A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). As the map of Earth's gravity – as revealed by the European Space Agency's (ESA) sleek GOCE satellite – comes into sharper focus, Richard Hollingham speaks to a researcher who tells us what early results from the...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson hears about the birth of an ocean in the Afar depression in the Horn of Africa. The continental crust is being ripped apart at a phenomenal rate – one metre every year over the last five years. In...

In this podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection, Sue Nelson reports from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where she finds out that some plants like the Snake's Head Fritillary have enormous amounts of DNA in their genomes.

These plants struggle in extreme...

Produced by ARKive, this hands-on activity is designed to teach 5 to 7 year olds about nocturnal animals and the senses they employ to navigate life in the dark. Humans rely heavily upon the sense of sight and these activities explore the ways other animals have become adapted to life where and when light is less...

This resource provides a selection of lesson plans, worksheets and teachers notes relating to animals including humans at Year Two. They include activities for discussing the stage of the human lifecycle, thinking about how children have changed since they were babies...

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...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Does your shopping basket contain chocolate, biscuits and shampoo? If it does, you may be unwittingly contributing to the destruction of the some of the world's pristine rainforests.

Manufacturers now use...

A podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection. Red squirrels used to be the most common squirrel in Britain. But since the grey squirrel was introduced from the USA as an illegal immigrant in the late 1800s, their numbers have nose-dived.

This is partly...

This podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection looks at why scientists are planning on drilling three kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice sheet in one of the most ambitious exploration projects ever undertaken; and how worms that feed on dead whale bones at the...

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reporters find out how satellites have revolutionised our understanding of climate change.

They provide a completely different perspective on how planet Earth works, which was impossible before the...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how scientists plan to measure the Earth's magnetic field from space, why one researcher is in the frozen town of Churchill in northern Canada, and how the Chernobyl disaster still affects Northern...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The Food Standards Agency advises everyone to eat at least two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily, because it is good for us.

Unfortunately our appetite for fish and other seafood has...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at why understanding rip currents at Perranporth in north Cornwall could help save lives; and how exactly does carbon capture and storage (CCS) work and how can scientists be sure that CO2 will be stored...