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!!!