Discovery

Seeing the World with Science

Scientists are a well-travelled group. Whether chasing post-doctoral fellowships, attending conferences or taking sabbaticals, they tend to travel a great deal. In recent years, science students have seen increasing opportunities for travelling with science, seeing more of New Zealand and more of the world.

Seven months of training paid off for the New Zealand team at the International Chemistry Olympiads in Perugia Italy, with all four members gaining medals. David Yuen of Selwyn College, Auckland, and Andrew Gilbert of Palmerston North Boys' High took silver medals ranking in the top third of participants. Jason Tseung and Simon Blakey of Auckland Grammar gained bronze medals.

Training started with a selection examination in November last year, and continued until the July Olympiad. Weekly reading assignments and fortnightly problem assignments kept the students on the ball for the theoretical and practical tests that made up the Chemistry Olympiad.

Thirty hours flying saw the team hit Rome for two days of sightseeing and getting used to the hot summer temperatures. Then came a 200-kilometre bus trip to Perugia in northern Italy and a meeting with the other 37 teams competing.

The four-hour practical examination, involving precise titrations and careful isomerisation routines, was particularly tricky, according to teacher and team organiser Tim Oughton. With the inorganic section covered by the lab work, the theoretical concentrated on physical and organic chemistry, with sections on radiochemistry and chromatography.

"Those who chose to point out the organic bias to the examiners were reminded of the fine Italian history in organic chemistry, " Oughton says.

It wasn't all hard work -- a sports tournament, a spaghetti party, visits to wine museums and even a Papal audience filled in the time while the judges pored over the papers.

"The medal presentation took place on the final evening, culminating an incredible educational and cultural experience, " says Oughton. "The result was greeted with jubilation by the members of the New Zealand team and provided an excellent finalé to the months of hard work and preparation."

The team teachers got a chance to talk chemistry with counterparts from around the world. Oughton notes that many thought the new chemistry curriculum ambitious. It may help ensure that future chemistry representatives do equally well in the Chemistry Olympiad.

Maths Olympiad
in Istanbul

Bonnie Law was one of six students to go to Istanbul as part of New Zealand's International Mathematic Olympiad team. Like most of the 300 or so students involved in the maths competition, the Seventh Former from St Cuthberts in Auckland sees maths as something of a hobby.

"I find that working on maths problems teaches me to think systematically. It helps to improve my academic work in other subjects a great deal, " says Law.

The heavy demands of being on the team meant that Law had to give up some of her other activities such as music, but she found the maths camp in Christchurch and the trip to Turkey worth it.

"It allowed me to meet many teenagers, both in New Zealand and from all around the world, who share the same interest in maths, " she says.

New Zealand Olympiad committee member Alan Parris says that one of the benefits for team members is the chance to bounce ideas around with other bright, mathematically inclined students. He sees the social aspects as important, providing a peer group both nationally and internationally with many contacts kept up after the trials and competitions are over.

Visits to Gallipoli and Troy provided a break for the team before the nine hours of maths problems. Seventy-four teams were invited to take part in the prestigious tournament. Parris says that the competition has a great deal of mana and a great deal of financial support in the host nations.

Competition for the honour of hosting the Olympiad is almost as tough as its sporting counterpart -- the annual event has been booked until 2002, and the next one available after that is 2010.

As with many of these activities, funding at home remains tight, with only a few stalwart companies and the odd government department providing financial support. Parris maintains that the spinoffs are good, with 6,000 students involved in the maths programme nationwide. and students showing excellent progress at university level. He's looking forward to the development of a mentor programme, where former Olympians take aspiring students under their mathematical wings.

One area which is well supported is the Science Fairs run throughout New Zealand with the aid of ECNZ. Winners of the premier awards at the ECNZ New Zealand Science Fair have travelled to other fairs overseas.

The 1993 winner, 15-year-old Catherine Muller of Wellington's Samuel Marsden Collegiate will be off next May to Birmingham, Alabama in the US. Her exhibit on mosquito control through the use of native plants will be featured at the International Science and Engineering Fair. Andrew Tagg of Otago Boys High won an award from the Kiwanis to attend the San Diego Science and Engineering Fair, with work on a fungus-based breathalyser.

Last year's premier award winner, Kate Cotter of New Plymouth, took two awards at the fair for her study of drench resistance in sheep, making her the top international student. The awards include cash prizes, scientific trips, university scholarships and assistance with research and equipment. More than 800 students from around the world attend, and their work is examined by 1,100 judges in a process that takes over five hours. With the chance of winning a trip to the Nobel Prize Ceremonies in Stockholm, all the work seems well worth it.

Closer to Home

Visits to Wellington or Auckland may not have quite the same cachet, but students have had the chance to travel to Crown Research Institutes as part of a Royal Society-inspired competition.

A visit to HortResearch's facilities in Auckland provided an eye-opener for New Plymouth Girls' High School Seventh Former Pamela Bromley. Two days of helping with practical experimentation on root disease in apples and sitting on a taste panel showed the range of possibilities in horticultural research. The visit showed that scientists weren't formal, detached people in suits -- Bromley was surprised to find things very relaxed.

Seventh Former Stephen Beatson, from Golden Bay High School in Nelson, travelled to Wellington to find out about life as a researcher at the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). Beatson had chosen the institute as the one with the most appeal as a potential employer in the future.

Beatson saw a whole range of research undertaken by NIWA, looking at air pollution meteorology at Baring Head lighthouse, chatting with scientists at NIWA Oceanographic and visiting the Environmental Data division.

The diversity of careers offered by a science degree was a surprise to Whangaroa College student Louise Shepherd. NIWA sponsored Shepherd to attend the Women's Suffrage Centennial Science Conference in Wellington.

"Before, I thought that you just got a degree and got a job closely related to that, but the jobs are really diverse, " she says.

NIWA marketing manager Adrianne Cranshaw says that one of the reasons the institute selected Shepherd was that her location in the far north meant that her opportunities to meet people working in science were limited. Shepherd did not have a particular science career in mind for herself, but the conference encouraged her interest in science and engineering subjects.

"None of my friends have experienced anything like this, " she says.

= Why are craters round?

Impact craters, made by large meteorites or small asteroids hitting the surface of a planet or moon, are all circular because they are formed by an explosion after the initial impact.

The force of the impact drives the material well below the surface, causing a pocket of hot, highly compressed, vaporised rock to form beneath it. This rock explodes outwards and upwards, forming a circular crater.

It doesn't matter whether the meteorite came down vertically or at an angle. Some early astronomers argued that, if a meteorite struck obliquely, it should produce an elliptical crater as it gouged out a hole. The explosion after the meteorite has hit, however, wipes out any such signs. In addition, according to Dr John Hearnshaw of Canterbury University's Physics and Astronomy Department, the gravitational pull of the Moon means that grazing impacts would be relatively rare. The path of incoming meteorites curves into the surface, making most impacts vertical.

In 1916, Ernst pik, an Estonian astronomer, first explained how this worked, but his paper was published in Estonian and so wasn't read by many of his colleagues. At that time, many astronomers thought that lunar craters were volcanic in origin because they were circular, like Earth's volcanic craters.

Fifteen years later, New Zealander A. C. Gifford provided a proof for the impact theory, but it wasn't until the Apollo Moon missions of the 1960s that the matter was settled, when astronomers got a chance to look at lunar craters and rocks close up.