A Catalyst article about green chemistry. Many reactions take place in solution. Water is a familiar solvent but there are many others, including a rather surprising one, carbon dioxide, which is a non-polluting ‘green’ solvent. The chemical industry relies on solvents to produce many everyday products, such as:...

A Catalyst article about using computers to crunch data from CERN. The article looks at GridPP, a UK computing grid for handling particle physics data.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2007, Volume 17, Issue 4.

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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...

A Catalyst article about hair, how it grows, how it can be sculpted into the latest fashionable shapes and can hold fast to all the colours of the rainbow. 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:...

A Catalyst article about the composition of sea water. The article looks at how the sea became salty, how the factors such as hydrothermal systems can affect it and it investigates whether its composition has always been the same.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2005, Volume 15, Issue 3....

This Catalyst article looks at 'Restored Hearing', a business which grew out of a school science project. It provides therapy for sufferers of temporary tinnitus, a debilitating hearing condition caused by exposure to loud noises. The article looks at how hearing loss can occur and how also explains how the...

A Catalyst article about how engineers use their understanding of sound waves to develop highly realistic sound systems for films, music systems and computer games. The same ideas can help people with eyesight and hearing problems. Sound waves are affected by their surroundings and the article examines this along...

This Catalyst article looks at the work of Robert Hooke, an employee of the Royal Society, Britain's oldest scientific society. His job was to present two or three different experiments each week to the assembled members of the society – and this was at a time when experimentation was new and there were no books of...

A Catalyst article about high-level nuclear waste. It is hot, corrosive and a source of intense radiation. The nuclear industry is seeking safe ways to deal with such waste, and wants the public to help shape the decisions that are made. This article presents some information about the options for the storage of...

A Catalyst article about a Kenyan scientist who is searching for better treatments for malaria, a disease which kills more than a million people in Africa each year. The article also explains some of the challenges of doing science in Africa, where funding is low. Often the illness shows a remarkable ability to...

A Catalyst article about ants. A colony consists of hundreds, even thousands, of ants working diligently and cooperatively, perhaps to kill and carry a large prey item, build a large nest structure or develop and use road-like networks for foraging. Collectively, colonies of social insects can do amazing things and...

A Catalyst article about the Hubble telescope exploring a barred spiral galaxy, known as NGC1672 in the astronomers’ New General Catalogue. The image was made by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and was released in April 2007. NGC 1672 is situated 60 million light years away, in the constellation of Dorado. The...

A Catalyst article about Hurricane Katrina which caused many deaths in August 2005, and vast damage along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico in the USA. Hurricanes are an unfamiliar phenomenon here in the UK. Why is this? And can people expect to see more hurricanes in future as a result of climate change? The...

A Catalyst article about hydrogels. Soft contact lenses, disposable nappies, hair gel and plant water crystals all make use of substances called hydrogels. These are polymers which have the unusual property of being able to absorb huge quantities of water. The article looks at the structure of hydrogels and their...

A Catalyst article about the discovery of puerperal fever by Ignaz Semmelweis a doctor in a maternity ward in Vienna general hospital. The article looks at his observations into death rates and shows how scientists use observations and theories to make practical changes that can improve life. In the case of...