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Boring lessons, geeky stereotypes and poor careers advice have turned many pupils off science. That has to change, says science minister Lord Drayson, as a new children's science education centre opens in LondonBlue Peter presenter Helen Skelton assumed her cousin Kate's job was boring. Kate was a scientist, after all. It was only since Kate died a fortnight ago, aged 27, that Skelton realised how wrong she had been.She discovered that Kate was in fact a globetrotting atmospheric chemist who measured the ozone layer around the world and had just finished a PhD.'I never really asked what she did,' Skelton says. 'I thought it was just some boring science thing. When I found out, I was blown away. Maybe if I'd known more about science, I would have gone into that too.'Skelton was speaking to scientists and teachers as she opened a new children's science education centre, Centre of the Cell, in Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, in east London, last week.So why do so ma

Mount Bosavi, home to a host of newly discovered wildlife in Papua New Guinea, could hardly be more remote - so how did the scientists find their way there, asks Patrick BarkhamOne name has always been on the lips of scientists who have spent their careers studying the tropical jungles of Papua New Guinea: Mount Bosavi. Biologists had long harboured a hunch that this extinct volcano, its enormous crater filled with rainforest, could contain a treasure trove of undiscovered species. Animals unable to move beyond the 1,000-metre crater walls were thought likely to have evolved in distinct ways after thousands of years in isolation.Western scientists, however, had been unable to get inside the volcano in the inaccessible Southern Highlands - until this year, when an expedition led by Dr George McGavin from Oxford University's Museum of Natural History was filmed by the BBC. 'Imagine the Swiss Alps covered in jungle,' says the series' producer Steve Greenwood, who was charged with sorting

Scientists have produced compelling evidence that a virus known to cause cancer in animals is linked to prostate cancer in humans.

Canadian scientists have identified a drastic invasion of round goby into many Great Lakes tributaries, including several areas of the Thames, Sydenham, Ausable and Grand Rivers. A number of the affected areas are known as 'species-at-risk' hot spots.

There appears to be literally nothing microbes cannot do. From the invention of photosynthesis to lifecycles that require no sunlight --even surviving extreme radiation --the most extreme microbes thrive almost everywhere scientists look. And now microbiologists have added two more energy-related tricks to the microbial arsenal. [More]

LONDON (Reuters) - Moths, caterpillars and fruit flies could soon take the place of millions of mice used every year by scientists testing drugs, researchers said Tuesday.

Scientists have uncovered a molecule critical to celiac disease and other autoimmune disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Could this finally be it - 40 minutes of undisputed proof that we are not alone?

Today's stories on newscientist.com, at a glance - including the secrets of living to 100, why planes are going wireless, and Plasmobot

Scientists are developing a new technology for use in underwater acoustics. The new technology uses flashes of laser light to remotely create underwater sound. The new acoustic source has the potential to expand and improve both Naval and commercial underwater acoustic applications, including undersea communications, navigation and acoustic imaging.