It helps if you're a bit of an optimist if you want to do environmental sciences. Everyone tells you that the world is going to hell in a deep-fried handbasket, as global warming, the hole in the ozone layer, GM foods and pollution take an increasingly fevered hold in the public imagination and the end of the world gets more and more nigh. Environmental scientists are generally the ones who think they can do something about it, saving us from ourselves, and taking a degree can be step one in that process.

While many people think of chemistry and remember foul-smelling school laboratories, periodic tables and the occasional excitement of an explosion, they should be thinking of the subject as the all-singing, all-dancing explanations of almost every natural process you can think of. Whether it's why leaves turn red in autumn, why diamonds are hard or even why soap gets us clean, then you won't find a better way to explain it than through the study of chemistry.

The science of living things has blossomed in universities over the past 50 or so years as the subject has been transformed by momentous events. From the discovery of DNA at the start of this period to the relatively recent decoding of the human genome, the biosciences truly are at the forefront of human research, with perhaps the greatest excitements lying in the knowledge that we have barely touched the surface.

Within applied bioscience there are even more specialised areas that might be more appealing than a general study, related to agriculture, animals and the environment. If you are considering studying this major during your university time, read on for more details.

There are a number of key common geographical concepts taught across all the institutions and although the names may vary, concepts such as "geographical methods and theory" or "environment and society" are likely to crop up some-where along the line. Read on to know more about this major.