Tag Archive for: biology

125,000 rpm centrifuge… powered by hand, made from cardboard

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This is outstanding!

One of the first steps in a whole host of blood tests which might be used for medical diagnosis is to ‘spin down’ the sample – to bung it in a high-speed centrifuge and whirl it around, separating out the red blood cells from the blood plasma. Accordingly, you’ll find centrifuge equipment in every haematology lab in the West… but they don’t work so well in places where the electricity supply is shaky.

In 2013 Indian-born Manu Prakash, now a physical biology researcher at Stanford University in the US, stumbled over a centrifuge in a clinic in Uganda. Literally stumbled, as it was propping open a door.

Prakash is the same guy who, a year ago, introduced a microscope made from folded paper and a cameraphone. The result of his discussions about centrifuges is similarly simple yet inspired: his team at Stanford have now adapted an ancient children’s toy to make a hand-powered, cardboard-based centrifuge which achieves 125,000 revolutions per minute. That’s astonishing, and it’s sufficient to prepare samples for a range of tests in just a few minutes.

The ever-marvellous journalist Ed Yong (check out his book I Contain Multitudes!) has the full story at The Atlantic, with more details of all the juicy bits of physics the group had to do to optimise the toy for medical use. It’s one of those simple systems that nobody had thought to study before. Nature have produced the video above, and the invention is written up as a paper at Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The “Paperfuge” can be made for something like 20 cents, and the researchers have even submitted an application to Guinness World Records for the fastest rotational speed via a human-powered device.

Prakash’s group are now testing their design in rural Madagascar, and are exploring 3D-printable plastics in the hopes of being able to cheaply produce centrifuges which are integrated with specific blood tests, or transparent versions which would double as microscope slides.

Awesome invention.

Evolution CPD

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Think Physics, in conjunction with Reading University, is hosting a free CPD session aimed at primary science teachers.

The session will take place on Tuesday 21 April 2015 from 16:30 until 18:30 in Think Lab at Northumbria University.

Light refreshments will be available from 16:00.

The session will be delivered by Chris Hatcher from the University of Reading.

Session outline

fossil fishEvolution and Inheritance will become part of the statutory Science Curriculum for Year 6 students from September 2015. This session will show you ways to bring these tricky concepts to life through hands-on investigations and activities. The team at Reading have developed lesson plans designed to maintain children’s enthusiasm and progress their understanding of evolution while working scientifically. Many of these resources are free to access on their website, and additional resources will be provided in the session. The session also addresses common concerns teachers have about teaching evolution in the classroom and will suggest ways to respond to children’s and parents’ questions.

For more information, please see the Primary Evolution Project, www.primaryevolution.com

Sign up to the CPD by using this EventBrite link:

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/primary-evolution-cpd-tickets-16086800052

Directions to Think Lab can be found here. We look forward to seeing you in April!

Tag Archive for: biology

Growing seeds

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Growing seeds

Why is water so important to plants? Watch how seeds sprout and grow in this activity.

Overview


Have you ever wondered what happens to seeds when we add water to them? Do you know what seeds look like as they start to grow underneath the soil? To observe this, all you need is a clear freezer bag, paper towel, staples and some seeds.


Printable version

This page will print, but won’t look great. Click the button for a print-friendly PDF version.


What to do


Step 1



Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Little Cloud by Anne Booth. It is a great introduction to the water cycle and to understanding why water is so important for plants and animals to grow and survive.

Step 2



Take your sheet of paper towel and place it inside your plastic bag. Try to get it as flat as possible.

Step 3



Place your plastic bag on your stapler, with the bottom of the bag as near to the hinge as possible. Put a staple in the bag as near to the edge as you can.

Step 4



Put staples all of the way across the bag. Try to get the staples as close together as possible. This will make a ledge for the seeds to grow on. The roots should grow downwards underneath the staples and the shoots should grow upwards.

Step 5



Carefully sprinkle your seeds onto the staples. Make sure the seeds are all on the same side of the paper towel and that they are spread evenly across the bag.

Step 6



Add a small amount of water to your bag. This should all be absorbed by the paper towel.

Step 7



Put your seed bag in the light and observe the seeds each day. You could use magnets to stick your bag to your fridge or sticky tape to stick your bag to the window. Check to make sure that your paper towel remains damp.


Things to discuss

  • Have the seeds changed? How have they changed?
  • Can you see any shoots or roots?
  • Which direction are the shoots growing in? What about the roots?
  • Why do you think we need to keep the paper towel wet?
  • Why do you think we need to put the bags in the sunlight?
  • What else do you think the seeds need to grow?


How it works

In order for a seed to grow, it needs to germinate. For germination to happen, a seed needs water.

A seed contains an embryo, a young plant waiting to be activated to  grow, and a food source, where the embryo gets it’s energy to grow. These are surrounded by the seed coat to protect them.

A seed is dormant or not active until conditions are just right for germination and for the plant to survive.

When a seed gets wet, it soaks up the water and this activates the release of energy from it’s food store. The embryo swells and gets longer.

Next, the embryo breaks through the seed coat. The root is activated and pushes downwards, then the leaves break out and the shoot is activated.

Watch the clips below to watch this happening.




Other things to try

Where is the best place for seeds to grow?





Why not investigate growing seeds in different parts of your home? You could try a putting your seeds on a window or in a room at the front and at the back of your home and record which seed bag grows fastest or which shoot grows taller.  You could investigate what happens if you put your seeds in a dark cupboard. How about if you put your seed bag in the fridge or in the bathroom?



Observing clouds





You will need:

  • A cloudy day
  • Something to draw with (white or grey chalk is great but pencil or crayon would work too)
  • Something to draw on (blue or dark coloured paper works well, but any paper or the paving works too)
  • Pictures of different clouds. You can download our cloud identification guide here.

What to do:

Stand, sit or even lie down on the floor and look up into the sky and carefully draw the clouds you see. You could ask:

  • What colours are the clouds?
  • Are the clouds moving or still?
  • What do you think is moving them?
  • Can you see any shapes in the clouds?
  • What do you think the clouds would feel like if you touched them?
  • Do you think it is going to rain? Why?

Use the cloud guide to identify the clouds you can see. Cumulonimbus and nimbostratus are rain clouds. Do you think it will rain today?

You could also compare the drawings made of clouds on different days or make a cloud diary and record whether it rained or not that day.

More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • A clear, plastic freezer bag- any size is fine
  • One sheet of paper towel
  • A stapler and staples
  • Seeds

Duration

10 minutes or so plus growing time

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • The activity involves small items (seeds and staples) so there’s a choke hazard.
  • The activity involves a plastic bag so there’s a suffocation hazard.
  • Smaller children may put seeds and staples up their noses and in their ears.
  • Watch out for fingers when using the stapler!

Careers link: The Meteorologist

Meteorologists need to know what the weather is doing now, calculate how this will change in the future and use their expert knowledge to refine the details. Meteorologists:

  • Observe and record the weather 24 hours a day across the globe and combine this with satellite pictures to see how the Earth’s atmosphere is behaving: in terms of temperature, precipitation, air pressure and cloud cover.
  • Use thermometers to measure temperature, barometers to measure air pressure and anemometers for measuring wind speed.
  • Use weather balloons to measure temperature, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction in the troposphere, the lowest layer Earth’s atmosphere and where almost all weather conditions take place.
  • Feed the weather data collected into a supercomputer that performs complex equations to create models that predict the future weather.
  • Check their models to make sure their forecasts are going to plan and adjust them where necessary.

Did you know that some weather presenters on television and radio are meteorologists?

Make a wormery

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Make your own wormery

Become a worm expert by observing worms over a week in your own worm home!

Overview


Making a wormery is a safe and simple way to observe and find out more about worms and what they are up to underneath the ground. All you need is an empty bottle, some soil and vegetable scraps and you are ready to go.


Printable version

This page will print, but looks a little funky. Click the button for a PDF version which looks a bit better.


Before you start



Younger children might like to listen to this “Yucky Worms” story by Vivian French. It tells us all about worms and why they are so important in our garden habitats.

Older children might be interested in watching this NUSTEM Encounter with environmental scientist, Miranda Prendergast-Miller. She tells us about the reasons why she became an environmental scientist and why worms are her favourite soil organism.


What to do



Step 1



Remove the top from your bottle to make a lid. Do this by squashing the bottle flat at about ¼ of the way from the top. Cut across your bottle here.


Step 2



Cut 2 small (4cm) slits upwards at opposite sides of your bottle. This will make sure your lid fits on your wormery.


Step 3



Scoop up some of your soil with your trowel or a plastic container and put it in the base of your bottle. Add a very small amount of water so that the soil is damp. A water spray is perfect for this.

Worms breathe through their skin so everything in your wormery must be damp. If the soil is too dry, the worms can’t breathe!


Step 4



Scoop up the same amount of sand, compost or worm food and add this to your bottle. Add a small amount of water so that the layer is damp.


Step 5



Continue adding alternating scoops of soil, sand, compost or worm food until your bottle is about ¾ full. Remember to add water to each layer to keep the wormery moist for your worms.


Step 6



Now find your worms! You could look in a compost heap, under stones or logs or you could dig in the earth.

Make sure you handle the worms with great care. Their skin is very delicate, so put them in your wormery as soon as possible so they don’t dry out.


Step 7



Add some worm food to the top of your wormery, on top of your worms. Slide the top part of your bottle over your base.


Step 8



Wrap your black card or paper around your wormery and secure it with tape. Worms don’t like light. Put your wormery in a warm place. You can remove the card to observe the worms.


  • Make sure you wash your hands after building your wormery and handling worms.
  • Regularly check that the worms have food and that the soil is moist.
  • Return your worms to the place you got them from after a week.


Things to do

Observe your worms

Check your worms regularly and record where they are in the bottle.

You could investigate:

  • Where do worms prefer to be in the wormery? Do they like sand, soil or worm food layers best?
  • Do the worms mix up the layers or soil, sand, compost and worm food?
  • Do the worms drag the food down from the top into the soil?

You could record your observations by drawing or taking photographs of the worms in your wormery each time you check it.



Things to do

Make a worm fact file

Research worms on the internet or in books. Choose the facts that you find the most interesting and informative. You could include:

  • scientific name
  • physical description (size, colour, shape)
  • distribution (where they are found in the world)
  • habitat (environment they live in)
  • diet (what and how they eat)
  • social behaviour (how they live)
  • lifespan (how long they live)
  • number of young (how many babies they have)
  • drawings or photographs of worms


Other things to try



Investigate the best ways to collect worms


Try each of these methods and count how many worms you find with each. Which do you predict will produce the most worms?

Worm hunt: look under rocks and stones, under dead wood or leaves or try digging in the soil.

Stamping: stamp your feet in one place on the grass or soil for 5 to 10 minutes. Worms are supposed to be attracted to the surface by vibrations.

Twanging: put a garden fork into the grass and rock it backwards and forwards until the worms appear. How long did it take them to come to the surface?


Soaking: soak an area of ground with water and cover it with a black plastic bag. Water fills the worm’s burrows and they come to the surface.

You could make a graph to show which was the most successful method.



Which worms do I have?



Here is a useful worm identification guide to help you find out which worms you have:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/research-centres-and-groups/opal/SOIL-4pp-chart.pdf


More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • An empty, rinsed 2 litre bottle
  • Scissors
  • Black or dark coloured paper or card (you could colour some in)
  • Tape
  • A trowel or empty container such as a yoghurt pot
  • Water – in a water spray bottle if you have one or in a watering can, jug or bottle if not
  • Soil from your garden
  • Something to make layers, such as child-safe play sand, compost or worm food (see below)
  • Worm food such as grated carrot, vegetable peelings or dead leaves
  • Worms!

Duration

20 minutes or so to make the wormery, a week to observe the worms.

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Supervision: the bottle is difficult to cut and may result in sharp edges.
  • Spade, forks and other garden tools may have sharp edges and points.
  • Always wash your hands after touching soil and worms.
  • Check your sand to make sure it is safe for children to touch- play sand is great but builders sand and sharp sand is unwashed and may contain unwanted additives.

Worm safety notes

Worms are living creatures and need to be treated with care and respect!

  • Worms have delicate skin- please handle them with care!
  • Worms breathe through their skin and this needs to be moist- don’t let your worms dry out!
  • Worms can drown in too much water- take care to dampen not soak the layers in your wormery!
  • Make sure you wash your hands throughly with hot water and soap after making your wormery.
  • Don’t feed your worms onions or citrus fruit peel or waste. Worms don’t like these.
  • Always release your worms back to the place they came from after a week- they are not your lifelong pets!

Did you know?

The reason you see worms on the pavement when is it rain is because the rain floods their burrows. If they didn’t come to the surface then they would drown.


Careers link- environmental scientist

Attributes: passionate, creative, committed

Environmental scientists study the effects of human activities on the environment. They are passionate about preventing and solving environmental problems such as pollution. They collect and test soil or air samples to find the type, concentration and source of the pollution caused by industry or agriculture. Environmental scientists are committed to finding out whether contaminant sources will affect or harm habitats, individuals and communities. They are creative in the ways they find to manage, minimise or eliminate any negative impacts of the pollution.

Visit our environmental scientist page to try some more environmental science activities and find out more.



What does an environmental scientist do with worms?

Dr Miranda Prendergast-Miller says:

“I am an environmental scientist and I like to find out more about the world around us and how we are changing it. In particular, I study organisms that live in the soil below your feet. Earthworms are my favourite soil organism because there are different kinds and they are very important in making soil. The work I do helps farmers to grow our food in ways that encourages more earthworms and microbes to live in the soil and provide important nutrients to plants and animals. This means that farmers can look after the soil and use less fertiliser and chemicals. I also do experiments in the laboratory to check if plastic rubbish is changing the soil and organisms like earthworms that live underground.”


Do you want to know even more about worms?

Watch this questions and answers session with Dr Miranda Prendergast-Miller.

Pop ups

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Pop ups

Share your knowledge of the natural world by creating pop up decorations

Overview


We like to show what we know about STEM in creative and imaginative ways. These pop ups will let you record your observations about animals and plants while developing your paper engineering skills.

All you need is card or paper, scissors, a pencil and felt tips, crayons or colouring pencils.



What to do


Step 1



First of all, think of an animal with a large mouth you want to create. Find a a photograph of that animal ready for later on. You may have a book or you could search online.

Now, fold your card or paper in half. Find about half way down the folded edge and draw a line about 5 cm long from the edge towards the centre. Cut on the line with your scissors.

Step 2



Use the snip you just made to fold one triangle upwards, and one downwards (like in the picture).

Now fold these flaps back into the centre and turn over your card. Fold your flaps in the same way again and then fold them back into the centre.

Step 3



Now the tricky bit! Hold your paper so it looks like a roof. Put your finger on the top triangle and push down. Pinch along all of the folds so that the triangle is pushed through to the other side of the paper.

Do the same with the bottom triangle. Your top and bottom triangle will now be pushed out to form a mouth inside your card.

Step 4



Open and close your card so it looks like you have a mouth that is talking or biting!

Now it is time to observe your animal photograph carefully and draw your animal around the mouth.



Things to discuss


Is your mouth the right size and shape for your animal?

How could you make your mouth bigger or smaller?

Do you need to change the position of your mouth?

How can you change the shape of your mouth?



Why do different animals have different mouths?

Take a look at the animals in the clip and think about what they eat.

The size and shape of some animal’s mouths is dependant on the size and shape of their teeth. Some animals are carnivores (meat eaters) and their teeth are designed to rip and slice food. Other animals are herbivores (plant eaters) and their teeth are designed to squash and grind food.

Have you chosen an animal with teeth? If so, is the animal you have chosen a carnivore or herbivore? What do you notice about its teeth?

Not all animals have teeth. Some have beaks and some swallow their food whole! Can you think of any examples? Try this quiz to find out more.



Other things to try

Make a mouth with teeth


Back in step 1, draw a jagged line instead of a straight line for your mouth and your animal will now have teeth!

Have a look at the way we have made our mouths different shapes and added teeth to some in the gallery below.



More STEM at Home



What you’ll need

  • Card or paper (A4 is easiest but any size will do)
  • Scissors
  • A pencil
  • Felt tips, crayons or colouring pencils
  • Photographs of animals and plants or the ability to search the internet for these

Duration

20 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 4 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Supervision: scissors can be sharp.
  • Glue can damage carpets.

Careers Link – Mechanical Engineer

If you enjoyed making paper mechanisms you might want to become a mechanical engineer.

Mechanical engineering jobs are all about solving problems and creating products to meet people’s needs.

For more pop ups and other activities involving simple mechanisms that you can try at home, visit our mechanical engineering page.

Evolution

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Loans Box: Evolution

Jane Goodall

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Scientist of the Week – Jane Goodall

Science For Families: Plants

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Plants

Science for Families: Activities to support the ‘Plants’ session

Science for Families: Pooters

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Hunting for Minibeasts

Science for Families: Activities supporting the ‘Pooter’ session

Think Week 2015

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Think Week 2015

Monday & Tuesday


Monday began as all good Mondays should: with a newspaper tower building competition. Our twenty-one Think Weekers met their group for the first time and came up with some inventive group names: The Botanists, The Test Monkeys, Team Lightning and The Physics Thinkers.

The tallest towers stood over 2m high and were able to support the mass of our daring plastic pig!

During the afternoon, we met our pet Spheros. These robotic spheres are controlled using iPads, and we built four intricate mazes which we then expertly navigated them around.

We delved further into the world of robotics on Tuesday and used Arduinos, servos, musical instruments and a mountain of glue to create a robotic orchestra.

In the afternoon, we explored the world of 3D design using TinkerCad. You can see our designs at our TinkerCad page.



Wednesday


I can think of nothing better to do on a Wednesday in July than visit the Centre for Life – so that’s just what we did.

We explored Life from top to bottom: we played on retro computer games and struggled with exactly how to hold the N64 controller in the Game On 2.0 exhibition. We watched the stars turn above our heads in the Planetarium. We discovered the wonderful world of spinning physics in the Science Show. We also learned how to use microscopes and pipettes in the Experiment Zone.

All in all, it was a fantastic day – we all marched back to Think Lab with huge smiles on our faces.

Thursday


On Thursday morning we explored the world of optics, using lenses to create camera obscuras and mirrors to make periscopes.

Our camera obscuras allowed us project an image onto a small screen inside a cardboard box. We also tried out some big camera obscuras too. By lunchtime we were able to look above, behind and all around with our adjustable periscopes.

During the afternoon we left the world of physics behind and headed into Exhibition Park for a spot of minibeast hunting. We used pooters and quadrats to search for and collect a wonderful variety of different minibeasts. Take a look at the gallery to see what we found. We also used USB microscopes to get up close and personal with the various bugs, beetles, worms and spiders we found.



Friday


Our last day!

Our morning was filled with Bubble Science. In the lab, we learned all about surface tension by dropping water onto pennies and creating milk fireworks. We blew some huge bubbles inside bubbles (inside bubbles inside bubbles…). We discovered antibubbles and made some of our own. Finally we went outside to blow some gigantic bubbles using our super-secret bubble mixture (recipe to the right) and bubble wands.

Forces and friction filled our afternoon and we designed and tested plasticine submarines. We learned the difference between static and kinetic friction and now know all about the Bloodhound Land Speed Record car.

We finished Think Week with some brilliant presentations to parents. Think Week was a fantastic success and the children were brilliant. Keep your eyes on the Think Physics website for more exciting opportunities.


Our not-top-secret-because-we-got-it-from-somewhere-else giant bubble recipe

5g Guar Gum

200ml Fairy Liquid (Original)

16g Baking Powder

4 litres of cold water

Mix the Guar Gum and the Fairy Liquid in a large bucket then gently add 4 litres of cold water. Stir the solution and add the baking powder. Next, go outside and blow some huge bubbles. Then tweet pictures of your bubbles to @thinkphysicsne

This recipe comes from NightHawkInLight. You can find his bubbles videos on YouTube here.

Tag Archive for: biology

GlaxoSmithKline

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GlaxoSmithKline

Who Are They?

What do Aquafresh toothpaste, Horlicks and Amoxil antibiotic all have in common?

They’re all products created and manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

GSK is a global pharmaceutical company which has been formed through the merger of lots of different companies.

There are three main areas of healthcare that GSK are involved in:

  • Researching and developing prescription medicines
  • Developing, producing and distributing vaccines in over 170 countries around the world
  • Manufacturing consumer health products
    • Over the counter medicines such as Night Nurse
    • Toothpaste and other oral health products
    • Skin health products
    • nutrition products such as Horlicks.

GSK have offices in more than 150 countries, a network of 86 manufacturing sites in 36 countries and large R&D centres in the UK, USA, Spain, Belgium and China. In the UK GSK employ around 16,000 people across 18 sites. One of their Research and Development sites is based in Barnard Castle in the north east of England.


Careers

With such a wide range of different products and brands, GSK have a wide range of careers available.  Some examples of possible roles:

  • Chemical engineers
  • Immunologists
  • Material scientists
  • Medicinal chemists
  • Doctors
  • Biochemists
  • Microbiologists
  • Cancer research specialists
  • Biologists
  • Lawyers
  • Statisticians
  • Automation engineer
  • Pharmacologists
  • Technicians – biology and chemistry
  • Accountants
  • Sales people
  • Brand developers and designers
  • IT specialists

Science and Maths links

Topics in science and maths that link to GSK and what the company does:

  • Particle model of matter
  • Acids and alkalise
  • Types of reactions
  • Cells
  • Organisms
  • Health, disease and dvelopment of medicines
  • Nutrition and digestion
  • Number
  • Probability
  • Statistics

Polyphotonix

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Employer: Polyphotonix


Diabetes and sight-loss

Over 320 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. For these people getting a good night’s sleep can contribute to sight-loss.

The cells in a normal retina (the back part of our eyes) adapt to darkness (for example when you close your eyes during sleep) by using additional oxygen from the blood.

However diabetic retinal cells don’t get enough blood flow during the night and therefore suffer from a lack of oxygen.  This can lead to sight-loss.

One way to avoid sight-loss is by preventing dark adaption of the diabetic eye by using light, or in other words, tricking the eye into thinking that it’s daytime even while you are asleep!


What is Polyphotonix?

Polyphotonix is a technology business which develops light treatments for retinal conditions using Organic Light Emitting Devices (OLED). This is the same technology used in mobile phones screens.

Unlike lightbulbs of the past, Light Emitting Diodes (LCDs) don’t get very hot and are more efficient, meaning they don’t waste as much electricity. They can also be made in tiny sizes, allowing them to be used in devices like flat screen televisions, laptops, and wrist watches.

Organic LEDs (OLEDs) can produce brighter light than ordinary LEDS, and they can be used to make light emitting surfaces that are ultra thin, less than 1/100th of the thickness of a human hair. They can also be made into very large flexible sheets which can be used to cover entire walls or ceilings.  These properties of OLEDs mean they can be used for more diverse applications than LEDs.

Polyphotonix has recently launched the Noctura 400 Sleep Mask. The mask uses OLEDs and is a non-invasive treatment for people with diabetes at risk of sight-loss. You can learn more about the mask by watching the video.



PolyPhotonix CEO, Richard Kirk, studied fine-arts in Scotland and worked abroad with fashion names such as Nina Ricci. In a complete career change, he returned to England and saw an opportunity working with OLED’s and their many potential applications in industry and medicine. You can hear him talking about the mask  and how it could save the NHS £1 billion compared to current pharmaceutical treatments on the following video:





This resource was produced as part of the FutureMe project.


Careers

Polyphotonix draws from a wide range of different career routes:

  • design engineer
  • software engineer
  • electronic and electrical engineer
  • mathematical modeller
  • quality systems engineer
  • test technician
  • data analyst
  • accountant
  • financial planner
  • sales and customer support
  • doctor

Science and Maths links

Topics in science and maths that link to Polyphotonics and what the company does:

  • Light
  • EM radiation
  • Electric circuits – current and voltage
  • Health and disease
  • Respiration
  • Organs (the eye)

Syngenta

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Oilseed Rape field By James Mason-Hudson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons


Employer: Syngenta


The Challenge

The population of the world is growing. To make sure everyone has enough food to eat, we need to be able to grow nutritious food and make sure it gets to where it’s needed. However, factors such as climate change, environmental damage and the increase in the number and size of cities mean it’s getting harder for farmers to grow sufficient food.



Who are Syngenta?

Syngenta is a biotechnology company based in Switzerland, with sites across the UK, including in Grangemouth, Manchester and Huddersfield. They sell seeds, and also develop pesticides – chemical compounds which protect crops from weeds, insects and disease, which hence help to improve crop yields and reduce the proportion of crops which are destroyed. They also use selective breeding to create varieties of plants and seeds that are naturally resistant to disease and insects, or that are better at coping with the effects of heat or cold.


“One third of all pansies in the world are Syngenta pansies”


They also sell turf, ornamental plants and flowers. Flowering plants aren’t just pretty to look at: they can help promote biodiversity by sustaining pollinating insects.

Syngenta researcher Dr Melloney Morris was filmed for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faces of Chemistry project. Three short films were produced:



(You’ll find other films here and here. They cover similar topics, but with slightly simpler and more A-level language respectively).




This resource was produced as part of the FutureMe project.


Careers

Syngenta is a very large company, with a wide range of different career routes:

  • environmental scientists
  • ecotoxicologists
  • bioscientists
  • biologists
  • toxicologists
  • plant pathologists
  • microbiologists
  • chemists
  • formulation chemists
  • process engineers
  • chemical engineers
  • construction and maintenance staff
  • civil and infrastructure engineers
  • data analysts
  • mathematical modellers
  • Accountants and financial planners
  • IT specialists including software engineers
  • Sales and customer support
  • quality assurance managers

Science and Maths links

Topics in science and maths that link to Syngenta and what the company does:

  • plant reproduction
  • biodiversity
  • ecosystems
  • photosynthesis
  • respiration
  • plant cells
  • eutrophication
  • nutrition
  • genetics

Tag Archive for: biology

Photosynthesis – Year 9

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