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The effects of impeller size, agitation and aeration on the rate of yeast growth were investigated using bench-top bioreactors. This exercise, carried out over a six-month period, served as an effective demonstration of the importance of different operating parameters on cell growth and provided a means of determining the optimisation conditions for biomass production. The project involved collaboration with a research student at University College London and provided the team of young school students (age range 16-18 years) with an excellent experience of academic and industrially relevant research, embracing many of the elements associated with working in the field of biochemical engineering: this was one of the principal objectives of the exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textbooks for GCE Advanced Level Biology have provided over-simplified and inaccurate accounts of Charles Darwin's contribution to the study of evolution over a period of many decades. They have credited him with field skills and insight that he did not possess, and repeated several historical inaccuracies. Darwin's strength was as a synthesiser of information but, at least in his early life, he was not a particularly observant or careful field biologist. The specimens collected on his voyage on HMS Beagle were largely identified and analysed by others, but this is rarely acknowledged. This article criticises the historical accuracy of the treatment of Darwin and his ideas in a range of A-level textbooks, and notes a worrying absence of references to Darwin in current A-level Biology specifications and some texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the sciences, biology has probably made the most rapid progress in recent years and the need for this to be reflected In a new Advanced Level biology course has long been recognised in the UK. After wide-ranging consultation and successful piloting in over 50 schools and colleges in England and Wales, the new Salters- Nuffield Advanced Biology (SNAB) course will have its national roll out in September 2005. SNAB is taught through real-life biological contexts such as heart attacks, golden lion tamarin conservation, keyhole surgery and optical illusions. It employs a wide range of styles which help students develop such essential and transferable skills as data analysis, critical evaluation of information, communication and collaborative work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]