Issue 21
Editorials
Welcome to the twenty-first issue of Science in School
Thanks to everyone who donated to Science in School via our website; we were overwhelmed by the positive response. With your help and the support of our advertisers, we have been able to print and distribute Issue 21, as those of you who are reading this in print will realise. The battle is not yet won, however: we need support from all of you to help us to continue printing your favourite science-teaching journal – and to provide it to you free of charge.
News from the EIROs
Trapped by scientists: antimatter, cholesterol and red blood cells
Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight of Europe’s largest inter-governmental scientific research organisations. This article reviews some of the latest news from the EIROforum members (EIROs).
Cutting-edge science
Birds on the run: what makes ostriches so fast?
What makes ostriches such fast runners? Nina Schaller has spent nearly a decade investigating.
Cancer stem cells – hope for the future?
Cancer and stem cells are both topical issues. But have you heard of cancer stem cells? As Massimiliano Mazza explains, this concept may revolutionise the treatment of cancer.
Event reports
Science teaching in space: the ESA teachers workshop
Meet an astronaut, cook a comet and plan a trip to Mars. Shamim Hartevelt introduces a recent teacher workshop at ESA.
Science: on stage and in action
Andrew Brown reviews the latest Science on Stage event in Spain: Ciencia en Acción.
Features
How I killed Pluto: Mike Brown
To change the world would be amazing enough. Mike Brown changed the Solar System. Eleanor Hayes explains.
Reviews
The Astronaut’s Cookbook: Tales, Recipes, and More, by Charles T Bourland and Gregory L Vogt
Who Cloned my Cat? Fun Adventures in Biotechnology, by Reinhard Renneberg
Who Cloned my Cat? Fun Adventures in Biotechnology is a collection of two-page articles that briefly describe discoveries from the field of biotechnology.
Science education projects
A clean green sweep: an aquatic bioremediation project
Vered Yephlach-Wiskerman introduces a classroom project to investigate the bioremediation powers of the aquatic fern Azolla.
Smell like Julius Caesar: recreating ancient perfumes in the laboratory
Even everyday scents have the power to take us back in time, awakening half-forgotten memories. With Gianluca Farusi’s help, you can take your students 2000 years into the past, recreating and testing Julius Caesar’s perfume.
Smoke is in the air: how fireworks affect air quality
Did you realise that fireworks cause measurable air pollution? Tim Harrison and Dudley Shallcross from Bristol University, UK, explain how to investigate atmospheric pollutants in class.
Science topics
Just the placebo effect?
When your doctor prescribes you a tablet and you get better, was it really the drug or could it have been the colour of the tablet? Andrew Brown investigates the placebo effect.
More than meets the eye: unravelling the cosmos at the highest energies
Claudia Mignone and Rebecca Barnes explore X-rays and gamma rays and investigate the ingenious techniques used by the European Space Agency to observe the cosmos at these wavelengths.
Teacher profiles
A science teacher on air
Marco Martucci tells Eleanor Hayes what science teaching and radio journalism have in common.
Teaching activities
The physics of crowds
Crowding affects us almost every day, from supermarket queues to traffic jams. Timothy Saunders from EMBL explains why this is interesting to scientists and how to study the phenomenon in class.
Polymers in medicine
The topic of polymers is often limited to chemistry lessons. The Establish project offers some hands-on activities to investigate these materials and some of their medical applications.
