A few weeks ago I mentioned that we were going to be performing 'Dante's Laboratory' in the Adelaide Fringe again. This is already great news, but as an added sweetener, we have also been selected to be part of the BankSA Support Act program. What does this mean for you? It means that BankSA are offering a limited number of very cheap tickets to our shows at the Science Exchange on 3, 4 and 5 March.  By "cheap", I mean $10! For the mathematicians (or accountants) out there, that's a discount of between 45% and 60%, depending on the type of ticket you buy. This is very direct way for BankSA to make the arts more accessible, which is fairly awesome. That said, it is a case of first in first served. Tickets for Fringe events went on sale today - check it out.

Xenon (atomic number 54) is colourless and odourless. It is one of the 7 noble gases that inhabit group 18 of the periodic table - the Magnificent Seven as my school chemistry teacher used to call them. Among other things, xenon is used as a general anaesthetic, in spacecraft propulsion and arc lamps (like those that are used in IMAX projectors).

As you might have seen/heard, speaking with a lungful of helium changes the sound of the human voice. This is due to that fact that the sound waves are moving through a gas that is less dense than air, which changes the speed of sound (but not the frequency/pitch).

Under most conditions, xenon is considerably denser than air. We did a couple of experiments to see what effect xenon had on the sound of the human voice.

The pitch of the voice was not altered, but the timbre of the voice was. There is more extensive explanation of the physics behind this at the University of New South Wales School of Physics site.

Please do not try this at home. Breathing anything other than air can be dangerous and gases that are denser than air can settle in the base of your lungs, leading to asphyxiation. 

I am very excited to confirm that we will be back at the Adelaide Fringe in 2011! We had a great time performing ‘Pre-Coital’ earlier this year and, with support from RIAus, we’ll be performing ‘Dante’s Laboratory’ at the Science Exchange on 3, 4 and 5 March. I don’t think the Fringe guide comes out until 8 January, but I’m sure they won’t mind me giving you a heads-up. This is an Australian premiere and we’d love to see you there!

Image by 'smil.As we enter the festive season (Christmas, Hanukkah, winter solstice, etc) my mind turned to the act of gift giving and I was reminded of a piece I presented on Einstein a Go Go about altruism. Altruism can be defined as aselfless concern for the wellbeing of others. This implies that to show altruism, one needs to aware of self (and presumably that which is non-self). Only a few organisms show evidence of self-awareness, and we know that humans are one of these animals.

The meaning of life is to live long enough to pass on your genes as many times as possible. Staying alive, however is not easy, so this does not simply mean being selfish. More . . .

A ruler: a convenient way to measure 30 cm. Image by Mags_catThere s a company based in the US, which specialises in science education supplies. I have had reason to purchase many items from them over the years and I have always felt that the service is good and the range extensive. While browsing their site a few days ago, however, I stumbled upon an item that is just silly. Actually I can’t decide if it is brilliant or ridiculous. You can make up your own mind.

It’s called the “nanosecond bar” and is described as a “durable, three-dimensional bar”. It is designed help students understand how fast light travels. With the rise of nanotechnology and especially with the proliferation of the term, I have had reason to explain to students (and also just at parties) issues of scale and the nano-scale in particular. I was, therefore interested in this exciting product.

It is a pale blue piece of plastic, 30 cm long, about 2 cm wide and perhaps 3 or 4 mm thick. It has the words “one nanosecond” written along it. That appears to be all there is to it. The idea is that it is exactly 30 cm long – the distance light travels in a nanosecond. It’s basically a plastic ruler – without measurement markings along it. Surely a ruler would suffice, or a 30 cm piece of string, or 2 correctly positioned hands, or a line in the sand.

Perhaps I’m missing the point, but for a little less than $8, I wonder if there aren’t better options.