“New” Science Fiction Movie

For those of you who love great old movies, you will just have to head to the theaters the weekend of December 12th to see the new, up-to-date remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.

Overview

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970416/

Trailer 1

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1423638809/

Trailer 2

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1665335321/

Mars Science Laboratory launches in September 2009.  Where will it land on Mars?  Four sites are now possible.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26970

If you are not familiar with the MSL mission, you should check out this unbelievable, and huge, spacecraft and how it will accomplish its incredibly complicated landing, being lowered to the Martian surface by a sky crane mother craft

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

COLLEGE STUDENTS: NASA Internships during Summer 2009

NASA’s Undergraduate Student Research Project is currently accepting applications for 10-week summer 2009 internships. These internships offer students the opportunity to work alongside NASA scientists and engineers at NASA’s field centers, laboratories and test facilities.  Applicants must be rising sophomores, juniors or seniors with a 3.0 GPA. They must have an academic major or course work concentration in engineering, math, computer science, or physical or life sciences. Participants work on practical problems that will be applied in aerospace or on future NASA missions.  Application deadline for the summer 2009 session is Jan. 23, 2009.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/programs/Undergraduate_Student_Research_Project.html

COLLEGE STUDENTS: Graduate Education Program in Space Life Sciences

The NSBRI-sponsored training program in space life sciences enables students to work toward a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. at Texas A&M University and focus their research on space life sciences and fields related to the space initiative. Texas A&M is currently recruiting participants for fall 2009. Students will pursue doctoral degrees in kinesiology, nuclear engineering (health physics) or nutrition, or a M.D./Ph.D. or Ph.D. in medical sciences.  Application packages are due Feb. 15, 2009.

http://SLSGraduateProgram.tamu.edu

STUDENTS: Competition for Young Astronomers Ages 18 to 22

Two young astronomers will win the chance to attend the Launch Conference of the International Year of Astronomy taking place on 14-18 Jan 2009. The competition launch calls  for anyone between the ages of 18-22 to submit a 2500 word essay along with a 200 word summary expressing ‘What Astronomy means to you?’. ”

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26968

STUDENTS: NASA Invites Students to Name New Mars Rover

NASA is looking for the right stuff, or in this case, the right name for the next Mars rover. NASA, in cooperation with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ movie WALL-E from Pixar Animation Studios, will conduct a naming contest for its car-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover that is scheduled for launch in 2009.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26951

EDUCATORS: NASA’s New NASA Education Spacesuits and Spacewalks Web site

Engage your students in the wonders of space as they learn about spacesuits and spacewalks.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/spacesuits/home/index.html

SpaceRef’s New Video Section

Check out the great free videos about the current Space Shuttle Endeavour mission, NASA’s Constellation program, the Hubble Space  Telescope, Mars exploration and SpaceX.

http://www.spaceref.com/video/

Scientists Discover New Planet Orbiting Dangerously Close to Giant Star

A team of astronomers from Penn State and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland has discovered a new planet that is closely orbiting a red-giant star, HD 102272, which is much older than our own Sun. The planet has a mass that is nearly six times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26963

Black Holes Are The Rhythm at the Heart of Galaxies

The powerful black holes at the center of massive galaxies and galaxy clusters act as hearts to the systems, pumping energy out at regular intervals to regulate the growth of the black holes themselves, as well as star formation.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26953

VLT and APEX Team Up to Study Flares from the Black Hole at the Milky Way’s Core

Astronomers have used two different telescopes simultaneously to study the violent flares from the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. They have detected outbursts from this region, known as Sagittarius A*, which reveal material being stretched out as it orbits in the intense gravity close to the central black hole.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26952

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-41-08.html

Early Warning of Dangerous Asteroids and Comets: Detectors Developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory Deployed in Powerful Telescope

Silicon chips developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory are at the heart of a new survey telescope that will soon provide a more than fivefold improvement in scientists’ ability to detect asteroids and comets that could someday pose a threat to the planet.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26949

IMAX to Participate in Space Shuttle Final Hubble Servicing Mission

http://www.freep.com/article/20081016/NEWS07/810160354/1009/NEWS07

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/news/hst_imax.html

Chandra X-ray Telescope:

Podcast Videos

http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/podcasts/hd/

M-84 as seen by Chandra, VLA and and SDSS

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/m84/

Crab Nebula as seen by Chandra

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/crab/

Universe Today Podcasts

http://www.universetoday.com/category/podcasts/

Discovery of Cosmic Rays from a Mysterious, Nearby Object

An international team of researchers has discovered a puzzling surplus of high-energy electrons bombarding Earth from space. The source of these cosmic rays is unknown, but it must be close to the solar system and it could be made of dark matter.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/19nov_cosmicrays.htm?list212050

Anyone Interested in Astronomy and our Sun, take a look at SeeIntoSpace

http://www.seeintospace.com/

Evidence for Vast Oceans on Ancient Mars

Data from the Mars Odyssey orbiter’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer provides new evidence for the controversial idea that oceans once covered about a third of ancient Mars.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/17/evidence-for-vast-oceans-on-ancient-mars/

Mars Rover Spirit Surviving on Low Energy

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/17/mars-rover-spirit-surviving-on-a-low-energy-diet/

New Insight on Magnetars

Neutron stars are leftovers of massive stars (10-50 times as massive as our Sun) that have collapsed under their own weight. Most are only about 20 km in diameter, but they are so compact that a teaspoon of neutron star stuff would weigh about one hundred million tons. Two other physical properties characterize a neutron star: their fast rotation and strong magnetic field. Magnetars form a class of neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, approximately a thousand times stronger than that of ordinary neutron stars, making them the strongest known magnets in the cosmos. But astronomers have been unsure exactly why magnetars shine in X-rays. Data from ESA’s XMM-Newton and Integral orbiting observatories are being used to test, for the first time, the X-ray properties of magnetars.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/14/new-insights-on-magnetars/

Rescued Moon Photos Restored to Unprecedented Detail

Some of the first ever close-up images of the lunar landscape have been given new life, rivaling the images being taken by today’s high definition cameras. NASA and some private space business leaders spent a quarter million dollars rescuing the historic photos from early NASA lunar robotic probes and restoring them in an abandoned McDonald’s. The first refurbished image has been released, a 42-year old classic image of the moon with Earth rising in the background.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/13/rescued-moon-photos-restored-to-unprecedented-detail/

Hubble Directly Observes Planet Orbiting Fomalhaut

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet orbiting another star. The images show the planet, named Fomalhaut b, as a tiny point source of light orbiting the nearby, bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis. An immense debris disk about 21.5 billion miles across surrounds the star. Fomalhaut b is orbiting 1.8 billion miles inside the disk’s sharp inner edge.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/39/

First Image of Another Multi-Planet Solar System

For the first time, astronomers have taken pictures of a multi-planet solar system, much like ours, orbiting another star.  This new solar system orbits a dusty young star named HR8799, which is 140 light years away and about 1.5 times the size of our sun. Three planets, roughly 10, 10 and 7 times the mass of Jupiter, orbit the star. The size of the planets decreases with distance from the parent star, much like the giant planets do in our system. And there may be more planets out there, but scientists say they just haven’t seen them yet.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/13/first-image-of-another-multi-planet-solar-system/

ROBOTICS: Europa Submarine Prototype Gets Another Test

A submersible probe that could possibly be used on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa is taking the next step to test its capabilities. The Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer, also known as ENDURANCE, will swim untethered under ice, and collect data to create three-dimensional maps of underwater environments. The probe also will take samples of microbial life. Earlier this year, it operated successfully in a 25 meter frozen lake in Wisconsin, USA. Now it will plunge under a permanently ice covered lake in Antarctica that is 40 meters deep. ENDURANCE isn’t like the Mars Rovers or other remote-operated probes. Once deployed, it’s on its own to systematically explore, take water samples, and find its way back. “It will have to think on its own”.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/12/europa-submarine-prototype-gets-another-test/

Sub-millimetre Astronomy Reveals Glowing Stellar Nurseries

Using sub-millimetre wavelength astronomy, astronomers have revealed the cold dense clouds of material that are the birth places of new stars.  Astronomers using the LABOCA camera on the 12 metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope detected clumps of cold gas four times fainter than ever seen before, and which had been forced to collapse as an expanding bubble of ionized gas about ten light years across swept through the region known as RCW120.

http://astronomynow.com/081112submillitreastronomyrevealsglowingstellarnurseries.html

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-40-08.html

Earth’s Ten Most Impressive Impact Craters

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/10/earths-10-most-impressive-impact-craters/

Phoenix Mars Lander Mission Ends

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/10/phoenix-lander-at-missions-end/

DVD Review:  History Channel’s “The Universe” Season Two

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/10/dvd-review-the-universe-season-two/

Scientific American:  The Future of Earth’s Poles

Both the North and South poles are undergoing unprecedented changes as a result of man-made climate change. What does this mean for the region’s wildlife and natural resources as countries make claims for territory?

http://www.sciam.com/report.cfm?id=future-of-poles&sc=IDR_future-of-poles

Scientific American:  Warmer Antarctica Shows Climate Changing on Every Continent

Humanity’s impact on climate has been detected on every continent except Antarctica, or so said the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February 2007. No longer: scientists, comparing decades of records from 17 Antarctic weather stations with computer simulations of Earth’s climate, found that human-induced global warming has been heating up the continent that is home to the South Pole, as well.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=warmer-antarctica-proves-global-climate-change&sc=CAT_SP_20081103

SPACE.com Astronomy:  The Autumn Dipper

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/081107-ns-autumn-dipper.html

Mysterious Dark Matter May Actually Glow

Nobody knows what dark matter is, but scientists may now have a clue where to look for it.  The strange stuff makes up about 85 percent of the heft of the universe. It’s invisible, but researchers know it’s there because there is not enough regular matter — stars and planets and gas and dust — to hold galaxies and galaxy clusters together. Some other unseen material, dubbed dark matter, must be gluing things together.  So how to find that which you cannot see?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/081106-dark-matter.html

Cassini Spacecraft’s Stunning Images of Saturn and its Moons

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/index.cfm

Deepest Ultraviolet Image Shows a Sea of Distant Galaxies

Anyone who has wondered what it might be like to dive into a pool of millions of distant galaxies of different shapes and colors, will enjoy the latest image released by ESO. Obtained in part with the Very Large Telescope, the image is the deepest ground-based U-band image of the Universe ever obtained. It contains more than 27 million pixels and is the result of 55 hours of observations with the VIMOS instrument.

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-39-08.html

Five Years at Mars:  The Best of Mars Express

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/04/5-years-at-mars-the-best-of-mars-express/

Forget the LHC, the Aging Tevatron May Have Uncovered Some New Physics

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/03/forget-the-lhc-the-aging-tevatron-may-have-uncovered-some-new-physics/

SpaceX’s Falcon 9: A New Rocket in the Making

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0811/02falcon9/

Splashy Portrait Helps Explain How Stars Form

Different wavelengths of light swirl together like watercolors in a new, ethereal portrait of a bright, star-forming region.  The multi-wavelength picture combines infrared, visible and X-ray light from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s New Technology Telescope, and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton orbiting X-Ray telescope.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0810/31splashy/

That’s all for this bulletin.

I just finished an Astronomy workshop at Ocean View school, and it was so much fun! Although the haze came through near the end of the night, we managed to see the moons of Jupiter, our own Moon, and Venus through several telescopes. I got great questions about white holes, hydrogen bombs, and more during the slide show… and now we’re up late in the lab packing for our departure tomorrow to Sacramento, where I will be filmed for a series of school science videos, to be distributed to K-5 schools across the country!! (I’ll be sure to pack the propane torch…)

It’s been a whirlwind month already… what with being in Newport Beach all last week and all… and I’ll be sure to write more when we return - I can’t wait to share our educational holiday science kits with you… but more on that later. I’ve got to finish getting an 8′ rocket into a 2′ cube box!!

Aurora

We’re nearly packed and ready to go! We’re on our way to 10,000 people in Brea, Ca, armed with exploding pumpkins, glowing slime samples, and much more! After this, I’ll be in Long Beach for a week, then fly up to Sacramento for a two-day science video shoot (more on that later), and then finally home in mid-November.

I’ll try to write as I go along… see you soon!

Aurora

Guy Ottewell’s famous Astronomical Calendar for 2009 is now coming available. By far, this is no ordinary calendar, but at large-format booklet packed full of a ton of astronomical information and technical stats for 2009. I highly recommend this book for anyone having a telescope. It is a must-have for beginner to serious astronomers. At approximately $25, this is an outstanding item for holiday gift giving or receiving.

Celestial Products
http://www.celestialproducts.com/Products/AC.asp

Sky & Telescope
http://www.shopatsky.com/productdetail/AC2009.htm

Scope City
http://www.scopecity.com/detail.cfm?ProductID=2950

Astronomical Society of the Pacific
http://www.astrosociety.org/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-BO429.html?L+scstore+qxhr9033ff4c6a4c+1227002355

We’re in NYC (New York City) right now, and it’s been quite the whirlwind trip! But instead of writing about my adventures in the big apple, I thought I’d share a few tips on picking out the best holiday gifts that kids love to get and parents love to give… ones that are inspirational, educational, and empowering.

Although it’s not even Halloween yet, I noticed here in NYC how the Holiday shopping stuff is starting to creep in. Crazy, isn’t it? Well, I thought I’d catch you before you put a hole in your pocketbook… and give you a holiday gift I hope will be of value to you and your family!

So… what are the best educational gifts out there?

Well, that depends on what you’re looking for. The best gifts you can give a kid are the gifts of inspiration, empowerment, and creativity. If you want to go beyond refrigerator boxes and duct tape (which are fantastic, by the way), how do you choose?

Scientific equipment is still one of the best deals on the market, not only because they’re usually high-quality crafted and extremely useful, but kids can still use them in years to come. So which are the best to pick from?

At the low-cost end of the spectrum, scientific journals and magazines are a great way to keep the gift new and interesting throughout the entire year. Here at Supercharged Science, we’ve got company subscriptions to Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Popular Mechanics, Nuts & Volts, Popular Science, and Make Magazine.

If your kid is crazy for Astronomy, and a telescope is out of your price range, then get your hands on a $25 copy of Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar. You won’t find a better, more complete book of astronomy anywhere. (In fact, most sources use Ottewell’s information in their publications.)

If a telescope IS within your budget, here are a few recommendations:

Best beginner’s telescope for kids ($300): 8″ Dob by Orion

Best telescope for kids that finds objects for you ($500): 8″ GO-TO Dob

Best telescope for intermediate users ($650): 8″ Reflector

Best eyepieces on the market ($129 each): Widefield Stratus Make sure you get at least one when you purchase your telescope. (The eyepieces included with the telescope aren’t worth much.) If you’re only getting one, make it a 17mm… this one’s best for close-up planetary and lunar viewing as well as deep sky viewing. If you’re wanting to do a lot of lunar viewing, pick up a $35 1.25″ polarizing filter (they’re like sunglasses for your telescope, as the moon is very bright compared with everything else!)

Okay, so maybe your kid’s not that into Astronomy, but bugs and insects… maybe even gross stuff. A microscope is the way to go. Just get one with a mechanical stage, a small set of slides and cover slips, and you’re all set.

If you’ve already got a telescope and a microscope, what else can you get them? A toolbox full of tools. Craftsman tools have a lifetime warranty (no kidding) and are sold at Sears and other places. Get a tape measure, level, hammer, pliers, vice grips, phillips and flathead screwdriver (get one with replaceable tips on the end), crescent wrench, needle-nosed pliers, wire strippers, wire cutters, hacksaw, and electrical tape. Pack it all inside a sturdy toolbox case and don’t forget to toss in a pair of scissors and duct tape. Wrap and add bow. Stuff blocks of scrap wood (usually free from lumber yards) into the stocking along with a box of screws and nails.

For older kids into robots and electricity, pick up a $50 soldering iron from Weller. This is a tool we use here in the lab nearly every day. Don’t forget to pick up a roll of solder and a set of helping hands and a solder sucker are great additions. If you don’t already have wire strippers, needle nose pliers, and wire cutters… get those, too.

Hope this helps! Enjoy your holiday shopping!

Aurora

TRUE STORY: When a theoretical physicist walked up to me after I finished a science class and pointed out an error (an omission, really) I made when teaching to the students… and he asked how I could call myself a scientist, let alone a rocket scientist, when I couldn’t even get the ‘facts straight’. I simply listened as he continued to elaborate about his own work, the stuff he’d designed and developed, using words I had not only never heard of, but no idea how to begin to pronounce.

Then an incredible thought hit me.

Here standing before me was no doubt a very highly educated individual who had spent years honing his skill and talent in the world of theoretical physics, been to the finest schools, taught by the most brilliant minds of the century, and worked on the most cutting-edge projects that would probably remain top-secret until the next century.

Yet I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

It has never been my goal to be the intelligent person in the world, in the scientific field, or even in the classroom… nor have I ever claimed to be. I have claimed to be a ‘rocket scientist’, which for some reason, means the same thing as the word ‘genuis’ to most people on the planet. I am, to put it simply, a scientist who enjoys working on rockets. This fellow assumed I meant otherwise.

He also had no acuity. He continued to talk without stopping for breath for thirteen minutes.

So here we have a highly-intelligent human being that has no sense whatsoever that he’s bored his audience (me). And furthermore, he’s has not made it clear to his listener whatever it is he wanted to convey. (I still had no idea what he was describing - some sort of lasing device, but any further information was barred by complicated terms and abstract descriptions.)

So if my goal has never been to be the smartest person in the world… what has my goal been?

My goal has always been to be the bridge between the scientific community and the real world I take big ideas and break them down into small steps that my audience can understand… and I change my approach mid-stroke if I sense that something I’m doing isn’t working. I use all my senses and abilities to get feedback and information from my audience so I can figure out the best way to deliver the right information in the right way so it makes the biggest impact on their learning long-term. I find new ways to get students to say, “Oh, NOW I get it!” To do whatever it takes to get kids wildly excited about learning science by focusing on wonder, discovery, and exploration. I know enough science so I have something of value to offer my students.

Are my students sometimes smarter than me? You bet!

Do I mind? No way. Because I want my students to stand on the shoulders of giants, just like I did.

So - when this theoretical physicist (who had a daughter in the class I just taught) finally drew a breath, I piped up: “Thank you for noticing and taking the time to let me know your thoughts, because I’m definitely a work-in-progress, and I can always use insights from people. You’re right - next time I should mention the particle-wave duality principle when we introduce the basics of light and lasers like we did in class, but I’ll have to think how the best way to deliver it to first graders. Let me know if you have any ideas - I would appreciate any help. Thanks again…”

Back at the Supercharged Science Intergalactic Headquarters, we’ve got things flaming, bursting, and exploding at full speed. Why? Because we’re going to be in Los Angeles putting on a science show during Halloween! I can’t WAIT to do this show - we’ve got blue and purple fire demonstrations for oxidation, fires that can never be extinguished, and a lot more coming to the city of Brea!

Enough about that - what about YOUR house? If you’re hankering to put on a first-rate show that will have your kids talking for months afterward, you’ll need access to the right information. Here’s a few suggestions to get you started:

-Replace your chandelier light bulbs with flicker bulbs and turn down the lights in the evening.

-Swap your bathroom light bulbs with black lights (they come in both fluorescent and incandescent).

-Make Screaming Balloons (see video sample on our Halloween Science Kit page)

Happy Haunting!
Aurora

I got this email in my box a few days ago, and wanted to share it with you:

We just posted an article, “101 100+ Ways to Score Freebies For Your Classroom”. I thought I’d bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting. (I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list!)

Either way, thanks for your time!
Kelly Sonora

Sooo - have fun!

http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-ways-to-score-freebies-for-your-classroom/

Yet another part of the same loooong article… feedback welcome!

When things go wrong…
So you’ve taken the steps, come up with questions, formed experiments, and even tested out your ideas, but the results you got make no sense at all. What do you do now?

When I taught at the university, I deliberately gave the students an experiment for which a conclusion did not exist… because the results were never the same twice. I did this for two reasons… first, to teach them never to cheat and lie about their results (they were given an immediate ‘zero’ without warning if they did “fudge” the results), and second… how to handle such a thing when it happens for real.

Over half the class got the “F”.

However, they were allowed to “redo” the experiment for a half-grade, if they chose to. Most of them did. Now, why would I do such a thing?

No matter what happens in your experiment, in any experiment, keep in mind that your results stand, no matter what. The laws of the universe, the laws of physics are still working and active… regardless of how you wanted the experiment to turn out. By fudging your results, you can’t really ever be sure if your conclusion stands, and you may as well throw away the entire experiment. But what do you do when you feel like you’ve tried everything, but it still doesn’t work right?

Your greatest moments of thought happen in instances just like this one… One of the most important parts of being a true scientist is being an observer - being able to step back and ask, “What’s really going on here? Why did the marble fly off the track? Was the marble going too slow or fast? Was the track too steep, or too wobbly?”

The truth is, you haven’t tried everything, because if you did, it would be working right now. But it isn’t, so you haven’t. It helps to write down what you have tried… and if you’re keeping good records of your results, this is where you’ll find the information.

You are a great scientist, no matter what results you produce in any experiment. The world will know how sharp you are, how ingenious your mind is when you are able to step back and observe what’s really going on… while the rest of the world gets wrapped up with thoughts that cripple their creativity. “Why didn’t it work? It’s supposed to! It’s broken… it’ll never work. This is dumb.”

When you get stuck, frustrated (hey, we all do!), or just upset, take a breath, go outside, and remember it’s just one experiment… and you’ll get back to it when you’re ready. Smile, get an ice cream, and remember that there will always more to learn, and no, you’ll never get it all done.

Hi there,

We’re nearing our deadline for registration for the teleclass… we’ve received several calls about people who were wondering about the tightened deadline - we just couldn’t hold enrollment open until Sept. 7th, so we’ve changed the deadline to Sept. 4th at midnight, which is only a few hours from now! This is your last chance to get in on the teleclass - make sure you sign up right away!

Here is the link:
http://www.superchargedscience.com/teleclass.htm

I’ve got a few loose ends to finish up (including finding the slime I made that crawled away… and no, I’m NOT kidding - it’s the second one this month that’s slurped up and out of its container and I have no idea where it scuttled off to - the last one slimed the heating vent, so I need to find it soon), so I hope to see you in the class or at some event soon!

Happy Experimenting!
Aurora