Catalyst Volume 13 Issue 3

This issue of Catalyst includes the following articles:

LED Lighting: a Bright Future

Electric light bulbs have been in use for over a century. They work, but they waste most of the energy they receive. Work is being done at Cambridge University to produce a new type of energy-efficient lighting, based on light-emitting diodes.

Enzymes Outside the Body

Enzymes allow chemical reactions in all living organisms to proceed quickly, under conditions where they would normally be very slow. By isolating enzymes that could be used to catalyze reactions, scientists started a major biotechnology industry, which is still developing.

Trapping Carbon Dioxide

Global warming is being caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide which is released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels such as petrol are burnt. Despite concern about global warming, it seems nobody wants to use their cars less. What else can be done to reduce the rising levels of carbon dioxide?

A Vaccine for Malaria?

Malaria is one of the world’s top ten diseases but an effective vaccine to combat it is yet to be discovered. Scientists in the Malaria Vaccine Group at Oxford are trying to overcome some very difficult problems using a new approach to vaccines.

Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the magazine can be purchased from Mindsets.