Resources by Catalyst

Designs on Space: the Lifecycle of a Satellite

A Catalyst article about designing, building and testing a spacecraft. There are thousands of man-made satellites orbiting the Earth. Some are only a few hundred kilometres above the Earth and complete one orbit roughly every 90 minutes. Geostationary satellites are located around 40 000 kilometres from the surface...

Diabetes in Young People *suitable for home teaching*

A Catalyst article about juvenile diabetes, a genetic disease also known as Type 1 diabetes, which affects over 200,000 people in the UK. Scientists are still trying to unravel its causes in order to develop improved treatments. This article describes what is being done to improve people’s understanding of the...

Diamond's Brilliant Light

A Catalyst article about a brilliant new light source under construction in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside - the Diamond Light Source. Diamond will be a source of synchrotron light. Many of the everyday commodities people take for granted, from chocolate to cosmetics, from revolutionary drugs to surgical...

Diamond: more than just a gemstone

This Catalyst article looks at diamond and graphite which are allotropes of carbon. Their properties which depend on the bonding between the carbon atoms are also examined.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2.

Diamonds

A Catalyst article about diamonds. The element carbon exists in a number of allotropic forms, but diamonds have always held a special allure, whether it be for their hardness or for their transparency. The article examines how they can be made artificially and looks at some of their uses.

This article is...

Diamonds, x-rays and all that

This Catalyst article looks at diamonds and shows how they have extraordinary properties: optical, thermal and when exposed to X-rays.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2.

Catalyst is a science...

Dimitri Mendeleev and the periodic pattern *suitable for home teaching*

Mendeleev's invention of the periodic table of the elements showed how to predict and create further elements, something which scientists are still doing today.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 26, Issue 4.

Discovering new elements *suitable for home teaching*

This article describes the processes behind discovering and proving the existence of new chemical elements.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 26, Issue 3.

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Diving Deep

This Catalyst article explores how many mammal species' bodies are adapted to cope with the great pressures involved as they dive to great depths.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2.

Catalyst...

DNA Fingerprinting

A Catalyst article about Dolly the sheep which was born in 1996. The scientists who created her claimed she was a ‘clone’ from a female adult sheep. To prove this claim, genetic profiling or fingerprinting was done by another, independent group of scientists. The article explores how this was done and what other...