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The BBC brings you all the week's science news.

Science In Action: 11/03/2011

11/03/2011

BBC World Service - Science In Action, 11/03/2011

Women scientists are celebrated, but why do many not reach the top levels of academia?

Why women scientists struggle to reach the top levels in academia; Kids think scientifically from a very early age; eLEGS - artificial exoskeletal legs; Printing internal organs, sounds in space

Women in Science
Women scientists are being celebrated in 2011 - the centennial year of International Women's Day.  But in the fields of maths and engineering, females do not reach the top levels within academia.  Could it be a matter of timing?  Juggling starting a family with academic endeavour?  We ask the laureates of the L'Oréal-UNESCO's award for Women in Science.


Kids think scientifically
We all know that children have enquiring minds.  But new research has shown that they have 'scientifically' enquiring minds.  Studies using computer graphics have shown that very young children can grasp causality and even complex scientific statistics. 


TED Talks
The TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) Conference is a get together of big thinkers, with, according to the conference organisers, ideas worth spreading.
Science in Action caught up with three more interesting speakers.

Eythor Bender has developed a kind of mechanical exoskeleton that can be worn on the legs.  The eLEGS are designed for the military and for people who have been paralysed from the waist down, and will allow them to walk on two legs, using their arms to 'steer'.

Dr Anthony Atala is part of a group who have been developing a 3D printer that can 'print' internal organs.  Using cells instead of ink and printing into a biological gel – the structure of organs such as kidneys and bladders can be created from the patient's own cells.  It is early days and the printed organs have not yet been implanted into humans, but it holds promise for the future of organ replacement.

Janna Levin is an astronomer who has been listening to the Universe.  They say that in airless space, no one can hear you scream, but you can hear black holes booming if you 'listen' to gravitational waves in the same way you would hear sound waves.  Monumental Earth-based detectors such as LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and the planned space-based mission LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) aim to record the songs from space for the first time thereby turning up the volume on the soundtrack to the Universe.

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