Does alchemy sound too good to be true? Paola Rebusco, Henri Boffin and Douglas Pierce-Price, from ESO in Garching, Germany, describe how creating gold – and other heavy metals – is possible, though sadly not in the laboratory.
Do you have more than the average number of ears? Is your salary lower than average? When will the next bus arrive? Ben Parker attempts to convince us of the value of statistics – when used correctly.
Germany, like many other European countries, has difficulties attracting women into science. Diana Schimke from the University of Ulm, is working improve matters by putting schoolgirls directly in contact with women scientists.
Ages: 11-14, 14-16, 16-19; Topics: Science and society, General science
In Issue 3 of Science in School we invited you to join an international competition for school students and Catch a Star! Later, some of you helped to select winners by voting online for your favourite pictures. Douglas Pierce-Price from ESO reports on the results.
Do you or your students enjoy painting and drawing as well as teaching or learning science? Would you like to see your artwork reproduced 30,000 times and distributed across Europe? The Science in School cover competition gives you and your students the opportunity to do just that.
Did witches once soar through the night sky on broomsticks? Or were they hallucinating after eating or touching certain plants? Angelika Börsch-Haubold explains how modern pharmacology helps us to understand the action of many toxic plants – some of which are still used in medicine.
Linda Sellou, a French PhD student at Bristol University, UK, tells Sai Pathmanathan, a science education journalist, what she thought of her school science and what she’s up to now…
Could spider silk be the answer to medical and military challenges? Giovanna Cicognani from the Institut Laue-Langevin and Montserrat Capellas from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France, investigate Christian Riekel and Tilo Seydel’s research into this remarkable material.
Take a CD and a cereal box, and what do you have? With a little help from Mark Tiele Westra, your very own spectrometer! Time to explore the delights of colour, hidden in the most prosaic of objects.
