Science spin 64

ISSUE

64

May June 2014

€5 including VAT £4 NI and UK

SCIENCE

SPIN

IRELAND’S SCIENCE NATURE AND DISCOVERY MAGAZINE

Haunted by pyrite Science in ScHool — are

teachers being asked to do the impossible?

bioHacKerS What happened to the Irish elk?

aSK a ScientiSt

Detecting gravity waves

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Ireland’s science, nature and discovery magazine 6 issues a year covering science at home and abroad In newsagents throughout Ireland, and on subscription Subscribe on line from our website. €30 post included Ireland, UK and EU

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Upfront

2

Editor Tom Kennedy tom@sciencespin.com

Unworkable science curricula

9

Editorial support Con O’Rourke

Ancient surgery

12

Production support Marie-Claire Cleary marieclaire@sciencespin.com

Mushrooming exports

13

Contributing editor Seán Duke sean@sciencespin.com

Dr How

14

Exploring elasticity and rubber

Business Manager Alan Doherty alan@sciencespin.com Published by Albertine Kennedy Publishing Cloonlara, Swinford, Co Mayo Picture research Source Photographic Archives Spin Store and multimedia T A Kennedy www.spinstore.eu Printing Turner Group, Longford

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Education expert, Áine Hyland, explains that lack of detail is a big problem

Haunted by pyrite

16

Bio Hacking

18

Weird and wonderful

20

The Irish ‘Elk’

22

Entering unfamiliar territory

24

Anthea Lacchia writes about the controversial mineral

Roy Sleator reports that DIY biology has gone viral

Sive Finlay introduces the narwhal

Paddy Gaffakin writes about the giant Irish deer

How an award winning geologist mapped a complex landscape

Waves of expansion

Margaret Franklin reports that scientists have detected ripples in space-time

25

Young scientists

28

Ask a scientist

30

Multiligulism and fuel from apples

Our panel of scientific experts answer your questions

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UPFRONT

Research repository

UNIvERsITy libraries in Ireland collaborated to create an open access portal for research publications. The RIAN project has since been expanded to include research papers from a number of other institutions, including Teagasc.

RIAN can be accessed freely at http://rian.ie

Busy bees

Threat to reds

RED squirrels have been losing ground as the North American greys take over. Now, the plight of the red squirrels has become worse because of an introduced disease. scientists from Queen’s University Belfast report that a pox virus has been passed onto the reds from the grey invaders. Dr Neil Reid from the school of Biological sciences at Queen’s said that the situation may be worse than previously thought. The red squirrels are highly susceptable to the disease, and the virus appears to have more than one way of going on the attack.

The grey squirrels seem to have adapted to the disease, but they harbour it, and may pass on the virus in their urine. When conditions are dry and warm, the virus can survive long enough to be picked up by the reds.

In addition to this, the researchers found that fleas, mites and other parasites on infected squirrels also acted as carriers.

Infected red squirrels were found to have 50,000 times more virus particles in circulation than grey squirrel carriers.

The negative impact on red squirrel populations is high, and as Dr Reid noted, the rate of greys replacing reds increases by 25 times when the virus is present.

As agriculture becomes more intensive, insect pollinators are unable to keep up with increasing crops. scientists at Trinity College Dublin note that there has been a 300 per cent increase in oilseed rape cultivation in Ireland over the past five years. Associate Professor of Botany at TCD, Jane stout, said that farmers are now more reliant than ever before on insect pollinators to increase yields, yet honeybees and many other species are in decline across Europe.

In a study conducted by 17 scientists across 41 European countries, honeybee colonies were found to decline in many areas, while the need for pollinators had increased sharply. Reporting on their findings in the Public Library of Science One, it was reported that Europe as a whole only has two-thirds of the honeybee colonies it needs for pollination of crops.

In The Netherlands, where many farms are worked intensively, Wageningen University has been conducting trials in which wide borders are left around field crops as a habitat for birds, insects and wild flowers. Farmers in the south of Holland report that they like the project because enclosing crops in wild margins results in higher yields with less use of pesticides.

Explore your local environment

If you want to know about your local environment, the Environmental Protection Agency has set up a great new on-line resource, My Local Environment. By logging onto gis.epa. ie/myenvironment#/search, or going via the EPA website, viewers can zoom in on their own location to see air, water, soil, river catchment and other details.

Easy to use and clearly presented, the site brings together a lot of locally focused information.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 2

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UPFRONT

The first dress woven from birch fibre was showcased at a Marimekko fashion show in Helsinki in March.

Marjaana Tanttu, a master’s student of textile art at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture working with the birch material.

Forest fashion

Birch looks good in a forest, and now it could also become a stylish replacement for cotton. researchers from Aalto University in Finland have developed a way to make woven material using fibres from birch trees. In March, a Finnish textile company, Marimekko, presented the first dresses made from birch fibre at a fashion show.

Electric car challenge

The fibres were processed from pulp supplied by timber mills using methods developed by a group working under Prof Herbert Sixta. The fibres, separated out using an ionic liquid cellulose solvent, are then carded and spun into yarns. The group reported that it took months of work before they could obtain satisfactory results in strength and quality. The material, they claim, is now equal to or better than alternatives, and if they continue to make progress we will see industrial scale production within five years.

Schizophrenia risk

STUdenTs from Maynooth Post Primary School are at work building a single-seater electric car. The car will compete to win the ieT Formula 24 challenge at nutt’s corner race track in northern ireland in May, and the winners will go on to compete against international teams at Goodwood Motor Circuit in Sussex during October. The competition, to build and race an electrically powered car was established in the UK by Siemens, and the irish team is being supported by intel and the electronic engineering department at NUIM. Students, guided by teachers and industry mentors, have to go through the entire process from design to construction and competing in an endurance test.

A STUdy led by Prof Aiden corvin, from Tcd’s School of Medicine has revealed that a particular genetic mutation increases the risk of developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder by more than ten times. initially blood samples from 1,564 irish people with schizophrenia and 1,748 controls were examined. Five of those with schizophrenia were found to have a dublication of the Protein-Activated Kinase 7 gene.

Following this, the researhers examined a much larger sample of 25,000 people from the rest of Europe. This confirmed that the dublicated gene also appeared in similar numbers. Although relatively rare, the presence of this dublication was found to be associated with a ten-fold risk of developing schizophrenia. it is thought that all duplications arose from a common ancestor in northern europe about 500 years ago.

Dr Derek Morris from NUI Galway who was involved in the study, explained that about a third of the PAK7 gene was dublicated. The PAK7 gene has an influence on the growth and maintence of nerve connections, and the researchers report that this is particularly important during early adulthood.

Science blog

Prof Shane O’Mara, Experimental Brain Research, TCD has a blog on neuroscience, psychology and general science.

Lots of interesting content — http://shaneomara.wordpress.com/

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 3

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Waste

UPFRONT tonnes

In 2012 the balance tipped in favour of recovery rather than landfill disposal of waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 56 per cent of municipal waste was recovered, mainly due to use of the material as fuel.

At the same time, landfill sites were being closed down. The EPA recorded that the number of landfill sites dropped from 19 in 2012 to 11 at the end of 2013.

Sunspotters

EvERybODy has an invitation to join a project to classify sunspots. These are the giant storms that release huge amounts of energy from the Sun. Some are powerful enough to knock out power grids and upset satellite navigation systems.

As Prof Peter Gallagher from TCD noted, participation of the public will help to gain a better understanding of sunspots because scientists alone cannot deal with all the data.

Scientists from TCD in collaboration with Zooniverse have developed a website, www. sunspotter.org that give the public access to the project. The site is a follow-on to the highly successful zooniverse Galaxy Zoo project Participants in the sunspotters project will be asked to rank images in terms of their complexity, size, shape and colours.

Generated Managed Landfilled Incinerated without energy recovery Incinerated with energy recovery Sent for recycling (excluding composting or fermenting of biodegradable waste) Composting or fermenting of biodegradable waste

Nominate a geosite

WhAT are your favourite geological features? The Geological Society is drawing up a list of 100 great geosites in the UK and Ireland. As long as the site can be visited by the public it can be nominated.

The invitation to nominate is open to all. Use Twitter, Facebook or email 100geosites@geolsoc.org.uk The list of 100 will be published during Earth Science Week, 13th to 19th October 2014.

2012 (estimates) 2,622,000 2,347,000 1,028,000

Tre nd

2011

% tonnage difference -7% -8% -24%

ê

2,823,242 2.558,345 1,344,008

45

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189

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419,000

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195,622

+114%

674,000

ê

861,361

-22%

226,000

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157,165

+44%

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Power boost

DOUblInG the capacity of rechargable batteries is possible according to researchers at the University of limerick. Dr Kevin Ryan at Ul’s Materials and Surface Science Institute has reported that by using germanium nanowires in the anode, the capacity can be more than twice that of rechargable lithium-ion batteries.

As Dr Ryan explained, existing lithium-ion batteries are based on graphite, but when germanium is used, both the capacity and the lifetime of the battery increases. With repeated charging cycles, graphite degrades, he said, but by restructuring germanium into nanowires this is no longer a problem.

Reporting this development in the journal Nano Letters, the researchers said that their nanotechnology solution can be scaled up at relatively low cost and is commercially viable. www.nanoresearchul.org

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 4

CanSat National Final

Limerick school prove that the sky really is the limit Six teams from secondary schools across Ireland gathered on the grounds of the historical Birr Castle, Co. Offaly on Saturday, 22nd March to take part in the national final of the 2014 ESERO Ireland – CEIA CanSat Compeitition. This unique space project to create a CanSat – a simulation of a real satellite which fits into the volume of a soft drinks can – has seen twenty five teams from nineteen schools compete at regional level this year. Amid stiff competition from the opposition, it was Team Candroid from Crescent College Comprehensive Limerick who ultimately walked away with the national title and will now go on to compete at the European final of the competition in Andoya, Norway in June. Hugh Fitzgibbon, member of the winning team from Crescent College Comprehensive said, “We are absolutely delighted with the result.

The competition was fierce and we are

Chris Kelly, Evan Moloney, Tayyaba Sheik, Niall Keating and Hugh Fitzgibbon from Crescent College Comprehensive, Limerick – winners of the National Final of the 2014 ESERO Ireland – CEIA CanSat competition at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly. The team will now go on to represent Ireland at the European CanSat final in Andoya, Norway in June of this year. extremely honoured to be representing our country at the European final in Norway.”

Teams worked tirelessly since October with mentors from Dublin Institute of Technology, Cork Institute of Technology, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and industry partners (Avaya, Schneider Technology and HP) to select their CanSat missions, integrate the components and test the device. At the national final, teams launched their CanSats using a quadcopter and a rocket built by Tripoli Rocketry Association Ireland, which after release at

high altitudes, returned to Earth safely using a parachute.

For the Primary Mission, the CanSat captured air temperature and atmospheric pressure data from its environment using sensors as it ascended and descended. It then transmitted the data wirelessly to the ground-station – a laptop. Teams also undertook Secondary Missions such as using a GPS module to track the CanSat position and measuring wind shear using a custom built anemometer. Crescent College Comprehensive measured air humidity as their Secondary Mission. All teams then analysed the data and presented their findings to a panel of judges.

Team Candroid are now busy preparing to participate against other countries at the European CanSat Competition in Andoya, Norway from 1st to 5th June and we wish them every success.

Primary schools across Ireland are observing and recording the arrival of the signs of spring 2014. To participate in the project students observe and record details of weather and common species on the Greenwave project website www.greenwave.ie. The data gathered provides a snapshot of how species react to longer days and warmer temperatures, and students are encouraged to consider whether the green wave of spring moves from south to north across Ireland or inland from the coast to the centre of the country. The data gathered also facilitates the application of maths skills in a real life context. The Greenwave 2014 “Best in Frame” competitions sees prizes being awarded for the best species photographs submitted. Here’s two of the submissions.

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UPFRONT

Some of the Gabonionta fossils that are on show at the Natural History Museum, Vienna until June 2014.

Top left, modelling of the fossil reveals some of its original struccture.

Multicellular origins

The discovery of colonial organisms in 2.1 billion year old shale has led scientists to revise their estimates on when multicullular life first appeared. While coiled tubes were known from India, China and North America, the fossils from Gabon represent the first clear evidence that multicellular life existed so long ago.

Professor Abderrazak El Albani from the University of Poitiers and the French National Centre for Scientific Research led a team that discovered these fossils in Gabon. Until then, while communities existed, macroscopic organisms made up from different specialised cells were only known from 580 millionyear-old fossils. In evolutionary terms, the progression from relatively simple communities to more complex multicellular organisms was a significant step which may have occurred independently on a number of occasions.

The researchers noted that this earlier record followed the rise in free oxygen in the atmosphere, and they suggest that this could have had a bearing on the development of multicellular life. Chemical changes resulted in a release of new nutrients and an increased availability of metal ions that could be used to create enzymes.

The 2.1 billion year old fossils, known as Gabonionta, are up to 17 cm across and several distinct forms have been found, some circular, others elongate, so it is possible that these represent different species with a common type of structure with a central body surrounded by a fringe of radial structures.

More than 450 Gabonionta fossils have been found in a quarry a short distance from Franceville. The sand, silt and mudstone formation is exposed over an area of 35,000 km2, and the fossils occur in shales that were deposited by the coast of a shallow sea.

The Gabonionta appeared soon after the rise of oxygen, and they declined with its subsequent fall 100 million years later.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 6

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UPFRONT

Mountains under Antarctic ice

HIDDen below several kimometres of Antarctic ice is a trough deeper than the Grand Canyon. A team of scientists from the universities of newcastle, edinburgh, exeter and York made this discovery when charting the ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, a mountain range below the ice. Combining satellite observations with ice-penetrating radar from the surface, the scientists found a massive subglacial valley, three kilometres deep, up to 25 kilometres wide and over 300 kilometres long. Some parts of this great valley are two kilometres below present sea level. Millions of years ago the valley was carved out by ice during a period when the earth’s climate was warmer than now.

Marine Institute Foras na Mara

Debating science

StudentS from St Joseph’s Secondary CBS Fairview in dublin were victorious in the annual debating Science competition. At the finals, which took place at the Royal College of Surgeons second place went to Colaiste Mhuire, Crosshaven, Co Cork.

Four teams, narrowed down from 34 took part in the competition.

More information about the national science debating competition at: www.debatingscienceissues.com or www.reddtar.eu.

Gold Frenzy

Our Ocean - A Shared Resource Ár n-Aigéan - Acmhainn Comhroinnte Ireland’s National Agency for Marine Research and Innovation An Ghníomhaireacht Náisiúnta um Thaighde Mara agus Nuálaíochta

On 20th May Peadar McArdle, author of Gold Frenzy, will be at the Goat Grill in Dublin to describe how the discovery of a gold nugget in the closing years of the 18th century sparked off a gold rush in County Wicklow. Is there much gold in Ireland, and why does it occur. Peadar, former Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, provides the answers in a fascinating and entertaining talk.

The talk is being organised by An Taisce, and will be at 8pm on 20th May 2014 in the Goat Grill, Goatstown, Dublin 14.

www.marine.ie

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 7

Percentage population changes 1991-2011

High speed living

Life spans in animals range from just a season or two to over a century. A study published in Animal Behaviour suggests that a short life-span may be compensated for by living at a faster pace. Scientists at Trinity College Dublin working with researchers at the University of edinburgh and the University of St Andrews found that small-bodied animals can process information at a higher speed than larger animals. A test for what is known as the critical flicker fusion frequency shows that the ability to detect individual flashes of light varies considerably among animals. For humans, film frames shown at 25 a second merge into continuous movement, but for a dog the image would be seen to flicker.

As Andrew Jackson, Assistant Professor at the School of Natural Sciences at TCD observed, living in the fast-lane could have an evolutionary advantage. Animals that can react faster than others can occupy a ecological niche that excludes all others. The rapid reaction of a fly, for example, means that it has a better chance of surviving for all of its short life.

Not all the same

Population changes

fROm 1991 to 2011 most of ireland’s growth in population occurred in rural areas adjacent to urban centres. A study undertaken for the Commission for the economic development of rural areas, CeDRA, tracked these changes revealing how people are being drawn by lower cost housing, better quality of environment coupled to access to workplaces and urban facilities.

Dr David meredith from Teagasc, noted that the drift of people with high levels of education into these area raises questions about a possible long-term decline in rural parts of the country.

THe ideal PreseNT A gift subscription to Science Spin lasts for a year

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iT iS usually assumed that all cells in the body possess the same DNA code, but as researchers at the Salk institute in California have discovered, this is not the case.

Studies of neuronal genomes had revealed that extra pieces of DNA turn up, but what this meant was not clear because genetic profiling was always done from a large number of cells. To find out more, the researchers at the Salk Institute began profiling the DNA of single cells.

Reporting on this approach in the journal Science, the researchers noted that neurons varied much more than had been expected. One of the researchers, fred Gage, said that neurons in the brain are not identical, but are made up of a patchwork of DNA. 41 per cent of 100 neurons isolated from three different people had at least one extensive insertion of DNA that has not originated from a parent. Thus, extra segments of DNA had been dublicated and inserted during growth and development. A similar result was found in skin cells, but with neurons the variations were much greater.

Unworkable science syllabi Over the past few years there have been enormous changes in science. In Ireland, research has raced ahead on a number of fronts, yet, how well are schools keeping pace with these new developments? Tom Kennedy reports that science teachers are not happy with the new syllabi for physics, chemistry and biology, and educational expert Áine Hyland has warned that Ireland is now at risk of falling far short of international standards in education.

I

n Ireland, subject materials on the sciences have been kept up-to-date, but at the same time science teachers have expressed alarm that instead of helping students, the latest reforms to the syllabi may even result in a lowering of standards. Up to now the Leaving Cert has been so well-regarded internationally that students have, in effect, a passport into top-flight universities here and abroad. Science teachers argue that the latest reforms, apart from being difficult

to implement, could result in Irish students losing this advantage.

Members of the Irish Science Teachers’ Association, ISTA, were so concerned that they asked educational expert Áine Hyland to prepare an in-depth study of the new syllabi. Áine, formerly Professor of Education at University College Cork, is a leading authority on curriculum design, and her report, launched at the recent ISTA conference in Galway, confirmed that the teachers have good

“The report concludes that it is not sufficient to describe a highstakes examination programme in terms merely of topics and learning outcomes as the NCCA has done in the draft syllabi. More detailed information about the depth of treatment of subjects and the requirements for examination must be provided at national level in Ireland to bring the syllabi into line with international good practice.” Áine Hyland.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page

reason to be concerned about how the new syllabi, which has since been accepted by the Minister for Education, is to be implemented.

The new syllabi for science, covering chemistry, physics and biology, was prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, and as Áine Hyland explained, the concerns are not due to core content, but to how the subjects are to be taught and assessed.

As Áine observed, teachers are being presented with proposed outcomes without any guidance on how subjects are to be taught and in what depth, and there is no information on how students are to be assessed. “There is nothing about depth of treatment, nothing about examination or practical work,” she said, adding that while there is nothing wrong with the stated learning outcomes, they are wide open to interpretation.

For example, students could be asked to evaluate the Bohr model of the atom, or to explain the principal of gene sequencing and its use in bioinformatics, yet teachers have been given no guidance at all on how deep this knowledge should be.

When Áine looked at curriculum development in other English speaking countries, she found that Ireland’s syllabi for the sciences fell far short of others in providing teachers and students with detailed information on course content.

“While other countries were expanding their information,” said Áine, “Ireland was doing exactly the opposite.”

Not only does that leave teachers and students guessing about what they are supposed to be doing, but it completely ignores the explosive growth of webbased resources. “There are now many more opportunities to get access to support material,” said Áine, and as she noted, in other countries, these resources, such as U Tube clips, are included as teaching and learning supports.

The new syllabi in Ireland lack detail and have no reference to the sort of resources that have become so important and readily accessible. As the science teachers have argued, all of this supporting information and guidance should have been in place before the new syllabi were accepted The administrative details vary from country to country, but the general trend is to provide teachers with a lot of guidance and information. In Scotland, for example, resources include specimen

exam papers, while in Australia there are hundreds of pages of background information. By comparison, Ireland’s current syllabi for the sciences has 32 pages and the new syllabi have just 13 pages. Áine observed that Ireland risks getting out of step with best international practices, and in particular not enough attention is being paid to the role of information technology.

Science is a fast-changing subject, and with electronic resources it is relatively easy to update information. In addition, teachers need to update their knowledge and skills, but as she observed, they are busy and it can be difficult for them to attend top-up courses. Having access to good on-line resources enables teachers to remain effective.

On the question of outcomes, there is also a lack of clarity on assessment, and this comes on top of the ongoing debate about the current practice of rewarding rote-learning. Áine once again emphasised that she never had any concerns about the actual content, but in this case the problem

A suggested framework for assessment of knowledge and understanding. lies in how learning is to be assessed.

As is widely acknowledged, students who simply learn off stock answers, come out of exams with better marks than those who may have a much better understanding of the subjects.

As Áine explained, knowledge of facts should be regarded as the lowest level, while synthesis and evaluation is the higher level. In revising the syllabi, this is an issue that needs to be addressed, but

as with the lack of guidance on how subjects are to be examined, teachers and students are still being left in the dark.

As Áine explained, there is not much point in stating learning outcomes without explaining how these are to be assessed. The present approach is far from satisfactory because it encourages rote-learning rather than comprehension. It may be easier for examiners just to check off the facts, but as Áine observed, the highflying students are not going to be encouraged if they are only going to be asked what they know rather than what they understand.

At the ISTA conference, Áine’s report was given an enthusiastic welcome because it expresses many of the concerns that science teachers wanted to bring to public attention. In their view, implementing the revised curriculum in its present form is simply impossible.

Hear what Áine Hyland has to say. Visit www. sciencespin.com, click on our U Tube channel and view the video interview in which Áine talks about the report.

SCIENCE SPIN ON SCREEN

Hear what Áine Hyland has to say about the new syllabi at the Irish Science Teachers’ Association conference in the exclusive Science Spin video interview.

At the Science Spin video You Tube channel, scientists, educators and others talk about marine landslides, science communication, chemistry and lots more to come.

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UPFRONT

Medical research

MediCAL and health researchers are concerned at a lack of co-ordination in how projects are funded in ireland. The Medical Research Charities Group, MRCG, commissioned Prof Bernie Hanningan from the University of Ulster to report on the situation, and this was one of the key findings. The MRCG represents 35 medical research charities.

The study shows that while there is a public commitment to R&d, certain types of projects are being left out, and there are gaps in how research careers are supported. in addition EU directives on fixed-terms have resulted in less security for non-permanent staff in research teams.

According to the report, research at an intermediate stage, between discovery and clinical application, are often excluded from support.

Many garden flowers, including rose varieties such as Bridal Pink are doubles

Double flowers

MAny of the more showy garden flowers are what are known as ‘doubles’.

Unlike their wild relatives, these flowers are the result of careful selection, either from natural ‘sports’ or from genetically modified stock.

Researchers at TCD have identified a genetic process that causes ordinary flowers to double up. Dr Diarmuid O’Maoileidigh and Dr Samuel Wuest led a study which reveals that mutations in a particular gene, known as AGAMOUS, stop flowers from developing stamens and carpels, the organs of reproduction. instead of producing these organs, the plant grows a double flower.

The results are of big interest to plant breeders as it raises the possibility of diverting resources into higher yielding crops.

Do you have a question?

Our panel of scientists may have the answer — queries to question@sciencespin.com

Habitable planet

Given the immensity of the Universe it is inevitable that planets with conditions somewhat similar to those on earth must exist and they may even be plentiful. However lots of factors, such as gravity, length of day and atmospheric composition could mean that life, as we know it on earth, might have problems adapting to an alien world. Likewise, if life has evolved in these alien worlds, and the probability that this has happened is quite high, it might be quite different from anything we are familiar with. in June a system of six planets was found around the star, Gliese 667C, 22 light-years away from us in the constellation of Scorpius, three stars form a group, and one of these, Gliese 667C is about one third the mass of the Sun.

Safety issue

SinCe the late 1950s a synthetic compound composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and known as Bisphenol A (BPA), has been widely used in the manufacture of plastics.

Plastics made with BPA are transparent and tough, making them suitable for a wide variety of products, among them Cds, water bottles, and the lining of food and drink cans.

Some years ago, concerns were raised about BPAs when it was found that they have an influence on hormones. Since then a number of studies have been carried out to determine if BPA represents a risk to consumers, particularly when used in food containers. The US Food and drug Administration reported that BPA represents a possible hazard, and as a result its use in baby bottles was abandoned in America, and banned in the eU. While there is no evidence to suggest that use of BPA in non-food related applications represents a risk, one of the latest studies suggests that it may be harmful when used in direct contact with foods. in a paper published in Reproductive Toxicology, scientists from the University of Missouri, University of California, Davis, the Universite de Toulouse, and Washington State University report that low level exposure to BPA has an impact on fetal development in Rhesus monkeys.

Previous studies had shown that BPAs had a negative affect on fetus development in rodents, but now the same has been shown for a primate.

According to one of the researchers, Frederick vom Saal from the University of Missouri, tests indicated that BPA exposure disrupts development of overies, brain uterus, lung and heart tissues. The researchers reported that these results were obtained from lower-levels of exposure to BPA than many humans would be subjected to on a daily basis.

The researchers concluded that “our findings suggest that traditional toxicological studies likely underestimage actual human exposure and show, unequivocally, that biologically active BPA passes from the mother to the fetus.”

Close re-examination of existing data and observations of Gliese 667C from the 3.5-metre european Southern Observatory (eSO) telescope in Chile, revealed that the star has at least six planets, three of

which appear to satisfy conditions that could support life. Astronomers, Guillem Anglada-escudé of the University of Göttingen, Germany and Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, led the study showing that Gliese 667C is the fainter of the three stars. viewed from the planets, the two brighter ones would appear like brilliant stars.

The apparently habitable planets are larger than earth and are at a distance from their star, not too far and not too near, for liquid water to form.

Scientists at eSO commented that this discovery shows the value of re-analysing data in the light of new observations.

An artists impression of how the stars might appear from one of the planets.

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UPFRONT

Evidence of experimental drilling as practitioners perfected their skills.

Ancient surgical skills

EvEn with advanced technology, surgeons would be reluctant to drill holes into a skull, yet over 1,000 years ago in Peru this was an accepted procedure. During excavations in the Andahuaylas province of Peru evidence for 45 separate trepanation was seen on 32 individual skulls.

Danielle Kurin, a bioarchaeologist from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her team reporting on their find in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, said that sections of skull were removed using hand-drills and scraping tools. The practice in the Andean highlands seems to have begun about AD 200, and Kurin reported that it continued until the Spanish either banned or discouraged it in the early 16th century.

Kurin suggests that the collapse of the once prosperous Wari empire may have led to a rise of mental problems. violence, disease and depravation, she argues, would have led people to look for solutions. The same sort of reaction, she continued, is often seen during periods of violent conflict.

Whatever the reason, the skulls at Andahuaylas reveal that the practioners were trying to perfect their techniques.

Sometimes the procedures were

successful, at least in the sense that the patients recovered, but others did not survive. “We can tell a trepanation is healed because we see these fingerlike projections of bone that are growing,” explained Kurin. In some instances, where there were head-fracture injuries, both the fractures and the trepanation sites healed. This shows that those patients lived long enough for the bones to grow, and this would take several years.

All the skulls were male, and it appears that trepanation was not carried out on women or children.

When patients died, skulls were retained for practice or for experiments to fine-tune techniques. Great skill was required in drilling holes, and as Kurin reported, some of the skulls of recently dead patients, have a series of holes, each just a little deeper than the one before, showing how “medical students” of the time learned just how far they could drill to penetrate the bone.

Great care was taken in these procedures, and Kurin said that hair was shaved and herbal preparations were spread over the wound. “To me, these are signs that the intention was to save the life of the sick or injured individual.”

Danielle Kurin observed that great care was taken with procedures showing that the intention was to save life or treat injuries.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 12

A crop of healthy button mushrooms.

I

Sciarid fly, often known as the Mushroom Gnat. The fly is attracted to the smell of compost, where it lays its eggs and on hatching out, the larvae feed on the small developing mushrooms. The adult flies also spread the spores of a fungal disease known as dry bubble which causes mushrooms to become misshapen balls of tissue.

It can be difficult for growers to know why they are experiencing problems such as these, said Helen, and that is why having access to specialist advice and scientific guidance is so important.

Profit margins, she added, are very tight, However, in what was, and is, a very and even a five per cent loss to pests competitive industry, there were also and disease can wipe out the grower’s issues of efficiency to be addressed in financial return. growing and harvesting, and one of the While the number of growers has most significant improvements, said gone down, productivity and levels of Helen, was the development of multiexpertise have gone up throughout the tier shelving coupled with automatic industry. One of the reasons why Ireland handling, delivery, and filling of compost has some of the best mushroom farms in bulk. Instead of filling tunnels with a in Europe, said Helen, is that mushroom single layer of compost in plastic bags, harvesting has become a recognised skill. which could take a day for each tunnel, This is in contrast to other countries where now up to four times more compost harvesting is regarded as casual labour can be filled into the same room onto and is poorly rewarded. shelving, stacked four to six levels high in At Teagasc, Tom Kellegher has been a morning. working with the industry on harvester It cost money to make these training, and as Helen explained, improvements, but as Helen explained, acknowledging the growers who were contribution made by prepared to invest in this skilled harvesters has new approach expanded been of great benefit to and moved ahead, while everyone. “There is now most of the smaller a settled mushroom growers eventually harvester population in dropped out. The net result Ireland,” she said, and was that the industry as in an industry where a whole moved up to a 40 per cent of the costs new level of productivity, are labour as against 20 and in this, said Helen, per cent for materials, Teagasc was able to play having this stability in a a significant role by skilled workforce means providing expert advice that high standards can and support. be maintained, and of Helen’s own particular course this is good for speciality is in dealing with the bottom line. the pests and diseases that Although Ireland has attack mushrooms. With all become a big exporter crops it is necessary to keep Helen Grogan leads the Mushroom of mushrooms, Helen pests under control, but Research Group at Teagasc. said she would like one of the things that make to see them get a lot mushrooms more of a challenge, she said, more promotion at home. There is a lot is that they are fungi, so most fungicides of goodness in mushrooms, she said. cannot be used.

Mushrooms provide essential vitamins Because compost is pasturised before and protein for vegetarians, boost the delivery and growing areas are steamed immune system and they are a source and disinfected between crops, good of soluble fibre which is good for heart growers can avoid pest and disease issues. health. “We should be proud of our However, sometimes problems do occur mushrooms,” she concluded. and one troublesome pest is a small

Mushrooming exports

reland’s mushroom growers are among the best in the world, and they are also among the biggest producers. Helen Grogan, who leads the Mushroom Research Group at Teagasc, said that about 40 per cent of the mushrooms in British supermarkets have been grown in Ireland, and they are our most important horticultural crop, well ahead of potatoes.

Monaghan Mushrooms Ltd, an Irish company, is now active around the world, and as Helen pointed out, this is because our mushroom quality is high and production systems have become highly efficient.

Helen has been working with mushrooms since her student days at Trinity College Dublin, and in that time she has been closely involved with the rise of the industry. At first, she said, there were many small-scale growers, with three or five plastic tunnels, and as demand for the familiar button-mushrooms, Agaricus bisporus, went up, producing these in bulk at a competitive price for the supermarkets became quite a challenge.

As Helen explained, the production side of the industry is made up of compost producers, who produce the compost for mushrooms to grow on and the growers, who cultivate the mushrooms.

The expertise required to produce good compost is different from the skills required for growing, harvesting and marketing, and developing these businesses in parallel, she said, gave the Irish industry an advantage over growers in Britain who often conducted all operations within the one business.

Although mushroom compost is prepared from relatively simple ingredients, such as straw, chicken manure, and a bit of gypsum to give it structure, great care has to be taken to ensure consistency and quality. Irish growers only had to focus on growing and harvesting high quality mushrooms which gave them an advantage.

Website: www.teagasc.ie

What is Elasticity?

Junior science by Dr. Naomi Lavelle

Elasticity is the ability of an object to return to its original size and shape after it has been stretched or squeezed.

Dr. How's

Science Wows!

...exploring Elasticity and Rubber

Rubber Rubber is a material that has very good elasticity It is a polymer, made up of a long chain of repeating molecules, that can be easily stretched and bent Rubber exists in both a natural and synthetic form; the natural form is latex from the sap of rubber trees

Let‛s learn more!

When we pull an elastic object we are applying a force on it called a stress If we apply too much stress to an object it will eventually reach a limit called its Elastic Limit

The ancient Aztec and Mayan civilisations are thought to have been the first to discover and use this natural rubber

When an object is pulled beyond its elastic limit is cannot return to its original shape All objects will eventually lose their elasticity due to wear and tear, friction and stress

They used it to make balls for sport and rubber shoes, although the quality of this rubber was sensitive to heat and cold

Potential and Kinetic Energy

Columbus is credited with bringing rubber to Europe

Potential Energy is energy stored within something Kinetic Energy is energy in motion If we take the example of stretching a rubber band...

Did you know... kangaroos and other animals use the combination of potetial and kinetic energy to save energy while jumping and springing?

When we use force to stretch an elastic object, such as an elastic band we are filling it with Potential Energy

Make a catapult Experiments you can try

When we let go of the rubber band and it springs back to its original shape, the energy released is Kinetic Energy

Make your own catapult

You will need.. Take six to eight lollipop sticks and stack eight to ten lollipop them one on top of the other. sticks, four strong Wrap an elastic band around each elastic bands, glue, end of the stack to secure it tightly. a milk bottle cap, Next take two lollipop sticks and stack one on top of the other. tinfoil

This time secure just one end of the stack with a rubber band.

Open out the two lollipop stack at the open end and place the other bigger stack of lollipops inside. Push it down towards the rubber band end as far as possible. Secure it in place using another rubber band, wrapping it around both stacks of sticks as in the photo. If you wish you can glue the milk bottle cap to the top lollipop stick and launch a rolled up piece of tinfoil as the ball.

So what is happening?

In this experiment most of the potential energy is stored in the lollipop stick.

When we push down on the top stick and then release, the potential energy is changed to kinetic energy as the ball is launched through the air.

In 1839 Charles Goodyear discovered that he could stabilise rubber by mixing it with sulphur at high pressure; he When called this process Goodyear died vulcanisation in 1860 he was completely impoverished due to constant legal costs regarding his rubber patents

Did you know... the largest rubber band ball ever made weighed 4,097 kg and was made using 700,000 rubber bands?

Fit both stacks together by wrapping one elastic band around both, like this

If you want to know HOW something works why not write to Dr. How and ask? Send your e-mail to naomi@sciencespin.com

SCIENCE, ENGINEERING and TECHNOLOGY CAREERS Job Title: Chemical Engineer Location: Cork A Chemical Engineer is required for a multinational blue chip pharmaceutical company based in Cork. The facility is a leading API producing site and is currently undergoing expansion.

Experience in Chemical Engineering within the Pharmaceutical or Biopharmaceutical industry is required. Candidates should have experience in lean systems, providing technical support to process teams, scale up and installation of new processes.

Proficiency in troubleshooting, strong analytical and problem solving skills are preferred and excellent communication skills are key for the role. For more information please contact Jenny Hill at 01-6146194 or at jenny.hill@cpl.ie.

Job Title: Director Manufacturing Location: Limerick A biopharmaceutical company in the South West is seeking a Head of Biopharmaceutical Operations for their new Drug Substance facility. The successful candidate will have extensive experience in the manufacture of Biopharmaceutical Drug Substance and will have experience leading large scale manufacturing teams. The ideal candidate will have experience manufacturing mammalian cell culture products and have in excess of 10 years’ experience managing all facets of commercial scale production of recombinant proteins facility. For more information please contact Killian Maher at 01-6146008 or at killian.maher@cpl.ie

Job Title: Process Development Chemist Location: Cork An API production facility in Cork is seeking a Process Development Chemist to develop API production processes in order to reduce costs and increase yields. The ideal candidate will hold a PhD in Organic Chemistry and have experience working in a GMP lab environment. Candidates will need to have experience in lab based skills including synthetic chemistry and have experience in analytical techniques. Candidates who are proficient in troubleshooting, have strong analytical and problem solving skills are preferred. Excellent communication skills are required. For more information please contact Jenny Hill at 01-6146194 or at jenny.hill@cpl.ie

Job Title: Coagulation Scientist Location: Athlone A Contract Research Facility in the midlands is seeking a coagulation scientist to work within the Biopharmaceutical lab and perform coagulation assays. The role will involve a range of testing including use of Sysmex CA 1500 equipment. The ideal candidate will have GMP experience however medical lab or GLP experience will be considered for the role. The candidate must have experience with coagulation assays and must be self-motivated. For more information please contact Kate O’Connell at 01-6146034 or at kate. oconnell@cpl.ie .

Job Title: Process Development Chemist Location: Dublin An Analytical Chemist is required for a pharmaceutical facility in South Dublin. The ideal candidate will have experience in HPLC, Dissolution, UV-vis and a range of analytical techniques.

Further to experience in the routine use of the analytical techniques the candidate will have experience developing and validating methods. It is a requirement for the candidate to have experience developing and validating HPLC methods in a pharmaceutical GMP environment. The successful candidate will hold a degree in a relevant scientific field. For more information please contact Jenny Hill at 01-6146194 or at jenny.hill@cpl.ie

Job Title: Asst. Contract Manufacturing Compliance Manager Location: Dublin A Dublin based pharmaceutical company is seeking an Assistant Contract Manufacturing Compliance Manager for their sterile contract manufacturing partners. The role will involve auditing sterile manufacturing facilities in both the EU and globally. The role will involve significant travel to these sites. Suitable candidates must have experience in Quality Assurance in a sterile manufacturing environment; experience of internal and external auditing is a pre-requisite. For more information please contact Aileen Cahill at 01-6146007 or aileen.cahill@cpl.ie .

Job Title: Inhalation Manager & Group Leader Location: Athlone An expanding Contract Research Facility in the midlands is seeking an Inhalation Manager and Group leader for their inhalation laboratory. The successful candidate will have experience in management; for the manager role this will be of at least 25 analysts. Previous experience in testing inhalation products is an absolute necessity for this this role, candidates without this experience will not be considered. Further to inhalation techniques the successful candidates will have experience in HPLC, GC, IR and a range of analytical techniques.

For more information please contact Ciara Murphy at 01-614121 or at ciara.murphy@cpl.ie

Job Title: Associate Director QA Location: South West An expanding Biopharmaceutical company based in the South West is seeking an Associate Director of QA for their QA Systems Department. The ideal candidate will have substantial (8+ years) management experience in Quality Assurance, additionally they will be a Qualified Person. Candidates will have experience in quality systems and will have significant experience in deviations, change controls and investigations. For more information please contact Killian Maher at 01-6146008 or at killian.maher@cpl.ie

SCIENCE SPIN Page 15 Issue 64

HauNtEd by Anthea Lacchia explains what this common mineral is and why it has become such a big problem for the construction industry

P

yrite, which takes its name from the Greek word for fire because of its ability to create sparks when struck, is a naturally-occurring mineral.

Made up of Iron (Fe) and Sulphur (S), which are both very common elements in the Earth, pyrite (FeS2) is the most widespread sulphide mineral.

You are probably familiar with pyrite’s metallic lustre and its geometric crystals, easily picked out in mineral veins and on shale. Pyrite crystals commonly form cubes, octahedrons, or pyritohedrons (twelve irregular, pentagonal or five-sided faces), frequently with striations (parallel lines) on the crystal faces. Pyrite can also occur as shapeless grains.

Pyrite can be found in all types of rocks and veins.

It is most commonly found associated with sedimentary rocks, where it occurs as an accessory or trace mineral, and it has a preference for shale-rich, clay-rich and coaly rocks. It can also be found associated with igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks (notably in slates).

Furthermore, it is not uncommon for fossils to be replaced by pyrite: pyritized ammonites and trilobites are among the most iconic of these and form an integral part of any fossil collection.

different chemistry and a very different story to tell.

If you are unsure which of these two minerals is shining up at you from a pebble you have just picked up, there are a few ways to tell them apart before excitedly exclaiming that you’ve found the next big gold deposit!

Firstly they are different tones of yellow: gold is golden to silvery yellow, whereas pyrite is a pale to medium brassy yellow and it sometimes tarnishes. In addition, while pyrite crystals form characteristic shapes, gold usually occurs as nuggets or small flakes. If you scratch the mineral with a hard object, gold will remain odorless, while pyrite gives off an unpleasant sulphurous smell, like that of rotten eggs. Another test can be done by using a pocket knife: gold will scratch, but pyrite won’t. Finally, if still in doubt, try striking the mineral with a steel hammer: pyrite will give off sparks, while gold will simply flatten.

Forms of pyrite

Like any menace, pyrite comes in different guises: put simply, it can be reactive or non-reactive. While reactive pyrite generally has a framboidal texture, which superficially resembles raspberries on a microscopic scale, non-reactive pyrite largely occurs as crystals.

Framboidal pyrite has a larger surface area which facilitates oxidising reactions. On the other hand, non-reactive pyrite reacts so slowly that changes will be negligible over a lifetime.

Non-reactive crystals are classically thought to precipitate out of saturated solution but, while framboids are classically thought to be a product of bacterial action, the formation mechanism for framboidal pyrite is not understood.

Fool’s Gold

Pyrite uses

In the 16th and 17th century pyrite was used as a source of ignition in early firearms such as the wheellock (precursor to the flintlock).

It was used as a mineral detector in radio receivers in the 20th century. Pyrite has long been an important raw material for sulphuric acid production and it is used in the production of sulphur for fertilizer. Today most sulfur is obtained as a byproduct of natural gas and crude oil processing and pyrite use is in decline globally.

Pyrite heave

Many have been fooled by pyrite’s Irish homeowners have been badly affected by gleaming colour and have mistaken it for pyrite’s properties. gold, leading to the well-known Put simply, construction material nickname “Fool’s Gold”. In reality, Pyrite forming intrapenetrant twinned crystals. A spectacular containing relatively large specimin from France at the TCD Geological Museum these two minerals have a very amounts of pyrite minerals is

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 16

ORGANIC MATTER

SO42H2S

BACTERIA

BACTERIA S

Fe MINERALS FeS

PYRITE FeS2 Pyrite, framboidal and euhedral.

SEM micro-photograph by Gavin Kenny likely to expand, crack and crumble over time. But how can one little mineral be capable of causing such damage? It’s all down to chemical reactions.

When exposed to moisture and oxygen, pyrite will oxidise to form sulphuric acid and other products. If calcium carbonate is present in the rock, it will react with the sulphuric acid to form gypsum (calcium sulphate).

This is thought to occur according to the following chemical reaction: FeS2 + 2CaCO3 + 2.5H2O + 3.75O2 = FeO(OH) + 2CaSO4.2H2O + 2CO2 Since gypsum has a volume approximately double that of the source pyrite, the growth of its crystals causes overall expansion (heave) and cracks in the surrounding material.

X-ray diffraction analysis of aggregates can be used to detect the presence of pyrite and gypsum. It must also be noted that bacteria, temperature, acidity, as well as pyrite form (framboidal, euhedral), composition of the host rock and the physical characteristics of the aggregate can influence these reactions.

Furthermore, geological collectors must also be on their guard! In fact, pyrite decay can also affect fossil material, for instance destroying the beautiful suture lines of ammonites.

Above: The Berner Model for sedimentary pyrite formation, involving formation of H2S by anaerobic bacteria using seawater sulphate and organic matter, and introduction of Fe minerals to form pyrite (Berner, 1984).

With thanks to Dr Patrick Wyse Jackson for providing material for photography.

References

Report of the Pyrite Panel, June 2012 (available online).

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0226/506667-scheme-opens-torepair-pyrite-affected-homes/ Accessed 26th February 2014.

Berner, R. A. 1984. “Sedimentary pyrite formation: an update“.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 48(4), 605-615.

Wilkin, R.T. and Barnes, H.L. 1997. “Formation processes of framboidal pyrite”. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 61, 323-339.

Pyrite in the news

It turns out that this innocent-looking mineral has been wreaking havoc with people’s homes for decades. Buildings and infrastructure in the United States and Canada have experienced trouble with pyrite since the 1980s.

In Ireland, rocks containing reactive pyrite have been used for sub-floor hardcore material in buildings in north County Dublin, Louth, Kildare, Offaly and Meath. In fact, RTE recently reported that pyrite has damaged more than 10,000 homes across Ireland.

Typical damage includes: cracking of concrete floor slabs; differences in levels across floor slabs; cracking, buckling and lifting of floor tiles, partitions, doors, stairs, fixtures; cracking, bulging and lateral movement of external walls (see www. pyriteboard.ie). As a result, affected homeowners were recently told they could apply for funding for remediation work as part of a €10 million redress scheme. Now all that is left to do is hope that the lesson has been learned and that future interest in pyrite will be of the strictest mineralogical nature.

Pentacrinites (crinoid) in which the original calcite ossicles have been replaced by pyrite. TCD Geology Museum.

Anthea Lacchia is a postgraduate researcher at the Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 17

DIY BIologY Roy Sleator reports that hacking has gone viral

W

hile many of today’s cutting-edge discoveries in science and medicine are made in university laboratories, there exists a counter culture – a new and emerging group of independent researchers who are making biology their own. These self-styled biohackers (or biopunks) apply the computer hacker ethos to the biological sciences; advocating open access to genetic information and manipulation. This new era of DIY biology originally evolved as a noninstitutional pursuit, with practitioners — many of whom having little or no formal training — operating out of garages or modified kitchens. However, in recent years these maverick science hobbyists have become increasingly more organized, forming groups including Genspace — a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting citizen science1. In 2010, Genspace formed the world’s first community-based biotechnology laboratory, a biosafety Level 1 facility located in Brooklyn, US. Operating on a monthly subscription basis, the lab offers hands-on courses to the public, and encourages scientific entrepreneurship, particularly in the field of molecular biology — allowing members to tinker with bacterial and viral genomes. Since the establishment of the Genspace laboratory, dozens of community biolabs or “hackerspaces” have sprung up all over the US and Europe. At the time of writing, this loose international confederation of biohackers, called DIYBio2, lists 20 organized DIY groups in North America, 16 in Europe, and two each in Asia, and Oceania. Many of these DIYbio practitioners actively collaborate and compete in the iGEM3 (International Genetically Engineered Machine) competition: a worldwide synthetic biology competition open to undergraduate university students, high school students and entrepreneurs.

Despite experiencing an exponential growth following its earliest inception in a Cambridge (USA) pub in 2008, two of the major impediments to the continued development of the DIYbio movement are a lack of funding and continued significant public fears relating to biosafety and biosecurity. However, even these obstacles are being gradually eroded. Locked out of traditional funding mechanisms which are limited only to

DIY groups are being set up around the world. Image from Synthesis www.biodesic.com third-level institutions, many of the early adopters have turned to crowdsourcing platforms, such as Kickstarter, to achieve their goals. Indeed, using this approach, Biocurious, a DIYbio group based in Sunnyvale, California, raised more than $35,000 (from 239 pledges) to establish their own laboratory or hackerspace.

Other groups have progressed even further, successfully tapping conventional funding streams, including the Welcome Trust, which funds Madlab (Manchester, UK) and the FP7 EU project, StudioLab, which funds Biologigaragen (Copenhagen, Denmark).

Biosafety and security on the other hand remains a sticky wicket; encompassing not only the DIYbio movement, but all amateur biology and the democratization of science in general.

By establishing hackerspaces that are properly insured and exhibiting documented adherence to safety regulations, DIYbio groups like Biocurios in the USA and La Paillasse in Europe (Paris, France) are leading the way in creating safe, secure and regulated labs for its practitioners. Indeed, DIYbio.org cofounder Jason Bobe, believes that in addition to creating secure work spaces, the DIYbio and iGEM communities combined are best placed to establish a collective code of ethics, enabling global governance of the citizen science culture. In the summer

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 18

of 2011 the International DIYbio community organized potential to significantly impact global health improvement, congresses in the US and Europe to establish a collective code particularly in developing countries where access to expensive of ethics for the community. The following year DIYbio.org and delicate diagnostic equipment is a significant limitation. established a ‘Question and Answer’ platform on biosafety; a While some use these early successes to argue that the stage free web service which allows amateurs to submit questions is set for the “bioscience version of Apple or Google to be to professional biosafety experts. While all of the above go born in a dormitory room or garage”6, I for one feel that the some way towards easing public concern and facilitating social DIYbio movement is unlikely to morph into a version of the legitimacy, regulatory and safety issues still remain the most establishment that it currently eschews. For me, the future is significant barrier to the continued evolution of the movement. more likely to be one of co-operation rather than assimilation.

However, perhaps the most obvious limitation (outside of To borrow from the computer jargon which has come to safety and policy issues) is the gap that currently exists between synonymize the field — today’s biohackers are tomorrow’s what is possible in the average hackerspace versus what is “bioApp” developers; no longer a subversive group to be feared achievable in a typical professional or academic laboratory. and derided, but an essential component of biology’s future INK With some notable exceptions, such as the La Paillasse bioink development.

M project — a non-toxic biodegradable alternative to modern ink, DIY SynBio wetware outputs fall far short of even the References most pedestrian of academic labs. One obvious explanation 1. Hochachka WM, Fink D, Hutchinson RA, Sheldon D, Wong for this is a lack of specialist equipment, while most academic WK, Kelling S. Data-intensive science applied to broad-scale labs are stocked with name-brand apparatus and laboratory citizen science. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2012; 27:130-7. consumables, biohackers make do with what they have 2. DIYBio http://diybio.org/. (or more usually have not!). Necessity being the mother of 3. iGEM https://www.igem.org. invention, some of these hardware innovations and inventions 4. DremelFuge http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1483. art of colour explained

by Margaret Franklin and have ironically come to represent the communities’ firstThe science and 5.

Amplino http://www.amplino.org/.

Tom Kennedy.

A colourful and informative paperback. €15 post free tangible successes. The DremelFuge for example; developed 6. Hacking goes squishy. The Economist Technology from www.sciencespin.com

by Cork based DIYbio practitioner Cathal Garvey, Quarterly, 2009. is a simple component which turns an ordinary Dremel rotary-tool into a lab-quality centrifuge4.

More sophisticated devices include, Amplino5, Dr Roy Sleator is a lecturer at Cork Institute of an inexpensive, portable PCR diagnostic system, Technology’s Department of Biological Sciences and a capable of detecting malaria in less than 40 minutes Principal Investigator at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic from a single drop of blood.

Centre, University College Cork. Sleator is also Thus, while the DIYbio movement is founding Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal unlikely, at least in the short term, Bioengineered. The article is a redacted to contribute significantly to our version of an Editorial entitled The synthetic fundamental understanding of biology future published in the 5:2 issue of biological processes, disruptive Bioengineered see technologies like Amplino have the http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/bioe.28317 COLOUR

often be anuscripts can a traced back to tery through . particular monas by the scribes the inks used have been an analysis of of substances wide variety freedom of flow, For writing a requirements; basic the Boiled tree found to meet permanency. ooms, high degree of by ink-cap mushr clarity, and a mush produced root of the yellow bark, the black powdered wers, A have been used. blue from cornflo even strong coffee ned bark flag iris, and winter blacke made from the glue. One black ink was with milk or mixed the twigs from oak galls, of blackthorn of ink was made oak trees. One common type d by insects on round balls forme ation was five pounds of iron formula for prepar s of gum, 12 gallons of water, pound galls. sulphate, five gallon of oak by volume, 12 s must and measuring galls for 12 gallon the oak h enoug how big Collecting lt but it just shows more extensive have been difficu and was. On an even lack and gum, demand for ink dirty made from lampb was ink although very scale Indian became a big, lampblack, grained soot Europe. The soot, producing fine of south eastern printers’ ink. industry in parts linseed to make 63 was mixed with

The quality of medieval inks had to be high for manuscripts such as this to survive.

This is a page from a medical manuscript, the Book of the O’Lees, preserved at the Royal Irish Academy.

saturation, and Colour has hue, three dimensional brightness, and gh harder to modelling, althou te to more accura visualise, led ication. systems of classif

of how colours gives a good idea the colour from The colour wheel By subtracting opposite hue. relate to each other. wheel we get the one side of the

COLOUR

cliff above against a granite schist lying up Vegetation covered Wicklow. is Lough Oular, Co Granite which

e ion is the Mourn during initial event. The except it developed years old and to the melting only 55 million , possibly due (see Atlantic Ocean ing Antrim basalts opening of the crust by the ascend earlier). of the Earth’s Rocks” base of other Volcanic granite in the “Basalts and molten hot of plates: The generation movement of sinks to is driven by the the Earth’s crust , the over-ridden crustal plate Figure (see where they collide liquid granite it melts to form they release extremely a depth where plates pull apart the crust it in turn melts 3). Where those the mantle which hot basalt from

niferous plants

Carbo

hibernicus, A. Palaeopteris Co Kilkenny. from Kiltorcan, loachitica, B. Alethopteris Tipperary.

Ballynstick, Co lonchilides, C. Alethopteris colliery, Co from Drumnagh Cork. endron, D. Root of Lepidod Laois.

Towerstown, Co Photographs: Tom

The granite with granite rocks. is well-endowed out from the Figure 15. Ireland northeast stands years old.

Mountains is the r — only 55 million of the Mourne significantly younge others in being

Kennedy.

67

ROCK AROUND IRELAND

Peadar McArdle guides us around Ireland’s diversified geology.

Paperback €15 postfree from www.sciencespin.com In 1795, the chance discovery of a nugget was immediately followed by a gold rush as people were drawn by the prospect of picking up instant wealth from Wicklow’s Goldmine River.

In this entertaining and highly informative book, Peadar McArdle, former Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, describes how the frenzy has never really died down, and to this day, panners hope to be rewarded by the glimmer of gold.

Gold Frenzy

The story of Wicklow’s gold Peadar McArdle

Date for your diary

20th May 2014, 8pm The author, Peadar McArdle, talks about Wicklow’s gold rush at the Goat Grill, Goatstown, Dublin.

Hardback €20 From Dubray, GSI, and selected bookshops, or buy post free from www.sciencespin.com

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 19

Albertine Kennedy Publishing ISBN 0 906002 08 7

Sive Finlay introduces us to the unicorns of the sea

Weird and wonderful animals

Although ferocious looking, the Narwhals are not aggressive, and tusks on males seem to be for display. Photo: Glenn Williams, National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In this map of the north polar region, areas frequented by the Narwhals are in solid blue, while the hatched areas show where have been observed during winter when they migrate to deeper waters under ice.

A

nyone with a well-rounded knowledge of children’s songs knows that unicorns didn’t make it onto Noah’s Ark. True – they were more likely swimming away merrily in the seas below.

Narwhals are often called unicorns of the sea. They are a member of the toothed-whale family, closely related to belugas. Their scientific species name, Monodon monoceros, alludes to their unicorn status; “one-tooth, one-horn”.

All male and some female narwhals have elongated, straight tusks which have been known to grow up to 3 metres long!

Unlike mythical unicorns, their tusks are not horns in the centre of their heads.

They actually grow from an elongated left canine tooth which sticks out in front of the animal instead of inside its mouth (imagine the potential orthodontic bills!).

In rare cases, sometimes males can even grow two parallel tusks from both the left and right canines.

Narwhals inhabit icy, polar waters around the Arctic. During the summers they migrate to ice-free, shallow, coastal waters while in the winter they return to deeper, ice-bound areas. These strange leviathans have fascinated explorers, traders and aristocracy for centuries.

Their tusks were prized as powerful or even magical unicorn horns. There are accounts of Viking traders selling narwhal tusks for many

more times their weight in gold. Their allure didn’t fade in later years; in the 16th century Queen Elizabeth paid £10,000 for a narwhal tusk – equivalent to the price of a castle! Even well into the 19th and 20th centuries, narwhal tusks could be found as prized unicorn relics in various natural history collections and exhibitions (along with “mermaids” which were usually made of monkey torsos sewn onto fish tails).

There have been many suggestions as to why narwhals evolved their beautiful, though presumably rather cumbersome, tusks. One idea was that the tusks were used to capture prey – an intriguing notion but with no obvious explanation for how the whales would get the unfortunate skewered fish from their tusk to their mouths. Another idea is that tusks might be useful for breaking breathing holes into sea ice although this function doesn’t explain why females usually don’t develop tusks.

The most likely idea seems to be that the tusks may have evolved due to sexual selection; a way for males to show off their fitness and physical prowess so that females can choose the best mate.

Some males have been observed

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 20

jousting with their tusks although observations of aggressive behaviour are usually rare in these gentle giants.

However, new evidence, published this year by a team of scientists led by Dr. Martin Nweeia of Harvard University, supports a further intriguing function for the tusks. Detailed microscope analyses of the tusks’ structures indicate that these elongated teeth are filled with tiny holes which harbour sensitive nerve endings.

These are the same kind of structures found in our teeth which can cause pain if they’re exposed to overly hot or cold foods (think of the Sensodyne toothpaste ads!). The nerves within the tusks seem to allow narwhals to sense changes in salt levels in the surrounding water.

This function could be useful for the animals’ migrations; melting sea ice in the summer releases fresh water into the surrounding area, thereby decreasing salt concentrations. The tusk’s sensory functions may also extend to further roles such as picking up sound vibrations and acoustic communications through the water. However, these findings are only preliminary and some researchers still advocate that the tusks are primarily for show in attracting mates rather than sensory organs.

Even with current research efforts we only have

a basic knowledge of narwhals’ physiology and behaviour. And we may be running out of time to answer outstanding questions. Sadly these polar whales are facing worrying population declines. They are currently classified as “Near Threatened” but the difficulties associated with monitoring and tracking the whales means that our current estimates of their population size could be very inaccurate. Narwhals are particularly vulnerable to threats

associated with climate change. Dramatic losses and changes in sea ice formations affect their migratory routes. Reduced ice coverage in warmer summers also encourages the whales to venture closer to coastal areas and therefore within easier reach of hunters.

Narwhals have excited our fascination and imagination for centuries. Even now many of their secrets remain to be uncovered. Increasing our knowledge and understanding of how these animals

function and behave are crucial steps towards finding effective ways to conserve and protect these vulnerable creatures. These beautiful unicorns of the sea are truly weird and wonderful animals.

The giant basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, can be over 12 metres long. The greatly enlarged gills are efficient collectors of oxygen. Photo: Wild Wonders of Europe.

because oxygen levels in the atmosphere were high.

However, scientists at Radboud University Nijmegan dispute the assumption that oxygen rich waters triggered an increase of marine animal size. As Wilco Verberk, from Nijmegan and his co-researcher, David Atkinson from the University of Liverpool, point out in a paper published in Functional Ecology, oxygen is abundant in Arctic waters, but the gas diffuses more slowly in cold water. Because of this, the uptake of oxygen by animals in cold water is less than if they were swimming in warmer

water with a lower level of oxygen.

So, in order to get sufficient oxygen, the pressure on animals is to become bigger. The viscosity of the water is also important, and in colder conditions there is more drag, so as the scientists observe, smaller animals have to spend more energy swimming than larger ones.

Under these conditions large size is an advantage.

“On land,” they state, “where it is much easier to absorb oxygen from the air, this reasoning does not apply.”

The benefit of being big

Why are some animals in polar seas so big? One explanation is that they can grow to a big size because cold waters are rich in oxygen. This is similar to the explanation that insects millions of years ago were much bigger than they are now

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 21

Sive Finlay, a Zoology graduate, is currently working as a postgraduate scholar with the Macroecology and Macroevolution group at TCD.

ASPECTS OF IRISH GEOLOGY EXPLAINED — SIMPLY

Paddy Gaffikin on what we need to know about the

EXTINCTION OF THE

IRISH “ELK”

But which groups will ultimately prevail, no man can predict; for we know that many groups, formerly most extensively developed, have now become extinct.

C. Darwin (1809-82).

A 19th century lithograph of Megaloceros giganteus, the Irish ‘Elk’.

AIrish ‘elk’, this giant deer was not

lthough commonly known as the the

uniquely indigenous to Ireland and it was not, strictly speaking, an elk. It has been called, somewhat grandiloquently, ‘Ireland’s dinosaur’. Remains of the mammal have been found in England, Wales, the Isle of Man, northern Europe and even in Asia as far north as Siberia but the best preserved remains have been discovered in Ireland – hence the tag ‘Irish’. Its scientific name is Megaloceros giganteus, which could be translated as ‘giant huge horn’. In appearance it would have been very imposing, the adult being about 2m high to its shoulders and its antlers, from tip to tip, measured over 3m with a dry weight of around 30kg.

Antlers were exclusive to the males, who shed them annually and would regrow them each Spring. This would have involved the consumption of copious quantities of calcium-rich vegetation.

Examination of fossilised antlers revealed that, although large, they were not structurally robust so they would not have been functional for combat.

Their main purpose would have been to deter any attackers and just to impress.

Although it would not have been the largest deer ever to exist, it had the biggest antlers.

Among the places in Ireland where remains have been found are: Ballybetagh Bog, Co. Dublin; Larne Lough shore, Co. Antrim; Downpatrick, Co. Down; and, a number of years ago, a skull bone was The giant deer and a human scale compared

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 22

found by workmen during excavations in Castle Place, central Belfast. Usually, fossils have turned up in superficial deposits. But, occasionally, they have been found in caves, for example at Kilgreany (Co. Waterford) and Doneraile (Co. Cork). Fossilised remains often consist of antlers, but bones have also been discovered.

When did the Irish ‘elk’ first arrive in Ireland?

Radioactive carbon dating of Irish ‘elk’ bones found near Doneraile yield a date of around 32,000 years ago. This was during a warm phase within the great Ice Age in Ireland. Later, between approximately 25,000 and 13,000 years ago, Ireland experienced extremely cold conditions with glaciers up to hundreds of metres thick covering most of the country. The Irish ‘elk’ would have been unable to survive in these severe conditions. Dating of samples show that it reappeared shortly after 13,000 years ago when the climate warmed and the ice started melting. How did it get to our shores at this time? Unfortunately, the answer is not clear-cut. Assuming it could swim, it could have arrived by sea; the Irish sea, for example, at this time would have been narrower than today because a portion of its water would have been locked-up in ice. As the climate warmed and the glaciers retreated, grasslands proliferated thus providing ample food for this giant deer and it probably reached its acme around 11,000 years ago. But, around 9,000 years ago it became extinct in Ireland.

Why did the Irish ‘elk’ become extinct?

• One of the first reasons expounded for its demise was that by about 9,000 years ago forests covered much of the Irish land and, because of the width of its antlers, the males’ movement would have been greatly impeded by the trees. This idea has been refuted because it is now known the ‘trees’ were just shrub-like, not growing much more than about 1m in height.

• Is there a connection between the arrival of people in Ireland around 9,000 years ago and the disappearance of the Irish ‘elk’? Could over-hunting by humans be a cause, or could the Stone Age people have transmitted pathogens to these mammals – pathogens to which the animals had no immunity?

• Was there predation by other animals, for example wolf packs?

• Some disease may have been the cause of their extinction; a disease which affected their soft tissues only and, because soft parts are not preserved in fossils, we do not have any evidence for this.

• It is known that very cold (Arctic) conditions returned to Ireland about 10,600 years ago and lasted until around 10,000 years ago. Maybe the Irish ‘elk’ was unable to cope with this abrupt severe climate change.

• Most fossils of the Irish ‘elk’ have been found in bogs and in the mud of dried-up lakes. So a likely scenario could be imagined of herds, in their attempts to drink, becoming trapped in swampy regions in the vicinity of ponds and were unable to extricate themselves. The males in particular would have found their antlers exacerbated the situation.

The Irish ‘elk’ is no longer with us and the reason or reasons for its extinction, as with many extinctions throughout geological time, remain uncertain.

Probably a combination of causes were entailed in extinctions generally, or maybe some factor that as yet is unknown was involved. Perhaps the explanation for the disappearance of the Irish ‘elk’ will always be a matter of speculation rather than definite scientific fact.

The skeleton of the Giant Irish Deer at the Natural History Museum, Dublin.

A stunning reconstruction of the Irish ‘elk’ is on display in the Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast and an actual Irish ‘elk’ skeleton is exhibited in the Natural History Museum, Merrion St., Dublin, 2.

Paddy Gaffikin is author of Irish Rocks, a beginners guide to the common types of rock that occur around Ireland.

A popular guide to the common types of rocks that occur around Ireland, from the dark basalts of the north, glittering granites, quartzites and grey limestones to the red sandstones of the south. Paddy Gaffkin explains how these rocks came to be there and how to identify them.

Full colour with fold-out cover. 48pp.

€9.00 post free from www.spinstore.eu

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 23

Entering unfamiliar territory Carl McDermott talked to Tom Kennedy about going off to take a fresh look at a complex basin

F

or geologists, mapping is like a rite of passage. For the first time, students are on their own with no expert by their side, telling them how to read and interpret what they see around them in the landscape.

As, Carl McDermott, one of the two winners in the annual Cunningham Award for geological mapping, remarked “I knew everything in theory, but this was real.”

When the time came for Carl to undertake the mapping project, he asked his supervisor for something complex, something to do with an evolving system. “I had seen too many maps that are just straight lines,” he said, and for Carl that was not enough of a challenge. “I love structures,” he remarked, but, as he admitted, being given what you ask for can be quite daunting. For starters, the choice of location is not up to the student, and as Carl said, “we go in in what they call the helicopter style.” That literally means jumping into unfamiliar territory, and no reading up on existing maps beforehand.

Because of this, he said, there are no preconceived ideas on what to expect. Lack of bias allows geologists to see the evidence with a fresh view, and this is invaluable as a life-long scientific skill.

In Carl’s case, he landed in the Tremp Basin, north-west Spain. This basin consists of sedimentary rocks laid down at the edge of the Alpine building orogeny when the Earth’s plates pushed up against each other. In terms of complexity, this was just what he wanted, but even so, it all looks unfamiliar and intimidating at first. “This was not just any old basin,” he said, for over time older rocks had been folded over more recent deposits, a reversal of the usual order. “How do you sort that out?” he asked himself. “That was my headache, you do your field work, and then analyse the data — it is detective work on a grand scale.”

Carl had six weeks to complete his field mapping, and he decided to cover an area of about 13 sq km. Looking at the evidence, he was surprised to see just how much the landscape had been shaped by waves of pressure. “You have units that were deposited in an extenional period, so the ground was coming apart and the hollows were filled with sediment. Then, that switches, almost immediately, to compressive, so you have these hollows filled with new sediment squeezed and pushed over each other in a relatively short amount of time.”

Although there is no oil in the region, Carl said that the basin is the sort of structure that acts as a trap for a petroleum system, so it provides a good model that would be great in training, and he is likely to make use of this for his own career. While currently at UCD working with a fault analysis group, Carl said he is gravitating to the petroleum field.

Like most geologists, the hands-on approach to science appeals to Carl, and this also applies to his approach to mapping. He likes using a notebook rather than some form of tablet. “Anyone can pick it up and follow what you did, and its not just notes, you draw features, and that puts everything in perspective. If you think you’ve made a mistake, you can go back to your notes, whereas with electronics, you delete, and its gone.”

Carl’s interest in geology went back to his schooldays at Drogheda Grammar. At the time, he was not thinking of geology, and as he said, “I just wanted to be a scientist.”

His mother had given him a present of an illustrated encyclopaedia, a great big book of knowledge, and as he recalled, “it was my favourite book.”

At TCD he took up maths, chemistry and geology, and by third year “it was either chemistry or geology.”

The Cunningham Awards established in memory of Dr Mark Cunningham, ex-Assistant Director of GSI, are presented to the two best field mapping projects of each year. The two winners for 2013 were Carl McDermott from TCD and Richard Hooten from UCC.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 24

A twisting pattern was detected in how the cosmic microwaves were polarised. In this image blue is anticlockwise and red clockwise. This is evidence for gravitational waves created by rapid inflation 13.8 billion years ago.

Waves of expansion Margaret Franklin explains how scientists working from an observatory close to the South Pole have detected gravitational waves created by rapid expansion of the early Universe

A

recent scientific observation, possibly of comparable importance to the discovery of the Higgs boson, was announced on March 17th. Scientists examining images from the BICEP2 telescope, located near the South Pole, reported that they had observed evidence for the existence of ‘gravitational waves’.

Such waves may be described as ‘ripples’ in space-time and were predicted

by Einstein, in his general theory of relativity. The actual image produced by the telescope showed spiral patterns in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is left over from the so-called ‘Big Bang’. This marked the beginning of space and time and of our Universe.

The idea that the Universe started with an enormous explosion is less than a century old. When Einstein was developing his theory of relativity, he believed in a static Universe; in other words, its size did not change. However, the discovery of the cosmological ‘Red

Shift’ provided a clue that the Universe is, in fact, expanding. As early as 1912, astronomers had observed that light coming from distant galaxies had longer wavelengths than expected. The characteristic line spectra of specific elements could be identified in this light, An array of 512 detectors at the BICEP2 telescope’s focal plane. These operate at 0.25ºK, just above absolute zero to reduce thermal noise.

but each wavelength was slightly shifted towards the red (i.e. longer wavelength) end of the spectrum. Therefore, the phenomenon was referred to as the ‘Red Shift’. In 1929 Edwin Hubble noticed that the farther away a galaxy was, the greater the Red Shift. This could be explained if we assume that the Universe is expanding. As it does, the distant galaxies are getting farther away from us and from each other. As they recede, the wavelengths of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the galaxies get stretched out, causing the ‘red shift’.

If we accept that the universe is expanding, it follows that in the distant past, it was much smaller than it is today. If we follow this line of logic, we come to the conclusion that at some time, a very long time ago, the entire material of the Universe was concentrated in an infinitesimally small volume.

The question that scientists have been pondering is, what caused the expansion? Presumably, it was

something like a massive explosion. It was British astronomer Fred Hoyle who first used the expression ‘Big Bang’ in a BBC Radio interview in 1950. He intended it as a sarcastic remark, since he didn’t accept the theory, but the media latched on to it and it is now the description most commonly used for the origin of the Universe.

Once the expansion of the Universe had become accepted as a fact, scientists looked for further evidence of the process. If there had been a huge explosion, it would have generated an enormous amount of heat and radiation. Even though the initial heat would have dissipated with time, it should still be possible to detect the remnants of the radiation. A group of scientists at Princeton, New Jersey, were working on this project in the 1960s, but were unexpectedly beaten to it by two researchers at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. They were Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who were testing a new horn-shaped microwave antenna, on the roof of their building in Holmdel, New Jersey. They were

A LC-130 aircraft is passing the South Pole station during take off. Telescopes visible in the background include (left to right) the South Pole Telescope, the BICEP2 telescope, and the Keck Array telescope. Photo: Steffen Richter, Harvard University. trying to eliminate an annoying hiss, which could be heard as background noise, irrespective of the orientation of the antenna. They tried chilling the detector to a low temperature, they re-wired the equipment and they even cleaned off pigeon droppings that had accumulated on the horn. But despite their best efforts, they couldn’t get rid of the noise. Eventually, in desperation, they phoned Robert Dicke at Princeton to ask Graduate student Justus Brevik tests the BICEP2 readout electronics from the warm environment of the Dark Sector Lab. Photo: Steffen Richter, Harvard University.

The Dark Sector Lab (DSL), located just over a kilometre from the Geographic South Pole, houses the BICEP2 telescope (left) and the South Pole Telescope (right). Photo: Steffen Richter, Harvard University.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 26

his advice. Dicke realised immediately what was causing the irritating sound and informed his fellow-researchers “gentlemen, we have been scooped!”

What Penzias and Wilson had found was the energy remnants from the Big Bang, what Marcus Chown referred to as the ‘Afterglow of Creation” in his wonderful book of that title. For their discovery, Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978, even though they hadn’t been searching for evidence of the Big Bang and didn’t recognize it when they found it.

To understand how microwave radiation provides evidence for the origin of the Universe, we have to appreciate how vast our Universe is at the present time. Microwaves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. They are similar to radio waves, but have even shorter wavelengths, hence the name ‘microwaves’. They occupy that part of the spectrum between the shortest radio waves and Infra-red radiation and they travel with the speed of light, almost 300,000 km per second, in the vacuum of space. It takes billions, of years for

electromagnetic waves to reach us from the most distant objects in the Universe.

When scientists examine this radiation, they are looking at something that began its journey all that time ago, so they are looking backwards in time.

Cosmologists have calculated that the age of the Universe is 13.8 billion years.

The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) provides an image of the energy distribution of the Universe when it was extremely young, a mere 380,000 years after the Big Bang. When the radiation was first emitted, the Universe was at an incredibly high temperature and the wavelengths contained in the radiation were extremely short. Now, billions of years later, what can be detected is the cooled-down radiation, corresponding to a peak blackbody temperature of just 2.73 degrees Kelvin, less than three degrees above absolute

When cosmic microwave radiation (CMB) started streaming freely differences from place to place left their imprint. Gravitational waves have left a signature in CMB polarisation, and fluctuations have been magnified by inflation of the Universe. zero. The corresponding wavelengths fall within the microwave range. Last year (2013) the European Space Agency (ESA) released a detailed map of the minute temperature variations in the CMB. This map was generated from data collected by the Planck space telescope.

This year’s announcement comes from the scientists working with a terrestrial telescope called BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization, phase 2). Located at a USA research station 800 metres from the geographical South Pole, it is one of a number of instruments designed to measure the polarization pattern of the

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 27

CMB. It is hoped that this will provide evidence for ‘inflation’, the term used by scientists to describe the incredibly rapid expansion that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, during the first fraction of a second of time. The expansion caused the fabric of space-time to stretch, so that the quantum fluctuations became enlarged, sending out gravitational waves. Professor Andrei Linde of Stanford University was a major contributor to the theory of inflation 30 years ago. When informed of the BICEP2 findings, he was overjoyed, but also cautious. Further tests and analyses must be conducted before the inflation theory is reliably confirmed.

Margaret Franklin is Vice President, Institute of Chemistry in Ireland and author of Colour, what we see and the science behind sight.

BT YOUNG SCIENTIST AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION

Reading confusion One of the first things that school students learn is how to read. Hard enough with just one language, but having to acquire a second one can be confusing. Although linguistically enriching, and ultimately an advantage, the rules and structures that have become familiar do not always translate into the second language. Rhane Michelle Capres, Irene Pabinguit and Konrad Gladysz, 5th year students at St Laurence College, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, know how confusing this can be from their own first-

Rhane and Irene found that differences in languages can make it more difficult for students to read English hand experience. Between them, their linguistic skills span Polish, Irish, Talalog and English, and as they explained, some remarks by one of their teachers, Tony McGennis, about the difficulties in translating some Irish words into English got them thinking about the differences between other languages.

For their project, the students decided to focus on how linguistic differences can have an impact on reading skills. For example, with Talagog, as spoken by the

majority of people in the Philippines, every letter has to be pronounced separately, while in Polish there are more characters and accents than in English. As the students pointed out, these differences mean that non-English speakers start off facing an extra step in learning to read compared to other students. Because of this, students who may end up with an enriched command of language, can start off with reading difficulties.

Apart from asking other students at school about their experience, Rhane, Pabinguit and Konrad gathered information from the wider community.

Learning to read English, they found, is a lot easier than learning how to read other languages, and they observed this is due to the fact that English is so widely spoken that it has to be understood by people from different cultures around the world. “It is easier for someone to go from Polish to English, than from English to Polish,” they said. In becoming an international lingua franca, many of the differences that distingish and enrich other languages have simply been discarded.

Report, Tom Kennedy

Apple power There are many orchards in County Down, and as Kyle Clarke and Conor Mulraine, students at South Eastern Regional College, County Down, noticed, lots of apples end up on the dump.

Apples have a limited life, so large supermarkets and greengrocers have to dispose of what they can’t sell.

The students thought that dumping seems to be a poor solution when a better alternative might be to use them to produce ethanol. As they explained, ethanol, the alcohol in drinks such as cider, is relatively easy to make, not just from apples, but from any other types of discarded vegetable matter.

All that needs to be done, they said, is to ferment the apples using yeast.

Ordinary yeasts are not productive enough because they cease to work when the alcohol level reaches 4 to 5 per cent.

So they went on-line and obtained a hightolerance strain. “This can be cultured,”

Kyle Clarke and Conor Mulraine argue that instead of dumping apples they could be used to produce ethanol fuel

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 28

they said, “so it’s a renewable supply.”

The students got to work, fermenting the apples, and when the yeast had done its work, they distilled the equivalent of high-alcohol cider. Ethanol, they explained, has a boiling point of 78.3°C, and they were able separate this out using a small-scale electronic distillation kit.

Although the best they could measure with an alcohol hydrometer was 5 per cent ethanol, they said better results could be obtained by perfecting the fermentation process. “In theory,” they said, “for every 51 kilogram of reducing sugar naturally occurring in apples, you can get 51 cc of ethanol.” While

that not seem much on a small scale, the students commented that 190,000 tons of apples are discarded as waste each year in the UK. “That would produce 95 million litres of ethanol, and that’s just from apples,” they said. Other types of waste, they added, would be more productive. Apples have a sugar content of 10 per cent, but raisins have 75 per cent. If different streams of reducing sugar-containing wastes were combined, ethanol could be produced on an industrial scale.

The benefit, as they pointed out, would not stop there. The left-over material, they said, is high in nutrients, so it would be used as a fertilizer.

The students also did a test to see if ethanol could be combined with calcium acetate to make a semi-solid fuel gel.

This is the sort of product that could be used as an alternative fuel by campers.

At present, campers often use hexamine, which is toxic, and the students argued that an ethanol gel would be safer, cleaner and more efficient. “We did a comparison test and found that the same volume of gel burnt for longer.”

“Ethanol,” they said, “would be a great way to break the dependency on fossil fuels.” They also concluded that producing ethanol would give a lot of jobs in the agricultural sector.

Report, Tom Kennedy

RDS Primary Science Fair Young Science business bootcamp

How pure is Burren water?

After conducting a series of tests, Laura, Alesia and ruth from scoil náisiúnta Eoin Baiste, Ballyvaughan, County Clare found that the water in their area is pure and fit to drink. With the help of their teacher, the pupils collected samples from a turlough, a cave and a waterfall. After checking Ph, and measuring dissolved salts and nutrients, they concluded that quality was high in all, but the best water came from the waterfall.

Laura, Alesia and ruth, above, were at the BT Young scientist and Technology exhibition where they presented their results at the rDs Primary science Fair.

SUBSCRIBE 6 issues a year €30 www.spinstore.eu SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page

PArTICIPAnTs in the BT Young scientist and Technology exhibition were invited to attend a business development bootcamp at UCD. The camp, now in its fifth year, was established to provide students with business skills so that they could become the innovators of the future.

29 second-level students, selected from the 2014 BT Ys exhibition were given the task of developing a commercial project. The winning team, made up of Alex Gallagher Lynch, Anna McEvoy, Cut Aina Hannisa, Eamonn sweeney and Emma Kirwan, worked out a way to draw more attention to road signs.

Other groups worked on production of ethanol, detection of water leaks, a gumshield communication device for sports, peizo-electric shoes, and removal of inorganic pollutants from water.

Ask a scientist

More than 25 experts from a wide range of fields including biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy are ready to answer your questions. If there is something that puzzles you, let the panel know. Email questions, with your name and contact to

question@sciencespin.com

Why are bruises blue?

Bruises often appear on skin that has been injured. The reason for this is because the injury causes tiny blood vessels to burst and the blood from them gets trapped just below the surface of the skin. The bruise swells and cuts off the oxygen supply to the haemoglobin in the trapped blood and the bruise turns a purplish blue colour. The bruise goes green once haemoglobin breaks down into biliverdin, which is further broken down into bilirubin leaving the final yellow colour. The bruise disappears once the body reabsorbs the rest of the blood. l Sarah Dilleen

How much dust lands on Earth each year, and does it make the world bigger?

We think that about 40-50 tonns of meteoric dust (and including some larger bits) lands on earth every day, although it’s very hard to measure, and estimates range from about 5 tonns to about 300 tonns.

But even the uppermost estimate has a neglibible effect on the overall mass of the Earth, which is about 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tonns.

And the increase in size would be too small to measure on a scale of even centuries.

On the other hand, there is a steady but very slight loss of some of the lighter gases, mainly hydrogen and helium, escaping from the top of Earth’s atmosphere. We don’t know the exact rate of that loss either, but it could be that the two roughly cancel each other out.

A proposed experiment called CODITA - (COsmic Dust In the Terrestrial Atmosphere) may give a more accurate estimate of the dust accumulation, if it goes ahead. l Terry Moseley

What came before the Big Bang.

A physicist at Heidelberg University, Prof. Dr. Christof Wetterich, recently proposed that there was a slow increase in mass before the Big Bang, and if that theory is true, does our view of an expanding Universe needs to be revised.?

That’s a question which is impossible to answer, as all our known laws of the Universe break down at the incredibly high temperatures and pressures of the Big Bang. We can only apply our known physical laws back to a tiny tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang itself. In the so-called ‘Standard Inflationary Model’ of the Universe, not only matter, but also space and time, came into existence at the moment of the Big Bang, so it is meaningless to ask ‘What came before that?’, or even ‘Where did the Big Bang happen?’, or ‘What is the Universe expanding into?’

Various other theories such as M-Theory and String Theory indicate that there may be other parallel universes or ‘multiverses’, or even that our Universe ‘budded off’ from another earlier universe, but at the moment these are purely abstract mathematical possibilities, without any evidence to support them.

There is very little doubt that the Universe is expanding, but what is more controversial is evidence that the rate of expansion may be speeding up, rather than slowing down. This apparent effect is what gave rise to the theory of ‘Dark Energy’ — a hypothetical repulsive force which is increasing the rate of expansion.

On the other hand, more and more evidence is building up to support the Standard Inflationary Model, such as the discovery of the Higgs Boson, very accurate measures of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, and recent evidence for Magnetic Monopoles. However, it is also true that there are many questions still to be answered, and the Big Bang theory may eventually have to be revised, or even replaced. But it’s the best we have at the moment. l Terry Moseley

Why do we sleep?

Scientists have been asking this question for centuries and we still don’t have one answer of why we sleep. There seem to be three main reasons why we sleep.

1) Energy conservation; our metabolic activity decreases significantly while we sleep which means that we conserve energy. Sleep is an effective way of decreasing energy demand and conserving energy resources. Some animals take this strategy to an extreme by entering extended sleep-like states known as torpor to get through long

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 64 Page 30

winters or other times when survival is more difficult.

2) Restoration: We make a lot of demands of our bodies and sleep is the time when things can be repaired and restored to proper functions. Many important activities such as muscle growth, tissue repair and making proteins take place while we sleep. Sleep is also important for our health; the immune systems of animals that are deprived of sleep stop working completely.

3) For our brains! One of the most recent theories about why we sleep comes from the observation that our brains’ structure and function change while we sleep.

Sleep is important for the development of connections in our brain that allow us to learn and form new memories. This is one of the reasons why babies sleep so much – they’ve a lot to learn – and why it’s important to get a good night’s sleep before exams! l Sive Finlay, sfinlay@tcd.ie

Ask a scientist

What is radon, why is it seen as a problem and where does it come from?

Radon is a radioactive gas, which is present in minute traces in the atmosphere. It is an element, belonging to the family of so-called ‘noble gases’, which appear on the extreme right hand side of the Periodic Table of the Elements. The gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and finally radon. All of these gases are chemically inert, because they have a stable electronic structure. All except radon also have stable nuclei, therefore radon is the only radioactive member of the group.

Radon is released by the decay of radioactive elements that are naturally present in certain rocks, particularly granite. Because radon has an unstable nucleus, it too undergoes radioactive decay, as part of a radioactive decay series, which usually starts with uranium. Out-ofdoors, the presence of radon in the air is not a problem, as the level is so low and it becomes well dispersed by wind. The problem occurs where there is a build-up of radon indoors, in older buildings which don’t have a radon barrier and which are poorly ventilated. Modern building regulations require a barrier to be put in place, to prevent radon from seeping into the house from the rocks underneath.

Prolonged exposure to radon gas can cause lung cancer. The severity of the hazard varies from place to place, depending on the amount of uranium in the underlying bedrock.

The radon level in a home can be measured simply and inexpensively.

The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland can supply two small detectors, which are placed in your home, one in the bedroom and one in the living room, for three months.

The detectors are then sent back to the laboratory so that the amount of radiation they have absorbed can be measured.

Further information may be obtained from the RPII website at http://www.rpii.ie l Margaret Franklin, Vice President, Institute of Chemistry in Ireland and author of Colour, what we ee and the science behind sight.

Why do some animals live longer than others?

In vertebrates (animals with backbones) there is a strong correlation between longevity and body size; large animals tend to grow and mature more slowly and therefore live longer than small animals. Vertebrate lifespans range from just 8 weeks in the small pygmy goby to 211 years in bowhead whales! However, not all animals follow these expected trends. Some species such as bats and many birds live much longer than expected for animals of their size. This variation seems to be related to the animals’ abilities to escape predators, i.e. their chances of dying from extrinsic causes which aren’t just related to old age. A group of us from the Zoology department at TCD published some research on this topic recently. By studying records from over 1,300 bird and mammal species, we found that animals that are well-adapted to avoid predators tend to live longer than expected for their body size. Species that can burrow, escape into the trees or fly, live longer than their similarly-sized relatives that don’t possess these capabilities. These correlations explain why bats’ longevities appear to be so exceptional; their long lifespans seem to be a result of their ability to fly – essentially they behave like furry birds! These findings make good sense from an evolutionary perspective. If there’s a high chance that you will be caught and eaten by a predator then it makes sense to mature and reproduce quickly and therefore have a shorter lifespan. However, if you can escape many predators by going underground, into the trees or into the air then it’s possible to invest in a longer lifespan because there’s less of a chance of being eaten before you can have your babies!

We still have a lot to learn about the genetic mechanisms of why some animals live longer than others. The ultimate hope is that if we can understand what makes some animals long-lived then we might be able to use that information to extend our own lifespans – we’re still pursuing the fountain of youth! l Sive Finlay, sfinlay@tcd.ie, Macroecology and Macroevolution Research Group, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin

Distant objects appear larger when viewed through a telescope or telephoto lens.

Why does the setting Sun look so big?

A. In fact, we get the same effect at sunrise, and it is the same effect as the so-called Moon Illusion, when the Moon, and the Sun, appear larger when they are close to the horizon than when they are high up in the sky. It is purely a psychological effect, as can be proved by photos and direct measurement by instruments, and there is no entirely satisfactory explanation for it! The main cause seems to be that when they are low down we see them across ‘filled space’, i.e. with hedges, fields or even just the ground or sea as a foreground; whereas when they are high up they appear in

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 63 Page 31

a void. But no-one knows just why that should cause the effect. It is a very strong illusion, and seems to affect everyone almost equally. l Terry Moseley, is author of Reach for the Stars, is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has been President of the Irish Astronomical Association on three separate occasions.

Is there something you would like to ask? Send your question to our panel of experts — question@sciencespin.com

Can we create new elements?

Ask a scientist

Neutron number N

239 Beta Alpha Pu Yes, this is theoretically possible, but any further extension decay decay The Uranium-236 144 of the Periodic Table is going to be more difficult, as the 235 U Decay Series heavier elements have very unstable nuclei and start to .71 Gy 142 undergo radioactive decay as soon as they have been 231 236 Th 25 h U Series produced. At the moment, the heaviest element to have 140 239 32 ky been synthesized is No. 118 and all of the elements up 231 Th Series Pa 21 y 227Ac to that number either occur naturally, or have been 238 138 U Series artificially produced, so that there are no longer any gaps 21 m 223Fr 237 227 in the Periodic Table. No. 118 seems to be a natural limit, Np Series Th 136 as it fits at the bottom of the group containing the noble 1.9 d 218 Al gases, right under radon in the Periodic Table.

The four natural 223 Ra 194 New elements are artificially made in ‘heavy ion’ radioactive series, 215 11 d Bi laboratories, such as the GSI laboratory in Darmstadt, traditionally known 219 132 Rn Germany. Element number 110 was first made there in as the Actinium 1.8 ms 215Po 3.9 s 1995 and in 2003 it was named Darmstadtium (symbol Ds) Series 130 211Pb in recognition of the town of its origin. Elements No. 111 215 36 m At and 112 were also prepared in Darmstadt and have been 0.1 ms 128 211Bi named, respectively, Roentgenium (Rg) after Roentgen, 2.2 m 211 207 Po Boxed values the man who discovered X-Rays and Copernicium (Cn) Ti 126 0.5 s for half-life are The stable end after the Polish astronomer Copernicus. The new elements 207 4.8 m product Pb for multiple were made, by bombarding heavy nuclei with streams 124 decay paths 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 of high-speed particles. Powerful magnets are used to Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn Fr Ra Au Th Po U Np Pu accelerate the charged particles, using them as ‘atomic Elements bullets’. Sometimes the projectiles are captured by the heavy nuclei and even heavier nuclei are formed. These of stability” around atomic number 114. The heaviest known are radioactive and can be detected by their radioactive decay element, No. 118, was also made by the Livermore-Dubna team products. and was first observed in 2005. They bombarded a californium Elements 113 and 115 were synthesized thanks to target (element no. 98) with calcium-48 ions and succeeded collaboration between the Lawrence Livermore National in producing three atoms of element 118. It decays by alpha Laboratory in California and the Institute for Nuclear Research particle emission, to produce element 116, which is turn decays based at Dubna in Russia. A heavy isotope of calcium, Ca-48, by the same mechanism to element no. 114. (element no. 20) was accelerated in a cyclotron and directed at Normal calcium has 20 protons and 20 neutrons in its a target of americium -243 (no. 95). Atoms of the new element nucleus, so the availability of the neutron rich Ca-48, which has 115 were created, but only survived for between 30 to 80 eight extra neutrons, is crucial. As the number of protons in milliseconds, before decaying to element number 113. This the nucleus increases, more and more neutrons are needed to element lasted for approximately ten times longer, before itself provide the nuclear binding energy. So, to produce even heavier undergoing radioactive decay. elements, we would probably need to first create heavier In 2005, there was great excitement when the same isotopes of both atomic bullets and their targets. collaboration between the USA and Russia produced element

number 114, by bombarding a heavy isotope of plutonium (no 94) with Ca-48. This super-heavy element survived longer than most of the new elements. It lasted for 30 seconds before decaying, supporting the theory that there is a so-called “island

When someone yawns why does everyone else feel the urge to do the same?

Yawning is an involuntary action that we carry out even while in the womb. The reason why yawning is contagious has not yet been scientifically proven. Recent research suggests it may be one of a number of human reactions that are contagious, like laughter. Studies show that even watching a video about yawning can cause up to half the people watching to yawn, and these are people who are wide awake and chirpy. It’s not only us humans who do it. Contagious yawning has been seen among chimpanzees, baboons and some breeds of dogs, supporting the idea that it’s an evolved trait. Whatever the reason, one thing for sure is that yawning is definitely contagious and even reading about yawning can trigger one in some people, even if they are not tired. Go on, say, yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn, and wait…..

l Margaret Franklin

How do we know that Dark Matter exists, and what is it anyhow?

Astronomers are almost certain that Dark Matter exists because of its gravitational effects. In particular, the Milky Way and other galaxies are rotating at such a speed that the gravity of the ‘ordinary’ matter in them (including stuff that we can’t actually see, but can allow for) is not enough to stop them flying apart.

So there must be more unknown and so far undetectable matter there to provide the extra gravity. And it seems mainly to form a halo round the outside of the galaxies There is also evidence from another effect called gravitational lensing.

What is it? - So far we don’t know, but popular theories include ‘MACHOs’ (MAssive Compact Halo Objects), WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) and even a huge unknown population of failed stars called Brown Dwarfs. The James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in 2018, may tell us. l Terry Moseley

l Sarah Dilleen

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