The OpenScience Laboratory

An initiative of The Open University and The Wolfson Foundation

This online laboratory brings interactive practical science to students anywhere and anytime the internet is available. The laboratory features investigations based on on-screen instruments, remote access experiments and virtual scenarios using real data. Several activities are available to all, while others are available only to registered users.

Come in and look around.

Lab tour

If you close this box, you can still see it at any time by clicking About from the main header above.

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Popular experiments

  • Maps and landforms

    Subject Env Earth

    Learn how to interpret maps and how to use a compass.

    Time required 1 hour
    Open to the public

  • Histology & histopathology

    Subject Bio Health

    A collection of 320 annotated slides covering basic histology and histopathology.

    Time required 1-15 hours
    Open to the public

  • The Digital Geology Kit

    Subject Earth Env

    View mineral, rock and fossil specimens in high-quality images and videos.

    Time required 10 min - 10 h
    Open to the public

All experiments (filtered; page 1 of 5)

  • Optical Microscope

    Subject Gen Bio Earth Env

    Remote access to microscope loaded with demonstration slides: rock thin-section, beetle, plant stem (x2) and fruit fly's wing.

    Time required 5 min - 1 h
    Open to the public

  • Hominid skull evolution

    Subject Bio Earth Env

    Explore the features of a collection of hominid skulls and take measurements that will enable you to determine the evolutionary relationships between them, investigating the march of bipedalism through the fossil record.

    Time required
    Open to the public

  • Blue Planet II labcasts

    Subject Earth Env

    Catch-up recordings of live interactive broadcasts

    Time required
    Open to the public

  • Quantitative PCR analysis

    Subject Bio Chem

    Real time PCR, human CYP2D6 gene variants, gene copy number, controls, population analysis.

    Time required 1 hour
    Open to the public

  • Sorting out soils

    Subject Env Bio Chem

    Examine the physical and chemical characteristics of soil.

    Time required 2.5 hours
    Open to the public

  • Ecological interactions on iSpot

    Subject Env Bio

    Discover & record the ecological interactions among species.

    Time required 1-3 hours
    Open to the public

  • Variation in vegetation: the heather hypothesis

    Subject Env Bio Earth

    Sample virtual transects to gather data on species of heather.

    Time required 2.5 hours
    Open to the public

  • Mt Teide geology

    Subject Earth Astro

    Virtual microscope slides of thin sections

    Time required 10 min
    Open to the public

  • A-Level Virtual microscopy

    Subject Bio Env Gen Health

    A collection of slides covering animal and plant tissues in the school curriculum.

    Time required
    Open to the public
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