Rocket Science is easy!

No really :)

My colleague Dr Graham Swinerd lets out all of the high-tech secrets about rocket science, and without a single equations. He's been beavering away on a great book to explain everything you ever wanted to know about spaceflight.

If you really want to be a rocket scientist, then we have the only course in the UK for this. Why not join the many Southampton graduates who are designing rockets and spaceships at NASA, ESA and other out of this world companies around the globe!

Airbus says Sssssshhhhhhhh....

Most people think airplanes are pretty noisy, but the reality is they are becoming massively quieter than in the past. The Airbus A380 is the same as the MUCH smaller Boeing 777. At its first flight you couldn't hear this big beast above the jet noise of the business jet chase plane! Check it out for yourself here... It all comes down to some very advanced engineering. Progress over the last few decades has been far ahead of any other transport sector. At Southampton we've been working to reduce aircraft noise since jets started carrying passengers. Last week saw us formalise our partnership with Airbus on noise research. The brand new Airbus Noise Technology Centre at Southampton will lead the way in aircraft noise reduction. I'm very proud to be part of this endeavour, led by my colleague Prof Xin Zhang.

So in the future maybe the Airbus airliners will be as quiet as the birds. Well, that's what we're aiming for!!!

Nice one Lewis...

Phew, almost fell of my seat watching Lewis Hamilton scrape through to win the Formula One Championship at the last corner in Brazil! What a great effort by Lewis, and the tireless team at McLaren. I'm particularly pleased as there are many of our talented graduates there, who we certainly worked hard at Southampton to get them into McLaren and realise their dreams.

So congratulations to all at McLaren, especially all of our Southampton alumni, who have done a great job getting Lewis Hamilton into pole position.

Also, great job to all of our other ex-students who work for all the other teams for making this such an exciting and close season. Here's to 2009 and more close racing, and top-rate engineering!

If you're still at school or even university, then why not talk to us about making into Lewis Hamilton's team, or one of the other great teams that make F1 such a fantastic sport.