Step-by-step laboratory practicals for IB, IGCSE & GCSE Science
Author: marccurran
Welcome to this week's roundup of science stories making waves around the world. From a 600-million-year-old "cyclops" ancestor that may explain why your eyes look the way they do, to the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, this week's stories span 600 million years of biology, the slow tearing apart of a continent, brain-inspired computing, and a literary discovery hidden inside an Egyptian mummy. Let's dive in.
From electrons that flow like water inside graphene, to printed neurons that can talk to living brain cells, this week has been packed with discoveries that blur old boundaries — between physics and chemistry, biology and engineering, and even between the artificial and the alive. Here are six stories worth sharing in the lab, the classroom and the staffroom.
From a black hole erupting like a cosmic volcano to a 300-million-year case of mistaken identity, this week's science news spans the universe — and the microscope. We've got breakthroughs in weight loss, male contraception, whale conservation, and even the secrets hidden in your DNA
From a single injection that restores hearing to an AI system that thinks 100 times more efficiently, this week’s science stories are full of surprises. We also visit Mars, peer inside the ageing brain, watch ancient carbon spill from melting permafrost, and discover how sugarcane might save your teeth.
Catalase is one of the most efficient enzymes known, breaking down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen at rates of up to 40 million reactions per second. In this investigation, you will measure how the rate of catalase activity changes as substrate concentration increases, generating a Michaelis-Menten curve and allowing calculation of the maximum reaction velocity (Vₘₐˣ) and the Michaelis constant (Kₘ). This is a fully quantitative IB Biology HL Internal Assessment investigation. This practical is suitable for IB Diploma Biology HL and Edexcel IGCSE Biology.
The simple pendulum is one of the most studied systems in classical mechanics. By measuring how the period of oscillation changes with pendulum length, you can determine the local gravitational field strength g with remarkable precision from a school laboratory. The relationship T² ∝ L produces a clean linear graph whose gradient directly yields g, making this an ideal IB Physics IA for demonstrating rigorous uncertainty analysis. This practical is suitable for IB Diploma Physics HL and SL and Edexcel IGCSE Physics.