February 2013 Archives

A biotechnology kit from Bio-Rad Laboratories introduces young scientists to the world of biochemistry. In this fun science activity, kids can extract their own DNA, examine it without a microscope, and create a pendant containing their DNA—the ultimate item for cool-but-geeky show and tell!
By Kim Mullin

Calling All DNA Detectives!

You may know that DNA is found in almost every cell of your body, but did you know that it is possible to see your DNA without a microscope? You don't need to be in a fancy scientific lab to become a DNA detective! Exploring the fascinating world of DNA is simple and quick with Science Buddies' "Discovering DNA: Do Your Cheek Cells & a Strawberry Both Have DNA?" Project Idea and the Genes in a Bottle^TM kit from Bio-Rad Laboratories!

What is DNA?

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the blueprint for everything that happens inside the cell of an organism, and each cell in an organism has a copy of the same set of instructions. The entire set of instructions that make you you is called your genome.

Scientists study DNA for many reasons. They can figure out how the instructions stored in DNA help your body to function properly. They can use DNA to decide what new medicines are needed to treat a disease. They can figure out the suspect of a crime. They can even use ancient DNA to reconstruct evolutionary histories!

See Your Own DNA!

How do scientists get DNA from a cell so that they can study it? They use a process called a DNA extraction. Although this may sound like something best left to professionals, DNA extraction is simple enough that you can try it out at home! Following the simple steps outlined in the Discovering DNA: Do Your Cheek Cells & a Strawberry Both Have DNA? Project Idea, you can extract DNA from your own cheek and take a look.

The Genes in a Bottle kit contains everything you need for this science activity. The kit also comes with a pendant and instructions for coloring your precipitated DNA. After you are finished with the extraction, you can make a unique helix keepsake filled with strands of your own DNA to show off to your friends and family—proof positive that even kids can be biochemists!

Where Else Can You Find DNA?

Once you see your own DNA, you may wonder about DNA and other living things. If your cells have DNA that provides the instructions for creating your eye and hair color, then what about the eye and fur color of other animals? Or the shapes and colors of leaves and plants? With a bit of human cheek DNA extraction experience hanging around your neck, you can move on to extracting DNA from a strawberry to see if plants also have DNA. Will the DNA appear the same?

Once you've analyzed the DNA from a strawberry, why stop? Check for DNA in other fruits, vegetables, and grains. An onion can be an eye-opening next step! Can you extract more DNA from some items than from others? With your new DNA detective skills, you can find out!

The above photo series is from a recent 5th grade student's Crystal Radio science project. The student used the Science Buddies Kit for his science experiment but modified the experimental design of the crystal set during construction. After building the set, the student put the radio to the test, testing one of the many variables available for exploration with a crystal radio. The result? The student was one of the top five participants at his middle school science fair. Congratulations!

Curious about crystal radio? Learn more in this profile of an engineer who has built hundreds of crystal sets!

Symantec commits continued funding to Science Buddies, allowing further expansion of the Science Buddies computer science area to help enable and inspire student computer science projects.

In honor of International Corporate Philanthropy Day (ICPD), Symantec Corporation today announced more than $1 Million in funding in support of STEM and literacy education. The official announcement details Symantec's support of Science Buddies, Teach for America, NPower, Room to Read, and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).

Symantec has been a sponsor of Science Buddies since 2007 and has provided core program support and enabled ongoing development of the Computer Science interest area at Science Buddies. Through the years, Symantec and Science Buddies have partnered to celebrate and encourage K-12 computer science exploration both through the creation of new Project Ideas and through visible recognition of students conducting science experiments presenting their projects at science fairs both on the community and national level. In 2009, the companies judged and issued "Clever Scientist Awards" at area science fairs. In 2010, they awarded the "Symantec Science Buddies Special Award in Computer Science" at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF). One of the young computer scientists singled out for a special award was Brittany Wenger, then a middle school student and aspiring computer scientist. Wenger went on to win the 2012 Google Science Fair with her computer science project.

Thanks to this year's pledge from Symantec, Science Buddies plans to prototype a new science kit to further facilitate student computer science exploration. Last year, Science Buddies introduced its first round of convenient, all-in-one-box science project kits and launched the Science Buddies Store. Continued support from Symantec allows potential expansion of the computer science area at Science Buddies to include a hands-on computer science project kit for use with a Science Buddies Project Idea or with other science and engineering activities.

"Symantec has been a terrific partner to Science Buddies," said Ken Hess, Science Buddies Founder & President. "Their generous support has enabled us to give hundreds of thousands of K-12 students the inspiration, tools, and guidance they need to engage in hands-on science and engineering. With the latest grant from Symantec, we will be developing our first-ever computer science kit to introduce the next generation to the power and fun of computer programming. We are thrilled to continue working with Symantec and salute their strong commitment to STEM education."

Learn more about today's announcement on the Symantec blog.

Science and STEM education are routine catch phases at the White House in policy, Presidential speeches, and science-centered events for K-12 students. Science Buddies recently participated in a special session with White House officials to discuss the future of STEM education and the importance of hands-on science exploration. As a trusted source for K-12 science education information and resources, Science Buddies, along with other popular science media publications, may play an important role in furthering White House STEM education initiatives.

Science and the State of the Union

In last week's State of the Union address, President Obama again put the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the national limelight. Many issues of policy and platform occupied the President's agenda, but STEM definitely had a seat, both in the speech and in the audience. Three of the guests invited to sit with the First Lady have deep STEM connections. The First Lady's science cadre included Jack Andraka (winner of the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and Science Buddies advocate), Peter Hudson (co-founder and CEO of iTriage, an app that helps people locate nearby healthcare providers), and Bobak Ferdowsi (popularly known as "NASA's Mohawk guy" and flight director for the Curiosity rover landing on Mars).

Influencing Science Education

Following the State of the Union address and the first State of STEM event for students in the Washington D.C. area, the White House invited a small group of science and media organizations to a briefing organized by the Office of Digital Strategy (ODS). Science Buddies joined representatives from Discovery Communications, Scientific American, Popular Science, National Geographic, and Grist.org in a private briefing and Q&A session that included issues related to STEM, sustainable energy, climate change, and technology innovation.

The organizations gathered represent considerable reach in distributing science content, both online and offline. Though the only K-12 non-profit in attendance, Science Buddies serves a yearly population of students, teachers, and parents of more than 15 million, a powerful statistic when it comes to advocating for hands-on STEM exploration and helping students make connections between what they may be learning at school, what they may be hearing in the news, and what they can put to the test in the classroom, in their kitchens, or in the garage. In fact, Science Buddies had more page views on its website in January 2013 than Scientific American and Popular Science combined and almost half as many as National Geographic, according to Quantcast.

Middle or High School?

In this year's State of the Union speech, the President specifically underscored the important role high schools play in preparing students for careers and called for a redesign of high school education with a greater emphasis on STEM education. For Ben Finio, Science Buddies staff scientist attending the briefing on behalf of Science Buddies, the President's statements raised an important question. Is high school too late?

"There is a lot of research that shows that kids, especially females and underrepresented minorities, tend to lose interest in STEM around middle school," pointed out Finio in a conversation with Kumar Garg, Senior Advisor in the Office of Science & Technology Policy. "If you lose those students, it doesn't really matter what you do in high school. They are already gone." Garg agreed noting that research data shows that a decline in STEM interest for some demographics begins as early as 4th grade.

For policy makers and STEM educators, this data highlights a critical and alarming trend for STEM. According to Garg, the President's comments were high-school specific, but the White House is looking at STEM education more broadly and views high school as part of an overall STEM education pipeline.

With its broad range of K-12 science materials, Science Buddies tries to deflect this process of decline in student interest by engaging students at an early age with projects that intersect with a wide range of areas of student interest and related to more than 30 areas of scientific inquiry.

Making Room for Making

Science Buddies views a focus on hands-on science inquiry and active exploration of STEM questions as key to improving and furthering STEM education. Comments from the White House support the value of increased hands-on STEM education, but making room for hands-on science and engineering within existing curriculum and the emphasis on standards and testing remains a challenge for teachers. "It is one thing to say we need to bring more STEM into high school, but the logistics of doing it seem much more complicated," said Finio during his discussion with Garg. Garg concurred, noting that "if science is about doing science, not just learning a set of facts," the challenge is to figure out how to better utilize the institutions that are available to enable kids and schools to do important hands-on work and to give students access to real-world experience.

A one-size-fits-all solution is not the answer. Finding the solution, however, will take the combined efforts of the White House, corporations and foundations that can help fund and sponsor increased STEM efforts, and integration with organizations like Science Buddies and science publications that are influential in supporting science education and connecting with teachers and the students who are the scientists of tomorrow.

For Finio, the briefing was both reassuring and informative. Being a part of the invited group of science organizations was also a reminder to Finio of the importance of the work he is doing as a scientist at Science Buddies. "Taking part in the White House briefing really spotlighted the magnitude of Science Buddies' potential to assist in improving STEM education and helping meet national goals," says Finio.

Do you use a package's nutritional information when making food choices? Can you trust the accuracy of the information? Nutritional content requirements are becoming more widespread, but the information on a label or a restaurant brochure may or may not be correct. Students can learn more about nutrition and explore the kinds of science involved in analyzing a food's nutritional composition by holding favorite foods to the fire, literally! Which foods offer the most chemical energy for the body?

A short documentary film titled "Calorie Detective" recently debuted on the New York Times "Opinion" page. The film, which runs just over five minutes, combines a catchy sound score, DIY-inspired presentation of data, and nitty-gritty science. The result is an engaging video that lets viewers tag along as the filmmaker takes an informal look at the nutritional content information provided for both packaged and made-to-order foods.

Food package labeling is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and new policies may require the availability of nutritional information at chain restaurants. While restaurants and food manufacturers are required to make caloric and nutritional data available, the information is not necessarily checked, validated, or monitored. Does the cinnamon raisin bagel you had for breakfast really have 210 Calories?

In an increasingly health-conscious age, many people make food purchase choices based on the perceived health content of the product or food, which often boils down to the number of Calories or the amount of fat noted on the label. For many health-conscious diners, a discrepancy between the information on the label and the actual nutritional value may be trivial, an inconvenience, or a matter of brand honesty. For other diners, the accuracy of nutritional data is more serious. For example, for someone using nutritional data for medical reasons (like calculating carbohydrates in order to determine insulin needs), the legitimacy of the information provided by a label or restaurant nutritional data can be critically important and a misrepresentation of nutritional data may have immediate and potentially serious health consequences.

In the "Calorie Detective" video, filmmaker Casey Neistat puts an assortment of his favorite daily food purchases, including a breakfast muffin, a Starbucks Frappuccino, and a packaged tofu sandwich from the grocery, to a "nutritional content accuracy" test. With the help of scientists at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, Casey compared the stated caloric content of five foods with the actual Calories contained in each. According to the video, the food testing to determine the actual number of Calories in each food took ten hours, precision lab equipment, the help of two food scientists, and a lot of math.

While the tests for "Calorie Detective" were conducted by scientists, the testing for the film is largely informal. They didn't run multiple trials for each of the foods, a step that would give a look at the average number of Calories for each food to compare to the stated nutritional value data. The results are not statistically conclusive. However, as the "Calorie Detective" film shows, what you see on the billboard when you order, on a package label at the store, or on a glossy nutritional card by the cash register, may or may not tell the whole story. Things get particularly tricky when items are made by hand, as you order. Maybe you end up with a double scoop, a bigger handful, or an extra squirt. There goes the accuracy of the average nutritional content data for the item!

Making Connections

Students curious about how scientists, like the ones shown in the video, test and determine nutritional information can take hands-on steps in food science with an exploration of another aspect of nutritional value—how much energy a food offers the body. When your body breaks down and digests a food, not all Calories offer the same value to the body. You may guess that the potential "energy" stored in food has something to do with the amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates in the food. But what is the relationship? What kinds of foods offer the most chemical energy or the best bang for the number of Calories?

In the "Burning Calories: How Much Energy is Stored in Different Types of Food?" food science Project Idea, students can conduct their own food testing and get answers by setting food on fire, using a homemade calorimeter, and simulating the oxidation of food to measure the energy that cells can use or store from different foods. A convenient Science Buddies kit is available for this science project!

Hands-on winter science may be full of snow and ice, but that doesn't mean it can't be colorful! Take a cue from this inspiring story about an engineering student who gave a colorful twist to a backyard igloo. Students can explore physics, civil engineering, and more in related science projects at home or in the backyard on a snow day!

In many places, winter months are dominated by a subdued palette, quiet tones of gray and white, deep greens and browns, a monotony of color dictated by snow, wintry skies, barren deciduous trees and evergreens. Spicing up the visual landscape with a burst of unexpected color might be a fun and creative winter challenge. But what shape or medium will your color take? When New Zealand-based engineering student Daniel Gray visited his girlfriend's family in Edmonton, Canada, he was greeted with frigid temperatures and a challenge from his host: brighten things up! More specifically, his girlfriend's mother threw down an engineering gauntlet for Daniel: build an igloo in the back yard.

This may sound a bit like an activity parents might suggest for restless children on a snow day: go build a snow fort! As the story goes, the heart of the igloo challenge was similarly conceived. Brigid Burton (the mother) wanted to have a project to keep Daniel occupied during an extended holiday visit so that he wasn't bored and so that she would have plenty of time with her daughter while Daniel was busy. In preparation, Brigid spent months filling empty milk cartons with colored water and putting them aside to freeze. When Daniel arrived, Daniel learned that he had "work" to do during the holidays, especially if he wanted Brigid's approval of a future engagement between Daniel and her daughter.

Daniel's igloo took approximately 500 colorful frozen ice blocks, a large chunk of time, and lots and lots of snow mixed with water ("snowcrete") to hold the cartons together. In the end, Daniel completed the challenge and secured his future mother-in-law's approval, but Daniel's story—and the whimsy of a rainbow igloo—also caught the attention of engineers and makers everywhere. If the conditions are right... why not try your hand at an igloo!

Making Connections

Building an igloo, in and of itself, is a great conceptual and hands-on project for students. But Daniel's igloo also raises a number of other angles for student inquiry. Here are some suggestions for students interested in exploring a hands-on science project as an outgrowth of the inspiring rainbow igloo story:

• "Dome Sweet Dome": The dome shape of a traditional igloo offers interesting issues for students exploring structural design. Once built, the structure is sound without any internal support beams and strong enough, if done correctly, to support a surprising amount of weight at the centermost external point. In the "Dome Sweet Dome" civil engineering science Project Idea, students construct a geodesic dome from tubes of rolled up newspaper.

• "Investigating the 'Mpemba Effect': Can Hot Water Freeze Faster than Cold Water?": Daniel's girlfriend's mother spent months preparing ice bricks for the igloo. If you needed to freeze ice bricks on the spot, however, to supplement a quantity you have ready or to generate a number of bricks in a short amount of time, are you better off using hot water or cold water? Explore the Mpemba effect and put it to the test! Making a few dozen bricks for a small igloo project, ice chest, or snowball barricade in the back yard is a perfect excuse to see whether hot or cold water freezes fastest! (A Science Buddies kit is available for this exploration!)
• "Mixing Light to Make Colors": You know that even if you only have a few colors of paint on hand, you can mix a range of secondary and tertiary colors. Does light mix the same way? The translucent colored ice blocks in the rainbow igloo might create interesting colors on the inside, a changing interior as the angle of sunlight on the surface changes throughout the day. In the "Mixing Light to Make Colors" science Project Idea, students use colored films (or hand-colored transparencies) to explore how light shining through different colors mixes to create the color our eyes perceive. Anyone interested in theater knows that different "gels" are often key to getting the right lighting effect! Budding photographers, too, can turn this science exploration into an eye-opening experiment.
• "How Does Color Affect Heating by Absorption of Light?": A typical igloo, made of snow, is opaque, and igloos are known for their ability to offer insulation and warmth even in extremely cold temperatures. The ice bricks in Daniel's igloo are filled with water tinted with food coloring. As a result, these blocks are more translucent than a traditional igloo's snow blocks. Will the rainbow igloo melt more quickly? Will the temperature inside the rainbow igloo be similar to a snow igloo? While the colors used in the ice bricks for the rainbow igloo offer more whimsy than engineering purpose, when it comes to painting a house, color can be an important factor. In the "How Does Color Affect Heating by Absorption of Light?" science Project Idea, students explore the relationship between color and heat absorption using small jars of water covered with various colors of paper. When it comes to creating the warmest space, is there an optimum color for house or windows paints, coverings, or materials?

Additional Reading

To read more about Daniel's igloo, view the local news coverage, or see photos taken during construction, visit the following sources:

• "Rainbow Igloo Rocks"
• "New Zealander spends his holidays in Edmonton, building an igloo"
• Image gallery

To learn more about igloos and other snow-based architecture, check the following books:

• How to Build an Igloo: And Other Snow Shelters
• Building an Igloo

A grant from the Cisco Foundation put Science Buddies on the ground floor of Bayside STEM Academy's annual science fair. Science Buddies partnered with the middle school throughout their science fair season, culminating in Science Buddies staff visiting the school to judge the school's science and engineering exhibition.

Thanks to support from Cisco Systems, Inc., Science Buddies provided support and a team of volunteer judges for Bayside STEM Academy's science fair. "Science Buddies proved a valuable resource in the success of our school's science/STEM fair," says James Brunner, a teacher at Bayside STEM Academy.

STEM has become a national acronym, but the local school science fair is a reminder that the need for science education exists in every community, in every school, and for every student. Thanks to community businesses and organizations like Cisco, the STEM efforts at schools like Bayside STEM Academy are being recognized and supported.

With its massive library of Project Ideas and extensive Project Guide that helps students at all levels with the steps of a science project, Science Buddies serves more than fifteen million people a year. This number, and the nonprofit's popularity with teachers, students, and parents, continues to grow as more and more emphasis is placed on science, technology, engineering, and math education in K-12 classrooms and at home.

Thanks to ongoing outreach projects and its many support-oriented resources, including the Ask an Expert forums, Science Buddies is in constant contact with members of the Science Buddies community at various stages of their projects, science fair planning, and classroom science integration. Visibility into both student science project successes and stumbling blocks helps Science Buddies continually refine, update, and expand science education offerings and programs as the organization responds to increasing demand for more hands-on science opportunities, activities, and resources.

Although myriad science learning opportunities may exist for K-12 students, both in class, at home, and after school, the school "science fair" remains a cornerstone of hands-on science education for many grade school students. Both at home and as part of in-class computer time, Science Buddies is a prime destination for students during science fair season. Whether students need help finding a project, determining their variables, setting up a project display board, or navigating other steps of the scientific method or engineering design process, Science Buddies strives to help students complete successful science projects and have positive science experiences.

Field Work

Each year during science fair season, Science Buddies staff members visit local fairs, an important step in staying in touch with how real students, real teachers, and real schools are responding to the national STEM challenge. This year, staff members had the opportunity to be in the field as they volunteered, as a group, to judge the annual science fair at Bayside STEM Academy, a public middle school in San Mateo, CA. The school's curriculum focuses on the intersection between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and an approach they call "design thinking," a methodology they believe breeds innovators and creative problem solvers.

As its name underscores, Bayside STEM Academy is a science-focused school. The importance of STEM and creative thinking and problem solving is central to the school's belief system, pedagogy, and core offerings. Not surprisingly, the whole school participates during science fair season. Every Bayside student—6th, 7th, and 8th grade—completes a science project. The top forty projects from each grade are then exhibited at the school's science fair.

This year, a grant from Cisco Systems, Inc. enabled Science Buddies to team with Bayside STEM Academy to further support the school's science fair efforts and to attend the fair and judge the student exhibits.

Science Fair Season

A school's science fair often spans a few days. Students set up their projects, and judges review all entries and determine the winners. Then the doors are opened, and the community is invited to come and see the collective exhibition of student science and engineering exploration and acumen. The public viewing may be a period of hours or days, but during this time, the student body, parents, and the community at large have the opportunity to be inspired and excited by the work of local students and teachers.

The actual fair may seem to be over in a blink, but students, teachers, and administrators often spend many months planning and preparing for the fair. The students at Bayside STEM Academy worked on their projects from mid-August through the first week of December. Throughout the fall semester, teachers and students at Bayside STEM Academy used Science Buddies resources to support the science fair process. Of the science projects on display at the Bayside science fair, approximately half were based on or inspired by Science Buddies project ideas.

In addition to their students' use of the Topic Selection Wizard, Project Directory, and Project Guide, the school used the Science Fair Schedule Worksheet to help plan and schedule the fair. According to James Brunner, a teacher at Bayside STEM, this year's science fair was so successful that they plan to hold a fair again next year and will use Science Buddies resources again both for student projects and for fair organization and planning. "We all [the teachers at Bayside] felt that Science Buddies was a big help to our students," says Brunner.

STEM in Action

"James Brunner and the teachers at Bayside STEM are a proven example of successful science fair organization and implementation," says Claire Hubbard, Science Buddies Product Design Engineer. "The teachers used Science Buddies resources to plan and conduct their science fair, in addition to using Science Buddies Project Ideas to inspire their students."

Hubbard worked as closely with Bayside STEM Academy during their science fair season and coordinated the team of Science Buddies volunteers who visited the science fair to judge the student projects. Hubbard has interviewed and observed numerous teachers and students regarding STEM education and the use of Science Buddies resources. The Bayside STEM Academy science fair gave her a chance to witness the impact of hands-on science and the resources and Project Ideas at Science Buddies on a larger scale—a school rather than a class or an individual finding and doing a science project.

Reinforcing the Value of Science Exploration

In the past, Bayside STEM Academy's science fair has been judged by parents and teachers. Having Science Buddies visit the fair was a welcome change, says Brunner. "It was very refreshing and unique to have Science Buddies' staff members involved with the judging this year."

"A huge thank you to Cisco for making our partnership with Bayside STEM Academy possible," says Hubbard. "It was a wonderful and unique opportunity to see our resources in action, first-hand."

For other Science Buddies staff members, being part of Bayside STEM Academy's science fair was equally rewarding. "It was a great opportunity to be at ground level of the work we are doing at Science Buddies," said Sabine Duke, Chief Controller for Science Buddies. Sandra Slutz, Lead Staff Scientist at Science Buddies concurs. "Attending Bayside's science and engineering fair was a true pleasure. Yes, seeing Science Buddies projects, which there were many of, as well as some creative original projects, in action is always heart-warming, but the real satisfaction came in seeing that the students had done what we always aim for Science Buddies users to do: they'd taken the project and invested their own time, energy, and intellect."

Slutz, who has judged numerous local, regional, and international science fairs notes that the showing at Bayside STEM Academy was inspiring and a positive reminder of the importance of hands-on science in the classroom. "It was clear that the Bayside teachers had motivated and supported their students, enabling them to not just "do a project" but, more importantly, to springboard from the Science Buddies resources to research, digest the background information, and understand their experiment and the scientific principles behind it," says Slutz. "From the projects displayed, you could see that both students and teachers had invested genuine effort, and they deserve a huge round of applause for their achievements."

Archaeologists and scientists have announced that the remains found last summer beneath a Leicester parking lot are those of Richard III, a much-maligned figure from English history. The story offers an enticing mix of history, literature, and science. Curious students, classes, and parents can learn more about genetics and genomics procedures used to solve the puzzle of the skeleton's identity.

These famous opening lines were spoken by Shakespeare's Richard III in the play by the same name. The bard's portrayal of Richard III, based on Sir Thomas More's record, possibly set a skewed stage for the way history has remembered Richard III. Both in terms of physical appearance and bitter and ruthless personality, Shakespeare penned an unlikeable and unhappy anti-hero. To a degree, historical facts support the characterization. The story of Richard's rise to the throne and, notably, the disappearance of his nephews, the "Princes in the Tower," paints an undeniably negative picture of the last ruler from the Plantagenet family. But other accounts of Richard suggest that literature has had much to do with how Richard has been remembered.

Richard III was killed in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth, the final conflict in the War of Roses, a series of battles between the houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England. With Richard's death, Henry VII ascended to the throne and began rule by the Tudors, a ruling dynasty that continued for more than one hundred years. Historical account of what happened to Richard III after his death is vague. Some maintained his remains had been buried near a local church, but as the years passed, the original location of the Greyfriars Friary was lost.
The lack of concrete knowledge regarding the fallen king's burial fed an aura of mystery regarding Richard's remains, a mystery that has intrigued historians for years and a puzzle that a team of scientists and archaeologists from the University of Leicester undertook to solve.

Digging into History

Last August, the remains of a body were found in Leicester, England by a team led by archaeologist Richard Buckley. Having determined the location, they thought, of the original Greyfriars Friary, a parking lot now, Buckley and team began to dig. They turned up "a human skeleton, complete with evidence of battle wounds—a blow to the head, and an arrow in the back—and scoliosis, or curvature of the spine."

Radiocarbon dating of the skeleton confirmed that the individual died in the second half of the 15th or in the early 16th century, which fits with Richard's death in 1485. The age of the individual at the time of death was posited as late 20s or early 30s. Richard died at 32. These results offered early indication that the remains might be the ones for which the team had been searching and fueled the quest for irrefutable identification. Characteristics of the skeleton, including the scoliosis and evidence of a fatal blow to the head further appeared to corroborate the story. But many people died in the late 1400s. Determining, without a doubt, the identity of the skeleton required more comprehensive and sophisticated research and science.

After many months of scientific inquiry, the identity of the remains has now been announced as conclusively belonging to the oft-maligned king. The announcement has left many intrigued. More than 500 years have passed, but a number of clues and the results of many scientific procedures, including mitochondrial DNA sequencing and radiocarbon dating, all go together to tell a unified story: the skeleton is that of Richard III.

The Thrill of Science

For young scientists, the story of Richard's exhumation and discovery is one that combines the best of history, adventure, mystery, and science. In a fitting twist, this week's science news tells a tale worthy of the stage. But in the end, science held the key to the identification of the skeleton. As detailed on the University of Leicester's The Search for Richard III site devoted to the excavation and identification, the many stages of scientific research and analysis included DNA extraction, X-ray tomography, osteology, and carbon dating.

Students fascinated by the story can conduct their own genetics and genomics science explorations to learn more about the processes scientists used to solve the puzzle of the skeleton's identity. The following Project Ideas guide students in hands-on research working with BLAST and building evolutionary trees using mitochondrial sequences:

• "Neanderthals, Orangutans, Lemurs, & You--It's a Primate Family Reunion!"
• "Trace Your Ancient Ancestry Through DNA"
• "What is the Woolly Mammoth's Closest Living Relative?
• "Use DNA Sequencing to Trace the Blue Whale's Evolutionary Tree"

Stay tuned! A new Project Idea is coming to Science Buddies that will give students a chance to simulate radiocarbon dating.

Further Reading

• University of Leicester announces discovery of King Richard III
• The Search for Richard III
• Discovery of Remains of England's King Richard III Confirmed
• Skeletal sleuthing team uncovered royal remains and the story behind them
• Body found under parking lot is King Richard III, scientists prove

• Bones Under Parking Lot Belonged to Richard III
  

Ask an engineer if she has ever built a crystal radio, and chances are you will get a story—one with all the makings of a classic when it comes to garage engineering and adolescence. Students often build a crystal radio as a first step in engineering and electronics—or as a middle school science fair project. If they have questions or need assistance troubleshooting their "set," they may be lucky enough to get assistance from Rick Marz, a seasoned engineer with an enduring affinity for crystal sets and a commitment to passing his expertise on to students.

One of Science Buddies' perennially popular electronics investigations is the "Crystal Radio" project. The allure of using a few basic materials to create a functional AM radio that requires no electricity or power supply is irresistible for many student engineers. This isn't simply a rote exercise in wiring a simple circuit to see a light bulb go on and off. Instead, by wrapping a canister (similar to one left over from a month's worth of oatmeal) with wire and completing a circuit that uses both a resistor and a small diode, you can create a basic AM radio.

Building a crystal radio set is a project that taps a young engineer's DIY love of hands-on wiring and offers a functional product in the end—a classic win-win. Granted, you won't toss your stereo or MP3 player out the window in favor of a crystal radio. But, if constructed properly, you can tune in to local AM radio stations as a result of learning more about modulation, radio waves, alternating (AC) and direct (DC) currents, diodes, and semiconductors.

A Hallmark of Engineering Exploration

Many engineers have a soft spot for crystal radio science projects. Whether they recall wiring their own crystal radio set and seeing their first semiconductor in action, or, like Rick Marz, grew up in a time when radio was a primary source of entertainment and hands-on engineering, crystal radios may be a rite of passage in the field of electronics.

Retired after forty-five years in the semiconductor business, Rick is a long-time volunteer at Science Buddies and part of the team of volunteer Experts who help assist students and parents in the Ask an Expert (AAE) forums. As an Expert at AAE, Rick has helped hundreds of students with questions about their electronics and engineering projects, including popular projects like the "Electrolyte Challenge," "Spin Right 'Round with this Simple Electric Motor," "Shaking Up Some Energy," "Is This Connected to That?" and "Build Your Own Crystal Radio."

Rick enjoys helping students with a wide range of electronics and engineering questions in the forums, but he has a particular fondness for crystal radio investigations and a history with crystal radio that goes back more than fifty years. By his own estimate, Rick says he is one of the last of a small group of crystal radio experts.

Witness to an Epoch

Having spent forty-five years in the semiconductor business, Rick has been a part of the industry from its beginnings in the 1960s. "At a recent semiconductor alumni dinner," says Rick, "we calculated that we had witnessed 99.8% of the growth of the entire semiconductor, computer and communication industry during our career." As it turns out, his interest began well before there even was an industry.

"Maybe I exaggerated a bit when I claimed to be the 'last of a small group' of crystal set experts, but I don't think I'm too far off," says Rick. "I grew up before television existed, and the radio in every home was the sole source of connected entertainment and the source of much of the outside information we received." For today's students, imagining the world before smart phones, MP3 players, and always-connected devices is often difficult; imagining the realities of life before TV may be even more unfathomable. But TVs didn't become staple items in most U.S. households until the mid-1950s (or later). Prior to that, the radio took center stage as both a pivotal source of information and a beacon for family entertainment. The radio was so central to American life that the period between the 1920s and 1950s is referred to as the Golden Age of Radio.

"The radio was a focal point in every family living room," recalls the engineer. "Music, fictional characters and stories, serial adventures, comedy, and world news on the radio were an important part of growing up," says Rick. "I still remember hours of listening to shows in the darkened living rooms of my grandparents' and parents' houses."

Childhood Curiosity

Rick traces his interest in electronics to an initial curiosity about radio in general. "My interest in radio, and what made it work, started at an early age, probably around 7 or 8." Not only was the radio a prominent device in his house, but the radio was also tied to family history for Rick. "I had heard stories from my grandparents that, as a child, my father constructed many crystal sets of his own in the 1930's using wooden pencils. I was fascinated and soon started to build similar radios using a pencil as the coil form and locating the 'cat's whisker' galena crystal detector at the end of the pencil where the eraser was. A suitable antenna and ground completed a working receiver."

Those pencil-based receivers were among the first Rick explored in a series of crystal sets that spanned many years. "I can't remember my first crystal set exactly, although I do recall that it used the galena crystal and a coil wound on a cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper." Once completed, tested, and evaluated by the young engineer, those first sets were upcycled and reused. A collection of completed sets wasn't an option. "One of the things you did to build your second radio," explains Rick, "was to cannibalize the first."

Tuning In

In his mid-western hometown, there were only four AM radio stations, and he needed earphones to pick up the faint signals transmitted, but it was enough. He was hooked. His early crystal radio experiments fueled an interest Rick satisfied by building hundreds of crystal radio variations through the years, a number he says is not an exaggeration. Supplementing his burgeoning interest in engineering was the fact that crystal radio construction was a common science exploration for kids. "During that period, crystal sets were important chapters in Cub Scout construction projects," recalls Rick. "You could buy the familiar parts like the Philmore^TM galena crystal/whisker assembly in hardware and department stores," he says, adding that even "the comic books of the time always had a page or two of ads for crystal set kits."

Always on the lookout for ways to extend, modify, or innovate upon the core concept of a crystal radio set, Rick says he built some models based on "inspiration from the regular tech magazines of the day, Popular Science, Science and Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, etc." In other models, Rick tested out his own ideas for ways to enhance or improve performance. "A lot of component substitution went hand-in-hand with what I thought must be R&D at the time," notes Rick. "There were very few options to building a basic crystal set, so most of the variants were in coil design/construction and antenna/ground choices." For a young engineer, the quest to find new materials that might work was part of the challenge and part of the fun. "I remember visiting radio and TV repair shops and asking to go through their discards looking for usable components."

No matter how many sets he built, the allure of a better set persisted. Crystal radio gets its name from the use of the early galena crystal, but as new and alternative materials became more available, Rick was able to extend his electronics experiments and enjoy the benefits of advancing technology—at a price. He remembers buying his first germanium transistor in 1956, a Raytheon CK722. "I was 12 years old, and the transistor cost over $7. A fortune at that time. Half a summer of savings."

Once you had a new part, you put it to use, says Rick. "By the mid 1950's, early germanium diodes like the 1N34A became available at low prices for hobbyists. You might save an allowance for weeks to buy one and then use it over and over in place of the galena crystal/cat's whisker that had to be tediously 'probed' to find a sensitive spot that would rectify the radio signal and yield the audio component of the AM broadcast." Diodes brought new sophistication for set builders, and today's students commonly use a small germanium diode, not unlike the one Rick first sampled in the 1950s, in their crystal radio sets.

Lifelong Passion

Even after decades in engineering, years in which technology has changed dramatically, Rick's interest in crystal radio has not waned. Following his early interest in engineering, and building off of his father's interest in radio, Rick first explored power electronics and then computer hardware. He studied electrical engineering in college and, in the way things sometimes work, his first career opportunity brought him full circle. "My first job out of school was with a company in Pennsylvania that built—what else—germanium and silicon diodes." Germanium diodes were used as video detectors in early televisions. As the TV industry grew, Rick says the company produced over a million germanium diodes a week to supply the demand. "That's a lot of diodes. Enough to keep any number of crystal set builders supplied forever! I still have a few small drawers full of them for old time's sake."

Passing It On

Though the parts no longer require a whole summer's earnings, Rick continues to enjoy both the history and the tinkering that a crystal radio set invites. He shares his knowledge, expertise, and interest with students who undertake a crystal radio exploration for a science fair, a school project, or as a weekend activity at home. "Several years ago I acquired the parts to create an elegant crystal set that really would be an office conversation piece. It is probably time to get it out of the garage and build it for my grandchildren."