Traditional cooking stoves burn fuel and produce a lot of smoke which is a major cause of pollution, leading to problems locally for the people using the stoves and also globally as a probable cause of retreating glaciers. According to the World Health Organisation, four million people worldwide die each year from...

This Catalyst article outlines volunteering opportunities for young scientists, engineers and medical students who put their studies to good use, working with local people around the world to bring the benefits of technology to communities who otherwise would go without some of the basic needs of life.

This...

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...

As transistors become smaller, the doping of semi-conductors becomes a significant challenge. This Catalyst article looks at how Scanning Tunnelling Microscopes can be used to manipulate individual atoms, to create electronic devices of unprecedented accuracy. The technique could also be used to fabricate quantum...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to look at a text, after an initial skim read, to judge if it is worth considering in more detail.

This ‘second glance’ activity serves several aims:
* It enables students to assess quickly what is the subject of the...

Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, this activity helps students to consider how useful and informative article titles are.

During the activity, students:
* browse a scientific article.
* look for information such as the author, publication date and content of the abstract.
*...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to identify different sections in scientific texts which help to create an order and logical progression of the information conveyed. It encourages students to look at how the information is split into several principal types and...

Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, this activity helps students to further examine scientific texts.

Texts can be characterised according to the type of information or knowledge they deal with. There are different kinds of texts and they can be classified and sorted in various ways. This...

Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, in this activity students examine a scientific article and answer questions which encourage them to consider:

* What is the main subject?
* Who are the researchers?
* Why is the study interesting and important?
* What questions does it...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to look at the structure of a scientific research paper.

The materials contain two activities. Each relates to a scientific paper that is provided in separate sections. Students are presented with the different sections of the...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, challenge students to write a scientific article.

Students are presented with a writing brief and guidelines which contain the required structure for their article. The activity could be extended into the production of a class newspaper...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to make oral presentations.

Students are encouraged to prepare a short presentation and, in doing so, consider the following points:
* Who are the audience?
* What does their audience know about the subject of the...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to reflect on a presentation they have practised and delivered.

Working with a partner, they evaluate their presentations to consider points that include:
* What were the key points of the presentation?
* Were key...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, gives students an opportunity to design and produce a science poster similar to one that could be presented at a conference.

The scientific poster format is an excellent way of presenting students’ work. It necessitates a brief and fluent...

A Catalyst article looking at what matter is made of. Snooker balls, plum puddings and solar systems have all featured in descriptive models of atoms. The article explores how people’s ideas about atomic structure have changed over the years by using specific examples of scientific study.

This article is...