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Nature & Environment
What effect does increasing noise pollution have on mammals?
A researcher explains how prairie dogs appear to have developed strategies to keep alert in noisier environments - but there might be a downside.
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Science, Maths & Technology
The chemistry of fireworks
Ever wondered about the science behind fireworks? Each type of firework has a slightly different design and ingredients - learn how the various explosions and colours occur.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Climate change and the built environment
The importance of retrofitting our existing buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stay comfortable in future climates.
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Science, Maths & Technology
The Rosetta Mission
Watch this video from The Royal Observatory Greenwich/The OU and find what Rosetta and Philae have achieved as well as the impact the mission has had on our knowledge of our very own solar system.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Discover Mercury: Why study Mercury?
What is it about Mercury that rewards a closer look?
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Science, Maths & Technology
Modelling events in time
This free course develops ideas about probability and random processes. Sections 1 and 2 introduce the fundamental ideas of random processes through a series of examples. Section 3 describes a model that is appropriate for events occurring ‘at random’ in such a way that their rate of occurrence remains constant. Section 4 derives the main ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Astronomy
Thanks to cutting-edge radio and infra-red astronomy, our understanding of the universe is moving very fast. Ideas about black holes and cosmic jets are constantly being refined as new discoveries are made using new, more powerful telescopes. This album explores the incredible discoveries and theories developed in recent years and introduces the...
Science, Maths & Technology
Where does outer space begin?
Can a balloon carry you up to outer space? Does it count as being in space if you go up and down without orbiting the Earth? How high up to you have to be before you could orbit the Earth?
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Science, Maths & Technology
More or Less: interview with Tim Harford
Tim Harford, from More or Less, talks with Kevin McConway on why statistics matter and how they can impact the future.
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History & The Arts
Charles Dickens and the dinosaurs
How was Charles Dickens influenced by Victorian interest in dinosaurs? John C Murray explores how Dickens might have been shaped by the work of Richard Owen in this review of Gowan Dawson's Dickens, Dinosaurs, and Design in Victorian Literature and Culture 44.4
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Science, Maths & Technology
Using and managing waste
Do you know what happens to the things you throw away? Sustainable management of municipal and industrial waste is essential in any society, but is particularly crucial for a future in which we face diminishing resources and a growing population. This album considers the issues that are driving the waste management industry across the EU, ...
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Nature & Environment
Offshore wind powers ahead in Europe
Falling costs mean that power generated by offshore wind farms is becoming increasingly competitive with other fuels – and that’s good news for the climate