Seven days in science - 5 March 2010

05 March 2010Professor Donal Bradley CBE FRS of Imperial College London gave the Bakerian Prize Lecture this week (2 March), where he spoke about the diverse uses of plastic electronic materials. A webcast of the lecture will be available on demand from 9 March at http://royalsociety.tv/

An exhibition celebrating the legacy and achievements of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti FRS opens at Gallery Oldham this Saturday (6 March). Part of the Royal Society’s Local Heroes programme, the Fantastic Mr. Ferranti exhibition is free to enter and tells the life story of the prolific inventor and electrical engineer.

The first of the See further with science talks took place at the British Museum this week as part of the Royal Society’s Capital Science programme. The gold coin of Croesus - the subject of the first talk - is also listed in the BBC Radio 4 series A history of the world in 100 objects. The next talk in the series, See further with science: Chinese Bronze casting, takes place next Tuesday (9 March).

There are three more Capital Science events taking place over the next week. World famous environmental scientist and author James Lovelock FRS speaks to journalist Tim Radford about his life and work in science at the Science Museum on Tuesday; the Lens of Life season begins at the Hunterian Museum  on Wednesday; and scientists and conservators will present their research to the general public at an open lab in the Great Court of the British Museum on Saturday.

A major new report called The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity will be launched next Tuesday and later in the week the unsung heroes of science will be honoured at the inaugural Hauksbee awards ceremony (10 March).