Spin 15

ISSUE 15 March 06

SCIENCE

IRELAND’S SCIENCE WILDLIFE AND DISCOVERY MAGAZINE

SPIN

3 including VAT £2 NI and UK

VENUS a lesson for Earth?

New section ES2k

EARTH SCIENCE MOVED BY MUSIC BATTLING BIAS IN PUBLISHING IMPROVED VIEW OF DYSLEXIA STEM CELLS — HOPE OR HYPE? CLOSING THE WASTE CYCLE END OF THE BLACKBOARD?

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NATURE HEALTH BIOTECHNOLOGY ASTRONOMY CHEMISTRY PHYSICS GENETICS COMPUTERS ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH EDUCATION NEW

ROCKING

Every issue of Science Spin now includes an EARTH SCIENCE section. Covering geology and the physical environment, the Earth Science section of Science Spin carries news, features and reports from the high-powered ES2k group of scientists and educators who came together in 2000 to promote interest in geology.

COLOUR

INDUSTRY Spin Industry, covering applied technololgy and manufacturing, is being incorporated into Science Spin as a separate section.

From next issue Spin Industry reports on how science and technology is being put to work. Spin Industry is bridging the gap between business and higher education research.

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What we see and the science behind sight In this picture packed paperback Margaret Franklin and Tom Kennnedy explain how we live in a colourful world. The physiology, chemistry, and physics of colour are described against a background of history, culture and art.

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SCIENCE

Cover: Climatic extremes, how the Earth might have appeared four billion years ago, an impression by artist Walter Myers.

Publisher Duke Kennedy Sweetman Ltd 5 Serpentine Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. and Foxford Woollen Mills, Foxford, Co. Mayo Tel: 01 4545231 www.sciencespin.com Email: tom@sciencespin.com

Editors Seán Duke sean@sciencespin.com Tom Kennedy tom@sciencespin.com Business Development Manager Alan Doherty alan@sciencespin.com Production Albertine Kennedy Publishing Cloonlara, Swinford, Co Mayo Proofing Aisling McLaughlin Printing Turner Print, Longford Contributors in this issue Pankaj Agarwal, Tony Bazley, Berni Dwan, Tony McGennis, Veronica Miller, John Moore, Anna Nolan, Maura O’Malley, Michelle Rourke.

SPIN Upfront

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All wrapped up Seán Duke looks at a diverity of research at UCD

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Venus — a cautionary tale John Moore describes a heat trapping atmosphere

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In tune with our emotions Maura O’Malley writes that researchers are still perplexed by our love of music Battling bias Veronica Miller reports on the difficulties of getting results into the scientific press Farewell to the blackboard Seán Duke has been looking at electronic whiteboards ES2k Earth science Tony Bazley brings together a selection of Earth Science reports. This new section in Science Spin with a geological focus covers news and features from the Earth Science group, ES2k Overcoming a barrier Anna Nolan reports that a major ethical problem in stem cell research can be overcome Sligo IT is in the race against waste Making better use of the natural cycle, from land to land, can turn a problem into an environmental asset A clearer view of dyslexia Berni Dwan reports that sharper edges can speed up reading Stem cells —is it hype or hope?

Michelle Rourke took up the debate in a national competition for young writers Eclipse — a rare event Pankaj Agarwal reminds us how the passing shadow had an enormous impact on how our ancestors viewed their world Books Tony McGennis has been reading about great inventions

Articles published in Science SPIN may reflect the views of the contributors and not the official views of the publication, its editorial staff, its ownership, or its sponsors.

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UPFRONT Waste not As more waste is being recycled, bin collectors in Dublin are becoming worried their jobs are going to go.

With the introduction of pay-as-you go bin tags, the volume of waste being put out for collection around Dublin 8 has dropped dramatically, and local residents have become more creative in dealing with waste. The swans and ducks along the Grand Canal have never had so much bread.

The latest report from the Environmental Protection Agency states that recycling of municipal waste has increased by 23 per cent over the past two years. Nationwide, 33 per cent of our household waste is being recycled, and 56 per cent of packaging is being recovered rather than being dumped.

Dealing with industrial or hazardous waste remains a big problem, and the EPAreports that 74 per cent of the recycling has to be done abroad.

Who goes to college?

Sligo leads the way with 71 per cent of schooleavers going on to higher education. Areport commissioned by the HEAshows that there has been a substantial rise in the numbers going on to college throughout Ireland. Since 1998 participation in higher education has increased by eleven per cent, and the gain goes right across society. The targets set in 2001 for students coming from an unskilled background have been exceeded. HEA chairman, Michael Kelly, commented that the rise in higher education participation “is truly remarkable.”

Western counties, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Kerry, and Donegal have higher than average admission rates. Within Dublin, admission rates vary significantly by area. Dublin 14 has the highest admission rate, at 86.5 per cent, and Dublin 10, at 11.7 per cent, the lowest.

NEW SKIN

A medical researcher at the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science in Galway aims to make it easier for patients to recover from burns and skin injuries. In severe cases healthy skin is sometimes taken from one part of the body and grafted onto the affected area, but this procedure is difficult and unpleasant for the patient.

Dr Abhay Pandid, an expert in tissue engineering, is working on an alternative approach that may make most grafts un-necessary. Although serious, or deep wounds, may be incapable of regenerating normal skin, the underlying tissue could provide support for a layer of new cells which would then continue to grow and mature into skin.

Dr Pandid explains that one aspect of the research involves creation of a bilayered composite to mimic natural skin, and this is matched by research into stimulation of growth and regeneration from precurser cells. The research, he said, brings together the fields of gene therapy, biomaterials and biochemistry.

After graduating from Bombay in Biomedical Engineering, Dr Pandid continued working on developing supports for therapeutic biomolecules.

As a result of this research, an FDA approved wound dressing was developed commercially, and in another project, Dr Pandid led a team developing a collagen-based vascular sealant.

Burn injuries are one particular problem, with a mortality rate of almost 39 per cent being reported from Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in 1996, but skin damage is also serious for diabetic patients. Many diabetics develop non-healing ulcers, and amputation of limbs is often the only option open to doctors. Half of the lower limb amputations undertaken every year are due to diabetic induced ulceration.

In time, Dr Pandid’s research will be applied in clinical trials. Success would bring relief to millions of patients around the world.

Dr Abhay Pandid

Ocean depths In issue 11 we featured some of the wonderful creatures inhabiting ocean depths.

Reader, Paul Whelan, takes issue with our description of these depths as cold, dark and under enormous pressure. Oceanographers, he points out, did not, in fact see these parameters as reasons to exclude life. Early 19th century oceanographers, he notes, had concluded that ocean depths could not support life in the belief that cold water, having given up its oxygen, sank to the bottom.

This assumption, explains Paul Wheelan, was based on the observation that water is at its highest density at 4°C. Below, and above this temperature density is less, but what the oceanographers failed to take into account was that this is only true of freshwater.

According to Paul Wheelan, this lead to an inaccurate theory of ocean circulation, the Azoic Theory, which held back exploration of the depths for many decades. So firmly held, was this theory, that the evidence of life, dredged from the deep, was simply ignored.

On another aspect of our feature, Paul Whelan expresses concern that discovery may only lead to the sort of exploitation that we have come to associate with the destruction of the rainforests. Paul Whelen takes us to task for referring to ‘our’ deep sea ‘resources’, as displaying a homocentric attitute. Perhaps true, but of necessity we do see things through human eyes.

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UPFRONT Teachers needed Millions of children never get a good start and become locked into a life of poverty because basic schooling is simply not available, or is a luxury that they cannot afford. In a campaign to do something positive about the situation, the charity, VSO, has launched a recruitment campaign for teachers and people with good education management skills.

According to VSO an increasing number of volunteers are going into such areas as curriculum development, teacher training, and management, and the aim is to recruit fifty more people for projects in Asia and Africa. Although many countries have made a commitment to improving primary education, they face difficulties because they have underdeveloped infrastructures. By volunteering, people with a lifetime of experience can help teachers in poorer countries to overcome some of these difficulties. Malcolm Quigley, Director of VSO Ireland, said that teachers thinking of retiring or taking a career break, can find out more from the website: www.vso.ie

Going physical Creating a better way to capture young people’s interest in physics could be worth £1k. The Institute of Physics would like people involved in physics to share their enthusiasm, and cash awards are being offered for projects that go beyond the narrow school curriculum. Last year awards were given for rojects ranging from outdoor physics poetry to online searches for asteroids. Entries for this year have to be in by 10th March, and the application forms can be downloaded from http://physics.iop.org/IOP/grants.ht mp

Aqua show Two pilot exhibitions about the marine environment have been presented at venues in Cork and Dublin, and the organisers, AQUA TT, hope to continue with an educational programme for schools. A website, www.planetaqua.ie, and a teachers manual were produced to back up the exhibitions.

Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin handing over the Perpetual Award for Young Science Writers to Sean Cronin accompanied by his family.

Young writers Good news for young science writers, the long established RDS competition is being run again this year. The competition is open to all young writers between the age of 12 and 19, and there are two sections, science fact and science fiction. In science fact writers report on a scientific subject in an interesting, but informative way, and in fiction the story has to have a strong scientific connection. Fact entries could be like a newspaper or magazine feature, clearly written and interesting enough to hold the readers attention.

Last year’s winner. Sean Cronin from Belvedere College, wrote about time and life, Tempis Fugit? As he observed, our perception of time is flexible: a traffic hold up can seem like ages, but what is an hour complared to millions of years in geological time? In literature five minutes can stretch over fifty pages, while fifty years might be coverd in just five pages.

Any student is welcome to enter, but bear in mind that the standard is high — good science, and fine creative writing.

The closing date for entries is 26th May. Entry forms are available from the RDS, Science Department, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Claire Mulhall. 2407217. claire.mulhall@rds.ie

Live science The RDS is offering bursaries of up to 1,500 in support of science demonstration lectures.

The primary or secondary school demonstrations should stimulate interest in science.

Applicants will be expected to deliver the lecture at venues nominated by the RDS. For details on how to apply contact Claire Mulhall, Science Department, RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Tel: 01 24072555.

Email: Claire.mulhall@rds.ie

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Nature watch A web site for those who like to keep a watch on nature has been set up by Paul Whelan in Cobh. As Paul explains, all users have to do is to select a plant or animal from a list and enter the siting on a map of Ireland.

“The map can then be replayed to see everyone’s sightings of a particular species.” The site can be visited at www.biology.ie

UPFRONT Summer research projects for secondary school teachers Quicksand myth

All those stories about sinking into quicksand might not be true, at least that’s the conclusion of Daniel Bonn, a physicist from Amsterdam. His argument, backed by laboratory trials on samples of quicksand from Iran, is that the density is so high that a person could not sink below the surface. However, quicksand has a powerful grip, so much so, that freeing a foot can take as much force as raising a car. Quicksand consisting of sand, salt, water and clay liquifies when disturbed, and this is how feet get stuck. The real danger of quicksand, reported the physicist in the journal Nature, comes from being caught in a rising flood. Getting free is, however, relatively easy, provided you know what to do. Simply trickling water down beside the trapped foot is enough to break the hold.

The 2006 Secondary Teacher Assistant Researchers (STAR) programme is ready to run again .

The programme, now in its third year, enables teachers to work with an SFI funded research team in an Irish third level educational institution for a period of between six and eight weeks during the school holidays.

Teachers receive the stipend equivalent of up to 8 weeks salary for participating in the programme.

The 2006 Research Projects are now available on the SFI website for secondary school teachers interested in participating. Teachers should identify an SFI-funded research project of interest on the website and make direct contact with the researcher using the details provided.

Last summer 50 teachers worked with SFI-funded research teams based in third level institutions throughout the country. The aim of the

SFI speakers for schools A number of SFI funded researchers are willing to make presentations in primary and secondary schools.

Among the talks lined up for the SFI Speakers for Schools programme are: • "The body's army against invaders".

• The Kid who Dreamed of putting all Math Teachers out of the Job • Why Blood is Red – Drugs, Vampires, and Medicine • Gamma-ray Astronomy - probing the most violent places in the Universe • The Eye, Vision and Super-vision The SFI Speakers for Schools programme encourages SFI Researchers to give talks on their own research, on more general science and engineering topics.

Full details of all the talks and contact details for the researchers are available on the Education & Outreach Section of the SFI website: www.sfi.ie. Teachers may contact the researchers directly by email from the website. There is no charge to schools for these visits.

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programme is to transfer new skills and knowledge to teachers, which can be passed on to school pupils to enhance their career prospects in the fields of science and engineering.

Collaborations to date have provided teachers with unique and exciting opportunities to work at the cutting edge of research and become an integral part of the scientific community under the direction of a world class researcher.

To get the latest information about the STAR’s Programme 2006 please visit the SFI website at: www.sfi.ie The closing date for completed STAR Submission Deadline: Monday, 27th March 2006 For further information about the STAR programme please contact: Tracy Moloney.

Phone: + 353 1 607 3085 E-Mail: star@sfi.ie

FORESTRY

TREES IN 3D With laser scanning foresters can assess timber value in advance of harvesting and stored data can provide mills with a guide to making more efficient cuts.

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ecause current methods of predicting timber yield are based on an assumpion of perfect growth, measurements are not as good as foresters would like. In a complex forest environment calculations are hard to make, so foresters needed a better system for assessing growth and preharvest value.

TreeMetrics was established in 2005 to solve that problem, and this Irish company has developed an accurate and cost-effective system based on 3D laser technology. During 2005 this system was applied under the TreeScan project, funded by the Council for Forest Research and Development (COFORD).

TreeScan involved collaboration between TreeMetrics Ltd., the Institute of Forest Growth (Freiburg University), and the Telecommunications Software Systems Group (Waterford Institute of Technology). Purser Tarleton Russell Ltd also provided timber measurement R&D expertise.

The results were impressive enough for TreeMetrics to be awarded the Schweighhofer innovation in forestry prize for 2005. This award is recognised throughout the European forestry industry as marking a major achievement in innovation.

Having validated the effectiveness of the hardware to operate in forest environments, TreeMetrics has begun

developing a range of software tools translating the raw data into information relevant to forest planners, managers and timber buyers. This information can be used to optimise harvesting.

Over the past few years terrestrial laser scanning has become more common in the construction industry where it is now used to capture and store highly accurate 3D measurements.

As the TreeScan project proved, the same capacity to capture and store information can be applied for the measurement of forestry crops.

Traditionally, standing trees have been extremely difficult to assess, but laser scanning makes it possible to measure a range of properties, such as dimensions, spatial positioning, texture, and colour.

Measurement involves emission of a laser pulse, which reflects back from the object to the sensor. The angle of laser pulse emission and reflection, and the time between laser pulse emission and return, combine to record a highly accurate X,Y and Z co-ordinate of the point of laser pulse reflection. Also, the intensity of the reflected pulse can be analysed to provide information on an object’s reflective index. The most advanced scanners can also capture information on colour intensity.

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Improved Forest Measurement Current pre-harvest forest measurement practice uses generic tables, and at best these just give a rough estimate on possible yield. One of the problems with these measurement is that little or no data relates to the actual taper and quality along the length of individual tree stems. These qualities are of utmost importance in cross-cutting and sawing at the mill.

The TreeMetrics solution provides timber growers and processors with significantly more information about the actual form of individual tree stems in a forest. One major advantage of scanning is that data can be stored for analysis later.

Detailed 3D models of individual stems can be visually assessed for straightness, taper, defects etc. Virtual measurement of stem diameters, at any height above ground level, can be made, allowing for assessment of both volume and length assortments. The cross sectional form of each stem can also be assessed at any height, and this has the potential to act as a guide, optimising cutting patterns in the sawmill.

Acknowledgements

TreeMetrics would like to thank all those individuals and organisations who have contributed to the TreeScan project, including: COFORD Mark Carlin, Coillte Logistics Project Manager Glennon Brothers Ltd. University of Freiburg Purser, Tarleton, Russell

UPFRONT Physics on stage Early detection of Alzhimers Proteins, similar to those produced by Alzheimer’s disease in the brain, can be detected in the eye. At a recent meeting of the Optical Society of America, researchers described how non-invasive examination could give early warning of the onset of the disease, and the same diagnostic approach could make it a lot easier to test new drugs. The demonstration follows the publication, two years ago in the Lancet, of results showing that amyloid proteins, the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, also occur in the lens and surrounding fluids of the eye.

Since this discovery, Lee Golstein and colleagues from the Harvard Medical School, have found that these peculiar proteins can be detected using lowpower laser light. Special fluorescing eye drops are applied, and these bind to the amyloid molecules, making them light up during examination.

Forestry research The proceedings of a conference, covering research and development in the forestry sector in Ireland is available from Coford. The report, Forest Research and Development in Ireland 2004, costs 10, or it can be downloaded as a pdf from the Coford website, www.coford.ie

Misleading points The number of points required for a course has nothing to do with quality and is only an indication of demand.

STEPS to engineering manager, Margie McCarthy, comments that students should not assume that courses with higher points are better.

The points required for engineering and science courses have dropped, and as Margie McCarthy observes, these can lead to better career opportunities. “All the evidence points to a very buoyant employment market for engineering, science and technology graduates,” she remarked.

Following an exchange of ideas with teachers from different parts of Europe some of the best practical demonstrations on physics have been put together as a booklet. The Physics on Stage booklet, showing how simple materials, such as marshmallows and tennis balls, can be used to explain scientific concepts, is being distributed to science teachers by the Institute of Physics in Ireland. For more information visit www.physicsonstage.net

SEA BED NETWORK Marine scientistists from around the world were in Dublin recently to discuss future developments at ocean depths. At the conference, organised by the Marine Institute and the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society, the development of a European Sea Observatory network was among the topics discussed. The aim of this proposed network, ESONET, is to provide continuous sampling of the ocean floor around Europe. The high technology initiative proposes to link up 5,000 km of fibre optic sub-sea cables to land based observatories around the European coast. Plans being drawn up for the first of these observatories, based on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain area, are expected to

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provide the model for other sites.

In drawing up these plans, the Irish Marine Institute is leading a consortium of nine European organisations, three of which are Irish companies.

Project co-ordinator, Michael Gillooly from the Marine Institute commented that the technology involved is likely to become widely used in monitoring the marine environment. “The potential exists to create an Irish industrial capability in many of the niche technologies that comprise these systems,” he said. Of particular interest to Irish participants will be the use of fibre optics, sensor systems, and data management software.

heoil “Discover Science and Engineering” an clár “Discover Primary Science” chun spreagadh agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do múinteoireacht na heolaíochta i mbunscoileanna na hÉireann. Seo é an dara scoil bhliain den chláir agus tá 1300 scoil páirteach ann chéanna féin agus tá go leor, leor eile a bhfuil suim acu clárú. Léiríonn an t-suim iontach seo tábhacht agus éifeachtacht an chláir agus cuideoidh sé go mór chun é a fhás agus a fhorbairt amach anseo.

Ta na scoileanna atá cláraithe go dtí seo, ag obair leo chun “Gradam Foirfe Eolaíochta”/ “Awards of Science Excellence”, a bhaint amach agus beidh deis ag iar-bhuaiteoirí iarracht a dhéanamh greim a choinneáil ar na gradam a fuair siad anuraidh! Bronntar na gradam seo mar aitheantas do dhaltaí agus múinteoirí as ocht an sárobair a dhéanann siad leis “An Paca Gníomhaíocht Ranga”, cuid de imeachtaí “Discover Primary Science”.

Caithfidh na foirmeacha iarratais a

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bheith istigh roimh an sprioc dáta 12 Bealtaine 2006 agus beidh siad ar fáil go luath, ar an idirlín nó sa bposta ag na scoileanna ata cláraithe.

Tá sé fíor spéisiúil agus ríthábhachtach a bheith páirteach i gcúrsaí eolaíochta in Éirinn na linne seo. Tugann “Discover Primary Science” seans do scoileanna an páirt seo a ghlacadh. Leis an traenáil, na gníomhaíochtaí ranga agus an tacaíocht atá ar fáil, tá múinteoirí bunscoileanna in ann dul i ngleic le chuile ghné don curriculum eolaíochta an SESE agus na gasúir a mhúscailt agus a spreagadh in iontaisí na heolaíochta. Ní ar mhion eolas amháin atá an béim áfach, ach ar an sult agus spraoi a bhaintear as aistir na foghlamtha. Cleachtadh agus taithí a chur ar chúrsaí eolaíochta ata i gceist, ag súil go músclóidh sé spéis agus ionadh i bhféidireachtaí na heolaíocha.

Tá 31 gníomh an “Discover Primary Science” trí Ghaeilge agus Béarla, le fáil ar an suíomh idirlín SCIENCE SPIN

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www.primaryscience.ie mar sin, níl rannpháirtíocht sa gcláir ag brath ar theanga labhartha na scoile. Tá cluichí agus nuachtlitir ar fáil i nGaeilge freisin ar an suíomh.

Sí Molly Cool sonóg clár an “Discover Primary Science”, tá sí ann chun freagra a thabhairt ar aon cheisteanna eolaíochta a bheadh ag na gasúir di, i mBéarla nó i nGaeilge. Níl le déanamh ach iad a sheoladh chuici agus súil a choinneáil ar an suíomh chun do fhreagra a fháil. Tabhair faoi mar sin agus ná fag Molly Cool bocht díomhaoin!

Ta deis ag múinteoirí ata páirteacha sa glár, nascanna a chruthú le scoileanna eile tríd ghníomhachtaí a reáchtáil, trí mheán na Gaeilge b’fhéidir, nó clubanna eolaíochta a bhunú nó, imeachtaí spéisiúla éigin eile a eagrú le cheile.

Tá liosta iomlán de na scoileanna atá cláraithe le fáil faoi “Múinteoirí Amháin” no “Teachers Only” ar an suíomh. Déan nasc inniu agus go n-eirí libh!

Féach ar an suíomh agus seoil chugainn bhur dtuairimí le bhur dtoil agus beidh muid ag súil le sibh a fháiltiú isteach ar an glár “Discover Primary Science” go luath. www.primaryscience.ie

BIOFILMS

Life Sciences

UCD has it all wrapped up Biofilms mean different things to different people.

To some they are edible films that prevent convenience foods like pizza from getting soggy, and turkey from going tallow. To others, they are communities of individual bacteria, which group together and can acquire anti-biotic resistance. But, whatever the definition, UCD has the resident experts. Seán Duke spoke to researchers at the College of Life Science.

Edible films

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he use of plastic films in food packaging is a major environmental issue. These account for in the region of 33 per cent of the volume of landfill.

Aside from sheer volume of space being taken up in landfill, the other issue is limited biogradeability, because waste in landfill does not break down into inactive components. For this reason alone it is important that science finds an alternative to such plastic films.

However, researchers have seen that other benefits can also come from developing edible, biodegradeable biofilms that add value to a range of foods.

In terms of safety, one of the big problems with cling film is that plasticisers were found to leach into the foods. This was particularly true when the film was wrapped around fatty foods, and in these cases it was found that up to 60 per cent of the plasticiser was getting into the food. The cling film had a component called Thalic Acid,

Michael O’Sullivan with freeze drying equipment, some of the extensive facilities backing-up edible film research at UCD.

Strong, flexible, transparent, and edible, an ideal combination for safer wrapping of foods. Dolores O’Riordáin looking at samples in the lab.

which is oestrogenic. This mean that the there were some sort of applications compound has the ability to interfere arising from the research that could with the human hormonal system, and benefit industry. The university began to this, in turn was thought to be linked to look into the properties of various a reduction in fertility. biofilms, and, in time a lab scale The great advantage of edible film manufacturing operation was was that they didn’t contain Thalic Acid, established. Eventually it is hoped to get and that they could be used right up a major player in the food sector against surface of foods without the fear involved, and to scale up the of anything nasty leaching into the food. manufacturing to industrial levels.

The films were good for The raw material for other reasons too. They can the biofilms is dairy proteins control the movement of and dairy by-products. The water, and this can help with researchers have preventing pizza and demonstrated that biofilms cheesecake bases from can be made from these getting soggy, for example. materials, which are abundant They can also help to keep a in Ireland, and that the films nutrient longer in a food, are flexible, and soluble – and they can also act to important properties that prevent lipid oxidation of ensure they can be placed into butter, giving it longer life. various foods, or food Testing ability of biofilms systems. to act as barrier to The application of the Consumer moisture. biofilm, whether it should be The food consumer has sprayed or brushed onto food, is being become far more demanding in recent looked at currently, as this kind of times, and the use of edible films can approach could ensure that butter, for add value to foods, and help food example, does not develop a rancid taste manufacturers survive against stiff if it is left out on the table for too long. competition. “The days are gone where Another aspect of the biofilm work is people had a TV dinner that tasted just looking at the delivery of specific alright,” comments Dolores O’Riordáin, ingredients into non-food products. The who is working on edible biofilms at researchers are, for example, looking at UCD with Michael O’Sullivan. “ They an anti-bacterial agent that works want quality food, they want it against plaque, that could be inserted convenient, they want a long shelf life, into a toothpaste product. This is part of and they want it to taste like you just a trend where biofilm work has been took it out of the oven”. jumping over into the pharma side, The funding for edible biofilm away from the pure food side. The research started in 1996 with the food barriers defining food and drugs are institutional research measure. The being blurred. funding was dependent on ensuring that SCIENCE SPIN

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BIOFILMS Medicine

Biofilms, as regards medicine and health, are defined as communities of microorganisms, be they bacteria or yeast, that form on a surface, and acquire certain properties. A microorganism is often more resistant to attack or the action of anti-biotics when they are group together, and this means they are hard to eradicate. The problem – medically speaking – is that a biofilm provide a substrate for pathogens that become anchored to the biofilm and from that position, they attack the body.

There are a number of people at UCD working on biofilms, as defined in this way, and these include James O’Gara, Wim Meijer, and Geraldine Butler. James and Wim work with bacteria, while Geraldine works with yeast.

Wim explained that, for a bacterium, it is a very tough world out there. “It will attach to any animal, because we are a free lunch. That means it will literally try to eat us, and our defence systems are designed to fend them off. When you have a colonisation and the defence system can’t get rid of it, you have a continuous inflammation, which is like the red swelling and it causes all kinds of problems”.

Jim explained, meanwhile, that he works with Staphylococcus bacteria, a family of bacteria that includes the Super Bug, MRSA. These are skin bacteria, he said, and they form all over the skin as well as in the mouth and throat. When individual Staphylococcus bacteria attach to a surface and join together in a biofilm, they acquire totally different

Above: Colonies of Candida parapsilosis.

Top right; Dr Geraldine Butler. Right: James O’Gara, front, and Wim Meijer.

properties, he said, and they become much tougher as a group.

One of the real problems with biofilms is that they tend to form on all kinds of surfaces, and that includes the surfaces of medical devices that have been inserted into the body. Once the medical device becomes coated with a biofilm, pathogens looking for a home can become attached. If pathogens become attached, the device must be removed from the body, as it could serve as a source of infection or illness.

The level of resistance to drugs increases massively when an individual bacteria join up into a biofilm. In fact, the anti-biotic concentration might have to be increased a thousand-fold explained Jim, but that would not be possible, since the patient would die first. The only option is removal of the medical device and if this is something large, such as a hip joint, the producure is risky and expensive.

Much of the research into medical biofilms is centred on finding ways to prevent them attaching to various surfaces in the first place. To attach they produce a sticky sugar, a polysaccharide, and Jim is looking at the genes that produce this adhesive substance. “We are looking at what turns them on, and what turns them off,” said Jim. Understanding this, he said, could identify a way of turning the polysaccharide genes off.

Yeast

The fourth most common source of hospital-acquired infection is by the action of Candida yeast species, explained Geraldine Butler. The SCIENCE SPIN

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species that Geraldine works with, Candida parapsilosis, is responsible for a mortality rate of 40 per cent. This means it is a very dangerous thing for someone to have, as 40 per cent of people that are infected with it, will die. “It is a big problem with neo-natal intensive care units and, in fact, it is a very common cause of infection, and it is associated with outbreaks too,” said Geraldine. “There was one [an outbreak] in Israel, there was one in Mississippi, one in Norway. It is carried on people’s hands, babies get infected, and catheters get infected. It is a very serious problem.”

The big difference between yeast and bacteria biofilms, said Geraldine, is in how individual cells communicate. Researchers now understand that the cells communicate using what are called quorum sensing molecules. In yeast, if the concentration of quorum sensing molecules is increased, the yeast don’t make biofilms, but the opposite is the case for bacteria. So, more information is needed on what regulates the operation of a yeast and bacteria biofilm, and this is where the research is focussed on at UCD. Knowledge of regulation of biofilms is the key.

A disease causing micro-organism needs certain genes to be expressed to successfully invade a host, explained Wim. These genes are not expressed when bacteria are on their own, but in a biofilm colony they become active.

Interfering with this turning-on process could solve a big SPIN problem in producing safer

SPACE & ASTRONOMY

Venus a cautionary tale?

Spewing lava, searing heat, and crushing atmospheric pressures. This is Venus. Could Earth end up like Venus if global warming continues? In April, an ESA mission will arrive at Venus to study its dense, heatingtrapping atmosphere, writes John Moore.

Artisitic impression by Walter Myers of how Venus might look like underneath its thick atmosphere where the enormouse heat might be causing intense electrical discharges.

I

its atmosphere. Molecular nitrogen and trace molecules of sulphur dioxide and water vapour that makes up the other three per cent, and a 16 km-thick layer of concentrated sulphuric acid surrounded the whole planet. The planet was literally gripped in a global warming system on a massive scale, producing temperatures as high as 465 Celsius on its surface – high enough to melt lead and boil mercury, and pressures 90 times that of the Earth’s (about the same pressure one would experience at a depth of 800 metres below the surface of one of Earth’s oceans).

n April of this year, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express mission will arrive at the planet Venus and carry out the most comprehensive survey of its dense atmosphere for more than forty years. This is ESA’s first mission to Venus and the data returned will be of extreme interest for our own planet concerning the problems we face with global warming. Venus and Earth are very similar in many respects and formed around the same time nearly 4.6 billion years ago. However, scientists aren’t sure why the two have evolved in very different ways – leaving one a balmy habitable planet and the other

resembling Hell. Could Earth eventually end up like Venus if we don’t attend to the warming of our climate, as measured in recent years?

Venus Scientists got a basic description of the physics and chemical conditions prevailing in Venusian atmosphere when over 20 Russian and US probes visited the planet back in the 1960s.

They found the whole planet obscured by thick clouds of noxious gases, and permanently locked in a ‘runaway greenhouse effect’, caused mainly by the effects of carbon dioxide that make up 97 per cent of SCIENCE SPIN

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“Venus certainly is a strange planet and its atmosphere is a very interesting laboratory,” said Don McCoy, project manager for the 220m Venus Express mission. “We’re not sure about the physical processes that are presently obvious on Venus, and so we want to know how the atmosphere has evolved, how the planet lost most of its gases in its early years, and get answers to all the other puzzling things we have detected.”

Venus and its atmosphere is indeed a world of puzzles. For example, scientists don’t yet understand why, close to the surface of Venus, a slight breeze blows gently across its surface, while high up in its atmosphere, huge hurricane-like winds circulate around the planet once ever four days. With wind-speeds of over 300 km/having been recorded, Venus when viewed under ultraviolet shows ‘Y’-shaped patterns rotating around its equatorial regions. Usually such patterns are only seen in high-altitude narrow jet streams like we get in Earth’s upper atmosphere, however, on Venus they appear to be forming in the bulk of the atmosphere.

If that wasn’t enough to contend with, measurements of Venus’s surface showed it was rotating in a retrograde direction, that is, opposite to how Earth rotates on its axis, but 60 times more slowly than its upper atmosphere (Venus completes a full rotation once every 243 Earth days, and takes about 225 Earth days to do one orbit around the Sun). The only explanation astronomers can come up with for the moment, is that Venus may have been struck by one or more large planetesimals early on when the planets were just forming. Such events may also explain why Uranus and Pluto (and several moons in the Solar System) also rotate in a retrograde motion. Indeed, it is believed that a giant impactor struck Earth early on in its history and caused its current axis to tilt 23.5 degrees to the elliptic plane.

The Venus Express spacecraft as it is about to approach Venus. Image, courtesy ESA.

Greenhouse When we look at the greenhouse effect happening on our own planet today, we see that the main cause is due to the trapping of solar radiation from the Sun after it has passed through our atmosphere. As it reradiates back off the surface of the Earth in the form of infrared (heat) radiation, molecules of water vapour and carbon dioxide (principally greenhouse gases created by burning of fossil fuels) in our atmosphere absorb and trap a small portion of the infrared, but also leave a much greater portion to radiate back out into space. With Venus the process is

RIGHT. The Sun's rays pierce through the cloudy Venusian atmosphere and warm the planet's surface. As the heat rises from the surface it becomes trapped below the cloud layer, producing the runaway greenhouse effect. Image courtesy ESA. SCIENCE SPIN

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very much the same, but on a much grander and restrictive scale.

Venus’s clouds reflect back about 80 per cent of the Sun’s radiation.

Another 10 per cent is absorbed by the clouds themselves and the remaining 10 per cent filters down to the surface. However, because the dense clouds of carbon dioxide exist at every level throughout the atmosphere, all of the 10 per cent that gets through, re-radiates infrared radiation completely and only a tiny fraction escapes back into space. The trapped infrared gets absorbed over and over again by the different cloud layers, turning the whole place into a pressure cooker. Even though the solar wind pulls nearly a hundred tonnes of Venus’s carbon dioxide into space every day, it is continually being replenished from the surface, possibly as a result of volcanic activity. With no let-up in the supply of carbon dioxide, the whole planet’s environment remains continually heated, producing the ‘runaway greenhouse effect’.

It’s been suggested that Venus might have a carbon dioxide cycle

happening between its surface and atmosphere, similar to the way we have a water cycle between our oceans and atmosphere on Earth. If so, are there similarities between both in terms of the mechanism driving the different cycles, or is the Venusian surface-atmosphere interface completely replaced by other chemical cycles, for instance that of sulphuric acid and other sulphur compounds.

This is just one area where the Venus Express mission might tell us how Venus looked in the past and if it ever looked similar to Earth throughout its history. In fact, when both planets were forming in the early solar nebula, the Sun was about 30 per cent less luminous than it is today, so Venus’s surface may have been abundant in hot water oceans. If this is true, then what happened to these primordial oceans, and did they become vaporised at a certain point in its history as the Sun’s luminosity increased, or had some other event or

Artisitic impression by Walter Myers of how Earth might have appeared four billion years ago with volcanoes spewing noxious gases into the atmosphere.

planetary mechanism anything to do with it?

“The greenhouse effect on Venus will help us understand the potential problem we have here on Earth,” said NASAscientist, Geoffrey Landis, involved with the Mars Exploration Rovers. “The planet is like a sort of mirror that gives us a view of ourselves and how we are different from other planets. If we can understand how Venus became this way and how quick it happened, then it could help us with what we’re doing on our own world.”

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of glaciers melting, sea-temperatures rising and summers getting hotter, are obvious signs that global warming is slowly overtaking our planet. As industry and homes continue to burn enormous quantities of fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil, and large tracts of forest and woodlands are levelled every year, destruction of these longterm retainers and consumers of carbon dioxide are, ironically, increasing the levels of greenhouses gases into our already over-burdened atmosphere.

Recent recordings of surface temperature rises around the Earth suggest that if we continue to add more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the long-term effects will be disastrous as the Earth got hotter and hotter, water in our oceans, reservoirs, lakes and streams could increase the water-vapour content (another greenhouse gas) in our atmosphere, and up the temperature even further.

planet Venus has turned into a virtual inferno and help understand what we’re doing on our own world.

Touchdown

As a consequence, carbon dioxide, presently locked up in our ocean floors and surface rocks, would add into the atmospheric processes and the whole lot could possibly become self-sustaining like we’re seeing on Venus. It’s estimated that if all the carbon dioxide locked up on Earth was released back into our presentday atmosphere, it would have roughly the same percentage (97 per cent) as Venus does today, our surface’s pressure would be about 70 times its current value, and life as we know it would be extinguished as temperatures raised by over thirty times its current average of 15°C. But, is this scenario possible and are the climate changes and temperature rises we’re currently experiencing anything to get worried about? Some scientists suggest that the hot summers are just a natural phenomena, while others say that the excess amounts of carbon dioxide could be absorbed by the oceans, or even that the increased temperatures will be counteracted by the next iceage.

As the Group of Eight ministers of the leading industrialised nations gathered in Montreal recently to discuss ways of developing sustainable energy sources and

ATMOSPHERE MASS RADIUS DENSITY DISTANCE (SUN) ONE YEAR SURFACE TEMP HIGHEST POINT COMPOSITION ROTATIONAL AXIS GRAVITY (equator)

The first ever colour image of Venus's surface taken by the probe Venera 13.

Venera 13 landed on Venus in 1982, returning the first colour images from the Venusian surface. It survived on the surface for two hours, seven minutes and took 14 images before finally succumbing to Venus's high temperature and pressure.

climate change strategies, environmental groups believed the meeting was a waste of time.

“Commitments to the Kyoto treaty, which legally obligates signatories to trim their output of the six main greenhouse gases by 2012 (compared to 1990 levels), including carbon dioxide, won’t have any impact on Earth’s global warming situation until those main contributors, like the USA, get onboard,” said Ian Howat in a recent paper published in November’s Geophysical Research Letters on the Helheim glacier in Greenland.

Although it is impossible to predict with certainty what will happen to the Earth’s changing climate, one thing is for sure, the current greenhouse-gas rates spewing into our atmosphere every year aren’t going to help the possible problems we face in the near future. With Venus Express, scientists hope the mission will explain why the

VENUS 97% CO2, 3% N 2 4.87 x 1024 kg 6052 km 5250 kg/m3 108 million km 224.7 Earth days 465 °C 17 km (Maxwell Montes) Basalt and altered minerals 178° 8.9 m/s 2

EARTH 78% N2, 21% O 2, 1% Ar 5.98 x 1024 kg 6378 km 5520 kg/m3 150 million km 365.2 days 15 °C 8.8 km (Everest) Basalt, granite and altered minerals 23.5° 9.8 m/s 2

Venus Express is an exact replica of ESA’s Mars Express mission that launched in 2003. Built within three years, the spacecraft has seven instruments onboard designed to carry out different measurements, for instance, the study of the chemical composition of the clouds and the atmospheric dynamics that drive them. When it arrives at Venus in April 2006, it will go into a polar orbit around the planet once every 24 hours, and will be able to skim in as close to the surface as 250 km and as far away as 60,000 km altitude.

While the mission will mainly centre on studying the atmosphere and its dynamics, scientists are very interested in another important area concerning the possible role volcanic hot spots are playing on Venus’s surface.

Past probes that landed on the surface (for only a few hours before they were fried and crushed) found that the composition of the rocks were the result of recent volcanic activity.

It’s believed that a major eruption may have occurred as recent as thirty years ago, and that the whole planet regularily renews its surface in volcanic impulses – the last one occurring nearly 500 million years ago. As Venus doesn’t have a set of plate tectonics like we have on Earth, it’s believed that the planet builds up into a volcanic-like pressure cooker, and literally turns itself inside out.

Evidence of surface features like very few craters larger than two km in diameter and rolling flat plains of lava flows suggest that the ‘pulsing’ hypothesis may be correct, and could explain why Venus looks the way it does today.

The Venus Express mission will remain orbiting Venus for some 500 days. Though it has enough fuel to last for a thousand days, ESA may extend the mission until it runs out.

After that, the spacecraft may perform a series of aero-braking manoeuvres before it is finally is crashed onto the surface, taking data as it does so all the way down.

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In tune with our emotions Maura O Malley reports that researchers are perplexed by our love of music. It is part of out lives, yet music does not seem to have given us an evolutionary advantage

M

usic has always entranced humans.

From the crushed bodies at a pop concert to the more civilised environs of a classical music recital, a piece of music can elicit an array of feelings from joy through to melancholy. Undeniably it has a strong grip on our emotions, but, unlike language, which allows us to communicate our thoughts to others, music doesn’t bestow on us any obvious Darwinian advantage, it doesn’t, for example, make us any more fertile or improve our food-gathering abilities. So why is it so important to us?

Darwin concluded that music was a result of’ ‘sexual selection’ designed to attract a mate and ensure reproductive success. Some scientists, however, go as far as to ask why does everything have to have a role? Steven Pinker in his book How the Mind Works famously dismissed music as ‘auditory cheesecake’, arguing that it is just a fortuitous by-product in the development of other cognitive abilities. Why, he asks, is it not enough to just enjoy music rather then assign some role it?

But some researchers ardently disagree.

Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist Top: children respond naturally to music.

Top right: Experiencing the magic of music and rhythm at an open air concert in Dublin, and right: Hari Khrishna group pausing for a chanting session in Amsterdam.

Photos: Tom Kennedy, Source Archive.

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The shrill piping of the pipes set off the stirring beat of the drum during an Orange Parade in Belfast. Photo: Tom Kennedy, Source Archive.

at Liverpool University says that no phenomenon on which individuals are prepared to lavish so much time could possibly be dismissed as an evolutionarily trivial thing. He believes it has a role in social bonding - encouraging people to work together as a group, which would have

increased the survival rates of early hominoids. Ian Cross from the Faculty of Music at Cambridge University, says it’s a medium of communication that enhances our individual cognitive and social flexibility as well as being advantageous at the level of the social group.

MUSIC and LANGUAGE So what is the connection between language and music? Are they two separate entities controlled by separate regions of the brain or is there some overlap? For years researchers, using various different techniques, have attempted to answer these questions and their endeavours have yielded, at times, conflicting results. Supporters of a separate processing module for music, point to two conditions, aphasia and amusia, to back up their claims. Sufferers of amusia do not recognise ‘sour notes’ in tunes or recognise familiar melodies, but they have no problem speaking or processing speech. It can be acquired through the result of brain damage, or otherwise normal people can be born with the same inability to recognise tunes. People with aphasia can process music, but not words. The most famous case

of aphasia being the Russian composer Vissarion Shebalin who, after suffering a stroke, could no longer talk or understand speech, yet he retained the ability to write music until his death 10 years later.

One authority, Robert Zatorre, says that most researchers concur that there is some overlap, for example, the input channel is obviously the same, the ear, but what happens after that is where things get interesting.

He argues that the dissociation seen in aphasia and amusia would not have arisen were language and music dependent on identical systems.

Aniruddh Patel, from the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, however, argues that modern imaging studies of neural activity show that overlapping regions of the brain ‘light up’ when listening to language and music. Furthermore, he says that while there is good evidence for SCIENCE SPIN

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How does it achieve this feeling of goodwill? Music, Robin Dunbar says, makes people more grouporientated through its capacity to produce endorphins. He proposes that the surge of endorphins triggered by engaging in communal activities makes people feel positively disposed towards those with whom we are engaged in this activity. This promotes co-operation within the group boosting chances of survival. Interestingly, in a study published in 1980 by the neuroscientist, Avram Goldstein, people who received injections of an endorphin-receptor blocker, reported receiving much less pleasure from normally moving pieces of music.

Robin Dunbar in the book, Music, Language and Human Evolution (currently in press), suggests another related role. Old World primates use grooming as a mechanism for cementing social bonds and that, over time, early humans replaced grooming with language as the principle method of bonding. The evolution of language in humans may have occurred in a minimum of amusia without aphasia, the evidence for aphasia without amusia is ‘problematic’ as it relies on case studies of professional musicians whose brains might not be representative of ordinary individuals Neuroimaging studies, conducted

by Patel, indicate that some functions, such as syntax, may require common neural resources for both speech and music. Just as in speech, where words are put in such an order to make a meaningful sentence, so it is in music, where are notes are ordered to form a well structured melody. They might engage the brain in the same way.

Zatorre adds that yes, syntax in music and language might recruit similar areas, but studies have shown that processing musical syntax, such as tone, is stronger in the right hemisphere of the brain and processing language syntax occurs more frequently in the left hemisphere.

two phases, the first of which may have been akin to chorusing (he calls it ‘wordless singing’ or grooming at a distance) in an attempt to supplement the more conventional process of social grooming, which gradually morphed into language.

He adds that this chorusing may have bridged a gap during the gradual switch from grooming to language as the principle form of bonding

Musical babies Studies have revealed that the music perception skills of prelinguistic infants are surprisingly similar to those of listeners who have had years of informal exposure to music, and babies are able to distinguish between different chords and scales.

Sandra Trehub a psychologist from the University of Toronto, has carried out much work on the way babies respond to and process music. She says that babies are ‘mini musicians’ in terms of their basic perceptual skills and their intense interest in music. Obviously, they lack knowledge of the specific details of any musical culture and don’t perform. But, she says they have enormous potential and seem especially ‘talented’. She says that maybe it is something about our

culture that discourages rather than fosters that talent.

Babies‘ innate ability to recognise and process music, some say, seems to provide evidence that music is not some sort of late’ add on’ in the development of other cognitive abilities, but is hard wired to the brain, suggesting some sort of adaptive function. Trehub agrees, noting that very early musical abilities, along with the universality of music, and its universal use in infant care (and important cultural ceremonies) are “consistent with an adaptive role for music” that is based on social-emotional rather than cognitive functions. Robert Zatorre, a neuroscientist at Montreal Neurological Institute, however, warns that ‘innateness’ is not the same as having an evolutionary role.

He suggests that this appreciation of music might have arisen through some sort of unspecific ability and, it evolved later on to become something specific.

Josh McDermott, a music psychologist from MIT, says the baby studies are “intriguing” but that the potential effect of prenatal exposure in the human infant studies needs to be considered, as well as the exposure in the few months after birth before the babies

Musicians in Jim Doherty’s jazz band working together to create a well structured melody. Photo: Tom Kennedy, Source Archive.

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Moved by the music

The break up album…the song that soothes you after a trying day music is often used as a salve to cope with the vagaries and vicissitudes of life. Researchers are now beginning to unearth the biological processes that underlie these strong emotional reactions.

Robert Zatorre and Anne Blood have investigated the ‘chill down the spine’ or euphoric effect certain passages of music elicits in some people. They scanned the brains of people while they were listening to these passages and gauged physiological markers, like heart rate and breathing rate. Sure enough, when people listened to the moving passages, they recorded an elevated heart rate and respiration rate. Furthermore, the areas of the brain that lit up in the volunteers were regions thought to be involved in mechanisms of reward and motivation. These same areas are also recruited when responding to sex and food.

Interestingly, he notes that the activity of the amgydala (involved in fear and negative emotions) decreased as the reward area lit up.

Many exciting and colourful theories abound as to why music is so important to humans, but scientists concur that Pinker’s theory has yet to be seriously challenged. The advantage of this theory, says Robert Zatorre, is that it does not require us to assume anything. The other proposed theories require a lot of assumptions to be made. Josh McDermott points out that a scientist needs to think rather than speculate about evolutionary theory. “We need to be doing experiments to determine what aspects of music are innately specified, and of those which are uniquely human and unique to music. Once we have more empirical constraints we will be in a much better position to debate theories of music's evolution. I suspect some aspects of music are side effects of mechanisms that evolved for other functions, but there may be some features that evolved just for music, but we won't know until we do the right experiments. ”

are tested. He focuses on gathering and analysing comparative data on the way non-human primates, such as monkeys, process music. He adds that currently he is conducting some studies to test whether exposure to music has any effect on monkeys.

“My results suggest it does not, but I have not tested infant monkeys yet.

If exposure has no effect on infant monkeys it would suggest that either the exposure is not responsible for the effects observed in infants, or that the infants have uniquely human and possibly music-specific learning mechanisms.” It is much easier to completely deprive animals of music and help settle this point.

Babies have a preference for harmonious over dissonant stimuli.

In Josh McDermott’s lab at MIT, however, they found that monkeys didn’t have a preference.

Commenting on these findings, Josh McDermott says that the “result

is consistent with the notion that the preference for consonance is unique to humans, which leaves open the possibility that it might be part of an adaptation for music.“ Interestingly, in another experiment, McDermott gave monkeys the choice of entering a cage with or without music. They tested this repeatedly using different genres of music from Mozart to lullabies and the monkeys consistently chose the silent cages.

Music seems to plays a crucial role in mothers bonding with and soothing babies. Sandra Trehub points out that mothers speak in melodious tones to their infants when they cannot understand what they say. They also sing using a special genre of music with common features across cultures, such as simple pitch contours, repetition and narrow pitch. In a study published

by Sandra Trehub and T. Nakata, mothers had four periods of

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interaction with their infants: talking normally (with touch); talking but not touching; singing normally; and singing without touch. When mothers were unable to touch their infants while talking, they made their vocal messages more emotionally expressive and musiclike by raising their pitch and emphasising their pitch contours.

Infants’ attentiveness increased when mothers made their voices more musical. Trehub says that music not only improves babies’ wellbeing, it also makes babies more pleasant and easier to look after.

This would benefit the species by increasing maternal commitment to nurturing babies, thereby promoting infant survival and increasing the likelihood that mothers would have additional offspring.

SPIN

Battling

BIAS in science publishing

The publishers of ‘big impact’ journals wield huge power, and this, many believe, leads to bias in science publishing. The advent of open access publishing, however, can remove the barriers that exist to the publication of top quality research, argues Veronica Miller.

W

hen scientists talk about big impact journals, they all know what they are talking about.

Scientists can go online and retrieve a database of the ‘impact factors’ for various journals – a bit like the top 40 album charts – and submit their research for consideration to the journals with the highest impact factors. Getting published in a journal that is near the ‘top of the charts’ has a huge influence of getting money.

For instance, in the UK, the funding bodies made up a score for laboratories around the country based on the number of articles they had published in the top journals.

This was called the Research Assessment Exercise, and the next one takes place in 2008. Laboratories received a rating from one to five, much like hotel ratings. The five-star laboratories received a lot more funding than the one-star laboratories and this in turn led to a lot of bitterness among those that lost out.

Given this background, and the absolutely crucial part that a number of key journals play in the

life of scientists and the institutions or laboratories they work for, it is surprising that not more has been said or done about the enormous power of a few science publishers.

Perhaps scientists have, up to now, been afraid to rock the boat, not wishing to be blackballed as troublemakers by leading publishers. Certainly, the scientists have a lot to lose, as publishing in top journals is the route to career success.

Stranglehold However, imagine for a moment that only a few newspaper publishers in the world, perhaps three our four, had a stranglehold on the dissemination of our daily news.

People would feel decidedly uneasy, and would immediately sense the dangers, but in the world of science publishing, this holds true, yet few complain, or see a problem.

It is an unsaid rule for scientists wishing to get published in the top science journals, that they should mention the names of a few well-

“An editor may thus face a frighteningly stark conflict of interest - publish a trial that will bring in $100,000 (£54,000) of profit, or meet the end of year budget by firing an editor” SCIENCE SPIN

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known authors or well known institutions on the list of citations, and perhaps also liberally sprinkle the paper with words that reflect popular topics, such as stem cells, infectious disease or cancer.

It is also well-known that scientists in developing parts of the world, such as Africa, working in badly funded labs, have terrific problems getting their work published. So, is the system a fair system, and does it reward the best research? Certainly not.

Scientists scramble to get into the leading journals, or at least the leading journals in their field, as if their lives depended on it. Well, their professional lives certainly do depend on it, as publishing in the right journals is essential to move up the career ladder. The older, more established journals, the ‘big impact’ ones, can reach a larger audience, and thus, make an impression on those that decide on grants and funding.

There is a notion out there that journals do not operate in the way that the general ‘media’ do, since they are dedicated simply to the dissemination of scientific findings.

However, there is plenty of evidence, for those who care to look that there are other things involved, apart from the quality of the science, when journals decide to publish.

Profit For example, let’s take the field of medical publishing. According to none other than the former editor of the prestigious British Medical Journal, or BMJ, Dr Richard Smith, medical journals are simply an extension of the marketing wings of drug firms.

Dr Smith, who was the editor of the BMJ for 13 years, said that most money for medical journals comes from advertising revenue from drug companies. He said that many articles simply relay positive information from drug trials. This acts as positive reinforcement of the message that drug companies want to give out, and it would be worth millions to drug companies.

Furthermore, Dr Smith argued,

unlike ads, clinical findings are seen as the highest form of evidence.

He wrote in an article in the PLoS that editors are put under further pressure by the demands of producing a profit [The PLoS, or the Public Library of Science, describes itself as a non-profit organisation of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a public resource].

In a PLoS Biology article Dr Smith commented: "An editor may thus face a frighteningly stark conflict of interest - publish a trial that will bring in $100,000 (£54,000) of profit, or meet the end of year budget by firing an editor”.

But, should we only pick on medical journals, where the profit issue is so pronounced. It could be argued that if medical journals are tied by drug company’s marketing purse strings, then so are other journals similarly compromised by other paymasters.

Attention

There is also the issue of how the leading journals are influenced by the need to publish a big story, one that will attract attention. They often publish a major story, something that appears to be a breakthrough, and then months later, publish something that directly counters the first paper.

This, essentially, means they are operating like the general media, seeking out the ‘big story’ not the best science.

The scientific community are relying on the major journals to have a stringent system of checks and balances in place, via the peer-review system, but the temptation to publish the big story, that will attract the attention of the wider media, is very great.

Fight back

There are signs finally that scientists have grown weary of the power of the science publishers, and that they wish to find a way to publish their findings to their peers, and to the wider world, that is not subject to bias for profit, or other reasons.

The benefits of publishing on the ‘net has been noted by many respected scientists. Dr Harold

available, but its publication is Varmus, then director of the imminent. The idea of PLoS Clinical National Institutes of Health, or Trials is to publish all the results of NIH, in the USA, provided a lead clinical trials, whether positive or role for others when he presented a negative, and to be a counterweight proposal to the NIH to develop an to the bias that many believe exists in electronic publishing site. This site many medical science journals. would provide barrier-free access to According to Dr Hemai peer-reviewed and pre-peer Parthasarathy, founder member of reviewed life sciences literature. The PLoS and managing editor, PLoS has plan evolved into something called no fear – unlike some mainstream PubMed Central, or PMC, and it was science publishers - of publishing launched in February 2000. new, controversial or negative science The established science publishers stories. And, to ensure their articles saw the threat and feared lost are of the highest quality they use a revenues. They successfully brokered hybrid editorial model, in a deal whereby they would which both a professional deposit articles onto the “We also believe editor and a scientist barrier free site, six to 12 that openevaluate papers. months after publication in When contacted by their own journal. But, even access Science Spin, Dr then few publishers agreed publishing Parthasarathy said: “We to put the full text up onto should diminish also believe that openPMC. That despite the fact that users of PMC would be the importance access publishing should re-directed to their website of where you diminish the importance of where you publish; after homepage. That extra web publish” all, if everyone can access traffic was not enough to any open-access paper, it allay the fears that major matters less whether a paper is publishers had of losing revenue, published in specific widely and some were so unhappy that they circulated/subscribed-to journals, so lobbied the NIH – unsuccessfully - to long as the search technology exists cut the funding of PMC. to make the articles visible”.

Against this background, the You can imagine that postPublic Library of Science (PLoS) publication filtering (for example, founded in October 2000. Members along the lines of Amazon's ranking circulated an open letter signed by of "How useful did you find this 34,000 scientists calling for more article") could go some ways toward primary research articles to be made replacing pre-publication editorial freely available. Publishers chose to filtering,” said Dr Parthasarathy. ignore this letter, for the most part, There is no cost for accessing and PLoS decided to create their own content on line although a $175 free journals. dollar fee is necessary for print subscription. Their first journal PLoS Open access Biology was launched in 2003 and In 2001, a $9 million grant from the now has an impact factor of 13.5, Gordon and Betty Moore which is vying with Nature, Science Foundation helped launch the freely and Lancet titles for top twenty available journal PLoS Biology. impact factor positions.

Gordon Moore, for those readers Some say that the scientific that might not know is a co-founder revolution has come and gone, but of Intel, and the Moore Foundation with the advent of the internet, it’s was set up in 2000 in San Francisco safe to say it’s probably just gone and “seeks to develop outcomeunderground. based projects that will improve the SPIN quality of life for future Veronica Miller is a science generations”. writer, and a Neuroscience PhD student After PLoS Biology came three based at the University of Newcastle further freely available journals, the Upon Tyne newest of which is PLoS Clinical Trials. This latter journal is not yet SCIENCE SPIN

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EDUCATION Using the electronic whiteboard at St Eithn’s NS, Edenmore, North Dublin, under the direction of teacher, Adrienne Nolan.

Farewell to the blackboard?

Chalk and blackboards could soon become extinct in Irish classrooms, and replaced by electronic ‘whiteboards’ that utilise multimedia and the ‘net, writes Seán Duke.

T

eachers, for many years now, have grappled with how best to hold the attention of students bred on internet, TV, video and computer games. Teachers admit they have struggled to hold the interest of pupils using old ‘chalk and talk’ methods.

Now it seems, the cavalry has finally arrived for stressed out teachers in the shape of electronic ‘whiteboards’ that bring the new media into the Irish classroom in an interesting and varied way, and, also, put the teacher back up front and in control.

David Kearney, ICT Advisor, at the Drumcondra Education Centre, is the person behind the innovative eightschool electronic whiteboard pilot project. He first became aware of the potential of electronic whiteboards after visiting an education tradeshow in London. “They are now starting to use them in the UK, and there is a programme that aims to have one

whiteboard for every school,” he said.

In February of 2004, David Kearney decided to make a presentation to a conference of the Computer Education Society, or CES, outlining the huge potential he felt that electronic whiteboards had as a tool for teachers in Irish classrooms.

The CES is a voluntary association made up of teachers that are interested in IT. “There was a group of people there from the Irish Computer Society,” David Kearney recalled. “We had worked together previously, and between us we put a proposal together. They agreed to fund the capital side, the installation of the whiteboards, the data projectors, the wiring systems, and schools would also be provided with a DVD unit”.

The Irish Computer Society, or ICS, is the representative body for IT professionals in Ireland. It is a body that is very keen to see the adoption SCIENCE SPIN

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of more IT technology in Irish schools, business and industry. After the Society’s representatives heard David Kearney’s presentation they agreed to put 60,000 into a pilot project.

“We saw the whiteboards as an important, exceptional project that fitted in with our philosophy,” said Mary Cleary, Professional Development Manager with the ICS. “Before I had this job, I was in the teaching game myself. It is very difficult to keep the attention of students that have been fed on a diet of TV and video, using blackboard and chalk. You nearly have to be a clown - stand on your head”.

The ICS liked the fact that whiteboards got teachers and students using IT technology in an interactive way, motivating the pupils to learn and teachers to teach. “It is attractive, with bright software and work can be saved,” said Mary Cleary.

With the funding nailed down, David Kearney sent emails out to a wide variety of schools, mainly on the northside of Dublin city, but not exclusively, asking them if they wished to take part in the whiteboard

DEPT EDUCATION IS KEEN At the moment we are conducting an ICT census in schools to identify the status of ICT across our schools and to identify what the priorities should be, said Fergal Nolan, ICT Policy Unit, Department of Education.

“Each of these whiteboards costs, I believe between 3,000 and 5,000 each, and there are perhaps 80,000 separate classes in primary and secondary level. I am not sure whether they should be used at primary level, or secondary level, or where the best return is for the need?”

In terms of the pedagogy, or teaching method, Fergal Nolan said, teachers wishing to adopt the whiteboards wouldn’t have to alter their teaching practices.

The adoption of these whiteboards could be the initial first step in the transformation of the pedagogy to fully embrace the ICT age, he added. pilot project. Replies came in, contracts were drawn up, and it was made clear to schools, that if they signed up they were expected to use the technology actively, and report back on its effectiveness.

Out of this, three secondary, three primary, one special education and one school in the ‘Gaeilge’ sector were signed up. The secondary schools involved are St Michael’s Holy Faith, Finglas; Greendale Community School; and St Mary’s, Holy Faith Convent Glasnevin. The primary schools are ST Eithne’s NS Edenmore, Dublin 5; St Kevin’s NS Greystones;

and St. Brigid’s NS Castleknock. The only special education school involved is St Mary’s School for Deaf Girls, Cabra; and in the Irish-speaking sector, Scoil Neasáin, Harmonstown is taking part.

Liz McLafferty at St Mary’s School for Deaf Girls said that she was very excited about the new technology.

“All our girls are deaf, and we use sign language in our teaching. I notice that the girls can find it hard to follow me when I am reading and when I am signing. This will hold their attention much easier. It is a visual learning method and it is not dependent on

BETTER THAN A COMPUTER Teaching via the use of an electronic whiteboard – under the control of the teacher - is more effective than having students sitting passively looking at a computer screen.

That’s the view of Adrienne Webb, geography teacher, and head of the IT department at St. Michael’s Holy Faith secondary school for girls in Finglas.

Adrienne has been head of IT at St Michael’s since the 1980s, has seen many technologies come and go. But, the whiteboards are something special and, she said, that she is ‘wildly excited’ by their educational potential.

“If you asked me is it the same as a computer I would say no. The students are more engaged with me when I am using the whiteboards than they are with a computer, when they can be off on their own in a corner”, said Adrienne.

“With this technology, the teacher remains the focal point and there are many different ways to use the technology”.

“It can be a bit difficult at second level, try to teach within the confines of a 40-minute period, as it can take time for the class to settle, and it is hard to build up interaction then in the class. But, with this system this all happens immediately with material coming up straight away on a data projector”.

“I am wildly excited about this and I need to learn more about it myself so that I can become more flexible in using it. One of the great things about it is that teachers get the licensed software that comes with the whiteboards for free. That means that they can play with the software at home, and perfect their skills”.

“It would be great if every classroom could have one, but to kit out a single room is expensive”.

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sound. The other teacher that will be using it here, Margaret Owens, taught in London. Every classroom there has one. That should be the way that we are going, but will we ever get the money to do it?”

Adrienne Webb is a Geography teacher, and IT co-ordinator – since the mid 1980s - at St Michael’s Holy Faith in Finglas. This secondary school is officially designated a disadvantaged school by the Department of Education and Science.

“I am wildly excited about this. I was using it to teach Geography, and we were able to look at California in real-time from a satellite. It is very active and the flexibility is great. The students can write on the board with a marker, and the writing can be recognised by the screen”.

The system avoids ‘down time’ in class, as material comes up instantly on the data projector, and there is little learning time lost, said Adrienne.

The teachers get the software associated with the system for free and can play with that at home and perfect their skills, she said, and it has great potential in all subject areas.

In PE, background materials could be put up on athlete’s training regimes, in music sheet music could be put up, and notes added, in art too, the teacher could visit a virtual gallery online and describe some of the works on view. The list is endless.

Schools will report back to the Drumcondra Education Centre, when the pilot comes to an end, and from there its effectiveness will be assessed.

However, there is little doubt that teachers using the system have quickly realised its massive potential, and those using the whiteboards are reluctant to return to chalk and talk.

The whiteboards are expensive, and can cost somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 each, said Fergal Nolan, ICT Policy Unit, at the Department of Education and Science.

When it is considered that there are in the region of 80,000 individual classes in the country, in 4,000 schools, primary and secondary, that could mean a bill of 40 million to have a whiteboard put into every class in the country.

However, Fergal Nolan, was not ruling this possibility completely out.

“At the moment we are conducting an ICT census in schools, to identify the status of ICT across our schools and to identify what the priorities should be,” he said recently.

He said that it was not clear at which level, primary, secondary or third level, the whiteboards would be best used, or where the best return for public investment would be. He did, however, indicate that whiteboards were a positive step forward towards a future where the full potential of ICT would be realised in the classroom.

Using the whiteboard at St Brigit’s NS, Castleknock, Dublin.

SPIN

For more information on electronic whiteboards in Ireland visit

www.cbiproject.net

DEAF CAN BENEFIT The use of electronic whiteboards, which is a visual method of learning, can be of great benefit in the education of deaf children.

That’s according to Liz McCafferty, a teacher at St Mary’s School for Deaf Girls in Cabra. Liz said, when contacted by Science Spin, said that the plan is to have two teachers trained in the use of the whiteboards, herself, and one other.

“All of our girls are deaf and we use visual sign language in our normal teaching. I think this (electronic whiteboards) will hold their attention much easier”.

“The other teacher here that will be using it, Margaret Owens, taught in London where every classroom has one. This should be the way we are going, but will we ever get the money to do it?”

INFANTS LOVE THE WHITEBOARDS

DISADVANTAGED LOVE IT TOO

Singing songs, drawing pictures, learning their letters, adding and subtracting. The junior infants of St Brigids National School Castleknock are delighted with the electronic whiteboard being used by their teacher Nicola Fay. When this reporter entered the classroom the children were happily singing ‘Holly the Hedgehog’ led by the audio coming from the whiteboards and the teacher.

The words came up on the whiteboard and the children followed along. In this one activity the infants were singing, reading, learning about animals and counting.

Nicola asked the children to approach the board, use a special pen, pick animals out, count animals, drag animals together, push them apart; the flexibility of the exercise was endless, and all under the tight creative control of the teacher.

Nicola, a young teacher, loves using the whiteboard. The infants love it too she said, but the problem is that only one class in the school has a whiteboard.

In another lesson, ‘I’m a little teapot’ the children were asked to pick out letters, sing a song, read the words, and pour the tea, using the special pen. The lesson took two to three hours to prepare, but the preparation is well worth it, said Nicola.

The Dept of Education designates St Eithne’s National School in Edenmore as a disadvantaged school, and here too, the electronic whiteboards go down a treat.

On a visit to the classroom of teacher Adrienne Nolan, the enthusiasm of the students was apparent, and there were no signs of boredom with the lessons. The 4th class children competed to get up to the board, to use the special pen and answer questions. Meanwhile, the teacher sat at the back of the class controlled operations with a control tablet.

“The children can draw on the whiteboards, there are sounds built in that can be used, and images can be imported from the internet for lessons,” said Adrienne.

Adrienne uses the technology in all manner of ways, from setting tests, to teaching joined up writing, to importing images that can help a lesson, to teaching students how to learn the time. The list is endless, and again, the students love it.

Another point that Adrienne made is that the classroom works more efficiently as the students get straight into the work from the time the class starts, with less stops and starts for various reasons during class time. “It works far quicker,” said Adrienne.

Nicola Fay giving an interactive lesson at St Brigid’s NS.

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ES2k WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT

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ES2k Science Spin ... in

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f you haven’t come across us, ES2k stands for ‘Earth Science 2000’. No prizes for guessing the year we formed. It started because of concern of declining Earth Science teaching in Ireland. Also there were only a few faint voices advocating conservation of our ‘rock’ heritage.

Bringing these worries to a head was the end of the geology degree course at Queen’s University Belfast and threats to the status of the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage site.

In five years, after 12 issues of the ES2k Magazine and much other background work, we believe we are ‘making a difference’. ES2k now covers the whole of Ireland and is giving an increasingly loud voice to geology. So, by kind invitation, we are now joining Science Spin to help widen both our appeal and we hope that of Science Spin.

Oops! We have already used that word that puts some people off, an …ology. Both the strength and the weakness of geology is that it is a cross-discipline subject, drawing in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. There are some who

would say that the best approach is to take any of these “core” subjects at school and then turn to geology at a higher education level. We would say recognise Earth Science within the curriculum from the primary school level upwards because it is a subject that immediately relates to everyday life. It can inspire youngsters to want to learn. Also, for its size, Ireland has one of the best natural ‘rock’ laboratories in the world.

We try not to use the …ology word too much, hence ‘Earth Science’. We also try not to use too much specialist jargon so our articles will be understandable even if you are no scientist. We probably don’t always succeed in this, but we try.

Our aim is to raise the profile of Earth Science in Ireland. To tell you of the excellent work our universities are doing, to provide useful information for schoolteachers, to support conservation efforts, to describe the workings of industry. From earthquakes to volcanoes, from primitive life on earth to the last Ice Age, from gold, copper and diamonds to the

ES2k Editor, Tony Bazley.

ES2k Chairman, Philip Doughty. building of roads and houses. Please read Science Spin to see if we succeed.

Most of our authors, but not all, will be from Ireland. Most of our subjects, but not all, will be about Ireland. At least there will almost always be an Irish connection.

Topics will be as varied as we can make them and as spread about Ireland as possible. But, if in every issue you are expecting something relevant to your county you will be disappointed. Please judge us over a number of issues. Let us have your comments.

We have a relaxed style and will talk about people as well as things that interest us – and we hope you, our readers. We will try to open debate on some items that are controversial. We will let you know what is going on. I hope ES2k members or anyone reading about us anew will take out an annual subscription and join us on this new journey. Jump aboard, enjoy the trip .

Tony Bazley, ES2k Editor

CLASHING CONFERENCES The 2nd International Conference on Geoparks 17th to 21st September 2006 in Belfast. www.geoparks2006.com for details.

UNESCO-endorsed, the major event will attract visitors from as far afield as China. Practitioners in the fields of tourism, education, and culture as well as geographers, geologists and officials from local and national government will attend it. Pre- and

post-conference field trips will be organised across Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe.

It clashes,but if you teach Geoscience and can get the funding to go maybe this should be your first priority: GeoSciEd V 2006. 18th to 21st September 2006 at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

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www.geoscied5.de for details.

Topics are the public understanding of earth science, best practice in geoscience instruction (Kindergarden to University), educational geoscientific research, teacher-training in geosciences etc.

Associated field trips include volcanoes and a meteorite impact crater.

ES2k Photo of pingos at Reindalen, courtesy of Hanne H. Christiansen, University Centre, Svalbard.

BINGO

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ssue 12 of the ES2k magazine, published earlier this year, showed a modern pingo on the front cover. It asked the question “Is any work being done on Irish pingos”? Bingo, we had an immediate response from Pete Coxon of Trinity College, Dublin, who is no less than the Secretary General of the International Union of Quaternary Research.

If you didn’t read the article on pingos they are structures that can easily be mistaken for ring forts or burial mounds, but in fact are not man-made. Today they form around the edge of ice sheets where it is

truly cold – in what are called periglacial conditions. One is pictured, above, from Svalbard within the Arctic Circle. A lens of ice forms within the permanently frozen ground and pushes up the soil into a mound. When the ice core melts the mound collapses leaving a crater-like basin with a rampart of sediments around the edge.

Extensive research has been going on into such structures found in Wales and some are being conserved. In Norfolk, in the south east of Engand, there is even a ‘pingo trail’ set up by the County

Council for walkers. Their presence shows that those parts of Wales and England once suffered weather conditions like those of the Arctic Circle today. Further, the sediments found within the central depression of a pingo sometimes give a history of vegetation change from the end of the last glaciation to more recent times. The silts and muds that formed in the wet hollows have preserved plant pollen. The plants can show a spectrum of change from cold to warmer climate. By piecing together results from several places a picture of climate change can gradually be developed. Who knows how relevant such knowledge may eventually be to studies on modern climate change?

Pete Coxon tells us that he worked on Irish pingos in the 1980s, but doesn’t mention any more recent work. They occur along what was the edge of the ice sheet during the last Ice Age. This reached its maximum about 18,000 years ago and the pingos probably formed as the ice started to retreat, maybe 14 –

Air photo of Irish pingo near Mitchelstown, courtesy of P. Coxon] Photo of pingo at Camaross, courtesy of P. Coxon

PINGO BALLAD to the tune of Bring back my bonny.

Chorus: Pingo, Pingo, O sing o’ the pingo for me.

But what on Earth’s name is a pingo I hear the cry echo out A periglacial frost mound I’m sure that leaves you in no doubt

And now the poor pingo is fossil Just a hollow and rampart remain And the students complain “What a washout These pingos are really a pain!”

Of all the world’s fossil pingos The best one’s in Tipperary They’re trying to bulldoze that pingo O please save that pingo for me

When the temperature lay below zero The pingo it grew day by day But when it got warmer the poor pingo Just started to melt and decay

But show some respect for that pingo For it has a proud history Oh don’t let them bulldoze my pingo O please save that pingo for me

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ES2k Photo of developing pingo in northern Canada, courtesy of P. Coxon.

16,000 BC. They lie inland of Wicklow, Wexford, Cork and around to Tralee in County Kerry. One at Camaross, Co Wexfod is pictured on the previous page.

At that time he was concerned about conservation of at least some examples, as shown by the song composed, he thinks, in the back of a bus after a student fieldtrip in 1979.

So what happened to the pingo that was due to be bulldozed? We are not sure, but an aerial

photograph of a pingo cut by a road near Mitchelstown, shows what can be the end result. Maybe not all is lost! So the idea of conservation was active in the late 70s, but even now actual designation of sites for conservation is incomplete. Some less well-known treasures risk being lost. Does it matter? Yes, because the understanding of such features advances, especially as people travel to distant lands and recognise modern equivalent landscapes. Also,

Photo of core through sediments in an Irish pingo, courtesy P. Coxon

of course, techniques and instrumentation for studying the materials is improving all the time.

Who can guess what discoveries lie around the corner when a new technique is applied? Maybe to those muds in the middle of a pingo!

Tony Bazley

Causeway to be a World winner

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t is a delight to report that after international competitions our geological World Heritage Site of The Giant’s Causeway looks set to have a world quality visitor centre.

The winner of the planned building design was Roisin Heneghan of Heneghan Peng Architects, founded in 1999 in New York and relocated to Dublin in 2001.

The contract for the interpretive and exhibition areas within the building has been awarded to Peter Higgins and James Dibble from Land Design Studio in Kew, London.

The two new teams are pictured.

Their pedigrees include, though not together, items at the Grand Museum of Egypt and the Gateway to Petra in Jordan.

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The concept, right, Peter Higgins and James Dibble, centre, and, above, architect Roisin Heneghan.

The new visitor facilities will be owned by Giant’s Causeway Visitor Facilities Limited, a subsidiary company of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

It promises to be a World winner for Ireland and for Earth Science.

ES2k TALKING JOBS

geologist at work

I love working with children and seeing their eyes light up whenever you help them to find fossils in the rocks around the Geopark.

one of the teachers that there were no jobs in geology unless I wanted to work on an oil rig with hairy men!

But my interest never went away and after A Levels I went on to do a geology degree at Queen’s. I then knew I wanted to make geology my career, obtained a research place at the University of Durham and gained my PhD. Kirstin Lemon, Geologist at the Marble Arch Caves European Geopark in Co Fermanagh - and also Secretary of ES2k – talks to David Kirk about her job of bringing geology to the people What does your job entail?

Marble Arch Caves was Britain’s first European Geopark and the story its rocks tell of how Ireland was shaped is fascinating. I am actually on the staff of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland and my work at the Geopark involves putting that story into words and pictures for the thousands of people who visit it every year.

How and when did you get interested in geology?

I grew up in Ballygowan, Co Down and from an early age I loved being outdoors, playing in the muck, collecting insects, making treehouses and generally getting messy! One of my earliest geology memories was walking along the causeway to Island Hill near Comber and lifting pebbles and wondering where they had come from. Once, in Tollymore Forest Park I came across a big granite boulder and thought that I had found gold. I was heartbroken to find it was just iron pyrite - Fool’s Gold.

When I was in sixth year at school I had the chance to study GCSE geology in addition to my A Levels. I loved it, but was told by

What was your first job?

My first job was with the Inland Revenue in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I needed the money to finish my PhD. It was awful, but made me work hard at the PhD. Then, in 2004, I landed a ‘proper job’ with the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland.

Why did you apply for the Marble Arch Caves Post?

It was directly related to my research because the rocks of Northumbria are very similar to those in southwest Fermanagh. I was so lucky.

What aspect of geology interests you most?

I love looking at sedimentary rocks formed by processes that operated on the Earth’s surface in the distant past. It gives me a chance to use my imagination. Their features give you an idea of the environment in which they formed, in this case under a shallow tropical sea – on the equator.

Solution tube, Marble Arch. Photograph Anne Smith.

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What are you trying to achieve in your present job?

It’s amazing how many people visit the Marble Arch Caves and don’t really think about how they came to be. I would like to think that my present job is trying to change all that and will enable people to understand some of these processes and realise that the landscape of Northern Ireland holds many secrets that are just waiting to be discovered.

What more would you like to be doing?

The Caves are closed to the public from the end of September to Easter and although we are still kept busy it would be good to perhaps carry out more outreach work during this time. For example, going out to schools or leisure centres with travelling exhibits or workshops related to the Caves, which would encourage them to visit when we are open.

What gives you most satisfaction?

I love working with children and seeing their eyes light up whenever you help them to find fossils in the rocks around the Geopark. This is even more rewarding because few schools in Northern Ireland teach any form of Earth Sciences so you are opening up a whole new world of interest for them. If I can spark some kind of interest in geology at a young age then what I do is worthwhile.

You also play another important role in the geological community?

I was recently elected Honorary Secretary of ES2k – Earth Science 2000. ES2k brings together, and acts as a voice for all those interested in the Earth Sciences, both professional and amateur, and now has more than 500 members throughout Ireland. We are an outreach organisation working to promote interest in geology, especially among

ES2k young people, and to make our voice heard when necessary, such as in the debate over the future of the Giant’s Causeway.

Are people responsive to learning about geology?

Once their interest is fired most people are very keen to learn more.

The word ‘geology’ does tend to put some people off though so I try to use the word ‘landscape’ instead.

After all, if you’re learning about geology you’re learning about what formed the landscape around you.

How do you get them interested?

Fossils! Who doesn’t like hunting for fossils? Children certainly do, but adults may be harder to inspire. You need to make it relevant to everyday life. For example, I gave a series of talks in August based loosely on the geology of the Geopark and I ‘sexed these up’ by bringing in volcanoes and climate change.

Guardian Angel, roof formation. Photograph: Anne Smith

What are the career opportunities in geology?

Well apart from the never-ending exploration worldwide for fuel sources, minerals and precious gems, environmental geology is a growing area and of course the services of the Geological Surveys to Governments and industry are

NATURAL ‘LOCAL’ STONE

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n some quarters concern is being expressed about the import of so much ‘foreign’ stone. Should we really be importing stone from as far away as China? This is a topic we will return to but when it comes to repairing the rotting stonework of old buildings you do need the same stone or a very close match. Stone for one building can come from two or three quarries. More often than not the record of the quarries is lost. There can be surprises

because those quarries may not all have been local. For instance, you might expect the big Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle County Down, with the Mourne Mountains rearing into the sky above it, would feature Mourne granite. Not so, the granite at the entrance is from Finland.

One of our (ES2k) regular contributors Patrick Gaffikin in 1999 wrote a book ‘Set in Stone’, an excellent guide to the building stones of Belfast, but such efforts have been rare.

The Launch team including, middle four from the left, Bernard Smith (QUB), Joanne Curran, Dawson Stelfox (Consarc Design), Lord Rooker. Photo: Ivan Ewart

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increasingly in demand. There is also the whole area of academia.

One aspect of geology that is really surging ahead is that of Geotourism, or landscape tourism – it is now the fastest growing tourism sector worldwide. Marble Arch Caves European Geopark is just one, very good, example.

Now all is to be put right. At least, a Natural Stone Database is being set up for Northern Ireland.

This involves checking out all listed buildings in the province. The Environment & Heritage Service is funding the work to the tune of just over £250,000. The School of Geography at Queens University, Belfast and Concarc Design Group is carrying out the work. The characteristics of the building stones will be defined so when they have to be replaced architects and engineers know where to go.

In the past, millions of £’s have been wasted by poor conservation.

The new database, freely available on-line in early 2008, will be a major step forward for building conservation.

The project was launched at Parliament Building, Stormont, Belfast on January 24th by Lord Rooker. The launch event was organised by ES2k’s Treasurer Joanne Curran, who gave an excellent keynote speech. We look forward to following this project through to completion.

ES2k Book Review

LEINSTER – MOSTLY es, this book cheats. It trespasses into Munster, along the south Y coast of Waterford, and into the hills

of Slieve Gullion, just over the border in Northern Ireland. This is a plus if you buy it. The authors admit it and the reader benefits.

It opens with a ‘prelude’ taking us through a brief, but informed history of Ireland. Not the history of the rocks, but the history of Man in Ireland… from the wonderful antiquities of Newgrange to the ‘swinging’ cities of Dublin and Cork. It is promised that our rich cultural heritage will not be ignored and that proves to be no idle promise. Throughout the book there is plenty of detail on archaeology, history and wildlife.

It is the inclusion of this ‘other’ detail that will make the book accessible for someone without a formal knowledge of the rocks. It claims to be written for the nonexpert, but there is no doubt in parts some rocky background will help, in spite of a glossary of specialist terms.

We do not, in Ireland, have many books that sum up the overall geology of a Province and give details of where to see it at its best.

‘Leinster’ does just that. In the ‘Classic Geology of Europe’ series it describes excursions from north to south, beginning with south Armagh – one of those cheaty bits. If you are visiting the Boyne River Valley to see the great burial mounds of about 3,000 BC you now must have this book. It tells you about the stone from which the passage graves were built. It questions the source of the huge number of pure white quartz pebbles and the huge slabs of sandstone, calling them geological conundrums that are still to be solved.

Then off to the coast to see folded rocks, rocks with fossils and finally an ancient volcano, described as alluring maybe partly because access is restricted, with one of Sir Edward Lutyens most beautiful country houses nearby.

Two well-known experts wrote the book, so its geological pedigree is flawless. They are Dublin academics and with this background can’t resist the urge to give a lecture on geology. Accordingly, the reader is taken from terranes, plate tectonics and plutonism through to Caledonian deformation and the Ice Age. Admittedly this takes only 30 of the main 176 pages of the book but unfortunately it is chapter 2. The non-expert might get no further!

How much better, in my opinion, to have launched straight into the excursions. The lecture to come at the end, maybe neatly in bed with So the book continues, mixing the glossary. So, some advice, if you architecture and natural history with are a non-expert skip the second the stones along the way. You will chapter and come back to it after need to get your walking shoes on going on one or two of the because it is for those who like the excursions. great outdoors. Don’t despair, The only other however, if you live in criticism is that the Dublin City and only illustrations are not in have the use of public colour and, although this transport. Some of the will have kept the price most precious gems in down, it makes the first this book are the impression a bit oldexcursions using the fashioned. Having said DART rail system. If that, it must be admitted you alight at Howth, that even in black and Blackrock, Dún white many of the Laoghaire, Killiney, pictures are spectacular.

Dalkey or Bray there are Minor comments detailed descriptions of aside this is a very fine where to go and what to guidebook that now has see. What was at one to be in the rucksack, time thought to be the briefcase or bag of many oldest fossil on Earth 500 million year old people, local and was found hereabouts Oldhamia, photograph visitors. It is a handy A5 (called Oldhamia, it Geological Museum, TCD. size, so it fits into a big eventually proved to be pocket. Most earth only a little over 500 scientists in Ireland will surely get a million years old). copy. If you don’t know much about Then into the Wicklow Mountains stones, but enjoy fresh air and a bit and to Glendalough, which is of exercise give the book a try. featured on the front cover. The Following even one of the mining history, involving lead, silver excursions could make you and zinc is well covered by appreciate the countryside in a way descriptions of how the ores were you never dreamt possible. worked and where to see the ‘Leinster’ is thoroughly remaining evidence. recommended and very good value.

Finally off to the ‘Sunny Southeast’ of South Wexford and W Bryn Davies Waterford. The latter now designated as a European Geopark ‘Leinster’, by Chris Stillman & under the title of ‘The Copper George Sevastopulo, was published Coast’. Here there are fossils and old in October 2005 by Terra Publishing volcanic rocks. Some of the latter in its ‘Classic Geology in Europe’ trying to imitate the Giants series (6). Price £13.95/ about 25.

Causeway at the other end of Ireland.

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ES2k COOL GEOLOGY SITES

NINE DAYS OF FUN copper-bottomed guarantee 29th May - 4th June on the Copper Coast, Co. Waterford

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he Copper Coast Geopark, Co Waterford will celebrate European Geoparks Week 2006 with nine days of activities during which you are invited to attend talks, explore sites, follow guided tours, visit exhibitions and take part in workshops. There is a special schools programme and hands on activities for children.

The guided tours include visits to the megalithic dolmens, passage graves, standing stones of the Copper Coast area and walks through the villages including the beautiful medieval Stradbally. For those interested in learning about the work of a geologist, Sophie Préteseille, the Copper Coast’s geologist, invites you to explore sites in Kilfarrasy and Stradbally cove.

Children’s events for schools and out of school activities include casting fossils, playing with time (geological of course) and making fake amber stones with insects trapped inside (children to provide own fly or other insect). Apart from looking at geology, other sessions will involve collecting and naming seaweeds and shells and learning how to write in ogham script. There will be three evening talks covering topics from volcanoes to the mysteries of minerals and gemstones.

Tramore Coast Guard Station is hosting an exhibition of copies of George Victor Du Noyer’s fascinating drawings and maps of

Co. Wexford and Co. Waterford from the 19th Century, selected from Geological Survey of Ireland Archives. Du Noyer served as a geologist with the GSI from 1847 to 1869. He was a skilled field artist, whose numerous sketches and pictures, with their combination of artistic skill and technical accuracy, were the “field photographs” of their day. In association with this, Tramore Development Trust will be showing Gerald Spenser’s 20th century natural history, maritime and coastal study of the Tramore area. The exhibition will run from 27th May to 11th June.

European Geoparks Week is just the start of the Summer Programme of events on offer from the Copper Coast Geopark. These will include guided walks each Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoons through the month of July and August. Thursdays will be “children’s day” with short talks followed by a hands-on activity about different aspects of geology, the Copper Coast and the sea.

Weekend workshops in copper working, mosaic and paper making are also planned. For further information, see www.coppercoastgeopark.com or email us at info@coppercoatgeopark.com.

Top: Entrance to Coumshinngaun Lake, Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford.

George Victor Du Noyer SCIENCE SPIN

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If you go into the Trinity College site – www.tcd.ie/geology follow the link to ‘cool geology sites’ and then go to Rob’s granite page. ‘Rob’ is Robert M. Reed of the University of Texas at Austin.

He has some excellent images to attract children, or non-experts, into geology.

Perhaps most notable, however, is his opening comment. “In an attempt to reach out to the nongeologist, I’ll damage my credibility in the scientific community and offer the analogy that granites are like ice-cream”.

Dare I suggest that if scientists don’t attempt to reach out to the non-geologist their credibility is seriously flawed. The trend is certainly to use an increasingly complicated language to describe relatively simple science. How refreshing when a respected scientist says, not before time, that “I felt it was time to attempt to write a reasonably non-technical explanation for the general public”. The latter quotation is from Brian Upton whose 2004 book, Volcanoes and the Making of Scotland, does just that and is worth a read.

A new web site that has just come to our notice is on ‘The Water Cycle’. Check it out. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/w atercycle.html Also try www.virtualquarry.com a new schools site. It offers an interactive fun experience for children and with notes for teachers that have been approved by… teachers. Set up by the Quarry Products Association it has informative short films, interesting cartoon characters and more. Including some film on the offshore abstraction of sand & gravel that will appeal to anyone – why should the children have all the fun?

ES2k PAST MINING TIMES

recently published book, Memoir by John McGahern A opens with a bit of Earth Science -

“The soil in Leitrim is poor, in places no more than an inch deep. Underneath is daub, a blue grey modelling clay, or channel, a compacted gravel”.

Then further into the book it says “On the road out from Drumshambo I met miners on bicycles coming home from their work in the pits, wearing hats with miner’s lamps, their faces and hands black, their clothes black.

What was strange and frightening were the eyes shining out of the black faces under the hats”.

New 2-i-C at GSI

t is with great enthusiasm that the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) Ireports that Dr. Pat O’Connor has

recently been promoted to the role of Assistant Director, effectively second-in-command.

Pat is a graduate in geology from UCD. Moving then to the University of Leeds he spent time there studying the geochemistry of granites, particularly from the Slieve Gullion and Carlingford areas in the north of Ireland. In the mid 1970s he joined GSI and started a long-term study of the age and origin of Irish granites.

This work formed the basis for his doctorate that was awarded

by Utrecht University in the Netherlands, approximately 20 years ago. Meanwhile, his role in GSI had been developing steadily and had taken on an international dimension in the late 1970s and

This is a reminder that there was once in the Leitrim/Roscommon area a coal and iron mining industry.

The evocatively named Iron Mountain hints at the latter. Coal is only found in two small areas of Ireland, here and north of Kilkenny – the Leinster coalfield. These were not large coalfields as found in Britain and how different Irish history might have been if we had been rich in these deposits.

Even so, the coal was important and was mined in the Arigna region from the 1600s, finally closing as recently as 1990. early 1980s when he assumed responsibility for the assessment of uranium resources in Ireland. In this role he undertook several important surveys and represented Ireland on various European working groups and committees.

The work lead to him taking a long term interest in radon and, in

John McGahern almost inadvertently reminds us of the industry because he saw it as a boy.

A couple of generations on and it is likely to be forgotten. Luckily at Arigna there is Ireland’s first coal mining museum. It opened in 2003 and is called the Arigna Mining Experience. It conserves an important piece of our mining heritage whilst offering an educational facility that is literally ‘eye-opening’. Were the coal seams really only 45 cm (18 inches) thick; how much coal was mined, and was it good quality? Visit and find out details at info@arignaminingexperience.ie You will enjoy the experience.

Tony Bazley

particular, indoor radon as a hazard.

He worked on radon projects with the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland.

Pat has been responsible for the development of geochemical capability and databases in GSI over many years, directing geochemical surveys in many regions including Leinster, Donegal and Longford town. He was recently co-author of the important Geo-chemical Atlas of Europe. In recent times Pat has been responsible for business development in GSI and promoted its relevance to many issues including tourism related to the rocks and landscape. His appointment will be of great significance to GSI in its future.

Pat, we wish you well!

Pat O'Connor (in the dark glasses) leading a party near Carlingford

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Overcoming a barrier in stem cell research

Siobhán O'Sullivan from the Irish Council for Bioethic was at the Café Scientifique in Limerick to explain how researchers have overcome a major problem in stem cell research. Anna Nolan reports.

T

he tooth fairy could have rival buyers some time soon, because milk teeth are a good source of stem cells. Umbilical cord blood, skin, breasts and brains are also good sources, and the stem cells in bone marrow have been long used as a transfusion treatment for leukaemia.

These cells are all called 'adult stem cells', even though the milk teeth come from young children.

"There is sometimes confusion about the term, but 'adult' just means that the cells have come from someone who is born, and 'embryonic' from an embryo," explained Siobhán O'Sullivan, the Scientific Director of the Irish Council for Bioethics, at a Café Scientifique event held in Limerick city centre in February. It was the second in a series of Cafés run by the Limerick Institute of Technology for the Mid-West region.

Dr O'Sullivan gave an introduction to the science of stem cells, and the ethical issues raised by the research and its possible applications, to members of the general public, scientists, medical people and other interested parties. Clearly it was a topic of great interest, because Java's Café was full to the door, and the debate that followed was lively and wide-ranging.

She began by explaining that stem cells naturally occur in the human body at all stages of development, from embryo to adult. They are the means by which the body generates all

the different cells needed for development and proper functioning.

"Stem cells are unspecialised – they haven't chosen their profession yet," she said.

"There are over 220 different types of cells, and stem cells can be coaxed or persuaded to become any of them."

Therein lies the great stem cell promise, with treatments for heart, liver and brain diseases just some of the results being sought. "Depending on what they are fed in the laboratory, stem cells can become heart, skin or nerve cells, and the recipe is down well," she said. "I doubt if a new liver will be grown before ten years, but it could be sooner because things have moved far more quickly in the last five years than predicted."

Already it is possible to grow bone cells on a mesh (“like macramé”), and a new jawbone has been grown on a patient's back. And there are promising results in mice and apes for multiple sclerosis treatment, but it takes a long time to move from laboratory animals to tests on human patients.

There are general practical difficulties as well. Dr O'Sullivan pointed out the dangers of tumour growth from stem cell injection, and the necessity for absolute cleanliness in the laboratory so that patients are not given any contaminants.

Moving onto ethics, Dr O'Sullivan explained that there were no concerns about the use of adult stem cells. It is SCIENCE SPIN

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the sourcing of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) that causes controversy. They are obtained from embryos left over from in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or from embryos specially created by therapeutic cloning, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer.

"Two principal objections are raised: destruction of embryos amounts to taking human life; and using embryos renders them objects of utility rather than of inherent value," she said.

Those who hold that destruction of embryos is taking human life say that life begins at conception. Arguments in defence are that research is limited to very early embryos; that an IVF embryo is not equivalent to one in the uterus; that many early embryos are lost naturally in any case; and that the early Church drew on the views of Aristotle, who said that 'ensoulment' occured at forty days for male embryos and ninety for female.

The second main concern, about the commodification of embryos, is that the embryo is used as a 'thing' without giving consent, and that buying and selling of eggs and sperm has contributed to this attitude. The defences put forward include the suggestion that respect for embryos can be shown by restricting their use to where there is a strong research need, and that the sale or marketing of eggs, sperm and embryos could be banned.

At present, research in ESCs does not take place in Ireland. Dr O'Sullivan explained that research on both adult stem cells and ESCs is continuing worldwide, as it is felt (though not confirmed) that each method may be valuable for the treatment of different diseases. Until recent years the emphasis worldwide was on ESCs, which are easier to deal with than adult stem cells, but now adult stem cells research is catching up.

Topics debated by the audience included "what is an individual?"; "Is a human more important than an animal?"; and "Are the human rights of an embryo different at different ages?".

Sligo IT playing its part in the

“Race Against Waste” S

omebody once said that “weeds” are flowers with bad public relations. Dr. John Bartlett, Head of Research at Institute of Technology, Sligo will understand the meaning of that sentiment as a significant part of his work in the HEAPRTLI funded Centre for Sustainability is about selling the benefits of sewage sludge - a less than friendly PR subject.

“Apart of the problem is what we call - the faecal aversion barrier.

Basically from potty training on, we are taught that it’s (human waste) a bad idea.” This perception is being tackled at the Centre for Sustainability in IT Sligo where over 3m funding from the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) is being invested in a Biosolids Research Programme. Biosolids are the

Dr. John Bartlett, Director of Research at Sligo IT with the Centre for Sustainability nearing construction in the background.

nutrient rich solid material that is produced during the treatment of domestic wastewater sludge at a treatment facility.

In the past, this form of waste was largely discharged untreated into estuaries and freshwaters.

However EU and national legislation no longer permits this form of disposal and with the growing scarcity of landfill options, SCIENCE SPIN

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recovering the useful elements of this waste has become an essential part of waste management strategies.

“In the space of a few years, the amount of sludge – the organic material produced from human sources - has quadrupled while the disposal options have basically disappeared,” says Dr. Bartlett.

In partnership with the other actors in this field, IT Sligo is determined to play its part in bringing about a paradigm shift from the “traditional end of pipe attitude to waste management (bin it and forget it) to a more proactive approach to waste prevention, minimisation and recycling.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there were over 42,000 tonnes of dry solids or sewage sludge generated in 2003 with 63 per cent of this re-used in

From land to land, a natural cycle, and part of good waste management The cycle is broken when unused nutrients from humans are diverted to landfill agriculture and 35 per cent disposed to landfill.

The recycling and recovery of waste represents technical, logistical and engineering problems as well as communication challenges. But Dr. Bartlett is convinced that these worries can be overcome and that the approach being championed at Sligo IT offers the best prospect of a satisfactory solution.

“Untreated sewage is a bad idea as it contains pathogens - bacteria, viruses and parasites - which can be harmful to human, animal and plant health. But, these can be removed.

What we are saying is that by disposing of sludge in landfill sites we are breaking the cycle. The organic material comes from the land through plants and animals on to humans and following treatment it can go back to the land as fertiliser. That is the ultimate life cycle. Part of our job is to educate the general public – a crucial stakeholder in this area - that they are responsible for this waste and they can be part of the solution.”

According to Dr. Bartlett sustainability is about managing today’s activities in a manner that does not compromise the ability of future generations to live to a similar or better standard.

He adds “It is an integrated concept, incorporating issues of

resource management, waste management, conservation, planning, economics, politics, environmental protection and human population dynamics.

Within waste management, the treatment and reuse/disposal of municipal wastewater sludges represents a microcosm of the overall sustainability issue.

Comprehensive study of solutions to the sludge problem will allow a better understanding of the wider challenges of sustainability. Our job is to produce the research that can guide decision-makers in this field and answer the concerns of the public and planners.”

In association with its institutional partners NUI Galway, UCD, UL, Limerick IT, TCD, the University of Melbourne and Kerry County Council under this programme, the Centre for Sustainability is embracing a range of new technologies and collaborative research strategies in this area. “One of the techniques we are making use of is called ATAD – autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion. Basically we take the sludge and add air to it to encourage a particular group of bacteria to take off. They’re called thermophiles, which means they live at very high temperatures. But, importantly they are auto thermophiles – so once you

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get them going – you never have to add any more energy. They keep themselves going forever.

We’ve four 100m 3 tanks in the waste water treatment plant in Killarney that have been generating 65oC for the past five years without any energy input. At the moment we are not harnessing that energy, but this will happen in the future.”

The Centre’s new physical facility at Sligo is about to come on-stream with a purpose-built building providing 500m2 space that will provide research stations for some 50 staff, graduate and post-doctoral students. “PRTLI has had a major impact on the Institute. Recently we were given the go-ahead to award our own PhDs – that would not have happened without this investment. Our students coming in here should have an aspiration to reach PhD level. We’re now in a position to offer them that opportunity. Four years ago we were generating about 100,000 per annum in research funding. In the past two years that figure was over 1m. PRTLI has made that difference and it is essential that the huge potential that exists in the Institutes of Technology sector is harnessed to an even greater extent in the future.”

SPIN

DYSLEXIA DYSLEXIA Berni Dwan reports that sharper edge definition in texts could make a big difference in reading speed

D

yslexia is not just about having difficulties with reading, writing and spelling. Dyslexics can encounter problems with memory and concentration, balance, maths, music, foreign languages and selforganisation. It’s not simply a matter of having difficulty deciphering written words. The tiredness experienced by many dyslexics can be accompanied by nausea, migraines, eye-aches and extreme clumsiness, and the only way to minimise this is to take frequent breaks.

Indeed, Researchers at Cardiff University recently discovered a gene - KIAA0319 - that is likely to be one of the causes of developmental dyslexia in children. In response to this discovery Elaine Smith of the Dyslexia Research Group at Trinity College Dublin, reminded us that “reading is a very recent skill in terms of our evolutionary development and therefore is a learned behaviour, not an adaptive one. There are many different cognitive skills which allow us to read fluently and these are likely to be represented by many different genes. Therefore, a reading disorder could be the result of anomalies on numerous different genes. One gene is unlikely to account for all readingdisordered individuals or the range of difficulties experienced by them.”

A change in colour can influence reading speeds

Fine tuning the colours on a computer screen has been found to improve reading speeds.

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The Dyslexia Research Group is conducting a longitudinal study to look for early indicators of dyslexia and to assess a number of remedial interventions. Since dyslexia is thought to be a genetic problem, children were selected from families with some history of dyslexia. The results will be available within the next few months. “We are an objective and unbiased team”, said Elaine Smith, “examining the validity of other recent "miracle cures" for dyslexia.”

As debates and differences continue inside and outside the world of academia, there is no shortage of ideas to try and address the problem. A few years ago over 9,000 undergraduates in the United Kingdom had their reading on white compared with their ability to read on coloured backgrounds. When the colour was changed, their ability to read in most cases improved significantly.

The study was conducted by Eye Science – Tinta Vision, a small British research company. The background to the study lies some years earlier when randomised placebo controlled trials were carried out for the effect of colour on reading - mainly led by Arnold Wilkins, head of the Visual Perception Unit at the University of Essex and the first person to systematically sample the response of a person to precisely measured 'colour'. “We took the developed protocols into Universities”, said Peter Irons, Eye Science Research Director, “and it was found that the average dyslexic undergraduate reads on white paper or off a white computer screen at a speed of 134 words per minute compared with non-dyslexic students and adults who read at an average speed of 208 words per minute.”

A dyslexic person will have two distinct problems which can occur in isolation, or together. A difficulty in efficiently detecting and decoding the edges of closely spaced black text on a white background, and the inability to sustain the stamina to

'decode' for a significant time. In order for the eyes to successfully and efficiently move (saccade) from one word to the next, the speed with which the brain can identify (detect) these vertical edges needs to be maximized. In individuals displaying poor reading speed and or stamina, this ability to detect edges is compromised.

Peter Irons has named this condition Asfedia - Assymetric Saccade and Fixation during Edge Detection in Iterative Arrays - a condition where the light sensors in your eyes have not been properly tuned in to detect ‘sharp edges’ as quickly, or for as long as they might, and in particular small sharp edges in sequences or ‘arrays’ of black on white - such as writing or text.

His solution to the problem is Asfedic Tuning, where proprietary computer software pinpoints the exact point in RGB colour-space (i.e. from a computer screen) which maximizes your rate of reading (and edge detection), resulting in the

In evolutionary terms reading is a recently acquired skill selection of a precise colour from a total of 16,777,216. Then a mimicking Asfedic Filter is selected based on the computer values, for use with printed text.

“The student undertaking the tuning is not aware of the speeds at which they read. They are also not aware of the values of the red, green or blue pixel brightness. There is a mathematical relationship between their measured performance (dependent variable) and the ‘colour parameter’ which is being changed the independent variable. Since the process is very 'experiential' you actually cannot give the student a colour other than that which is optimal and tell them to use it. They experience a different sense of eye movement when using their optimum. Even a few points off will slow them down and they feel it in their eye muscles. It would be

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similar to measuring them for a suit and giving one that is too big or too small”, said Peter Irons.

“We would normally expect a gain in reading speed at the first tuning of around 50 per cent, and after tuning, a cumulative gain of at least 80 per cent depending on their starting point. The process has been tested by The Nationwide Building Society, and their conclusion was that it should be provided as a service to the staff under their occupational health scheme. We are very interested in the two per cent that do not benefit because they test the model. I need to look carefully at these and try and work out what is happening for them.”

For more information visit:

www.tintavision.com SPIN

RUNNER UP IN SCIENCE WRITERS COMPETITION

Michelle Rourke of the Mercy College, Woodford, Loughrea, Co. Galway.

Stem cells ... is it hype or hope?

“This wonder we find in hope, that she is both a flatterer and a true friend.

How many would die did not hope sustain them; how many have died by hoping too much!”

Owen Feltham

R

onald Regan is known to all as president of America from 1981 1989. Unknown to many, he suffered from Alzheimer’s; a brain disease that breaks down the nerve tissue rendering you unable to remember details of the past. He died not knowing he was once the president of America, a husband and a father of four children. President Regan suffered at the hands of this disease for over ten long years. Following his death in June 2004 his wife Nancy and members of his family decided to start a campaign to encourage President Bush to reduce the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research (Robinson, 2005). The reason was to try to prevent other people suffering like Ronald Regan did. This campaign sparked the government to pass a bill to allow excess embryos in IVF treatment to be used for stem cell research.

My interest in this area was inspired by an article in July 2005 edition of The National Geographic where the benefits of stem cell research were discussed in detail. I heard of this essay competition and hence attended a lecture in Galway on the ethics surrounding stem cell research. Stem cells have huge potential for all of us and could launch a regenerative medicine revolution; ‘curing deadly diseases with custom made tissues and organs’ (Weiss, 2005). From the information I have gained, I believe that stem cells are the hope that we must place our faith in.

Stem cell research has the potential to be the very building blocks of future biology. But how did I come to this conclusion?

For those who do not know what stem cells are, let me explain. In the beginning, when you were created there was one cell. This one cell began to divide to make two cells and so on until your body was a fertile source of many cells. These cells began to differentiate into tissues and then further differentiate or organize into organs necessary to enable your body to function properly.

L-R, Prof Timothy O’Brien (Director of REMEDI), Laura Bree (winner) of the Dominican College, Galway, Minister Mary Hanafin TD, Ann Marie Crowe (runner up) of St. Nathy’s College, Co. Roscommon, Michelle Rourke (runner up) of the Mercy College, Co. Galway and Dr Bill Harris (Director General of SFI).

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Scientists discovered that at an early embryonic stage certain cells can be transformed into any of the two hundred types of cells in the body.

These cells were termed stem cells. For example, stem cells can be persuaded to grow into liver cells, brain cells, nerve cells, skin cells, bone cells and so on. Not only this, but scientists now know that stem cells can, in fact, be grown into whole organs vital for those that are losing organ function.

This can be achieved without the risk of rejection, which so often complicates transplants, as the body’s own stem cells can be used (Weiss, 2005). Is this not the miracle cure for people suffering with liver failure or spinal injury, or are those who are suffering pining there hopes on false gods? When critically ill, one will grasp on any straws of hope. This is why it is so important to present both the advantages and disadvantages of this potential treatment.

A problem exists. In the laboratories it is currently known where and how to find these stem cells and how to grow them. The potential is huge.

What is unknown is how stem cells differentiate themselves into different types of cells. How does a bone cell become bone cell? What influences heart tissue to become heart tissue? Is it hormones? Is it genetics? Is it temperature dependent? Is it all of these or none of these? In time I am sure we will discover. But for now we cannot apply stem cells research to the surgeons table. Stem cells intended to grow into heart tissue may in fact become bone tissue. This bone tissue would perforate the heart wall creating a catastrophe much more immediate than the fatal disease

warranting the operation. The uncertainty of how cells differentiate is proving to be a real stumbling block.

Degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Hutchinson’s and Diabetes are frustrating for their sufferers. Research has shown that stem cells could provide a cure. Is this not hope for anyone suffering painfully from these diseases? Or is it hype, unfounded hope, targeting the vulnerable? Suffers of non-treatable diseases are always hoping for a new development. They long for their Lorenzo’s Oil, and those in medicine long to give it to them. Stem cells have all the hallmarks of this development.

To get cells to the “stem cell stage” we need embryos, and embryos are human life. Opponents to stem cell research say that, as it requires the destruction of the embryo, the research is the destruction of human life (Weiss, 2005). Therefore there is ethical reasoning behind stem cell research that prohibits the discovery being practised. Science has confirmed that embryos, five days old would be a simple fleck of dust on the eye of a needle while opponents maintain “that the only difference between an embryo, a foetus and a baby, is time and they all deserve the same protection” (Weiss, 2005).

If these cells could be obtained from the adult human body, it is believed the ethical questions behind embryonic stem cell usage would disappear. It seemed solved when scientists discovered that these stem cells do indeed exist in the adult human body. Unfortunately these are in small numbers and found only in certain locations. Large numbers are required for therapy. Also, it is known that these cells cannot be as easily influenced to grow into a wide array of other cells.

Today in the modern world, IVF treatment is quite popular. When parents undergo this treatment an excess number of embryos may be produced. Parents will usually freeze this surplus for the possibility of replacing the chosen embryo, a situation which may occur for a large number of medical reasons, or for further children. However, if these frozen embryos remain unused these stem cells will perish or be disgarded.

This is a frequent occurrence with parents deciding not to have more children, or in the event of a break-up

Last year, the Regenerative Medicine Institute at NUI Galway, and a Galway based outreach programme, GRO, with sponsorship from Medtronic, ran a national competition for schools posing the question, ‘Stem cells, hype or hope?’ Entries wer e received from schools all around the country and the winning student, seventeen-year old Laura Bree, decided to give it a try after hearing about the competition from her science teacher, Brian King. “I didn’t realise how intereresting they were until I decided to enter,” she said on winning.

Runner up prizes were awarded to Michelle Rourke from the Mercy Convent, Woodford, Co Galway, and Anne Marie Crowe from St in the relationship. According to The National Geographic, one parent could not bear to let her embryos be ignored.

She donated them to stem cell research. She says “if it had a heartbeat that would make a big difference. But embryos are bunches of cells…that could further science” (Weiss, 2005). It is known that there are half a million frozen excess embryos in the US alone. Almost as many are discarded every year (Weiss, 2005). How can one allow this if they can help to further science, and ultimately the human race?

IVF itself is regarded as a new scientific discovery and is welcomed.

IVF is science and if this movement had been restricted, over two million babies would not be experiencing life today. Penicillin was once the cure for many infections, but some bacteria have evolved to become immune e.g.

MRSA. Science must evolve and push forward with its new discoveries. Time will wait for no man and neither should science. Government and clergy need to stay out of the laboratories. But they too have a role in preventing scientists from playing God (cloning) which is an issue for another day.

But the question remains. Do the disadvantages of regenerative medicine outweigh the advantages?

The latter are great. They have the potential to cure deadly diseases but is it at the expense of a new life? We have to ask the question who deserves SCIENCE SPIN

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Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon. Commendations were awarded to Carol O’Brien from Brigine Secondary School, Mountrath, Co Laois; Kate Smith from Muckross Park College, Donnybrook, Dublin; Aoife Elizabeth Bruen from St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon; and Mark Molloy from Sligo Grammar.

The judges, Frank Barry, Scientific Director of REMIDI, Leo Enright, chair of the Discover Science & Engineering committee, Mary Mulvihill, presentor of RTE’s Quantum Leap, and Tom Kennedy, editor of Science Spin, were impressed both by the quality of writing and the overall understanding of the difficult issues involved. to live? Is it the person who knows what life is? Or is it the ‘one that does not yet resemble a human, but is still a stage in the human development process’ (Parker, 2005)?

At a lecture entitled “Embryonic Stem Cell Research-An Ethical Debate” I heard the following anecdote and I believe it will help the reader to understand the intricateness of the decision which will have to be made in the future. An IVF clinic is burning down. You happen to be the last one left. As you leave, you see a child. Behind that child are metallic doors of a freezer known to be holding trays of embryos. You can only save one? Which one will it be? (Parker, 2005). The answer may decide all our fates, eventually.

References

Robinson, B.A., 2005 Stem Cell research-All sides to the dispute http://www.religioustolerance.org/res_ste m.htm. Accessed 21/10/05 Parker, M. 2005. Professor of Bioethics, University of Oxford. Speaker at ‘Embryonic Stem Cell Ethical Debate’, Ardilaun House Hotel, Salthill, Galway 18/10/05 Weiss, R, 2005. The Power to divide National Geographic, July 2005

Glossary

IVF — in-vitro fertilisation MRSA— Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Rare celestial event With another solar eclipse at the end of March Pankaj Agarwal from India reminds us how such events were viewed in the past.

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or thousands of years, total solar eclipses have awed humankind, and many myths were based on the belief that the mighty Sun and Moon gods could be temporarily overcome by unknown powers. A total solar eclipse still inspires a feeling of awe, hitting the headlines with stories linked to wars, epidemics and natural disasters.

The old myths took a variety of forms. In China it was believed that the eclipse was caused by a dragon eating the Sun. Beating drums to make noise, and shooting arrows into the sky were thought to drive the dragon away so that daylight could return.

The earliest record of a solar eclipse comes from an ancient Chinese story, dated to about 2173 BC during the reign of emperor Shih Huang Ti. The two royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, had failed to predict the eclipse.

The emperor, furious that he had not been warned in time to scare the dragon away, had the two astronomers beheaded.

Another variation of this belief is that a dog, or similar animal, bit into the Sun or Moon, and apart from ringing bells to drive the beast away, people fasted during the eclipse.

In Japan, the Shintos placed a necklace of precious stone, onto the branches of the sacred Clauria tree.

This was done in the belief that the luminosity of the stone would compensate for the sunlight. Bonfires were also lit in the hope that these would make the higher powers notice the decrease in light, and, in response, shorten the duration of the eclipse. At one period it was thought that poison dropped from the sky during an eclipse, and to prevent contamination of drinking water, wells were covered.

In ancient Egypt, the pharoahs, who claimed descent from the Sun, travelled around the Sun temple during an eclipse. It is thought this was done to show that the Sun, like his human representative, would always continue on its regular course without obstruction.

Such events were taken seriously, and in 585 BC it was recorded that a war between the Lydians and the Medes ended because both nations were so astonished by day turning into night, that they stopped fighting.

The Babylonians, who kept meticulous astronomical records, predicted solar and lunar eclipse cycles with great accuracy. Records were kept, detailing the time and the wind direction, and these were consulted in attempts to predict the outcome of wars or warn of impending disasters.

The ancient Greeks believed that an eclipse occured when the Sun and Moon gods became angry, and later, the Romans, like the Chinese, made loud noises with drums and cymbals to scare away the devils responsible for the eclipse.

The fear for many people was real, and it is thought that the Emperor Louis, son of Charlemagne, died from fright after experiencing five minutes of darkness during an eclipse in May AD 840.

INDIA In India, according to Hindu mythology two devils Rahu and Ketu had a grudge against the Sun and the Moon, so they blocked them out, causing an eclipse.

During an eclipse, the people immersed themselves in the Holy River up to their necks, hoping that this kind of worship would help the Sun and the Moon defend themselves against the devils. Similar stories about an eclipse are popular among the Budhists also.

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In America the Red Indians shot fiery arrows at the eclipsed Sun or Moon in a bid to restore the light, and on the Tahiti islands, as in Sri Lanka, people gathered in prayer because an eclipse was thought to herald disaster due to evil spirits.

Knowing that an eclipse was about to occur could make people appear so powerful that they might even be in league with the gods. When Christopher Columbus and his crew were stranded on Jamaica they survived at first by trading for food with the natives. However, as the story goes, the natives soon became tired of handing over good food, and Columbus, faced with starvation, hit on the idea of using his knowledge that a lunar eclipse was due to occur soon, on Friday 29th 1504.

On the night of February 29th, Columbus told the natives that God was angry with them for not providing him with food. He told them that God was going to make the Moon disappear. At that moment, the natives witnessing the beginning of a lunar eclipse, begged Columbus to ask God to forgive them and bring back the Moon. Columbus played for time, and just as the lunar eclipse was ending, he announced that God had forgiven them and the Moon would be returned.

In Nilgiris, people believe that there is a rabbit on the Moon. During the lunar eclipse a serpent swallows the Moon rabbit. To deter the serpent people create loud sounds and keep fasting during the eclipse. In some other regions of India people believe that the Sun and the Moon took some money from the devil ‘Dhanko’ and when they fail to make repayments, they are imprisoned, and thus become invisible. During the eclipse people place utensils, weapons and rice in their courtyards so that the Sun and the Moon may accept these and repay their loans.

A solar eclipse occurs when the lunar orbit around the Earth coincides with the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun in the sky. When the Moon comes directly between us and the Sun a shadow is cast upon the Earth.

The shadow of the Moon has two parts. One part is the umbra, a region without sunlight, and total eclipses are seen from within this shadow. The second part is penumbra, a region with partial sunlight. Partial eclipses are seen from within this region.

The points, where the lunar orbit coincide with the ecliptic plane are known as ascending node and descending node, the Rahu or Ketu of Hindu mythology. An eclipse occurs when the Moon is at or near one of the nodes.

If the lunar orbit and the ecliptic were on the same plane there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon i.e. at intervals of about 29.5 days.

However, as we know, this does not occur because the lunar orbit is inclined about 5 o to the ecliptic plane.

As a result, the Moon’s shadow usually misses the Earth as it passes above or below the ecliptic at New Moon.

There are three general classes of solar eclipses, each type depending upon the distance apart of the Sun, Moon and the Earth. Viewed from the Earth the angular size of the Sun is about half of degree of arc, and the visible size of the Moon is slightly greater than the Sun. Of course, this is just an illusion, and the Moon is actually many, many times smaller than the Sun. Our distance from the Sun varies, so its size appears slightly larger or smaller at different times of the year.

According to the relative positions we get one of three events, (1) a partial solar eclipse, (2) an annular solar eclipse, or (3) a total solar eclipse.

In the first, the partial solar eclipse, the Moon is not centred against the Sun, and only the penumbra of the Moon’s shadow passes over a region of the Earth’s surface.

In the second type, the annular solar eclipse, the Moon is centred against the Sun, but its apparent size is not big enough to cover the entire Sun’s disk. A ring of light can be observed around the lunar disk.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the umbra of the Moon’s shadow falls

Pankaj Agerwal has a PhD in Astrophysics and having spent ten years teaching, is working at Ghaziabed, near New Delhi, on the development of multimedia class materials.

SPIN

On 29th March there was a total solar eclipse, but in this part of the world we were well beyond the narrow band of darkness that traversed half the Earth. The umbral shadow began in Brazil, went across the Atlantic to North Africa and central Asia, and it ended with sunset in western Mongolia. Outside this band the eclipse cast a partial shadow, extending to Europe.

Thousands of people gathered along the path hoping to get a clear view. One group, in a tour run by Astronomy Ireland, went to Turkey, close to the eclipse at its peak over Africa.

Lots of information about the eclipse is available on the excellent NASA site.

Path of eclipse, chart based on NASAgraphic

SCIENCE SPIN

on the Earth’s surface, casting a shadow of darkness, typically 10,000 km long, but only about 100 km wide.

Thus, to see the total solar eclipse, it is necessary to be within this path.

The total phase of a solar eclipse is of very short duration. rarely lasting more than several minutes.

For a brief time, while the Sun is being blocked from view, its outer corona becomes visible around the Moon’s edge. Important phenomena have been observed from this corona.

In 1874 observations of the total solar eclipse in India contributed to the discovery of helium, before it was found to occur on Earth.

Issue 15 Page 39

BOOKS Great Inventions ne of Britain’s best known inventors, James Dyson, along O with Robert Uhlig and a group of

around two dozen contributors produced The Mammoth Book of Great Inventions. The soft-back book is almost 500 pages long, is full of interesting pictures and is well indexed.

A chronological approach to the subject is taken, as the history of invention is split into six periods. The first sparks of genius covers all of 2.6 million years and includes such advances as use of tools, fire and buildings. Looking at new horizons is a synopsis of achievements from 1AD to 1649, and contains some fascinating pieces on such invaluable innovations as the printing press, concrete and the flushing toilet, which was not invented, as is often thought, by Thomas Crapper. The honour went to a godson of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir John Harrington, who named his creation, Ajax in 1597. The term ‘Jacks’, it seems is derived from this, and was in use in Shakespearian times.

The next three chapters are The age of industrial power (1650 – 1829), Electricity on the move (1830 – 1899) and Journey into the atomic age (1900 – 1944). The second half of the 20th century is dealt with in - Reinventing the World.

Dyson’s introduction gives some encouragement to would-be inventors, but he is perhaps a little optimistic in his claim that “invention – the chance to make something work a whole lot better – is something within the reach of everyone. You may not make a fortune with your invention, or become famous. But you may one day hear someone say, ‘Hey, I’ve bought one of those. It’s brilliant.’ And that’s priceless.”

The patent system is about granting monopolies for inventions, and even a cursory glance at applications for European or US patents, shows that the system is practically monopolised by large corporations. A patent granted to a sole, independent inventor is rare, a commerciallysuccessful invention from such a

source rarer still. Dyson is critical of the patent system but he acknowledges that, at least it is “something” to counter Edison’s complaint that; “No sooner does a fellow succeed in making a good thing, but some other fellows pop up and tell you that they did it years ago.”

The book is a handy reference, and is a useful source of facts – John Thompson, for example, developed his submachine gun in the early 1920s and it was first used extensively in the Spanish Civil War in the late thirties.

So there could have been no ‘echo of a Thompson gun’ during the Easter Rising of 1916 in Dublin.

It is worth noting, however, that this book does not cater for those who would appreciate an explanation of how some of the innovations in science actually work. While this is obviously not a central aim of the book, some of the wordy definitions could certainly be enhanced by a simple diagram. We learn, for example, that the watch was invented in the 14th century and are shown a couple of photographs of watches, dating from as far back as 1635.

However, a diagram would be of great benefit to the reader to compliment the text, “The development of the isochronal balance spring, which controls the oscillations of a balance so that it operates with the natural evenness (isochronism) of a pendulum, became a contentious affair…” or “such was the irregularity of power given by these early springs to the oscillating balance (which is the heart of any watch) that watches needed to be fitted with either a “fusee” or “stackfreed”.”

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Issue 15 Page 40

The radio is covered in three pages, with just two photographs of Marconi as illustrations, and almost a page is devoted to the torpedo, without any photograph, drawing or graphic of any kind. Consider this same topic in the now out-of-print How Things Work 2 (Paladin). While the aim of this book is different, as is explicit in the title, Great Inventions, it would be enhanced by such explanatory sketches as those in How Things Work.

How Things Work is still used by professionals and is an excellent reference for all classes of man-made machines and processes. It was reprinted several times in the seventies and was adapted from the 1963 German original, Wie Funktioniert das?. The publisher’s claim in the inside cover is that How Things Work is “far more than merely informative” but enables us to “link major scientific achievement with the commonplace and to relate this to our daily lives.”

This ambitious claim is largely fulfilled in this extremely useful twovolume work.

How Stuff Works was published nearly forty years after Wie Funktioniert das?, and while it makes excellent coffee-table reading, it too lacks the depth and consistency of the German work. However, the sections on computer technology Of Microprocessors, Mice and Modems and Unweaving the Web are well explained and complimented with wellproduced graphics. Everything you wanted to know about motherboards, graphic cards, monitors and internet cookies is presented clearly and simply.

The Mammoth Book of Great Inventions.

James Dyson and Robert Uhlig (editors). Publisher: Robinsons Price: £9.99 sterling How Stuff Works. Marshall Brian Publisher: Hungry Minds Inc. Price: £18.99 sterling How Things Work 1 & 2 Publisher: Paladin Books, Granada Publishing Limited. Out of Print, but available on the Internet from BibliOZ, inter alia, for around 40 for the two volumes.

Tony McGennis

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Make Science Real JUNIOR SCIENCE TRAIL at Ireland's Historic Science Centre, Birr, Co. Offaly.

Supports the Junior Science syllabus in key areas of knowledge and skills Includes mandatory experiments and Iinvestigations in Coursework A Includes mandatory experiments and investigations in Coursework Provides ideas and inspiration for further experiments in Coursework Broadens scientific experience outside the classroom and textbook Increases knowledge about the lives and achievements of famous Irish scientists Provides a fun, outdoor, interactive field trip with science museum visit Provides the student with a record of their work and investigations For further information, visit www.birrcastle.com or contact: T: +353 (0) 509 20336 F: +353 (0) 509 21583 E: mail@birrcastle.com

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