INSPIRE

Inspire

The Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) website

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a non-profit organisation that began as a conference to share “ideas worth spreading”. The first of its annual conferences was held in 1984 and since then, the programme has spread to include regional and local events across the world (see the…

Ages: not applicable
Keywords: Technology, Design and technology, Science communication

         

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Inspire

Sustainable Energy – without the hot air, by David MacKay

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Have you ever wondered how best to make students aware of the issues surrounding our current fossil-fuel-intensive lifestyle? After all, they stand a good chance of seeing fossil fuels perhaps not run out but become unaffordable in their lifetime.

Ages: not applicable
Keywords: Sustainability, Energy, Alternative energy

     

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UNDERSTAND

Understand

An archaeologist of the genome: Svante Pääbo

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo tells Eleanor Hayes how he excavates the genome to understand human evolution.

Ages: 16-19
Keywords: Biology, Evolution, History, Ethics, Genetics

                   

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Understand

Healthy horrors: the benefits of parasites

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Matt Kaplan investigates the horrors that dwell within us – should we be changing our view of them?

Ages: 14-16, 16-19
Keywords: Parasitology, Biology

                 

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Understand

More than meets the eye: the electromagnetic spectrum

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Claudia Mignone and Rebecca Barnes take us on a tour through the electromagnetic spectrum and introduce us to the European Space Agency’s fleet of science missions, which are opening our eyes to a mysterious and hidden Universe.

Ages: 14-16
Keywords: Biology, Physics, Waves, Satellites, Telescopes, Vision

                 

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Understand

Google, guts and gravity

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European inter-governmental scientific research organisations. This article reviews some of the latest news from the EIROforum members.

Ages: not applicable

 

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Understand

Neutrons and antifreeze: research into Arctic fish

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Matthew Blakeley from ILL and his colleagues from ESRF and elsewhere have discovered how antifreeze in Arctic fish blood keeps them alive in sub-zero conditions. He and Eleanor Hayes explain.

Ages: 16-19
Keywords: Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Interdisciplinary, Adaptations to the environment, Crystal structure, Protein structure, X-rays

               

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TEACH

Teach

Plastics in cars: polymerisation and recycling

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

What types of plastic are used to build a car? How are they synthesised and recycled? Marlene Rau and Peter Nentwig introduce two activities from the ‘Chemie im Kontext’ project.

Ages: 14-16, 16-19
Keywords: Biology, Chemistry, Organic chemistry, Plastics

             

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Teach

Fizzy fun: CO2 in primary school science

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Marlene Rau presents some fizzy and fun activities involving carbon dioxide, developed by Chemol and Science on the Shelves.

Ages: <11, 11-14
Keywords: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Ecology, Earth science, Environmental studies, Biology

           

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Teach

Hunting for asteroids

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Keen to save the world? Andy Newsam and Chris Leigh from the UK’s National Schools’ Observatory introduce an activity where you can potentially do just that: by detecting real asteroids – which may be heading for Earth.

Ages: 14-16, 16-19
Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Earth science, IT, Objects in space

                 

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Teach

Going wild: teaching physics on a roller coaster

August 23, 2011 | Issue 20

Roller coasters, carousels and other amusement park rides can be great fun – and can even be used as a science lesson, as Giovanni Pezzi explains.

Ages: 14-16, 16-19
Keywords: Linear and circular motion, Mechanics, Energy conversion, Physics

           

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EDITORIAL