Catalyst Volume 15 Issue 4

Articles in this issue of Catalyst include:

Climate Modelling

This article considers the scientific likelihood of the sudden onset of an ice age.

In Vitro Fertilisation

About one in six couples gets help from specialists because they cannot conceive. One possibility is to use in vitro fertilisation (IVF). ‘In vitro’ means ‘in glass’ and refers to the fact that fertilisation takes place in a laboratory dish or test tube - hence the term ‘test-tube babies’.

Physics and Computer Games

The video or computer games industry is now the biggest entertainment-based industry on the planet. Often it is physicists developing new concepts, hardware and games. To beat the competition they need to make physical aspects of the game be more realistic - or at least "appear" to be more realisitc.

Plastics Forever?

Polymers affect every day of people's lives. They have such diverse characteristics and applications that their usefulness can only be limited by imagination. Polymers require a responsible and systematic recycling programme that is both economically and environmentally advantageous.

Drink Driving

Stopping drink driving may sound less glamorous than identifying a murderer but a forensic scientist weighing up the evidence from a road accident could find the two go together. The article explains how the UK government reckons it has saved at least 20,000 lives by its campaign to reduce drink driving.

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