Next year, the museum will inaugurate a fascinating museum project concerning various aspects of health and the human body; a new, permanent space will be given over to the exhibition, called “How Do I Work? The Human Body”.

The exhibition will be completely innovative; an interactive space seeking to promote aspects of science in a more entertaining and educational way, as well as broadening the scope of the exhibitions mNACTEC has held until now. The exhibition is notable not only for its subject but also for the fact that it aims to cover a gap in the coverage of health in Catalan museums, while at the same time consolidating the museum's interactive nature.
The exhibition, which is expected to be permanent, will be located on mNACTEC's ground floor, taking up 400 m 2 of exhibition space. It will be aimed at the general public although it has also been designed to be adaptable to the needs of children and young people. The exhibition will consist of interactive modules dealing with various aspects related to the human body: how it works, health and hygiene, food and nutrition. Concepts such as “a body made up of many cells” or similarity in difference, are themes to be found running through the whole exhibition. In addition, the exhibition foresees the inclusion of a significant collection of medical instruments from the Museum of the History of Medicine in Catalonia , which has been closed to the public since 1995 and is currently undergoing a review process.

On September 9 th 2008, when the renovation works came to an end and the permanent ribbon exhibition was completed with the donation of Mr Magí Borrell's collection, the Manresa Museum of Technology opened its doors to the public. All in all, this means that the facility has now been rendered fully functional.
Manresa thus completes the recuperation of the city's monumental Dipòsits Vells building, which was used for collecting and storing water from the Sèquia River and which provided the city's first water distribution network.
The first single-theme exhibition dedicated to ribbon manufacturing, which constitutes a first-class exhibition, has now been added to the museum spaces that have already been in use for some years (the exhibition about water and the Sèquia River, and the multi-purpose exhibition hall). The space housing the exhibition allows for a global view of the world of these narrow strips of cloth, especially now that it includes the whole range of 1,001 ribbon products from ribbons to braids in all their many variations, made from different raw materials and with a huge number of applications. It is a relatively unknown textile specialty, but one of great importance and with strong roots in Catalonia and above all in Manresa.
The surprising thing about this museum is that it explains and shows the development of the sector from the 18 th to the 21 st century. The entire, extremely interesting process is on display: the transformation of the raw material, the product, the machinery and above all the society surrounding them; because although one of the aims of this museum is to talk about industrialisation, the museum is also about the people who were central to that process.

In 2008, coinciding with the commemoration of 160 years of train travel and the anniversary of the construction of the first railway between Barcelona and Mataró, the 4 th Catalonia Train Week will be held jointly by the Railway Museum and the Catalan Federation of Friends of the Railways.
The opening of Catalonia Train Week, scheduled to begin on October 23 rd ,will be held at the Col·legi d'Enginyers Industrials de Barcelona and there will be a round table as part of the First Railway and Civil Society Conference, which runs from October 23 rd to 31 st . The conference will discuss the role of civil society in the world of industrial heritage and Josep Alabern, president of the Museum of Science and Technology and Industrial Archaeology Association of Catalonia, and Assumpció Feliu, the vice president, will be present.
As one of the many events taking place during the conference, an honorary membership card will be given to the Barcelona Friends of the Railways Association for its key role in setting up the museum. There will also be a special session of CinemaTREN . The locomotive “Mataró” will be operating once again and on one of the final days there will be a conference on “The World Development of High Speed [Trains]”, led by Ignacio Barrón, director of The International Union of Railways.
The Railway Museum has worked to lay the foundations for what should be a cultural reference point for railways in Catalonia and a vehicle of communication about the world of trains. The location of the museum's facilities and the collections housed there, allow it to create a wide and well organised discourse on the development of this means of transport and its use in the contemporary world. The Spanish Railways Foundation, who manages the facility, is making headway in discussions with several public institutions to seek out formulas for joint management of the museum, which would guarantee the preservation of the buildings, facilities and collections, while at the same time shaping it into a meeting place, a place for dialogue, documentation and reflection on the train and its relationship with Catalonia.
For more information about the 4 th Catalonia Railway Week, please visit:
http://www.museodelferrocarril-ffe.com/vilanova/actividades

Igualada has joined in with the commemoration of the 200 th anniversary of the arrival of Napoleon's troops in Catalonia . The Igualada Leather and Anoia Regional Museum brings together a collection of documents and objects from the period in an exhibition called “Igualada and the Birth of Modern Catalonia . 1808-2008. 200 years since the Battles of Bruc”.

Amongst the military events taking place during the so-called Spanish War of Independence, the territory closest to the Bruc Pass, the mountains of Montserrat, saw two celebrated battles fought, leading to the first defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's armies on European soil. What happened there led to an almost instantaneous mythologizing of events and gave rise to the legend of the Drummer Boy of El Bruc amongst others.
Using these facts as a starting point, and in consultation with the history research group "Manuscrits" at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Municipal Institute of Culture and the museum put into perspective in this exhibition the most important aspects of Igualada's participation in the events of the war on June 6 th and 14 th 1808, placing it in the context of the social and economic crisis of the time and presenting the echo of those events as they reverberated throughout the 19 th and 20 th centuries.
The exhibition brings together all kinds of objects and documents form the period such as a newspaper printed in Igualada in the year 1808, textiles, weapons, books, letters and even a drum that tradition has it belonged to a, perhaps legendary, drummer boy from Igualada and which is in the museum's possession. In addition a small audiovisual display puts images and sounds to the landscape of the Bruc Pass where the battles were fought. On October 26 th there is a free guided visit of the exhibition, which will be open to the public until November 16 th.
More information: www.igualada.cat or telephone the museum on 938 046 752

On September 17 th the first session of the Pedagogical Coordination Council (CCP) for the 2008-2009 academic year was held at the Trambesós head office.
mNACTEC is part of the council, together with 118 other organisations holding activities for school children. During this session reports from various working parties were shared with the council and the challenges for this academic year set out: education, science and technology; education and artistic languages and citizen education; and the continuity of the joint work taking place at the heart of the council to make improvements to the quality of the activities offered to schools.
The presentation of the CCP school activities programme on October 28 th at the Mercat de les Flors was also announced at the council. The presentation will take place in the presence of the philosopher and writer José Antonio Marina and there will be a display of educational materials from organisations sitting on the council. The 2 nd Pedagogical Coordination Council Conference, where experiences with interesting educational programmes will be presented, will also take place during this academic year, in March 2009.

The ECSITE International Conference, held in Budapest , saw the formal unveiling of the EXTRA database through the Internet launch of its database for the exchange of information about travelling science exhibitions and other museum contents.
To enjoy the advantages of this database, available to centres, institutions, museums and the general public, all you have to do is to register on the website and you will receive information about exhibitions and science and at the same time have access to other interesting subjects.
The web address is: http://www.extrascience.eu/

The star stories event mNACTEC held last Saturday October 4 th was a great success. This was a fun way to see science through an original story and formed part of the “mNACTEC as a window on CERN” programme. The activity will tour to three museums in the mNACTEC Regional System: The Igualada Leather and Anoia Regional Museum, October 19 th at 12 pm; the Castelló d'Empúries Ecomuseum-Flour Mill, November 22 nd at 5 pm; and the Capellades Paper Mill Museum, November 23 rd at 12 pm.

On October 17 th the international day conference “The Thread of Innovation ” will take place, where institutions, companies, technology centres, universities and agents from all over Europe will explore the issue of the present and future of the textile sector. The day conference, organised by the European Textile Collectivities Association and presided over by the Terrassa City Council, aims to debate and reflect on innovative techniques in textile policies and strategies and on the industry in general. The conference will be structured around two themes; the morning will be devoted to talking about transformations in the textile industry in different European territories; while the afternoon session will have workshops focusing on eco-innovation in textiles.

The minister for Innovation, Universities and Enterprise , Josep Huguet, assures us the project is an example of “21 st -century tourism”.

In July the official opening of the Llobregat Industrial Villages Interpretation Centre located in the Owner's House at Viladomiu Nou (Gironella) took place.
The Viladomiu Nou Owner's House is a hundred-year-old building that was meant to be a residence for the family of the industrial village's owner, when he was staying there, and which has been restored as an interpretation centre to explain part of the history and heritage of the collection of industrial villages located on the Alt Llobregat river, built between Berga and Balsarany more than a century ago.
The museum project, conceived and designed by the company Transversal Produccions Culturals, incorporates latest generation techniques and has been designed so that part of the visit can be conducted by audio guide. In the attic of the Owner's House the events of the ”Tragic Week” revolt in central Catalonia are explained, an until now little-studied episode and one which has not been dealt with before by any museum.

The Railway Museum is working on the creation of a new website that should be up and running in December. The digital portal will utilise icons and contents similar to those used by mNACTEC. The team proposes a journey through the world of Catalonia 's trains via a website that helps provide a first look at one of the most valuable railway centres in Europe ; at its activities, history and the human heritage that has made it possible.

A new workshop aimed at children at mid and upper primary school level called “Come and Do Science!” which aims to introduce children to the world of science. Through experiments, accurate observations and measurements the students learn how to obtain definite results that allow them to confirm or discard different hypotheses about how the experiment works, to identify materials and, simply, to learn how to handle laboratory equipment. The experiences and measurements they have to take, such as mass, volume, temperature, time, are simple and adapted to the level of the children; the calculations based on the measurements also have a level of complexity tailored to each age group. As well as working with scientific method, the skill and capacity to interpret different languages also comes into play, in this way the children's competencies when it comes to resolving different types of situations are also worked on.