Day Five: From plants on Mars to travelling light

We’ve reached the end of the first week of I’m a Scientist with another full day of live chats and questions.

The scientists will get the weekend to rest up, and next week the evictions start! Who stays? You decide! Make sure to vote for the scientist you want to win because the one scientist will be evicted from each zone on Tuesday afternoon!

As usual, we’ve picked out a few of our favourite CHAT and ASK questions from today. In the Plants Zone, the students wanted to know if plants could survive on Mars:

Student: How will the gravity of mars affect the plants?

Isabel Webb: Mars has different gravity to us – I dont know how much by without google though! Our plants have evolved to live under trhe gravity we have on earth, so if they were to evolve under different gravity they could handle it. if you put our earth plants on mars, they would struggle to stay upright, and struggle moving water.

In the Lanthanum Zone, one student wondered if viruses are actually vital to human life…

Would humans be able to survive if there was no viruses in the world?

While in the Light Zone the scientists pondered the way light travels…

If light traveled in waves as oppose to straight lines, would we still be able to see?

Finally, in the Caesium Zone — by far the zone with the most questions — one student wondered how you would know if you were ‘infected with germs’…

How do you know when germs have infected your body?

Make sure to VOTE for the scientist you want to win; evictions start on Tuesday! And don’t forget you can comment on other students’ questions if you want to find out more!


Thanks to the Wellcome Trust for part funding I’m a Scientist, and to the Science and Technology Facilities Council for funding the Extreme Size and Nuclear Zones, to the Institute of Physics for funding the Light Zone, and the Royal Society of Chemistry for funding the Colour Zone.

Posted on March 14, 2014 by modjosh in News. Comments Off on Day Five: From plants on Mars to travelling light