Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Lasers are a relatively new light technology that has a fantastic reach of applications.  From surgery to entertainment, it helps us cut, weld and have sensational fun.

1. We can trust NASA to provide a clear explanation to the question What is a laser?
2. The BBC UK provide a written explanation for year 10 students in their bite-size series.  This may be easier to understand if you check out the NASA explanation first.
3. The first one minute cartoon on this Planet Science page explains why photons are happy to travel together in laser beams.
4. Scienceline gives us some laser history.

Did you know there are competitions to create the most spectacular and complex light shows with lasers?  This You Tube video was posted by Dynamic Lasers.

Most of our planet’s bioluminescent creatures live in the oceans.  And the deeper down we go, the more we are discovering!

1. Firstly, let’s clear up any confusion about muddling bio-luminescence and bio-fluorescence with this helpful webpage from Luminescent Labs.
2. This National Geographic video is about a team preparing to search for a giant squid, but has some illuminating examples of bioluminescence in the sea at night.
3. Marine Biologist Edith Widder starts her TED talk by inviting us on a trip to an alien world; a place defined by light.  And below is one of the images she’s captured – a bioluminescent midwater squid.

One day, we hope to discover life on other planets and moons. Jupiter’s moon Europa may have a hidden sea under its icy crust.  Could it be home to alien bio-luminescent life forms?  Sci-Fi artist Rob Powell imagines the possibilities with his image of a Europan Dragon – Dracolestia xengola!

If you’re looking for some inspiration to help write a poem about the beauty of iridescence, here are some helpful links:

1. You’ll need 10 minutes or so to watch this excellent science lecture for children.  Here’s Beetles Bubbles and Butterflies: The Origins of Iridescence from the Science Bag – University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA.
2. Or try this page from Yale Scientific which explains what causes iridescence including some vivid photo examples.
3. How Stuff Works has a diagram about getting the right light wavelengths to create iridescent colours requires two surfaces that reflect light waves in a constructive interference pattern.
4. Live Science suggests that some insect iridescence helps confuse the animals trying to eat those insects.  Many birds, such as the peacock (image featured) boasts how fit they are by having iridescent feathers to help them lure a mate.
5. The shapes and surface patterns of butterfly wing scales are what create their iridescent colours.  The Daily Mail UK shared these detailed photos, one of which is displayed next:

Finally, Live Science reveals that even some feathered dinosaurs had iridescent colouring too!

In yesterday’s Poetry Club presentation about “The Science & Poetry of Light” at Whitfield State School, we read out the Science Rhyme Aurora Borealis.  The Earth’s Auroras are sensational examples of excited electrons emitting photons of light.

This is my favourite collection of Northern Hemisphere Auroras

This Aurora Australis was shot from the southern tip of New Zealand.

And finally, a red Aurora Australis from the Red Centre – Uluru!

This year the Hubble Space Telescope turns 25 and we are having a ball viewing the light from distant stars, nebulae and galaxies.

LIGHT IS …

Mysterious and magical
so dazzling and colourful.
Travelling through space and time
LIGHT MAKES the cosmos beautiful!

Thanks ABC Science for selecting some sensational Hubble photos for us to view.

Click here to view a fantastic video of the Pillars of Creation too.

Looking forward to a bright New Year?  The United Nations has declared 2015 to be the International Year of Light and Light Technologies.

Researching an old light technology resulted in the poem:

“Stepping Into The Limelight”

which has been featured as the first poem of the year for Ripple Poetry.

Please check it out and have a Brilliant 2015!