Posted by
in Radio

 

You are surrounded by science. It’s literally everywhere! If you look carefully you will find plenty of scientific questions just looking around!

How do cats land on their feet? Why don’t the waves from microwave escape through the front glass? How were post-it notes invented?

We will give you some easy answers to all these difficult questions on Fridays at 10:30 on ‘The Show With no name’, with Alberto Alonso at Vaughan Radio.

While waiting until Friday you can check out some podcasts and scripts from last shows.

Shedka on the radio

Holiday Science

Posted by
in Radio
If you are going on holidays don’t forget science will go with you whenever you are!   Why do some drinks sweat?   When it’s hot outside and you are drinking in a terrace you just have to wait 5 minutes to feel that the glass is wet on the outside. Tiny drops of moisture have formed on the outside of the glass like the sweat on your forehead. You knew it was hot out, but is your glass really sweating? Not quite! It may look like sweat, but that’s water on the outside of your glass. But how did it get there? Did it just magically appear out of thin air? Actually, it did come right out of the air, but there’s nothing magical about it. It’s all science! The scientific name for what happened is condensation. Whether...

Surprising inventions from war

Posted by
in Radio, Uncategorized
Since its earliest days, science has been associated with war. The inventors Archimedes and Leonardo turned their talents to the problems of fighting. If I ask you what technological advances we owe to war (and cold war) you would probably think of all kind of weapons, tanks, planes or even nuclear bombs. But there are some inventions with a military background that you didn’t know. Until know.   Sanitary Napkins   Everybody get shock the first time they know something as girly as sanitary napkins was originate during an arm conflict when war is so a masculine thing. But you will understand it as soon as you think how massive wounds can be on battlefield. It’s logical that the most effective bandage were develop in order to help the soldiers. The girls started taking advantage of the invention when...

Summer science

Posted by
in Radio
HAZ CLICK AQUÍ PARA VER EN ESPAÑOL There are plenty of curious scientific facts outside in the middle of the summer when it’s warm and sunny. We are so surrounded of so much science you look at without giving it a think.   How does sunscreen work? In every sunscreen bottle you will find the acronym SPF followed by a number. SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor and indicates how long it will take for UVB rays to redden skin when using a sunscreen, compared to how long skin would take to redden without the product. For example, an SPF of 15 would allow you to stay in the sun 15 times longer than you could without protection. So, if your skin starts to redden in 20 minutes without sun block, applying a product with SPF 15 increases that...

Is Murphy’s law real?

Posted by
in Radio
HAZ CLICK AQUÍ PARA VER EN ESPAÑOL When things don’t turn out as we expected there is always somebody that says: “that’s Murphy’s law”… because, according to this law, if anything can go wrong, it will. Where does this idea come from? Edward Aloysius Murphy was an aerospace engineer. It was in 1949 when his assistant connected all the electrodes of a safety-critical system wrongly, so all the measures were wrong. Since then, this pessimistic law shows up every time it rains… because there is always somebody who washed his car or the windows the day before But all the bad luck we claim to be Murphy’s has a scientific explanation.   Science behind Murphy’s law   You may think things never come out the way you want, but that’s because you picture an ideal, perfect, unique and therefore...

What if…?

Posted by
in Radio
What if everyone jumped at once?   When you jump nothing seems to happen to the Earth… but what if, you gather some friends, and what if, you were so nice everybody literally like you and wish to meet you just for the experiment of jumping together. There are tons of us! we share the planet with 7 billion other people, so… what would happen if we met with literally everybody to jump at once? First things first… where should we meet? Where do we all fit? If the whole humanity lived with the same density there is in New York we could fit in the Iberian Peninsula. If we stood shoulder to shoulder we could all fit into an area the size of London. So ok… let’s imagine we all meet in London and jump together.   My...

Urban myths

Posted by
in Radio, Uncategorized
Does Turning Fluorescent Lights Off Use More Energy Than Leaving Them On?   It’s usually said that letting the fluorescent on when you are leaving the kitchen only for a few minutes saves energy. Is this true? Turning a fluorescent light on requires more energy than keeping it on. The energy used during to turn the fluorescent on equals 23.3 seconds of regular use. So, in terms of energy letting the lights on pays off only if you are Fernando Alonso and you left the kitchen in order to change the tires of your F1. Other lights need even less energy in comparison: Switching.on Time on (seconds)   Incandescent bulb 0.36 Compact fluorescent 0.015 Halogen bulb 0.51 LED bulb 1.28 Fluorescent tube 23.3   But you may be thinking, what about the wear and tear of the fluorescent tube?...

Is mom always right?

Posted by
in Radio
Sometimes it looks like moms gather secretly to decide what is the next thing they will say to their kids. If you are Spanish your mom certainty says to you: Drink your juice or it will lose its vitamins.   Every mom will explain you that fresh orange juice should be drunk immediately after oranges are squeezed because else it will ‘lose its vitamins’ Like vitamins were little creatures that run away when you are spreading the jam on your toast! Orange juice is indeed a source of vitamin C (Also known as ascorbic acid) that oxidizes when it gets in contact with the oxygen in the air. The question is… is this oxidation as fast as our mothers say? Should I drink the juice directly from the squeezer?   It is not. If you and your juice are at room...

Science on cartoons

Posted by
in Radio
HAZ CLICK AQUÍ PARA VER EN ESPAÑOL Science is fun and cartoon producers know it. There is a scientist character in many cartoons. In Dexter’s laboratory a scientist is the main character and in the Powerpuff girls Professor Utonium is the responsible of the girls having superpowers. Although it’s more common to find the scientist to be a secondary character and the perfect excuse to show a bizarre invention! That’s the case of professor Frink on The Simpsons, professor Hubert on Futurama or professor Bacterio on Mort & Phil. But even in cartoons where there is no scientist character we can learn plenty of stuff about science. SCOOBY-DOO There is something very important to learn from Scooby-Doo. Every episode begins with our four teenagers and their dog discovering that something paranormal is happening and every episode finishes explaining somebody...

How much does a shadow weigh?

Posted by
in Radio
Weighing light staff   Have you ever found difficult to weigh something because it is too light? Recipes know this can be a trouble and that’s why you will read 100 ml of milk or 150 g of flour but you will find a pinch of salt instead of 2 g because recipes know the scale you have at home is unable to weigh that little.   There are many things that you cannot weigh with your regular scale… like a post-it, a feather or a pin. You would need a precision scale for that. There are other things that are even more difficult to weigh, like air.   Does air weigh at all?   Yes it does! It’s vey light though and you will need some stuff to do it in your kitchen. Do you want to try? You can do...