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.
Caroline Molyneux, from Balshaw’s Church of England High School, UK, explains how she kick-starts her classes and helps her students remember certain lessons, facts or concepts.
Ages: 11-14, 14-16, 16-19; Topics: Science and society, General science
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.
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
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.
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.
Teaching science in the classroom is all very well, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to let your students learn for themselves what it’s really like to work in a research laboratory? Sooike Stoops from the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Belgium, describes a project that does just…
Ages: 14-16, 16-19; Topics: Biology, General science
Is it acceptable to use human embryonic stem cells in research? What about live animals? Professor Nadia Rosenthal, head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, talks to Russ Hodge about the ethics of her research.