Curated Video
Eco-Transport
The transport industry is one of the leading polluters in the world today. What technologies are being developed to create cleaner transportation and what are their advantages and disadvantages? Earth Science - Earth's Resources -...
Curated Video
Photosynthesis: How Plants Convert Sunlight into Energy
Journey into the chloroplast, where photosynthesis takes place, to learn how plants convert sunlight into usable chemical energy - one of the most vital processes on Earth. Biology - Plants - Learning Points. Leaves are small...
Curated Video
The Curse of Phlogiston
The 17th century German chemist Johann Becher proposed that an element, phlogiston, was released when substances burned. He was wrong, and his incorrect theory led many early chemists to misunderstand the significance of some of their...
Curated Video
The Race for Absolute Zero: Laser Cooling
Lasers are usually associated with heat. But scientists have instead used them to reach the coldest temperature ever recorded. Could they reach absolute zero? Physics - Energy And Radioactivity - Learning Points. Absolute zero is...
Curated Video
What Are Stars?
What are stars made of? How are they born, how do they live, and how do they die? Physics - Our Solar System - Learning Points. Our nearest star is the Sun. A star is formed from a cloud of dust and gas, which shrinks under gravity and...
Curated Video
Food Basics: Proteins
Proteins are at the root of virtually all bodily functions, from growth to metabolism to transporting oxygen around the body. Learn how your body makes or ingests all the protein you need. Chemistry - Chemical Industries - Learning...
Curated Video
Heavy Water
Why did allied soldiers in World War Two embark on a dangerous mission to stop the Nazis using heavy water? Chemistry - Atoms And Bonding - Learning Points. Atoms that have the same number of protons and electrons but different numbers...
Curated Video
Alkali Metals
Witness the exciting reactions that occur when alkali metals come into contact with other substances. What does this tell us about their properties? Chemistry - Periodic Table - Learning Points. The alkali metals make up Group 1 of the...
Curated Video
Types of Weather: Rain
Rain is essential to our planet. Without it, all life on Earth would struggle to survive. How do rain clouds form and what determines whether it rains or not? Earth Science - Weather - Learning Points. Rainfall comes from the clouds...
Curated Video
Mars: The Search for Water
We know that Mars once had a landscape with oceans and rivers, but what happened to it? Physics - Universe - Learning Points. Although Mars is a freezing dry world today, it is thought the planet was once like Earth. If liquid water once...
Curated Video
MRI
MRI machines are now commonly used in hospitals to build amazing images of inside our bodies. Discover how magnets allow them to do this. Physics - Electricity And Circuits - Learning Points. MRI machines use magnets to take images of...
Curated Video
We Are All Made of Stars
Discover how elements are formed in the centre of stars, and how some elements are formed in even more spectacular conditions. Chemistry - Periodic Table - Learning Points. Most elements were created in space. At the beginning of the...
Curated Video
Carbon: Synthetic Diamonds
Diamonds take millions of years to form within the Earth's mantle, but now scientists are trying to produce them synthetically. Chemistry - Atoms And Bonding - Learning Points. Diamonds take a long time to form in the Earth's mantle....
Curated Video
Introduction to Chemical Bonding
The basic ways elements combine to create compounds, fundamental to life as we know it. Chemistry - Atoms And Bonding - Learning Points. There are 92 naturally occurring elements. They fall into two categories: metals and non-metals....
Curated Video
Electrolysis of Water
We use electrolysis to break water molecules down into hydrogen and oxygen. This is done using the Hoffman apparatus. Water is added to the apparatus along with some dilute sulfuric acid. When a current is passed through the water,...
Curated Video
Capillary Action
Water is added to dry and bent matchsticks to let us see capillary action at work. The wood absorbs the water causing the matchsticks to straighten. Biology - Plants - Learning Points. Water is a polar molecule because the electrons are...
Curated Video
Hydrogels
We use a disposable nappy to examine the superabsorbent properties of hydrogels. We add water to grains of hydrogel and watch them swell before adding salt to see the water escape. Chemistry - Chemical Industries - Learning Points....
Curated Video
What is an Atom?
From our bodies to the oceans and stars, everything is made of millions upon millions of tiny atoms. But what are atoms made of? Chemistry - Atoms And Bonding - Learning Points. The building blocks of all elements are called atoms. Atoms...
Curated Video
Atomic Structure
What does the Periodic Table tell us about the elements, their properties and behaviours? And why does the atomic number define each element? Chemistry - Periodic Table - Learning Points. The structure of the atom reveals why the...
Curated Video
Collision Theory
Discover that altering the number of successful collisions between particles is key to changing the rate of chemical reactions. How this can be manipulated? Chemistry - ReactionsLearning Points. New substances are made when particles...
Curated Video
Covalent Bonding
How non-metal elements combine by covalent bonds to form compounds. Chemistry - Atoms And Bonding - Learning Points. Covalent bonds occur between non-metal atoms. The number of bonds depends on how many electrons are in the outer shell....
Curated Video
Big Bang Evidence
Discover the scientific evidence that supports the Big Bang theory - from the expanding Universe to cosmic microwave background radiation. Physics - Universe - Learning Points. An expanding Universe, an abundance of light elements, and...
Curated Video
Climate Cycles
How climatologists use ice cores, cylindrical cones of ice drilled from glaciers, to reveal Earth's historical cycles of climate change. Earth Science - Human Impacts - Learning Points. The Earth has natural, long cycles of climate. The...
Curated Video
How the Oceans Formed
The same water has been on Earth for four and a half billion years. Where did this water come from? Earth Science - Weather - Learning Points. 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth's surface was too hot for water to exist. Inside the Earth's...