Seven days in science - 11 March 2010

This week started with the launch of The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity a report from the Royal Society that looks at the need for sustained long-term investment in science.

More details and a downloadable copy of the report are available here.

The unsung heroes of science were honoured at the inaugural Hauksbee Awards ceremony last night (10 March). Ten recipients each received a Royal Society engraved bronze medal, scroll and £500 at the ceremony. The awards recognise and reward those in roles that support UK science, technology, engineering and maths for their excellent work and achievements.

In a week full of Capital Science events, world famous environmental scientist and author James Lovelock FRS spoke to journalist Tim Radford about his life and work in science at the Science Museum on Tuesday (9 March) at the event Change in the Air: Science Museum Centenary Talk. The Lens of Life season at the Hunterian Museum started yesterday (10 March) with a lecture from Allan Chapman: Robert Hooke, Micrographia, and experimental physiology in the early Royal Society.
 

The week finishes with another Capital Science event as scientists and conservators present their research to the general public at an open lab in the Great Court of the British Museum on Saturday (13 March).

Next week begins with the Ferrier prize lecture  by Professor Colin Blakemore FRS on Monday (15 March). The subject will be plasticity of the brain, and how it could be the key to human development, cognition and evolution.

A discussion meeting on the frontiers of influenza research takes place at the Society next Tuesday (16 March). Organised by Sir John Skehel FRS and Professor Neil Ferguson, more details on this meeting are available here.

There is also a wide range of events taking place next week across the country in celebration of the 350th anniversary.

From the Local Heroes programme, the first leg of the John Tomes exhibit tour has finished at the BDA museum, the second leg will open at the East Surrey Museum on 13 March.

The first of the science themed Great North Debates will take place next Tuesday (16 March) at Tyne and Wear Museums. The debate Do We Trust Science? will be chaired by Quentin Cooper.

Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg returns to his Alma Mater (Wadham College) next Wednesday (17 March) where he will offer his perspective on the history of the Royal Society in this year’s Notes from an amateur: on the history of the Royal Society lecture Wilkins – Bernal – Medawar.

The Universities of Dundee and St Andrews are celebrating the 150th anniversary of D’Arcy Thompson at the exhibit D'Arcy 150, which starts next Friday (19 March) and runs until early May.

As part of the Capital Science programme, Tate and the Royal Society are collaborating to bring together scientists and artists at next weekend’s event Rising to the Climate Challenge: Artists and Scientists Imagine Tomorrow's World.