Science never really appealed to me at school. Why and, yet more astonishingly, how did the teachers manage to make it so dull? Bill Bryson, in his book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' suggests it's because the teachers never delved into whys, hows and whens."It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable."
So when I began talking to Brook Lapping's director, Jim Franks, about graphics for their educational film, 'Life Support Systems', it didn't take long to establish that my scientific knowledge is sparse, to say the least. A little investigation uncovered a number of general science titles professing to 'explain science in ordinary language' - an increasingly popular genre - and I can personally recommend John Carey's 'The Faber Book of Science'. Some of the chapters about atoms and protons were over and above my poor little brain; one book hasn't turned me into a science champion but I did feel very clever reading it on the tube.
The film examines the conditions which make Earth so fitting for life compared with the effects Space has on the human body. ESA's project, called Melissa, aims to replicate Earth's self-sustaining features in Space to enable us to venture further away for longer periods of exploration.
The graphics helped explain the whys, hows and whens of processes such as the hydrological cycle, blood-flow and how Earth is the perfect distance from the Sun. The film was broadcast on Teachers TV for secondary schools across Europe.
