Seven Days in Science - 30 April 2010

Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse has been nominated to be the new President of the Royal Society. Paul Nurse is a geneticist who works on what controls the division and shape of cells. He is presently President of Rockefeller University New York and will be returning to the UK at the end of the year.

The Universities of Dundee and St Andrews will be celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Professor Sir D'Arcy Thompson with a birthday weekend (30 April - 3 May) as part of the Local Heroes programme.

Next week Think Tank goes WILD (5 May – 5 Sept) with an awe inspiring showcase of some of the worlds most amazing animals, and the stunning Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 in Birmingham. There will be lots of animal-themed family fun activities for everyone to enjoy, including workshops, science shows, animal artifact handling sessions, story telling and much more.

New research published this week in the Royal Society journal Interface suggests that the links between economic recession and the deadly disease tuberculosis are stronger than previously thought.  The researchers developed a new statistical model to analyse data on economics and TB rates in Central and Eastern European countries from 1980 to 2006. They suggest that their model may prove useful in predicting the effects of the current economic crisis on TB rates.

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 a range of science and technologies, links between the sciences and arts, and our human impulse to understand the world we live in. A host of cross-disciplinary collaborations, scientific and artistic events will also feature.