Seven days in science – 22 July 2010

Some of the research into treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s is based on his pioneering work. This new exhibition displays the images from this work. For more details on the exhibition, visit the Thackray Museum website.

The new exhibition Isaac Newton and the Royal Society opened at Newton’s birthplace Woolsthorpe Manor today (22 July). Celebrating the achievements of Isaac Newton as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University and later as President of the Royal Society, the Local Heroes exhibit Isaac Newton and the Royal Society: a poster exhibition marks the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society. For more details on Woolsthorpe Manor visit the National Trust website.

The Royal Society wrote to the Government this week to make the case for investment rather than cuts to science funding in the next Comprehensive Spending Review. The Submission was made at the request of Professor Adrian Smith FRS, Director General, Science and Research at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Society makes the case that in a period of financial adjustment, the UK must build on its strengths, and use these to revitalise and rebalance our economy.

New research, published in this week’s Royal Society journal Biology Letters suggests that a bizarre cave-dwelling creature could be about to revolutionise the science of ageing. The olm – a blind amphibious salamander more correctly known as Proteus anguinus – seems to defy all predictions offered by current theories of ageing.