As we move into September, our London events calendar is beginning to swell out once again. Here are selected highlights from more than 40 scientific events over the next seven days.

Event of the week
One year ago, Anousheh Ansari became the first female space tourist. During her ten-day mission to the International Space Station, she also became the first astronaut of Iranian origin, the first female Muslim in space and the first offworlder to keep a blog. This remarkable woman, who put her name and money to the Ansari X-Prize, gives a short talk at Imperial College on 7 September, in conjunction with the British Interplanetary Society.

Conferences and meetings
The Lancet is embarking on a major series of articles examining mental health issues around the world. A one-day event on 3 September ushers in the Series on Global Mental Health with a distinguished line-up of speakers at the King’s College Franklin Wilkins Building.

Electrochem 07 takes place at Imperial College on 3–4 Sept. Confirmed speakers include Prof Richard Compton (Oxford), Prof R Mark Wightman (UNC) and Prof Yuri Korchev (Imperial).

On 4–8 September, the British Neuroscience Association hosts the 2007 European Glial Cell Meeting. The conference, at Imperial College, offers ‘nine plenary lectures, up to twenty-one symposia and extensive poster sessions’.

This week’s coolest conference takes place at the London College of Fashion on 5–7 September. The UK Polymer Showcase looks at the interface between science and fashion design, with sessions on polymer biomaterials, composite materials and much else.

Public talks
On 3 September, broadcaster Jonathan Miller courts controversy at the British Library with the provocatively titled Should science make religion defunct?. Another occasion to ponder the wider meaning of it all takes place on 7 September, when the Corydon Astronomical Society takes us on a 3-D tour of the Universe. Return almost, but not quite, back down to Earth on 6 September for a look at Europe’s weather satellites, courtesy of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

And finally…
On 5 September, the Barbican Centre begins a series of performances about one of the world’s greatest mathematical prodigies. A disappearing number is ’a story about connections between ideas, cultures and times. In London a man attempts to unravel the secrets of his lover. In Bangalore a woman collapses on a train. In Cambridge in 1914 Englishman GH Hardy seeks to comprehend the ideas of the Indian prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan.’ The play runs until 6 October.