Science Spin 57

ISSUE

57

March/April 2013

€5 including VAT £4 NI and UK

SCIENCE

SPIN

IRELAND’S SCIENCE NATURE AND DISCOVERY MAGAZINE

www.sciencespin.com

Winning images

The Du Noyer competition STRING THEORY Does it all come down to good vibrations?

Threading shallow waters Taking a look at the seabed Nano tester Predicting the behaviour of novel materials Reopening the debate Should Ireland go nuclear?

The J.D. Watson and J.F. Atkins Science Competition 2013

What is Life ?

1953 J.D Watson and F.H. Crick discovered the Structure of DNA and the Story begins......

TELL THE STORY OF DNA and RNA through an illustrated essay or poem Open to secondary school students throughout Ireland

A similar competition is being organised for primary schools in County Cork. Details for this competition are available from the West Cork Education Centre — www.wesdtcorkeducationcentre.com

The winning Student will receive €500 including an Invitation to the ‘What is Life?’ Event at the National Botanic Gardens on 28th April 2013.

The winning prize will also include an autographed copy of J.D Watson’s book, The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix.

Rules and Guidelines l Deadline for submission: Friday March 22nd 2013 l To be Submitted to West Cork Education Centre, Main Street, Dunmanway, Co. Cork by post.

Northern Ireland entries to be submitted to Dr Ultan Power, Health Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast. l Envelopes to be clearly labelled, ‘Science Exhibition’ l Essays must be in printed form and bound if possible. l Please keep a back-up copy of essay for reference and email to wcecentre@eircom.net as confirmation of your entry. l Submissions are invited from INDIVIDUAL students, not teams or classes. l Only ONE SUBMISSION PER SCHOOL will be considered. l Submissions are invited for this ILLUSTRATED essay competition. Drawings and other illustrations can be included. l The entry may be presented as an essay or poem as desired. l The total word count must not exceed 600 words. l Explore the web for knowledge but plagiarism and web text will eliminate participation in the competition.

Judges for this competition are: Professor Noel F. Lowndes, Professor of Biochemistry and Head of Dept, NUIG Professor Thomas Kavanagh , Dept of Genetics, Trinity College, Dublin Dr. Ultan Power Senior Lecturer, Queen’s University, Belfast Tom Kennedy, Editor, Science Spin Professor John Atkins, Professor in the Biochemistry Department in UCC (and Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah)

SCIENCE SCIENCE

SPIN SPIN

Downpatrick Head, Co. Mayo. Limestone, Shale and Siltstone cliff face dropping into the Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Jonathan Moran, Marschacht, Germany. First prize in the Du Noyer competition.

Publisher Science Spin Ltd 5 Serpentine Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. www.sciencespin.com Email: tom@sciencespin.com Editor Tom Kennedy tom@sciencespin.com Contributing editor Seán Duke sean@sciencespin.com Business Manager Alan Doherty alan@sciencespin.com Design and Production Albertine Kennedy Publishing Cloonlara, Swinford, Co Mayo Picture research Source Photographic Archive www.sourcelibrary.net Printing Turner Group, Longford

Subscribe for just €30 a year, six issues.

Register to receive free links to our digital issues. www.sciencespin.com DATE FOR YOUR DIARY Peadar McArdle, author of Gold Fever and former Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland talks about the Wicklow Gold Rush at the RDS. 6pm April 3rd 2013 All are welcome, but booking required from librarydesk@rds.ie

Upfront 3D or not 3D

Chris Coughlan looks at the future of one-off production

String theory

How tiny strings vibrate may shape our Universe

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Nano tester

Seán Duke talks to Stefano Sanvito about developing novel materials

The Du Noyer competition A selection of winning images

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Threading shallow waters

Anthea Lacchia reports on an ambitious project to chart Ireland’s near-shore waters

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Nuclear debate

Margaret Franklin takes note of the recently released report on Sellafield and asks whether it is time to reopen the nuclear debate

Young Scientists

Anthea Lacchia talked to the winners of this year’s exhibition

Murder

Modern technology reveals how Ramessses III met his end

Dr How

Exploring bubbles

Hidden Stonehenge

Ancient observatories span the globe

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New site for SciFest

In January SciFest launched a new and much improved website giving entry forms, guidelines and other information about the project. SciFest has become an enormous success based on holding oneday science fairs at different locations around Ireland. School students enter science projects which go on display locally, and winners go on to compete at national level.

The site gives exhibition dates, entry forms and resources that can help students to prepare projects.

22nd March SciFest is at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

12th april SciFest is at the Institute of Technology Tralee.

19th april the venue is Cork Institute of Technology.

1st May SciFest is at Limerick Institute of Technology, the Waterford Institute of Technology and athlone Institute of Technology.

2rd May SciFest is at Institute of Technology Carlow.

3rd May SciFest is at Institute of Technology Sligo.

UPFRONT

Nose invader

The ability to latch onto surface cells in the nasal passage enables the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus to take up residence there. according to researchers at TCD about 20 per cent of the human population has been colonised by this bacterium, and this is a problem because infection can lead to several invasive diseases, including those that have become a major problem because of antibiotic resistance.

The researchers report that some progress has been made in identifying how Staphylococcus aureus manages to take up residence in the first place. In the open access journal, PLOS Pathogens, the researchers from the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the Department of Microbiology report that a protein on the bacterium’s surface recognises another protein on the surface of the host cells, enabling Staphylococcus aureus to latch onto the nasal passage. assistant Professor at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, rachel McLoughlin, said that identifying the bacterial protein, known as loricrin, means that researchers now have a target to attack.

www.scifest.ie

Scratch competition

a CoMPeTITIon aimed at fostering an understanding of how software is created and how it works has been launched for schools. The ICS Scratch Competition is being sponsored by the Irish Software engineering research Centre with the support of the Institute of Technology Tallaght and the Institute of Technology Sligo.

The competition is open to primary and secondary schools with a closing date of May 22nd 2013.

Details from www.ics.ie Free teaching material can be downloaded from www.scratch.ie

Astronomy trail

IreLanD has a number of significant astronomical sites. Starting with newgrange, there are observatories at Dunsink, armagh and Blackrock Castle in Cork. There is also the Birr Castle telescope where spiral galaxies were observed for the first time.

The on-line astronomy trail was initiated by the School of Cosmic Physics in the Dublin Institute of advanced Studies.

The astronomy Trail is at http://www.astronomytrail.ie

In the foreground, the carnivorous lizard Palaeosaniwa stalks a pair of hatchling Edmontosaurus as the snake Cerberophis and the lizard Obamadon look on. In the background, an encounter between T. rex and Triceratops. Credit: Carl Buell/Yale

Wiped out

DInoSaurS were not the only animals to disappear 65.5 million years ago. according to nicholas r Longrich from yale university’s department of geology and geophysics, snakes and lizards were also wiped out. In a study published in Proceedings of the national academy of Science, Longrich said that up to 83 per cent of all snakes and lizard species disappeared, and all the survivors were small.

The study took into account snake and lizard fossils from an area stretching from new Mexico in the southwestern united States, to alberta in Canada. Before mass extinction, there were many more reptile species, and as Longrich commented, it was as much an age of lizards as it was an age of dinosaurs. entire families disappeared, including a diverse group of lizards, the Polyglyphanodontia. Fossil records indicate that up to 40 per cent of the north american lizards belonged to this family.

There are about 9,000 species of lizard and snake alive now, but as Longrich explains, they did not survive because they were superior, but only because their rivals had been wiped out. one observation made by Longrich and his colleagues is that the study emphasised the importance of having good collections of fossils in museums.

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UPFRONT

A group of Aboriginals on the Murray River, Southern Australia, 1886

Populating Australia

Following the initial colonisation of Australia about 40,000 years ago, a more recent influx of people arrived about 4,000 years ago. The evidence for this comes from a study of genetic variations in the aboriginal population. The study conducted by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany shows that there was a flow of genes into Australia from India. In addition, the researchers found that earlier Australian, New Guinean and the Mamanwa populations of the Philippines had a common origin, taking a southern route out of Africa. The researchers estimated that these groups split from each other about 36,000 years ago.

Rock paintings show a difference in styles between earlier and later periods.

Some of the earliest traces of humans outside Africa come from Australia, but it is now known that people also arrived during the Holocene period. Although Australia would have been connected by land during the last ice age, the people coming in about 4,000 years ago came by boat, and after the earlier divergence about 36.000 years ago the population of New Guinea remained in isolation.

One of the researchers involved in the study, Irina Pugach, observed that the topping up of the more ancient population coincided with changes in stone technology and plant processing.

The dingo also made its first appearance about this time.

It is possible that climate had a big influence on changes and movement in Australia’s original population. Professor

Helping animals thrive

THE use of antibiotics to give farm animals a boost is no longer acceptable, and the inclusion of antibiotics in feed is now banned by law. However, a healthy diet can be a better and safer alternative, and the aim of the Trive-Rite research consortium is to evaluate the role of nutrition in boosting productivity.

The consortium is being coordinated by BioAtlantis, a company based in Kerry Technology Park, Tralee.

Dr Kieran Guinan from BioAtlantis explained that scientific validation of bioactive compounds in enhancing immunity involves collaboration of a number of universities and European SMEs. Over a two-year period Prof John O’Doherty at University College Dublin will be one of the leading scientists in developing health enhancing products that can be incorporated into animal feeds.

The dietary supplements will be supplied by BioAtlantis, Clasao Ingredients in Malta, and Drobex Agro in Poland. As part of the study, benefits passed down from one generation to the next will be assessed. Apart from UCD, benefits will be validated at the University of Technology and Life Science in Bydgoszcy, Poland, and at the AgriFood and Bioscience Institute in Belfast.

The project is the culmination of eight years of collaborative research between BioAtlantis Ltd and Prof. John O’Doherty’s research group in UCD.

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Hamish McGowan from the University of Queensland has published a study in the American Geophysical Union Journal suggesting that an extended period of drought, lasting about 1,500 years, caused a cultural collapse in the northwest of Australia about 5,500 years ago. In a large collection of rock paintings in what is known as the Gwion style, there is a significant gap between earlier work, going back about 17,000 years, and later art from about 4,000 years ago. McGowan also observed that studies in other parts of Australia support the idea that prehistoric aboriginal societies experienced catastrophic upheavals due to climatic variability.

Closing the hole

SATELLITE observations show that the ozone hole over Antarctica has been shrinking. According to the European Space Agency the MetOp satellite shows that the hole of ozone depletion over Antarctica is now smaller than it has been over the past ten years. The ozone levels had been depleted by up to 70 per cent, and loss over Antarctica was highest because winds were strong and cold.

These winds cause ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons to have a stronger effect. In the Arctic winds are not as strong, so ozone depletion in the northern hemisphere has not been so marked.

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UPFRONT

Creating a bacterial avatar One more step in creating synthetic life forms

Two years ago the creation of a bacterium commonly known as Synthia caused quite a sensation because, in effect, it was the only organism on the planet whose only parent was a computer. Synthia, or JCV1-syn1.0 as it is known as, was assembled synthetically, and it is self-replicating.

Creating Syhthia was a breakthrough, but, even so, it depended on an empty husk of a bacterium to host the assembled components. To read about this see Science Spin 41, July 2010, on the www.sciencespin.com website.

Now, as Dr Roy Sleator from the Department of Biological Sciences at Cork Institute of Technology, points out, a totally digital version of the bacterium, Mycroplasma genitalium, has been created

by Jonathan R Karr from Stanford University and a team of researchers.

“This bacterial avator,” explained Dr Sleator, “represents the first truly integrated effort to simulate the complete workings of a free-living microbe in silico.”

To create a computer program that models the complete workings of a cell, during its entire life cycle, Karr’s team divided cellular processes into a whole series of modules. In all 28 individual biological processes were chosen, and

Close encounter

IN FeBRUaRy this year a 35 metre wide hunk of rock came within 28,000 kilometres of earth. Travelling at seven kilometres a second, the rock, an asteroid, estimated to be 130,000 tonnes, came closer than many of our communications satellites.

with each of these sub-sections were modelled and tested to determine if they were functional. This made it possible to use an appropriate approach for each functional unit, and although separate, all these units could work together. More than 1,900 experimentally observed parameters were taken into account in creating 128 different simulations of how the bacterium would behave in culture, and these were fine-tuned by incorporation of data from known biological processes.

Mycoplasma genitalium occurs in the genital and respiratory tracts and is a common infection spread by sexual intercourse. Because it has such a small genome, just 521 genes of which 482 code for proteins, made up from 582,979 base pairs, Mycoplasma genitalium was of great interest to scientists who wanted to determine what would be the minimum amount of genetic material that is required to sustain life.

Under the scientist, Craig Venter, who was in Ireland last year to talk about artificial life, a team of researchers managed to assemble all of these 582,970 base pairs into a synthetic chromosome, and so the artificial species, Mycoplasma JCVI-1.0 was created.

The asteroid was first spotted in February the previous year by an observatory in southern Spain during the La Sagra Sky Survey. at that stage it was mover 4 million km away from Earth. Officially known as 2012 DA14, the asteroid’s orbit was previously unknown, but while it did not pose a threat, an impact from such an object could possibly produce a 1.5 km crater, similar to the one near Flagstaff in arizona. The asteroid that produced the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia was smaller than Da14, yet it flattened forests over 1,200 sq km. on the 15th February the asteroid came closest to earth by passing over the Indian ocean. on that date it came within 27,700 km of earth, just one tenth of the distance from us to the Moon. observers calculate that the asteroid, which has an orbit similar to that of earth, will not come close again until

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The remarkable thing about all of this is that it is a complete computational model, a digital version of a free-living bacterium.

The virtual model has helped to reveal how some of the processes in the natural bacterium, such as replication and protein binding to the chromosomes work. This has made it possible to simulate the effect of single-gene disruptions without having to culture knock-out mutants in the lab.

The ability to model so many parameters has been greeted by many researchers, and as an editorial in the journal Cell commented, in silico modelling will lead to a deeper understanding of biological systems, and such computational models may yet displace wet lab experimentation.

However, modelling takes a lot of processing. Simulating one single cell division of M genitalium takes about 9 to 10 hours of computer time generating half a gigabyte of data. This bacterium was selected because it has such a small genome, the smallest known in any freeliving bacteria, but moving up to more complex organisms, such as E coli, would require even greater processing power.

TK

February 16th 2046, and then it will be about 1,000,000,000 km away from us.

The Da14 asteroid is one of many, perhaps as many as 500,000, and very few, less than one per cent, are known.

Scientists working on NaSa’s Near earth objects Program, estimate that on average one of these objects slams into the earth every 1,200 years.

50,000 years ago a 50 metre wide asteroid produced this enormous crater in Arizona.

Discover Primary Science and Maths is a curriculum linked programme open to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. The Programme provides whole school training to teachers and has a range of activities, resources and information on its website www.primaryscience.ie. The programme aims to develop creativity in our children, show them how important science is to our everyday lives and more importantly how much fun it can be!

The Awards of Science & Maths Excellence is run as part of the Programme for registered schools and over four hundred schools received awards in 2012.

Apply for an Award of Science & Maths Excellence 2013 Register your intention to apply for an Award of Science & Maths Excellence online at www.primaryscience.ie before 22 March 2013. There are five steps to achieving the Award this year: Step 1 – Greenwave and Maths Watch for the signs of Spring in your area by observing a minimum of one of the six common species as listed on the www.greenwave.ie website and making at least one weather observation in your area.

Step 2 – Prescribed activities and Maths This year schools applying for an Award must provide evidence that more than one class in the school have been involved in 1 hands-on investigation relating to the Energy & Forces strand of the Science curriculum and 1 hands-on investigation relating to the Materials strand of the Science curriculum and give at least one example of how maths was integrated into each activity. The

Have you noticed a stretch in the evenings and a touch of Spring? Why not log onto www.greenwave.ie to take part in this year’s Greenwave 2013 challenge. By observing and reporting weather and common species (frogspawn, swallow, horsechestnut tree, primrose, hawthorn and ash) and how they react to the warmer, longer days your school can be part of this nationwide citizen science project. Greenwave promotes the development of important skills such as observing, recording, measuring and use of ICT in the classroom.

activities at www.primaryscience.ie will provide you with ideas for how to do this.

Step 3 – Visit a DPSM Discover Centre or invite them to visit you (lots of Centres do outreach) Full information of the Discover Centres around the country is available on the www. primaryscience.ie website OR invite a science speaker or engineer to your school.

Step 4 – Attend or hold a science event.

Step 5 – Engineers Week - Complete an activity related to the theme for Engineers Week 2013. We’ve put together a selection of activities on the www.primaryscience.ie website.

Logbooks containing evidence of the five steps must be submitted to Discover Primary Science and Maths by Friday, 26th April 2013.

Minister for Research and Innovation at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Sean Sherlock T.D. with Izzie and Jennifer Dowling from Scoil Mhuire in Sandymount at the launch of Greenwave 2013

For further information on the Programme, please contact primaryscience@sfi.ie or 01 6073184.

Discover Primary Science and Maths is an initiative of Discover Science and Engineering – the education and outreach programme of Science Foundation Ireland.

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Storing fats

UPFRONT

Larger droplets of stored fat are associated with obesity, and at the Stowers Institute for Medical research, investigators have been able to identify factors that regulate the size. Reporting their findings in the Journal of Cell Biology, Dr Ho Yi Mak, explained that two proteins are responsible for increasing size of triglyceride fat droplets. genetic screening of roundworms identified the proteins, which would also have the same role in mammals.

The proteins are active within the network of channels within cells, known as the endoplasmic reticulum (er) of cells.

To examine the process in action, the researchers used mutant roundworms that produced extra-large far droplets. It was found that disruption of two genes that code for the two proteins, known as FATP1 and DGAT2, made the fat droplets shrink to a smaller size. The two proteins are involved in a two-step process that results in the formation of larger droplets. One of the proteins, FATP1 occurs on the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, while the other protein, DGAT2 is on the surface of the fat droplet.

The researchers then investigated the role of these two proteins in mice, and confirmed that they acted together to expand lipid droplets.

While this might suggest that knocking out these proteins would solve weight gain problems, the researchers pointed out that the process is also a protective one. To prevent damage, through cellular stress and insulin resistance, excess fat has to be removed by putting it into storage. One of the exceptions, it appears, occurs in high-performance athletes who can have larger lipid droplets because their muscles need a sustained supply of energy.

The researchers now aim to discover if some foods are more involved in triggering extra-large lipid drop storage in humans.

Reprogramming stem cells

aS STeM cells begin to differentiate they acquire markers in the form of small chemical changes that influence the way in which DNA is expressed. Known as epigenetic changes, because they are an imposed system of instructions, methyl groups have a strong influence on development.

At the Salk Institute, researchers have found that while embryonic stem cells have the ability to differentiate into all other cells they are not necessarily ideal for therapeutic use because they have not yet acquired the right kind of epigenetic markers. According to Juan Carlow Izpisua, a researcher at Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory, stem cells without the right kind of markers may actually be rejected.

On the basis that cells from a patient should not elicit an immune reaction, the researchers looked at adult cells that had been reprogrammed to become what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells. In effect, these are cells that have been pushed back to an earlier development stage. as the researchers found, the induced pluripotent stem cells had epigenetic markers that were absent in embryonic stem cells. After examining stem cells derived from six different tissue types, the researchers, who reported their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, found that nine genes are involved in generating the instructions to continue developing into a specific cell line.

United

DuRING the early days of evolution microorganisms became good at borrowing from each other, usually to their mutual advantage. One of the most significant link-ups came when protozoa joined up with algae to unify into photosynthesising organisms.

For some time, scientists have simply accepted that this happened, but now Geoff McFadden, from the School of Botany at the university of Melbourne, working with an international team of researchers, has found some evidence to back this view. Normally plants and animal cells have just one controlling centre, the nucleus. However, two species of algae, Guillardia theta and Bigelowiella natans, were observed to have two nuclei, and McFadden reported that this is evidence of incomplete merging between two organisms. It appears that an alga was captured by a protozoan, which traded nutrients in exchange for sugars produced by photosynthesis. Eventually the two organisms would have merged into one with a single nucleus.

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When the Earth’s magnetic field and the interplanetary magnetic field are in alignment, solar wind can enter the Earth’s protective magnetosphere.

Solar wind

THE SuN sends out a stream of plasma known as the solar wind, and planets that are exposed to this can have their atmosphere stripped away. Because the Earth has a magnetic field we are protected from this charged wind.

However, as satellite observations have revealed, there are sieve-like holes in the magnetosphere shield.

Interaction of magnetic field lines can channel the solar wind towards earth, creating aurorae, and interrupting GPS signals. In 2006 40,000 km swirls of plasma were observed along the boundary of the magnetosphere allowing solar wind into low, equatorial latitudes.

The swirls were created by two different flows slipping past each other at different speeds. This process known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz effect, can also be observed when wind crosses over an ocean. In this case, the waves provide solar wind with a means of leaking through the magnetosphere.

NINE Photovoltaics, a company based at the Synergy Centre at Tallaght IT has developed a dry etching process to manufacture solar cells. The approach is an effective alternative to a wet chemical process, and according to the company increases efficiency while lowering manufacturing costs.

At the end of 2012 the Dublin company shipped a manufacturing unit to Fraunhofer ISE in Germany, the largest solar energy research institute in Europe. At Fraunhofer the unit will be validated in a production environment, opening the way to widespread use by industry.

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UPFRONT

Science teachers

This year’s Irish Science Teachers’ Association conference is being held in Gorey, Co Wexford over the weekend of 12th to 14th April 2013.

A great line up of speakers, including Dr Aoife McLysaght from TCD, who will talk about biology, and the astrophysicist Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

Up to date details are available at http://ista2013annualconference.weebly.com/programme-of-events.html

Excellence in science teaching

Dirk Prüfer in the greenhouse with colleagues Gundula Noll (right) and Lena Harig (left) along with their tobacco plants.

Growing giant plants

MANy plants die back after blooming, and if this natural cycle is interrupted growth can continue.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Research in Germany have succeeded in growing a six-and-a-half metre tall tobacco plant by modifying a gene regulating this cycle.

Normally tobacco plants have a short life, growing for just a few months and reaching about one to two metres before withering.

Professor Dirk Prüfer, who headed the project, reported that their eight year old tobacco plant, with a ten cm diameter stem, is still in good health and continues to grow.

Instead of removing the gene, it was extracted, modified, and reinserted using a bacterium as a shuttle. The same approach is likely to work in other plants, and the researchers are currently working on modifying a potato plant on behalf of a Japanese company.

According to the researchers, the technique has enormous potential to increase biomass and crop yields.

Venusian volcanoes

The atmosphere of Venus has more than a million times as much sulphur dioxide as earth’s. Most of this gas, which is toxic to us, is hidden below the surface as molecules of sulphur dioxide could not survive for more than a few days at the outer level. however, as some sulphur dioxide occurs in the outer layer, scientists take this as evidence of replenishment from active volcanoes.

It is known that Venus has hundreds of volcanoes, but how active they are had been a matter of debate. Some of this uncertainty has now been resolved by observations from eSA’s Venus express.

When the space probe arrived in 2006 it recorded an increase in sulphur dioxide in the upper atmosphere. Later this level decreased, and a similar fluctuation was observed by the NASA Pioneer Venus mission. This led scientists to conclude that something was actively driving this fluctuation. The atmosphere of Venus rotates much faster than the planet, so the patterns of circulation are complex, but the evidence is thought to point to continued volcanic activity on the surface of the planet.

The Irish Science Teachers Association with the support of PharmaChemical Ireland have launched the sixth annual Industry for Excellence in Science Teaching Award.

Details at: www.ista.ie

Physics awards

The Institute of Physics in Ireland has presented two Leaving Cert and an A-level student with silver medals. Brian Traynor from Virginia College and eoin Coleman from St Attraca’s Community School, Sligo came first in the 2012 Physics Leaving Cert, and Sana Asraf from Strathearn College, Belfast, came first in the Northern Ireland A-Level exam.

Brian is now studying nanosciencr at TCD, eoin has been accepted for Medicine, and Sana is studying medicine at Queen’s University Belfast.

Marine Institute Foras na Mara

Ireland's National Agency for Marine Research and Innovation

Our Ocean

A Shared Resource

www.marine.ie

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UPFRONT

Mini-dinosaur

Dinosaurs were a diversified lot, and while the big ones are more likely to grab the headlines, other species were smaller than chickens. One of these smaller types, known as Heterodontosaurs, ended up in a collection of fossils at Harvard University after being chipped out of rock about fifty years ago in southern Africa. Paul Sereno, a palaeontologist came across the specimen and decided to make a study of this unusual species which has been given the scientific name Pegomastax africanus. About twice the size of a modern household cat, the mini-dinosaur in spite of its prominent teeth, appears to have been a herbivore. The sharp teeth, behind a parrot like beak, are thought to have been used like a scissors to cut through plants.

A similar find from China was covered by coarse bristles, and it is thought that Pegomastax may have looked a bit like a porcupine.

Pegomastax and its close relations lived on the supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago, and when this enormous land mass split, the Heterodontosaurs branched out into two diverging groups.

Three D culturing

THe ability to culture cells in a petri dish has made it possible to grow tissues.

While that is an enormous advance, two-dimensional cultures are not always good enough in replicating the threedimensional live environment. This is an important consideration if the cultured tissue is going to be used for disease or injury repairs.

In the Journal Tissue Engineering researchers from Rice University report that a way has been found around this problem using magnetic levitation.

Tom Killian, professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University explained that incorporating nontoxic magnetic nanoparticles into cells makes it possible to move the cultured cells around in three-dimensions.

When cells are grown flat in the usual way, their behaviour can be quite different from cells that grow, for instance in the lung.

Replicating conditions in the lung is one of the challenges that the researchers wanted to address. With a US National Science Foundation funded industrial partner, Nano3D Bioscience, the researchers were able to create a four-layered lung tissue with endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Some of the participating researchers developed a magnetic pen that was used to rearrange magnetised cells, and as Hubert Tseng, a bioengineering graduate student who worked on this said, the resulting tissue is the closest that has yet been achieved to the real thing.

Apart from the potential for tissue repair, the researchers point out that 3D culturing would be a big help in testing for airborne toxins.

Responding to pressure

FOR some reason breast cancer cells do not always give rise to tumours, and scientists at the University of California, Berkley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered that mechanical compression could play an important role in containing malignancy.

Daniel Fletcher, professor of bioengineering at the University of California has reported that mechanical pressure appears to prevent cells going out of control. It is possible that mechanical pressure is a naturally occurring factor in maintaining breast tissues in good health as they change in response to reproductive cycles.

One of the scientists engaged in the study, Mina Bissell, conducted experiments to manipulate the physical environment in which cells grew. These experiments supported the idea that mechanical rather than chemical factors are an important influence on cancer cell growth.

Gautham Venugopalan, working in Bissell’s team, grew malignant breast ephithelial cells in flexible chambers filled with a gelatin-like substance. This enabled the researchers to compress the growing cells. According to the team, the compressed cells developed normally, unlike those that were not constrained.

Furthermore, the compressed cells stopped growing once normal tissues had formed.

In a follow-up study the researchers added a protein that stops cells from adhering to each other in the normal way. When this protein, e-cadherin, was added, the malignant cells reverted to their tumour forming state, confirming that mechanical force has a big influence on how cells develop into healthy tissue.

Although these findings are highly significant, the researchers were careful to point out that compression alone is unlikely to be a therapy, but it is possible that the findings can provide a target for new forms of treatment.

Producing hydrogen

THe tiny single celled alga, Chlamydomonas, performs photosynthisis, but under stress it switches over to producing hydrogen. Not alone can Chlamydomonas produce hydrogen during the day, but it can continue to do so in the dark.

Biologists at the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum observed that this natural process could have potential to produce hydrogen on an industrial scale. The researchers have been examining the process, and in reporting their results in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, they said that the release of hydrogen is a protective mechanism that prevents overloading damage to the photosynthetic process.

Of particular interest to the researchers is the ability of Chlamydomonas to produce hydrogen in the dark. This involves an enzyme, ferredoxin oxidoreductase. To produce enough of this enzyme for further study the researchers managed to insert the genes coding for this into the bacterium, escherichia coli which could then be cultured.

One of the researchers, Jens Noth, said that this is an evolutionary ancient enzyme.

Under stress, the alga switches over to a metabolic pathway that otherwise only occurs in bacteria and single-celled parasites. The enzyme makes use of vitamin B1 and iron to gain energy from the breakdown of sugars. That energy is then used by other enzymes, the hydrogenases, to produce hydrogen. This process is triggered when oxygen levels fall, and to maintain the supply of energy, the algae has to fall back on a more ancient pathway.

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Moving to the Next Digital and Industrial Dimension…

3D or not 3D?

Above, the power of 3D illustrated by the faithful replication of an object. Once scanned, the virtual model can then be printed out as a solid object.

Left: high-density precision parts, like these tiny cogs of ceramic, can be produced directly from a virtual design. These cogs were produced by Lithoz, a university spin off company in Austria.

WHAT IS 3D PRINTING?

Are we at the cusp of the next technology era… the convergence of digital and industrial technology? Chris Coughlan reports that 3D printing is likely to bring about a transformation equal to, or even surpassing the impact of the Internet.

W

e live in a world of three dimensions and we have been trying to replicate and represent this since early times from primitive carved figures to magnificent sculptures, from drawings to paintings with 3D perspective, from early B/W photographs with stereo viewers to viewing films through red and green glasses, from 3D CAD drawings and 3D computer games to Smart 3D television and the latest 3D cinema productions like James Cameron’s Avatar. We are now already seeing the release of game consoles and TVs that no longer requires special glasses to experience 3D effects.

So despite various degrees of success over the years 3D is slowly becoming accepted and embedded into everyday usage, especially in the entertainment and gaming industry which have

always been the early adopters of new technology. All of this is exciting but we are only at the very early days of 3D. Potentially over time 3D screens, 3D scanners, location awareness, gesture sensing augmented reality, virtual reality and holography will not only become incorporated into games but accepted in business and every day activities. There will be a whole new era of new skills, new technologies and opportunities, from specialized 3D hardware to 3D software, operating systems, programming languages and applications not yet envisioned today. We are in the process of not only trying to experience the sense of seeing but are approaching a tipping point in our sense of being. The initial catalyst and stalking horse to achieving all this could be 3D Printing.

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History shows us that many technologies are in the background for years and only become “new technologies” when developments allow them to converge with other associated technologies. This is the case with 3D printing which in concept and various forms has been around for over 30 years. As early as 1979 a patent was held by R F Householder and during the mid-eighties the concept was further refined and developed by Dr. Carl Deckard and Dr. Joseph Beaman at the University of Texas at Austin under sponsorship of the U.S. military research organization DARPA. The term 3D Printing was only coined in 1995 by MIT graduate students Jim Bredt and Tim Anderson who later founded Z Corporation (now owned by 3D Systems) and ExOne. Essentially 3D Printing is the ability to manufacture or “print” threedimensional physical objects that are generated from a virtual 3D blueprint using computer aided design (CAD), digital animations or by digital 3D scanning. Then, using special software, the digital 3D design or blueprint is rendered into numerous digital crosssection slices which are then sent from a PC to a specialized 3D printer which

The European Space Agency is looking at 3D printing as a possible way to construct a lunar base. Working with architects Foster and Partners, ESA has been testing the feasibility of using 3D to build structures using lunar soil.

physically “prints” or builds the object from these crosssections in a sequential layer by layer process using liquid, plastic, powder or other materials. This layering fabrication process is known as Additive Manufacturing in contrast to traditional manufacturing which is usually a subtractive process as it uses machining techniques such as drilling, cutting, turning and milling.

3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Today the development of the 3D printer is still evolving and the technology, although becoming more viable and practical, is at a very early stage equivalent or analogous to the time when our current traditional paper printer was at the dot matrix stage. Using a 3D printer in its simplest form we can construct a solid object by printing out and assembling a succession of 2D layers.

We can even achieve this in paper using an ordinary printer to produce layers that can be cut out and stacked.

However, this is relatively crude, and real 3D printers are much more complex. In these the 3D object is printed in real time and in situ. Currently various technologies are being applied depending upon the size of the 3D object being fabricated or “printed” and the materials being used in its composition.

Some of the more prominent technologies being used now include:

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) developed by S. Scott Crump in late 1980s and commercialised in 1990, FDM is basically an extrusion technology using mainly thermoplastic material.

It involves laying down material in layers using plastic filament or wire unwound from a coil which is supplied to a extrusion nozzle which is heated to melt the material. To build the object the nozzle moves sequentially in a 3D plane both horizontally and vertically to build up the physical 3D object.

This 1.5 tonne building block was produced by 3D printing as part of the tests being run by the European Space Agency.

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Probably the more popular technology is Stereolithography which is considered better than FDM. This was patented 1987 by Chuck Hull. It is based on a process using photopolymer materials which change their properties when exposed to light, and this is usually UV. Printing solid objects is achieved when a UV laser is first focused on the surface of a vat filled with liquid photopolymer and then it solidifies the liquid material layer by layer to make the object.

THE EVOLVING MARKET

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas printers ranged in size from large industrial machines to domestic desktop systems. The CubeX, 3D printer from 3D Systems was awarded the best of show award. But the beginnings of a real breakthrough is that desktop 3D printers are now as affordable as current laser printers thus opening up the home and consumer market. For example the Afinia H series 3D printer has a price of $1,499. While the price is falling the quality is improving. One of the most popular 3D printer companies, MakerBot, uses thermoplastic to produce models with a resolution of 100 microns.

Ireland is also part of this new emerging marketplace as Mcor Technologies Ltd. have been making 3D Printers in Dunleer since 2004. The

compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 3D printers between 2011 and 2015 is estimated at around 30 per cent which represents a marketplace worth about $3.7 billion.

CURRENT USES

As 3D printer technology begins to evolve and advance from the present “crystal radio” phase to become commonplace its use and application will expand exponentially and unpredictably. When 3D printers become mainstream they will be available in all shapes and dimensions for both general and specialized use, for printing in a wide range of sizes and resolutions using multiple material and compound combinations. Already over 60 materials and numerous combinations can be printed including metal, plastic, rubber, clay, wood, ceramic and even biological materials.

Currently on the Web, even at this early stage, there are numerous sites with thousands of downloadable 3D designs and apps to print in 3D. These are diverse as, jewellery, hobby kits, gaming figures, sun glasses, tools, model prototypes, product replacement parts, replicas of favourite works of art or objects, fashion, prosthetics, dental implants, plane and car parts and even guitars. One type of design that is causing great concern at present is the capacity to produce weapon parts. US Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY), has warned that this could make existing gun regulations almost useless.

For the recent James Bond film Skyfall a 3D printer was used to make scale models of the classic Aston Martin DB5 car, while at the latest Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture went to Tech Couture as 3D printed ensembles took their place on the catwalk.

The personalization and customisation power of 3D Printing is already being exploited, for example, in Beijing customers in a 3D shop can have their families scanned and modelled.

On the large scale for example many architects around the world are already designing houses and buildings which can be constructed using large 3D Printers while the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning on using 3D printer technology to build a lunar base from materials found on the lunar landscape

Complexity is not a problem, designs are only limited by our imagination.

Recently Nokia has released 3D print files of removable shells cases for its Lumia 820 so that people can print their own custom designs at their desktop. In the near future not only will the cases be 3D printed but the actual electronics themselves using advance inkjet type technology.

One significant breakthrough will be in regenerative medicine.

For example the Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina is experimenting with computer aided bio-3D printing. In this approach cell by cell can be deposited layer by layer on specialised surfaces and scaffolding. This will eventually lead to body part printing enabling medical specialists to make repairs to skin, bone and organs.

IMPLICATIONS

The commerce of the previous industrial era was location based.. With the advent of digital technology we moved closer to the concept of “anywhere, anytime and anyone”. 3D printing is being fêted as the beginning of a new industrial revolution, a hybrid in which the boundaries between industrial and digital are becoming blurred. It could be said that we are going “Back to the Future” and turning bit’s back into atoms with a new addition of “anything” to the mantra of anywhere, anytime and anyone. We are moving from programmable designs to programmable matter from personal publishing and broadcasting to personal manufacturing.

Like the disruptive change brought about by the digital era this new hybrid industrial-digital age has the potential to be equally radical and disruptive for current large and SME manufacturing, employment, suppliers, distributors, sellers and consumers. In other words this could become Web Version 3 which

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would mean a major redefinition of the supply-chain and a new business model which could also completely redefine economies of scale from niche to mass manufacturing and that could in turn have serious implications for countries like China and India where mass labour may be replaced by a networked world of community makers, the “3D Fabbers” This DIY democratization of manufacturing using 3D printing has the potential to unlock niche manufacturing from its current constraints by lowering the barriers to entry, and making it possible to manufacture units of just one economically. In other words the future supply chain may be customised or personalised to the extent that it may be scale free and the concept of a factory will undergo a radical change.

Appliances and objects are being animated and made smart by connecting them to the Internet this trend has become popularly known as “the Internet of Things”. Now with 3D Printing not only can we “Connect Things” using the Internet but we can also “Manufacture Things” across the Internet. In fact 3D Printers are now being used to build or self replicate themselves. Already there are DIY plans available for building your own 3D printer. In fact in one such plan the main components are LEGO blocks which themselves can be 3D printed!

BEYOND 3D PRINTING

This emerging hybrid industrial-digital era is probably the logical stepping stone to the future “Nano Age” where 3D Printing technology will exponentially evolve and develop according to Moore’s Law to eventually enable the manipulation and building of objects and items atom by atom and molecule by molecule using nanotechnology. This will be the age when the “replicator” as portrayed in Star Trek becomes a reality.

Like Captain Jean-Luc Pickard we will be able to order a cup of Earl Grey Tea or anything else we desire from our home desktop replicator… the time may not be that far off!

Dr. Chris Coughlan, is Head of Cloud Computing Innovation Centre HewlettPackard and Adjunct Professor National University of Ireland Galway.

AVAILABLE MARCH 2013

THE SENSATIONAL

BRAIN What is it and how it works Dr Veronica Miller BRAIN

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fake; if you show people a series of pictures showing smilers most of us will pick out the fake from the true smiles. With age we learn that facial expressions can be faked to some extent, but blushing and shaking with nerves are less likely to be faked. These subtle and not-sosubtle clues about emotional states are all registered within the brain.

stimulation of the hypothalamus in animals produced euphoric, rage or attack behaviours.

Secondly, and up a level, we have the limbic system consisting of the hippocampus and amygdala. The amygdala controls our fear and anxiety responses, and the hippocampus makes short term memories, so that we know what to do next time the emotional response Three, two, one, go is needed. If you stop the hippoca So despite the fact that our spines mpus tingle A cross section through the brain stem. and amygdala working in animals by and hearts race with excitement, it’s cutting off their blood supply, you actually the brain that controls our find emotions. Inside our that the animals become very docile brains are pleasure pain and fear and centres in our limbic lack normal emotional responses, such as fear or anger. and cortical brain areas. You could rank our emotional The third tier of emotional cake is responses, much in the way that the input to our the James-Lange theory cortex and output generated by it to the limbic and does into three different levels. autonomic areas via the relay station in the thalamus to Firstly we have the autonomic system response. The help us make informed decisions as to how to respond to primary autonomic areas in the brain are the brainstem the emotional situation. Whether to fight or take flight. and the hypothalamus. The brainste m mediates our heart rate, breathing sweating and eyes dilating Eye sense fear and I feel afraid and is the first area of the brain to be activated in Fear can be fast and slow— an instanta emotional situations. Then message neous fright s are fired from it when somebody jumps out at you to the hypothalamus to trigger the as you walk along a release of different darkene d corridor, and a longer-lasting feeling chemicals into the bloodstream preparin of unease g us for an as you walk home at night-time along emotional response. James Olds a dark road. Quick and Peter Milner fears are processed within seconds discovered this in 1954 after finding in our bodies and are that electrical mainly processed via the autonom ic and limbic systems.

37

The sensaTional brain Dr Veronica Miller explains what goes on inside our heads — what makes us smart, why we get emotional, how memories are stored and what happens when things go wrong.

Available end of February from www.sciencespin.com and indepedent bookshops.

Full colour hardback €25.

Tiny strings, far too small to be detected, are thought to vibrate through a whole range of different dimensions and not just those that we know of in the everyday world. Because we cannot perceive these extra dimensions this graphic can only give a rough idea of how strings may vibrate in a many different ways, and how they vibrate is thought to determines what sort of particle they form.

A Universe in tune with vibrating strings How did the sub-atomic particles that make up and control the behaviour of matter form? Tom Kennedy reports that Professor Brian Greene makes a convincing case in support of vibrating strings.

T

he material Universe came into existence with a big bang, so it should not really come as a surprise to find that we are all made of the same stuff.

However, at what point did this stuff actually become matter?

Atoms were once thought to be the smallest unsplittable particles of matter, and as the physicist and best selling author, Professor Brian Greene observed, we are now fairly certain that sub-atomic particles, that we considered fundamental, such as quarks, are also no longer the end of the material line.

As he outlined at the European Science Open Forum held in Dublin last year, there is good reason to believe that all sub-atomic particles have one thing in common in that they are all based on vibrating strings. Such strings, he said, are so small, 10-13 cm, that they would be impossible to detect, yet many scientists are convinced that they must exist, and so we have the String Theory.

While admitting that String Theory is a completely mathematical concept, Brian Green explained that it could fill

in the gap in our knowledge that would enable scientists to come up with an allembracing ‘the theory of everything’.

While the behaviour of particles, with the exception of the elusive ‘graviton’ are well described and match observations, the General Theory is still incomplete, and to make the convoluted mathematics agree with what we observe, figures have been inserted, but no one knows what they are based on.

Brian Greene explained that String Theory may yet reveal how these figures got their value, and in addition by accepting some of the strange and as yet unproven concepts we may gain an understanding of why gravity exists and how it works.

Like others that went before, String Theory began as an attempt to reconcile growing inconsistencies between different views. Theories often appear perfectly correct until challenged by new knowledge, and for example Newton would undoubtedly have been quite surprised to learn that it is physically impossible to run faster than light.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 13

Progress, said Brian Greene, often depends on resolving these sorts of apparent conflicts. When Einstein came up with Special Relativity some existing conflicts were resolved, only to set the stage for another conflict, how to allow for the fact that gravity can exert its influence over a distance instantaneously.

For a long time the solution to that problem, said Brian Greene, “was simply to ignore this little difficulty.”

“Basically Einstein’s equations work well at the larger scale, so are grand for the Universe,” said Brian, “ but going down to the sub-atomic level is to encounter a different story. “The smaller you get, the more things begin to fall apart, so how can we get General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics to fit into one consistent framework?”

To most people the scale at which these differences become apparent is so minute that it seems to have nothing at all to do with everyday reality, yet, as Brian observed, the fact that there is a conflict means that there is a deeper story behind all of this. Something is missing that could bridge the gap between the two.

Part of the problem is one of scale, and to illustrate this point, Brian Greene said we should imagine the electric wire running up to a lamp-post. Viewed from across the street, the wire looks to us like a thin one-dimensional line. However, to an ant clambering up, the wire would become a three-dimensional highway around which they could walk. Factors that are invisible or insignificant to us loom large in eyes of the ant.

In getting down to the extremely small scale beyond sub-atomic particles mathematicians and physicists began to suspect that this is indeed a strange and unfamiliar world. In order for their theory, postulating that all sub-atomic particles are ultimately made up from vibrating “strings” extra dimensions would have to exist. Although this was, and still is, a startling conclusion, the existence of dimensions beyond those of which we are aware of, is a distinct possibility. Again, scale may be reason why we have not yet been able to detect

these dimensions, and, of course, if extra

way, observed Brian, this is a bit like finding the rare and unusual planet detect them might be to measure their with conditions that can support life. effect. Considering how difficult it was To near the star and we burn, too far to detect the Higgs Boson, the prospect and we freeze, and such conditions of physically probing down to the much are only encountered rarely. In much smaller scale of a “string” is fairly remote, the same way, these tiny strings could and perhaps impossible, so scientists have an option, to vibrate in tune with working on String Theory attempt to our requirements, or, as some scientists A 450 million year old with fossilized soft describe what’s going on Crustacean, by a processcomplete of suggest, they could go off and form parts, hasAsbeen Herefordshire.

One of the scientists deduction.

Brianfound Greeninobserved, no another universe. involved the discovery, Prof David Siveteroffrom the University one should in “believe” in String Theory, While this might seem bizarre, some force, including gravity. In turn these ofitLeicester, said what made the 5mm strings long fossil so special but appears to fit that the facts. scientists argue that we should not determine what kind of particles isAccording not that ittoisString a previously species, but thattothe softin our Universe.

Theory un-named subdismiss the idea just because it is so are allowed exist parts particles have been preserved soof well that eyes andMathematicians the antennae can atomic are composed tiny strange. As we might recall, Einstein and physicists are be maderings out. or open strings. Like the vibrating found it hard at first to accept that his still grappling with the calculations named Nasunaris to the same stringThe in afossil, musical instrument theyflata, can belongs own theories would be true. We do not underlying thegroup theory, and, as to be as water-fleas shrimps.

Their areopinions common vibrate in differentand ways, producing a descendants yet know if multiple dimensions could expected, on where it will todayof innotes. lakes However, and oceans, and geologists often useto the fossils variety the string in be bundled up in the way proposed all lead differ.

Atas first, said Brian, indicators of past climates. a musical instrument can only vibrate in

by String Theory, and if they are, how mathematicians could envisage five our familiar world, while the string in a many of these dimensions would be possible string configurations, but now Internal image of the fossil showing the soft parts and possible eyes. Image: sub-atomic particle is thought to vibrate a “fit” for the Universe as we know it. so many dimensions have been Siveter, dimensions, Derek E. G. Briggs, J.described Siveter and Mark D.scientists have given in David many J.different either asDerek a The recent discovery that the Universe that some Sutton. closed ring, like an elastic band, or as an is not just expanding, but is doing so at up hope of identifying those that create open-ended entity. an accelerating rate, adds credibility to the known range of sub-atomic particles.

We cannot detect the extra dimensions, the notion that a Big Bang could leadthat to At the other end of the theoretical Later, one of David’s successors, King Hezekiah, fearing but like those that we are familiar with, a number of different results, and that spectrum, there are scientists that think the Assyrians would take Jerusalem using the same approach, they are thought to influence how the there wella have been long moretunnel. than just that all possibilities valid, butthe notwater into the may city via 550 metre It JERUSALEM’s fate was determined by the underlying geology. are rerouted string vibrates, a bit like giving them one big bang, indeed there might necessarily for the as we know proved to be a good decision, for in and 701 BC, Jerusalem was the At the annual Geological Society of America meeting lastUniverse a shape, and because the strings can have been several.

Although this is pure it. only city that the Assyrians failed to take.

October, Michael Bramnik from Illinois University explained vibrate in so many different ways we get speculation, one way to explain This in turn leads us into extremely Water still remains a major factor in shaping modernwhy history that underground passageways in the karst limestone enabled a whole spectrum of particles. It has to be expansion of our Universe is accelerating interesting based on the fact in the region, and Michael Bramnik said that when he went in King David to take the city. Water was drawn from thespeculation Spring remembered that the term particle can be would wetowns are either thatDavid’s it would only take asearch tiny change in of hydrological mapsbe forthat other andcolliding, settlements of Gihon, which lay just outside the city walls. soldiers misleading in that they are not passive or interacting with another universe, the underlying configuration to either he was often rebuffed with a claim that such maps do not climbed down into the spring and by tunnelling under the point entities, but can be transmitters possibly from another set of dimensions. create or destroy our Universe. exist. In one walls got access to the city.

dimensions do exist, the only way to www.sciencespin.com

UPFRONT An old water flea

Bedrock of history

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 14

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Stefano Sanvito, Deputy Director of Trinity College Dublin’s CRANN institute (Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices)

THE ‘NANO’ TESTER Seán Duke talked to Stefano Sanvito who explains that it is now possible to design and predict how new materials will behave before they actually exist.

L

ighter, stronger, more fuel-efficient aeroplanes; more powerful, better targeted drugs, and paper thin highdefinition televisions – it has all become possible as scientists became adept at the manipulation of tiny ‘nano’ particles.

The possibilities from nanotechnology are exciting, but it is crucial that proper safety tests are in place. Professor Stefano Sanvito, Deputy Director of CRANN at TCD, wants Ireland to become a ‘hub’ for such nano testing.

Stefano, as the name suggests, is Italian, and graduated in physics from the University of Milan ‘about 15 years ago’. He was interested in science from when he was ‘very small’, and he has pedigree for the field. His father, who is now retired, was an engineer who worked in the sewing machine industry, while his grandfather worked in R&D for ‘big pharma’.

His interests, while at secondary school, were not only in the sciences, as he also developed a liking for philosophy.

In fact, his first choice of career was to become a writer, and towards that end, he applied to study at the renowned Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The standards for entry to the Scuola were, and are, high, with only about 6 per cent of applicants gaining entry. Stefano didn’t make it, and then focused on his other big interest – physics.

He gained entry to the University of Milan to study physics and maths, but that was the easy part. Though some 500 fellow students were also admitted at the same time, only about 50 of them would later pass the exams at the end of the year and make it into second year.

It was a brutal ‘sink or swim’ test for the mainly teenage group of students.

Stefano recalled that there was no help provided, no structure for students, and the pressure was immense.

He found the going extremely tough, especially the lab work, yet he passed his exams. That first year in college wasn’t at all enjoyable, as the work needed to get into the top 10 per cent of the class was huge, while most of the physics course was of the ‘old school’ variety.

It wasn’t until 3rd year, when he began studying modern physics, and areas such as quantum mechanics, that things began to get interesting for him, and his talent found expression.

He doesn’t recall any event in particular that triggered a flourishing of interest in science at any stage of his life, but he did have a mentor, while at university who was a big influence on him. This was his fourth year supervisor, who oversaw his final year undergraduate project. He was a difficult man to deal with on a personal level, recalled Stefano, but he was a stimulating

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 16

character and a talented high-energy scientist. Certainly, he might well have been a difficult colleague, said Stefano, but as a supervisor and scientist, he was fantastic. He also gathered around him many big names of science, which made things even better.

The final university year was an enjoyable experience thanks to his colourful, difficult supervisor. Then, with his degree in his pocket, he looked around for his next option. He wanted to continue in research, and do a PhD, but he wanted to do it outside Italy, and preferably in an English-speaking country. He chose to go to the UK, where he secured support from the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) to study ‘giant magneto-resistance’.

Military matters

The force called giant magneto-resistance was discovered in 1988 – independently, yet at the same time – by research groups led by Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg.

The two men were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2007 for this finding.

The term describes how the resistance of certain materials to electrical current drops dramatically as a magnetic field is applied. The word ‘giant’ was tagged on to the ‘magneto-resistance’ part because the scientists wanted to describe something that has a much larger effect on current than anything that had ever been seen in metals. This giant magneto force has since been used to improve the storage capacity of computer disks, car sensors, and many other devices.

The MOD wanted to use giant magneto-resistance forces to develop a new ‘solid state’ compass, and that’s why they funded Stefano’s PhD in this area. A solid state compass is a small compass found now in clocks or mobile phones that are typically built using two or three ‘magnetic field sensors’ that pick up the Earth’s magnetic readings, and send that data to a microprocessor. They can provide a very accurate positioning method.

Stefano’s PhD was awarded by the University of Lancaster, but he spent two out of three years working towards his doctorate based at an MOD site near Malvern, Worcestershire, a town of about 28,000 people located approximately

halfway between Birmingham and Bristol. This site was home to the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, the group that had famously developed the radar, which helped the RAF win its life or death struggle with the Luftwaffe in the 1940 ‘Battle of Britain’. The group had moved from the south of England to Malvern in 1942, where they worked under the protection of the 600-metre tall Malvern Hills. The British had, by 1942, become concerned about the threat of a ballistic missile attack on its military bases in southern England from NaziOccupied Belgium.

At Malvern, Stefano did ‘atomistic simulations’ for ‘sandwiches’ of different materials. In other words he analysed how magnetic forces affected current running through various materials. It was possible to get a different current in a material when the magnetic ‘configuration’ changed.

This knowledge was used to build improved computer disk drives, and today every computer or disk drive is based on this principle, in a market worth $ 7 billion. It’s an example, said Stefano, of how basic research can lead to economic gains.

American dream

After his stint in Britain, Stefano was very keen to follow a long held dream to work as a scientist in the USA. He felt the best time to do that was after the PhD, and as a post-doctoral researcher.

“There is excellent science in Europe, but there is a ‘can do’ attitude in the US that has no match anywhere in the world – maybe Israel – and I wanted to see that in action,” said Stefano. He applied and was accepted to do research at the ‘top 10’ listed University of Southern California, Santa Barbara, and found it “the absolute best place”.

He found the scientific culture to be fantastic, the climate was superb, the mountains and sea were nearby, he was mingling with Nobel Prize winners – USC Santa Barbara had three winners

in his few short years there alone – and his office was 100 metres from the beach.

He spent two and a half years living out his California dream and while in the lab he was working on putting magnetic impurities into semi-conductors and seeing what happened.

Ireland calling

California would be hard to top, but his next move was crucial, as, after the postdoc Stefano was seeking his first staff job as a scientist. He researched the options, and saw an ad for an opportunity to work at the CRANN Institute at TCD in Dublin where he knew a renowned researcher was based - Professor Michael Coey. The package was attractive in terms of equipment, funding and personnel resources. The couple were keen too, to return to Europe, any part of Europe, in order to raise their family. Ireland seemed a good bet.

In 2006, Stefano and his wife, and two boys moved to Dublin, where he was appointed as Associate Professor in Physics, later becoming Deputy Director of CRANN in 2009. He began working closely with Professor Coey, but set up his own research group. Stefano’s group was focused on investigating the properties of nano materials. More and more companies were making nanodevices, and using nano-materials, and he developed a testing service, based on unique mathematical algorithms built into simulation software programmes, which are available to download, for companies located all over the globe.

“I have to admit that I moved to Ireland because of serendipity,” said Stefano, who is now well settled here with his family. “I wanted to move back to Europe, and my position at Trinity was the first one I could secure. However, I probably wouldn’t have moved to any other place in Ireland except Trinity because of the reputation. A second factor to steer my decision was SFI [Science Foundation Ireland]. SFI essentially started those days and it was clear that

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 17

they could provide great opportunities for young scientists. I am afraid that this is not the case any longer,” added Stefano.

In 2006, when Stefano arrived, Ireland had a good science reputation but he said hard won reputations can be easily lost.

“What really differentiate good and bad places academically is the reputation.

Of course other things matter, but the reputation of a place, or your colleagues, of the commitment of the state and the society is what makes a university attractive. It takes ages to construct a reputation, and it takes very little to lose it.”

Future

As for the future, Stefano believes that nano researchers will become increasingly able to systematically predict new materials and new material complexes ahead of experiments. Nano science will not stop there, of course, and be believes the next stage will involve researchers making predictions about materials with applications in mind. For example, scientists might predict a new material – that does not yet exist - for making magnets that can be used in electrical motors. Then people will make it in the laboratory. These new materials will be predicted and designed using computers, and new software.

This means an age of vastly superior new materials – designed exactly for purpose – lies ahead of us. These new materials will need to be tested before they can be applied in the real world.

CRANN is already known for its ability to simulate tests on nanomaterials, and Stefano wants to extend that expertise to a range of new nanomaterials coming online. This can help manufacturers by proving whether certain nano materials are really up to scratch, whether they will work in nano-devices, while also assuring the public about ‘nano safety’.

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Teagasc announces 64 postgrad opportunities for 2013

he Teagasc Authority recently announced the award of 64 new postgraduate fellowships, mainly to PhD level, under its Walsh Fellowship Postgraduate Programme. This is the largest number of approvals made since the commencement of the Programme and reflects the increasing number of high quality proposals received and the Authority’s acknowledgement of the huge impact of the Programme on research output. These awards represent an overall investment of over €4 million in training the young scientists who will help drive forward Ireland’s growing agri-food industry. The new graduates will join about 140 existing Walsh Fellows, under the joint supervision of Teagasc and University staff members in undertaking research in agriculture, food, environmental

science, agri-food economics, rural development, horticulture and other related disciplines.

The Walsh Fellowship Programme is named after Dr Tom Walsh, the first Director of the Agricultural Research Institute (now Teagasc), and a prime mover in developing agricultural and food research in Ireland. The Programme is a key component of Teagasc’s national research programme and promotes closer liaison and collaboration between Teagasc and the nine universities on the island of Ireland, as well as with Institutes of Technology in Ireland and with universities in Europe, the US and New Zealand. For further details, see: www.teagasc.ie/research/postgrad

SFI/Teagasc MoU

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cience Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Teagasc have come together to launch a themed call, Future Agri-Food, as part of the 2013 SFI Investigators call. This collaboration agreement between the two agencies aims to strengthen and accelerate research and innovation in the agri-food sector through the funding of grants between scientists from the agriculture and food disciplines and scientists from other scientific and engineering disciplines. The joint initiative aims to bring a broad range of disciplines and technologies to bear on strengthening innovation in the agri-food sector and to offer opportunities to scientists in a wide range of disciplines including genomics, robotics, material science, nanotechnology, immunology and ICT. “Ireland has developed fantastic capacity across a broad range of scientific disciplines in recent years (including agriculture and food) and the convergence of this broad range of disciplines on agri-food topics will help underpin the profitability, competitiveness and sustainability targets set out in Food Harvest 2020,” explains Dr Frank O’Mara, Director of Research, Teagasc.

Eco Eye T

eagasc researchers Dr Gary Lanigan and Dr Laurence Shalloo featured in a recent episode of the television series Eco Eye presented by Duncan Stewart on RTÉ1. The episode concentrated on the issue of sustainability and, in particular, reducing greenhouse

“This themed call has been developed in the context of the recent National Research Prioritisation Exercise, which identified a number of areas, including agri-food, of greatest economic and enterprise potential for Ireland. This call will target two of those areas: ‘Sustainable Food Production and Processing’ and ‘Foods for Health’. A strategic aim of the call is to prepare the Irish scientific community to compete, lead and win in relevant Horizon 2020 funding programmes and other relevant international funding programmes.

Applications under the themed call must be multidisciplinary in nature and, to drive collaboration, it is a condition of the call that there must be at least two partners (one of which must be from Teagasc), each of which must be responsible for at least 30 per cent of the budget in the application. “We look forward to exciting proposals under this initiative and to the building of new collaborations that will strengthen and accelerate research and innovation in the agrifood sector,” says Dr O’Mara.

gas emissions. It focused on the complete chain from research to farmers to processors and to the market for our produce. Episode 2 ‘Greening Ireland’ can be seen on www.earthhorizon.ie.

Dr Gary Lanigan, Teagasc Crops, Environment & Land Use Research Centre, Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford with presenter Duncan Stewart on Eco Eye.

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Teagasc international food security policy and strategy

ver the coming decades, global agriculture will be challenged by declining natural resources, the impacts of climate change and the absolute requirement to produce a secure, safe and sustainable supply of food, as well as biomass and fibres, for a growing population. In particular, this growing challenge of food security and sustainability will impact on countries and regions of the world least able to cope.

As a result, the issue of global food security and sustainability now feature prominently on the international policy agenda and, indeed, on the national policy agenda. As the national body responsible for agricultural research and knowledge transfer in Ireland, Teagasc has a responsibility to support the national effort aimed at strengthening agricultural development and reducing hunger and under nutrition in underdeveloped countries.

In response, Teagasc recently adopted a new policy governing participation in international agricultural development. It proposes five criteria for Teagasc engagement

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Top 500 EU projects

wo Teagasc research projects are featured in the ‘500 success stories of European research’ recently published on the European Commission’s Research and Innovation website.

Building on the extensive participation of 35 international research groups, one of the PEN project’s key successes was the creation of a single platform to disseminate information and expertise about E. coli around the world, for the benefit of everyone involved in the effort to understand and manage this threat — from microbial researchers to regulators, legislators, the food industry and public health experts. The project went on to develop science-based risk-management strategies tailored for use both by farmers and by the food-processing industry,

with such initiatives, i.e: , alignment with Teagasc’s own Statement of Strategy; focus on development of local capacity in research and knowledge transfer; based on partnership — in which Teagasc contributes its own specific expertise; alignment with Irish Aid’s hunger agenda; and, focus on Irish Aid’s nine programme countries.

This policy will help build new international linkages with significant international research and knowledge transfer organisations. A current pilot project on potatoes in Ethiopia has already resulted in new linkages and collaboration for Teagasc staff with renowned research and knowledge transfer institutes such as Wageningen University, the International Potato Centre (CIP) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). At a limited scale, this collaboration may provide new opportunities for staff development, by putting their current research and knowledge transfer portfolios in an international context. and provided information and guidance for public health professionals and regulators on ways to detect, assess and manage newly emerging strains of E. coli.

The END-O-SLUDG project started in January 2011. Its work is still in its relatively early stages, but already it has made notable progress. In order to reduce the volume of sludge produced in wastewater, one promising technique END-OSLUDG scientists are investigating is Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF). Already in pilot trial phase, DAF exploits the tendency of certain materials to bind to air bubbles. By injecting a flow of micro-bubbles into wastewater, DAF offers the possibility of 100 per cent removal of one of the key components of sludge, known as Total Suspended Solids — compared with 65 per cent reduction achieved through existing methods.

For more details on both projects see: http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/success_stories_en.cfm?item=Countries&subitem=Ireland

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Retaining phosphorus

lants require nutrients for healthy growth, and of these nutrients, phosphorus is very important. However, in agricultural systems, the amount of phosphorus that is available to the plant rapidly decreases after the farmer applies it to the field. This occurs because phosphorus interacts with soil material at the soil surface.

Phosphorus can then be washed away into streams and local waterbodies, which can have harmful effects on the environment.

Teagasc researchers at Johnstown Castle have been investigating the ability of earthworms to reduce this accumulation at the soil surface, since earthworms have a substantial effect on the soil by redistributing and mixing material. Earthworms are classified into three groups, those that live in the litter layer at the surface, those that live below ground, and those that produce semi-permanent vertical burrows. By feeding on material on the soil surface, earthworms can mix phosphorus present at the surface with soil below the surface.

Teagasc, Head Office, Oak Park, Carlow. Tel: (059) 917 0200

Website: www.teagasc.ie

An experiment was conducted to investigate how earthworms redistribute phosphorus and how plant communities take in redistributed phosphorus. To replicate this accumulation at the surface, two soils with contrasting phosphorus concentrations were used. The upper soil (1 cm) was approximately seven times greater in phosphorus concentration than the lower soil (30 cm). Plant communities (grass-only or grass, forb and legume communities) were planted and established for six months before earthworms were introduced. Following a further nine months, the experiment was deconstructed and divided into different layers for laboratory analysis. This experiment showed that earthworms promoted a more even distribution of phosphorus by removing this nutrient from the soil surface (0 – 1 cm depth range) and showed that more phosphorus was acquired in the presence of a grass, forb and legume community compared to a grass-only community.

Downpatrick Head, Co. Mayo.

Limestone, Shale and Siltstone cliff face dropping into the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo by Jonathan Moran, Marschacht, Germany. First prize.

Du Noyer competitioN

A selection of entries from the latest DuNoyer photo competition. the annual competion, named after the outstanding field geologist and artist, George Victor DuNoyer, is run by the Geological Survey of ireland and the irish Geological Association.

Erratic glacial boulder deposit in Wicklow Mountains National Park near Turlough Hill. Photo by Annamaria Corrigan.

The edge of the Burren a couple of miles south of Fannore in Co Clare. Here you can see the grikes make a lovely pattern in the limestone and a clint left behind from the last glacial period. Photo by Hugh Cotter, Co Clare. Second prize.

An extension of the limestone area of the Burren formed as sediments in a tropical sea approx 350 million years ago and contains fossil corals, crinoids, sea urchins and ammonites. This area is in the shadow of the cliffs near Dun Aengus and under water at high tide. Photo by Sean Tomkin, Galway. 3rd prize Irish category

Seven Coloured Earth, Mauritius. The natural phenomenon is due to decomposed basalt gullies. The hot and humid climate helps in the decomposition of the basalt into clay. The colours red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow never erode in spite of torrential downpours and adverse climatic conditions. Photo by Stoycho Danev, Co Donegal. Foreign category winner.

Preikestolen, The Pulpit Rock, Norway.

This is a famous attraction in Southern Norway, in the heavily glaciated Lysefjord. The steep sided valley, at this point is actually overhanging, and one can walk unimpeded to the edge where a drop of over 600m awaits you. Photo by Darren Wilkinson, Scotland

Mount Cook, New Zealand. Looking past the torlesse greywacke outcrop towards Mt Cook, Aoraki. Mt Cook National Park, South Island of New Zealand.

Photo by Mark Wallader, Australia.

Sea Arch - Water and wave-worn sea arch at Mizen Head, Co. Cork, showing folds in the sandstone.

Erosion has caused the formation of the arch which may eventually collapse entirely into the sea.

Photo by Catherine Bushe, Co. Dublin.

Icelandic rhyolites. This shot captures the spectacularly colourful rhyolite hills of the Landmannalaugar region of south-central Iceland.

Taken on an 80km treck from Landmannalaugar to Iceland’s southern coastline at Skogar.

Photo by Gavin Kenny, Co. Meath.

Crummies Bay. The geology of the small headland shown in the photograph is Dalradian Quartzite known as the Slieve Tooey Quartzite. This photograph was taken from Dunree Head, Co. Donegal looking down into Crummie’s Bay. Photo by Marie Fleming, Co. Wexford.

An erratic on the Burren landscape. As the Ice Age retreated northwards large boulders, like this lonely granite, that had been carried southwards by the glaciers were occasionally deposited on the karst limestone lying underneath. Near Ballyvaughan, Co Clare.

Photo by Sean Tomkin, Galway.

Two tired geologists at Dun Da Ghaoithe, Scotland. View over the mountains of Mull looking to the northwest over the Isle of Coll.

The hills are Tertiary intrusions of gabbro in volcanic centre.

The highest Old Red Sandstone peak in the UK, the plateau beds, exposed by glaciation, are picked out beautifully on this escarpment. Photo by Eimear Deady, Scotland.

In contrast to this, INFOMAR’s focus moved to near shore areas, including ports and bays.

“The aim is to map waters at depths of less than 200 metres, which surround Ireland’s coast,” explains Charise McKeon from the GSI’s Marine & Geophysics programme.

For the first 10 years, the focus will be on 26 priority bays and 3 priority areas for which bathymetric (underwater depth) data will be collected, as well as information about seabed sediment type.

“The aim is to map all of Ireland’s marine territory. The INFOMAR programme is intended to address issues such as navigation, environmental and cultural international legislation, while also working on enhanced data management and delivery service for data gathered under both the INSS and INFOMAR. This data delivery strategy promotes the creation of value added products and ensures the data is being used,” says Koen.

Gathering the data

Treading Shallow Waters Anthea Lacchia on getting to know Ireland’s seabed with INFOMAR, one of the GSI’s most successful scientific projects

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hen people think of Ireland, they generally think of green pastures, of thatched cottages, of Dublin’s bustling streets, of land. But there’s more to Ireland than meets the land-adjusted eye. The coastal waters that surround our emerald isle have been the subject of detailed surveying on the part of the Geological Survey of Ireland and the Marine Institute, in a joint project called INFOMAR (Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland’s Marine Resource).

The project, which started in 2006, involves seabed mapping of Ireland’s near shore area. Funded by the Irish

Government through the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, it follows on from the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS), also run by GSI, which mapped the extent of Ireland’s designated waters in the Atlantic from 1999 to 2005. The INSS mapped deep water, from depths of 200 metres to over 4.5 kilometres.

“INSS cost 32 million euro and provided the baseline data set to underpin present and future Irish economic, environmental, infrastructural and policy decisions,” says Koen Verbruggen, GSI Director and INFOMAR project manager.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 23

What methods are used to gather seabed and bathymetric data? The basic onboard survey equipment is a multibeam echosounder, which essentially works by emitting sound waves which travel through the water column, hit the seafloor and are reflected back to the surface, where they are recorded.

Therefore acoustic energy is used to gauge depth.

“In addition to this, we run single beam surveys, sub-bottom profile surveys and groundtruthing,” says Charise.

“Multibeam works via a swath profile, so you get a full picture or what the seabed looks like. The output of singlebeam is in line profile form, while

The wreck of SS Premier, a 53 metre long steamship that collided with a paddle steamer upriver from Scattery Island while on its way to Limerick in 1898. The ship was bringing 600 tons of sugar to Cleeve’s confectionary company, so locally it became known as the ‘Sugar Boat.’

that of multibeam is an area. “As INFORMAR has progressed,” she explains, “we are now using higher resolution multibeam systems, in order to get higher quality data. The fact that we are dealing with shallow water means we are particularly interested in mapping features like shoals, masts sticking up from wrecks and other potential hazards for navigation.”

The footprint of the multibeam widens and narrows, being wider in deeper water and thinner in shallower water: this means that the multibeam survey takes longer in shallower depths.

As well as bathymetric data, multibeam gives backscatter data, which is an indication of how hard or soft the seabed is.

Following on from this, muddy, sandy and gravel rich areas can then be distinguished by sampling.

“We run the multibeam, the singlebeam and the sub-bottom profiler all the time,” says Charise.

The sub-bottom profiler (also known as shallow seismic pinger) works by releasing energy that is both reflected from and penetrates through the seabed.

The method depends on density changes within the sediments to provide a profile or section beneath the seabed.

Other data acquisition methods include the side scan sonar, used mainly for wreck investigation, the magnetometer, used for magnetic anomaly detection (geological or man made), the remotely operated vehicle (ROV), mainly used for groundtruthing, and towed video and camera systems.

“To verify the multibeam data, we use groundtruthing, which means we collect seabed samples: they vary from grab samples to core samples.

When an area is deemed too shallow or costly to be surveyed by boat, we’ve used systems such as airborne bathymetric LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a type of airborne survey. Red and green laser pulses from an aeroplane are used to determine the distance from the sea surface and seabed. The difference between the two beams allows the water depth to be calculated.

Water depths between 0 and 70 metres can be surveyed but in Ireland the typical depth penetration is 15 metres and it only really works successfully in the west coast, because here there is greater water clarity and

and areas. The GSI’s purposebuilt, aluminium catamaran RV Keary (named after one of Ireland’s pioneering marine geologists, the late Raymond Keary of GSI) does most of the surveying from 10 to 5 metres depth. The small 15m RV Geo can work in areas up to 3 metres deep, so is particularly useful in the inner reaches of the bays. .

In 2012 a new vessel was added when the Cosantoir Bradan, a former fishery patrol vessel of IFI, was converted to marine survey use by the GSI.

Applications: mapping seabed features

INFOMAR and related coverage around Ireland’s coast. less turbidity or suspended sediment.”

“We’ve flown a number of LiDAR surveys in the last few years and they have been useful because there are a number of bays, in and around Galway for instance, where boats just cannot go safely because it’s too shallow.”

Having said this, LiDAR data is not as high definition as multibeam data.

Finally, when collecting data, tidal changes, as well as the movement of the ship, must be accounted for and, therefore, tide gauges are positioned both along the coast and within the survey area. All data is reduced to the lowest astronomical tide (LAT).

Vessels big and small

Several vessels are employed in gathering geophysical data and the choice of vessel largely depends on water depth.

The RV Celtic Voyager and RV Celtic Explorer, which are Marine Institute managed research vessels, map water depths greater than 20 and 100 metres respectively, so are used for deeper bays The 12 metres-high rock shoal in Manning bay off Clifden represented an unseen hazard for shipping.

Once it is processed, all multibeam data is supplied to the UK Hydrographic Office and it is used to update the admiralty charts. “Some of them wouldn’t have been updated since the late 1800s and 1900s,” says Charise.

The data feeds into many different applications.

“For example, we now know the exact water depth in and around the Kish Bank in Dublin Bay. Before this, people were simply taking a wide berth around it. The sand bank has now been mapped in great detail.

Another example is the Dalkey Sound, which is quite deep: people didn’t realize how navigable it was prior to the survey; now boats can safely navigate it quite easily.”

Many stakeholders are involved, from offshore engineering companies, which wish to set up wind farms, to surveys connected with fisheries, to shipwreck surveys for maritime heritage.

“In the last few years, we have been collaborating more with state agencies such as SEAI on renewable energy: they are using the data for baseline studies in order to set up offshore wind and energy systems. Knowing what the seabed looks like is essential to them. Similarly we are working with NPWS, BIM, CIL, OPW and others.”

From glacial scour marks, to huge trenches, people are now getting to know a whole world that was previously unknown. For instance, it is possible to study the rock outcrop below the infill of sediment, sand and gravel: near Kinsale, it has been possible to extend the onshore to the offshore geology (through faults and other features).

Left, Aran sound, and right, drumlins in Clew Bay. Below, Aran Islands.

From sand waves to sand banks, there are many, mappable features on the seabed and often they are moving and shifting! Such features recently mapped include an odd scour channel near Dundalk Bay and a 12 metres-high rock shoal in Manning bay off Clifden. The latter was considered a dangerous hazard and prompted a radio alert to all shipping, via the Coastguard/Marine Safety system.

As Charise adds, “there are so many features off Wexford and Wicklow: it’s amazing. For instance, there are sand waves that are 100 metres high! You don’t get the scale of things until you really examine the data. During my first survey in 2007 off Kerry Head, we came across a huge, unmapped, glacial moraine feature and a trough 500 metres wide and over 40 km long.”

Feeding into Research

“We also run research funding through INFOMAR and, in 2011, 23 one to twoyear projects were funded.”

Traditional geomorphological, biological and physical studies are increasingly accompanied by industryled projects, such as sophisticated data visualisation studies, ocean modelling and geotechnical work.

“Our data feeds into Google Earth to give 3D views. What we are learning is that there’s always more to every dataset.”

Biological studies also stem from INFOMAR data. “In the early days of INFOMAR, we also did some biological sampling in biologically-sensitive areas.

The main thing we do now is create a physical habitat map, an underlying dataset using the backscatter data, which tells you how hard or soft the seabed is. This is used as a basis for biological sampling and designation of protected areas. It also allows development of

habitat maps and further research.

For example, the Dublin Bay prawn Nephrops is studied every other year off the Aran Islands in a collaboration with INFOMAR, the MI and academia.”

Shipwrecks

Every so often a shipwreck surprises the surveyors.

“Up to now, there are more than 300 shipwrecks in our database,” explains Charise. “We report the wrecks to the UK Hydrographic Office. Some are known and already charted, but we are increasingly coming across uncharted wrecks. If, for example, a mast was sticking up from these wrecks, it could snag fishing nets or cause other harm.

When we find a wreck, we run four additional multibeam lines over it. Then we run simultaneous logging of the water column to obtain a complete profile of what’s in the water from seabed to waterline.”

Many of the wrecks are more than or close to 100 years old: once they are 100 years old, they are protected by the state, which means people need a licence before they can dive them. This helps protect the site.

“We work quite closely with the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU), which is part of the National Monuments Service, and this collaboration has been going very well.”

In 2009, local divers came across what may be a Spanish Armada wreck off Rutland Island in Donegal. It has been dated to possibly 1488. “The UAU was tasked with investigating

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 25

it and in 2011 and 2012 they used the RV Keary as a diving platform.”

Off Schull, in Co. Cork, a wreck probably dating back to the 15th or 16th century contains evidence for a cargo of coconuts, so it was called Coconut Wreck. INFOMAR were able to survey this as part of 2012 operations and may have discovered another wreck close to this one: archaeologists will hopefully go back and explore it further.

The Manchester Merchant is one of the most striking wrecks: located in the inner part of Dingle Bay, it is over 130 metres long and in just 11 metres of water! It had been elusive to divers, until it was surveyed in 2009; it was carrying cotton and turpentine before catching fire and being scuttled in 1903.

One of the great things about the survey equipment is being able to visualize the wrecks in 3D. A joint UAU/ INFOMAR publication on shipwrecks was launched in November and all shipwreck information is freely available on the INFOMAR website (www.infomar. ie).

Where is the project headed?

In broad terms, the surveyors and INFOMAR geologists are making their way through the bays, slowly putting together the picture of the entire nearshore coast of Ireland. At the moment, a review of the project is underway to measure progress and benchmark it against international best practice.

INFOMAR cost 26 million euro from 2006 to 2012 and is due to run until 2026.

This year, surveys will begin in MarchApril in Dundalk Bay. “We are working with Scotland and Northern Ireland in a hydrographic survey project called Inis Hydro, the aim of which is to map 1400 square km of key

The SS Folia, a 132 metre long ocean liner torpedoed by a German submarine off Ram Head in Cork on March 11th 1917.

coastal seabed areas between Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.”

It’s a collaborative project, akin to the Tellus Border project another one of GSI’s success stories. (see Science Spin 56) The idea for the future is to collaborate with EU projects and create a bathymetric map for Europe and this work has commenced with the EMODNET Project, which funds two additional specialists on the GSI INFOMAR team.

“INFOMAR is about making people aware that Ireland doesn’t stop when you get to the cliff edge. There’s a whole other world out there and it’s a diverse

topographic area, with mounds, canyons, pockmarks and all sorts of features. Off Donegal, for example, there are many pockmark features on the sea bed: these are gas-generated mounds and there are a few in Dunmanus Bay too. They represent a unique habitat, a possible indicator of economic resources and are potential geohazards,” explains Charise.

Knowing what’s on our seabed has not only scientific, but also economic benefits.

For more information, including the “real” maps of Dublin, Galway and Ireland, see www.infomar.ie.

Ireland’s best known wreck, the Lusitania, torpedoed in 1915 with the loss of over 1,000 lives.

Left, the SS Manchester Merchant lying at 11.3 metres depth in Dingle Bay. The vessel was used to transport troops and supplies to South Africa during the Boer War.

St Vincent’s Fairview

Hidden away in an area with lots of historical associations, St Vincent’s Hospital in Fairview has an fascinating history.

Aidan Collins tells how so many colourful figures, such as the Sham Squire, Grose the antiquarian, and James Joyce all have close connections to St Vincents, and the hospital itself began with a scandal, so shameful that for years the truth was suppressed.

Available, paperback €25 or hardback €35 Postfree from www.sciencespin.com

Albertine Kennedy Publishing

The Exemption

An amazing story of survival through some of the darkest years of Europe’s recent history. Vera Hajnal tells of how invasion soon shattered an idyllic childhood. Growing up in a secure and loving family, going to school and sometimes being allowed help her father, a doctor, Vera’s first shock came when, accompanying her grandmother to the railway station, she was stopped by men wearing armbands who asked: “Are you Jewish?”

Vera describes how she survived the years that followed, and amazingly, her account has no trace of bitterness and throughout it all she never lost faith in the underlying goodness of people. Her own survival, as people were being literally rounded up and shot by paramilitary thugs, was remarkable in that on being contronted on the street she happened to be carrying a piece of paper exempting her father from military service.

Hardback €25 Post free from www.sciencespin.com

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 26

THE NUCLEAR DEBATE Margaret Franklin writes that the Irish government may re-examine the nuclear option following a report that reprocessing at Sellafield poses little threat to our health.

I

reland has so far remained a nuclear free zone. Plans to build a nuclear power station at Carnsore point in County Wexford in the 1970s were shelved following massive public protests.

The accident at a nuclear plant at Three Mile Island in the USA in 1979 added to people’s fears.

A malfunction in the cooling system at the plant caused some of the core to melt, but no injury or ill health resulted from the incident. But then, in 1986, the Chernobyl disaster raised genuine worries about the safety of nuclear power. Nuclear plants in France and in the UK have operated safely, but the question of dealing with spent nuclear fuel has always been a challenge, since the waste is radioactive. For many years, the nuclear waste re-processing facility at Sellafield has been viewed with concern in Ireland. A survey commissioned by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland in 2010 found that 29 per cent of respondents were ‘very concerned’ or ‘fairly concerned’ about how Sellafield affects Ireland and 59 per cent of respondents perceived pollution from Sellafield as high risk. But are these perceptions valid?

To address Ireland’s concerns about the nuclear re-processing in Cumbria, a joint confidential technical information exchange project on Sellafield was set up by the Irish and British Governments in 2008. A team of independent experts, including chemists, nuclear physicists and engineers, was commissioned to assess the risks to Ireland from incidents at Sellafield. Over a two-year period, the team visited the Sellafield site on three occasions, for two weeks each time.

They examined hundreds of documents about the operations there.

The expert team has now published its report*. Contrary to public opinion, the main finding is that an incident at Sellafield, involving the release of

Nuclear waste stored under water at Sellafield reprocessing plant. radioactive material, would result in no observable health effects in Ireland!

The risk assessment considered natural phenomena such as earthquakes or meteorite strikes, as well as plane crashes, terrorist attacks, explosions, fires, and human error. It included incidents where radioactive materials were blown on the wind across the Irish Sea and deposited here, but even then, there would be no detectable health impact, the report stated The expert team also considered a possibile long term event: hundreds of years from now, rising sea levels and coastal storms could cause the entire contents of the Low Level Waste Repository to be released into the Irish Sea. Radioactive materials decay over time, becoming less harmful. The report found that in the event of such a release, the increase in radioactivity in seawater would be minimal.

This report should allay the fears of any rartional person. With rising oil and gas prices, is it time for Ireland to re-examine the possibility of having a nuclear power generating capacity in this country? We need to understand the science involved and to weigh up the advantages and the risks.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 27

Compared to burning fossil fuels, a small quantity of nuclear fuel releases an enormous amount of energy. Combustion of carbon-containing fuels releases energy stored in chemical bonds in the hydrocarbon molecules.

The hydrocarbons react chemically with oxygen from the air to produce carbon dioxide and water. Mass is conserved in a chemical reaction.

The sum of the masses of all the molecules of water and carbon dioxide produced by combustion is exactly balanced by the sum of the masses of the hydrocarbon molecules consumed and the oxygen with which they react. The energy released is just the difference in bond energies of the reactants and products.

In nuclear reactions, mass is not conserved. Some of it is converted to energy according to Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2. The amount of energy, E (measured in joules) that is released when a mass of m kilograms is completely converted to energy is calculated by multiplying the mass by the speed of light squared. The speed of light, denoted by ‘c’ has the enormous value of almost 300,000 kilometres per second, so when we square it we get a really huge number. That’s the number of joules of energy we get from converting one kilogram of nuclear material into energy!

The energy produced in nuclear power plants involves fission. This is a process whereby unstable, heavy, fissionable nuclei (e.g. uranium, poloniun or thorium) split apart to produce nuclei of atoms of lighter elements. But the masses of the fission products add up to give a total mass which is LESS than that of the nucleus that has undergone fission. The missing mass is converted into energy according to Einstein’s equation, giving a very large amount of energy from a relatively small quantity of nuclear fissionable material. One ton of uranium

produces more energy than millions of tons of coal or several million barrels of oil.

Naturally occurring uranium contains a mixture of two isotopes. These are atoms with the same number of protons in their nuclei, but with different masses, as they have a different neutron number.

Both isotopes are radioactive, but only the lighter isotope, Uranium 235, is fissioable. To produce nuclear fuel, some of the U238 is removed, making the mixture richer in the fissionable U235.

Fission is triggered when a U235 nucleus absorbs a neutron. As well as producing nuclei of lighter elements, each nuclear

fission releases more neutrons, causing further fission, in a chain reaction. In order to sustain the reaction, a critical mass of uranium must be present, otherwise, some neutrons escape and the chain is broken. But the chain reaction needs to be controlled, in order to avoid an explosion, as occurs in an atomic bomb. In a nuclear power station, this is achieved using control rods which absorb excess neutrons. The heat released during fission can boil water, produce steam and drive a turbine.

Apart from its huge energy output compared to fossil fuels, nuclear energy has another advantage over them; it does

not emit greenhouse gases and therefore does not contribute to global warming as fossil fuels do. So generating energy from nuclear fuel is less harmful to the environment than the combustion of fossil fuels. But can we be reassured that modern nuclear plants are sufficiently safe, so that another Chernobyl cannot happen? And has this recent report allayed fears about the re-processing of nuclear waste? This is matter for fruitful debate.

Margaret Franklin’s articles about topical issues in science appear regularly in The Westmeath Independent

* A copy of the report can be downloaded from this website: http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/EnvironmentalRadiation/News/MainBody,31608,en.htm

This strange bubble, 60 light years across and 5,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation Canis Major, was formed by a massive star expelling material through a strong stellar wind. The image was captured by ESA’s XMM Newton space telescope. The eyes, which make this look like some kind of face, are intense X-rays. The pink coloured ‘eye” is what is known as a Wolf-Raylet star, typically 35 times the mass of our Sun. Such stars ‘live fast, and die young’ and they produce a powerful stellar wind. The high temperature plasma of these winds emit X-rays, which show up blue in this image.

The bubble and its star are doomed to end in a massive supernova explosion.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 28

Young Scientist: The 2013 Winners, Ciara Judge, Emer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow from Kinsale Community School, Cork.

YouNg SCIENtISt wINNErS Anthea Lacchia reports on how three students came up with a winning project by showing how the bacterium that helps pea plants to fix nitrogen can also boost the growth of other plants.

Ciara Judge, Emer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow from Kinsale Community School, Cork, were crowned overall winners of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2013. They were successful in showing that a certain bacterium, Rhizobium, boosts the speed of germination in wheat and barley.

“We got the idea from Emer’s mum: she found strange nodules on the roots of pea plants while she was gardening.

She thought there was something wrong with the plants, so Emer brought them in to our science teachers, who told us there

was nothing wrong, but it was all to do with a bacterium,” they explained.

After some research, the girls discovered that the nodules were caused by a special bacterium called Rhizobium, which commonly forms a symbiotic relationship with legumes. After being detected by the plant, Rhizobium gets into the roots through small hairs and begins to fix atmospheric nitrogen for the plant, thereby helping it to grow. The plant essentially forms nodules for the bacterium to live in.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 57 Page 29

The girls had the brilliant idea of testing out the effect of Rhizobium on nonlegume plants as an aid to germination.

“We wanted to see if we could use that bacterium on other plants that don’t already have it,” they said.

In order to do this, they built a sterile transfer chamber in which to deal with the bacteria aseptically: “We built a bioreactor to make large quantities of bacteria. We wired it ourselves and made the bacterial broth in UCC.” The Rhizobium strains used in the experiments are called leguminosarum and japonicum.

They put barley, wheat and oat seeds on baking trays together with water, medium and inoculant, and examined the seeds each evening using a magnifying glass. Then they methodically recorded if a seed had germinated and, on finding that oat seeds germinate better in darkness, they carried out subsequent experiments on all three seed types in darkness.

“We analysed the results using several statistical methods, such as the chi-square and the student-T-test. What we found was that the bacterium actually sped up the germination days by 50 per cent,” they explained.

The girls can almost be considered veterans of the Young Scientist Exhibition, having taken part in two shows prior to this year’s.

But this year their enthusiasm received an extra boost. Thanks to their hard work and dedicated research, which could have applications in the agriculture industry, the girls took home a trophy, a cheque for €5000 and the chance to participate in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Prague.

“We’re thrilled!

It’s still a little bit surreal to be honest.” They also added that all their science teachers were extremely supportive. Well done girls and we’ll be cheering you on in Prague!

M

MURDER

odern technology in the form of computerised tomograpy (CT) scanning has revealed that the Egyptian pharoah, Ramesses III was murdered about BC1156 by having his throat slit.

Up to now the fatal wound had been hidden under a thick covering of neck bandages, but CT scanning made it possible for the Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, Carsten Pusch, geneticist at the University of Tübingen and Albert Zink, palaeopathologist at the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen to make the gruesome discovery that a deep slash extended through to the vertebrae.

Ancient papyrus records at the Egyptian Museum in Turin provided the background by describing a plot in which one of the pharoah’s wives, Tiy, planned to kill Ramesses and replace him with her son, Pentawere.

Ramesses had intended another son to be his successor to a kingdom that was constantly at war and economically threatened with collapse.

The plot did not go as planned, the

conspiracy was discovered, but apparently not before Ramesses III, who was then about 65 years old, had met his death.

With the aid of modern forensic science the team were able to discover that another mummy is likely to have been the rebellious son, Pentawere.

The body was that of a young man of about 18 to 20, and genetic fingerprinting has revealed that he was closely enough related to Ramesses to have been his son.

This individual had also met with an un-natural end, by hanging, and to add insult to injury, his brain and organs had not been removed and his mummified remains were wrapped in goat’s skin, which would have been considered impure. As the ancient papyrus suggests, Pentawere may have been offered a grim choice — hang himself, or face an even worse punishment in the afterlife.

Dr. How's

Science Wows! ...exploring Bubbles!

What is a bubble?

A bubble is a thin film of liquid filled with air or another gas.

As time goes on the colour of the bubble changes How does this work? until finally the bubble appears colourless The sphere of a bubble is made up - and then it of two layers - an inner wall and an bursts! outer wall.

Lets learn more!

No matter what shape a bubble starts off as, it will always try to form a round shape (called a sphere).

As light waves hit the bubble they are reflect off both walls.

A sphere is the shape that allows the least amount of surface area - and therefore the least amount of energy is needed to maintain this shape.

light in

If one or more bubbles touch they will loose their sphere shape - the walls of the touching bubbles will merge.

reflected light light in

If both bubbles are the same size the shared wall will be flat!

The walls of joined-up bubbles always meet at an angle of 120o

Make your own bubble solution!

Experiments you can try

Bubble Art

You will need.. bubble solution, food colouring, plastic cup, a straw, paper.

Bubble Art!

Pour bubble solution into the plastic cup until the cup is about one third full.

Add two tablespoons of food colouring to the bubble solution and mix it well.

Place the straw into the bubble solution and keep blowing until the bubbles are coming out of the pot.

Lower the piece of paper onto the bubbles to make an imprint (do not let the paper touch the plastic cup). Lift off the paper and allow your bubble art to dry.

Did you know...

The biggest freefloating soap bubble ever blown was 105.4 cubic feet.

It could have held 788 gallons of water!

You can repeat the process using different colours of food colouring!

Did you know...

The skin of a bubble is less than one thousandth of a millimetre thick!

The walls of the bubble gradually weaken and the distance between inner wall the two walls reduces until the reflected light waves cancel each outer wall other out and the colour dissappears.

reflected light

Experiments you can try

Junior science by Dr. Naomi Lavelle

Most bubble are made up of soapy water and air.

What colour is a bubble?

Bubbles reflect the colours from their surroundings so at first they may appear rainbow coloured.

Did you know...

The world record for the most people inside a bubble was set in 2006 by Sam Heath; His bubble contained 19 girls and boys over five feet tall!!

Make it!

Commercial bubble solutions are great but they can be expensive, so why not make your You will need... own? a clean, dry There are lots of good recipes that work empty plastic really well but this is the one I usually use! bottle (1 litre), Before you start make sure the bottle, your 4 tblsp (60ml) hands and any measuring utensils are washing-up liquid, clean and dry.

Carefully measure out each ingredient and add, 2 cups (480mls) clean water, one by one to the bottle, trying not to make 2 tblsp (30ml) the mixture get too bubbly. glycerine Once everything has been added stir slowly and carefully. Cap the bottle and leave it in a safe place overnight.

The bubble solution is ready to use the next day.

So now what?...

Now start making bubbles!! If you don‛t Some tips: have any bubble wands you can make When making your bubble your own using some pipe cleaners. solution make sure you use “original” washing-up liquid Try shaping the pipe cleaners into and not any of the scented different shapes and see how the varieties! bubble will still always end up as a If possible, use bottled or sphere shape. filtered water rather than tap water.

If you really want to scale it up make extra bubble solution and us a small paddling pool and a hoola hoop to make some mega bubbles!

This is a photo of my son standing inside a bubble!

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

were about 5,000 years old. It was fairly clear to Gordon that the reluctance of the Blackfoot people to talk about the medicine wheels was because there was a basic clash of cultures. As he put it, the Blackfoot people, with good reason, saw nothing to be gained by sharing their knowledge with “whites”. While Gordon could symphatise with that view, he was aware that valuable knowledge, going back thousands of years, was being lost. He wanted to find why these patterns held such significance, so backed by his wife, he literally set out on a long journey of discovery.

By visiting, measuring and mapping sites, Gordon Freeman worked out how they functioned as observatories, and as found, the main purpose appears to have been to record the equinox.

As he observed, the ancients got these dates right, and it is the more recent Europeans who have got them wrong by assuming that the equinox, when day and night are of equal length, is the same all around the globe. While we now let dates drift, getting the equnox wrong would have been unthinkable for the ancients.

The fact that the ancients, whether they lived on the plains of Alberta in Canada or in County Meath, created such elaborate constructions shows how important it was to mark the passing of seasons. At Stonehenge, half the size of Newgrange and 1,000 years younger, great rocks of blue-black basalt had been brought from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, 240 km away, so clearly these were constructions of enormous importance involving whole communities.

The author points out that the cultural divide that makes it difficult for people from one culture to understand those from another culture can be deep and harmful. For example, when a team of archaeologists began excavating on a site covering 30 sq km, they had absolutely no idea that local Indians regarded the place as sacred. Not surprisingly, locals who looked on with but could do nothing, retreated into silence. Gordon How medicine wheels and other ancient horror warned that archaeologists, with a Eurocentric mind-set, can sites constructed to record the passing of unwittingly cause a lot of problems. Furthermore, handing such a site over to UNESCO, he said would be wrong because it would time still work as good as new create what he referred to as “a whiteman’s Indian show.

As an interesting aside, the author notes that the re-discovery he passing of time has always had great significance, and we of how constructions, such as those at Stonehenge, could act as can only imagine the great build up of anxiety among those highly precise observatories, was largely made by amateurs, who waited at Newgrange for the first glimmer of sunshine to people like himself who had the technical background to enter and illuminate the inner chamber. This can only happen at understand what they found, but above all an obsession to the winter solstice, the longest night and the shortest day, when discover how things work. the Sun is at its lowest point on the horizon, and to see this light In his book Gordon Freeman presents readers with an was to witness the birth of a new year. impressive sweep across a variety of related subjects, and The people who built Newgrange apart from letting us know what were far from being alone in working he thinks of it all, he provides the out elaborate constructions to mark charts and calculations that help us to the passage of time, and, as Gorden understand how these great devices Freeman’s book, Hidden Stonehenge work, and one of the remarkable shows, the evidence for this is things is that they do actually universal. continue to work thousands of years Freeman, who had been a professor after they were built. The original of chemistry at the Univerwity of observers could pin-point an equinox Alberta in Edmonstown, first became with such precision that modern aware of strange circular patterns in instruments have to take into account the region because his father, who the slight changer in tilt of the Earth’s worked for the Canadian-Pacific axis that has occurred over the past Railway, had developed a strong few thousand years to get a perfect interest in artifacts left by the original match with the original observations.

Blackfoot inhabitants.

Tom Kennedy The Majorville Medicine Wheel has a central cairn Gordon began to realise that the and to the lower left is a strategically placed one tonne patterns made by placing stones rock beyond which (but not shown here) is a seven rock Hidden Stonehenge had great significance to the original crescent. The single rock was placed in such a position Gordon R Freeman inhabitants, and their decendants were Watkins Publishing, London that the entire width of the central cairn could be very reluctant to talk about them. The Paperback £14.99 viewed from one end of the stone crescent to the other circular patterns, with stones laid out in end. Such patterns are far from random, but are the rays, had become known as Medicine result of careful planning and calculations.

Wheels, and Gordon knew that some

T

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 32

COLOUR

INK often be anuscripts can a traced back to stery through particular mona by the scribes. the inks used have been an analysis of of substances wide variety m of flow, For writing a ements; freedo the basic requir Boiled tree found to meet permanency. rooms, high degree of a and , by ink-cap mush clarity mush produced root of the yellow bark, the black ered powd owers, used. A blue from cornfl coffee have been strong bark even flag iris, and winter blackened made from the One was glue. ink or black with milk the twigs mixed from oak galls, of blackthorn of ink was made oak trees. One common type d by insects on pounds of iron round balls forme , ration was five formula for prepa s of gum, 12 gallons of water pound of oak galls. sulphate, five gallon 12 e, by volum 12 gallons must and measuring h oak galls for s how big the Collecting enoug lt but it just show sive difficu exten been more have gum, and was. On an even lampblack and demand for ink dirty was made from although very scale Indian ink became a big, grained soot soot, lampblack, n Europe. The producing fine of south easter printers’ ink. industry in parts linseed to make 63 was mixed with

M

COLOUR

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.

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

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

The science and art of colour explained by Margaret Franklin and Tom Kennedy. A colourful and informative paperback. €15 post free from www.sciencespin.com

schist lying up Vegetation covered Wicklow.

Lough Oular, Co

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

Ballynstick, Co lonchilides, C. Alethopteris colliery, Co from Drumnagh Cork. dendron, D. Root of Lepido Laois.

Towerstown, Co Photographs: Tom

against a granite

cliff above

is ne Granite which tion is the Mour during initial event. The excep it developed n years old and to the melting only 55 millio , possibly due Atlantic Ocean basalts (see ding Antrim opening of the crust by the ascen ” earlier). of the Earth’s Rocks nic of Volca base other granite in the “Basalts and of hot molten plates: The generation movement of to is driven by the crustal plate sinks the Earth’s crust e, the over-ridden granite (see Figure where they collid to form liquid ely melts it extrem e they releas a depth where plates pull apart the crust it in turn melts 3). Where those the mantle which hot basalt from

The granite with granite rocks. is well-endowed out from the Figure 15. Ireland northeast stands Mountains is the er — only 55 million years old. of the Mourne significantly young 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 Peadar McArdle talks about the Wicklow Gold Rush at the RDS, 6 pm on Wednesday 3rd April 2013.

All are welcome, but please book in advance from librarydesk@rds.ie

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

Albertine Kennedy Publishing ISBN 0 906002 08 7

Want to work in an exciting and diverse career such as gaming, energy, cybersecurity or medical devices?

Check out the Smart Futures website www.SmartFutures.ie where you can read about how to get into a career in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). You can watch some great video interviews with people working in these dynamic career areas and read through our archive of STEM career questions submitted by secondary students and answered by Industry experts in the know! www.SmartFutures.ie is an essential online resource for students and guidance counsellors interested in learning more about STEM careers in Ireland. Follow the blog for the latest news on Smart Futures events and competitions coming up in 2013.

smartfutures@sfi.ie www.Facebook.com/SmartFutures www.Twitter.com/SmartFuturesIE