A Catalyst article about light emitting diodes and how they are more energy efficient than existing light bulbs which waste most of the energy they receive. The article explains how LEDs work and how they can be applied in traffic lights. Creating white light from LEDs is difficult and the article looks at possible...

A Catalyst article about devising better, more energy-efficient lighting. In particular the article focuses on LEDs. Like food, water, clothing and shelter, light is essential to daily life and is needed by most people for most of their waking hours. The article explains how LEDs work and how they are made.

...

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) is concerned with post-compulsory education and training.These case studies describe the work of providers in the sector and are a valuable source of information on a range of strategies for improving performance. Case studies are from providers throughout England...

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) have produced a range of materials aimed at supporting teaching and learning in engineering. These resources cover a range of areas that demonstrate the benefits of active learning. They cover how to improve teaching and learning by developing the skills of...

The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) was the sector-owned body that aimed to accelerate the drive for excellence in the learning and skills sector. It built on the sector’s own capacity to design, commission and deliver improvement and strategic change. It closed in 2013.

These materials...

This resource was produced by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) as part of their 'At Work With Science' materials. In this interactive resource, students are introduced to the legal aspects of the Health and Safety regulations; the concept of risk assessments and how to develop them....

From the National Non-Food Crops Centre, this factsheet looks at the production of lactic acid from plant-based feedstock. Lactic acid can be produced by the fermentation of starch and has a wide range of uses. These include:

• the food and beverage sector
• pharmaceutical and chemical industries...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). British Geological Survey scientists have completed the first full geological survey of Lake Windermere in the English Lake District since the Royal Navy surveyed it in the 1930s.

Among other things, the...

Lasers can be used to heat things up, and also to cool them down. Using carefully tuned lasers, scientists in the UK quantum technology hubs are able to slow atoms down to just a few centimetres per...

This case study describes Dr Ceri Brenner’s research at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories into high power laser-plasma interactions, with a particular interest in laser-driven particle acceleration. Ceri explains why she enjoys her job, what qualifications she needed, what motivates her and what skills she has...

The STEM club from Holy Cross School in Chorley and the North West Local Centre of the Royal Meteorological Society collaborated on a project to launch a balloon into the atmosphere. The balloon was carrying a camera, a GPS transmitter and a radiosonde, an instrument which transmits measurements by radio waves back...

In July 2010, 21 years after the National Curriculum was first introduced, the Wellcome Trust convened a seminar to reflect on the impact of the National Curriculum for science. Presented in this report are views that emerged from the seminar where delegates considered the National Curriculum’s initial development...

This mystery can be used to introduce osmosis and diffusion. 

Two beakers are displayed at the front of the room. Both look identical in that they both contain a plastic zip--lock bag with a starch solution inside. The zip-lock bags are both sitting in a clear solution. What the students don’t know is that...