Cell Structure
A collection of Catalyst articles about cell structure.
A Life in Brine
This Catalyst article is devoted to brine shrimps.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2003, Volume 13, Issue 4
Blocking Viruses with Synthetic Receptors
This Catalyst article explains how chemists build molecular 'traps' to mimic the surface of a cell. To scientists, sugar is much more than a food; sugar molecules can also form polymers which act as ‘molecular bar codes’ to help cells recognise each other.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2009, Volume 20, Issue 2.
Small Wonders - the Invention of Microscopy
A Catalyst article about the early microscopists, including Leeuwenhoek, Hooke and Swammerdam.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2010, Volume 20, Issue 3.
What's in a Cell? *suitable for home teaching*
This Catalyst article explores the complex structure of cells, and numerous theories of how they were formed. It describes how the development of electron microscopes has allowed greater detail of cellular strutures and organelles to be understood.
This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2012, Volume 22, Issue 3.
Seeing Into Bacteria
This Catalyst article describes how biophysics is helping in the search for novel antibiotics. Bacteria produce an array of proteins to kill off their competitors. These proteins, called bacteriocins, are very efficient at penetrating the defensive outer layers of bacteria cells by moving through specific membrane transporter proteins.
The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2012, Volume 23, Issue 1.
What Are Stem Cells? *suitable for home teaching*
This Catalyst article explains the use of stem cells to treat medical problems, and outlines new possibilities for the use of adult stem cells in treatment.
The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2.
Winning Science
This Catalyst article explains how they discovered that a nucleus from an egg cell transplanted into a specialised cell can still develop into a fully functional organism. Yamanaka named these cells induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). This process is allowing new ways of studying disease mechanisms.
The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2.
Seeing Inside Cells *suitable for home teaching*
Each individual blade of grass consists of various tissues, each made of cells in their thousands. In these cells an as yet unknown number of reactions and interactions are constantly taking place. This Catalyst article shows how various types of microscope allow scientists to see what is going on inside living plant cells.
This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2013, Volume 23, Issue 4.
Express Delivery
This article from Catalyst investigates how cells transfer packets of control hormones from one cell to another using subcellular packages called exosomes.
The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2.
Plants and Soil Nutrients
A Catalyst article looking at how plants develop large surface areas both in the air (leaves) and in the soil (root hairs) to get all they need from the environment.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2003, Volume 13, Issue 4.
Bringing a Mummy to Life
A Catalyst article about a temple singer who was preserved as a mummy over 2000 years ago in Egypt.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2004, Volume 14, Issue 4.
Hair
The article explores how hair grows and how its physical structure and chemical make-up are affected by hair products.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2005, Volume 15, Issue 3.
Kidneys *suitable for home teaching*
A Catalyst article discussing how the human body has to handle all sorts of variations, balancing its inputs and outputs, if it is to work efficiently.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2005, Volume16, Issue 2.
Keeping Things Steady *suitable for home teaching*
A Catalyst article about homeostasis describing how the process enables birds and mammals to be active on cold days when other species are not.
This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2004, Volume 14, Issue 3.
Uncovering the Magical World of Signalling
This Catalyst article takes a look at the winners of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2012 who revealed how cells communicate.
This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2013, Volume 23, Issue 3.
Inside the Teenage Brain
This Catalyst article looks at the teenage brain. The way the human brain changes, particularly during adolescence, can be studied using magnetic resonance imaging.
The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014, Volume 25, Issue 2.