Geology: Structure of the Earth was a topic designed by the Northumberland Supported Self Study Unit at Northumberland County Council in the early 1990s for post-16 students. Comprising six units, the topic aimed to not only teach about geological features of the Earth but also to develop learning skills which...

Produced by the Royal Astronomical Society, this booklet gives an overview of UK research, within the fields of geophysics and planetary science. It includes articles on: * Asteroids and comets * Gas giants, Earth's near neighbours * The Magnetosphere * Earth's upper atmosphere * Air, ice and water * Earth's...

This poster explains how to become a geoscientist. A brief explanation is given for the following areas of geoscience: *Energy *Engineering geology *Environmental geology *Geochemistry *Geophysics *Hydrogeology *Metamorphism *Natural hazards *Oceanography *Palaeontology *Planetary science *Sedimentology *...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Richard Hollingham looks at where and how to find gold while Sue Nelson finds out why weather forecasters still struggle to predict sudden, violent summer storms. Other reports discover why scientists may be...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reporters find out what sexual conflict means for female guppies, how female promiscuity may be a good thing and why female mongooses all give birth at the same time.

In an extreme example of sexual...

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 podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was recorded at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, England and discusses how two researchers are using hi-tech physics to study different aspects of the environment.

The Diamond synchrotron is like...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), looks back at some of the highlights from 12 months of Planet Earth podcasts, and looks ahead to some of the big stories expected in 2010.

Marine biologist Ben Wilson from the Scottish Association for...

The aim of this resource is to answer the question how do CO₂ emissions link to global temperatures? This lesson, linked to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, explores the concept of a carbon budget. To answer the question, students create a pie chart to...

This lesson, linked to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, aims to answer the question 'How often will a heatwave hit the UK?'

Students examine datasets to explore the frequency with which hot events occur and are required to interpret and draw box and whisker plots. Students are...

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...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson visits the ice cloud chamber in the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences.

Scientists know that fluffy stratocumulus clouds act like a blanket on the Earth - they stop...

A Catalyst article about giant asteroids. Astronomers say that, one day, a giant rock from space will collide with the Earth and cause mass devastation. This could lead to the extinction of many species, including humans. The article looks at what can be done to prepare for such an impact and what happened when a...

A Catalyst article describing how the VISTA telescope, which is located in Chile, works. It detects infrared radiation - electromagnetic radiation beyond the red end of the spectrum. This has two great benefits:

*The telescope can detect radiation from distant stars which are otherwise hidden behind clouds...