All Posts by JOSEPH ELLIOTT

What can we learn from the night sky?

Humans have been looking at and learning about the night sky since the first days of ancient civilisation. Understanding the night sky allowed early humans to navigate across land and sea. It also allowed us to invent calendars and think beyond the experiences of the everyday. The scientific study of

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How do we get oil?

Oil is an incredibly valuable resource. We use it to make plastic, power vehicles and produce the chemicals we need, like lubricants and pesticides. Several Sub-Saharan countries are heavily involved in oil production, such as Nigeria and Angola. WHAT IS OIL? Oil is formed from tiny animals and plankton which

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Entropy: chaos in science

Scientists aim to provide explanations for how our world works. Concepts like gravity and heat help us to understand what happens around us. Entropy is a similar concept and dictates how everything in the Universe works. WHAT IS ENTROPY? There are many different ways to define entropy. The easiest way

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Glass: almost a solid

Glass is a wonderful material with a variety of uses. We use it in many everyday items, from bottles to cameras. It is transparent, long-lasting and recyclable. However, glass is also a strange material – it is neither a solid nor a liquid, but something in-between! WHAT IS GLASS? Glass

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An Introduction to Acids and pH

Acids are possibly the most fundamental chemicals in nature. They can be found everywhere and chemists have been studying them for thousands of years. Finding out what they are and how we can use them is one of the first things a chemist learns. This article will explain what acids

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Earth’s Most Abundant Metal: Fun Facts About Aluminium

Aluminium is one of the most versatile metals in modern life. It can be found everywhere: in mobile phones, power lines and high-rise buildings. Aluminium is useful because of its unique properties as a metal. We will explore some of them here. ALUMINIUM IS LIGHTWEIGHT Aluminium weighs 3 times less

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