If you weren't sat down on a chair you would fall down. This is because you and the earth are attracted to each other. This attraction is called gravity. About four and a half billion years ago gravity caused a lot of matter to come together and the Earth was formed.

Four and a half billion years is not a length of time which I, you, or anyone else can really grasp. Let's suppose that four and a half billion is twenty four hours. So the Earth was created 24 hours ago at midnight. It is now the next midnight.

About three and a half billion years ago, or about 3 in the morning, life burst onto the scene. No one knows how life started. At this time life stayed very small, consisting of one, or just a few cells. There were, however, lots of them. What is a cell? Its a bit like a blown up balloon, or a soap bubble, but with a lot of activity inside.

Nothing much happened for two billion years or so, except that life continued. At this time groups of cells started getting together to live as little animals. These were still very small and primative in comparison to the life you see around you. No one knows why this change happened.

(Potential 2nd level pages 143-147 Freeddom Evolves by Daniel C Dennett)

(Potential rewording: Simple cells eventually produced complex cells which eventually produced multicelluar organisms, which then produced the complex macroscopic world we live in.)

It would have been very difficult to see anything happening, but there were some very slow processes happening. If you could visit the Earth at that time you would need special breathing apparatus to breath. Life in the form of small collections of cells was slowly changing the contents of the atmosphere. The land was also moving, as it still is. The continent on which you stand is moving, but so slowly you don't notice except that mountains, such as the Himilarys are the result of two bits of land grinding into each other. Earthquakes result from this slow meeting of slabs of land becoming sudden.

The combinations of cells was getting bigger leading to some cells functions becoming specialised within a larger set.

By about 525 million years ago, or 2 hours and 50 minutes ago, a large number of different cell collections, or animals, had appeared. New sorts of animals suddenly appeared. Although this probably occurred over many millions of years it is called the Cambrian explosion. These animals survived and changed (you don't look like your parents so a change has occurred). By about 200 million years ago, or just over an hour ago, animals that we call dinosaurs were the dominent life forms. They were not the only life on land; there were also small mamals.

These dominated life until about 65 million years ago, about half an hour ago. They may have been dying out at this time, but their extinction was sealed. The Earth was not the only planet that was formed 4.5 billion years ago. Around this time all the other planets, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Venus and before these the sun. But not all the matter floating around the solar system congregated into these. There were rogue rocks. One of these crashed into the Earth, near what we call Mexico today, 65 million years ago causing such immense damage over the whole of the Earth that its effects lasted for many years. The dinosaurs couldn't adapt to the changed environment. Nor could a lot of other life. 90% of life died out. This had happened before but life somehow recovered.

This recovery also occurred after the dinosaurs died out. Insects, wasps, flowers, birds, trees, and mamals became part of the landscape. Each of these continued to change over time, Eventually apes, bonobos, gorillas came about. Human beings evolved from a common ancestor of these. The how, why, and when of this change are still being debated as new evidence is still being found and these questions may never be resolved. The only agreement is that human beings came into existance in Africa. It took many hundreds of thousands of years, possibly millions, for this new species to develop all the characteristics we associate with ourselves.

Potential second level topics.

• Early Earth - creation, potential life starting points, asteroid effects, atmosphere content changes, climate changes - ice ages, magnetic pole reversals
• Era naming
• Types of rock
• Super continents and weather effects
• History/science of Mexico asteroid
• Paleaontology - history of human development
• History of Earth's age becoming known

Following from page A19368354.

So we came into existance and eventually spread all over this planet of ours. When, and how, we spread is yet another unresolved question. Some scientists say there were 3 times we spread out beyond Africa, some say just once. We don't yet have the evidence to fully support either of these possibilities.

We may have existed as a separate species for as long as a minute but until just ten thousand years ago, or just 5 seconds ago, we lived as hunters and gatherers. That is, we took what nature gave us in the form of nuts, berries, fruit and animals. Since we were hunters we helped animals to their deaths so that we could eat.

We did not get to this time on our own. There were plenty of other animals around including wolfs, lions, cows and sheep. There were also plant life such as trees, grasses, and rice. The bacteria that was around 2 billions years ago had also evolved and found new types of places to live, one of which is us. Our stomachs are full of bacteria which helps us digest food. There are many different types living on our skin. We probably couldn't continue to live without them.

About 6000 years ago we developed or discovered agriculture. Why, or how, this happened is yet another unresolved question. This may have happened in several places at once: the Golden Crescent, India, and China, or it may have started in one place and spread. The place we know most about is the Golden Crescent, which is in the area of Bagdad in what we know today as Irag. Its this area, and spread of civilisation from here that we will concentrate on, largely because we have more knowledge about it, not because nothing was changing elsewhere. This is the beginning of civilisation.

Agriculture caused groups of people to gather together all year around, since they were depending upon the results of a fixed part of the earth. They were trying to control nature, rather than using what nature offered. This resulted in a separation of responsibilities, a requirement for greater organisation, and thus a need for leadership and decision making. As a consequence a hierachy of control evolved, the person at the top being given a title, often the word 'king' being used.

From the Golden Crescent our story moves to Egypt and the river Nile. This is the land of pyramids, pharohs, and the Sphinx. This civilisation lasted several thousand years. It was based on the agricultural productivity that the river Nile provided. The organisation to keep everyone fed throughout the year resulted in the use of numbers to record produce and measurement of land. The rules, or laws, needed to maintain order resulted in the origin of writing down language. Any large organisation has influence outside of the organisation for both good and bad reasons so the Egyptian civilisation had a wide infulence outside its immediate boundaries.

The influence we perceive as a good influence looking back from now shifted from Egypt to Greece. Greek influence lasted from about 2500 to about 1800 years ago. The Greeks were the first to organise themselves along democratic lines, although their version of democracy was very different to that we enjoy today. It was during the Greek period that mathematics became a subject of importance. The Pythogorean theorem being the most famous. Greek geometric discoveries still have important uses today. Their ideas on scientific thought, philosophy, medicine and mathematics went almost unquestioned until the last 2 or 3 hundred years.

Potential second level topics.

• geographical spreading
• stone age/bronze age
• Neanderthals
• Hunter/gatherers
• Golden Crescent - early days
• grass to wheat domestication
• Egyptian civilisation
• Greek civilisation
• Greek thought - democracy/theatre/philosophy/science/gods

Following from A19406603

As the Greek influence was declining the Roman empire was gaining. Based in Rome, Italy they at one time controlled vast geographical areas, including for a couple of hundred years most of England. The greatest legacy of the Roman empire was, arguably, the use of Latin as the language used for intellectual and political discourse. It was only about 300 hundrd years ago that local languages began to become prevalent for these functions.

As Rome lost its influence and withdrew its armies of occupation Europe slipped into what are called the Dark Ages. The name arises from our lack of detailed information and the belief that no progress occurred during this period.

The Dark Ages gave way to the Middle Ages which are better documented. Greater political control over larger geographical areas was the key feature leading to the beginnings of the idea of nations. It was at this time that the acceptance of Greek ideas was first questioned.

Another named period is the Renaissance. Based in what is now part of southern Italy this period is best known for its artistic, in particular painting, output. What is less known is that this artistic output was a result of close interaction of technology, art, and mathematics. New painting materials were discovered. The idea of perspective, which gives a three dimension feel to two dimensional painting is use of mathematics. (The camera obscurer may have been invented and used at this time.)

From the Middle Ages onwards many wars were fought, both between nations and within nations, for a variety of reasons. Apart from dying and other inconveniences these had little impact on the majority of the population. The power and prosperity of the ruling classes both grew and diminished.

In the early part of the Middle Ages over a period of about 150 years there was a recurrent plague which killed a significant part of the population. This was caused by a form of life called viruses although they weren't even suspected to exist until the late 19th centuary. It wasn't until the mid 20th centuary that it was confirmed they exist. They cause colds, flu, and other diseses. Modern medicine has produced vaccinations for the more serious ones which enhance our natural ability to fight viruses.

During the latter part of this period, about 300 to 350 years ago, the ideas of a movement called the Enlightenment occurred. The basic idea was that we can and should think rationally only. The intent was that there was no room for superstition or emotion. The idea of the individual having inherent rights was also born by this movement.

Together, the Renaissance and Enlightenment may have been the cause of some well off people devoting their lives to investigating nature by experiment. Thus modern science was born. It was during these times that two key ideas arrived in Europe from India via Middle Eastern Arab intellectuals. The first was the symbols, and their use, that we now use for numbers. The second was the idea of zero and its symbol, 0, being used in written numbers. Together these made numbers significantly easier to understand and manipulate.

The nineteenth centuary saw science and technology rapidly progress, leading to a population both using and dependant upon manufacturing, a significant change from being largely dependant upon agriculture.

The 19th centuary doesn't appear to have been a good time for the majority of the British population. The change from mainly agricultural work to factory and city life was not an entirely smooth transition. There were some exceptions, two of whom I'll mention. Darwin, by dint of hard work, came up with the idea of evolution (which we've touched on). The age of the Earth slowly begun to be seen as older and older, although 4 and a half billion had to wait until the 20th centuary. Darwin had it relatively easy since he came from a well off family. Faraday came from a poor family, got very little schooling, and became a book binder. Somehow he developed a passion for science becoming first a lowly assistant, basically a bottle washer, for the British Association of Science(?). Through dedication, hard work, curiosity, and creativity he rose to the top. Along the way he discovered that magnetism and electricity were intimately linked together. All the power you use via electricity is the result. Not having a good education meant that he wasn't mathematically minded. Many years later James Clerk Maxwell created a set of maths equations that describe eletromagnetism as it became known. It soon became known that light, radio waves, X rays were all forms of electromagnetism.

Potential second level topics.

• Roman Empire - overview
• Dark Ages
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance
• Overview of national/international wars/politics from 1500 to now
• Arabic influences
• Enlightenment - more detailed overview
• Well remembered topics - Reformation/English civil war/French revolution/slavery/Napolean to 1850ish
• Victorian society

Following from A19407503

Last centuary, the 20th, saw technology progress at an unprecented rate. It also include two major wars, involving the majority of the worlds nations. Both these wars were caused by nations wanting to extend their particular views on the rest of the world by force. This led to the development, and only use, of atomic bombs. Whilst it is claimed that there has been peace since the end of the second world war this a view from Europe and North America's point of view. It has been estimated that 1000 soldiers and 5000 civilians have died as a result of conflicts EVERY day since.

The technology of the 20th centuary has seen the arrival of fridges, sanitation, fast international travel, television, and faster and faster world wide communication amoung other things. Most of these have been of benefit to Europe and North America with technology only recently penetrating the rest of the world.

The 20th centuary also saw the move from absolute rulers to rule by agreement, democracy, being extened to include all people. For example the last European democracy to allow women to vote was Switzeland in 1968. But again this development has largely applied to the Western world only.

Since about 400 years ago technology and science have developed hand in hand, sometimes technology leading to new science, sometimes science leading to new technology. The most recent developments in technology, notably PCs and mobile phones, would not have been possible without prior science and mathematics.

So, what is the status of our scientific knowledge?

Potential second level topics.

• More detailed overview of 20th centuary

Following from A19409754

First, what is science? We have been using the idea of science for many thousands of years. For example, we used to eat by finding nuts, berries, and fruit. When we had found one fruit that was good, that is, tasted good and didn't make us ill, how did we go about repeating the process. That is, finding the same type of fruit again. We compared a new fruit with the one that was good for us. Did the new fruit look the same as the good one? That is, we were comparing patterns. Was the new fruit similar to the good fruit? Science is the process of finding, describing, and understanding patterns, both the obvious, such as fruit to fruit, and the hidden patterns. The understanding part of the process involves questions such as: does this pattern occur elsewhere: what does this pattern imply: is there a connection between this pattern and another one.

Art, beauty, and science are intimately linked. Patterns appeal to us because they are generally good for us; that appeal is called beauty;art appeals to us as beauty bcause it reproduces patterns; the study of patterns is called science. It takes creativity to produce good art; it takes creativity to recognise and understand patterns.

So where are we in our study of patterns?

Over the course of time we've used stones, then metals in various improving combinations to help us manipulate nature. When we have found a useful combination we have reproduced it by recognising the pattern of activity that produced it and repeating that process. Eventually tools were developed that enabled us to look for the undelying patterns. We found that some things could be separated, but there is a limit to this separation process. Those things that cannot be further broken down are called elements. There are 92 naturally occurring elements.

Gold is an example of an element. Can we keep dividing a piece of gold into ever smaller pieces? No. There is a smallest piece of gold which is called an atom of gold. Each element has an associated atom of that element. Atoms are very small. They are so small that its their effects that first gave scientists the clues that they existed.

Fllowing is from A19552809

It turns out that atoms have an internal structure. While the structure of, say, a gold atom is similar to the structure of a copper atom there are differences so that different types of atom can combine with each other. The rules for how they combine are understood. However, these rules are complex, so far exceeding our ability to predict, with certainty, all the posibilities or the characteristics of combinations. The study of the creation, use, and characteristics of combinations is called chemistry. Almost everything you see, touch, or taste is the result of chemical combinations.

Need example of chemistry in gas, liquid and solid. Maybe a combination. Certainly no text book formulae but something that get the complexities, excitement, and some unknowns across.

Possibly: When rust appears on a metal it is the result of oxygen in the air around you combining with iron.

Other potential topics/thoughts for chemistry are:

• chemistry is the intermediate step between physics and biology
• 
  chemistry is the result of physical proceswses - being able to explain chemistry in terms of physics is one way of demonstrating that our understanding of physics is accurate
• 
  boilogy is the result of chemical processes
• You, and almost everything that affects you, are, at least in part, a result of chemical reactions - the purity of water, the way beer comes about, the drugs you take, even your attraction to a particular girl
• Look up the BZ reaction and just as importantly its history
• Look up carbon buckyballs and its history
• Look up chemical gradients in embryo development
• These will show you the interesting and fun part of chemistry.
  (I'm not internet savvy, so please post links if you find the info on the net)
• (For the down side look up Midgley)

A few outstanding problems in chemistry (or related to) (accuracy not guarenteed)

• prediction of chemical compound properties
• origin of life
• complete description of a burning candle
• molecular computers/storage
• macro/nano size property differences
• water/DNA interaction
• petrolium replacement(s)
• high temperature superconductors
• cloud formation
• gravity versus weightless compound production
• protection from oxygen( rusting)
• simple/cheap/safe drugs
• solar panel efficiency
• water purification

Chemical combinations can be very extensive. The most complex we know of are those that produce life. That is, you, me, worms, trees, fish, and insects. The study of life is called biology. Life comes in cells. Cells are a bit like soap bubbles. They have an outer skin. When the cell is living there is a vast amount of chemical activity going on inside. All this activity is directed at ensuring that the cell continues to do its job. When activity stops the cell dies. Often there is purpose to the dying. For example, your bones and your skin are made of millions and millions of dead cells. When a large number of different types of cells are working together they produce complex life forms such as ourselves. We, and others such as elephants, grass, snails, ant are this exception. Most life comes in small groups of very similar cells; these are called bacteria or sometimes microbes. It is this type of life that first existed on Earth 3.5 billion years ago.

More details on cells e.g. DNA, nuleus, embryo development as the theme(?) Possibly:

When a sperm enters an egg, which is a large cell, a new body starts to be built. This act brings together two strands of DNA. DNA is a long chain of chemicals. Like the words on this page it is the order of these chemicals that is important; they are the instructions that tell the cell what to do. A lot is known about how DNA works but even more remains to be understood. Chemical gradients-differentiation-symmetry.

A cell has previously been described as like a soap bubble with a lot of activity inside. Another anology that has been extensively used else where is that of a dynamic, fast changing, city. Like a city it has fixed roads for transporting traffic (in this case collections of chemicals called proteins), but a cell also destroys and rebuilds roads rapidly. There is a boundary out through which rubbish is sent and in through which, sustanance, energy, and raw material is imported. There are many factories producing items useful to keeping the cell healthy and fulfilling its functions. There is a city council which is even more complex, mysterious, and corruptable than your local government. The major component of the council is DNA. Each creature, human, cow, grass, or fish has its own individual DNA which is applicable to all its different cell types. This is called its genome. Each different type of cell uses a subset of the relevant genome to direct its function and maintenance.

• Which subset? - no one knows
• Interactions within the subset? - not well known
• How can it go wrong? - not well known
• How to repair failures? - not understood
• There is apparently a lot of unused instructions - are they important? Belief in this varies
• How is the subset indentified for a particular type of cell? - no one knows

All types of life exist on the Earth. How they exist, work together, or compete is called ecology.

Ecology is affected by the earth beneath our feet. A lot of what is under our feet used to be alive. Chalk hills used to be small animals floating in the sea. Oil, from which we get petrol, and coal almost certainly started out as trees. It took many millions of years for the change to happen. Sedimentary rocks formed from debris on sea beds, again taking millions of years.

Some concrete examples needed e.g nitrogen-wroms-crops, bird migration, stomach bacteria-digestion.

Medicine

Following is from A19553187

Whats above our heads? First there is the air we breath; above that is space. At night you can see the moon and stars. Some of what look like stars don't move in the same way. These are the other planets which together with the Sun and the Earth make up the solar system. All the planets were formed at the same time as the Earth. A lot of the stars are just like our Sun but are an immense distance away. Some of what look like stars are galaxys; these are groups of millions of stars. To look like stars they must be even further away. The light that comes from these stars has a speed; it travels at almost 300,000 kilometres every second. The light from the nearest star takes 4.5 years to get to us. So we are seeing it as it was 4.5 years ago. Space is big so distances are measured in light-years. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, Our best telscopes can see to about 10 billion light years. We think that the universe, that is everything, has been evolving for about 14 billion years.

Lets go back to where we started this brief look at science: elements. When the universe started it mainly consisted of hydrogen and a little bit of helium. Our bodies are made of many different elements. Where did these elements come from? They were created by stars exploding. So we are made from stars.

(Electromagnetism needs including somewhere, relativity should be included)

(More detail? Latest knowledge? Outstanding questions?)

We are dependant on technology and that technology comes from science and our scuentific knowledge appears to be immense. This appearance of vast knowledge is an illusion. A detailed look at medicine, ecology, biology, and chemistry and their failure to be 'well' used demonstartes this illusion. An example is aspirin whoose effects are still not fully understood (Ref Aspirin by Diarmuid Jeffreys). Another is viruses.

Are these outstanding questions part of the wow factor?

Another Objective

This top level should, with as few exceptions as possible, explain the very latest knowledge e.g. maths --- beauty of,fratals,chaos: astronomy - dark matter/energy: physics - relativity, standard model of matter/forces, liquid crystals: chemistry - ?: biology - ?: ecology - climate change(?)

(Wheres the wow factor?)

How have we managed to find out all this scientific information? Experiment and logical thinking, quite often using mathematics to lead our logical thinking. (Expand)

There are a number of changes I would make to the above such as including the science bits along the way, rather than at the end.

At one lesson a day, the whole of this context could easily be included in the first two terms of secondary school.

Whilst I don't think I have misrepresented any knowledge I would like 'expert' confirmation.

This is the last page!!!