Seven days in science - 8 April 2010

Spectacular images of plankton from Richard Kirby URF of the University of Plymouth are now showing on the Plymouth City Centre Big Screen (pictured). The show will run intermittently until the end of the year.

The discovery of a giant lizard living in the Sierra Madre mountains in Luzon, an island of the Philippines, was announced in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters this week. Previously unknown to science, the monitor lizard can grow up to two metres in length, and was named Varanus bitatawa after the local Agta tribespeople’s name for the creature.

In recognition of her extraordinary contributions to the promotion of science and science in society, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, was awarded the Royal Society’s King Charles II Medal last Thursday (1 April).

It was announced on Wednesday (7 April) that the Qatar Foundation is to become a lead partner on the Royal Society’s Atlas of the Islamic World Science and Innovation project.

As part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, Professor David Leigh FRS will combine the wonders of magic with the wonders of nature to describe the technological potential of molecular machines at this Saturday’s (10 April) lecture: The magic of molecular machines.

Tickets are now available for See Further: The Festival of Science + Arts, a unique ten-day summer festival at Southbank Centre in celebration of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary. The festival will explore links between the sciences and arts, science and our human impulse to understand the world we live in. A host of cross-disciplinary collaborations, scientific and artistic events will also feature.