New Antenna gallery and website

A beautiful new Antenna gallery opened in June. Come and visit us in the Wellcome of the Science Museum or at our new website.

Showering could be bad for your health

How would you like a face-full of harmful bacteria to start the day?

Scientists have found a third of showerheads contain high levels of a potentially lethal bug called mycobacterium avium. This microscopic nasty is easily inhaled in water droplets and can cause lung disease in people with weakened immune systems.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

A Secret of Human Brain Evolution Discovered

Scientists have discovered that a protein called AP2gamma plays a key role in neural development within the human cerebral cortex—the area of the brain responsible for higher brain function, memory and sensory experience. The discovery could lead to neural regeneration therapies for patients with diseases involving the cortex, like Alzheimer’s, autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy. It is also a clue as to how the brain may have evolved into higher sophistication in mammals from previous structures related to vision.

Image: killermonkeys - Flickr
Source: Nature Neruoscience

PM apologises to computer genius

The Prime Minister has given a public apology for the "appalling" way computing genius Alan Turing was treated for being gay.

Turing, who worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during WW2, went on to develop the first modern computers, including Pilot ACE which we have here at the Museum.

In 1952 Turning was prosecuted for admitting a sexual relationship with a man and committed suicide two years later.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Physicists Propose a 'Schrödinger's Virus’ Experiment

Physicists are going to see if a virus can be made to exist in two different physical states at once by subjecting it to the strange rules of the tiny subatomic realm. They propose an experiment similar to the famous ‘Schrödinger's cat’ thought puzzle, which illustrates how in the microscopic world of atoms and quarks, particles behave in a totally different way from objects in our everyday experience. In the case of the cat, when subject to these subatomic rules it could exist in two different states simultaneously (alive and dead). If these physicists are successful, they will be able to do the same thing for a living virus in the real world— a first in quantum physics.

Image: Frederic Poirot via Flickr; Dale Chihuly exhibit, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA

Foreign Language Classes in Nursery?

Preliminary results from an EU-funded study on foreign language learning are showing that kids as young as three perform admirably on tests in their second language. This is certainly good news, though there were sizable differences in individual performance, as well as performance levels of the different preschool classes studied. Future studies will attend to discovering the most effective teaching practices and understanding what makes individual children do well or poorly.

Image: lisibo - Flickr

Poor Funding May Ground NASA

‘The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory,’ according to a report by a panel of experts convened by President Barack Obama. The committee was brought together to assess the financial feasibility of plans for manned missions to the Moon and Mars, the fate of the International Space Station and hundreds of other NASA projects. The news was bleak. One projection showed that with the current budget astronauts will not even be able to leave low Earth orbit until 2028. Now Obama is left with the unenviable task of either finding billions of dollars more in funding, or making devastating cuts to the future of space travel.

Image: centophobia - Flickr