The best school environments give an impression of liveliness, with attractive spaces and a general feeling of pleasantness which it is difficult to define. There can be no doubt that in these cases the surroundings contribute to the happiness and well-being of teachers and pupils, and that lighting plays a...

From the National Non-Food Crops Centre, this factsheet gives an overview of the current and potential market for lignin-based materials. Isolated lignin is used in a wide range of low volume, niche applications. As lignosulfate, it is used in areas such as dye manufacture, resins, concrete admixtures and...

From the National Non-Food Crops Centre, this factsheet looks at the production of ethanol from woody feedstocks. The advantage of using these feedstocks is that their use is not diverting food crops for ethanol production. The factsheet describes the sources of feedstocks, ethanol production and assesses the...

Since 1951, Nobel Laureates and young scientists have met in Lindau in Bavaria for a scientific conference which aims to foster scientific exchange between different cultures and generations.

These animated videos use clips from some of the conference presentations to explain globally relevant scientific...

A Catalyst article about the Nobel Prize for physics 2009 winner Charles Kao, who developed optical fibre systems and CCDs which are the basis of most of today's long distance telephone systems. Kao also developed tiny solid state lasers which work for years without failing. The article also looks at the bringing...

Linnean Learning wants to see a world where curiosity in the natural world is shared by all young people. We work with young people, teachers, parents and other adults to inspire the next generation to engage with world outside.

Linnean Learning projects are a part of the Linnean Society of London, which...

There are four posters in this resource covering the following areas of the biology curriculum:

• Biodiversity: gives an overview of what biodiversity is, how it is measured and the threats to biodiversity
• Classification: describes the main features of classification and the binomial system of...

For this investigation students will be calculating the density of a liquid (usually water) by using the loaded test tube method.  By adding mass to the test tube, you work out how far it has sunk then by substituting results into an equation, work out the density of the liquid.  This is a good experiment for...

Publishedin 2009 by LSIS, this report describes research undertaken by Newham Sixth Form College. The project aimed to produce a set of strategies and resources in order to develop the literacy of science students to enable them to achieve in A - level Biology. A high proportion of students come from families in...

This literature review, by NFER, sought to address the following research questions:

• What does AfL in science involve?
• What AfL techniques are...

Each issue of the Big Picture is on a different topic in biology and comes with its own sprinkling of ‘fast facts’, fascinating snippets of information on the topic. This booklet brings together the best of the fast facts from the last fourteen issues, sorted into eight themes, for use in project work, as part of...