All content
Hundreds of educational interactives, games, quizzes, videos and podcasts, plus 1000s of articles written by academic experts and guest contributors.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
A school reaches for the stars with an online astronomy course
Pupils from a Scottish school use a remote telescope to take images of distant galaxies.
activity icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Explore Moon rocks collected from the first Moon landing
Use our Virtual Microscope to examine a selection of Moon rocks collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, from the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Moons
Explore our collection of courses, articles, videos, audios and interactive features on Moons.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Discover Moon minerals
View the Moon Minerals book published by Professor Mahesh Anand and Dr Andy Tindle.
article icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Blue Monday: An OpenLearn reading list
Blue chat for a blue day: collecting some thoughts on the marketing wheeze that is Blue Monday.
activity icon
Digital & Computing
Ministry of Sharing: Are you a safe sharer?
Are you a model citizen or a menace to society when it comes to divulging personal details? Take the test from the Ministry of Sharing and find out whether you share too much information.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Iron from the sky: Meteors, meteorites and ancient culture
3-4 January 2023 will see the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower. What’s the connection between meteors, iron and Egyptian beads? Dr Diane Johnson, a Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Faculty of Science, explains more about ‘iron from the sky’.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Putting algae and seaweed on the menu could help save our seafood
Sticking with our traditional salmon and tuna diet isn’t sustainable, Pallavi Anand and Daniela Schmidt explain why eating algae could expand our seafood menu.
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Badge icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Understanding science: what we cannot know
This free course, Understanding science: what we cannot know, investigates the boundaries of our understanding across numerous scientific fields. It asks whether it's possible that we will one day know everything, or whether some knowledge will always lie beyond the bounds of human comprehension.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
From Astrobiology to Parliament
Devyani Gajjar is a PhD student with AstrobiologyOU. Her research focuses on how space technologies could be used to support social justice and inclusive innovation. However, in spring 2022, she put her PhD on pause while she undertook a three-month-long fellowship with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). In this article, ...
article icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Why do Christmas crackers go bang?
What's the secret to Christmas crackers? Dr James Bruce from The Open University's Chemistry Department explains why they go bang in this article.
article icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Modelling the planets
Dr Julia Semprich is a Research Fellow with AstrobiologyOU. She is interested in the processes that occur deep below the surface of planets and how the interactions of fluids and rocks might create habitable environments. She talked with Dr Ann Grand, Senior Lecturer in Astrobiology Education, about her route to astrobiology, her current ...