Fascinating question. Why Science? I dunno. It just seems like such a bottomless subject. Like Music. You never really get "good" at it,  just find yourself asking lots more questions. A good understanding of science is a good understanding of facts. We live in a world full of rubbish, cheap talk, internet gossip and blah blah blah.  Science is fact.  And we are learning more facts each and every day about ourselves, each other and the world around, under and above us.  I find all of this most interesting.  So yea, science.  

​- Brad Gross.

Ahh, geology. The science of time and pressure. What's under your bed? Stinky socks? Lego? Dust? And what's under that?  Pipes, electrical wires? And under that? Rock? Miles of it. And under that?!?!?! A ball of magnetic molten magma. Next time you are on the internet, type in the word PANGEA. It's a word to describe when all the continents on earth were one big land mass. One big party. Then, as the earth cooled and spun, the continents, floating on a sphere of molten lava, started to spread out. Scientists called this GONDWANA. As they floated around (and they are still floating around, and moving) they create earthquakes, and volcanoes.  This type of earth science is called Plate Tectonics. India was floating around, and smashed into Central Asia, thus creating the Himalayas. As the cracks between the plates moooovvvveee, they occasionally let some of the magma seep out, oops. The plates push together and form a point, and the lava comes out, creating new land. The earth is covered with active volcanoes. Some people still live very close to them. Ask the folks in Pompeii if they are worried. They were when they got buried in ash, preserved for eternity. If you want to get up close to a volcano, learn more about geology, and take a few courses. Then go on a field trip to an active volcano, and take a whiff of a real crack in the earths bottom. You'll be glad you did.  

- Brad Gross.

Wolffia is the smallest plant in the world (nothing at all to do with the Wolf!) They are incredibly small, just a bit bigger than a grain of sand each. But they grow in big numbers together so it’s easy to see them. It grows on water so if you dipped your hand in it would look something like the picture above.
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And the best thing about these plants? They are edible! And quite nutritious. They are eaten in parts of Asia and you could probably fit around 100,000 plants inside your mouth at once. That’s a pretty good way of getting your ‘5 a day’ vegetables I think. I can’t promise it will taste nice.
 
- Ivan Teage.

‘General Sherman’ is the biggest tree in the world. Yes, it has its own name and is a ‘Giant Sequoia’ tree which is almost 1500 cubic meters in volume. That is the same size as 10 double decker buses or 1000 cows; or about 50 times the size of your bedroom. It is also 84 metres high, which is nearly as tall as Big Ben in London but not quite.
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It all depends how you measure ‘big’ of course!  There are taller trees (some are 115m high), and there are wider trees, but this one is probably overall the biggest and heaviest.  There were probably bigger trees in the past, and there may be a bigger tree out there somewhere still (let us know if you find it!).

- Ivan Teage.

The liquid iron outer core of the Earth is in constant motion due to convecting heat and the rotation of the planet. This causes the magnetic field to move and shift around. Roughly every million years the magnetic field flips entirely about 4 or 5 times, so that the north and south poles swap places. The last one took place about 780,000 years ago during the Stone Age.

We see evidence for this in the new crust that is created between tectonic plates as they move apart. The mid-ocean ridge in the floor of the Atlantic Ocean shows many field reversals, with magnetic patterns in the hardened lava showing the history of the Earth’s magnetic field.

There seems to be a reduction in the magnetic field at present, suggesting that a reversal may take place in the next couple of thousand years. A reversal happens gradually and so would go largely unnoticed. There is no scientific consensus as to the effects that would be experienced. With the weaker magnetic field providing less protection to Earth, it is possible that the effects of the solar wind may be stronger. This might cause holes in the Earth’s ozone layer and increase the rates of skin cancer. However, the atmosphere would still provide considerable protection and so it is also possible that these effects may be minimal.

Some animals, such as pigeons, bees and whales, are thought to use the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation. It is therefore theoretically possible that they may become disorientated at this time. However, the slowness of the reversal may also mean that individuals are able to adapt.
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- Catherine Bell