Basic Science: Understanding experiments - Taking it further

Understand the basic rules of genetics and see if you can breed the rarest fish in our biology game.

How is genetic information stored in cells, and how is the information accessed and used? On this album, Dr Norman Cohen of The Open University uses models and graphics to provide easily understood explanations of how genetic information is stored in DNA, how DNA is replicated, and how genetic information from DNA is used to create new protein ...

This free course, A tour of the cell, contains a blend of text and a multimedia interactive component to look at the uniformity and diversity within cells. Fundamental to understanding how cells 'work' is a knowledge of the subcellular components and how they are arranged. This is introduced through a series of in-text and self-assessment ...

The history and science of beer.

In this video we look at the origins of beer and brewing in Ancient Egypt, and the role microbes play in the process.

Fascinating facts about mushrooms.

How fundamental are fungi to a forest's eco-system? And how can they be utilised to reclaim barren land and grow sustainable plantations for economic markets? In this album, scientists from the UK and Malaysia explore how fungi form constructive and cooperative partnerships with other plants and trees, and how such symbiosis can be used for ...

When a traveller was stopped from taking mash on to a plane, the TSA may have been acknowledging the difficulty of  defining exactly what a liquid is. Peter Taylor explains.

In this video, the OU's Janet Sumner shows you how to conduct a simple density tower experiment using everyday household liquids.

What is it that makes custard go lumpy? Can you make your own baking powder? Is your kitchen really a disguised lab?

Without it we are dead! Water is essential, but what processes must it go through to become fit for human consumption? This free course, Potable water treatment, will guide you through the continuous cycling of water between land, open water surfaces and the sea before moving on to an overview of the water treatment and supply process.

Do you think about where your water comes from? In the UK each of us uses an average of about 150 litres of water per day! The seven video tracks in this album consider issues of demand and quality in water supply as well as treatment processes. They give information on methods of minimising waste, emergency water treatment and effluent control....

Have you ever wondered where bottled water comes from and what impact this has on the environment? This informative, animated video looks at the complete process of producing bottled water and strives to answer the question, 'Bottled water - who needs it?' Highlighting the effects this has on the carbon footprint, we learn how bottled water is ...