A Catalyst article looking at the use of plant cells to generate electricity via photosynthesis. This branch of science is called biophotovoltaics. The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for almost all life on Earth and harnessing this energy is one of the great scientific and technological challenges....

This articles article looks at the work of astrobiologists, and how the study of extremophiles on Earth can help us to understand how we might colonise another planet in space exploration. ...

This edition of Computer Science for Fun is entitled ‘The Earth Issue’, and features computer science applications that are environmentally friendly or that have helped scientists researching our planet.

The articles include:

• The power efficiency of the human brain vs modern computers

•...

This Catalyst article looks at the Rosetta mission: to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko where it will study the nucleus of the comet and its environment for nearly two years, and land a probe on its surface. The article also describes how gravity assists, also known as slingshot manoeuvres, are used...

This is one of the six Background Books published for Stage I of the Nuffield Chemistry Sample Scheme. The books were highly illustrated and designed to be attractive. This is book describes applications of chemistry.

There are four parts to this book:
*Part 1: Salts from the sea
An account of...

This resource from the IET Faraday programme, supported by MEI and Tomorrow's Engineers, provides students the opportunity to estimate the numbers of stars in an image from the Hubble telescope.

"The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit...

• Describe the effects of an electric shock on a person.

• Explain why there are no standard mains sockets in a bathroom....

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Willow, palm, miscanthus and other energy crops are being touted as a possible solution to Britain's growing energy security problems. There are suggestions that they could help replace fossil fuels, plugging...

In this podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection, Sue Nelson visits an indoor coral reef at the brand new Coral Reef Research Unit at the University of Essex.

Researchers are using the reef to look at the effects of ocean acidification on coral in a...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), two researchers talk about the technological solutions some scientists say might have to be used to tackle climate change.

With average temperatures expected to rise by 2°C this century, and efforts...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Richard Hollingham looks at where and how to find gold while Sue Nelson finds out why weather forecasters still struggle to predict sudden, violent summer storms. Other reports discover why scientists may be...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reporters find out what sexual conflict means for female guppies, how female promiscuity may be a good thing and why female mongooses all give birth at the same time.

In an extreme example of sexual...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was recorded at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, England and discusses how two researchers are using hi-tech physics to study different aspects of the environment.

The Diamond synchrotron is like...