New Horizons – the Pluto flyby
On Tuesday July 14th at 12:49 BST, the New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto, the ninth planet in our solar system. But why is it there and what is it looking for?
I am Not a Tourist, I Live Here – Mexico
“Why don’t you have a tan?” This is the question Dr Cath Andrews is always asked on returning home to the UK from Mexico. It seems that Mexico lives in the British imagination as a tourist destination, where the sun always shines and all residents must have time to sunbathe.
Cath explains that living in Mexico is very different to visiting as a tourist.
Water and Engineering – Water, Wonderful Life
Dr Lesley Beeton is a scientist, who studies what the DNA code tells us about human life and health. She has always loved science, and believes that science doesn’t just happen in laboratories. It happens all around us. Science keeps aeroplanes flying, electricity flowing, and the internet speedy.
Dr Beeton grew up in South Africa. Some of you may have traveled there for your holidays, to see the game reserves or Table Mountain. But even if you haven’t been there, we can all still learn something from the experiences of southern Africa.
What Makes a Family?
What does the word ‘family’ mean to you? It can mean many things in our society. Some define family as a mother, a father and one or more children. For others, there don’t need to be children in the home for there to be a family. Where there are children, about three quarters of the parents will be married to each other.
In 2013 the Office of National Statistics, which is a government body which takes surveys on all manner of topics to help the government make policy (rules under which we all live), found that there were 18.2 million people living in this type of family. Many more of us have families which have a different make-up. For the purpose of the survey, a family is defined as people living in the same household.
However, as many of you will know, there are other ways in which we describe our family. There are children who have two parents of the same gender, there are children who have only one parent with whom they live, other children have guardians and live with aunts, uncles or grandparents.