All posts by Clare

The Science of Baking: Bread

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With the Great British Bake-Off gracing our TV screens once more, we’ve decided to dig a little deeper into the science behind baking. What makes bread rise? What makes cake light and fluffy? Why do we love all things sugary and baked so much? All of these questions and more will be scientifically answered in our newest series of blog posts. Neuroscience student and Social Media Intern, Charlie Wilkinson is starting us off with the science of bread…giphy-2.gifIf you’ve watched the bake off then you’ve definitely experienced the beauty of watching 12 British bakers pounding dough into the bench like it’s an olympic sport. But what’s actually going on here besides taking your BBC/Channel 4-related-aggressions out on some innocent bread.

Bread is the product of key basic ingredients including flour, yeast, water and salt. The process of making bread involves mixing these ingredients together until the flour converts into a stiff paste, this initial mixing allows for the development of gluten as the dough becomes stretchy and elastic. The type of flour again is important with breads using strong white bread flour due to the high protein content for a strong dough.

Following GBBO bread week to the next stage of rising, as the bread is covered and left to prove. This fermentation process allows gluten proteins to stick together forming networks, and the yeast cells grow. Yeast cells break down sugars using enzymes into water and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide gas is retained in the dough allowing for the dough to expand and double in size. Some breads require two bouts of kneading and proving to form the perfect bread.

During the actual baking process the heat of the oven penetrates the dough leading to rapid formation of air bubbles as fermentation increased. The heat increases the activity of the yeast to form more air until a point at which the heat kills the yeast cells and air formation stops. High temperatures also cause gluten strands to transform into sex-rigid strands which give bread its crumb-like structure. Sugars blend together and brown to form the colour of the bread crust during ‘browning reactions’.

So the next time you’re watching bake off with your friends and family you can delight and entertain with your extensive knowledge of breads.

The Basics of Alzheimer’s Disease

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Today is World Alzheimer’s Day, a day to raise awareness for a disease that is likely to affect 1 million people in the UK by the year 2025. To mark the day, our Social Media Intern and Neuroscience student, Charlie Wilkinson has written a guest post for us:

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating neurodegenerative condition involving the death of nerve cells (neurones) in the brain, and the subsequent break down of communication between synapses.

Affecting millions worldwide, Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia in the elderly, affecting 850,000 people in the UK alone. The disease is associated with serious cognitive decline, including typical memory and language impairment. The disease has now overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in women.

The biological mechanisms that underpin the development of Alzheimer’s Disease can be boiled down to the formation of plaques, and tangles. The development of the condition is a result of faulty mechanisms in the brain for the breakdown of a specific protein.

Plaques 

Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)  is a protein found abundantly in the brain, stuck in the membranes of neurones. The function of the protein is largely unknown, but the way this protein is broken down is the critical early event in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Proteins like APP are made up of many small units known as amino acids; enzymes have the ability to break down proteins by cutting at specific amino acid sites. If the APP protein is cut by one enzyme (alpha), the protein that’s formed is healthy and soluble. If however, APP is cleaved by another enzyme (beta), the protein that’s formed is diseased and insoluble. This diseased protein is known as beta-amyloid.

As more of this beta-amyloid protein is formed, the proteins start to stick together or aggregate, forming senile plaques. Although the way these plaques cause damage isn’t fully understood, it is theorised that the body reacting to the plaques with an inflammatory response leads to damage of neuronal cells in the brain, which is the typical symptom of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Tangles

The other proteins typically associated with Alzheimer’s Disease are neurofibrillary tangles. Tangles are formed through twisted fibres, formed as small protein units called ‘tau’ which stick together inside neurones.

The tau proteins are usually associated with the transport system inside these cells – nutrients are important for the function of these nerve cells, and transport systems supported by tau are important in moving nutrient and other supplies around the cell.

When tangles form using tau proteins, these transport systems essentially malfunction meaning nutrients and other essential products can’t be transported around the cell and the cell starts to die.

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, and treatments can only target the cognitive decline and other symptoms associated with the disease. Treatments for the condition, however, are becoming ever more effective targeting different aspects of the disease. The determination of researchers to develop treatments to reduce the burden of the disease in sufferers, is encouraging for the future of Alzheimer’s disease.

The 21st September 2017 is world Alzheimer’s day. For more information about Alzheimer’s Disease and to find out how you can help combat this illness visit the Alzheimer’s Society here.

 

#TryThisTuesday: Virtual Treasure Hunt

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To celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day we have put together a virtual treasure hunt that you can do from a phone or computer.

For this treasure hunt you will need to solve clues to find co-ordinates to the next stop . The first three people to make it to the end of the hunt will win the treasure of a Street Science Busking Kit which is filled with equipment to make amazing science demonstrations at home!

Using Co-ordinates

Geographic co-ordinates allow every place on Earth to be identified with a set of numbers. The system that we’re using for this treasure hunt gives every point a latitude number and a longitude number.

If you were to draw a line from your point on the globe into the centre of the Earth and another from the centre of the Earth to the Equator, the angle between these two lines gives you the Latitude.

Longitude is measured slightly differently.  There is an invisible line running from the North Pole to the South Pole through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, known as the Prime Meridian.  All points along this line have the longitude 0. The longitude of other points are calculated as the angle east or west from the Prime Meridian.

So Newcastle Upon Tyne, where we’re starting our treasure hunt from, has the co-ordinates 54.97, -1.61 because it is 54.97 degrees from the Equator and 1.61 degrees to the west of the Prime Meridian. Going west of the Prime Meridian or south of the Equator gives the co-ordinate a negative value.

 

The Treasure Hunt

Try to solve the clues to find the co-ordinates for the next place. Once you’ve got co-ordinates type them into Google maps (just like this: 54.97, -1.61 with latitude first) and make a note of where you’ve got to.

This will test your research skills as well as your maths skills, feel free to use Wikipedia and a calculator.

Destination One

The latitude for the first place is 57.14 divided by the number of universities in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

The longitude is  equal to 10 – 90.65.

Where are you?

 

Destination Two

To find the latitude of our second destination, take the last two digits of the year the first man walked on the moon, half this number then add 3.32

The longitude can be found by taking the year Newcastle University became independent from Durham University away from the year that the oldest part of the university (the School of Medicine and Surgery) was established and adding 6.52.

What amazing feat of engineering are you near?

 

Destination Three

For the latitude of our next place, take away 3.1 from the distance that Destination Two stretches in miles.

The longitude can calculated by the number of different countries that students at Newcastle University have come from divided by -2.

Which wondrous forest have we arrived at?

 

Destination Four

The latitude of this place can be uncovered by multiplying the number of countries that share Destination Three by 5 then adding 1.234

The longitude is equal to the number of reptile species that have been discovered in our previous destination divided by 63 then add 0.053

What amazing discoveries were made here?

 

Destination Five

The above place is often known by an abbreviation of four letters. If you convert these letters to numbers (eg. a=1, b=2, c=3 etc.) and square the second number, then add 0.197 you will have the latitude of our next  destination.

To find the longitude, convert the first letter of the abbreviation to a number and take this away from 58.274.

Which incredible man made structure are you looking at now?

 

Destination Six

For the latitude of our final place – where the treasure is buried – you will need to divide the total height of the structure we just saw (in metres) by -46.1.

To find the longitude, simply take away 16 from the number of floors in this structure.

Where is our treasure buried?

If you think you’ve cracked it, either send us an email to stem@ncl.ac.uk or comment below with the six places the co-ordinates led you to!

 

#TryThisTuesday: Rice Bottle

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Our #TryThisTuesday this week, is a challenge for you. The task is to fill a dry bottle with rice and lift it up using only a pencil.

Have a go or challenge your friends, once you think you’ve cracked it (or given up) scroll down to see how we did it!

The Solution

Take the lid off the bottle and push the pencil half way into the rice. Take the pencil out again and push it back in, repeat this about 10 times. Eventually, when you pull the pencil to take it out, the bottle will lift up with it!

This occurs due to the force of friction acting on the pencil and holding it in place. When you first pour the rice into the bottle, it will arrange itself with lots of gaps but every time you insert the pencil you push the rice down making it more compact or dense. Some grains may even break or change shape under impact with your pencil. The more you do this, the greater the surface area of rice that comes into contact with the pencil. This gives a greater force of friction. Friction is a force of resistance between two objects when they  move past each other. The force is so strong at this point that it doesn’t allow the pencil to slip past the rice and so the rice (and the bottle) moves with the pencil as you lift it.

In the Real World…

This works in a similar way to quicksand. If you were to step onto quicksand, you would compact the particles, making them move closer together and lock around your foot, pulling you in. The friction makes it difficult for you to pull your foot out. Don’t worry too much though – quicksand is much denser than a human being so you wouldn’t be able to completely sink in it. As we learnt from our ketchup packet submarine and the oil and water experiment – less dense substances float above denser substances so you would stay above the surface of quicksand!

Your Questions Answered!

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As we have reached the end of the school year, here is a little round up of some of our favourite questions that children have asked us during STEM workshops.

1. Why doesn’t the energy ball give you an electric shock?

The energy ball is a little device we have that looks like a ping pong ball with two metal strips on top. Inside there is a light, a buzzer and a battery. If two people touch one metal strip each and then with their other hands touch each other, the ball lights up and buzzes. This works because we are conductors of electricity – electrons from the battery flow through us and back into the ball to complete the circuit.

The reason you don’t feel a shock when touching the energy ball because there isn’t enough electricity flowing through you to be able to feel it, and certainly not enough to harm you!

2. What do plants poo and wee? – St Wilfrids, Blyth

All living things have seven things in common – movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition. The sixth one, excretion, is a scientific word for producing waste. In humans, and many animals, that is our poo and our wee. They are the leftover waste products that our body doesn’t need so gets rid of.

Plants are living things, just like us, but you may have noticed they don’t poo or wee like we do. Rather than eat food like us, they make their own through photosynthesis. This produces a waste gas called oxygen which we breath in. Plants excrete oxygen rather than poo or wee.

3. Why does the moon control the sea? – Grange First School

Gravity is the force that keeps us close to the Earth, all really big things like planets and stars have a gravitational pull that attracts things near by. Because the moon is so big and so close to Earth it has quite a strong gravitational pull on our planet. The moon causes the water in the oceans facing it to pull towards it, resulting in a high tide. The pull of the sun’s gravity and the Earth’s own gravity also have an effect on the tides.

4. I’m the only one who can touch their nose with their tongue, is that because of my genes? – St Marys, Jarrow

Touching your nose with your tongue is known as Gorlin’s Sign. It is associated with a genetic disorder but not everyone that can do it has the disorder. About 10% of people without the disorder can touch their nose with their tongue and it does not appear to be due to genes you have inherited from your parents.

5. Why do we get goosebumps? – Billingham South Community School

We often get goosebumps when we’re cold, but they don’t do much to help us warm up, so why do we get them? Before we evolved to be modern humans, our ancestors were much hairier, we they got cold, getting goosebumps would cause their hairs to stand on end. As they had much more hair than us, they were able to trap a layer of air in the hair by doing this, providing them with extra insulation to keep them warm.

Although goosebumps are no longer helpful to us, we haven’t lost the trait through evolution because it doesn’t harm us. Therefore if a person was born with a mutation in their genes meaning they didn’t get goosebumps, they wouldn’t be at an advantage because of it so the non-goosebump genes wouldn’t necessarily be passed on more than the goosebump genes.

 

If you have any STEM related questions that you would like us to answer, just leave a comment in the box below!

#TryThisTuesday: Cup Drop

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For the week’s science demonstration, you will need a metal mug or screw, a pencil and string.

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  1. Tie one end of your string onto the handle of the mug and the other to your bolt.
  2. Hold onto the screw and pick up your pencil with your other hand.
  3. Lift up the string with the pencil and hold it about half way along the string, on the same level as the screw, allowing the cup hang down.

What do you think will happen from this position if you let go off the screw?

You may think that the cup will simply fall to the floor due to the pull of gravity and the string will pull the screw along, leaving you holding a pencil mid-air.

In reality, nothing (hopefully) hits the floor. You are right in thinking, gravity wants to pull the cup down, but it also wants to pull the screw down too. As the cup begins to drop it pulls the string, pulling the screw in towards the pencil, as the screw is being pulled from two directions it ends up swinging towards them. As it has a bit of weight behind it, it builds up enough momentum to go around the pencil a few times, wrapping the string around it.

So now the string is wrapped around the pencil and the cup still hasn’t dropped. If you try to pull the screw now, you’ll see why. It’s difficult to move the string. This is due to the force of friction. Friction is a force that occurs between two objects, it is the resistance that occurs when they move over each other. As the string is wrapped around the pencil a few times, there is a larger area of string touching the pencil, so a greater force of friction. This keeps the string in place to stop it sliding off, allowing the cup to hit the floor.

Try this out with your family and friends, see if you they can guess it correctly!

Interview with a Scientist: Justin, Biologist

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This week we interviewed Justin, a biologist who has recently started working on a PhD looking into the microbes in woodland soils and how they relate to essential processes such as decomposition.phd

Why is your research important?

There is a lack of current understanding of woodland soils, which are really important and we rely on them a lot so we need to have a strong understanding of them to be able to care for them effectively.

What did you do before starting your PhD?

I had a year out before starting my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of York. During this year I travelled to America and volunteered at a bat hospital. During my first degree I had a placement year working a Kew Gardens. I helped on the millennium seed bank project which aims to conserve rare seeds from plants that are at risk of extinction.

I stayed at the University of York  for my Masters Degree, but also went to Uganda in this year to study the distribution of tropical birds for my masters research. I’ve just started my first year of my PhD.

How did you decide on PhD?

I have always been interested in networks in nature, like food webs, for example. It happened that my PhD supervisor is an expert in this area so it was a great chance for me to learn more about networks.

justinWhat advice would you give to someone wanting to study at university?

Do and see as much as you can, take part in lots of different actvities and volunteer. Have a broad range of interests, not only does it look good on a CV or personal statement but it can help you discover what you want to do and it’ll help you make lots of friends once you get to uni.

What was your favourite part of university?

Meeting new people, trying new things. I tried out things like caving and scuba diving while I was at uni – things that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

Whats the best thing about being a PhD student?

Freedom learn about the things that I find interesting.

What do you plan to do in the future?

Continue to investigate how we can understand complex links between species.

Has university helped you get where you want to be?

Definitely – uni is where I want to be.

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#TryThisTuesday: Milky Fireworks

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For this week’s experiment you will need to raid your fridge and kitchen cupboards to get some milk, food colouring and washing up liquid.

Pour some milk into a dish or bowl, this works better with full fat milk (we’ll tell you why later!). Add small drops of your food colouring wherever you like in the milk.

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Get some washing up liquid on the end of a spoon or cotton bud and gently tap the spots of food colouring with it. 20170509_143248

The food colouring should burst out into colourful stars and wavy shapes. This happens because the washing up liquid molecules have a hydrophobic tail, these means that they don’t like water so try to get away from it by seeking fat molecules. The milk (especially if it is full fat milk) contains lots of fat molecules. So the washing up liquid moves around in the milk seeking out this fat and takes the food colouring along with it, creating these funky patterns.

This is why we use washing up liquid to clean our dishes. The hydrophobic, fat-loving parts cling to grease and fat. The head of the washing up molecules are hydrophilic, meaning they love water. The heads cling to the water and the tails cling to the grease, this pulls the grease and dirt from your plates and washes them away with the water, giving you sparkly clean dishes.

 

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough!

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Today is Sir David Attenborough’s 91st birthday. To celebrate, we’ve written a poem looking back at his extraordinary life and hoping that someday we can follow in his footsteps.

Born in London in 1926,
He’s since won the hearts of all the Brits.
David didn’t always know all about the wild,
But his interest was sparked as a young child.
In fact, he was very much in the dark,
Until that thrilling day at Bradgate Park
When he discovered his first fossil,
Which led to a future so colossal.

In the 1950s came David’s first TV show,0e8396605fcd34cdf9f9c8d11c909679
All over the world, the team would go.
The programme was called zoo quest,
And today may have caused a protest
As it saw David catching animals for London zoo
Anteaters, chimps and rare birds too.

David soon stopped taking  these creatures
And helped conserve their wonderful features.
He showed us the magical Great Barrier Reef
And little ants that cut up and carry a leaf
To feed it to something big and fungal.
He also took us into the depths of the jungle
To see the great apes and what a thriller,
When he cuddled that huge gorilla!

David searched for a dragon on the isle of Komodo
And uncovered the secrets of the extinct dodo.
He took us to the arctic for polar bears in the snow
And in the dark showed us worms that glow.
And who can forget that time in the cave,
When a bat flew into the face or Sir Dave.

pervianfrogLook at all the species named after you,
A dragonfly, Peruvian frog and echidna too,
There’s also the goblin spider and Namibian lizard,
David Attenborough- a true ecological wizard.
Then there’s Boaty McBoat Face – what a boat,
Now named for you, lets hope it forever floats.

From showing us delightful animals on screen,
To being knighted by the Queen.
You’ve travelled the breadth of the Earth,
Now let’s celebrate the day of your birth.
So let’s have a slice of birthday battenberg,
Here’s to you Sir David Attenborough!

#TryThisTuesday: Cork Balancing

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Today we’re challenging you to balance a cork on its round side, on the very end of your finger, whilst keeping your finger straight. 20161018_163129_resized

Could you manage it?

It’s quite tricky, but here’s a hint: two forks could help you out.

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Have you figured it out yet? Remember the cork must be balanced on your finger not the forks.

The solution is to stick the forks into either side of the cork. You should then be able to easily balance it on the end of your finger.

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There are two reasons this works. Firstly the forks add weight to the object you’re trying to balance. Because the ends of the forks hang below your finger, it lowers the centre of mass so that it sits underneath your finger, increasing the stability.

Secondly, adding the forks extends the object. By making it longer, the centre point is also stretched making it easier to locate so easier to balance the object. This is why tight-rope walkers often have long poles to help them balance.

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