Acknowledgements

This free course was written by Dr Julia Cooke, with contributions from Dan Berwick, Anthony Stanton, Brian Richardson, Sara Hack, Frazer Payne, Bryan Waddington and Jonathan Martyn.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course:

Shadow of the Dark Rift, Milky Way: NASA/A. Fujii

Supernova Remnant Menagerie: NASA/ESA/HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Artist’s concept of the Milky Way Galaxy (GLAST): NASA JPL

Knopper Gall on Oak Acorns: MichaelGrantPlants/Alamy

Quercus robur, English oak, Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a pollen grain from an English or pedunculate oak tree: Natural History Museum/Alamy

Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star: NASA, ESA, and K. Noll (STScI): The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

English Oak Leaves (Quercus robur): Klaus Reitmeier/123RF.com

Bluebells in beech woodland: David Tipling: Photo Library/Alamy

X-ray image of the hot gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Stephen Walker et al.

Google Earth image - Blenheim Palace and park: Google Earth Image 2016. Infoterra Ltd & Bluesky

Quercus pollen in the British isles: Birks, H. J. B. (1989) ‘Holocene Isochrone Maps and Patterns of Tree-Spreading in the British Isles’, Journal of Biogeography, vol. 16. no. 6, pp.503-540, Wiley

Soil profile of Clarion soil from Iowa, United States: Photo by Erwin Cole, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea) in small woodland clearing: Annie Poole / Science Photo Library

Fungi growing: Juhani Viitanen/123RF.com

Purple Hairstreak Butterfly: Avalon/Photoshot License/Alamy

Band of the Milky Way seen in dark skies with the ALMA antenna: ESO/B. Tafreshi

Oak (Quercus robur) buds in January: Colin Varndell / Science Photo Library

Eastern white oak (Quercus alba) leaf: Change Accordingly/Science Photo Library

A grouping of young stars called the Trapezium Cluster: NASA, ESA, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and M. Robberto (STScI)

Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, provides the missing link in star formation: NASA/ESA

Jay bird bathing in forest pool: AGAMI Photo Agency/Alamy

Oak tree in Surrey Woodland (oak_separated_3.png): M. Disney, P. Wilkes, M. Boni Vicari, UCL Geography

English oak leaf pores, SEM: Power and Syred / Science Photo Library

Male catkins of English oak (Quercus robur), Fagaceae: De Agostini Picture Library / Universal Images Group/Alamy

Hubble Spotlight on Irregular Galaxy IC 3583: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Death of Giant Galaxies Spreads from the Core - Elliptical galaxy IC 2006: NASA/ESA/Judy Schmidt and J. Blakeslee (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory)

The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars: NASA/Roberto Colombari

The Grand Bridge, Blenheim Palace: Robertharding / Alamy Stock Photo

New View of the Crab Nebula: NASA, ESA, NRAO/AUI/NSF and G. Dubner (University of Buenos Aires)

Wild victoria waterlily (Victoria amazonica): Andre Seale/Alamy

Blenheim Palace, Park and Gardens - Autumn aerial view of the bridge and lake: © Blenheim Palace 2019

Giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1316: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Oak leaves (Quercus robur): The Natural History Museum/Alamy

Soil samples collected using the truck mounted core punch tool: Tom Ballard/Flickr. Covered under creative commons BY 2.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Hubble Spots Two Interacting Galaxies Defying Cosmic Convention - NGC 3447B: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Map of the universe - cosmic microwave background: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

Oakbug Milkcap (Lactarius quietus) mushroom, Russulaceae. De Agostini / E. Ferrari Alamy

A Nearby Stellar Cradle - star cluster Cygnus OB2: NASA

Ice caps over the British Isles at the end of the last ice age (2): Clark, C.D. et al. (2010) ‘Pattern and timing of retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet’, Quaternary science reviews 44: 112–146.

Blenheim Palace bridge, lake and house: Nigel Francis / Robert Harding/Alamy

Wolffia: G Newport / Science Photo Library

For the new Description of Blenheim, William Fordyce Mavor, 1806: © Blenheim Palace 2019

Tree - Oak Common (Quercus robur) Close-up of leaves: Eric and David Hosking/Getty Images

Badger in Oak woodland: DamianKuzdak/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Andromeda galaxy M31: NASA/JPL-Caltech

English Oak Acorns: Fir Mamat/Alamy

Oak leaves fallen in Autumn: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Ice caps over the British Isles at the end of the last ice age (1): Clark, C.D. et al. (2010) ‘Pattern and timing of retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet’, Quaternary science reviews 44: 112–146.

Sunlight shining through young beech leaves (Fagus sylvatica) in spring: Nigel Cattlin/Alamy

An artist’s impression of a Carboniferous forest: Ludek Pesek / Science Photo Library

Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) in hollow cork trunk: Alternative Image: Sergei Markov/123RF.com

Solitary English oak tree (Quercus robur) in spring: Drian Bicker / Science Photo Library

Sessile oak Leaf (Quercus petraea): blickwinkel / Alamy Stock Photo

Stout Tooth Agave (Agave parrasana or Agave wislizeni): DEA/C.DANI/Getty

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don’t miss out

If reading this text has inspired you to learn more, you may be interested in joining the millions of people who discover our free learning resources and qualifications by visiting The Open University – www.open.edu/ openlearn/ free-courses.