Science Arena 28 Winners 第28期科学竞技场的优胜者

Congratulations to those winners! For those who didn't make it, DON'T give up. You were ALL great, seriously.

恭喜这些得奖者！没能成功的朋友们，请不要放弃。你们都是很棒的。


Wow, where did all the flowers come from? Koh Wai Chuen (SJK(C) Kwang Chien) must be one lucky guy! You got to hand it to us to shower you with LOTS and LOTS of..... flowers? (Even an average Valentine couple don't GET that much flowers! You're seriously LUCKY!)

哇，这些花从哪来的呢？高伟全小朋友（广建小学）一定是幸运儿！你是想向我们展示这些美丽的花吗？ （即使是情人节也不会拿到这么多鲜花吧！你真是幸运！）

Cheng Zhang Yi (SJK(C) Bt. 11 Cheras) is one enthusiastic-looking winner! Glad to know you're happy and excited! I mean, you got LOTS of books to read! Great, exciting books, to be exact. To keep you occupied and happy!

See? Isn't it great that we actually pay a 'royal' visit to the winners' school? Come let us pamper you!

Don't forget to participate in the Science Arena challenge in the Pelangi Scientist magazine every month and stand a chance to win amazing prizes!

More photos coming up!

曾长义（蕉赖十一哩华文小学）是一位很踊跃参加的得奖者哦！很高兴看到你如此开心和兴奋！现在你将有许多很棒的书可以阅读了！请继续保有这份喜悦吧！

看吧?我们是否履行承诺,一一拜访了得奖者的学校呢？来吧，让我们亲自祝贺你！

千万不要忘了参加《彩虹科学家》每个月的科学竞技场的挑战，你就有机会赢取丰富的奖品哦！

还有更多的照片会放上来！敬请期待!

Science Arena 27 Winners 第27期科学竞技场的优胜者

What happens when you walk into this school? (Notice that the weather was very dark, and we needed to find SHELTER fast!)

当你走进这所学校时，究竟发生了什么事？
（请仔细留意，当时天气阴暗，我们需要很快找到目标！）


You find a smart kid! And one with a REALLY cool cap. You look awesome! Congratulations to Yeoh E-Chng from SJK(C) Kim Sen! We seriously love that tie. It complements your cap!

So for those of you who want us to visit your school (and SURPRISE you, of course), make sure you enter Science Arena contests every month! But you’ll HAVE to answer the quiz correctly! So what are you waiting for? Join and win!

And we promise that the next time we visit your school, it won’t be because there’s a thunderstorm.

Here are more photos! (And it's a slideshow, so you can sit back and relax!)


你找到了一个聪明的孩子！他戴了一顶非常酷的帽子哦。来瞧瞧看！我们祝贺金星小学的杨以正小朋友得奖了！我们非常喜欢那条红色的领带，与他的帽子挺相配呢！

因此，如果你也希望我们拜访你的学校，并给你意外的惊喜，那请别忘了参加每个月的科学竞技场哦！但是，你必须先答对所有问题哦！那你还在等什么呢？快参赛并赢取丰富的奖品吧！

我们承诺，下一次访问你的学校时，将不会遇上大雷雨哦。

这里还有更多的照片可以观看！（这是幻灯片，你可以坐着慢慢欣赏，放轻松一下吧！）

2009年«彩虹科学家»校际科学问答比赛

华小高年级华文和国文作文训练营

彩虹科学家DIY学科学暨KK小超人面具制作比赛（绿野国际展览中心，7/6/09）

彩虹科学家DIY学科学暨KK小超人面具制作比赛（怡保育才华小礼堂，30/5/09）

UnbeLEECHable! 神奇的水蛭!

Why do leeches have MANY brains???

And by many, I don’t mean 4, 5, 7 or 10.

I MEAN 32 brains!!!!!!

Yes, be stupefied. Be shocked. Leeches REALLY have 32 brains! And we humans have only 1 brain.

And we’re SMARTER.

Actually, even though leeches have that many brains, they don’t function exactly like a human brain. So don’t expect leeches to construct an atomic bomb anytime soon. Which is a good thing, by the way.

Leeches not have only 32 brains, but they have 3 JAWS!!! And each has 115-120 teeth.

No wonder leeches can suck a lot of blood. They can gorge themselves up to five times their own body weight in pure, red blood! Sounds vampire-scary, doesn’t it?

However, have no fear. Leeches aren’t really bad creatures. They really aren’t. In fact, they can help save your limb. Or even your head (probably). But they can save your LIFE (more importantly!).

Leeches were first used in medicine about 1000 B.C.. And now leeches are used for biosurgery. Biosurgery is a surgery in which biological agents (such as leeches) are used. They are used as a research tool too nowadays.

So how can a leech save your life, you ask? Well, let’s say that you sort of tore your arm off (not recommended), and you need surgery to reattach your arm back. During the surgery, blood is carried through your arteries to your wound area.

And if your veins haven’t healed, a bad congestion can happen. And this puts you in a risk.

So the leech comes and sucks every drop of blood to prevent that congestion! And the best part is … you DON’T feel pain!!!!!! Great, isn’t it? That is because leeches have their own natural anesthetic.

Isn’t that miraculous, considering that the scary leech has 32 brains and 3 jaws?

We really have to salute leeches.They CAN save a LIFE!

Not bad for a creature whose 32 brains are useless.


为什么水蛭有很多颗脑袋？？？

不只是4颗、5颗、7颗或10颗脑袋而已。

而是有32颗脑袋！！

不要太震惊哦。水蛭真的有32颗脑袋呢！而我们人类只有1颗脑袋。

但我们比较聪明。

其实，虽然水蛭有很多颗脑袋，但它们脑袋的功能却不像人类的脑袋那么好。因此，不必期待水蛭能在短时间内建造出一颗原子弹哦。这或许也是一件好事。

水蛭不只有32颗脑袋，还拥有3个颌骨！！！而且每个颌骨各有115至120颗牙齿。

水蛭如此特殊的构造，使它可以吸食很多人类的血液，也就不足为奇了。它们可以吸食自己体内充足的血液达五次！听起来像吸血鬼似的，可怕吧?

然而，我们不需感到害怕。水蛭其实不是有害的动物。它们真的不是。事实上，它们可以帮助救你的肢体，甚至你的头。更重要的是，它们可以救你的性命。

大约公元前1000年，水蛭首先被用于医学上。现在水蛭则适用于生物外科医学方面。生物外科医学是一种使用生物制剂（如水蛭）的手术。如今，水蛭被用来作为一项研究工具。

那么，你是否想知道水蛭如何拯救你的生命呢？我当然不建议你撕断自己的手臂，只是假设你的手臂受伤了，需要动手术来重新接驳回它。在外科手术中，血液是通过你的动脉流向你的伤口部分。

如果当时你的静脉还没有完全愈合，或许就有可能使血管发生不良的挤塞情况，而这可能会让你拥有生命危险。

因此，水蛭就会被用来吸食血液，以防止继续出现挤塞的情况！而你可能并不觉得痛！！难以想像吧？这是因为水蛭本身拥有天然麻醉剂。

想像一下惊人的水蛭竟有32颗脑袋和3个颌骨，这难道不是奇迹吗？

我们真的要向水蛭致敬.它们足以拯救一条人命！

水蛭拥有32颗无用的脑袋，似乎也是不错的。

TALL tale? 关于增高的传说？

If you think you’re too short (and you want to be tall), there’s always an option.

Go to space!

Yes, it’s true. People grow taller by two inches in space! It may be hard to believe, but there’s a science explanation for this.

Astronauts in space need space suits which are inches taller than they are. That is because they grow two inches taller while in space. If the suits are not made slightly bigger, then their head will squeeze against the suit!

Ok. So why do astronauts grow taller in space? Well, it’s all about gravity, I tell you. Due to the loss of gravity in space, there is no force to compress your spine. Think of your spine as a spring.

Release your grip on a spring, and it will bounce back to full shape. That’s the way it works with your spine.

As there’s gravity on earth, this force of gravity compresses or pushes down our spine. But in space, our spines will elongate as there is to force to push the spines back down.

However, astronauts will return back to their normal height again when they are back on earth!

So you can’t be taller (than you are now) forever.

Unless you decide to live in space for a long, long time.


如果你觉得自己太矮（而你想长高），那还有一种选择。

前进太空吧！

这是千真万确的。人们置身在太空会增高两英吋！这或许难以相信，但是这是有科学根据的。

身在太空中的太空人需要穿着比他们的身高高出两英吋的太空制服。这是因为他们在太空时将会长高两英吋。如果太空制服不制作稍大一些，他们的头将塞不进制服！

为什么太空人在太空会增高呢？这都是地心吸力的关系。由于太空丧失地心吸力，所以没有任何力量压缩你的脊椎。你的脊椎像是遇见了春天。

在春天释放你紧蹦的身体吧!它将恢复回你原本饱满完整的体型。这全是地心吸力在你的脊椎上发挥了作用。

由于地球具有地心吸力，这股重力压缩或推挤着我们的脊椎。但是，在太空，我们的脊椎却因为没有地心吸力挤压而伸长。

然而，当太空人返回地球时,他们将恢复回原本正常的高度！

所以你永远都不可能比现在还高。

除非你打算一直住在太空。

ETernally EThanol (Hopefully) 希望的燃料--乙醇

Cars are dangerous. Sort of.

You hear about road accidents. Or maybe a man who rammed his car into a pole.

But that is not the ‘dangerous’ I’m talking about. No.

I’m talking about gasoline. The petrol we used in our cars to keep them moving. So what’s so dangerous about gasoline?

Well, for one thing, gasoline is dangerous to the environment indirectly. Gasoline produces greenhouse gases, and this leads to global warming. But of course, we still have to depend on gasoline. If not, then how are our cars going to move?

I don’t think you’re going to want to push your car with your bare hands. Or employ a horse to pull your car.

I don’t think so. We want our cars to be moved by an energy source (which gasoline produces).

So is there an alternative to gasoline?

Ok. Don’t celebrate yet. But there’s some GOOD news here!

The answer is ….. ethanol!!!! Yes. We can actually use ethanol as an alternative fuel because it produces cleaner emissions than your typical gasoline.

But first, what is ethanol? Ok, ethanol is actually an alcohol-based fuel, which is derived from crops such as corn and sugarcane. There are few types of ethanol, such as E85 and E10.

E85 ethanol consists of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E10 is a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline.

So if you like blend ethanol with gasoline, emissions produced are cleaner (as ethanol percentage increases, that is).

But there’s a drawback to ethanol. We know that ethanol is a contributory factor to cleaner emissions, but some BAD news too!

Currently, there are more gasoline fuel stations than ethanol stations! And to accommodate the consumption of ethanol, a whole pipeline network would have to be built for ethanol itself!!! That would consume a LOT of money, time, and energy!

Even large-scale bio-refineries have to be constructed if we’re to completely switch to ethanol fuels! And do you know that ethanol is more EXPENSIVE that gasoline? You also get fewer miles with ethanol than with gasoline.

Sigh. But hopefully one day, the whole world will be AWARE of global environmental concerns and support the use of ethanol!

Don’t we ALL want a better world? Really.

To learn about recent issues concerning ethanol as an alternative fuel, read this piece of interesting news at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090503/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_ethanol_climate;_ylt=Auj1MUubEbob7yNX9pUJsHMPLBIF


汽车多少是有点危险的。

你有听说过道路交通事故吧。或许有人就驾着汽车撞向柱子。

但是，这并不是我想谈论的“危险”事件。

我说的是汽油。我们使用的汽油可以让汽车行驶。那么，汽油会有什么危险呢？

我们要记住一点，汽油会对环境造成间接的危险。汽油产生能引起温室效应的气体，这会导致全球暖化。当然，我们仍然需要汽油。如果没有汽油，我们的汽车如何行驶？

我不认为你会想要用双手来推动汽车，或雇用马来拉车。

我不这么认为。我们希望汽车可以藉由能源来发动（所以就生产出汽油）。

那么，是否有汽油的替代品？

大家先不要庆祝。不过已经有一些好消息了！

答案就是......乙醇！是的。实际上我们可以使用乙醇作为替代燃料，因为它能产生比一般汽油更不受污染的排放量。

但是首先，你知道什么是乙醇吗？乙醇是一种酒精燃料，它来自农作物如玉米和甘蔗。它可分为几种类型的酒精，如E85和E10。

E85乙醇燃料含有百分之八十五的乙醇和百分之十五的汽油。E10乙醇燃料则混合了百分之十的乙醇和百分之九十的汽油。

因此，如果你喜欢将乙醇和汽油混合在一起，且乙醇的比例增加时，排放量会更不受污染。

但是乙醇有一个缺点。我们知道乙醇能产生较不受污染的排放量，它在这方面具有有利的因素，但也有一些不好的消息！

目前，汽油加油站比乙醇燃料站多！乙醇需要建立整个输油管系统，才有能力供应乙醇燃料的消费！这就需要花费大量的金钱、时间和能量！

如果我们要完全将汽油转换成乙醇燃料，甚至需要建造大规模的生物炼油厂！你知道乙醇比汽油还昂贵吗？而且使用乙醇发动汽车所行驶的路程还比使用汽油的来得少。

希望有一天，全世界都能知道整个环境关注的问题，并支持乙醇的使用！

我们不是都希望能真正拥有一个更美好的世界吗？

想了解近期有关乙醇作为替代燃料的事件，可以阅读以下这则有趣的新闻：http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090503/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_ethanol_climate;_ylt=Auj1MUubEbob7yNX9pUJsHMPLBIF