Today’s Ask A Scientist is half interview, half Q&A. Sophie Alexander talks about her job as a research assistant in the field of clinical psychology, and then delves into the murky waters of how our brains work!
Have you ever heard the saying ‘oil and water don’t mix’? Well, today Lahiru and Malinthi are going to demonstrate that this is absolutely true – and sometimes, very beautiful to look at. I love this experiment, and the way the different coloured food dyes start off making an ugly brown mess in the oil before separating out like upside-down fireworks!
Dr Lahiru Gangoda is a cancer researcher and a member of Team WEHI. Her research is on finding better ways to treat skin cancer. Don’t forget wear your sun screen! You can read more about Lahiru here.
Malinthi is in grade 6. She loves science and looking after the environment. She is the Science captain and the Green-house vice-captain at her school. Malinthi is also part of the space-wattle team at her school. Her school will be receiving some Golden Wattle seeds (Australia’s national floral emblem) that has been on board the International Space station for the last 6 months. The space-wattle team will plant and looks after these seeds that has spent time in space.
*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment!*
You will need:
Today’s questions about space are a little bit less about standing on the ground looking up, and a bit more about getting into space ourselves. The answers are brought to you by AC, who is not an astronaut, despite wanting to be one until about year 10, when she realised she was going to be too short. (Who knew there were height limits on rockets?). Also, Australia STILL doesn’t have a space program, which she finds really annoying…
Have you ever heard of Citizen Science? It’s when members of the general public – you, for example! – become part of the grand project of better understanding our world. While science is about learning and making discoveries and hopefully using them to make the world a better place, you can’t do science without data.
Collecting data can be about doing experiments and seeing what the results are. But for some projects, particularly the ones that aim to understand our environment, or the effects of climate change, or the habits and habitats of our native animals, collecting data is about making observations. Looking at things. Listening to things. Writing down what you notice.
Sometimes, we have a lot of data, but not enough people to look at it – perhaps we have a audio recorder set up in a particular area, listening for bird noises, but we need some more pairs of ears to listen to the recordings and mark where and when the noises are being made. Or perhaps there are camera traps set up to track wildlife in a particular area – but we need some more pairs of eyes to look at the photos and sort out the bandicoots from the housecats.
Sometimes, we don’t have the data yet, and we need some more pairs of hands to help us collect it. Perhaps we are tracking the movement of koalas, and need people to take photos of any koalas they see on their daily walks. Or maybe we want to look at water purity, and we need people to take photos of the rivers and seas and creeks near them, taking particular note of the colour of the water and what sorts of plants grow in it or beside it.
And sometimes, we have the data, but it’s old and fragile and in need of people to transcribe it or to photograph it and digitise it.
There are so many ways you can help real scientists make important discoveries, from your home or from you backyard or on your lockdown walks. To celebrate National Science Week, we thought we are sharing some of our favourites.
Continue reading “Citizen Science: Lending Science a Helping Hand”
This is a very dramatic experiment that shows how differences in air pressure can create a vacuum. It’s super fun to watch, and very easy to try at home.
Dr Lahiru Gangoda is a cancer researcher and a member of Team WEHI. Her research is on finding better ways to treat skin cancer. Don’t forget wear your sun screen! You can read more about Lahiru here.
Malinthi is in grade 6. She loves science and looking after the environment. She is the Science captain and the Green-house vice-captain at her school. Malinthi is also part of the space-wattle team at her school. Her school will be receiving some Golden Wattle seeds (Australia’s national floral emblem) that has been on board the International Space station for the last 6 months. The space-wattle team will plant and looks after these seeds that has spent time in space.
*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment!*
You will need:
Today’s Ask a Scientist post is really more about history than about science, so we are joined by Catherine McLean, a Division Co-ordinator whose first degree (and first academic love) was in history.
John Silke is a Theme Leader at WEHI, and is particularly interested in how inflammation is linked to cancer and other diseases. He has been Relaying with Team WEHI since 2019, when he came to the arena straight off an international flight to do his walking shift at 1am!
Today’s Ask a Scientist post is a bit of a Carnival of the Animals, with lots of different species represented here! We have also represented several kingdoms and phyla of animal-loving scientist – our marine biology enthusiast is Lizzie Lieschke, is a PhD student, our advisor on all things canine is Research Assistant and Team WEHI walker and runner extraordinaire, Natasha Silke, and our exponent of new species is Doug Hilton, Laboratory Head and Director at WEHI.
David Huang is a laboratory head working in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division at WEHI. He is studying the proteins that are important for regulating cell death, and worked on some of the first drugs that mimic these proteins in order to fight cancer. 2021 will be David’s first Cancer Council Relay.
This is a slow experiment, but the results are really beautiful! It shows you how plants take up water through their system of veins. We recommend setting up the experiment in the morning and coming back to observe it every few hours during the day.
We are going to give you several versions on this experiment, ranging from very easy to a bit more challenging to set up – so you can decide how much time you want to spend on this. But the variations on these experiments is endless – take a few days, have some fun, and create your own multicoloured bouquets!
Catherine McLean is the captain of Team WEHI. She is not a scientist, but she coordinates the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division at WEHI. Everyone in the Division knows this experiment really well now, because she had variations on it running in her office for about three weeks back in 2019…
*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment*
Team WEHI Relay for Life 