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Acting director of group including London's Science Museum dismissed for failing to declare a possible conflict of interest in a business dealThe acting director of some of Britain's leading science and technology museums has been sacked for failing to declare a perceived conflict of interest relating to a business deal.Molly Jackson was dismissed from her post as head of the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI) following an investigation into a deal that would have seen the Science Museum in London stock clothing from a firm owned by a male friend.The NMSI is a family of museums that includes the prestigious Science Museum in London, the National Railway Museum in York and the National Media Museum in Bradford. Together they attract four million visitors a year, including one and a half million children.Although the transaction did not go ahead and Ms Jackson did not benefit financially, the governing board found she had made 'a serious error of judgement' in failing to decl

It's a perfect match of public archaeology and popular science, and why nobody thought of it before University of Wyoming archaeologists Nicole Waguespack and Todd Surovell is beyond me. Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman (L) and Adam Savage (R) attend the Natural Resources Defense Council's 11th Annual 'Forces For Nature' Benefit at 583 Park Avenue on March 30, 2009 in New York City Photo Credit: Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images In 2007, Waguespack and Surovell approached the quintessential popular science television team, MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, with a proposition: is there a technological advantage to using a stone or metal arrowhead over a sharpened stick? Archaeologists have long conducted replicative experiments—called experimental archaeology—for quite some time. Basically, we attempt to recreate situations in the past, whether flint knapping or farming techniques or even building entire villages. Living history villages, like Colonial Williamsburg a

Federal stimulus funding is helping a Kansas State University biologist continue to collaborate with the Harvard Medical School. Their research is creating a clearer picture of a certain cellular process that can play a role in chronic diseases like cancer. Katsura Asano, K-State associate professor in the Division of Biology, received nearly $200,000 from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences through Recovery Act funding.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, has awarded Duke University $19.5 million for an effort led by the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) to design a portable, easy-to-use diagnostic device that can reveal who is infected with an upper respiratory virus before the first cough or sneeze.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Scientists have uncovered what happens to biomimetic nanoparticles when they enter human cells. They found that the important proteins that make up the outer layer of these nanoparticles are degraded by an enzyme called cathepsin L. Scientists now have to take this phenomenon into account and overcome this process to ensure the exciting field of nanomedicine can progress.

(Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center) Dennis Paul, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, and Harry Gould, M.D., Ph.D., the Tom Benson professor of neurology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, have been awarded one of two scientific research grants made in 2009 by the Neuropathy Association. The $80,000 grant will fund research to learn how to prevent nerve cell death in people with uncontrolled or untreated diabetes resulting in neuropathy.

In a study published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, EMBL scientists provide conclusive proof that, when a muscle is injured, white blood cells called macrophages play a crucial role in its regeneration and uncovered the genetic switch that controls this process and uncovered the genetic switch that controls this process, opening the door for new therapeutic approaches to sports injuries and to diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

On September 23, 1999 NASA expected their Mars Climate Observer satellite to enter the orbit of Mars to begin investigating the Martian climate and atmosphere. As they tracked the orbital insertion behind the planet and lost contact forever. The followup investigation discovered the satellite was programmed with a navigation error. The subcontractor programmer underestimated the power of the thrusters by a factor of 4.45. This is the difference between the imperial measurement pound and the metric newton of force. The software was working in force pounds when the satellite was expecting metric newtons. This caused the orbiter to enter the Martian atmosphere it was sent to investigate and burn up. The loss of a $125 Million satellite was a serious blow to NASA. It was portrayed as a blunder during the time the organization was experiencing budget cuts and downsizing. Now they were shown to break on of the basic tenets of engineering: Check your work. Find out what else occurred on this

(University of Arizona) University of Arizona scientists are developing a network of probes to provide quick access to soil moisture data to improve weather forecasting. A grant from the National Science Foundation is funding the project. A recent National Research Council report called for a national network to measure soil moisture, and the new project speaks to that need. Several probes are already installed and being tested in southern Arizona.

(Rice University) The tools of biochemistry have finally caught up with lactose repressor protein. US and Italian biologists this week offer new results about the oft-studied protein -- the first known genetic regulatory protein. Using cutting-edge techniques, the scientists tied together the arms of lactose repressor protein and then measured the protein's capacity to form looped DNA structures. The tests, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, help gauge the importance of protein flexibility.