Building on the success of our annual Writing Competition for Early Career Researchers, this year, Pharmacology Matters decided to hold its first Junior Science Writing Competition, in collaboration with the Society for Experimental Biology. The competition was for those under 12 and the only constraint on content was that it must be related to science.
We received lots of fantastic entries, they were judged by a panel who thoroughly enjoyed the broad range of topics, and the creativity and curiosity of our young writers. Well done to everyone who entered!
Our winning piece was ‘Giant Bamboo’ by Isaac Waitt, aged 11 (see below). Our runners up were Mohamad Ibrahim Aujoyeb, aged 9, with ‘Plants’ and Reuben and Micah Waitt, aged 10 and 8, with ‘Pets: chameleon, spider, antlion and great diving beetles’.
The Society recognises the importance of inspiring and encouraging the next generation of pharmacologists - whether that be through exploring how medicines are made, or supporting future pharmacologists to share exciting science - just like Isaac, Reuben, Micah and Mohamad. If you'd like to get involved with inspiring the next generation of pharmacologists, please get in touch with the team at education@bps.ac.uk - we'd love to hear your ideas!
Giant Bamboo
There are more than 1000 different types of bamboo, found in many areas around the world. As we live in Uganda, we have experience mainly of giant bamboo and water bamboo. I am writing this essay because, although you can read many amazing facts about bamboo, it can be hard to believe they are all true. These are some of our experiments.
How giant is ‘giant’?
How fast can bamboo really grow? Bamboo is a large plant that grows in tropical regions and can grow up to two storeys high – we have some in our garden in Uganda. I wanted to see how fast it really grew. We waited for rainy season and when the first shoots appeared, we measured the new growth every day. From our experiments, bamboo grows like this; day 1 = 1 cm, day 2 = 4 cm, day 3 = 5 cm, day 4 = 8 cm, day 5 = 12 cm, day 6 = 15cm, day 7 = 17 cm, making a total of 62 cm over a week. When you draw a graph, the curve is exponential.
Structure and strength
Bamboo is very strong but also very flexible. The cylindrical shape is among the strongest seen in nature, and is also seen in birds’ bones. Our tent poles have a similar structure. In fact, the structure is so strong that builders copy it in their buildings!
We discovered that a piece of bamboo 5 cm wide can hold 84 kg of weight! We know this because we once made a tree house out of it and it held me and my three siblings!
How can bamboo be used?
Being strong, light and flexible is the perfect combination because you can make a huge range of things including bows and arrows and wigwams. You can also make flasks.
Here I will tell you how: first find a wide piece of bamboo 14 cm at least. Since bamboo is hollow, a piece of bamboo 14 cm wide will leave 9 cm of bamboo hollow. First, chop the top off your piece of bamboo then find a stick that fits in the hole - this will be your cork. Then, fill up with water and enjoy. Bamboo is loved by chameleons; once we found two baby ones on it which were a centimetre long! Do you think pandas are the only ones that eat bamboo? Well if you did, you’d be wrong because in Asia and northern Uganda it is a delicacy. I find this delicious, but my brother does not.
Are there any risks?
Due to its strength and speed of growth, giant bamboo can take over the garden – and can even smash concrete!
The leaves start as sharp spikes which can cause skin irritation (I know this from personal experience).
Conclusion
I find it amazing that bamboo can be used in so many different ways, and believe it is truly an amazing gift of nature. I very much enjoyed all of these experiments and look forward to next rainy season, where our investigations will continue.
Comments
If you are a British Pharmacological Society member, please
sign in to post comments.