Science Education

Mathematics is playing such an increasingly important role in crime scene investigations, helping forensic scientists work out a range of problems including the trajectories of bullets, fingerprint recognition and the speed of moving vehicles, that an understanding of the subject could be key for the next great detective.

Professor Christopher Budd from the University of Bath will explore this further when he delivers a lecture entitled Can maths catch criminals and bring them to j

In the Netherlands school-aged children in the age range 5 to 16 years no longer participating in any form of education is an increasingly frequent phenomenon. Children who are absent from school for a period of two months or more are referred to as long-term truants. On behalf of NWO, Theo van Batenburg and his colleagues investigated the number of long-term truants, their characteristics and the underlying causes of this absenteeism. The report has recently been published.

Each year

Four proposals have been honoured in the subsidy programme ’Medium Investments Social Sciences’. A total of 950,000 euros has been awarded. The projects are an international study into integration, a magnetic laboratory for brain research, a computer for genetic analyses and virtual reality as a trial area for psychological experiments.

The programme for medium-sized investments covers subsidies for the purchase of equipment and for the setting up of data collections, associat

The UK’s eight Research Councils have begun an initiative to assess the efficiency and value for money of their grant peer review process.

The UK peer review system provides an international benchmark of research quality and the project is based on a continuing commitment of the Research Councils and Government to the principle of the project-based peer review system. The initiative will provide evidence that will inform possible efficiency gains while maintaining the high quali

Building a self-reliant moon colony is no longer science fiction, or a gimmick to promote the new James Bond film. It is indeed near-term reality.

After the Apollo landings, the moon returned to its magnificent desolation, and has until recently received very little attention as a target of exploration, let alone settlement. Currently, the Swedish-made SMART-1 is the only spacecraft orbiting the moon. It is scheduled to impact in early 2007, but another Swedish effort is already

Major research is being carried out by academics at Sunderland and Cambridge universities into the experiences of working class students in higher education.

The work, which is part of a £30m research programme, could help universities better understand issues such as progression and retention, as well as create a greater awareness of how to improve provision and support for students from backgrounds where there is little tradition of higher education.

The research will