Discover*: The skin you're in

By Giles Broadbent on June 28, 2010 5:33 PM |

Tagged with:

*Science, technology and nature notes

Name the body's largest organ and many would cite the liver, the brain or maybe the heart. But, truth is, the skin is king.

The Wellcome Institute has just opened a free - and occasionally ghoulish - exhibition on our outer coating - what we've thought about it, what we've done to it and how the crueller excesses of nature have distorted it.

Early anatomists disregarded skin and couldn't wait to flay it away to get to the juicy bits beneath but, over time, the wonders of touch, of sensory delights and its intricate construction became apparent.

The exhibition does not shy away from disease, death and decay.
Skin Lab, which features artistic responses to cutting-edge technological developments in skin science from the mid-20th century onwards, will complement the exhibition.

Go to wellcomecollection.org.

Festival Of Science And Arts

The Royal Society has been putting on a considerable show this year to mark its 350th anniversary.

The Festival of Science and Arts, just started and running until July 1, has been dragged from the dusty home of the society into the bright open spaces of the Southbank Centre.

The festival discards the lab coat and dons the grease paint with a range of theatre, comedy, literature and art events.

Highlights include the world premiere of a special presentation of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and the UK premiere of Icarus At The Edge of Time, a specially commissioned work written by physicist and mathematician Brian Greene with score by Philip Glass.

Inspiring installations include flying AirPenguins and life-sized recreations of extinct pterosaurs. At the heart of the celebrations is The Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition which gives everyone the opportunity to meet the UK's leading scientists and discover their work.

A lot is aimed at schoolchildren and their teachers but there must be ways to sidestep the mucky urchins - and the kids too - and indulge in test tube fun.
Go to southbankcentre.co.uk.

Website of the Week

Twittering. In or out? Hot or not? Brevity is the soul of wit, said Shakespeare so that's a plus. But also - and it's a point worth weighing in the balance - most people are boring, have nothing to say and would be annoying if they just breathed let alone tweeted pompous inanities into your unprotected BlackBerry.

But misanthrophy aside, besttweets.com aims to bring together a collection of the best, funniest and most biting tweets which are actually quite good.

Although I stand by my second point because life's too short to build a sunny disposition now.

App of the Week

You like those dot-matrix style LED messages that rise from the back of unmarked police cars or tell you that the Tube is late?

Well, for your own at-home signage fun, LEDit recreates that banner effect on the iPhone. Writing "Come On England!" and propping the device against a tea cup is the very British equivalent of the vuvuzela.

Free from the App store