What Is A Desert?
Approximately one-third of the Earth's land surface is desert, arid land with meager rainfall that supports only sparse vegetation and a limited population of people and animals. Deserts are also fragile environments. The misuse of these lands is a serious and growing problem in parts of our world. This web page, produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, describes how deserts are defined and classified. It features text, photographs, and a map showing the distribution of non-polar arid land.
Sound Advice
Studying abroad can be one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences, as record numbers of international students are discovering at The University of Nottingham.
At the University you will get a truly world class education, in a culturally diverse environment, but where do you start?
Rosemary Gibson
Patricia Johnston Sings "I See the Sun"
This beautifully done video sings about the sun, moon, stars, ...Some of the lyrics include "I see the sun-a big round sun. I see the moon-a big round moon. I see the stars-the little, little stars---smiling just for me". These videos by Patricia Johnston were designed for young French children to begin to learn English. This is a great teaching resource for early childhood learners and/or special education students and would work well in conjunction with a unit on Earth and to help build backgr
Programme promoting international research begins
The director of the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany, Professor Klaus Kern, talks about collaboration with Warwick as he completes the first of a programme of visits by academics from across the world aimed at promoting international research across institutions and disciplines.
Obama - euphoria or relief?
An expert on the civil rights movement and Dr Martin Luther King, Professor Ling weighs up the significance of the inauguration for America, the world and the history books.
In this podcast Professor Peter Ling looks at the inauguration of Barack Obama as US President.
Upping the ante
Professor Stefan Wolff looks at the motives for this announcement and what implications it has for the region and for the rest of the world.
Professor Wolff is Professor of Political Science in the School of Politics and International Relations and Director of the Centre for International Crisis Management
In this podcast reaction to Russian plans to enhance military and "strategic nuclear" capabilities.
Science: from the lab to Second Life and across the world
We talk to Sue Stocklmayer from the Australian National University about the joys and pitfalls of international science communication; and to Rough Science's Dr Jonathan Hare about his research into Buckmeinsterfullerene. We also return to the SCHOME project (from Programme 5) and meet the students involved - in the real world! The interviews are recorded by OU staff and the programme is hosted by Dr Mike Bullivant, also from the OU/BBC television series Rough Science.
Lichen World 3 : Raw Data
This package contains the raw data sets that are used in the Biodiversity Simulator (found in the full version of 'Lichen World'), which samples the gravestones by 'throwing' quadrats of different sizes, and which provides data that are used to plot a variety of different species diversity indices and abundance models.
Background information is supplied on the area of Yorkshire and the churchyards where the original study was carried out.
The scanning electron microscope
This is a third edition of the Electron Microscopy and Analysis textbook, which was published by Taylor and Francis Books UK in 2001 (ISBN 0748409688). It deals with several sophisticated techniques for magnifying images of very small objects by large amounts - especially in a physical science context. Consisting of seven chapters, presented as separate files the resource incorporates questions and answers in each chapter for ease of learning. Equally as relevant for material scientists and bio
aluMATTER: Softening Mechanisms in Aluminium
Alloys that develop their shape and properties by cold-working often have to be re-softened at regular intervals before further deformation can take place. This selection of interactive Flash movies from the award-winning aluMATTER website available to download presents examples of softening including recovery, recrystallization & grain growth.
Biology of Water and Health
This course encourages and trains students to think outside the box when addressing water-related problems. Our interdisciplinary approach is designed, for example,to give the health professional an introduction to the engineering components involved in the provision of safe water and sanitation. While at the same time providing the engineer an ecological framework for understanding the place of water in health, it also gives a voice to the ways in which water is involved in social interactions,
Agent Based Modeling of Complex Adaptive Systems (Basic)
Our human society consists of many intertwined Large Scale Socio-Technical Systems (LSSTS), such as infrastructures, industrial networks, the financial systems etc. Environmental pressures created by these systems on Earth’s carrying capacity are leading to exhaustion of natural resources, loss of habitats and biodiversity, and are causing a resource and climate crisis. To avoid this sustainability crisis, we urgently need to transform our production and consumption patterns. Given that we, as
Geomatics
Our world is driven by information. Think about how much we use Google Earth, TomTom, GPS, and satellites. In our globalised world it becomes more and more important to have an overview. Geo-information is crucial for this and people who can deal with this information as well.
‘Geo-information’ – the geographical coordinates of buildings, roads, property boundaries, water pipes, and even trees – is considered as an essential resource by both government and industry, where it is consta
Peace Games: Prisoners of War
Play a game and find out about a Nobel Prize awarded discovery or work! Can people behave as they like during times of war? No, they can't. The Geneva Conventions of written rules and articles make some acts unlawful. Nearly all countries in the world have promised to follow these rules by signing up. The Red Cross ensures that these rules are followed. Among the Red Cross's tasks are to visit prisoners of war (POWs) who are protected by the Geneva Conventions, and provide them with assistance
How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People (Google Techtalks) Every open source project runs into people who are selfish, uncooperative, and disrespectful. These people can silently poison the atmosphere of a happy developer community.
What causes the different seasons (animation) Animation showing how seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis.
Chris Brown and Elmo Singing on Sesame Street Grammy nominated R&B singer, Chris Brown, jams with Sesame Street's Elmo in the duet "See The Signs".
Computer Science 273B: Kernel-Based Learning
This course introduces the students to one of the most influential developments in modern machine learning, namely kernel methods. The course will
be focused on familiarizing the student with a number of practical kernel-based algorithms (such as “support vector machines”, “kernel Fisher Discrimination”,
“kernel principal components analysis” and “Gaussian processes”) and a number of
techniques to construct kernels (such as ANOVA kernels, string kernels, graph kernels,
diffusio
What Do Civil Engineers Do?
This instructional unit will acquaint you with the many types of projects Civil Engineers will work on during their career. This unit will show you the large variety of projects and the satisfaction that accompanies such a diverse and rewarding occupation. To better understand the profession of Civil Engineering, let's listen to what one Civil Engineer has to say about her experience. As she explains her career, notice the variety of projects she has worked on and the satisfaction she feels by m
Strange Japanese Sea Creatures At the bottom of Japan's Suruga Bay lie strange and exotic creatures, including spider crabs (largest crabs in the world), chimeras and lantern sharks.
