Eyes in the Dark Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing experiments with potions and bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes!

-Eyes!

-Ears!

-Ears!

-Nose!

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know!

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells And Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# Nina's Neurons are coming to your place!

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes!

-Eyes!

-Ears!

-Ears!

-Nose!

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know!

# Oh, yeah! #

Hello, just checking my bunches, getting ready for the day.

-BEEPING

-I hear a beep, I see a flash

I wonder what they're going to ask?

-Hi, Nina!

-Hi, guys!

We've got a question for you.

What makes the lights in the middle of the road shine?

It's a great question.

What makes the lights in the middle of the road shine?

Lights in the road are a brilliant invention.

They help when driving in the dark.

-Why not come to my workshop to find out?

-See you soon, Nina! Bye!

See you soon!

I need help with this and I know who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

The question is, what makes lights in the middle of the road shine?

Which neuron will help us find the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much If you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear If there's a sound, I help you hear.

Will it lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing Day or night

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's whiffy, but you can't tell

My messages help your sense of smell

Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet

I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat.

BEEPING

It's Luke!

ALL: Go Luke! Go Luke! Go Luke! Go Luke! Go Luke! Go Luke! Go Luke!

Cool, Nina. I'll be looking out to help you!

The question is, what makes lights in the middle of the road shine?

Because we see lights shine, Luke will help us,

but, neurons, I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before they come.

Emma, Tara and Hannah want to find out about the lights on the road.

Lots of lights shining bright Why do they only come out at night?

Emma, Tara and Hannah become the inventors!

-Hi, guys.

-Hi, Nina.

-Come on in. Welcome to my workshop.

Lovely to see you.

The question was, what makes lights in the middle of the road shine?

-Why do you want to know?

-During the day, you can't see the lights,

but when my dad is driving at night, they suddenly appear.

The lights on the road are called Catseyes.

I happen to have some here.

Let's do an experiment.

Emma said you can only see them when your dad's driving at night.

Well, let's turn the lights down...

and have a look at the Catseyes.

-Can you see them shine?

-ALL: No!

So, if the Catseyes don't give out light,

something else must make them shine.

Well, let's pick up our torches, turn them on,

and point them towards our Catseyes.

-Can you see them shine now?

-Yes!

-Yeah!

So, only when you shine light on Catseyes, can they shine light back.

OK, torches off. Now, I'm going to move round here

and turn my torch on.

Now have a look at the Catseyes.

Oh, I can see them shining.

-Can you?

-No!

-Oh, why don't you turn your torches back on?

-Now can you see them?

-Yes!

-Right.

You only see them shining

if you're beside where the light's coming from.

Oh, and it doesn't matter where you shine the light from,

the Catseyes always shine right back at you.

OK, so turn your torches off.

When you shine light on something and the light bounces back,

it's called a retroflector.

"Retroflector" - that's a big word, Nina.

Retroflector!

Ha!

I know, it is a big word, Bud.

-Is it Dad's headlights that make the Catseyes shine?

-Exactly. Spot-on.

-But how does it do that?

-I think we need to have a closer look.

Taking things apart is my job.

It can be dangerous so don't do this yourself.

That's right. Nina's been trained to do this.

You could get hurt when you take things apart.

Leave it to the experts.

OK, so here we have a Catseye.

It's made up of glass balls and a rubber dome.

The rubber means that if a car drives over it,

it squishes, but the glass balls don't break.

Let me show you a glass ball close up on the Nina cam.

Look at that.

Wowee! It looks like a marble! I love playing marbles!

The glass ball is the retroflector where the reflecting happens.

That's why the Catseyes shine right back at us.

Retroflectors can be used for all sorts of things.

-Shall we see another invention in action?

-Yes!

Let's go!

Hmm! Where do you think we're going today?

What else use retroflectors?

What else shines when light hits it?

That's a difficult one, Ollie. Looks like we'll find out soon.

OK, guys, torches on.

ALL: Wow!

Oh, my! Look how brightly their clothes are shining.

Look at that fire engine! Amazing!

Aren't they bright? There's a fire engine, and, look, two firefighters.

-They've got bright stripes on them.

-Yes, they do.

That makes them easy to see.

Let's have a look and see why they shine so much in the dark.

-Hello!

-Hello!

-We're investigating retroflectors.

-Can we look at your clothes to see why they shine in the dark?

-Yes.

Thank you. OK, guys, look here.

These stripes are the bits we see in the dark.

They're made of a special retroflective material.

-Like the Catseyes.

-Yes. Lots of tiny little Catseyes next to each other.

The fire engine's the same.

These big stripes are made of retroflectors too.

They shine right back at us in the dark.

It's important that firefighters and fire engines are seen in the dark.

If you goes out at night, you should wear something with a retroflector,

so that vehicles can see you.

-BELL RINGS

-Oh! The firefighters have got to go!

Time to get back to the workshop to do some inventing!

I really like the name of the lights on the road - Catseyes.

-But who invented them?

-Well, listen up, I can tell you that.

There are lots of stories about this,

but I'll tell you my favourite.

Over 70 years ago, a man called Percy Shaw was driving one night

when he saw a cat sitting on a fence.

The cat's eyes reflected his headlights back to him.

This gave him an idea.

He invented the Catseyes that help us drive safely on the roads today.

Miaow!

Your question was, what makes lights in the middle of the road shine?

We've found out that Catseyes need light to shine,

they shine light back no matter where it's from,

and that it's called a retroflector,

but how does a retroflector work?

We should invent our own Catseyes to help us find out.

The first thing we'll do is take a paper cup,

turn it upside-down and draw around your cat's eyes. Excellent.

Take your scissors and start cutting.

Now do be careful and watch those fingers.

Scissors can be very sharp.

Next, we're going to take our foil cake tins,

and hold one of them in your hand

and, with your thumb, press the bottom to make it round.

What's happened to the cakes? That's not fair!

Bud, do you always have to think about food?

Yes! I'm the taste neuron, remember? It's my job!

We'll glue the foil tins into the bottom of our paper cups.

Let's get some sticky glue - put plenty on there.

The final thing we need to do is take one of your paper cups

and push it through the cat's eye.

Excellent.

There we have it. We've made our very own Catseyes.

Let's try them out. OK, grab your torch and sit them up.

Oh, I'd better turn the lights down.

There we go. OK, now shine your torches.

So do you see how the light's reflecting?

-Yes.

-The tin foil makes a sort of retroflector.

No matter when the light's from,

the retroflector shines back at you. Well done, inventors.

Your question was, what makes lights in the middle of the road shine?

The lights on the road are called Catseyes.

When we looked inside a Catseye, we found a glass ball.

This glass ball is like a mirror and it reflects light.

The glass is curved so you can shine light from anywhere

and it will always shine light back at you.

It's called a retroflector. As a Catseye has a retroflector,

when a car light shines on it in the dark,

it shines right back, lighting up the road ahead.

That's how Catseyes work. Thank you for your great question today.

-Thanks, Nina. Bye!

-Oh, bye! Thank you.

If you want to make today's invention,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website.

You may have other ideas of what to invent.

-Mikes.

-Trains.

-Binoculars.

-Televisions.

-Speakers.

-And cars.

# We all love inventing

# Woh-oh-oh! Go inventing!

# We all love inventing

# Why don't you try it too?

# Inventions make life easier

# And help us get things done

# Go inventing!

# I always like to take a look at how they work and run

# Go inventing

# We all love inventing

# Woh-oh-oh! Go inventing!

# We all love inventing

# Why don't you try it too? #

It's been such a great day, man -

seeing how the Catseyes shone when everyone pointed their torch at it.

It's been a marvellous day,

especially when Nina had a look inside the Catseye -

a retroflector is a great invention.

I've had a brilliant day.

Just as well everyone had their shiny clothes on - it was so dark.

I've had a fabby day!

I really liked it when everyone made their own Catseyes

out of cake tins.

It's just a pity there were no cakes in them.

We've had a great time today.

Bye!

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