Did you know that more than one in 20 people in the UK have already taken a DTC genetic test? Companies selling these tests often make big promises about what they can do using our DNA, from predicting things about our health and ancestry, to whether someone is likely to prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream. But what can these tests actually ...

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

This free course, What do genes do?,  explores how information contained in DNA is used, explaining the flow of information from DNA to RNA to protein. Also introduced are the concepts of transcription (as occurs between DNA and RNA) and translation.

Chemistry lies at the centre of our modern life, playing a part in areas as diverse as the development of new drugs and materials, analysing our environment through to more mundane activities such as washing your clothes and making your tea. But to truly understand the role chemistry plays you need to have a sound grasp of a number of ...

Put yourself in a crime scene officer's shoes and try to solve a suspected murder when time and resources are tight. Can you link the suspects to the forensic evidence? 

Ever wondered where the phrase 'as mad as a hatter' came from? We take a look at some infamous cases of poisoning. 

Take a journey into the Earth's oceans and discover whether you've got what it takes to become an oceanographer. Explore ocean depths, currents, temperatures and find out more about the future of our oceans. 

The oceans cover more than 70 per cent of our planet. In this free course, The oceans, you will learn about the depths of the oceans and the properties of the water that fills them, what drives the ocean circulation and how the oceans influence our climate.

Test your knowledge about plastics in our oceans, and learn about how they impact the environment by clicking on the image below...

Want to learn more about the Earth's tectonic plates? Start your journey into the surface of the Earth with these three quick-fire challenges in our science game.

Discover the unique landscape of Great Britain and Ireland with our interactive Geology Toolkit, featuring a geology timeline, rock analyser, rock cycle, landscape features and safety tips.

Earthquakes shake the ground surface, can cause buildings to collapse, disrupt transport and services, and can cause fires. They can trigger landslides and tsunami in short, earthquakes can be very destructive. In this free course, Earthquakes, you will look at why, where and what happens when they occur and also at how earthquakes are assessed...

Modern astronomy utilises a range of techniques across the electromagnetic spectrum that allow astronomers to measure the brightness, size and shape of astronomical objects, as well as their structure in many cases. This free course enables you to explore multiwavelength images of the Universe and make your own measurements of stars, nebulae and...

This free course shows you how to navigate the night sky, and introduces the wide variety of objects it contains. You will develop a hands-on understanding of telescopic observations using the Open University’s own robotic telescope facility COAST sited on the island of Tenerife. Supported by your own measurements we illustrate how stars...

Rocks hurtling through space shape the surface of the moons and planets as collide – and now you can use your skill and knowledge to make your own mark. Can you cover a target percentage of a planet or a moon’s surface with impact craters – by choosing meteroids based on size, make-up and speed and aiming them at your chosen target.

From robotic telescopes to an asteroid pretending to be a moon on Mars, here are four articles about asteroids.

In March 2021, several rare meteorite fragments were found in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. We celebrate this amazing discovery with a mini documentary and other FREE resources on meteorites…  

Over the last few decades astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars other than the Sun – known as exoplanets. Many of these exoplanets are quite unlike anything we see in our Solar System. These include ‘hot Jupiters’ orbiting very close to their parent star and rocky ‘super Earths’ many times larger than our home planet. ...

Stars live their lives for millions or billions of years but will eventually die. Low mass stars (like the Sun) will end their lives producing so-called planetary nebulae, and leave behind a collapsed core known as a white dwarf. More massive stars will end their lives by exploding and producing a so-called supernova remnant, and leave a neutron...

The science of cosmology has been very successful in explaining a wide range of observational evidence about the Universe, from the detailed properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation to the distributions of galaxies, and the elemental abundances in astrophysical environments. However, there are several major unknowns in ...

Got any burning questions about Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Mike Richards, Senior Lecturer in Computing at The Open University, explains all in this article for National Coding Week.

How does Artificial Intelligence (AI) work? How is AI used in science? All is explained these short animations narrated by David Mitchell. 

As technology advances, machines are becoming more advanced at interacting with humans, but what does this mean for the future?

When was artificial intelligence (AI) first developed? This article looks at the first wave of AI - in particular ELIZA, one of the very first chatbots.

We wondered how easy it was to tell the difference between the work of a real-life human, and a machine… so you tell us!

Is artificial intelligence capable of being creative? This animation and associated article looks at the meaning of 'creativity' and whether machines can carry out creative tasks.

This free advanced level course, Exploring anxiety, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on anxiety, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also learn how to evaluate news items, and to go behind the headlines and begin to explore some of the ...

What causes pain and how do we stop it? This free course, Pain and Aspirin, looks at how the human body responds to the release of certain chemicals and as a result feels pain. Pain can be reduced by inhibiting the formation of such chemicals and you will learn how the molecular structure of aspirin has been formulated to help in this process.

Drug development process: combating pain, is a free course offering a brief introduction to the process of new drug discovery; from identification of a suitable candidate drug molecule to the development of a commercial drug product available in the clinic for pain relief or as an anti-inflammatory.