A Catalyst article about light pollution which is a growing problem, especially for astronomers, obscuring the view of the Moon, stars and planets. Astronomers are campaigning to reduce the pollution and bring the night sky back into view. With the aid of statistics the article makes the case for better street...

One of a series of articles for post-16 students published by Science and Plants for Schools (SAPS). Plants monitor the intensity, direction, colour and duration of the light they receive and use this information to adapt their growth and metabolism to their particular environment. Most plant responses to light...

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 about a group of young scientists testing scientific claims in advertising. The group thought many claims sounded implausible. They decided to hunt for the scientific evidence behind them and challenge the manufacturers to explain how the products work. The article outlines the investigations...

The human population of Earth has reached seven billion. This Catalyst article explores the impact that human activity may have on the planet. The article looks at the rate of population growth and how human impact is also related on the amount of resources used by an individual. It considers if the effects of...

Published by the Wellcome Trust, this issue explores the biological basis of sex differences and the relationship between sex and gender.

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A Catalyst article describing how engineers have designed an aircraft which will produce much less noise as it approaches and leaves the airport. The Silent Aircraft Initiative is a collaboration between scientists and engineers at two universities, Cambridge (UK) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA...

This Catalyst article presents six different images of Mercury, the planet nearest the Sun. Mercury has been visited by two probes. The most recent, Messenger, orbited the planet 4000 times in four years before crashing into its...

Produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, this activity gives students the opportunity to practise quickly skim-reading a text to assess its usefulness.

A guided activity asks students to quickly browse through a scientific article and extract information such as its title, author and the subject of...

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...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to consider the best way to write an abstract or a short summary.

The activity is a useful learning tool as it enables students to:
* organise learning materials and texts.
* understand and remember information....