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UPFRONT
Frozen crater
MILLIONS of years ago a giant meteorite, one kilometre across, smashed into the Earth. The El’gygytgyn crater in Arctic Siberia marks the the point of impact 3.6 million years ago. The site is of considerable interest, and an international team of scientists has been drilling in and around the crater to find out how the Earth reacted to the impact. One of the lead investigators, Christian Koeberl, head of Lithospheric Studies at the University of Vienna, reports that El’gygytgyn is special in that it is the only known impact crater in acid volcanic rock. A drilling project, completed in May this year is expected to yield a rich harvest of what are known as impact suevite breccias. These are glassy fragments in which different types of rock are cemented together, and they
Discovery box
THERE is a Confucian saying, “Tell me something and I will forget it. Show it to me and I will remember it. Let me do it and I will retain it.” Having to do something is a good way to make knowledge real, and Siemens have put this concept into practice with their Discovery Box. These wooden boxes, packed with tools and information about energy, electricity, the environment, and health, were launched at a series of workshops for schools during February. The tools enable primary school children to build an electric circuit using a battery, wire and light bulbs. They can also create heat using wool needles, wood and
only occur on Earth at impact sites. At El’gygytgyn, the layer of breccias was 60 metres thick. Below this layer, the drill went through to broken and fractured volcanic rocks, the original basement. These rocks had been shocked, broken and uplifted by the impact. As Christian Koeberl explained, the basement rocks were first pushed down, then they rebounded, so that older rocks were brought up to the surface to form a central peak. All of this happened extremely fast, so within sixty or so seconds, a one to two kimometre high mountain, several kilometres in diameter was formed. The crater holds a lake, and the drillers went through this into the basement rocks to a depth of over 680 metres. More than 200 metres of cores have been recovered, and when these are transported back to the lab they will provide material for study over the coming years. batteries, and they can take part in a paper clip race as objects sink through viscous liquids.
The El’gygytgyn drill camp with its wooden huts for acccommation and on site labs. The frozen lake is in the background. Planning for the project took more than eight years and several hundred tonnes of equipment had to be transported out to the remote site. The nearest town and port is Pevek at the Arctic Ocean, 350 km away. The port is only ice free for a few months in Summer, and a ‘snow road’ had to be constructed to haul the equipment to the crater site. Drilling was done from the top of the frozen lake, and because the drill platform was 75 tonnes, the thickness of the ice had to be increased to take the weight by flowing water onto the surface. Conditions for the team were harsh, temperatures as low as minus 30ºC and icy storms of up to 100km/h.
Michael O’Connor from Siemens said that “children do not necessarily make the connection between what they learn in school and the magical role and application of science and technology in our day-to-day lives.” If children fail to make this connection, commented Michael, they will not go on to become science and technology graduates. Craig Garland by Paul Staunton as he listens in to Lufti Nida at Our Lady of Victory Boys’ National School, Ballymun in Dublin.
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SPIN
www.sciencespin.com From left: Team Blink, overall winners of the Honda F1 in Schools Technology Challenge: Matthew Ryan, Nathan Dunne, Olivia Breen (Team Manager), Daniel Bresnan and Simon Ryan from St Ailbe’s School, Tipperary Town.
Blink
FOR their design of a compressed air powered model car, Matthew Ryan, Olivia Breen, Daniel Bresnan, Nathan Dunne and Simon Ryan from St Ailbe’s School in Tipperary were presented with the top prize in Honda’s Schools Technology Challenge. During the national finals at Griffith College in Dublin the team, calling themselves Blink, came ahead of 24 finalists and apart from the cash award, €3,500,
they will represent Ireland next year in the 2010 World Championships. The competition encourages students to make good use of computer aided design (CAD) to design and then make compressed air driven miniracers from balsa wood. Jim Friars from the Irish Computer Society said that in four years the competition has continued to get bigger and better. The cars also go a lot faster, clocking speeds of up to 350 km/h.
Fish and chips
THOUSANDS of cod fish have been tagged and released into the Celtic Sea, and fish merchants have been asked to keep an eye out for any that return. The project, being run by the Marine Institute, aims to determine optimum conditions for cod around the Irish coast. Juveniles for tagging were taken from the Waterford Estuary, and 20 to 60 miles offshore, mature cod were caught and tagged with a recording device. The data storage tags record temperature and pressure, enabling scientists to track the likely route taken by the cod after tagging. Fishery scientist, Macdara Ó Cuaig, said that if anglers, fishermen or fish merchants see the tag attached to the dorsal fin, they can contact him at the Marine Institute. www.marine.ie
Bio industry
A 20,000 tonne per year bio processing plant is to start operations just outside Claremorris, in Mayo. The BioSpark plant will produce products such as lignin, lactic acid, methane, ethanol
UPFRONT Junior inventors
TO encourage primary school pupils to come up with bright ideas, the Patents Office ran a Junior Inventors competition with a green theme. Eimear Fitzpatrick from Rathfarnham Parish National School was presented with the first prize for her idea for a ‘lid bin.’ She had noticed that tops go into the bin together with the bottles, so she suggested adding a box into which the lids could be thrown. Duilleann O’Sullivan, Dean Devanny, Sean Keely, Stephen Lees, and Siofradh O’Sullivan from St Conaire’s National School, Co Clare also received a team prize for their ‘Butt-let’ suggestion. After observing Burren tourists stubbing out cigarettes on alighting from buses, they thought it would be a good idea to make a fold-out ash tray available. When fitted into the side of tour buses, passengers would have no excuse for littering the countryside that they had come so far to admire. For details about the next competition visit www.patentsoffice.ie
Science Gallery
The TCD Science Gallery has been presented with the “best use of technology in education” award. The win follows the success of six high profile exhibitions involving interaction between science and the public. The current exhibition, INFECTIOUS, running until July 17th, draws a comparison between the spread of fashion and disease, and in suitably high-tech style, radio frequency tags are being used to simulate an epidemic. More information about the Science Gallery at www.sciencegallery.com and hydrogen from organic feedstocks, and coupled to the plant will be a combined heat and power plant for generating electricity. The development is a joint venture between Imperative Energy, based
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at Maynooth, and Sustainable BioPolymers, and according to the company, €40 million is being invested, and construction is expected to take two years.
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UPFRONT
Dino posture
THE iconic long necked images of sauropod dinosaurs might not be accurate. Dr Mike Taylor and Dr Darren Naish, of the University of Portsmouth, and Dr Matt Wedel, of Western University of Health Sciences in California, argue that while sauropods could hold their necks low, it was not their habitual posture. The scientists studied X-rays of members of 10 different vertebrate groups and found that while the neck is only gently inclined in salamanders, turtles, lizards and crocodilians, it is vertical in mammals and birds – the only modern groups that share the upright leg posture of dinosaurs.
Ganging up
The juviniles of some birds are often seen to ‘hang out’ in gangs, but when they grow up and find a mate, they prefer to keep to themselves. Biologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have been looking at the behaviour of ravens, the young of which gather in flocks of up to 30 birds. Adult ravens live in solitary pairs, and as the researchers discovered, they have to compete with
While drinking, the neck could have swept low, but like a giraffe, the normal posture is likely to have been closer to vertical. The neck vertebrae of sauropods fit together mainly by way of ball and socket joints. In addition, the top part of each vertebra has a pair of facets, two at the front and two at the back, which glide past each other when the neck bends. Dr Taylor said: “Scientists have assumed that each pair of facets must maintain at least a 50 percent overlap at all times; but looking at what ostriches and giraffes do, we see that their facets can slide much further, until they hardly overlap at all. This
the ‘gangs’. In a parallel with street gangs, the young ravens use group behaviour to beat off the adults. Jonathan Wright who has been working on the study with Sasha Dall from the University of Exeter, said that when young ravens discover carrion, often in the form of a
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means that sauropods would have had a far greater range of neck movement than has been thought in recent times. “Unless sauropods carried their heads and necks differently from every living vertebrate, we have to assume that the base of their neck was curved strongly upwards. In some sauropods this would have meant a graceful swan-like S-curve to the neck, and a look quite different from the recreations we are used to seeing today.” Illustrations by Mark Witton.
dead sheep, they have been observed to fly back to the roost and spread the word among six or seven “mates”. The gang then returns to the carrion, driving off any adults, even if they are within their own territory. Others simply hunt in packs, and when they come across carrion, they chase off any nesting pairs.
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UPFRONT Charting of biodiversity and rarity of plants, shows that ocean islands are high on the list. A relict from the ancient past, Amborella, a small evergreen shrub from New Caledonia. Amborella once grew on Gondwana, the massive continent that existed before the Earth’s plates moved apart. Photo: Wilhelmk Barthlott.
Island diversity
PEOPLE like to live around the coast, and so do other animals. Researchers from the universities of Bonn, California and Eberswalde have concluded island life is nine times more diverse than on a similar sized area inland. Not that this is a totally new discovery, but as one of the researchers, Dr Holger Kreft from the University of California commented, “although islands have been known since Darwin’s day for their unique flora and fauna, until now there was no global analysis comparing their value for nature conservation with continents.” According to the researchers, of 315,000 plant species listed worldwide, 70,000 are native to oceanic islands. Yet, islands cover less than four per cent of the total land area. The results of the study are to appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Islands are havens for biodiversity, but they are vunerable. This fossil egg from Madagascar, if it had hatched, could have produced an Elephant Bird, up to 3 metres high and weighing 400 kg. The birds, now extinct, probably gave rise to the legendary giant Roc of the Aranian Nights. Photo: Wilhelm Barthlott.
Plain speaking
MATHEMATiCs post grad student, Julie O’Donovan, from UCC, was presented with the top prize in this year’s Science Speak competition. During the competition, held at the RDs and supported by The Irish Times, scientists explain about their research in terms that can be understood by all. The competition attracted research students from all irish universities, and this year’s winner, Julie O’Donovan talked about “Collections of spherical obstacles that Brownian motion can avoid.” Julie, from inniscarra, Co Cork recently completed her Masters and spent some time in Poland before returning to continue her research at UCC.
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UPFRONT Ireland India
IrIsh researchers have been invited to co-operate with scientists in India. A formal programme of co-operation between Ireland and India was signed during May, paving the way for joint research projects. Under the deal, funding will be provided for approved projects.
Cutting costs
rEsEArCh students at Trinity College are planning to reduce the cost of simulating eye surgery. At present, the systems used to train eye surgeons cost about €100,000, but the researchers maintain that costs could be slashed dramatically by using affordable off-theshelf components. For their work, the TCD team were selected to represent Ireland in the global finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2009. The competition, started seven years ago, challenges students to solve the toughest problems facing society. This year over 500 entries were received from colleges and institutes around Ireland.
Debating
In AprIL secondary school students were at the TCD science Gallery to debate on the motion that opposing evidence-based theories such as evolution damages all sciences. students from st Mary’s secondary school in Macroom, Co Cork, merged as the all-Ireland winners. The Cork winners were followed by finalists from St Dominic’s high school, sutton; Belfast high school, and st Attracta’s Community school in Tubercurry, Co sligo. The competition, involving a number of research centres was co-ordinated by nUI Galway’s regenerative Medicine Institute, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. Prof Frank Barry, Scientific Director of REMEDI, NUI Galway with All-Ireland science debate winners Maria Buckley and Shonagh Lynch from St Mary’s Secondary School, Macroom, Co. Cork and Tom Ziessen, Public Engagement Advisor of The Wellcome Trust.
Going under
ANIMAL studies suggest that anaesthetics might influence the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. Researchers from the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities found that anaesthesia induces a phosphorylation change in a particular protein associated with Alzheimer’s. The protein, known as tau, is known to be involved in a number of neurodegenerative disorders. In the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the researchers reported that a short exposure of just 30 seconds can be enough to induce phosphorylation at some sites.
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UPFRONT Genetic exchange
Hubble
FOLLOWING a 13 day mission involving five spacewalks, the Hubble telescope has been given a new lease of life. Existing equipment was repaired, and a new camera, and spectrograph were installed. The wide field camera 3 gives Hubble the capacity to capture images in infrared, visible and ultraviolet on the one instrument, and the cosmic origins specgtrograph will be used to determine the chemical composition of material at the edge of the Universe. The upgrading of Hubble means that the telescope will remain in service until 2014. In that year, the James Webb Space Telescope, with a mirror telescope, almost three times larger than Hubble’s is due to take over.
BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition
NOW is the time to think about working up an award winning project for the next BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. More than 100 awards are on offer, and the exhibition has always helped launch young scientists into productive careers. Over ten previous winners have gone on to win prizes in the EU Contest for Young Scientists, and many of the people now prominent in science, engineering, maths and technology are former participants. BT has been the sponsor and organiser for the past ten years, and company CEO, Chris Clark, said that the success of the competition is something to be proud of. Thousands of entries are involved, and more than 100 people are employed in putting the exhibition together. BT, said Chris Clark, is happy to continue supporting the exhibition, particularly because it is seen as a means to foster essential science, engineering and technology skills. The exhibition will take placde at the RDS from 12th to 16th January 2010. Details are available on the web site www. btyoungscientist.ie Chris Clarke, CEO BT Ireland, and television presenter and science teacher, Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain, watch student Enya Fullston have a hair raising experience at the TCD Science Gallery.
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GENES from a Sicilian relation found their way into an old native plant in Britain. Groundsel is a common wild plant in Ireland and Britain, and about 300 years ago a Sicilian relation was introduced to the UK. As researchers at the John Innes Centre at the University of St Andrew found, one of the genes, making the plant more attractive to pollinators, managed to cross over from the Sicilian into the long established native. According to the researchers, this shows how natural genetic exchange can allow beneficial traits to be transferred from one species to another. Instead of evolving into separate genetic lineages, there is a form of cross-talk, that allows valuable genes to be exchanged and preserved. MORE than 250 patents have been filed from SFI funded research to date, and the target is to double the number of filings over the next five years. In declaring this target, Frank Gannon, Director General of SFI, said that commercialisation of research has become a priority.
Stem cell production
ONE of the problems in applying stem cell therapies is in ensuring a consistent well-characterised supply. Once stem cells have been harvested, they have to be cultured in the lab, and while this is being done to keep researchers supplied, a dramatic increase in production will be needed when therapies go on into the clinic. Although techniques for culturing in the lab have advanced rapidly, Prof Frank Barry from Regerative Medicine Institute at NUI Galway, said that relatively little progress has been made for the large-scale manufacturing. A limited ability to produce stem cells, he said, would hold up development of therapies. To address that problem REMEDI, is co-ordinating a European wide collaborative research project. The PurStem project, with â‚Ź3.5 million funding, aims to revolutionise large scale culturing of adult stem cells. Apart from REMEDI, other partners include the University of Genoa, Ovagen International, the University of Leeds, Pintail Ltd, the Charles University of Prague, and ProCure in Ireland.
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Go on line for the Science Spin diary of events and science community notice board SCIENCE SPIN Issue 34 Page 35
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Laughter
LOTS of animals like to play, but when did we begin to laugh? More than likely, laughter began long before humans emerged. At the University of Portsmouth, Dr Marina Davila
Ross, a primatologist, has been comparing baby human laughter with recordings of infant apes. When palms, feet, necks and armpits were tickled, Dr Marina, working with scientists from Georgia (US) and Hannover, discovered that the laughter patterns produced by orangutans, gorilla, chimps, and humans are quite similar. The results from analysing 800 recordings suggest that the control of breathing necessary to produce a good prolonged laugh may have helped the development of speech in humans.
Cold Summer
IN APRIL 1815 there was a huge volcanic eruption in Indonesia. The Tambora volcanco eruption is thought to have been the biggest to be recorded in historical times, yet its impact was only being felt in Europe a year later. According to an international team of researchers looking into the records of Portugal and Spain, the impact, although delayed, was enormous. 1816 became known as the year without a Summer because ash and gas in the upper atmosphere acted as a giant Sun filter. Ricardo Garcia Herrera, one of the researchers, reported in the International Journal of Climatology that Summer temperatures in Madrid fell below 15ยบC, and in Autumn, the peaks of Montserrat and Montsendy were covered by snow. Among the records examined by the researchers from the universities of Libson, Madrid, Barcelona and San Fernando de Cรกdiz were weather related prayers and diaries. Less sunshine and low temperatures means that crops failed to ripen, and during this time records show that there was a marked increase in malnutrition and a rise of epidemics in Mediterranean countries. Right: Tambora, Centre for remote imaging, sensing and processing, Regional University of Singapore.
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UPFRONT
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UPFRONT
The predator, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, uses a whip like flagellum to move in on the prey. The predator enters the prey and feeds on its cytoplasm.
Competence centres
SEVEN applied research competence centres are being created by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to support Irish industry. Up to €1 million is to be invested in each of the seven centres covering expertise in nanotechnology, microelectronics, composites, manufacturing technology, energy, biorefining, and information technology. According to Enterprise Ireland, 64 companies were involved in planning the centres, including many of the leading multinationals. When fully operational, more than 200 companies are expected to become involved. Third level colleges have been invited to host the centres, and the plan is to provide each with an experienced “technology leader”. The centres are expected to speed up the transfer of knowledge by providing an industry/college platform.
Right? Try this. While sitting, raise your right foot. Now, make a clockwise motion with your foot. While doing this, draw the number six with your right hand in the air. Surprised? So you should be, but don’t think you are peculiar. It seems to be just one of the oddities hard-wired into our system.
Pseudomonas fluorescens can be observed to form different colonies in culture.
Witnessing evolution in action
PREDATOR and prey are bound onto a co-evolutionary path. As prey becomes resistant to the predator, the predator must adapt to survive. Scientists at the Laboratoire Écologie et Évolution studied how two bateria, one a predator on the other, changed over 300 generations. Apart from noting the interrelationships, the researchers concluded that co-evolution has serious implications in the proposed use of
Biopharm net
‘living antibiotics’ , such as Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, to treat diseases. In their tests, the researchers used Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus as the preditor, and Pseudomonas fluorescens as the prey. Over time in culture, the predatory bacterium developed into two distinct forms, each occupying an ecological niche, one at the top, and the other in the low oxygen bottom. By carrying out a series of culture tests, the researchers found that if no predator was present, the Pseudomonas population remained stable, but where there was a mixed population, the prey species began to diverge with the appearance of resistant strains. In addition, the prey began to evolve, producing forms that could overcome the resistance.
FIFTEEN pharmaceutical companies have become involved in supporting a threeyear research project to come up with cheaper and more efficient manufacturing processes. The team, being led by researchers at UCD, includes DCU, the National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training, and the Tyndall National Institute. One of the aims is to switch from measuring quality after processing to monitoring throughout the entire manufactruring cycle. Industry experts maintain that this approach could cut costs dramatically while at the same time ensuring higher quality in end products.
Shellfish toxins WHEN conditions favour growth, marine algae can bloom, and with some species, this causes problems for shellfish. The shellfish, exposed to a bloom, can accumulate toxins, making them unfit for human consumption. Algal blooms are a problem wherever shellfish are harvested, and the threat is serious enough throughout the EU to require constant monitoring of coastal waters. In Ireland, Dr Robin Raine at the NUIG Martin Ryan Institute, is collaborating with other scientists throughout Europe to come up with a rapid test to detect the toxins. The aim is to develop a test that can be used locally. At present, testing involves sending samples away to specialised laboratories. As Dr Raine observed, this is expensive. He estimated that algal blooms cost the shellfish industry in Ireland over €3 million a year. Better prediction and more efficient detection, he said, would remove an enormous financial burden from this sustainable industry.
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Jane McLoughlin’s winning photo.
Greenwave 2009 is over for yet another year. Check out
www.greenwave.ie for the results of our rain gauge task and to see all the wonderful photos submitted by schools all over the country. There were 7 individual winners of each category. The overall winning photo was submitted by Jane McLoughlin from Scoil Naisiunta Chaitriona, Renmore, Co Galway. Congratulations to all winners.
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Behold, the first computer
Marie-Catherine Mousseau writes about unfolding the mystery of the world’s oldest computer.
T
he story as we know it began in 1900, not far from Crete. Sponge divers were returning to their home in Symi, when a storm blew up and forced them to take shelter on a small island, in front of the island of Kythera – Antikythera is its name. There they went for another dive and discovered the wreck of a Roman
trading ship. This turned out to be one of the most surprising finds of modern time. The significance of the discovery was not in the beautiful statues retrieved from the ship, although these happened to be “some of the finest Hellenistic bronze statues”, commented Prof Mike Edmunds at Cardiff University, school of Physics and Astronomy, Wales, UK during the Teachers of Physics Annual Conference held in UCD, Dublin. Speaking at
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“Frontiers of Physics 2008” organised by the Institute of Physics in Ireland, Prof Edmunds explained that the exceptional find made off the coasts of Antikythera came in the form of a lump of bronze, the size of a shoe box, which stayed in this shapeless form for a few years — in fact until soon after it was taken to Athens, when for some as yet unclear reason it eventually cracked open. Then somebody looked inside and said: “Hang on a minute, there are gears in there!” SPIN
The lump of bronze indeed contained fragments of a mechanism involving 30 gear wheels, maybe more. “Gears were not known to be present in classical Greece,” Prof Mike Edmunds said. “This by itself is very unusual.” But it was not before the 1960-70s, when radiology of the fragments was done, that the real implications of this device were investigated. What they revealed has completely challenged our current understanding of history of technology.
First mechanical computer
All the evidence seemed to suggest that not only has it the first known gears, it also has the first known scientific scales. As first published in Scientific American in June 1959, the Antikythera mechanism appears to be designed to display astronomical positions. When a date was entered via a crank, the mechanism calculated the position of the Sun, Moon, and possibly other astronomical information such as the location of other planets. It is even thought to have been able to predict eclipses. So it seems that what the sponge divers discovered some one hundred years ago is the oldest known complex scientific calculator – or in other words the first known mechanical computer. What’s more, the actual fragment is covered with Greek inscriptions
Origin
Site of the find, Antikythera, where sponge divers made their discovery. of astronomical significance, which according to Prof Mike Edmunds means one thing – the instrument has instructions going with it. “Nothing as complicated in terms of mechanism is known until the area of the medieval cathedral clocks,” Prof Edmunds enthused. But we are far from the medieval era. Using such clues as the specific Greek words found in the inscriptions, or the coins surrounding it, scientists estimated the age of the device around 100BC. The astronomical calculator was created some thousand years before any kind of technological artefacts of similar complexity were known to exist. As Prof Edmunds put it, “It’s an extraordinary artefact.” By taking multiple exposures, images can be viewed under different lighting conditions.
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Extraordinary surely, but not impossible. Cicero recorded in three of his books that he had seen or heard of a mechanism for displaying the position of the Sun, the Moon, sometimes the planets in the sky. Two of the devices which Cicero described were built by Archimedes, and brought to Rome after his death at the siege of Syracuse in 212BC. If Cicero’s account is correct, similar technology had existed as early as the 3rd century BC. “This is incredibly important,” Prof Edmunds said, “if we didn’t have this reference in the literature you wouldn’t believe it’s a genuine artefact from ancient Greece.” Indeed, it is far too sophisticated to have been a one-off device. The flawless mechanism, the complexity of the design, everything in it suggests that it had a number of predecessors. In fact, Cicero’s references to such mechanisms support the idea that there was an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology. This would have later been transmitted to the Islamic world, where a number of similarly complex mechanical devices were built by Muslim engineers and astronomers during the Middle Ages. Such knowledge could then have been integrated with European clockmaking and medieval cranes.
The Antikythera Project Prof Edmunds, who is an astronomer by training, was fascinated by the instrument’s story. In order to try to move things further, he got involved in the formation of a multinational research team that became known as the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project (AMRP). This involved international collaboration between Cardiff University, Greek Universities as well as the National Archeological Museum of Athens and included people with a wide range of expertise from a professor of space and physics, a Greek radio-astronomer, and an expert in the form and arrangement of Greek letters. But it was one of Prof Edmunds’ friends, Tony Freeth, a former filmmaker, who has conducted a vast amount of the work done on this
X-ray images reveal the inner workings, and the circles within circles show how the cog wheels meshed together.
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project. “When I told him about the project, he became absolutely fascinated,” Prof Edmunds said. “He’d basically dedicate his life to research this thing.” They realised that to get new results, new data was needed. This led Tony to propose new investigations using the latest cutting-edge technologies of microfocus Xray and digital imaging. Two companies, Hewlett-Packard USA and X-Tek Systems UK, were taken on board. X-Tek Systems developed an 8.5 ton microfocus X-ray computerised tomographer especially for the Antikythera mechanism, while HP designed a simple clever system to do the 3D surface imaging. Prof Edmunds explained: “This merely involves a hemispheric dome with 50 flash bulbs, a digital camera, and a computer.” Basically the camera takes pictures while each of the bulbs lights up in turn. The result is then included in a software which allows the user to visualise and move the object in space. They put together a proposal and hoped that it would be accepted. “It took four years to get permission from the Greeks to do the experiment,” said Prof Edmunds. Even then, they wouldn’t let the researchers remove the mechanism from the museum due to its fragility; so HP and X-Tek Systems had to bring their devices to Greece (including the 8.5 ton X-Ray tomographer).
New discoveries
Luckily, the results were worth the effort. The team’s findings have shed new light on the function and purpose of the Antikythera mechanism. From about 700 characters that were visible previously, they can now identify and translate over 2000 characters. Thanks to the new inscriptions they were able to get a more precise dating of the object to around 100BC. They also confirmed that pointers on the front face of the mechanism (including the solar scale and the zodiac graduations) were designed to indicate the position of the Sun, the Moon, but also the lunar phase, and possibly the planetary motions. The planetarium function in particular was supported by the inscriptions of Venus and Mars as well
published on November the 30th 2006 and July the 30th 2008 – both in the journal Nature.
What is it?
as those mentioning the stationary points of the different planets – together suggesting that the device had indicators for all the five planets known to the Greeks (i.e. the ‘Inferior Planets’ Mercury and Venus, and the ‘Superior Planets’ Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). In addition, the team’s findings supported the idea that the mechanism could also track the Metonic cycle (a particular period used to fix calendars), and predicted eclipses. Finally, among the new inscriptions they identified the word ‘Olympia’. Together with a dial divided into four parts demonstrating a four-year cycle. This suggested that the astronomical device was probably also used to calculate the timing of the Ancient Olympic Games. But Prof Edmunds is particularly keen to point out another of their discoveries, which according to him is one of the most surprising of all. He explained that the orbital movement of the moon is not regular. The velocity of our satellite varies, which means that it does not move exactly by the lunar months. The team discovered how, thanks to the clever use of a pin and a slot ingeniously placed on two gears linked with a slightly offset axis, the mechanism was able to mimic the irregularity of the lunar rolling and thus predict the position of the moon with great accuracy. “This is extraordinarily clever,” Prof Edmunds commented, “we’re dealing with a phenomenal, staggering mechanical design, fascinating in its complexity.” The new results, along with a new reconstruction of the mechanism, were
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Unfolding the mechanism underlying this brilliant design is undoubtedly fascinating, but even more so is using these clues to try to figure out the overall purpose of such a technological achievement. What is it all about? Who and why would care to construct such a sophisticated instrument to know the position of bodies in the heavens? First of all, the device is thought to have had some social functions. As suggested by the tracking of the different cycles, it might have been used to adjust calendars based on lunar cycles (metonic cycle) as well as the solar year. This might also have been useful for setting the dates of religious festivals or predicting which games were to take place in any given year. Secondly, astrology was standard practice in the ancient world. A device capable of giving the configuration of the heavens at any point of time would have been a precious tool for astrologers, saving them the timeconsuming task of working this out themselves. Some experts believe that its main purpose was for public display or as a teaching aid. One hypothesis is that the Antikythera mechanism was constructed on the Greek island of Rhodes. “Rhodes at the time was known for its astronomical tradition,” Prof Edmunds pointed out. There was a huge scientific and cultural gap between the very few educated elite who understood basic rules of solar, lunar and planetary motion and the common people who viewed solar and lunar eclipses as supernatural events, associated with fear. Such a device, on display in a university, museum or temple in Rhodes, could have been designed to fill this gap – thus representing one of the first tools aimed at popularising science. Others argue on the contrary that it is too small and compact to be suitable for public display. They believe the mechanism aimed for compactness to
be used by non expert travellers – a hypothesis which is supported by the inclusion of an instruction manual. Could the instrument just be a navigation tool which would explain why it was found in a boat? But then what use would it have to predict eclipses? Also some argue that the harsh environment of the sea would corrode the gears very quickly. The reason this device was found in a wreck while all the other mechanisms did not survive could just be that
bronze at that time was a valuable commodity. When instruments stopped working, they would have been melted down. So the simple answer is, we don’t know. Prof Edmunds likes to highlight its philosophical dimension. The astronomical calculator might have been designed to demonstrate the determinism of a perfectly mechanical universe. In any case, the Antikythera mechanism still holds part of its
secrets, which make it so special. “It is unique,”, Prof Mike Edmunds said. “To my mind it is actually more valuable than the Mona Lisa. We have other works from Leonardo da Vinci, we have nothing else like this.” Website: http://www.antikytheramechanism.gr/ Mousseau, Marie-Catherine has a PhD in neuroscience and an MSc in Science Communications.
How the Antikythera Mechanism is designed
19, 76, 223; these are three key inscriptions found on the device, which according to Prof Edmunds highlight some of its key functions. “We all know what is the astronomical significance of these figures,” says Prof Edmunds jokingly. Of course most of us don’t, but Greek astronomers already did, as demonstrated by the way the Antikythera mechanism is designed. The mechanism has three main dials, one on the front, and two on the back. l The front dial has two concentric scales – the outer one marked with the days of the 365-day Egyptian calendar, the inside one marked with the Greek signs of the Zodiac. The front dial is believed to display: l The annual progress of the Sun and Moon through the zodiac against the 365-day Egyptian calendar. l The lunar phase through a second mechanism it contains. l Possibly the position of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the five planets known by the Greeks. The upper back dial in the form of a spiral displays: l The 235 months of the Metonic cycle, which approximately equals 19 solar years. This represents the exact number of lunar months needed to get back at the exact same phase of the moon. The metonic cycle is important in fixing calendars.
l The 76 years (that is 4 x 19 years) of the Callippic cycle, that proposes a more accurate periodicity than the metonic cycle. l The word ‘Olympia’ as well as the names of other games in ancient Greece. A dial demonstrating a fouryear cycle is thought to be a mean of describing which of the games (such as the ancient Olympics) were to take place in any given year. l The lower back dial is also in the form of a spiral, with 223 divisions showing the Saros eclipse cycle. The Saros cycle lasts exactly 223 lunar months, a period of approximately 18 years —the length of time between occurrences of a particular eclipse. “It is a brilliant design, fascinating in its complexity,” Prof Edmunds concludes. The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project in which Prof Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth take part, built on the work of a number of individuals and groups who were instrumental in advancing the knowledge and understanding of the mechanism including: Derek J. de Solla Price (with Charalampos Karakalos); Allan George Bromley and his team; Michael Wright; and Dionysios Kriaris, a Greek mathematician.
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Kathleen Dudzinski,pioneered a special camera for recording dolphin behaviour.
Dolphins get the point Justin Gregg, a doctoral student at the Trinity College School of Psychology, won third place in the 2008 Wellcome Trust and New Scientist essay competition for an account of his research with an international research collaboration, the Dolphin Communication Project. Jenny Moffett talks to him about his work.
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trawl of the internet will uncover a range of websites dedicated to everything from dolphin healing to ‘dolphins from outer space’. These are mysterious and fascinating creatures, but where does fiction end and fact begin? The Dolphin Communication Project, a US-based science research and education organisation with several study locations across the globe, aims to address these questions. The project, which carries out long-term, longitudinal observations of dolphins, researches the cognition, communication and social behaviours of this popular cetacean. But the project’s researchers put equal emphasis on another type of communication, outreach work, and also seek to educate other scientists,
and the wider public, on their findings. Justin Gregg, a doctoral student at the Trinity College School of Psychology, and has spent the last four years working with the Dolphin Communication Project (DCP): “Part of what we do is publishing popular science accounts and communicating what it is that dolphin scientists do and have discovered. There’s a lot of very strange information about dolphins which you can find. Some of it is harmless, you know the idea that dolphins are actually from outer space and have psychic powers. But some of it is sinister, saying that dolphins heal autism and making pseudoscientific claims that can cause quite a lot of harm to dolphins and to humans. So, we are keen to clear the air.” The Dolphin Communication Project was founded in the late ‘90s by current director Kathleen Dudzinski, a US marine biologist. Dudzinski pioneered an underwater camera array that’s used to investigate dolphin behaviour underwater by recording video and stereo audio. The camera equipment is used at DCP study locations dotted across the world, including wild dolphin populations
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off the coast of Japan and Bimini, the Bahamas, and captive populations in Honduras and Nassau, the Bahamas. Gregg came to the project in 2004. With a background in language and music – he studied linguistics at the University of Vermont and sound engineering and music technology at the Sound Training Centre, Dublin – Gregg had an interest in learning about the use of language in animal species. “I really wanted to study communication behaviour in animals as I was quite interested, in a vague sense, in the evolution of language. I was very interested in the communication signals that animals use that might have something in common with human language.” He carried out some background research and discovered that the area of dolphin behaviour was attracting curiosity in communication circles. Referential signalling, a behaviour common in humans but rare in animals, had come under the spotlight. There are different definitions for referential signalling but, in general, it relates to behaviour used by one animal to draw another animal’s attention to something outside of their SPIN
‘normal’ world. Vervet monkeys, for example, can make sounds to highlight the presence of a predator such as snake or eagle to other monkeys. Another type of referential signalling is the pointing gesture. It is something that humans use easily and frequently, but not animals. Dolphins are an exception. Gregg explains: “Experiments have been carried out where a researcher would point to a ball and the dolphin would be able to follow that point over towards the ball. For animals, even dogs, it is very difficult to follow a point into the distance so the behaviour is quite rare in the animal kingdom. It’s also strange that dolphins can do it because, one, they don’t have hands or arms and, two, because they were able to do it on the very first trial, so it seems to be something that they had an innate ability to understand.” This, he says, triggered many questions for him and he was motivated to carry out a PhD thesis in the area. This brought him into contact with the DCP as Kathleen Dudzinski – alongside Howard Smith, Head of School of Psychology at TCD – agreed to be his co-supervisor. Referential signalling in dolphins is not an entirely new area of study. Research carried out in the mid-‘90s by Mark Xitco and Herbert Roitblat, who worked with captive dolphins at the Epcot Center in Florida, set the scene for this behaviour. The work, which has since been corroborated by DCP scientists, suggested that dolphins could glean information from each other through behaviour known as ‘eavesdropping’. When dolphins need to know more about the environment around them, they produce a series of click sounds which, when they bounce back from objects in the water, make echoes. By listening to these echoes, a process known as echolocation, a dolphin can get an image of whatever is nearby – say a rock, boat or fish. Research has demonstrated that dolphins don’t just listen to their own clicks, they can also tune in to the clicks of other dolphins in their vicinity. This ‘eavesdropping’ behaviour is thought to be the dolphin equivalent to pointing. Gregg wanted to take this work a step further. “There have been a lot of studies done in captivity but noone really knows how dolphins use echolocation in the wild. So that’s what
Justin Gregg has been observing communications in dolphins. I was in the water trying to figure out,” he says. Working with a population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) based near a small volcanic rocky outcrop off the coast of Japan, Mikura Island, Gregg would don wetsuit and record underwater dolphin behaviour for hours at a time. The Japanese population was selected for the relaxed nature of its individual dolphins around people. Gregg explains: “You have to find a group of wild dolphins that are habituated to the presence of humans, for example tourists or researchers, in the water. It takes years to build up the trust. It’s the same reason why people go to visit gorillas in Rwanda – it takes a long time for the gorillas to finally ignore you, you’re part of the scenery and they go about their social lives. The same’s true for dolphins. I can name three or four sites in the world where you can jump in the water and the dolphins ignore you.” His results from the Mikura population have suggested that there are subtle changes in behaviour which indicate that one dolphin is listening in on information supplied by another. For example, an eavesdropping dolphin is more likely to stay silent and move their head position when they listen to the signal of the investigating dolphin. Gregg explains: “I waited until two dolphins approached me before recording their behaviour to see if one of them or both of them echolocates. I would
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also observe if there was a trend that one would echolocate and the other would remain still, just listen and kind of follow the head movement of the other. To some extent, this seems true.” The research findings may have an impact on communication science outside of the animal world. Gregg, who became the lead researcher in charge of the Japan site and is now Vice President of the DCP, says: “The ability to understand a pointing gesture is no trivial matter, and is often singled out as a skill exclusive to the human mind; part of the unique arsenal of cognitive aptitudes that makes us the wise ape.” This has practical applications for human communication. A lack in ability to interpret point gestures, for example, has been flagged as one of the criteria used in diagnosing autism. Could it be that new information yielded from non-human species could hold answers for those affected by such conditions? Gregg says: “As we begin to understand how pointing comprehension, mind reading skills, and echolocation may be interconnected in the dolphin brain, we ultimately learn more about the human brain.” With the commitment and innovation shown by researchers involved in the Dolphin Communication Project, it is likely that the mysteries of the dolphin words will unfold over time. And, with these answers, we may learn more about ourselves. As Gregg concludes: “Somewhere at the intersection of the dolphins’ pointing skill and the limitations imposed by autism, lurks the answer to a bigger question about what makes us human.” Justin Gregg’s award-winning essay, ‘Dolphin’s get the point’, can be accessed at: www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Publicengagement/WTD003406.htm For more information on the Dolphin Communication Project, go to: www. dolphincommunicationproject.org Jenny Moffett qualified as a veterinary surgeon, has a Masters in Communication from DCU and is a freelance editor and science journalist.
Bugs could stop plastics going to waste Seán Duke reports how bacteria can cut down on the volume of plastics going into landfill.
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lastics – particularly those made from petrochemicals, called PET plastics - are very useful for all kinds of purposes. They are, however, also a major contributor to waste landfills. That is why the research of Dr Kevin O’Connor, UCD is so exciting. He has found three bacteria that can convert used PET into a more valuable form of plastic. As a society, we are very dependent on plastics. They are everywhere, in the cars we drive, in the seats we sit on, and wrapping the convenience foods we eat. These products facilitate our fast-moving, modern lives, but they come with problems too. What do we do once we have used them? Well, typically, they end up in landfill. The vast majority of products based on PET plastics – the oil-based plastics – will end up in landfill after they have been used. As much as 80 per cent end up going there, something that is not desirable as landfill is the least-favoured waste disposal option. The idea of Dr Kevin O’Connor was to use bacteria – bugs – to convert the PET plastics back into usable format again, and, thus, avoid landfill. The problem he confronted at the start of his EPA-funded project is that there was no known microorganism that could directly tackle used PET plastics, and break them down. Thus, he came up first with the idea of pre-treating the plastics so that they would be converted into new formats that bacteria might then be able to deal with. The pre-treating process involved heating the plastic in the absence of oxygen. This converted the plastic into gas and a material known as terephthalic acid, or simply TA. The gas was immediately useful, and it could be siphoned off to produce energy. Some Pseudomonas bacteria are known to digest TA, converting it into a biodegradable plastic known as PHA, polyhydroxyalkanoate PHA is a plastic used in medical devices, and it would have a lot more applications, such as food packaging, if a way could be found to make it in larger quantities. The prospect of converting PET waste into something more valuable was attractive, so Dr O’Connor searched the world for suitable strains of the plastic eating bug.
As nothing suitable was turning up, he turned his attention to bacteria living around PET facilities in Ireland, reasoning that there might be enough terephthalic acid around to sustain a population. After screening about 400 different strains, Dr O’Connor hit lucky. He found three that could devour the heat treated PET. The end product, a thermoplastic elastomer, is a very useful temperature-resistant, highly stretchable plastic. This was a major step forward. The next step was to trick the bugs into making as much of this useful plastic in the bio-reactor as possible. “It’s nice that the bug gets fat, but we’d like it to get even fatter,” commented Dr O’Connor. This EPA-funded project ends in 2010 and at that stage Dr O’Connor and his team will hope, at that stage, to have identified one of the three bugs that is the most suitable to be brought forward into a larger-scale study. Dr O’Connor’s work potentially has great benefits to Ireland, by removing PET plastics from the waste stream and reducing the pressure on landfills. The work is also quite unique, as nowhere in the world is anyone using bacteria to break PET plastics down into a bio-degradable plastic that can be easily constituted into new products. Although bio-plastics are being produced, they are being made from sugar and from corn. “Nobody is actually trying to convert PET plastic bottles into biodegradable plastics,” said Dr O’Connor. The UCD researcher is also looking at whether other waste types can be dealt with by the three bugs, to see how far their abilities can be pushed.
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Top; bugs engorged with plastic as they convert it into a more useful form. Left: the biodegradable results could be applied widely, for example, in packaging.
SPIN
Dr Matthew Parkes from the Natural History division of the National Museum together with visitors to the display at Collins Barracks. Photo: Lensmen.
Visiting Ireland’s wild and wonderful past
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here in Ireland can you come face to face with a Tasmanian devil, a wolf, and a wild boar? They are all among the assembled animals in the National Museum at Collins Barracks in Dublin on show together with rocks, fossils and beautifully crafted translucent glass models. Following the fairly abrupt closure of the Natural History museum in Merrion Street, all of these exhibits had been put away for storage, but earlier this year a selection of the best went back on public display. The lofty Riding School at Collins Barracks has become, in effect, the new Dead Zoo. Visitors to the old museum might miss the Victorian clutter, but at the blacked out Riding School the darkened interior makes the illuminated exhibits stand out like art objects in a gallery. Many of the exhibits are, in fact, objects of amazing natural beauty, among them a petrified nest complete with eggs. Every intertwined twig has been perfectly preserved by being washed over by a stream of calcified water.
The natural history collection of the National Museum is back on display at Collins Barracks in Dublin. Tom Kennedy picks out some of the highlights.
An 19th century engraving of the giant Irish deer at the National Museum.
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In one way, the new arrangement of exhibits marks a return to the original focus on rocks. The lead in, and a large part of the general display, is made up of geological specimens, starting with some of the oldest objects in the Universe, in the form of four million year old meteorites. Minerals and fossils were not a big feature of the display at Merrion Street, but back in the 19th century, rocks formed the core of what eventually became the National Museum collection. At the time, the Dublin Society, now the RDS, mounted a big display of rocks and minerals in Leinster House to help “improving” landowners to identify natural resources on their estates. At Collins Barracks, the rocks have made a welcome return, and they help to present a more complete picture of Ireland’s past. From glittering quartzite, green serpentine, and brightly coloured mineral ores, we pass on to to the fossilized emergence of life. There are spiral gastropods, a starfish, trilobites, and the near perfect impressions left by the freshwater plants that grew around Kilkenny about four million years ago.
hunted down to local extinction. The lynx, wolf, and wild boar we see, like the roaring tiger, came from zoos, but they are not just stuffed animals. The 19th century taxidermists were experts in creating realistic displays for museums, and among the best firms was Williams & Son of Dame Street in Dublin. More than a century later, their work is still being admired in the National Museum, and even with species that we still have with us, such as the raven, the stuffed bird still gives us a much better idea of form, glossy texture and sheer size than any illustration. Preservation has always been a problem for museums, particularly of invertebrates and for this reason the Blaschka father and son team near Dresden began modelling soft bodied specimens in the late 19th century. Fortunately this was also a time of expansion for the museum in Dublin, and between 1870 and 1888 about 500 Blaschka models were purchased. Most are of marine animals, and for detail, scientific accuracy, and dazzling beauty, these models have never been surpassed. For me, these amazing models, a selection of which is on display in Collins Barracks, have always been the highlight of a visit the Natural History Museum.
Compared to the fossil plants, the extinct animals from the Ice Ages are positively new. A massive tooth from Castlepook in Co Cork reminds us that woolly mammoths once roamed over the chilly countryside, and another extinct animal is represented by the complete skeleton of the giant Irish deer from Rathcannon in Co Limerick. It is thought that these animals had completely disappeared from the landscape before humans arrived in Ireland. Other species survived in Ireland for longer, including the lynx, the wolf and the wild pigs. Bones discovered in Kilgreany Cave, Co Waterford, suggest that the lynx was widespread almost 9,000 years ago, and both wolf and wild pigs are known to have survived much longer. Because these animals are more recent the museum can present us with more than just bones. There is a handsome, silvery haired wolf, and a stiff bristled wild pig on display, both of which would have been a familiar sight to our rural ancestors. No doubt the clearing of forests played a significant role, but by the 17th century the pig was no more, and a century later the last wolf was
Top, one of the delicate Blaschka models. Many are greatly enlarged to show up the details, and they represented a major advance in presentation of soft bodied specimens because, for the first time ever, colours and form could be shown as in life. The models are among the treasures of the National Museum. Photograph; National Museum of Ireland. Above, one of the fossil plants from Kiltorcan, Co Kilkenny. This one is part of the Geological Survey of Ireland collection, and a matching specimen is part of the Collins Barracks display. Photograph Tom Kennedy
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Top left; Laetiporus sulphurous, Chicken of the Woods. Photo Pat McClelland. Middle: Boletus luridus, Lurid Bolete. Photo Pat McClelland. Top right: Tawny Web Cap, Cortinarius rubellus. Photo Tom Harrington. Bottom left: Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria. Bottom right: Honey Fungus, Armillaria mellea.
Ireland’s forest fungi Tom Kennedy reviews a colourful new guide from Coford.
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hen the great decidious forests were cleared, Ireland lost much more than its stock of mature trees. The woodland fungi were also pushed a lot closer to the brink of extinction, and with that decline came a near total loss of forest lore and inherited knowledge. Fortunately, forests can recover, and as the oaks, ashes, birches and other trees mature, they are recreating a home for our fungi. It’s actually a two way process, for, as the authors of Forest Fungi in Ireland Louis Smith and Paul Dowding, point out, fungi need trees, and trees need fungi. Fungi can unlock essential nutrients from the poorest of soils, and without them many trees could not thrive. We are not always aware of these fungi because for most of the time they are hidden in the soil as microscopically fine thread-like mycellae. The fungus only becomes visible to us when the threads bundle together into cords, and until the fruiting body emerges in
the recognisable form of a mushroom or toadstool we might never suspect that anything living was there at all. Yet that toadstool may be part of a network that extends for metres in every direction. The authors give one example, a honey fungus, Armillaria mellea, celebrated by biologists as the world’s largest living organisms. This fungus was found to extend under an area of 600 hectares in America’s Washington State. There are many different species, probably far more than most people realise, growing in Irish forests, and as the authors explain, they represent an untapped resource. Collectively we consume mushrooms from the supermarket by the tonne, and a few other cultivated species are beginning to appear on the shelves. It would be possible to extend that range by going into the forests. There can be little doubt that forest fungi were once part of the wild harvest, but with little left to pick, the traditional skills and the
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associated knowledge were not passed on. The authors make a good case for rediscovering these skills, and in the best scientific tradition, they have putting what they have discovered to the test. The book describes 43 different edible species, all found in Ireland,and all of which have been consumed by the authors. It goes without saying that they lived to tell the tale, but they are at pains to point out the dangers of picking from the wild. It is essential to know what you are picking. A number of species are highly poisonous, and in France, where picking is popular, it is believed that about 20 people a year die from Death Cap, poisoning. Possibly this is due to the similarity of this species to the delicious Wood Mushroom. With better field experience, these problems do not have to arise, and of course, like supermarket mushrooms, some species could be cultivated, or at least, be harvested in a systematic way. SPIN
Top left: Handkea excipuliformis, Pestle Puffball. Mid top: Cantharellus tubaeformis, Winter or Yellow Leg Chanterelle. Top right: Macrolepiota rhacodes, Shaggy Parasol. Owners of mature forests in England are being encouraged to diversify into marketing of edible fungi. It is possible that some species could lend themselves to cultivation, and as the authors remind us, large scale mushroom cultivation seems to have been pioneered by the French when they began making good use of the extensive caves around Paris. The book highlights the fact that there is a lot more to forestry than growing trees. Simply trying to maximise the yield of timber by being excessively neat and tidy could actually be counterproductive. For added value, it could be better to let nature take its course, and leave some timber around to rot. “Decomposing
wood provides a habitat for numerous species of animals and plants, including fungi.” Whether out for a free feed, or just to look at the wonderful shapes and colours, the time to to go hunting begins in late August, peaks in October, and lasts until the frost starts to bite in Autumn. Having this book near to hand would be useful, and if a flick through the loose bound pages does not produce a match, there is an easy to use key to help identifcation. Forest Fungi in Ireland Paul Dowding and Louis Smith Price €30, post and packing extra.
Left: False Chanterelle, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca. Photo Pat Mc Clelland. Left bottom: Bitter Beech Bolete, Boletus calopus. Photo Pat McClelland. Below: Boletus edulis, Penny Bun. Photo Pat McClelland.
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Lactarius deterrimus, Spruce Saffron Milk Cap, growing under spruce.
Left: Garicus xanthodermus, Yellow-Staining Mushroom. Photos, Pat McClelland. Right: Scarlet Cup, Sarcoscypha coddinea
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Ireland’s greatest natural hazard Foundations may not be as solid as we think when the ground around us begins to move. Seán Duke reports on a project that will help builders avoid un-necessary risks.
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rish people, unlike say Italians or Icelanders, are not regularly threatened by very large earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. That’s not to say there are no natural dangers here, there are some, and chief amongst them are landslides, which are increasing in frequency due to climate change and man’s activities. Landslides occur in all areas of the country, but occur most in areas covered in bog, and subject to occasional very heavy rainfall. When peat, bog or other sediments move, it can be very dangerous, and anything in the vicinity, including homes, roads, bridges and people can be swept away in an instant.
“It’s waving a red flag, we are not saying don’t build there, but we are saying be aware of the area’s susceptibility to landslides. You can build anywhere, but cost comes into it,” said Dr Ronnie Creighton, GSI Landslides Project Manager. The GSI is working with consultants Mouchel Parkman Ireland Ltd on the project. The Mouchel engineers are working under the guidance and supervision of the GSI. The work began in 2008, and will run for four more years, said Dr Creighton. He explained that part of the work is to determine the frequency of landslides in particular areas, and the reasons why they occurred. The initial focus is on Greater Dublin and Cork, as population centres, but the plan is to
Above: A Landslide which occurred on Kilronan Mountain, close to the village of Geevagh, Co. Sligo. This event occurred in August 2008 and was triggered by heavy rainfall. (Image by Conor Lynch, Leitrim Fire Brigade). draw up susceptibility maps for all of Ireland, north and south. “In each area of study, an inventory of past events (landslides) is studied, so a pattern can be established,” explained Dr Creighton. “This can be related to slope, vegetation and other ground conditions, and from that do some mathematical modeling and you can get a landslide susceptibility map. It is the first stage and the end stage is risk assessment and that brings in cost of damage and frequency.”
The Pollatomish Landslide 2003, Glengad, Co. Mayo. This event was triggered by exceptional rainfall overwhelming the drainage system in the area.
BACKGROUND
Landslides are probably the major ‘natural’ threat to lives and property in Ireland, but we know very little about them. That, however, has begun to change, and the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) has initiated a project, supported by the National Development Plan to the tune of €500,000 to draw up ‘landslide susceptibility maps’ that will be integrated into the planning process. The idea is to send out a warning to those that might be considering developments in areas that are susceptible to having landslides.
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building works - whether it was a small cluster of homes, or a group of wind farms - began to penetrate into remote areas, even on top of bogs. If the soils or sediments in the vicinity of the construction works were undercut, this would render them unstable and more prone to landslides when rains came. Development has slowed, but when it picks up again, this will again become an issue.
EVENTS
Map showing documented landslide events in the Irish Landslide Database (Geological Survey of Ireland). This dataset was one of the main objectives of the Irish Landslide working Group established in 2004. “A lot of the emphasis is on peat because that is where the slides are happening with heavy rain and so on. We want to look at landslide hazard to commercial buildings, and settlements. The consultants have been given the brief to do the coastal area as well. That works well with the coastal protection strategy so there is synergy with other agencies.”
FREQUENCY
The landslides project is highly relevant for many reasons, most notably because of the danger to homes, property, and to human life. And frequency with which landslides are occurring is increasing, and this is due to climate change and economic
development, so this is a natural event that we are going to see a lot more of in coming years in Ireland. As Ireland’s climate changes with global warming, experts are predicting that we will see wetter winters, particularly in the west, and drier summers, notably in the east. There will also be more intense downpours of rain. Furthermore, with sea levels to rise, as predicted, this will lead to bigger waves hitting our ‘soft coasts’ causing erosion and cliff collapses. Compounding the natural factors is the impact of the Celtic Tiger, which is roughly defined as the period between 1996 and 2008. The level of construction all around Ireland went through the roof in these years, and
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A total of 148 landslides have been recorded so far during the landslides project, and the information entered into the National Landslide Database (the information in which will be freely available). A further 264 landslides have been incorporated into the National Database as a result of the work of the Breifne Landslide Susceptibility Project. This was a GSI project that ran from 2005 to 2006 and included Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon. The historical information on landslides in Ireland has been gathered from all available written records, including journals, newspapers, local authority reports, and books. The most notable book source used by the GSI is The Bogs of Ireland by Dr John Feehan and Dr Grace O’Donovan, published by the Environmental Institute, UCD, 1996. The records indicate that some landslides that have occurred in Ireland have been fatal. The most lethal landslide on record killed 21 people at Castleguard Co Limerick in 1708. Records from the time state that: “The bog moved along a valley and buried three houses, which at the time contained about 21 people. The landslide was a mile long, a quarter mile broad and 20 feet in depth in some parts. The landside ran for several miles crossed the high road at Doon and broke through several bridges before flowing into the Lough of Coolpish.” The second most lethal landside was at Knocknageesha Co Kerry in 1896, when 8 people were killed. It was reported that: “The event occurred on the morning of December 28th 1896. The bog gave way along the line of a 1-3m deep turf cutting. It carried off a cottage in which Lord Kenmare’s quarry Stewart, Cornelius Donnelly and his family (His wife and six children) were sleeping. All eight lives were lost.”
“The cause was attributed to a dry summer followed by a wet autumn. A heavy downpour of rain set in on December 27th accompanied by a SE gale.” Dangerous landslides, however, are not confined to the distant past. For instance, a lot of destruction occurred following a slide at Pollatomish Co Mayo in September 2003. Describing the Poolatomish event, Dr Creighton said: “Several houses were just wrecked. They came down the slope. There was a high road above the coast, a lot of modern bungalows on it and the material swept like a tide, there was a lot of damage to property, and the bridge was taken out.” Pollatomish is a good example of the type of areas that are vulnerable to landsides. In this area of North Mayo there was a steep slope, with blanket bog perched on top, and peat coming down the sides. Following a very dry summer in 2003 the peat dried out and cracks appeared. When heavy rains came in September the water got into the cracks and saturated the peat. The peat became ‘buoyed up’ and heavy and shot down the slope due to gravity. When the peat moved it moved quickly, and its movement downward could be described as something akin to a hovercraft skimming over water, said Dr Creighton. Another dangerous recent slide happened near Ballincollig Co Kerry in September 2008, when peat became unstable, moved, and took out a bridge and a road, as well as dumping slurry into a nearby river. And in April 2007, one km of road on the scenic Slea Head Drive, again in Kerry, was cracked and damaged following a cliff collapse – which is another form of landslide. The road had to be re-aligned subsequently and moved inland.
DATA
The susceptibility maps will be drawn up using existing data sets, as well as integrating new data sets. The plan is that maps will be easy to read, with three colours to represent ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’ susceptibility. The areas that need to be most careful are those with peat deposits, where there has been a dry summer followed by heavy rain. “For each data set that you have, rock type, soil and slope angle, for example,” explained Dr Creighton. “You create a series of polygons, and
Above: Coastal earth fall, Slea Head, Dún Chaoin Co Kerry April 2007. Below: A debris fall on Killiney Beach, Co Dublin which occurred in December 2005 (Photo, Shane Murphy) you overlay them and create a new series of polygons. Then you apply a wetness index to the ground, based on the drainage pattern and the slope, and you have your previously known sites, and you put them all on top of one another and run a mathematical model on it.” There are the conditioning factors, such as rock type, slope angle, vegetation, land use, and aspect, explained Dr Creighton. Then there are the triggering factors, the things that cause a landslide to happen, such as heavy rainfall over a short time period, or intense construction work that undercuts a slope, particularly one that is made up of peat. All of this information is fed into a computer model which uses a specific algorhythm to come up with a map. This has to be done for lots of locations in order to come up with a map, and that is why the project will take several years to complete. It’s time consuming. This is the first time in Britain or Ireland that such susceptibility mapping has been done on a large scale, covering the greater Dublin and greater Cork regions. Up to now, this kind of mapping has only been done in site specific areas, such as around wind farm locations in Scotland, so that susceptibility in one local area can be determined.
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The methodology for what’s being attempted in Ireland has to be adjusted to take account of the bigger area, and it has to be tailored to suit existing data sets and photo imagery. Also, unlike Britain, the maps are intended for general use, and will be freely available. In Britain the trend is for these maps to only be available to the insurance industry.
GOALS
By the end of the project in 2013, Dr Creighton said he would like to have developed useful susceptibility maps, to have applied the scientific methodology to all of Ireland, to have identified areas of higher vulnerability, and to have created public awareness about landslides in terms of what they are, why they happen, and how dangerous they can be. When a landslide happens all hell breaks loose,” said Dr Creighton. “People are at risk, it is a hazard. Roads are taken out, houses may be damaged - life may be lost.“ The aims are to make people more aware of the potential of landslides to cause damage, and to bring this to their attention through the planning system.
SCIENCE SPIN What is it? A digital mini-recorder from Olympus. What does it do? Records for hours and hours on one little AAA battery and the quality is excellent. A built in USB connection means that recordings can be downloaded directly into a PC or Mac.
What is it? A plug in charger from Uni Ross delivering from 3 to 12 volts. A selection of interchangable connectors means that a variety of cameras, phones, and other mobile devices can be charged. How it works? Just move the slider to the correct voltage, choose the right connector, and charge away. The wow factor? Instead of having to lug around two or three different chargers, just one can do the job.
The wow factors? Small enough to fit in the top pocket, can record all day on one battery, great sound quality, and Mac friendly. Downside If you want to play around with the finer controls, those fiddely little screens are hard to read.
What is it? A compact digital camera from Samsung giving better results than most other types.
Where can I get it? Most camera or electronics shops, and on the net. Different models, the WS2105, recording for up to about 130 hours costs just under €100, but other models with lower specs can cost a lot less.
The wow factor? Small enough for the pocket, but best of all, takes pictures with 10 mega pixil resolution. So forget about crappy snaps, zoom in and out, and get real press quality. Downloads directly into a PC or Mac and can be recharged from the same USB connection. Downside Screen hard to see in bright daylight, and bothersome time lag between pressing shutter and getting the image.
Downside? Hard to find where you left the connectors when you want to make a change.
Where can I get it? Lots of camera shops. This one came from the Camera Exchange in Dublin. Costs about€160.
Where can I get it? Electronic suppliers or the net, and you can expect some change from a €20 note.
Want to get your Gizmo featured on this page? Email tom@sciencespin.
www.sciencespin.com SCIENCE SPIN Issue 35 Page 29
The geology of Ireland B
asalt in the north, granite in the Wicklow Mountains, and a big expanse of limestone stretching across the country before rising up to face the Atlantic in Clare. In such broad strokes we usually picture the geology
of Ireland. However, there was not just one intrusion of granite, but several, and the gap between sedimentary deposits can represent the passing of a million or more years. We often think of limestone as just one great mass of
grey rock, but looked at through the eyes of a geologist, it can be classed into several systems, and sub-systems, each representing a particular episode in all probability each being peculiar to just one area. Considering the vast time scales involved, it should not surprise us that interpretation of the geological record is so complex. Perhaps we might understand just how complex it is by considering how hard it would be now to detect the traces of the 1940s bombing of Fairview and distingish them from the silt deposited from the Tolka flood of the late 1950s. That’s just a decade or two, but geologists are looking at what happened over a period of 400 million or so years. True, there were long periods when nothing much happened, and often these are the gaps of sameness that help to separate the periods of change, but even then, the world has such a violent past, that what was once up can end up down and half of Ireland is no longer south of the equator. For more than 200 years geologists have been probing around Ireland, bit by bit, adding to the record of what is where and how it came to be there. The Geology of Ireland, edited by Charles Hepworth Holland and Ian Saunders brings that record right up to date, and the accumulation of knowledge it contains makes it indeed a heavy tome. No doubt professional geologists will value this book highly, it is very comprehensive,
Charting the past OUR lives, in geological terms, are so short, that we get the impression that everything, rocks and climate, always remain the same. Many of the features described in The Geology of Ireland, were the result of forces we can hardly begin to imagine. How different Portrane in Dublin must have been when volcanic ash was raining down from a cone rising up out of the sea at Lambay. That’s what the rocks there tell us actually happened some time in the early Ordovician Age about 400 million years ago. Lambay began as a volcano formed under the sea, and during this time of upheaval, lava also flowed over Balbriggan.
By themselves, volcanic rocks show us that there was an eruption, but to get the full story, geologists must go out over the ground, chip, drill, and map all the details. The fact that the submarine volcanic rocks have been observed to be overlain by thin beds of limestone with trilobite and other animal fossils from the Late Ordovician, indicates that, as the volcano became dormant, a fringing reef formed around it. Not that everything remained quiet and calm. Other signs have been noted showing that tremors, possibly volcanically triggered, set off slides of broken rock fragments, known as breccias, and there are intrusions, where molten materials broke through the surface.
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Eventually, some of those intrusions, the porphyritic andesites, ended up as Neolithic stone axe heads. Over at Portrane, as the volcanics died down, limestone containing fragments of pumice, brachiopods and other fossils, including the local trilobite, Tretaspis portrainensis, was laid down in shallow waters. Those details mean a lot to geologists who are in tune with the terminology, and to my mind, a very useful exercise would be to go one step further in presenting a series of local summaries for the public. As the book shows, a lot of the details we would all like to know about are already there, but they are not really accessible, except to the specialist.
but the carefully worded text would be extremely difficult for a reader with a passing interest in geology to follow. It is a book by experts for other experts, and this is undoubtedly its strength. More than a dozen of those who know everything there is to be known about the structure of Ireland have contributed chapters to this book, so it is not short of the sort of details and references that you would normally only find dispersed among a number of specialised journals. Pity the poor editor that had to make up and check the 60 closely spaced pages of references! This is the second edition of of a book which was already regarded as a definitive text on Ireland’s geology, and it has been considably enlarged and updated. In the ten years since the first edition, a lot has happened, including the Tellus survey in Northern Ireland, advances in palaeomagnetism, and of course, geologists are no longer confined to dry land. One of the
chapters, by D Naylor and P M Shannon brings us right out to into the Atlantic and down around the Celtic Sea. We also look back into the more recent past, with a chapter on the history of Irish geology by G L Herries Davies. Like now, people in the 19th century had different reasons for their interest in geology, and while the vulcanists and neptunians were fighting a holy war over the fossils, the learned members of the Dublin Society were taking a more pragmatic view. The industrial revolution in England, they argued quite rightly, was based on the exploitation of mineral wealth, and for that reason the Society started a museum to promote geology in Ireland. That argument remains just as valid today, we literally pull wealth out of the ground, but I am not too sure that G L Herries Davies is altogether right in stating that geology is flourishing in Ireland’s academic institutions. Just a few months ago, October last year (see Science Spin 31),
I remember reporting that not enough geo graduates are coming out of Irish colleges to meet future needs, and that although geology is worth about €4 billion a year to the Irish economy, only five per cent of our research funding is going into this area. The book is a solid resource, more to be mined than read, and although big at 568 pages in full colour, it is quite expensive. €99 for the paperback and for some reason the hardback is almost double the price, €160. The Geology of Ireland Edited by Charles H Holland and Ian S Saunders. 576 pages, €90 paperback, €160 hardback. Published by Dunedin, Edinburgh. Tom Kennedy
Congratulations to all 512 primary schools across Ireland who received an Award of Science Excellence this June.
Registered schools who applied for an Award of Science Excellence submitted their Discover Logs with a record of all their science related work which was completed over the academic year 2008/2009. Credit was given for providing evidence of involvement in: l Completing a certain number of activities from the DPS classroom activity pack l Visiting one of the Discover Primary Science accredited Discover Science Centres or inviting speakers to school to talk about science related topics l Holding a science display day or event l Taking part in many other explorative, fun and hands-on activities The standard this year was amazing, so a huge congratulations to all the students, teachers & parents who partook this year. Don’t forget… keep an eye on www.primaryscience.ie for details of what will be happening next year.
Happy holidays,
The DPS team.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 35 Page 31
TRAINING
Speaking SCIENCE Scientists in Ireland have long been wary of the ‘media’ and its potential for harm. There has been little appreciation of the benefits that come from media coverage. The fear some scientists have of being misunderstood or misquoted is very strong. There is an understandable dread of a reporter getting the facts wrong, or trying to overstate the importance of the research. This could be damaging or embarrassing.
The basic thinking is that if the research is not being explained to the public, and its importance outlined, then government might not be inclined to continue funding it. The pressure is there, and researchers who don’t communicate will suffer accordingly. There are various ways to do it, but perhaps the most powerful way is via the media. That said, scientists have every right to be afraid of the press. There is no media training provided for scientists based in Ireland, to help them get over this fear.
This mindset is unfortunate, as there are major advantages to be gained from interaction with the press, and, if things are handled correctly there is no reason at all to worry.
The researcher is often left entirely to their own devices when they receive a phone call out of the blue from a journalist. In such cases, misunderstandings can happen.
However, the reality of the situation today is that scientists really are not in a position to decide whether to communicate with the public or not. They are compelled to do it.
The misunderstandings often arise from situations where the scientist and the journalist do not fully understand where the other person is ‘coming from’.
Certainly, funding bodies such as Science Foundation Ireland, and the Higher Education Authority, are very keen that scientists communicate with the public.
The journalist wants the scientist to say something definitive, certain - while the scientist is trained to be cautious, to understate, and say more research is needed.
They want very much for the public to know about the quality of research happening here, and how that can impact on all our lives. They believe this is absolutely vital.
The best relationship between journalist and scientist comes when each understands the other, and their needs. If this is achieved, then long-term connections are made.
Speaking Science: Communication Training Workshop for Scientists Scientists today must be adept at making the case for funding, for without funding, nothing can be achieved. DKS, the publisher of Science Spin, is offering the Speaking Science Communication Training Workshop to help scientists improve their communication skills. The primary focus of the workshop, which is designed and presented by Seán Duke, Joint Editor of Science Spin, is to help scientists reach a number of key audiences. These audiences include:
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The representatives of the funding agencies.
People in industry that might want to collaborate on research projects.
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Venture capitalists considering investment in a good research idea.
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The general public, who ultimately fund much of current research.
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The media, in all its forms, TV, radio, print, and the scientific press. The groups that can gain from this service include:
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Full-time members of staff working at third-level institutions in Ireland.
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Researchers working in industry (the emphasis here is on communicating with third-level researchers and the public).
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Doctoral or post-doctoral students interested in gaining a useful skill for their future careers. If you are interested in attending a workshop, or require information on group bookings please contact Alan Doherty, Business Manager, Science Spin, E: alan@sciencespin.com, T: 01 2842909.
SCIENCE ON SCREEN Seán Duke talks about science and research on TV3 Ireland AM. Broadcasting Tuesday mornings every two weeks. SCIENCE SPIN Issue 35 Page 32
SPIN
Du Noyer
Geological Photography Competition 2009 Entries are invited for the 11th Du Noyer Geological Photography Competition, which this year promises to be bigger and better than previous years.
George Victor Du Noyer, who served as a geologist with the Geological Survey of Ireland from 1847 to 1869, was a skilled field artist whose numerous sketches and pictures, with their combination of artistic skill and technical accuracy, were the “field photographs” of their day. This competition seeks to encourage the same blend of artistic and scientific skills through the medium of photography.
Prizes will be awarded in two categories, Irish and Foreign, and a prize fund of €800 applies. All photographs entered must be accompanied by a note giving the name and address of the photographer and a short description of the geological content. Up to four photographs may be submitted as prints or good quality scans. Submitted material will not be returned and GSI reserves the right to reproduce entries in its publications and promotional activity with due acknowledgement. The competition will be judged by a panel including representatives of the Irish Geological Association, the Geological Survey of Ireland and external nominees and their decision will be final. Entries will be exhibited and
prizes awarded at a GSI Cunningham Awards ceremony in early December. The photographs will be evaluated on the basis of creativity, technical skill, and geological content. Entries should be posted in an envelope marked “Du Noyer Competition” to: Cartography Unit, Geological Survey of Ireland, Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd, Dublin 4 or emailed to info@planetearth.ie
Closing date for entries: Friday 9th October 2009.
Top: The landscape of Joyce’s Country in the Maamturks photographed by Darren McLoughlin. The Maamturks or Maumturcs are formed from Pre-Cambrian quartzite which suffered heavy erosion during the Pleistocene when the many valleys seen in this image were created out of the softer schist and slate. Above: Alan Boland’s photograph of sedimentary layers in the cliff face on Dollar Bay on the Hook Peninsula, Wexford
Get your company involved in Science Week 2009! The Science Week Corporate Partners Programme is a DSE initiative whereby companies from various industries are invited to participate in Science Week. The companies are united by their interest in promoting science, engineering and technology to young people and to the general public. Get Involved! Becoming a corporate partner is very straightforward and there are lots of ways to participate. Here are some ideas: •
Invite schools to an open day in your company
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Hold a science week quiz with the local schools
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Hold a Science Week competition
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Sponsor a local Science Week Event
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Give a talk at a local school
If you are already involved in science outreach throughout the year, why not schedule this within Science Week and climb on board for national coverage, co-branding, and visibility on our corporate partners page on www.scienceweek.ie? If you are interested in joining the programme, simply get in touch with us! E-mail: scienceweek@forfas.ie Tel: 01 6073171
www.scienceweek.ie