Great Women You Should Know… Helen Sharman
Dr. Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut and at 27 the fifth youngest person to be launched into space on the 18th May 1991. Our contributor Annie May Gibbs had the opportunity to meet Dr Sharman and ask her some questions.
What Makes Popping Candy Pop?
Popping candy is fantastic stuff. You put it on your tongue and within seconds it’s fizzing and exploding and jumping about in your mouth. But what makes this happen? Continuing our #HaveYouEverWondered series, Sam takes a handful sweeties and finds out what makes popping candy pop!
I Love You Natty – A Siblings Introduction to Down’s Syndrome
My name is Mia and I’m ten years old.
I’m the first person in my family to write a book. It’s called I Love You Natty and is about my younger sister who has Down’s syndrome. Natty is 7 and there isn’t anything particularly ‘special’ about her, but she does have an extra chromosome in every cell of her body, which looks like a jelly bean.
She needs some extra help sometimes, for example I learnt Makaton to talk with my hands with her. She used to have physio therapy and also had surgery on her heart when she was small. But we all need support sometimes don’t we?
Most of all Natty is just my little sister. I love that when she was small she would force herself to open her eyes to look at me because she recognised my voice. I love Natty and my life wouldn’t be the same without her.
I wrote this book with Mum so that other children could understand what Down’s syndrome means. I did lots of drawings and we chose lots of family photographs to go in the book too.
I hope you enjoy it. Natty does.
You can order I Love You Natty on Amazon or via your local bookstore
Lightning Never Strikes Twice
Continuing our Fact or Fable series, today we take a look at the saying ‘Lightning never strikes twice’, with our Science Editor Samantha Gouldson investigating.
Lightning forms when excess amounts of positive and negative electric charge build up in storm clouds. This causes sparks, kind of like static electricity. Sometimes the sparks jump between the clouds but often they jump between the clouds and the ground.
It’s not just thunderstorms that have lightning either; snow storms, sand storms and even the clouds produced by erupting volcanoes can all cause lightning.
The idea that lightning doesn’t strike twice is a popular saying but one that it’s easy to disprove.