making them that way on purpose. He also noticed hexagons in other aspects of nature such as bee hives and pomegranates. He named this hexagonal packing and referred to it like so: ‘hexagonal packing must be the tightest possible, so that in no other arrangement could more pellets be stuffed into the same container.’ Kepler’s work was eventually proved almost 400 years later by a 1990s supercomputer. Despite the time lag Kepler’s work did eventually lead to the discovery of DNA, just because he saw a snowflake. 

By Oliver

Thinking of moving?

Henrik may have found a nice place but it might take a while to get there!

Earth 2.0

Kepler 452b or better known as Earth 2.0 is the most ‘Earth like planet’ Nasa has discovered.

Although the planet is far too far away to photograph, advanced Nasa technology means we know a surprising amount about this 'New Earth'

Kepler 452b is possibly the right temperature to allow liquid water to exist on the surface - as far as we know, this is essential for supporting life.

The new planet is slightly larger than Earth, and is estimated to have twice the gravitational pull of our own planet. However, according to the scientists on the Kepler team, this doesn't mean it couldn't support life.
The planet's star, Kepler 452, is slightly bigger than our own Sun. The added light and heat energy that the planet receives from the star not only means it is slightly warmer than Earth, but could also mean that plant life could thrive there.
Theres only one problem …it is 1,400 light years away from earth

By Henrik

Here is some more information on Kepler452b

Does green smell like toothpaste? This may be why.

Synesthesia

What is it?

• Synesthesia is a neurological condition where senses intermingle. It is when one sense for example, hearing, is perceived as something else in another sense for example taste. It can occur with all senses, however the most common type is colour-letter synesthesia. 

• The word synesthesia comes from the Greek words syn (together) and aisthesis (perception) therefore it means joined perception. 

• It is most common in women and left handed people. It is also common that it is inherited from another member of your family. 

• Synesthetes do not think about the perception, it just happens. If you have a form of taste synesthesia they tend to be childhood flavours, like ice cream, not adult flavours, like olives or coffee.

Case study

A man called James Wannerton is an example of synesthesia. James Wannerton has a type of synesthesia, which means he can taste sounds. It doesn’t affect every word or word sound, although he thinks it could if he allowed it.

He realized he had synesthesia when he was a boy and was travelling to school. He found that having synesthesia helped him remember things. For example, in history Anne Boleyn tasted of pear drops. He connected most British monarchs with a specific taste making it easier for him to remember facts and events. 

Now that he is older he finds that having synesthesia helps him to remember his way to work, because all of the train stops have a different taste.

Jamie Ward has further studied James’ case using brain-scanning techniques. He said, ”when we’ve asked him to think about words that have good and less palatable tastes to him, we see many parts of the brain light up, including areas associated with taste, emotional processing and mental imagery.”

Currently there is no cure for synesthesia and some of those who experience it say even if there was , they wouldn’t want to change it.

  Here is a picture of James Wannerton 

This is James’ version of the tube map and how the tube stops taste, when he hears them read out.

By Rosanna Wrigglesworth 

The first 7N/8S piece of holiday work

Those 7N students who are destined for 8S have the opportunity to do a little science investigation or research this holiday. I have encouraged them to find out about something in a theoretical or practical way and here is the first piece that has arrived in my inbox.

The Quark

The quark not to be confused with the dairy product quark but the quark is an elementary particle. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons. Quarks can never be found directly in isolation they can be found only within hadrons, such as baryons and mesons. Quarks have various intrinsic properties including, electrical charge, mass, colour change and spin. Quarks are the only elementary particles in the standard model of particle physics to experience all four fundamentals interactions which are electromagnetism, gravitation, strong interaction, weak interaction. There are six types of quarks, up, down, strange, charm, top and bottom. Up and down quarks have the lowest masses of all the quarks, for every quark there is a corresponding antiparticle, known as an antiquark. The quark model was proposed by physicists Murray Gell – Mann and George Zweig. 

By Zuhayr

An interesting piece from Zuhayr, it certainly helps us to understand more about the particles that the LHC in Cern is flinging around in massive circles and then crashing into other things. Interestingly I had never heard of the dairy quark but googled it and found out all about the "naturally fat free and a brilliantly versatile dairy ingredient that's great for cooking, mixing and baking."

IRP

8S 2015/16

Some holiday work for you.

Think of something scientific. It could be anything that interests you or something topical, maybe in the news recently. Find out something about it or do an investigation or experiment of some sort.
Once you have done something write it up in an email to me at my school email address and I'll put it on the blog here That way you can see what everyone is doing. Have a look at the blog entries from July and August 2013 to see what the 7N/8S from two years ago did when I last set this challenge.
Good luck and keep investigating, but remember keep safe.
IRP

Year 6 Separate Mixtures

Year 6 have been learning about separations in our recent Science lessons. This topic allowed them to do lots of practical work.

We started out with some simple techniques such as sieving and using a magnet.

Then they learnt about solubility and used this to help separate mixtures.

Field studies

We have been making the most of the nice weather and have managed to get outside to cover some field studies in our recent Science lessons. 

Year 5 have set pitfall traps and identified small invertebrates found in the grounds.

Year 7 have been using quadrats to look at the relationship between the population of buttercups and the distance from trees.