A Catalyst article about the video or computer games industry which is now the biggest entertainment-based industry on the planet. Often it is physicists developing new concepts, hardware and games. To beat the competition they need to make physical aspects of the game be more realistic or at least appear to be...

A Catalyst article about the use of remote telescopes and detecting cosmic rays. Giant telescopes that can be operated remotely are located in Hawaii and Australia and are known as the Faulkes telescopes.

These are available to students in the UK to do original research with, and enable the following...

This School Science Review article looks at a selection of resources currently available for use in the teaching of astronomy in UK schools. It is by no means an exhaustive list but it highlights a variety of free resources that can be used in the classroom to help engage students of all ages with astronomy and...

A Catalyst article comparing mobile phones and UV sunbeds. Mobile phones emit radiofrequency (RF) radiation. Tanning beds emit ultraviolet (UV) radiation. These are both types of non-ionising radiation. In recent years both have received considerable media coverage and they are emotive topics for the general public...

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...

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...

This Catalyst article investigates the development of better, more energy-efficient solar cells. Every minute enough sunlight strikes the Earth to power our civilisation for a year, yet less than 1% of global energy generation is provided by solar energy. Solar cells convert sunshine directly to electricity, but to...

Reliance on unsafe drinking water is a significant problem in many areas of the world. This Catalyst article looks at the method of solar disinfection to provide safe drinking water.

UVA from the sun causes a breakdown in cellular functions, and combined with the increased temperature of the water from a...

Electronic musical instruments are getting better and better at mimicking and behaving just like their acoustic counterparts, but they can also create a wealth of sounds that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with acoustic instruments. In this Catalyst article, Jez Wells, a music technologist, explains...

A Catalyst article looking at which type of radiation is absorbed and emitted through spectroscopy. This is the study of the wavelengths of light which allows us to identify the substances present in the source. This investigation provides a lot of useful information about a compound. It is used in a very wide...

Stephanie Kwolek invented the tough polymer Kevlar, used in protective clothing and developed a method for demonstrating the production of nylon in the classroom which is still used today.

The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014, Volume 25, Issue 1.

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A Catalyst article about the many uses of superconductors. The article looks at what the 1700 magnets at the Large Hadron Collider and power cables in Detroit have in common. Both use superconductors - materials which, when cooled below a certain temperature, lose all their electrical resistance, and display some...