Martian Death Rays
Could there be life on Mars? Perhaps so, although the high intensity of UV light means that it is unlikely to be found on the surface. The experiment demonstrates how bacteria grown on agar plates can be killed off by UV exposure. Curriculum areas covered: • Microbiology • Cell biology • Aseptic technique The…
Ice Cores
In this practical activity students analyse ice cores extracted from the icy worlds of Enceladus or Europa. This resource provides information about Enceladus and worksheets for both qualitative and quantitative analyses. In the video, Steve Althorpe explains how ice cores containing minerals can be made and then analysed by the…
Is There Life In There?
All life forms on Earth are based on organic biochemistry. This activity requires students to analyse an unknown soil sample (just recovered from a space mission to another planet!) and look for signs of possible indicators for life. Curriculum areas covered: • Cell biology • Food tests, including starch, sugar, protein…
Exo-planets
Finding exoplanets Exoplanets are planets outside our own solar system. Find out how scientists use ingenious methods to spot them. Goldilocks zone Finding the right conditions to support life is a delicate balance, and scientists are on the look out for exoplanets in the ‘Goldilocks zone’ – Not too hot, and…
Life in Our Solar System
Life in the extremes Microbes can survive in the most hostile and inhospitable environments. Might similar places in our solar system be able to support them too? Why are scientists interested in Mars? Why are scientists interested in Mars? Four scientists talk about why they are interested in the red planet, and how they plan…
Are We Alone?
It really is a small world We live in a global network of diverse communities, sharing resources, ideas and technology. As a species, we have always looked to the sky and asked ‘are we alone?’ A sample of one So are we alone? The simple answer is ‘yes’. Right now, we are alone. Despite all our searching…
The Future of Energy
In this Cambridge University film, three academics look at wind power, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and material efficiency as examples of how we can cut our carbon dioxide emissions. Demand for energy is sky-rocketing and producing enough energy to meet this demand has significant environmental impacts and could cause catastrophic…
This Icy World
Cambridge University glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell has spent three years of his life in the Polar Regions. As Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, this film follows him to Greenland and the Antarctic as his research reveals the challenges we all face from climate change. He…
The Emotional Computer
Can computers understand emotions? Can computers express emotions? Can they feel emotions? This video, from the University of Cambridge, examines the research of Professor Peter Robinson exploring how emotions can be used to improve interaction between humans and computers. The research team is collaborating closely with Professor…
Seahorses and the Onion World
This video, from Cambridge University, features Dr Amanda Vincent - one of the world's leading experts on seahorses and their relatives – as she spends a year at Cambridge University’s Department of Geography on a sabbatical from the University of British Columbia. Dr Vincent explains the scope of her research and…
Professor Risk
David Spiegelhalter's actual title is Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge. In this Cambridge Ideas video he discusses the relative risks of eating a bacon sandwich or eating a bowl of porridge for breakfast, compares the risks associated with different types of transport and considers…
Meet the Algae
In this film, scientists at Cambridge University take a closer look at algae and examine its potential as a renewable source of energy. In the near future algae could be used as a sustainable, carbon neutral biofuel. Alison Smith, Professor of plant biochemistry, explains that algae make a large contribution to global carbon dioxide…
5/5- Publication year: 2010 to date
- Video
Just Add Water
Rotifers are microscopic animals that survive against all the odds. This film follows Dr Alan Tunnacliffe, award-winning Cambridge researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology, as he tests their super-powers by draining 90% of the water in their microscopic bodies, heats them to boiling point and freezes them in liquid nitrogen. He…
Sticky Feet
This video features Chris Clemente, from Cambridge University, who is studying the mechanisms that ants and other insects (especially cockroaches) use to walk down as well as up walls. Ants have incredibly sticky feet. With them they can hang onto ceilings, whilst carrying 100 times their body weight. But if they are stuck…
Tunnelworks: Introductory Video
Tunnelworks is a series of teaching and learning resources linking mathematics and science to the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, a major new sewer that will help protect the River Thames from increasing pollution. Background to the project is given in this introductory video which explains when and how the sewer system, which still…
Colour Mixing
This video from the Royal Institution describes how colour mixing works. Colours of light cannot be mixed in physics but different cones in your eyes are sensitive to different colours. The brain interprets a mixture between the two as a colour somewhere between the two. In the case of magenta, your brain invents this colour…
Cloud Chamber
This video from the Royal Institution shows tracks within a cloud chamber. A supersaturated layer of alcohol vapour exists just above the floor of the chamber and the ionisation radiation causes vapour to condense along the path of the radiation. An Americium source is introduced into the chamber so that tracks from alpha radiation…
Tales from the Prep Room: Liquid Oxygen
This video, from the Royal Institution, shows how liquid oxygen is made using an oxygen gas cylinder and liquid nitrogen to condense it to a liquid. Pouring liquid oxygen between the poles of a magnet demonstrates how the unpaired electrons within the material have a residual dipole and can act as a weak magnet. This called paramagnetism.…
Tales From the Prep Room: Alkali Metals
This video from the Royal Institution shows how a small piece of sodium on the end of a match head will burn if a few drops of water are added to the sodium. All alkali metals are very reactive in air and with water. Potassium is more reactive than sodium, and the video shows how only one drop of water can make the potassium burn…
Lithium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. In this short film, physicist Jim Al-Khalili focuses his attention on the very strange nucleus from an isotope of lithium that only exists due to the…
Potassium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Internet technologist Ben Hammersley explores the powerful properties of the "really awesome" element, potassium. This soft metal is kept…
Oxygen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Dame Jane Goodall expresses her love of oxygen and its vital role in sustaining all animal and human life. Having studied chimpanzees in the rainforests…
Copper
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Jerry Hall demonstrates the beauty and versatility of her favourite element, copper. Copper turns green when exposed to the atmosphere on buildings,…
Nitrogen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. In this short film, children's presenters Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood (Dick and Dom) explain why they are big fans of nitrogen. Not only…
Hydrogen and Oxygen
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Demo developer and science presenter Fran Scott has two favourite elements: hydrogen and oxygen. She demonstrates the explosive nature of hydrogen…
Alkali Metals
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Whilst on the set of Science Club, presenter Dara O'Briain explains why he is such a fan of the group of elements known as the alkali metals.…
Veritasium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. From the roof of the Royal Institution, Derek Muller from the Veritasium YouTube channel stresses the need to communicate the beauty and importance…
Carbon and Phosphorus
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Nobel Laureate Sir Harry Kroto relives his discovery of the third form of carbon, the Buckminsterfullerene, before talking about another ground-breaking…
Boron
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Comedian and songstress Helen Arney gives element number five an image makeover. She describes how the other elements in the periodic table have names…
Sodium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. University of Nottingham chemist Professor Martyn Poliakoff reveals a symbolic attachment to his favourite element, sodium. As a child, his mother’s…
Caesium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people. Despite forgetting his periodic table party trick, presenter Dallas Campbell explains why travelling around the world made him partial to element number…
Praseodymium and Neodymium
In the build-up to the Christmas Lectures in 2012, the Royal Institution published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements in the periodic table that really excite and inspire people. Chemist Andrea Sella, from the University College London, picks praseodymium and neodymium as his favourite elements. He explains…
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