Open Air Laboratories Network (OPAL)
The Open Air Laboratories Network (OPAL) is a partnership initiative throughout England that aims to get the public more involved with nature through a range of local and national projects. The initiative is funded by the Big Lottery Fund Changing Spaces Programme.
The portfolio of partners includes nine regional universities, the Natural History Museum, the Open University, the Field Studies Council, the Meteorological Office, the National Biodiversity Network, the Royal Parks and the Environment Agency. The lead partner is Imperial College, London.
OPAL has run seven national surveys, focusing respectively on soil, water quality, air quality, climate, biodiversity, invertebrates and tree health. By involving the public in scientific research, the project has been able to collect a large amount of data that can be used to build up a picture of England's natural environment.
Additionally, OPAL has worked to inspire the public to become more involved in nature through its national surveys, regional events, and a wide range of free resources made available through the OPAL website.
Read more about Open Air Laboratories Network (OPAL): Soil and Earthworm Survey, Air Survey, Water Survey, Biodiversity Survey, Climate Survey, Bugs Count, Tree Health Survey, Community Environment Report, Projects and Partners
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“Through open doors, the dining-room declares
A larger loneliness of knives and glass
And silence laid like carpet.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Speak the speech ... trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it ... I had as lief the town crier had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We have what I would call educational genocide. I’m concerned about learning totally, but I’m immersed in the disastrous record of how many black kids are going into science. They are very few and far between. I’ve said that when I see more black students in the laboratories than I see on the football field, I’ll be happy.”
—Jewel Plummer Cobb (b. 1924)
“Of what use, however, is a general certainty that an insect will not walk with his head hindmost, when what you need to know is the play of inward stimulus that sends him hither and thither in a network of possible paths?”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)