Try our Labs
Posted: 29 Apr 2020As many Universities need to quickly move their learning online during the current coronavirus ...
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.
If you close this box, you can still see it at any time by clicking About from the main header above.
Popular experiments
Time required 2.5 hours
A-level: virtual microscope
Subject BioA collection of slides covering animal and plant tissues in the school curriculum.
Time required 1-2 hours or more
Time required
All experiments (random order, page 1 of 5)
Quantitative PCR analysis
Subject Bio ChemReal time PCR, human CYP2D6 gene variants, gene copy number, controls, population analysis.
Time required 1 hour
Virtual petrographic microscope
Subject Earth EnvThin rock sections viewed under a polarising microscope.
Time required 1-2 hours
Adipose tissue: virtual microscope
Subject Bio HealthA collection of annotated slides covering adipose tissue.
Time required 1-2 hours or more
Time required
Variation in vegetation: the heather hypothesis
Subject Env Bio EarthSample virtual transects to gather data on species of heather.
Time required 2.5 hours
Body tissues under the microscope (SDK100)
Subject Health BioFor use in OU Module SDK100 Topic 2 Activity 2.1
Time required
Leaf Structure as Environment Indicator
Subject Env BioMicroscopic study of leaf structure relating to environment
Time required
Time required
Hominid skull evolution
Subject Bio Earth EnvExplore 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