Dudley Shallcross, Tim Harrison, Steve Henshaw and Linda Sellou offer chemistry and physics experiments harnessing alternative energy sources, such as non-fossil fuels.

Beat Blattmann and Patrick Sticher from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, explain the science behind protein crystallography and provide a protocol for growing your own crystals from protein – an essential method used by scientists to determine protein structures.

Do you believe that time travel has no place in a serious science lesson? Jim Al-Khalili from the University of Surrey, UK, disagrees. He shows how the topic of time travel introduces some of the ideas behind Einstein’s theories of relativity.

Rebecca Skloot tells Sonia Furtado and Marlene Rau how she became a science writer, where she finds inspiration for her stories - and invites you to enter the Science in School science writing competition.

Conspiracies are at the heart of many a good film and book. Swedish biology teacher Per Kornhall is the author of a critical book on intelligent design and how it is taught in biology lessons in religious schools in Sweden. He talks to Sai Pathmanathan and Marlene Rau about his fascination with modern science and his views on teaching the diversity of life.

How do astronauts eat, sleep and wash? Can you get ‘seasick’ in space? In the second of two articles about the ISS, Shamim Hartevelt-Velani, Carl Walker and Benny Elmann-Larsen from the European Space Agency investigate.

Matthias Mallmann from NanoBioNet eV explains what nanotechnology really is, and offers two nano-experiments for the classroom.

Dudley Shallcross and Tim Harrison from Bristol University, UK, illustrate chemistry experiments relevant to climate change.

Mico Tatalovic from the University of Cambridge, UK, investigates the private lives of meerkats. Why do these small carnivores live in groups? Why do they feed each other’s pups, dig together and guard each other? And what makes a really good sentinel?

Anna Lorenc from the Volvox project explains the importance of the enzyme urease and presents a protocol to demonstrate urease activity in the classroom.

Laura Strieth, Karen Bultitude, Frank Burnet and Clare Wilkinson use drama and debate to encourage young people to discuss genetics and what it means for us all. Why not join in?

An enormous meteorite impact and then a rocky flight from Mars. Is that how life appeared on Earth? Cornelia Meyer takes us on a space trip through the lithopanspermia theory and describes how she is putting it to the test with the help of student colleagues.

Halina Stanley investigates the history of chewing gum, how the chemistry of the gum affects its properties, and how scientists are using this knowledge to make chewing gum less of a pollutant.

Steve Jones talks to Vienna Leigh about the startling re-emergence of creationism in Europe, how teachers can help, and why he will never argue with a creationist.

Ever wondered what the solar wind means to us on Earth or what happens when the surface of the Sun erupts sporadically? Lucie Green from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK, describes some of the recent research into the Sun’s atmosphere.

Where do astronauts get their food? What happens to their waste? Adam Williams from the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany, describes the development of an unmanned shuttle to supply the International Space Station.

Sigrid Griet Eeckhout from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, investigates what determines the toxicity of mercury compounds – and how X-ray light is helping to solve the mystery.

Professor Lewis Wolpert discusses his controversial ideas about belief, science education and much more with Vienna Leigh from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

Ever wondered what - and who - lies behind the beautiful and fascinating astronomical photographs and observations made with modern telescopes? Douglas Pierce-Price from ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, describes a day in the life of the Very Large Telescope.