Hello there my carbon-based friends,
Well what a fantastic crowd you were this morning! Thank you for making me feel so welcome… and how brilliant was that Welcome to Country and super-charged introduction by Julie? Superb.
As promised, here are the links to all the bits and pieces I spoke about. For those of you who are keen for a school visit, please click here for more info about my program.
It was an absolute privilege and super fun treat to speak to you all, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if I’ve sparked your curiosity and you’re keen to know more about how your body works, where to get liquid nitrogen and dry ice or any other questions you might have.
All the best and see you soon!
Ruben
INTRO SLIDES:
ABC Science Online – Surfing Scientist website lesson plans, teacher demos, conundrums
THE SCIENCE OF WEIGHT LOSS
When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go? British Medical Journal paper
TEDxQUT – The Mathematics of Weight Loss my 2013 TEDx talk at the Queensland University of Technology
How much carbon do you exhale per day? Instagram video
8700.com.au this is the NSW Government website I used to balance my diet – oh and, btw, counting calories (kilojoules) is the perfect proxy for counting carbon atoms, because the energy in food is what holds those food atoms together
SOME SUPER EASY AND SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS
Tumblewing Gliders and other flying and twirling things
Apollo 15 Hammer-Feather Drop NASA website, but also available on YouTube
M&M’s / Smarties / Skittles Experiment Play School clip with the full explanation of what’s really going on
Toothpick Star there are so many great excuses to do this “experiment”
Albert Einstein (BBC Biography) a great introduction to the boy, the man and his epoch-changing discoveries
Fun Fly Stick by Unitech Toys (available on eBay, Amazon and many more)
Accelerometer App by Phonelabs.net
How does your smartphone’s accelerometer chip work? by Bosch
Reflector this is the wireless smartphone mirroring app I was using, by AirSquirrels (it’s usually faultless if your WiFi connection is reliable)
LASERS
Laser Danger ABC TV Catalyst story about the dangers of laser pointers
Lasers and tattoos ABC TV Catalyst story about tattoos and laser tattoo removal
NSW Police Laser Law info about NSW laser pointer laws
Restrictions on importing lasers Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Border Protection
QLD ‘POLAIR’ Helicopter Video 25yo Inala, Brisbane man shining laser at police helicopter
Laser Safety ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection & Nuclear Safety Agency)
Laser pointers not toys! 15yo Tasmanian boy who lost 75% of vision
Laser holograms femtosecond lasers could make Star Wars holograms come true
Safe way to pop a balloon inside a balloon with sunlight + magnifying glass version
YOUTUBE SCIENCE CHANNELS TO SPARK YOUR CURIOSITY
V-Sauce fascinating concepts beautifully explained by Michael Stevens
Minute Physics brilliant fast, short, sharp animations by Henry Reich
Veritasium demos, experiments, interviews by Derek Muller
Numberphile excellent short films all about mathematics by Brady Harran
Periodic Videos chemistry videos from the Uni of Nottingham by Brady Harran
Smarter Every Day all kinds of science by Tara Sandlin
The King of Random some very dangerous demos and experiments by Grant Thomson
The Slo Mo Guys amazing slow motion videos by Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy
Thank you very much for presenting such an amazing talk for us yesterday! I learned a lot as a pre-service early childhood teacher.
This is music to my eyes… thank you Scarlett and keep up the wonderfully important work!
Thank you for a wonderful presentation but a bit off track, I was wondering, they always say drink lots of water and I was wondering if you lose weight doing this as it upsets the molecular structure of fat having only hydrogen and oxygen?
Good question Carole,
Fats and oils (both just triglycerides with different melting points) don’t react with water and are not soluble in it. Therefore, water has no effect on the molecular structure of a fat molecule. Fats and oils are less dense, which is why they always float on top of water. Drinking lots of water has no direct effect on the amount of fat stored in the body… it just makes you go to the toilet more often. I hope that helps, but please let me know if you’d like any more info.