"That's one small step for the man, one giant leap for mankind"

On the 20th July 1969, the american astronaut called Niel Armstrong was the first person to arrive and stand on the moon. In
that moment is when the famous quote appeared "That's one small step for the man, one giant leap for mankind", quoted by
him. Since then, there has been missions exploring further than the moon, but without anyone inside as we don't know the
dangers outside. This missions have arrived to Mars, Pluto and other planets.
There has also been presentations for children to explain them what happens in these missions and their risks. A writer called
Jeffrey Kluger that explained the history of space exploration and where was headed the next mission. He also explained the
expedition to Pluto and that the NASA was going to try to reach the outer layer of the solar system.

By Christina L. 3º B

How do microbes make ice?

If you’ve ever skied, or ever been in a mountain you've always noticed if the snow is artificial or
not, for some mountains it's unknown, but in other it's very common as there very little snow and
has to be created by canons . To make fresh powder (snow), humans have co-opted a specialized
protein from a bacterium called InaZ that jump-starts the freezing process when water is close to
0°C, but it also has a disadvantage, that added in excess this protein could damage the host
plants.

by Pablo B. 3º B.

Surface older than the centre?

Our planet's outer surface is more than two years older than the center.

In Einstein’s general theory, a clock placed at Earth’s center will tick ever-so-slightly slower than a clock at its surface. Such time shifts are determined by the gravitational potential, a measure of the amount of work it would take to move an object from one place to another would be slightly higher as you are against gravity.

Over the 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history, fractions of a second adds up to a core that’s 2.5 years younger than the planet’s crust, researchers estimate in the May European Journal of Physics. Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman had suggested in the 1960s that the core was younger, but only by a few days.

by Arturo B., Carlos E. & Anne T. 3ºB
and Martina F. 3º Y

Cannabis increases the noise in your brain

A new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, reports that cannabis increases random
neural activity, hear higher noises, in the brains of healthy human subjects. The findings suggest
that increased neural noise may play a role in the psychosis-like effects of cannabis.
"At doses roughly equivalent to half or a single joint, cannabis produced psychosis-like effects and
increased neural noise in humans," explained senior author Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, a Professor
of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.
"The dose-dependent and strong positive relationship between these two findings suggest that the
psychosis-like effects of cannabis may be related to neural noise which disrupts the brain's normal
information processing," added first author Dr. Jose Cortes-Briones, a Postdoctoral Associate in
Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.
Cannabis increases the noise in your brain

Juan F. 3º Yellow

Glass or wood?

Wood is useless for lots of things, for glass too. Lignin is the brownish substance in wood that makes it opaque. It’s made of many small repeating building blocks, Lignin, in turn, bonds tightly to the cellulose and other substances in a plant’s cell walls.

Removing lignin from wood is part of the process of making paper. In general, the more lignin you remove, the whiter the paper becomes.

This opens up many possible new uses for wood. Engineers and architects could use the new material to make large window-like panels that would let lots of natural light into buildings, for example. This might cut down the need for indoor lighting during the day.

Álvaro S. 3º Yellow

Brace yourselves...SUMMER IS COMING!

After a rainy few weeks the sun has decided to reappear over Barcelona, which is great! But it can cause some problems....

Here are some things you should do to help prevent these problems:

1.       Stay hydrated!

In summer it’s hotter and your body needs to cool down. It does this by sweating- the sweat evaporates from your skin and cools you down. You need to drink lots of water to replace the water that you sweat.

If you don’t, your body will become dehydrated, which will give you a headache. If you get severely dehydrated it can damage some of your organs. You don’t want this!

2.       Wear sun cream!

Sunlight contains UV radiation; we need some of this to produce vitamin D to make our bones strong, but too much can cause sun burn. This is bad because sun burn can increase your risk of skin cancer.

Tanning is the melanin in your skin cells turning darker because of the UV radiation, this reduces how much the UV rays can penetrate your skin and potentially damage the DNA in your cells.  Paler people have less melanin, so are more likely to burn.

Sun burn is when your skin has received too much UV radiation and it starts to damage the DNA in the skin cells on the surface.

Sun cream can prevent this from happening. SPF (sun protection factor) is how many times longer you can stay in the sun before you burn. So if you use a low SPF (like factor 15) you need to apply it more often than if you use a high factor (like factor 50). It needs to be applied regularly to work and if you wash it off by going in the sea or in a pool then you should reapply it.

Last year #SunburnTattoo was trending. Don’t do this.... It’s really dangerous and will increase your risk of skin cancer!!

https://www.buzzfeed.com/augustafalletta/people-are-now-purposely-getting-sunburned-for-sunburntattoo?utm_term=.qjXjebd0D#.gijL20zN9

      

Wear sun glasses!

Buy a pair that protects against both UVA and UVB radiation to completely protect your eyes. The retina at the back of your eye can be damaged by exposure to UV radiation, which can cause blindness, so never look directly at the sun- even with sunglasses on!

4      

Wear a hat!

This can stop your head from getting too hot, which could cause heat exhaustion or- worse- sun stroke. The symptoms of heat exhaustion are weakness, nausea, vomiting, feeling light-headed and muscle cramps. This can be treated by going to a cool, shaded place and drinking water or a sports drink. If it is left too long and the body temperature is more than 41ºC it can progress to sun stroke, which is life threatening and needs emergency medical attention.

Follow these rules and you’ll be fully prepared for the summer sun! Happy tanning...

Oak House Science Fair version 3.0

Coming soon to a Bachillerato building near you…….it is the third installment of the Oak House Science Fair.

On Wednesday April 20^th, students of year 7 and 2^nd ESO will present their Science Fair projects that they have been diligently working on for the past 6 months. Parents, students and teachers are all invited to come and see what our students have discovered and learned in their respective research.

Teams of judges comprising of teachers from the Science department and students from 1^st Bachillerato and IB1 will decide whose projects will receive the awards on offer.

The Oak House Science fair is designed to instill research techniques in students from an early age and prepare them for these demands later in their educational career. It is also designed to show students the benefits of a scientific approach to problem solving.

Watch this space next week for more details and clear your diaries for April 20^th!!

Oak House School Science Fair

Estereotips

Hedy Lamarr el 1944

Hedy Lamarr va ser actriu pels volts de la primera meitat del segle XX a Hollywood, resulta que a banda d'actriu era enginyera, i una de les seves patents i idees està integrada dins sistemes de comunicació sense cable (Bluetooth o WiFi).

Ho acabo de llegir.

En una targeta que indica fets curiosos i sorprenents. 

Kaley Cuoco com a Penny a la sèrei Big Bang Theory

En aquest cas és sorprenent per que la imatge més comú d'una actriu és la de Penny a Big Bang Theory, una cara maca amb pocs coneixements tècnics i científics. De fet durant les primeres temporades pràcticament era l'únic personatge femení de la sèrie. Els nois també representaven estereotips de físics o d'enginyers, però això és prou comú en les sèries d'humor, ajuda a situar als personatges.

El problema dels estereotips és que, quan són prou estesos, ens fan jutjar algú abans de conèixer-lo, i ja ens predisposa a alguns comportaments, i el que potser és pitjor, a vegades poden allunyar a algunes persones d'algunes professions.

Que una dona fes contribucions a l'enginyeria als anys 40 no era gaire habitual, ni gaire fàcil, tenint en compte la societat d'aquella època. Avui en dia continuent sent minoria, ja que per algun motiu, el percentatge de dones a la majoria de les carreres tècniques és inferior al d'homes. Moltes universitats estan fent campanyes i estudis per intentar modificar aquesta tendència. 

IGCSE Combined Science

3rd ESO sit one of their IGCSEs in preparation for the many IGCSEs they will sit in 4^th ESO.

This exam is in Combined Science. This subject looks at the fundamental aspects of the three Sciences: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Studying for Combined Science and sitting the external IGCSE exam gives our students a great foundation from which they can build on in subsequent years of scientific study.

As part of the syllabus and exam procedure, students must prepare to sit a 1.5 hour practical exam in which they have to carry out three experiments in each of the three Sciences. In preparation for this, the students sat a mock (practice) practical exam recently to get used to what an exam like this entails. Some of the students did very well and all of the students have taken some very valuable lessons from this exam.

The actual exam is on Thursday May 12^th so wish them luck.

Here are some of the students in action during their mock practical exam.