RNA is a crucial biological molecule that is seldom mentioned in detail in textbooks. In the first article in a series, Russ Hodge describes some exciting recent research on RNA.
Do your students find it hard to see the application of science to other subjects? Montserrat Capellas from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, explains how modern chemical analyses are shedding light on ancient Pompeii.
Péter Székely from the University of Szeged, Hungary, and Örs Benedekfi from the European Fusion Development Agreement in Garching, Germany, investigate how a star dies and what a nearby supernova explosion would mean for us on Earth.
Ages: 14-16, 16-19; Topics: Physics, Astronomy / space
Shortly before Christmas 2006, German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter returned from the International Space Station. A month later, Barbara Warmbein asked him about his trip, the experiments he did – and how to become an astronaut.
Ages: 11-14, 14-16, 16-19; Topics: Physics, Biology, Astronomy / space
Darren Hughes from the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France takes a look at stress. How can it be manipulated to make safer rails for trains or more efficient wind turbines – and what can we learn from neutron- and X-ray analysis?
We sit on them, wear them and cook with them: plastics are everywhere. Yet this very versatility makes it difficult to produce and dispose of plastics in environmentally friendly ways. David Bradley explains how researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, are working on a solution.
Ellen Raphael from the charity Sense About Science explains why peer review is so important in science, and describes how an existing guide is being adapted to meet the needs of science teachers.
Paul Tafforeau from the University of Poitiers and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, explains what synchrotron X-ray studies of fossil teeth can tell us about the evolution of orang-utans – and our own origins.