The story Getting into space the traditional way, in a space shuttle, is an expensive process but at least we know it works. Is travelling up in an elevator attached to a 36 000 km cable any more cost effective or realistic?

The story A team of scientists from a Dutch university has discovered a way of turning biogas made from plant matter into the building blocks of common plastics. They used a new kind of iron catalyst made from nanoparticles to make ethene and propene. This new method means that plastics with the same chemical structure, […]

Using anthropomorphism is a really useful technique when it comes to teaching the more challenging concepts in chemistry. After all, atoms behave just like people in a lot of ways, including matters of love.

The story Researchers in California have successfully converted mouse skin cells into brain cells, eliminating the need for stem cells. It is hoped that the same procedure could be carried out on human cells, bringing the possibility of stem cell therapy for conditions such as Alzheimer’s closer to reality. This is a great story to […]

This video comes courtesy of NASA and shows how global temperatures have changed over the last 131 years.  It would make a great starter to any lesson on climate change.  You can clearly see that temperatures started to showed a significance increase from the 1970s due to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry […]

…does whatever a spider-goat does. Can she swing from a web? No she can’t she’s a goat… …however, she can produce spider silk proteins in her milk.

This is a great video about Gregor Mendel and his work – a topic found in most GCSE science specifications. It was produced by Nottingham Trent University for their ‘My favourite scientist’ project.  You can find videos about other scientists on their website.

The story Did you know:  The hamster species P.roborovskii have been said to run the equivalent of four human marathons per night? This interesting but apparently useless fact came to my attention via Guardian blogger Grrl Scientist.  The blog post went on to explain the ways that all this kinetic energy could be harnessed to […]

The story Today sees the start of London zoo’s annual stock-take where the numbers of each species are counted. This task maybe a quick job for the keepers of the big cats or large reptiles but spare a thought for the invertebrate keepers, counting every butterfly could keep them occupied for up to 4 weeks.

  This spooky video shows the giant red crab which have invaded Antarctic waters due to increased water temperatures: an example of how changes in non-living factors can alter the distribution of organisms.  This invasive species has the potential to destroy the delicately balanced food webs in this ecosystem.