Science: resources for teachers

Special thanks to Dr Clara Nellist for making the time to hop on a call with me and brave the outside conditions above the LHC. 

What if you could turn the same material into a conductor, insulator, magnet, or even a superconductor just by twisting it? Meet magic angle graphene, where a tiny 1.1° twist creates a whole new world of physics. The material is carbon, the same stuff found in a pencil, but its properties can become extraordinary.

Gigantic black holes existed in a cosmic eyeblink after the Big Bang. That should be impossible. The James Webb Space Telescope has either made the problem much worse, or solved it by discovering the first Black Hole Star.

Buffer stops and bumping posts are hidden in plain sight
As long as we rely on rail, the "simple" physics of stopping will always be a complex balancing act.

With the digital age comes the scramble for minerals below us and the scramble to master the heavens above us. Donald Trump wants a thousand rocket launches a year… and with SpaceX’s reusable modules leading the way, the United States towers over the competition. It’s why for instance Ukraine’s president has to beg Elon Musk to use his Starlink low orbit satellite system to take out the Russian cruise missile launchers.

Americans really hate data centers. But would they be more in favor of them if they were in space? Maybe … But no one has figured out how to pull it off (yet), and it would come with its own set of trade-offs. 

A leading safety researcher at the AI developer Anthropic has warned he believes there is a greater than 10% chance it "could kill all humans" within the next decade.

@Chemteacherphil helps NOVA investigate how simple electrochemistry transforms this plastic pouch into a delicious Mexican rice bowl. 

We thought we were the main characters. Enter Copernicus?

Londoners are able to hail the UK's first robotaxis - as Uber today becomes the first company to launch a self-driving minicab.

Initially, it only has 15 autonomous vehicles with a licence to operate in the city, and each one must have a human safety driver behind the wheel ready to take control if anything goes wrong.

Uber said it surveyed London-based customers via the app and more than 100,000 said they would choose a self-driving taxi if one was available, despite incidents of driverless rides malfunctioning in US cities where they already operate.

The Ig Nobel Prizes, the satirical awards that celebrate the quirky side of science, were held outside the US for the first time this year due to travel concerns. Researchers from around the world, many in costume, travelled to collect their awards from actual Nobel laureates, for research ranging from cockroaches worn on heads to nose-blowing, kissing cavemen and buried underwear.

We explore one of modern science’s greatest mysteries: the invisible majority of the universe. We reveal how dark matter and dark energy—together making up about 95% of everything that exists—shape galaxies, bend light, and control the expansion of space, despite never being directly observed. Through cosmic discoveries and mind-bending theories, the film uncovers what we know, what we don’t, and how solving this cosmic puzzle could transform our understanding of reality itself.

Spend two hours exploring the strange, counterintuitive world of quantum mechanics, where particles can exist in multiple states, reality becomes uncertain, and observation itself seems to matter. We’ll break down some of the biggest ideas in quantum physics—from wave functions and superposition to entanglement, uncertainty, and the nature of measurement. By the end, you may not completely understand quantum mechanics—but you’ll understand why nobody else completely does either.

What are time crystals? How do scientists make one on a quantum computer?

Tech Now's Lily Jamali goes behind the scenes at a California company racing to replace the International Space Station.

Professor Meghan Gray discusses telescope data and the most observed patch of space.

How can you use an infrared camera to see through walls? To inspect the scene of a crime? To catch a thief in hiding?! This cool device attaches to your smartphone and has an infrared/visible light camera combo that allows you to see the details of an object AND its temperature. It's physics!

US President Trump says “The Moon is ours” as leaders from Europe’s space industry meet in Paris to discuss how to advance the continent’s ambitions. Chief Director for Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation Victoria Samson explains the new space race, military risks, private power and whether Europe can compete.

A top safety researcher at Anthropic has warned AI is advancing so quickly he believes there is a greater than 10% chance it "could kill all humans" within the next decade.

What if science class felt less like studying out of a textbook and more like an unforgettable field trip? From viral glitter-bomb traps to backyard engineering marvels, former-NASA-engineer-turned-YouTuber Mark Rober has spent years proving that curiosity is contagious — and that the best way to teach science is to make it impossibly fun. In conversation with TED's Whitney Pennington Rodgers, Rober shares how play, wonder and a healthy dose of mischief can transform the way kids learn ... and gives a peek inside his plan to bring magic to every classroom in America. 

Physics says the center of the universe is everywhere and nowhere at once. But a controversial cosmic alignment has scientists asking difficult questions.

Is Earth the center of the universe? Is there a center of the universe at all? Physics relies on the idea that there isn’t – but some strange evidence that suggests our place in the cosmos may not be as ordinary as we thought.

Europe has built satellites, funded space agencies, and developed cutting-edge technology for decades. But it has relied on others to launch missions. That may be changing. German startup Isar Aerospace has made European space history, launching its Spectrum rocket from Norway. It’s the first commercial company to reach orbit from continental Europe. But how significant is this breakthrough? And what does it have to do with Donald Trump? We're joined by aerospace engineer and space industry veteran Claudia Kessler, founder of "Astronautin" and a longtime advocate for Germany's role in space exploration.

AI Decoded breaks down the extraordinary scenes from the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, where robotic athletes broke world records, boxed, danced and sometimes spectacularly failed in front of a global audience.

China now produces around 90% of the world's humanoid robots and is investing heavily in what it calls "embodied AI". But despite remarkable advances in hardware, many experts believe the biggest obstacle isn't engineering at all. It's intelligence.

Scientists studying how light bulbs worked accidentally opened the door to the strange world of quantum physics — a realm where particles can be in many places at once, probability rules, and reality seems to exist only when observed. Einstein rejected this idea and argued that quantum theory had a hidden flaw. His challenge was largely dismissed until the 1960s, when physicist John Bell showed how to test whether Einstein or quantum mechanics was right. This experiment asks a profound question: does reality exist on its own, or do we bring it into being by observing it?