Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. The spacecraft will provide the positions and velocity measurements of around 1 billion stars – which is about one percent of the stars in our galaxy.

This film, from Twig World, looks at the relationship between time and place. In an age before satellite navigation and GPS, one man found an ingenious solution to the problem of determining a ship's location at sea. The key points made in the film are: •Lines of latitude circle the Earth horizontally; lines of...

The third collection of magic tricks, from Paul Curzon and Peter McOwan, is entitled ‘magic meets mistakes, machines and medicine. The five card tricks contained make use of maths and computer science theory, and are used by real magicians.

Each trick includes magician’s instructions. The theory behind each...

All the resources listed here are aimed at the age group 14 to 16, except for the "Space for Engine" resource. 

Coolant tank design

Making efficient use of physical space and of materials is a central theme of many engineering problems. In this challenge students...

Origami with squares

Solar panels are an important part of satellite design. There are design constraints on the distance a panel can be from the core of the satellite. In order to increase the area of the panels, satellites of the future may well deploy panels other than rectangular ones....

This Catalyst article uses physics to investigate the possible causes of the sinking of the Titanic. Mike Follows explains how the hull of the Titanic was constructed to be watertight, however, the strength of the rivets used on the ship were inadequate.

The article shows how the alignment of the sun, Earth...

Almost every scientific experiment or industrial process requires a measurement of temperature. For example, the specification of the length of an object is meaningless without reference to the temperature at which the measurement was made. And all chemical and biological processes are intrinsically temperature-...

In this Science upd8 activity students use their understanding of simple circuits, electricity and magnetism to diagnose and fix problems with the running of a magnetic train in a theme park.

The Naked Scientists are a group of physicists, science communicators, astronomers and researchers from Cambridge University. They use radio, live lectures and the internet to strip science down to its bare essentials and promote it to the general public.

Podcasts from the Naked Scientists are supported by...

In 2007 and 2008, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) monitored the new specifications in GCSE science and GCSE additional science offered by the three England-based unitary awarding bodies – the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), Edexcel, and Oxford, Cambridge and RSA...