Can't do that? Might be how you are doing it, I suppose. With it in your inventory and (hopefully a tool in your hand), you hold the mouse button while over the item in question, bring up the little menu and use the Face/Head icon for your skills and use Science on it that way, just like you would with Repair if you were fixing it.
And no, afaik, no way to change a name ingame once its set in.