Try This - Make Your Own Cloud
In this Catalyst article an experiment is described in which the formation of clouds can be replicated. The experiment requires nothing more than a plastic bottle, warm water, matches and a small thermometer. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2011, Volume 21, Issue 4. Catalyst is a science magazine for students…
A Love Letter to Science
This Catalyst article describes a film which has been made to provide a range of reasons for students to study science. During the film high profile scientists, writers and teachers describe how science provides the technologies which are used in everyday life, how it can protect the environment and how it protects humans through…
Intensive Crop Production Systems
A Catalyst article explaining how much of the food that humans consume comes from systems in which large numbers of plants or animals are grown under closely controlled conditions, designed to maximise production. When they grow plants as crops farmers intervene in various ways to optimise growth, so that the food is produced as…
Radiography - Careers
A Catalyst article about careers using radiography in medical procedures. The article looks at a typical working day for a radiographer, the types of radiography used, how to become a radiographer and the qualifications available. This article is from GCSE Science Review 2006, Volume 16, Issue 3. Catalyst is a science magazine…
Do Mobile Phone Signals Harm Our Health?
A Catalyst article about people who believe that their health is affected by mobile phone radiation. The World Health Organisation has labelled this condition Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance with attribution to Electromagnetic Fields (IEI-EMF). Idiopathic describes a disease with no known cause. The article reports on some tests…
Nanotechnology
A Catalyst article about nanotechnology, the science of building tiny devices. Opinions differ on the use of nanotechnology, one school of thought is that it will be the answer to many of the biggest challenges in medicine, electronics and defence, another is that it will lead to opening up a dangerous world of technologies which…
5/5- Publication year: 2000 - 2009
- Article
Drink Driving
A Catalyst article about preventing drink driving. Since 1980, the UK's government estimates it has saved over 20,000 lives by its campaign to reduce drink driving. The article looks at how this result is achieved and how the body copes with alcohol and how it breaks alcohol down. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science…
Using Shape Memory Alloys
A Catalyst article describing the use of smart materials to help people with disabilities. Many more people with physical and mental disabilities are leading independent lives at home, thanks in part to recent technological developments. The article focuses on one project which makes use of smart materials to help people with dementia. This…
It's a Material World
A Catalyst article about working in materials science and engineering, the process of deciding which material is best for each application. The structure of materials, processing them and working in jobs and careers with them are explained. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 3. Catalyst…
Dr Gillian Lockwood
A Catalyst article about the working life of Dr Gillian Lockwood, a reproductive biologist who specialises in IVF. The article looks at the ethical issues surrounding fertility treatments for problems such as polycystic ovary syndrome. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 4. Catalyst is…
LEDs - Lighting Up a Brighter Future
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. This article is from…
Tiny Particle, Giant Detector - Neutrinos
A Catalyst article about neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles. They are tiny, a neutrino has a mass about one-millionth of the mass of an electron, and they have no electric charge. This article looks at the detection of these elusive particles which requires the use a giant detector. The one described is from the Katrin…
Fireworks: an Explosive Business
This Catalyst article looks at fireworks and their history, how they are made and set off, and what gives them their colours and effects. The basic chemistry used in fireworks is looked at and how they work once the fuse is ignited. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2. Catalyst is a science…
Circadian Rhythms
This Catalyst article looks at how an internal biological clock within every cell of the human body helps to co-ordinate and organise human behaviour and metabolism into approximately 24-hour rhythms – allowing organisms to synchronise with, and anticipate, day and night. When the body clock is disrupted in humans it can have…
Make Your Own Lava Lamp
This Catalyst article describes how to make a lava lamp by using three simple ingredients: vegetable oil, food colouring and fizzing tablets. The article also explains the processes taking place inside a real lava lamp and why they happen. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2011, Volume 22, Issue 1. Catalyst…
Cool Chemistry
A Catalyst article about the work of a scientist from the British Antarctic Survey, gathering data about climate change by studying ice cores from Antarctica. One of the areas of research was to find out whether it is possible to learn how much sea ice there was around Antarctica in the past by measuring how much sea salt is in ice…
Do U Wan2 Tlk> ;-)
A Catalyst article about mobile phones. This article looks at the science behind this popular piece of technology, such as the use of radio waves, aerials and cells. The article also explains how mobile phones are able to use short aerials. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2005, Volume 16, Issue 1. Catalyst…
H2O: Hot Ice and the Mysteries of Water
This Catalyst article looks at some of the unusual features of water and especially the way it behaves when it is frozen. The article explains the properties of water and how it behaves at different temperatures with the aid of illustrations showing its molecular structure. Some unusual scientific ideas are also investigated. This…
Artificial Photosynthesis
This Catalyst article explains how artificial photosynthesis could provide a useful energy supply and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Experiments are underway in labs around the world. The aim is to use the basis of Photosynthesis to recycle the huge amounts of Carbon Dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere…
Plants and Mineral Nutrients
A Catalyst article looking at the chemicals that are in plants and trees and the role they play in the life of the plant. Starting with photosynthesis the article moves onto naturally occurring chemicals and explains why plants need fertilisers. Growing salad crops hydroponically is also examined. This article is from Catalyst:…
Flies, Weeds, Atom Bombs and Computers
This Catalyst article explores 'Biomodels', biological species which are increasingly well-understood and which have been chosen because they can help us to test new biological theories, particularly in the field of genetics. This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2. Catalyst…
Engineering - Careers
A Catalyst article about careers in the different branches of modern engineering. The article offers an alternative view of engineering focusing on problem solving and making the world a better place to live. Engineers can travel the world working in teams such is the demand for their expertise and much use is made of computers.…
- 5/5
- Publication year: 2000 - 2009
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Damian Murphy: Music Technologist
A Catalyst article about the work of Damian Murphy a music technologist. Acoustics and sound are examined in addition to the physical modelling and acoustics of buildings and environments, both real and virtual. This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 3. Catalyst is a science magazine for…
Olympic Alloys
This Catalyst article looks at metals and alloys which play an important role in construction at the Olympic site, both in sports equipment and in medals. Designers must consider the properties of the materials used to make both sports equipment and buildings. These include strength, density, toughness, ductility and resistance to…
Food Additives
A Catalyst article about food additives. Some additives are natural and some are manufactured by the chemical industry. Some, like vitamin C, can come from either natural or artificial sources. As with every other component of food all additives are chemicals. Even organic food can contain a certain number of additives; this article…
Carbon Capture
A Catalyst article explaining how carbon capture and storage can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere and may reduce the effects of climate change. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is a major contributor to climate change but can CO2 be captured and stored as it is produced?…
Dorothy Hodgkin - a Life in Science
A Catalyst article about Dorothy Hodgkin who was a pioneering scientist, a peace activist, a mother of three and a Nobel Prize winner. The article looks at her life and work in science. She did valuable work as an X-ray crystallographer and in finding the structure of biologically important molecules such as antibiotic penicillin…
The Other Genome Project
This Catalyst article details how the genome of a plant called Arabidopsis has been unravelled so that this species can act as a model in genetic studies. Arabidopsis thaliana is a model species like the fruit fly Drosophila, yeast, and the bacterium Escherichia coli. Scientists work on these species in order to understand as…
Battle of the Barnacles
A Catalyst article about biologists looking for patterns in the distribution of barnacle species on the sea shore. Barnacles are arthropods which live as tiny larvae in the sea and then cement themselves, head down, on suitable rocks, build a shell, poke their legs out of the top of it and start to filter feed. The article looks…
- 5/5
- Publication year: 2000 - 2009
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Testing New Medicines
A Catalyst article exploring the testing of new medicines to see if they are safe for people to take. The effects on cells of a potential new drug are investigated using tissue cultures of human or animal cells. Some tissue cultures use fresh tissue samples, but most come from well-established laboratory cell strains. If a substance…
- 5/5
- Publication year: 2000 - 2009
- Article
From Earth to Mars
This Catalyst article describes how a manned trip to Mars and back would be very demanding, both technologically and for the people involved. This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2. Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of…
Superconductors: Powering the Future, Probing the Past
A Catalyst article about the many uses of superconductors. The article looks at what the 1700 magnets at the Large Hadron Collider and power cables in Detroit have in common. Both use superconductors - materials which, when cooled below a certain temperature, lose all their electrical resistance, and display some other remarkable…