Spin 21, Irish science

ISSUE 21 March 07 €3 including VAT £2 NI and UK

SCIENCE

SPIN

IRELAND’S SCIENCE WILDLIFE AND DISCOVERY MAGAZINE

CORK looking up Musical memories Geo images Sensors Another reality

Micro-dragon

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SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21

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Waterfall in the Burren, Co Clare, one of the great winning photographs by Sean Tomkins in the GSI Du Noyer competition.

Publisher Duke Kennedy Sweetman Ltd 5 Serpentine Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. 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 Design and Production Albertine Kennedy Publishing Cloonlara, Swinford, Co Mayo Proofing Aisling McLaughlin Printing Turner Print, Longford Contributors in this issue: Wendy Baarda, Danielle Barron, John Feehan, Mossy Kelly, Cornelie Kennedy, Marie-Catherine Mousseau.

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.

2 Stars at school 7

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Botulinism

UPFRONT

Forests and society

9

Dragon of the microcosm

10

John Feehan introduces us to one of his favourite creatures.

14

Another reality

Marie-Catherine Mousseau looks at how a small device could change the way we perceive the world.

Cornelie Kennedy writes on how a deadly bacterium can strike without warning.

Looking at the Earth

The beauty and wonder of rocks and landscapes, a selection of images from the GSI Du Noyer competition.

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Survey takes flight

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Sensors on tap

Mossy Kelly tells what’s it like in the lab.

Looking up at Blackrock

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Danielle Barron reports on a new window into space.

Good relations

Tom Kennedy reports the researchers want to collaborate

Music, language, and memory

Wendy Baarda tells how music is at the ancient core of human culture.

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SPIN Geological Survey of Ireland Suirbhéireacht Gheolaíochia Éireann

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Books

Seán Duke reports on how an air survey is getting under Ireland’s rocky skin.

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Tom Kennedy had been reading about Irish genes and a Mayo forest.

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NOTICE BOARD

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UPFRONT Biggest call HigHer education institutions have been putting in proposals to take a share in the most recent €190 million top up in HeA funding for research.

The invitation to make submissions, involving forty institutions, was the largest to date, and it brings the total, invested under the PrTLi programme up to almost €800 million.

Tom Boland, CeO of the HeA commented that the investment will help establish Ireland’s profile as a premier location for carrying out r&D. The recent round of submissions marks the fourth cycle of the Programme for research in Third Level institutions (PrTLi). in this round, particular emphasis is being placed on postgraduate training, so that students are better equipped to continue their scientific careers. With so many PhDs coming on stream, career development, as we reported in issue 20 of Science Spin, has become quite important.

Special trees AT ONe time foresters prided themselves on being able to identify trees with odd shapes or twists that would add to the value of the wood.

Some trees, for example, grow with a candy-bar twist, giving the grain in cut and polished wood an interesting pattern.

Being able to identify special trees in forests could add a lot of value to the wood, and in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Physics, scientists from Helsinki reported that they had come up with a way to identify a valuable mutant of silver birch. The mutant, which occurs naturally, and is called curley birch, has a curved grain, and the wood is 20 per cent more dense than the more common birch, yet in the forest both look the same.

The scientists have found that the two can be distinguished by their ability to conduct ultrasound, so instead of felling everything for cheap veneers and pulp, a check can be made, and the curley birches can be left to grow on to maturity.

Project leader, Dr Vincent O’Flaherty, and NUIG Vice President of Research, Prof Nicholas Canny, with Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey.

Biofuels THe local dump and sewage works could become valuable sources of fuel, and for the next seven years researchers at NUi galway will be working on making this dream become a reality. The Microbial Bioenergy group at NUi is to recruit twenty new postgrad and postdoc graduates to develop bio-fuels from organic wastes and conduct research into harnessing the power of bacteria to produce electricity. As bacteria break down waste they make electrons available to the anode side of a fuel cell, and as they flow from there to the cathode, an electrical potential is created. The bio-cells can also be used to generate hydrogen,

potentially useful as a vehicle fuel.

While there is still some way to go, project leader, Dr Vincent O’Flaherty notes that microbial fuel cells may yet provide a double benefit, treating waste, while generating power on a large scale.

Funding for the research comes from the recently launched Charles Parson’s Award. The award, named after the inventor of the steam turbine, is worth over €2 million, and was established under the Dept of Communications, Marine and Natural resources, to provide long term support for research, particularly in engineering and energy fields.

The feature we referred to as Dermot and gráinne’s cave, see cover of issue 20, is actually a landslip at Glencar. Dermot and Grainne’s cave is the small photograph at the bottom of page 15 in the same issue. The spectacular cover feature was photographed by Matthew Parkes for the gSi. Our apologies for getting the cave and the slip the wrong way around.

Bioforce Just how much force does it take to pull a strand of DNA apart? According to physicists it takes about 65 piconewtons, and it takes just six pN to unzip a DNA molecule at room temperature. Although smaller forces can be detected, what biologists need is some way to make relatively big piconewton measurements in the living wet world.

According to the American Institute of Physics News, researchers at the sandia National Labs are working on a cost effective sensor for biologists. the sensor is built around a small spring, just one

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millimetre thick and ten millimetres long. the polysilicon spring behaves according to the well established rules that match compression or extension to the force applied. In this case, with the tiny spring mounted on a solid substrate, piconewton forces can be detected in the push or pull of biological samples.

Alternatively, the spring can be made sensitive to magnetic fields. the movement of the spring is picked up by a video camera, and one of the researchers, steven Koch, reports that while the current precision is 2 nm, sensitivity can be improved. the ‘sania sensor’ is likely to prove its value by providing ajdustable tension in manipulating bio-molecules to see how they work.

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UPFRONT Research awards

When a base is established on the Moon, all the measurements will be metric. Image: NASA.

Metric Moon SOME of the biggest blunders in engineering come from the assumption that everyone is using the same measurements. In one case, a contractor’s thruster firing data caused NASA’s Mars Climate probe to fail, and with big teams the risk of a mismatch is high. Engineers, however, have been reluctant to part with their

pounds, yards, feet and inches, but most of the world is now measured in metric. America may yet make the change over, and earlier this year NASA the space agency announced that metric units are to be used for all operations on the Moon. The decision follows discussions with 13 other international space agencies.

FOUR PhD students have received scholarships from Microsoft enabling them to continue their research for another three years. The researchers, Cliona Roche from UCD, Eugene Marnane from UL, Conor Cafferkey, and Karolina Owczarzak from DCU, are working on different topics including modelling of protein structures, networking of information, and analysis of language structure.

Kevin Marshall, Academic Programme Manager for Microsoft Ireland, said the aim is to support exceptional students with the potential to make an outstanding contribution to science. The Microsoft programme supports up to 30 new students a year and the focus is on those working at the computing end of biology, chemistry, physics and other sciences.

Getting into aerospace ESA are offering one European student an opportunity to participate in a ten-week intensive research programme in four of NASA’s training centres. Called Academy 2007, the opportunity is open to Irish undergraduate and graduate students interested in aerospace engineering and space sciences.

The programme which will begin this summer is built around the following activities: l Group projects: these allow the students to gain experience in terms of teamwork and leadership l Guided Laboratory research: under the supervision of a principal investigator, each student will be assigned to one of the research projects conducted in one NASA centre l Seminars and colloquia: students have the opportunity to meet top experts in their field of interest l Site visits: participants have a chance to visit NASA and impressive facilities at American Universities l Presentation: each student will present the result of her/his work, with the opportunity to receive useful feedback and advice l Meetings with professionals: the academy represents a great opportunity to make contacts with experts and like-minded students To enter for the opportunity, Irish students can fill out an online form http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/20072007NASAAcademyOfficialApplication.

Send the form as pdf to: Olivier.Ingold@esa.int or fax it to Fax no. + 31 71 565 5590.

Visit the NASA Academy website http://academy.nasa.gov/program/index.jsp for more details.

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Heading up SFI Dr Frank Gannon, one of Ireland’s leading researchers, has been appointed Director General of SFI. At NUI Galway, Dr Gannon directed the National Diagnostics Centre, and since 1994 he has been Executive Director of the European Molecular Biology Organisation. As a former board member, Dr Gannon is no stranger to SFI, and his experience with the EMBO, which is based in Germany, should prove valuable in linking researchers here into the European Research Zone. Dr Gannon’s research interests are focused on the role estrogen receptors play in development of breast cancers, and he has had over 200 research papers published internationally.

SPIN

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UPFRONT

Sight research AFteR four years of research, the Macular Pigment Research Group Laboratory was officially declared open in January. Age related degeneration of the central retinal area, the macula, is the leading cause of blindness in the Western world. Because the central area of the retina is affected, people suffering from AMD retain peripheral vision, but are blind to anything that they are actually looking at. the thirteen member MPRG group is considered to be one of the leading centres for this type of research in the world. According to Dr John nolan from the group, AMD affects up to 70,000 people in Ireland, and there is strong evidence to suggest that the condition is inherited. the researchers aim to collect more data on this from over 1,000 people aged between 40 and 60. this study is to be carried out over a period of 20 to 25 years, making it the longest study of its type in any part of the world. If you would like to take part in this study, contact Mrs LeighAnne Maddock at the Macular Pigment Research Centre at Waterford Institute of technology, email lmaddock@wit.ie.

Of considerable interest is the influence of diet on macular pigment.

Brain dead In the 19th century many people were so scared of being buried alive that patents were taken out on graves with a speaking tube to the surface. Being aware of being declared dead is a frequent theme in horror stories, but can this actually happen? Clive Cookson, science editor of the Financial Times recently reports that researchers at Cambridge are beginning to have second thoughts about the subject. he talked to Adrian Owen from the Medical Research Council’s brain science unit at Cambridge, and found that clear signs of mental activity had been detected from people in what is generally termed a ‘vegetative’ state. In one case, MRI scanning revealed that a 24 year old

Archaeologists at a Roman site in Corsica.

Photo: Tom Kennedy/ Source Archives.

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Student population theRe are now over 170,000 full and part-time third-level students in Irish colleges. According to the heA, acceptance levels have kept the numbers going on to third level high, despite a smaller number of applications. Michael Kelly, Chairman of the higher education Authority, observed that there is plenty of scope for an increase in numbers going on to college. “13,000 students declined an offer of a third-level place,” he said. “since these students meet the eligibility requirements, they represent untapped student capacity.

Ireland needs in the region of an additional 7,600 graduates to achieve our aim of a place in the top ten per cent of OeCD countries. Attracting these students into higher education would enable the sector to achieve this target.”

severely brain damaged woman played tennis in her mind, yet to all outward appearances, she was still in a coma. the Cambridge scientist was quoted as saying this woman is showing signs of recovery, and he suggested that rehabilitation could be focused more on patients with similar signs of activity. In another case, doctors spotting the Liverpool tattoos on a patients body, got a positive response by asking about football.

While recovery of cognitive functions is extremely difficult or, as in most cases, impossible, scanning for activity could help select out the patients with some hope of recovery. however, as Clive Cookson reports, at £1.2 million each, real-time scanners are expensive.

Preserving samples ReseARCheRs in France have found that storing samples in a museum can speed up decay of DnA. evaMaria Geigl at the Institut Jacques Monod in Paris, points out that ancient finds have to be treated in the same way as other biological samples. At present there is little contact between biologists, archaeologists, and museum curators, so samples are not being handled correctly. Biologists usually carry out tests on museum samples, but by that time the DnA may have decayed, or it could have been contaminated by modern materials. this contributes to a high failure

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rate in analysis of museum specimens. to determine the extent of this problem, a study of fossil auroch bones was carried out.

Aurochs were the ancestral cattle of europe, the the bones for the study came from a 3,200 year old animal discovered in the sarthe region of France. In 1947 some of these bones had been put into storage at the Musée Vert. no DnA could be recovered from these bones. however, DNA amplification applied to bones excavated in 2004 did yield results, and after studying this and other results, the scientists concluded that the DnA had deteriorated as much in 57 years as in the thousands of years previously spent underground.

One of the factors causing rapid decay is a rise in temperature, and the scientists observed that in warmer climates, such as the Middle east and Africa, we would recover a lot more genetic information by analysing fresh specimens.

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Barriers down

Stealth plasmids

TargeTS set for giving more people access to third level education have been exceeded. according to a Hea report the target set to increase the number of students with disabilities has been exceeded, the number of mature students is close to target, and the number of students overcoming social and economic barriers have gone up by six per cent over the past five years. although mature students are slightly down on last year, their numbers, as a percentage of the total, has gone up from 4.5 per cent in 1998 to 9.4 per cent this year. Dr Mary-Liz Trant, who heads the HEA Access Office, said that many of those who felt excluded in the past need to know that many of the barriers limiting access to third level education have been broken down. The access Office, she added, is there to support full and equal participation in higher education.

aParT from the chromosomes, bacterial cells contain small fragments of DNA, known as plasmids. Like the chromosome, the plasmids replicate, and it is thought that their main role is to carry genes that are non-essential to survival. Plasmids can be transferred from one bacterial cell to another, and while this happens naturally in a process known as conjunction, scientists often make use of this ability to transfer genes from one one organism into another. although regarded as non-essential, plasmids exert a strong influence, and it is now believed that they are

Going to college in Cork

Students looking for the long established Skerry’s College in Cork should know that there has been a name change, and there is now a direct link to Griffith College in Dublin (www.gcd.ie). The new name to look out for is Griffith College Cork.

Stirring technique

UPFRONT involved in transfer of drug resistance.

In a recent issue of the US journal, Science, Prof Dorman and Dr Wain from TCD report that once bacteria have acquired resistance to antibiotics, the ability is transferred to other cells via stealth plasmids. “These plasmids are found in many pathogenic bacteria,” Dr John Wain said, “including typhoid and paratyphoid fever.” one of the aims of this SFI supported research is to discover how to prevent the spread of these plasmids.

Geo awards

Assistant Director of GSI, were given for the best geological mapping projects submitted by third level colleges during the year. Sophia gold’s mapping was for her thesis on the Borrowdale volcanics of the English Lake District. Jonathan Moore’s mapping was for his thesis on the Central Fells area.

SoPHIa Gold, and Jonathan Moore, both students at the Department of Geology, TCD, were presented with special awards by the geological Survey of Ireland for their work in mapping. The awards, named in memory of mark Cunningham, late

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We normally expect spinning a liquid to drive all the suspended particles to the edge, but this only happens if all the liquid is in rotation. as einstein observed in 1928, tea leaves often collect into a little heap at the bottom, and the cause of this ‘tea-leaf paradox’ is that only the top is being stirred. To counter the centrifugal force in the rotating tea above, an inward force applies to the bottom stationary layer.

The US Physics News reports that this peculiar behaviour is likely to help in blood tests. Scientists at monash University in Australia, have refined a technique of using charged ions to stir small samples of blood. a voltage applied to a needle suspended at an angle over the blood, generates ions. These repel their opposites in the blood, causing it to circulate in a small chamber. The lower level of blood remains still, so blood cells and other particles gather at the bottom. according to the scientists, who published their results in an open access scientific journal, Biomicrofluidics, (http:// bmf.alp.org/) the separation method could speed up blood testing. at present, blood samples have to sent off to the the lab for separation in a centrifuge. By comparison the tea-leaf technique only requires a small sample, and doctors could conduct their own tests. The scientists believe a separation device could be incorporated into a credit card sized chip, and with volume production, costs could be low.

Marine Institute

Foras na Mara

www.marine.ie Marine Institute Rinville Oranmore Co. Galway telephone 353 91 387 200 facsimile 353 91 387 201 email institute.mail@marine.ie

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 5

Foras na Mara

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UPFRONT

Shaken

Trapped in the present We OfTen hear of people who have lost the ability to recall past events, but as researchers at University College London have found, the same people may not be able to imagine the future.

A research team, under Dr eleanor Maguire, at the Wellcome Trust Centre for neuroimaging, reported that damage to a small portion of the brain, the hippocampus, can cause not just amnesia, but loss of imagination.

The role played by the hippocampus in coordinating memory, said Dr Maguire, is much greater than was previously thought. Damage to the hippocampus is often the result of oxygen starvation, as can happen during a heart attack. The end result is that people can be forced to live in the continuous present.

Doubling up THe single celled Parameium has been peered at through the microscope by generations of biology students. Using its hair-like cilia to swim about in search of bacteria to feed on, the Paramecium is about as big as a single celled organism can get. Although familiar, scientists did not really know that much about the unicellular organism’s past until a project was launched to sequence its genome. four years ago scientists in france, Poland and Germany joined forces to crack the Paramecium tetraurelia code. ClÊmentine Wallace, writing for the french national Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) reports that 40,000 genes have been identified for Paramecium, almost twice the number for humans.

The surprisingly large number, for an organism made up from just one cell, seems to be the result of repeated doubling up of genes. This event, although a rare occurrence, is thought to account for sudden leaps in evolution, and the doubling up is not just confined to Paramecium.

Doubling up of chromosomes in

Students from Eureka Secondary School in Kells were among ten schools invited to a five-day residential course at the European Space Centre in Belgium.

During the five days the students had 20 hours of classes and workshops.

plants is quite common, and it is thought that one of the reasons why humans emerged in their present form, is that whole segments of our genome doubled up.

While evidence of doubling can be hard to find, Paramecium provided a clearer picture of what goes on because the copied genes hardly changed. As Jean Cohen and the other researchers from the french Centre for Molecular Genomics found, the last three doubling up of genes in Paramecium led to very few genetic recombinations. Thus, it was relatively easy to spot the original pairs, and in turn this gave the researchers a good idea of what the ancestral chromosomes were like. following dublication, most of the copied genes are normally lost over a long period of time, perhaps millions of years, and a few seem to acquire new functions, and can thus drive evolutionary change.

In the case of Paramecium, the last dublication is thought to have given rise to fifteen new species, and one of the aims now is to see how these findings could be applied to more complex multicellular organisms.

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One Of the last things people expect in The netherlands is an earthquake, but recently the northern province, Groningen, was shaken not just once, but three times in one month.

The most recent quake was on 16th november, and while it measured 2.7 on the Richter scale little damage was reported. According to nL news sources, one resident said it was like having a train run under the house.

The two earlier quakes measured 3 on the Richter scale, and scientists from the nL climate bureau, KnMI, believe earth gas extraction is to blame.

The netherlands relies heavily on gas for power and heating, and extraction has been in progress for a number of years. The KnMI bureau reports that minor earthquakes on this scale are not unusual for the area, and they originate along a fault line, about 3 km from the surface.

In an interesting aside to the Groningen quake, the producers of a popular TV science programme, Hoe? Zo! (How? Like that!) set up an experiment in a Dutch amusement park, De efteling. A thousand people all jumped up and down, and the tremor produced was measured at 1.2 on the Richter scale.

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Building hope STUDenT volunteers from nUI Galway are on their way to Ghana to participate in a home building project.

The aim is to replace overcrowded, single room dwellings with affordable homes. Before setting off, the 24 volunteers will have to come up with â‚Ź60,000, and a substantial part of this is to go into construction costs.

The project, being organised by the nUI Chaplaincy, is part of the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity scheme, which builds more than 400 affordable houses a year in Ghana. One of the strengths of Habitat for Humanity is that it enables people on a low income to buy their own houses through long term mortgages, and by contributing their own labour, owners lower their outlay while helping others to do the same. The Habitat for Humanity scheme is not confined to Ghana, and to see more visit the website: www.habitatireland.ie

science foundation ireland fondúireacht eolaíochta éireann

UCD Conway based STAR, Caroline Devitt, science and biology teacher at Castleknock Community School preparing an electrophoresis experiment

STARS The highly successful Secondary Teacher Assistant Researchers (STARs) programme which began in 2004, continues into 2007 giving an opportunity for about 50 science teachers to work with SFI funded research teams. By working with some of Ireland’s leading researchers, teachers gain experience and knowledge which they can then pass on to pupils in the classroom. Teachers who participate in the programme are in a much stronger position to guide pupils into a science career, and in many cases, the links between schools and research institutions have been of benefit to both. For example, a number of popular workshops on themes as sound, were developed through collaboration of teachers and researchers.

Under the programme, secondary teachers receive support to work for up to eight weeks alongside an SFI researcher during school holiday periods. The goal is to help teachers renew their interest in research, connect them to the universities and institutes of technology, and enhance the quality of teaching across the entire educational system.

To qualify for support, the institutions and the teachers make a joint application, and apart from ensuring that there is no impact on the school teaching schedule, researchers and teachers can make up their own time-table.

To find out more, visit

www.sfi.ie

Bringing research into schools Members of SFI research teams are often keen to share their enthusiasm and knowledge with others, and visiting schools is a great way to capture the interest of young students. Researchers from a number of institutions are willing to visit schools and talk to classes about their work. Many of the visiting scientists have topics, such as quantum mechanics, biotechnology, or the physics of light, on offer, and these are listed on the SFI website. Teachers can look up speakers from University College Cork, University College Dublin, NUI Galway,

Royal College of Surgeons, University of Limerick, Trinity College, Dublin City University, NUI Maynooth, Cork Institute of Technology, Dublin Institute of Technology, or the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. To request a speaker, simply email the researcher directly, giving some essential details, such as age group, and possible times and dates.

Researchers can also indicate that they are willing to visit schools by submitting their details to outreach@sfi.ie

ROADSHOWS A series of regional roadshows, highlighting the ground-breaking work being done at the seven Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSETs) is being hosted by SFI. The objective is to encourage greater collaboration between academic researchers and industry. Seven leading scientists will be explaining how the multi-disciplinary CSET teams are coming up with the sort of results that industry can exploit commercially. At the launch of the roadshow, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said that the continued investment in research is helping to create a culture of innovation. Industrial-academic collaboration, he said, are central to the Government’s long term economic strategy. The CSETs, he added, “support a powerful synergy of the most

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important resource of any country, talented people. By bringing together researchers from Irish third-level institutions with their counterparts in indigenous and multinational companies, these centres create a force for knowledge and innovation that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Industry links are now well established with companies such as Hewlett Packard, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Medtronic, Proctor & Gamble, Becton Dickinson, Hospira, Analog Devices, and Alimentary Health. The number of links is rising rapidly as more industries realise the value of R&D in innovation.

Over the coming months the CSET roadshow will continue through Limerick, Galway, and Dublin.

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UPFRONT Ancestors

How many people know who their great-great grandmothers were? memories can be quite selective when it comes to the family tree, but our genes can throw up quite a few surprises. when a PhD student at the University of Leicester, Turi King, was going through some genetic samples, to see how they might match up with an unusual yorkshire surname she spotted an unusual sequence on a y chromosome, known as hga1.

Previously, this genetic marker was only known from west africa, yet when the wellcome Trust funded study, under Prof mark Jobling, was extended to 18 males with the same surname, none of the hga1 carriers had any recollection of having an african ancestor. although Britain now has over a million people with african or Caribbean origins, almost all are from 20th century immigration, but the hga1 y chromosome is much older, so old in fact that its origins were lost. The researchers believe hga1 must have appeared in yorkshire 250 or more years ago, and one of the possibilities is that it dates back to the Roman occupation. Soldiers serving in the Roman army came from all parts of the Empire.

Science writers aT THE BT young Science & Technology exhibition two students were presented with awards for their essays dealing with stem cell research and the theme of living forever.

The competition, organised by the Regenerative medicine institute at nUi Galway, and sponsored by medtronic, attracted over 250 entries from all around ireland. minister for Education and Science, mary Hanafin, presented the top prize to Paul Kelliher from the intermediate College, Killorglin, and the runner up prize went to Sarah Grace from Loreto abbey Secondary School, Dalkey, Dublin.

Science in business a BUSinESS module for students aiming to launch start-up firms has been running at nUi Galway for the past seventeen years. in January a number of science students were presented with awards for their business proposals. The Bank of ireland gave an award to a group of four mSc students, Evan Brick, martin Canavan, aisling Donoghue, and norah o’Brien, for their proposal to set up a clinic for corrective eye surgery based on a new type of technology involving insersion of intra-ocular lenses. according to the group, this is a minimally invasive procedure and is carried out on an outpatient basis. mSc biomedical science students, Sinead Darcy, andrew Douglas, and Anne Smyth were placed first for

their plan to provide a DNA profiling service for greyhounds and pedidgree dogs. One of the benefits of this service will be genetic testing for hereditary diseases in dogs, often a problem with breeders.

Marly Burke, Joan Fitzgibbon, Elaine Gleeson, and Louise Lilly, mSc biomedical students were placed second for the part they are playing in setting up a vitamin enhanced readyto-serve soup company.

Biotechnology students, Julie Collins, Rebecca Finn, Hanna o’Keefe, and James o’malley were placed third in the awards for their plan to launch a vitamin fortified chewing gum.

Yeast cells

Evolutionary tricks EvoLUTionaRy changes do not have to occur at the same rate in both genes of a pair. Researchers, including Peter Philippsen at the University of Basil, and manolis Kellis at miT, have shown that in a high number of instances, one of the genes remains unchanged, while the other evolves. Comparing the yeast fungi, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with close relatives, the scientists were surprised to find that in 95 per cent of the cases, evolutionary changes only involved

The competition is now entering its third year, so watch out for more news about entering, or visit the web site: www.remedi.ie or www.ncbes.ie Winner of the first competition, Laura Bree, is now studying biomedical engineering at nUi Galway.

one gene. while one gene acquires new functions, the other maintains the old functions.

The significance of this discovery is further enhanced by the results of an experiment in which one or other of the genes was deleted. in S. cerevisiae, deleting the changed gene was never lethal, but knocking out the ancestor was fatal in 18 per cent of tests.

YOUNG SCIENCE WRITERS Don’t forget to enter the RDS Young Scienc e Writers’ competition.

If you are serious abou t writing, fact or fictio n, and you like science, this competition is for YO U. Keep watch on the RD S site at www.rds.ie

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Forests, the economy and society

The impact of forestry on the Irish economy is reflected by its significant contribution to the GNP and the creation of employment opportunities.

ECONTRIB, a COFORD-funded project carried out by a multidisciplinary team of foresters, economists and sociologists from UCD, UCC and Coillte, set out to capture the full economic contribution of the forestry sector to the national and regional economies. The technique used was input-output analysis. This allowed the linkages between forestry (i.e. growing sector) and the wood products sectors (i.e. processing sector) and other sectors in the economy to be determined. The study also examined the social contribution of forestry to local communities. Three case study areas were chosen for study: Shillelagh, Co Wicklow, Arigna, Co Roscommon and Newmarket, Co Cork. In these areas the extent of forest cover and the species composition were similar but the age of forest cover varied as did the historical rate of afforestation.

The study showed that in 2003, direct output from the forestry sector was €255.4 million. Of this, €134.4 million represented gross value-added (GVA) which was 0.12% of Gross National Product (GNP).

The three study areas chosen for the surveys.

Output and employment multipliers for forestry were also derived. The type 2 output multiplier was shown to be 1.85: for every one million euro in expenditure in the forestry sector a further €850,000 in expenditure is generated in the rest of the economy.

The type 2 employment multiplier was 1.90, thus for every 100 jobs in the forestry sector an extra 90 full-time equivalent jobs are provided in other sectors of the economy. When the indirect and induced effects are taken into account using the multipliers, the overall value of forestry to the Irish economy was €472.45 million in 2003.

Direct employment in forestry was 3,780. Accounting for the induced and indirect effects, the total employment supported by the forestry sector was estimated to be 7,182.

In Ireland, timber is processed in sawmills and panel board mills as well as being used for making furniture.

The study showed that the direct output in these sectors was €975.0 million in 2003. Of this €312.3 million was gross value-added (GVA) representing 0.27% of GNP. The output multipliers for the sawmills, panel board mills and other wood products sector were 1.71, 1.61 and 1.72 respectively, while the employment multipliers were 1.74, 1.68 and 1.81 respectively.

Using these figures, the total value to the economy of the three sectors was estimated to be €1.65 billion, nearly 3.5 times the forestry sector figure of €472.45 million. Direct employment in the wood products sectors was shown to be 6,870. When the indirect and induced employment impacts are derived using

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 9

the employment multipliers, the wood products sectors supported a total of 12,246 jobs. This is 70% more than the total employment attributable to the forestry sector alone.

The social impacts of forestry were assessed in the three case study areas. Over 100 people were interviewed and their perception of the rural environment in which they live and the role forestry plays in it were queried. In the Newmarket area, where the forests were the youngest and where afforestation had occurred at the fastest rate, forestry was perceived to have contributed little in terms of employment and amenity while impacting negatively on the environment. In Arigna, attitudes were more positive, which can be attributed in part to the availability and use of consultation mechanisms in that area. Nevertheless, in both areas concerns continued to be expressed about the dominance of conifers in the afforestation programme. There was clearly a demand for a different type of forest; one where timber production is not the primary objective and where the amenity and landscape functions are emphasized. In Shillelagh the social impacts of forestry were more positive, reflecting the long history of forest cover and related enterprise in the area. The amenity and recreational functions of the forests in the Shillelagh area were acknowledged.

COFORD has published a comprehensive report on the project: The socio-economic contribution of forestry in Ireland by Áine Ní Dhubháin, MarieChristine Fléchard, Richard Moloney, Deirdre O’Connor and Tim Crowley. Copies are available on-line at www. coford.ie or from the COFORD office (tel: 01-2130725).

For further information, contact: Dr Áine Ní Dhubháin, School of Biological and Environmental Science, UCD Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Phone +353 1 7167755; Fax +353 1 7161104; Email: aine.nidhubhain@ucd.ie.

SPIN

A dragon of the microcosm The adult Rhyacophila.

examining minute bodies that are close to us as astronomers get from the telescope in the investigation of distant bodies in the heavens.

Linnaeus, Amoenitates Academicae Ed. 2, Vol. VII, 387–388

Rhyacophila has two eye-spots, but it places little reliance on them. Every hair and bristle is sensitive to change in its surroundings and conveys information about the current and the proximity of other animals – including caddis-eating fishes. Scaning electron micrograph by Barry Cregg and Bernard Kaye, School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin.

John Feehan reminds us that there are far more things to wonder at in nature than just flowers and trees.

T

he great Linnaeus had a wonderful metaphor for the variety of life (biodiversity hadn’t been coined in his day). He compared it to an enormous palace or mansion: The museum of nature, like a palace, has an enormous number of connected chambers, filled with the stupendous

contrivances and wonders of the Creator, to each of which a place is assigned according to its kind; to the greatest amphitheatres of nature the first entry is open to every one, but the smaller ones are usually shut; here there is need of skill to unclose by slow degrees the doorway of each chamber, within which a new world, as it were, displays itself before our eyes … The chief key for unfastening the bars of this palace that has been for all the ages closed is afforded by the microscope, which gives us the same help in Rhyacophila dorsalis from above (from Hickin’s Caddis).

By far the largest chamber is that in which the insects reside, because fully three-quarters of the million and a half species that have been described so far are insects – and nobody knows how many have never been described. And although the wild creatures that thrill us most and fill us with admiration are those we can easily see: vertebrates and flowers and trees, the small creatures that go about their daily lives unseen all around us, have the very same capacity to awake wonder and admiration. Natura in minimis maxime miranda, Linnaeus memorably wrote: it is in the smallest creatures that nature is to be most admired.

Most of these little creatures really live through two lives in the course of their individual existence: the adult insect is often a different creature altogether from the young caterpillar or nymph (larva). And however beneath our notice the adult may be, a tiny midge perhaps we can hardly see because it is so small, the larva often lives an even more secluded life in water or soil or among vegetation, occupying one tiny niche in the indescribably complex network of resources and functions which is ecology. I am going to introduce you to one insect from the cast of thousands that live in Ireland: a species you have probably never seen or heard of, although it lives in nearly every clean river and stream in the country.

The water dragon

Rhyacophila is a water dragon, in colour apple green: so that when it slips out from its cavern beneath the stone to glide among the sun-dappled water weeds it becomes invisible.

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Its head and the front of its thorax are creamy yellow, which adds to its camouflage.. We must say ‘it,’ because we cannot tell whether it is a he or a she until it gets its wings.

It is a diminutive dragon, no more than 25mm long and 3.5mm across at its widest. Much of its time is spent hunting in the tunnels and labyrinths beneath stones on the stream bed.

Sometimes however it appears in various shades of purple. I don’t know that anyone knows why this is so.

Perhaps like a chameleon – or Predator in those eerie science fiction films – it can change its colour to blend with its surroundings as it moves between the shaded underworld in which it hunts and the dappled green water weeds that wave in the purling water above. Do you remember when Alice first arrived in Wonderland? If we could persuade Rhyacophila to take a sip of that first bottle so that it would grow to our size and stood eye to eye with us, and we could see every finest detail of its superbly sculpted body, it would be as terrific, as terrifying, as any dragon — no, more: because it is real, it exists, it is not a creature of the imagination: as terrific as any dinosaur, could we stand eye to eye with it.

On each segment of its sinuous abdomen (and the back two of its three leg-bearing segments) it bears two handfuls of bushy streamers; these are the gills which provide it with all the oxygen it needs for its hunter’s life. Its legs are short and powerful, with large hooked claws at the end that enable it to cling with confidence as it prowls its torrential hunting grounds for the other caddis larvae and pupae which are its prey. But just in case it loses its footing during the chase, it plays out a strong line of silk behind it as it steals along under the stones, like a horizontal rock climber.

And then, when its life as a hunter is coming to an end, against all expectation it builds a house of stone, for who could have anticipated this extraordinary talent lay hidden in its hunter’s claws and predatory jaws?

Except that it is a craft perfected over eons among many of the caddis clan to which it belongs, though Rhyacophila is unlike most of its house-proud relatives in the way it

The rear end of Rhyacophila. Notice the pair of stout hooks that it uses to anchor itself against the current. Scaning electron micrograph by Barry Cregg and Bernard Kaye, School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin. makes its way in the world, without a home made either of the abundant building materials stream and pond provide: stone, timber and leaf, and sand; or built of silk or saliva (many clan members are master spinners).

Now however, as the need to pupate makes itself felt, it constructs an igloo

of just-so-sized stones which it binds together and lines with silk. Enclosed within this stone sarcophagus it forms a tough cocoon, chestnut in colour, in which it undergoes the miracle of disintegration of its nymphal body, followed by rebirth as a winged creature of the air. It still needs to

The complicated mouthparts of an insect make our masticatory apparatus look very simple indeed. You wonder at the co-ordination necessary to synchronise mandibles, maxillae, labrum, labium and all their ancillary palps! The highly complex mouthparts of Rhyacophila are adapted to engulf prey, including chironomids, mayflies and other invertebrates.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 11

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ds) ls) ma ropo i n breathe, so it maintains a porous silk (a rth ) lia da (a s) ies cop curtain or grating at either end a a y t dis fl m o i op c h n e s d R of its tomb, so that oxygenes) mA rthr a (in (ca eci do bearing water can flow ng m A nsect ptera lidae 0 sp i K ylu I icho phi 25 through. In the first part of this r aco ila ( Ph ss T h y p pupal stage of its life cycle the Cla der Rh yaco most profound re-organisation of Or mily Rh salis r the insect’s body takes place. The Fa us do n Ge cies mature pupa is in most respects like e Sp the adult, but with some fascinating There are some differences. There are hook-like bristles 250 different species on its labrum (its upper jaw-plate) to of Rhyacophila. Rhyacophila keep the pores in its grating free of dorsalis is a common insect silt. And what are those surprisingly in fast-flowing streams, and on this long-toothed jaws for? When the account is a prominent constituent in time comes the silent pupa suddenly the diet of fish and therefore known awakes to activity, and uses these to fishermen, though not by its lovely temporary carpentry tools to saw Latin name (which incidentally through the end of its tough cocoon. means ‘torrent lover’). The ‘dry flies’ On the upper surface of each of its of fishermen attempt to imitate an abdominal segments there is a plate adult insect captured by the stream; with a series of backward-pointing the ‘wet flies’ of fishermen, which hooks; these are for gripping the silk sink and move through the water, are lining of its case when the pupa has intended to mimic the nymph as it to force its way out of this tightlyflees towards the surface. (The alert gripping coffin. larva of Rhyacophila probably does Once free it swims to the surface by not feature on the trout menu all that means of a pair of oar-like middle legs often). Adult caddis are known to specially provided for this one nautical fishermen as sedges (In some parts of excursion, crawls onto dry land for the first time in its life and climbs a stem where it takes firm grip and immediately sheds its pupal skin and emerges as a winged adult. Its broad yellow wings are around 30mm across, and its antennae are about the same length as its body. You wonder where they came from, because the larval antennae are diminutive. But then you remember the larva has no wings either, and knows nothing of sex. hila

ID

Ireland they are called ‘rails’ and the larvae are known as cor-bait). In the language of the angler, Rhyacophila is the Brown Sedge Fly. You don’t often notice caddis flies because the adults are mainly nocturnal and dull in colour and the larvae live in the water.

They have much more familiar close relatives though, because their nearest kin among the other insect orders are butterflies and moths.

I am in love with this creature, magnificent beyond my words. It is my tiger, tiger burning bright, the green dragon that haunts the forests of my dreams, undulating its elegant way among the forests of crowfoot that wave glossy green on the stream bed. Rhyacophila could be my daimon among the clan of the Trichoptera, were it not that I cannot choose: for there are a hundred other caddis genera, a hundred ways of ingenious life, each as mind-boggling as the next. And in Linnaeus’ palace of biodiversity where the caddis display their dazzling selection of what is possible in life are the chambers of the other orders of insects, all thirty of them, each as wonderful in all its scarcely imaginable ingenuity and variety so that it is hard to know which is the one that blows you away the most.

Head on: an eye-to-eye view of the pupa of Rhyacophila prior to emergence from its cocoon (from Hickin’s Caddis).

Where can I get Science Spin?

Science Spin is available through newsagents throughout Ireland, north and south.

SPIN

www.sciencespin.com SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 12

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Science centre Four years from now Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest interactive science centre will open across the road from Heuston Station in Dublin. In February plans for the 6,600 sq metre centre, incorporating seven individually staffed gallery areas, were unveiled. The building, with its distinctively curved walls, was designed by Ciaran Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor heading an architectural team from the Office of Public Works.

Allied Irish Banks provided â&#x201A;Ź8 million in sponsorship, and the centre is to be run by a fifteen member board of trustees. At the unveiling of the plans, Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern , commented; â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe that the time has now come for us to celebrate science in this c country in the same way that we have always celebrated art and literature as part of our culture.â&#x20AC;?

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 13

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Information, Communication Technology

Wearable Wireless Sensor Systems developed by Ambient Electronic Systems at Tyndall.

Reaching into another reality The outcome of the relationship of humans with computers is critical to mankind’s future. In that future will we live – frighteningly - in some kind of computer-determined reality, or will computers instead be built into our reality? The latter vision is certainly more palatable and that’s the vision of Brendan O’Flynn, researcher at the Tyndall Institute, Cork, writes Marie-Catherine Mousseau.

C

an you imagine yourself in a computer-based reality? The computer revolution has already changed our world dramatically, but let us for a moment project into the future. What might we see there? A world where we’re all embedded into computer reality, as in the movie The Matrix? Or conversely a world where computers, in the form of numerous surrounding intelligent devices, are embedded into our reality? The latter vision is the one preferred by the team of Brendan O’Flynn, a researcher in the Tyndall institute, Cork. As he puts it,

his aim is to “bring wireless intelligent sensors into our world, instead of our world going into computers”.

Intelligent sensors

But what exactly are these wireless intelligent sensors, and what would their function be? Sensors by definition can sense reality; like our five senses do, but artificial sensors are actually capable of sensing much more than us. They can sense and measure temperature, light, chemicals, and they can sense movements, position, speed and acceleration. Basically almost anything we know has its own detecting device. Also, these sensors can be given an intelligence of their own by implanting them with miniaturised processors (very small computer systems).

“Sensors by definition can sense reality; like our five senses do, but artificial sensors are actually capable of sensing much more than us”

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 14

This means not only can they sense the data, but they can do something with it – that is the computerised part of it. Finally (and most importantly) they would be wireless, and they would be capable of transmitting the data they have processed via electromagnetic (radio) waves. Thus, sensing the data, processing it, before transferring it, is what wireless intelligent sensors do. And when operating together, they become what is called a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN).

Some might argue that already such sensor systems exist in our world today. Let’s take a closer look at the automatic checkouts in supermarkets, by way of an example. They sense the bar code of an item, translate it into a price, and add it to the previous price to eventually come up with the final total. They are also capable of sensing the actual weight of your item and comparing it to the marked-up weight.

Apart from getting the price right, its a smart way to cut out cheating! This SPIN

is a perfect illustration of an intelligent electronic sensor system specifically designed for its purpose.

However, the sensors Tyndall are dealing with are different to those at the supermarket because they are multi-purpose. Instead of being designed for just one specific application, the system is built up from connecting modules, each of which is designed for no specific application. In fact, it’s the way you choose to arrange them (in a user-friendly plug and play manner) which makes the final device perform a particular function.

As Brendan O’Flynn commented, modular functionality gives these devices a distinct competitive advantage. They can be adapted to suit a wide variety of applications, and that is good news to manufacturers in industry.

Another interesting feature of these sensors is their small size; from 25mm to 10mm. If you think that’s small, the goal is to make one that is only 1mm3.

Being so small, they can be embedded into just about anything, everyday objects, and even clothing.

Wireless

Being so small, however, can also have its limitations. In order to fulfil their sensing and data processing role these tiny devices have to combine many different components, including intelligent electronics, energy source, packaging, communication, and so forth, all of which have to be integrated into the final device.

How on earth can all of these components fit into 10 or 25mm3, let alone 1mm3? Let’s take the communication part. Their wireless intelligent sensors integrate various RF (radio frequency) modules dependant on the final application. In fact, they have a number of these RF modules – different transceiver layers using different radio wavelengths (2.4GHz).

Some of these RF systems operate on the same wavelength as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but there are other wireless technologies available that might be more appropriate to a particular application.

One popular communications standard being utilised in Wireless Sensor Networks is known as ZigBee. While Bluetooth serves a short-range, high-speed connectivity between

Small and modular, the modular sensors can be assembled for a variety of applications.

devices (such as a hands free mobile phone kit), ZigBee devices have the ability to form a mesh network — meshing being a type of daisy chaining from one device to another — allowing the short range of an individual node to be expanded and multiplied, covering a much larger area. “The ZigBee standard has been developed to meet the low power consumption and (relatively) low data rate requirements of Wireless Sensor Network applications”, Brendan explained. “It has the protocol and the networking capabilities so that a device can talk to other devices at the far side of the room or in different rooms.” And it looks like it will be the most implemented standard. Brendan confirms that unlike so many others, the ZigBee standard would be used worldwide.

Energy

Apart from the RF aspects, there is another very important issue still posing huge challenges in regard to the increasing miniaturisation of these devices and that is energy supply.

“As devices are getting smaller and smaller, research into power delivery and storage is critical,” said Brendan.

“It is pointless having a small device if the batteries are huge.” However, small batteries don’t have that much power and their life is extremely limited. Think of mobile phone batteries; they need to be recharged

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 15

every few days, and yet these are much larger than the little wonders we’re talking about.

One strategy is to reduce the power consumption of the system. “They (the devices) sleep 99.9 per cent of the time; they only wake up occasionally for the sensor reading, to extract the data from the system, and to process it,” Brendan explained, so there is no real need for a constant supply.

Power harvesting — which is all about availing of renewable energy from the immediate environment or from the use of the device itself — would be another elegant way to address the consumption issue. “We’re trying to use power sources such as vibrations of the system, movements, temperature or solar power to top up the batteries,” Brendan said. At a time where renewable and recycling trends are very much in vogue, small batteries that continually ‘top’ themselves ‘up’ would appear to be the perfect solution.

Applications

So what can we do with these elaborate devices? At the moment many consumer applications using these devices still lie in the future, but maybe not so far ahead, given the level of research activity. “We have made these devices available to research throughout Ireland,” said Brendan. Over 20 research projects are running here with an exciting range

of promising applications. Let’s take a broad look; and be prepared now to enter into a Sci-Fi kind of world.

One project concerns agriculture.

The sensors can be integrated into virtually anything, whether inanimate or animate, because they are so small. In agriculture, this might mean integrating these devices with plants.

Some sensors might be used to measure temperatures from the top and bottom of leaves, while others would measure soil temperature. The sensors would then tell the artificial intelligence embedded in the system control software when the plant needed watering; if it needed to be watered in the soil or if it needed a spray of mist applied; what kind of nutrient it needed and when. “In essence the plants make their needs known to the system and dictate their requirements to the system controller,” said Brendan.

Another project is examining the use of these sensors to analyse water quality. The big incentive to do this comes from an EU Water Framework Directive, whereby all water in the EU needs to be analysed for quality.

“Our vision is to have a wireless sensor network-based ‘Environmental Nervous system’ that could deliver water quality data in real-time”, said Brendan. Such a system could monitor pollution precisely and react promptly and efficiently at any sign of safety problems.

Sensors are also being developed to assist with automated car parking.

The idea is to set up sensors in car spaces so that the system can tell if a particular spot is available. If the spot is available the driver will be given a ticket that designates that specific spot.

The driver can then simply drive to the spot assigned — like the system at the cinema — and park the car. This can prevent a situation where drivers can drive around for a long time trying to locate a free space.

More dramatic is the research going on, in conjunction with different research groups (both within Tyndall

“Our vision is to have a wireless sensor network based ‘Environmental Nervous system’ that could deliver water quality data in real time”

and in other institutes) into external and potentially internal body sensors.

This area is referred to as “E-Health”, and is a huge field, encompassing many medical and ethical issues.

Imagine for instance intelligent sensors implemented in every hospital patients’ bed that could send up to date biometric data to doctors’ PDAs on their ward rounds – thus no further need for charts. The data could be constantly updated, and the impact of human error would be reduced.

There is also research into developing a wireless “Inertial measurement Unit”. This unit integrates accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetic field sensors to measure movement, acceleration and rotation.

Being able to monitor patient’s movements could be very useful for instance in post-stroke rehabilitation programmes. This system was also used to test a computerised game where children had to pick up balls using the desired movement for rehabilitation. As children enjoyed the game, it made it easier for them to practice their movement.

“At a time where renewable and recycling trends are very much en vogue, small batteries that continually ‘top’ themselves ‘up’ would appear to be the perfect solution”

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Monitoring people’s gait ,to help them walk correctly, could be another medical application of this system.

Although it might not be obvious, the way we walk can be an indicator of body health, and gait monitoring could, for example, be useful in patients with diabetes, who are at risk of developing gangrene from sores on their feet.

But, medical applications could go even further, not only helping treat conditions, but also making up for inherent deficiencies.

Wireless intelligent sensors could be embedded into gloves to monitor the orientation of the hand and the bending of the fingers during sign language, for example. If the signal is then transferred to a computer and reinterpreted with sounds, mute people would be able to talk.

“Tyndall are also looking at putting electrodes into the retina of blind people,” Brendan said. In many ways, intelligent sensors could augment nature wherever it fails to fulfil its function.

Pilots for instance, whose job demands sustained attention — even a slight loss of focus might be fatal — could have important data beamed up onto their glasses in response to their head movements. This is possible by making use of wireless intelligent sensors.

These sensors integrate more intelligence into the environment, but also integrate bits of intelligence into humans themselves. This is an old thread in science fiction, but scientists are today close to creating real bionic men and women for a future bionic society.

Marie-Catherine Mousseau, completed a PhD in neuroscience at Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris, and has a MSc in Science Communications from DCU/Queen’s. She writes about science, technology and medicine, and is currently Acting Editor with MIMI Ireland.

LIFE IN THE LAB

Sensors on tap Mossy Kelly, DCU physics student explains how low-cost light emitting diodes could be used in detection of poisons in drinking water.

I

magine having a sensor that can monitor your home water supply to ensure that no harmful chemicals, such as rat poison, comes through the tap. As an undergraduate physics student at DCU, this is my aim. Under the Hamilton Scholarship Programme, I am using light emitting diodes (LEDs) to build such a sensor at the National Centre for Sensor Research.

Chemicals in water absorb light, and as this is a selective process it can be used for identification of substances.

The absorption pattern is almost like a characteristic fingerprint, and it can be observed using a technique called photometric detection.

The technique requires a source of light of known wavelength, and this is where LEDs come into play. The light emitting diodes are small, similar to Christmas tree lights, and apart from being small, they are cheap.

Suppose an evil super-villain spikes a city’s water supply by dissolving a colourless poisonous chemical in the reservoir. In order to save the city, we would need to detect the poison immediately and know exactly how much was present, so we take action.

The photometric detection technique can be used to detect such a poison.

The technique relies on three key properties, wavelength, intensity, and absorbance.

The wavelength of a light source can be thought of as its colour. For example, violet light has a wavelength of roughly 400nm (10-9metres). Red light, has a wavelength of about 600nm.

In fact, as you move from the top of the rainbow to the bottom (from red to violet), you get light of shorter and shorter wavelengths. The intensity is simply how much light is coming from our source (in our case, an LED).

The absorbance refers to the liquid we are testing (in our case, the poisoned water). Every chemical absorbs light of a certain wavelength. For example, Chromate, which causes cancer, absorbs light at about 254nm, which is ultraviolet light. So when we shine an ultraviolet LED through a chromate sample,

Mossy at work in the Centre for Sensor Research.

all the light should be absorbed and none should get through to the other side. But let’s say the chromate was dissolved in water. Water itself absorbs practically no light, so, if pure, the UV would shine right through. However, the dissolved chromate absorbs light, so much less will get through.

Comparing the intensity entering to the intensity of light leaving the sample gives us a good measure of chromate. Applying a formula, called the Beer-Lambert Law, we can calculate how much of a particular wavelength has been absorbed, and this is how we can test for the presence of chemicals, such as chromate.

In photometric detection, we can be dealing with water samples which have hundreds of chemicals dissolved. Yet, detection remains effective because each chemical has its own unique absorbance

fingerprint. Instruments, called spectrophotometers, use lights of all different wavelengths so that pretty much any chemical can be detected.

If we put our water sample, which we suspect contains poison, into a spectrophotometer, the wavelength absorbed will confirm our suspicions.

By using the Beer-Lambert formula we can see just how much light is being absorbed, and if the number is high, we would know there is a lot of poison in the water.

The spectrophotometer is a fairly expensive piece of laboratory equipment, but in the not too distant future, these devices will be smaller and cheaper. You may yet be able to buy these sensors, fit them onto your kitchen tap and measure the amount of poison in your glass of water!

My naMe is Mossy Kelly and I have been a physics student in DCU for the last two and a half years. From an early age I had an interest in learning how things work and how things were made. In school I got really interested in science and maths and loved doing experiments (particularly the one where you had to shoot the plastic monkey with the fake bananas – I think it proves projectile motion). I chose to do physics in DCU because it offers students more experience and time in the lab than most other physics courses and includes an astronomy module. The degree also covers topics such as nuclear physics and LaSeR physics. In the summer of 2006 I did a research project with Dr. Mirek Macka and Dr. Brett Paull, members of the analytical research group in DCU as part of the Hamilton Undergraduate Scholarship. This experience was very rewarding as it gave me the chance to see how a research group operates and work with state-of-the-art equipment.

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Originally designed to “repel pirates and other invaders”, Blackrock Castle is now being used to look, not at approaching attackers, but instead at heavenly bodies. The historical landmark built in the 16th century has recently become the site of world class astronomical research.

Looking up at Blackrock

Danielle Barron writes that the restoration of a Cork landmark will focus more attention on space.

I

n the centuries since its construction, the castle was twice destroyed by fire and has been used for a variety of purposes including offices, a restaurant and as a private residence, before being purchased and refurbished by Cork Corporation in 2001. Its latest incarnation is as a robotic observatory and astronomy centre run by Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).

“The council were looking for ideas as to what to use the castle for, and the city manager liked our idea of using it as the site of an observatory - he liked the mix of the old and the new,” says Dr Niall Smith of the Blackrock Castle Observatory Team and CIT. The group also saw the opportunity to develop the castle as a focus for science outreach in Cork and surrounding areas. “The fact that we would have a real working observatory while at the same time the public could come and interact was really a unique slant to the project,” explains Smith.

Private and public sources have now funded the refurbishment of the

castle for the 21st century, which cost a total of €4 million. The observatory is now fully operational, with the Astronomy Education Centre due to open this year.

A Dublin-based company , Martello Media, were awarded the contract to develop the exhibition at the Astronomy Education Centre, the theme of which is: “The Search for Extreme Life”. The exhibition will take visitors on a journey from the very beginnings of the Universe through the formation of our solar system to the evolution of life on Earth. Visitors will also learn about the search for other planets and extraterrestrial life forms, and what threats we are facing from outer space.

The fully interactive exhibition incorporates physics, chemistry and biology, and is targeted at all age groups. “It’s very dynamic, graphical, and high-powered and importantly, it’s also updatable, as there are new discoveries the whole time in this field,” says Smith adding that it certainly won’t have the atmosphere of a stuffy museum. “The whole experience is one where science is friendly. We want to give a flavour of what we know about the Universe and what we are learning about the Universe and how that affects our daily living”.

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The team anticipate that every school in Cork will visit the centre annually, but it will also be open to the public and specialist groups. “Hopefully there will be a close interaction with schools and the public,” says Smith.

“In keeping with the idea that we have an observatory there, it’s very important for us to get across to people how the information displayed to them is being discovered,” he adds.

There is thus a section of the exhibit that details the research being carried out by the team in CIT. “It explains how some of the technology that we use and that we develop can be used, not just in astronomy, but in other areas to show the link between fundamental science and applications in the real world.”

The

I I I I I I I science

While members of the public are learning about discoveries, upstairs, in the dark room and domed observatory, the search into space continues.

The observatory houses two optical telescopes, with respective lenses of 16” and 10” diameter, which are operated robotically. These will be linked, via the internet, to schools that can apply for telescope time and then receive the images produced.

SPIN

The observatory will also soon be linked dynamically to a robotised 1.2m telescope in Kryoneri in Greece, in association with the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

After lying dormant for a number of years, the telescope is currently being upgraded in preparation for robotisation and first light in this project is expected in mid-2007. A 2.3m telescope in Aristarchos in Greece will also eventually be linked to Blackrock, as will a 1.5m telescope in Boyden, South Africa.

Research will now be carried out at the castle in a number of key areas including quasars, extra-solar planets, near Earth objects and Gamma ray bursts. Smith and his team in CIT have been making observations from both ground-based telescopes and satellites for 16 years, but had always been interested in monitoring quasars long-term. “We had it in our minds all along of building up this robotic network but we didn’t really have a way of achieving it until Blackrock came along,” says Smith.

Quasars are supermassive black holes that are rapidly shooting out jets of matter, which we see as a point of light. The team are also looking at blazars, which are extremely compact and highly variable energy sources also associated with a supermassive black hole at the centre of a host galaxy.

Alan Giltinan is working on the robotisation of the telescopes both in the castle and those in Greece and South Africa. “From our point of view, all we see is a normal star,” explains a PhD candidate working at the castle.

“We cannot differentiate the disk of light from the black hole.”

The team now hope to use the robotic telescope network to look at variations in the brightness of certain quasars. One particular quasar that the group are interested in is M87, which is just visible to the naked eye and has some interesting properties. Not only is it one of the closest quasars to Earth, its jet of light is unique in that it points slightly away from us. “Essentially what we can do is look around the jet,” explains Smith.

Images obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that the jet contains knots of emission, seen

The arrangement of optics at Blackrock Castle. as bright spots of light. “These bright spots are particles that are emitted from around the black hole, get thrown into the jet and then stream into other material. When they do that, they give us ideas as to the process of the underlying physics,” explains Smith.

Photometry involves measuring the light intensity of an object, explains Dylan Maher-Loughnan, another PhD student working in Blackrock Castle. The group aim to carry out high precision photometry on quasars using a unique two-channel CCD (Charged Coupled Device) camera that they have designed. The Two Channel Optical Photometric Imaging Camera (TOCAM – pronounced “toffee-cam”) is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and will be the first of its

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type to be used in an observatory anywhere.

“What we are looking for in the quasars is rapid variability in the light intensity so we need high-time resolution,” says Maher-Loughnan.

While high-time resolution can mean different things to different physicists, he explains, they are looking at events that happen on a time scale of seconds or minutes.

“If the light from a quasar is varying rapidly, say in the order of seconds, then the region that generated this light can only be light seconds or light minutes wide, so we are really looking at very small structures indirectly,” he says.

By imaging the knots in two different colours simultaneously, TOCAM will find out even more about

the behaviour of our neighbourhood quasar.

“When you take the information from a CCD you generate noise so what scientists have done before is read them out slowly as the more light you collect the bigger the signal is, and so the noise that you read out from the CCD is much smaller,” explains Maher-Loughnan. He adds that it is the same as taking a photo with a camera phone at night – the image produced is generally grainy, with white speckles everywhere. “That’s because there’s not a lot of light around so you haven’t got much information, and also you’ve got noise interference so when you read out the image from the CCD you get a poor quality picture.”

The new noise-free CCDs, however, will allow the group to read the information quickly, without incurring the noise penalty.

“Noise from the detector puts constraints on the science that you can do. The detectors with zero noise means we will produce much better data than is currently available,” explains Smith.

Smith and his team hope that this latest imaging technology will answer some questions about the mechanisms by which the radiation of quasars is generated.

The group are also employing a new technique dubbed “lucky imaging” in order to take even sharper images of the quasar. Normally, when

you take a picture from a groundbased telescope, the atmospheric turbulence causes some blurring of the image, explains Maher-Loughnan.

Currently, the only telescope which avoids this is the Hubble, which is orbiting the Earth and can produce extremely sharp images. However, the TOCAM will enable the team at Blackrock to use lucky imaging in order to obtain images of similar quality. Lucky imaging works by taking several very short exposures of the desired object, each only 10 milliseconds in length. By taking lots of images of a very short exposure time, invariably some will have been taken at a time when the atmosphere was steady.

“With lucky imaging you can pick the best images, add them together and you end up with a very nice image that you couldn’t get any other way, unless, like the Hubble, you’re outside the atmosphere,” says MaherLoughnan.

“Nobody has obtained these ultra-sharp images in two colours simultaneously before,” adds Smith.

“We’re really pushing the envelope here. We are developing a new instrument that could have applications elsewhere, but we are doing it to find out fundamental parameters about the Universe in which we live. This is an important endeavour that we should encourage students to get involved in, from a very early age,” says Smith.

SPIN Danielle is a pharmacology graduate and also holds an MSc in Science Communication from DCU. She works as a freelance science writer, and is a contributor to Science Spin, as well as The Irish Times and the Irish Examiner. She has also just finished working with Stopwatch television on the fourth series of the RTE2 science show Scope.

Top: arrival and assembly of the dome.

Above: unpacking the telescope.

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Good relations The French and the Irish have always been on good terms, yet the mutual attraction has not translated into a high level of collaboration in science. Tom Kennedy reports that researchers in both countries are keen to embark on joint projects.

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mong the biggest problems facing researchers are lack of scale and lack of co-ordination, and this is why third level institutions have started to pool resources. As universities such as UCD have found, bringing departments, such as engineering and life sciences together has brought research up to a higher level, and for some select topics the merging of interests has gone a step further. Bodies, such as CRANN, Tyndall, REMEDI, and the Conway Institute, although located on or beside college campuses, are not regional, they are national, and their research aspirations are international.

Many scientists, such as Prof Harvey from the Royal College of Surgeons, and Liam Donnelly, Head of Research at Moorepark, argue that to make our mark internationally we need to participate more actively in the European Research Zone. While the Irish performance in science has been impressive, Ireland’s resources are small compared to the rest of Europe. Ireland has seven universities, Europe has more than 2,000 of comparable size. 85 of these universities, and 25 large research institutes are in France, and, as Liam Donnelly from Teagasc remarked at a recent conference, there is a lot to be gained by looking at them as potential partners in bringing up the scale and scope of research.

Liam Donnelly was one of those participating in a gathering of researchers organised by IRCSET and the French Embassy to look at how the level of collaboration between the two countries could be increased. Like the College of Surgeons, Teagasc has long-established links to France, but Liam Donnelly and Prof Harvey both commented that collaboration has been the exception rather than the rule. With the expansion of Irish research institutions, the number of joint projects has increased, but as Prof Harvey commented, the scale, more often than not, is small, and ad hoc arrangements are often the result of a chance encounter by a visiting scientist.

Ireland’s newly appointed Chief Scientific Adviser, Prof Patrick Cunningham, said that one of the reasons why researchers should think of France is because there is so much choice. “The economy there is ten times our size,” he said, “so everything is on a grander scale.” Scale, however, is not the only thing that impresses Prof Cunningham. If we want scale, he said, we already have easy access to Britain and the US, but France is different. In science, he said, “there is an independent approach, and this goes well beyond any consideration about scale.” This independent attitude, he commented, is close to our own, and the only reason why collaboration did not take off before is that Ireland was not ready. Ten years ago, he said, research in Ireland was scattered, so it would have been difficult to consider joint projects.

The situation now is quite different, and as Prof Cunningham observed, we do have a lot to offer.

Both countries share a deep interest in agriculture, so its not too surprising that some of the original links came through Teagasc. Those links are with the French agricultural agency, INRA, which has 21 centres scattered throughout France. The diversity of research being undertaken by INRA is enormous, and at present twenty of the projects involve Irish partners, ten with Teagasc, three with UCC, and one with the Marine Institute.

Even so, commented Liam Donnelly, we have only begun to scratch the surface. Participation in joint projects, he said, is a great way to break the ice, but what we should really aim for are joint programmes. Researchers are often looking into areas that have no boundaries, so we need to get beyond thinking of purely national considerations, he said. Coming up with joint programmes, he added, is an approach that does not necessarily involve separate or special funding.

Irish researchers who feel they might not be welcome in France, were assured of a ceád mílle fáilte by Dr Anne Brass from the Direction des elations Européennes et Internationalales, part of the CNRS agency that deals with international projects. There are, said Dr Anne-Brass, formal links to Germany, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Turkey, and Ukraine. Those links involve researcher mobility, and joint applications for project funding. Ireland stands out by its absence, and as Dr Anne-Bass remarked “applications from Ireland are rare.”

The giant CNRS agency is also linked into the European Associated Laboratories organisation, in what is often referred to as the ‘labs without walls’ project. There are 48 associated labs throughout the world, 22 of them in Europe, and not one of them in Ireland.

Dr Anne-Brass said more Irish interest in French research would be welcome, and indeed is needed.

Collaboration, she said, prepares researchers for participation in large scale EU projects.

The Ambassador of France, His Excellency Frederic Grasset (right) pictured at the opening of the Irish - French Life Sciences Colloquium with (left to right) Professor Frank Hegarty, Vice-Chair of IRCSET, Her Excellency Anne Anderson, Ambassador of Ireland to France and Professor Jane Grimson, Chair of IRCSET.

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SPIN

Kicking up the dust in Australia, the Aboriginal dances had a survival value, and songs kept the ancient stories alive.

Photograph: Tourism Australia.

Music, language and memory Wendy Baarda, from Yuendumu, in Central Australia, looks at how music bonds us together and by meeting deeply rooted needs helps to make us human.

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aura O’Malley’s article “In Tune with Our Emotions”, (Science Spin March ’06) is very interesting and I feel driven to add to the debate over whether music is “auditory cheese cake”, as Steven Pinker suggests, or whether it has contributed to human survival. I know of one instance where songs have had an important role in survival.

Here in Central Australia, the Aboriginal peoples have Dreamings which are stories and routes of ancestral journeys across the country. In their travels the Dreaming ancestors, such as Kangaroo, Water, Bush Potato, changed the landscape according to the stories, creating water holes, soakages and significant landmarks. In dry times the people could still travel over large areas following the Dreaming “paths” which ensure they would always reach water as they travel along.

The stories are contained in songs which keep the events and associated landmarks in strict order. When travelling in country they haven’t travelled before or perhaps not for a very long time, people stop and sing the songs that remind

them of the “path”. Then they know where they are and what to look for in which direction.

Before literacy words tied to music in a song or chant could pass on stories and history for many generations with a small amount of change. Songs, like writing, are a memory aid and allow information to reach a larger number of people over time and distance. Like stories they pass on the assumptions, beliefs, values and aspirations of the societies that produce and spread them.

However songs are just language attached to tune and rhythm which may have been in use before language. There is a saying that no-one ever does any real work at something they haven’t first played at. Babies play with sound, with pitch and rhythm. The first people are likely to have also done so. Music could have developed as “auditory cheesecake” and been enlisted for survival purposes later.

Darwin must be right about us breeding ourselves into music lovers. Famous singers and musicians have so many fans falling in love with them. Before contraceptives the bards would have had a reproductive advantage. Some music does seem to be a natural aphrodisiac. This still doesn’t explain where the first responsiveness to music came from.

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SPIN

Music is central to many Before the development of speech, people Music probably uses rising or falling ceremorial occasions. Emotions sounds, repeated sounds with some echoes probably used sound as other creatures use running high as the York Road of non-verbal communication. We alI it, to signal danger, distress, terror, disgust, Accordion band marches out in recognize sad music, joyous music, changes pleasure, to urge youngsters to follow, to Belfast’s Orange Parade. soothe and comfort, to attract a mate or in mood. However I don’t think either frighten off enemies. We can all make some language or music developed from warning Photograph: easily recognizable non-verbal sounds. These calls. Professor Ramachandran– in the BBC Tom Kennedy/Source Archive. sounds differ in pitch (rising or falling), Reith lectures on the Brain (2003) made a volume, and rhythm or length of sound. convincing argument showing how language Some or all of these may feed directly into the emotional could have grown out of associations across senses, such as centre of the brain enabling a very quick response. The linking an image with a sound. For example ‘ama’ means brain is probably programmed to remember sound-event breast or milk in Luritja. ‘Mama’ means mother in many associations and produce a quick response without much languages. The word mimics the infant’s sucking mouth. processing. Music can evoke old memories and emotions With a sound a person could evoke an image in another’s felt at that time. brain of something that was not present. How useful.

Perhaps both language and music owe something to preWhat a big step from non-verbal communication. This is verbal communication. Though languages differ vastly, in so basic to human needs that it could have been invented one aspect of intonation they have something in common. A independently in isolated groups of people. Language rising tone can denote a question. I can imagine a pre-verbal communicates thoughts. It can invoke feelings but that’s not conversation — its main job. That would be a link to a memory in a different part of the brain. Because quality of sound goes first to the Mother beckoning child: a – a. emotional centre of the brain, music communicates feelings.

Child, pointing to berry: mmmm?

It can invoke images, another link to memory. Although they Mother: ergh! both require the processing of sound, I would expect this to Child, disappointed: oh occur in different parts of the brain.

Mother, pointing to another berry: mmmmm!

I was interested to read the Canadian neuropsychologist, Child: oooooh!

Robert Zatorre’s, comments that studies have shown the processing of musical syntax is stronger in the right

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hemisphere of the brain and processing language syntax occurs more frequently in the left.

This fits with an idea about the development of serial thinking. The old languages I know, Latin and Warlpiri, an Australian aboriginal language, don’t rely on word order for meaning. They use suffixes or case endings to signal who is the subject and those words we call prepositions, (in, on, to, for etc.) are attached to the word they pertain to. This allows people to say words in whatever order the thoughts arise. They don’t need to think in sentences. They can think in images. These languages don’t need to enlist that part of the brain, which puts things in strict order.

Music however, is necessarily serially ordered. The notes and the rhythm patterns must be in precise progression or it wouldn’t be music. Songs could have been the first step to serial language and thinking in words rather than in images. Serial thinking is also required for numbers. Serious traders would need to develop serial thinking. Most modern languages are serial languages. We can’t begin to produce a sentence or decode a sentence in a free-word-order language without thinking about which word to put first, because this is how we make sense of language. We still do a lot thinking in images. We feel a bit puckish, we think of some nice cheese in the fridge and dry biscuits in the cupboard and go and get them. No internal dialogue is required.

Understanding involves building up global pictures of a whole utterance. Speaking involves converting global ideas into words. Once the rules of the language are learned the brain probably doesn’t always need to enlist the serial progression section. Speech also demands fine control and co-ordination of the tongue, lips, vocal chords and breathing.

Apart from songs, the brain doesn’t need to use these areas of the brain for music.

I agree with Zatorre that language, literacy, music, maths, features of modern knowledge, must use parts of the brain that had some other function for hunter-gatherers. We know literacy, particularly the ability to decode and encode words lies somewhere along the object recognition path in the inferior frontal gyrus, because magnetic resonance imaging shows the new area of the brain “lighting up” while reading, after a child masters phonics skills. Language and music are harder to trace because they develop slowly along with many other skills, and probably begin before birth. A foetus can hear speech and music and can experience anxiety and pleasure along with the mother as adrenaline and hormones are carried in the blood.

I agree with Robert Dunbar, from the Department of Anthropology at University College London, who maintains that music has a role in social bonding. It seems likely that chorusing did go along with grooming.

This seems a likely beginning for the development of music. In Central Australia aboriginal people have songs that accompany the careful body painting for ceremonies. The painting preparation is as important as the dance. This music produces the tingly feeling up the spine and into the scalp. The feeling is quite like being groomed. The preparation does make every-one very happy with each other, over-riding current differences.

Chanting and rhythms sometimes go along with gruelling, repetitive tasks, such as pounding grain and marching long distances. Even when we are tired, music can make us feel lighter and give us more energy. We can dance for hours without feeling tired. Maybe some music grew out of chants and rhythms for work.

I’m not convinced that we have replaced grooming with language. Though some language interactions are social cement, others are competitive and divisive. There are many language purposes. Verbal conscious thinking may cause feelings of separateness, as each person develops their individual consciousness. Buddhists say we have to still the rushing of thoughts to feel our oneness with others and creation. Music seems to me, a more likely replacement for grooming.

In most societies significant social occasions and religious ceremonies involve music. Because music causes a response in the emotional part of the brain which is, in evolutionary terms, older and more similar in all of us, it’s likely that every-one present on these occasions experiences very similar feelings. Personally I find that the tingly feeling only happens when there are a number of voices or instruments making the music, and the sound is all around. It does seem to be a group thing.

The brain seems to be programmed to focus on different things at different stages of development. Infants from one to six are very receptive to language. Though little children respond to music, it seems that from eleven to early twenties they are driven to seek out and listen to music. This is the age where they are emerging as individual operators but society needs them to be bonded into the group fabric beyond attachment to immediate family, from which they must eventually separate themselves. The music of their generation bonds them. As they become musically selective, different genres of music place them in various identity groups which reinforce the values of the group.

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I think of the brain and its system of sending impulses along interlinking neurons as the hard drive. Language, music, art, maths etc. are the software programs that have to be put into the brain. The great evolutionary advantage of humans is that we have a brain, which can take in and run these programs.

The one condition required for taking in anything is that it has a link to the emotional centre. Emotion is the motivation and the reward or punishment.

Music does provide the reward. What was the drive? It could be social bonding, the alleviation of loneliness and separateness. We are communal creatures. This is our other evolutionary advantage. Many heads are better than one.

All the arts contribute to social cohesion. They provide a communal conscientiousness. Music, because of its direct link to emotions and its separateness from our other individual concerns, could be a powerful bonding agent. The most cohesive communities would survive best, being more united facing dangers and less prone to internal breakdown.

There are still many unanswered questions. The monkeys who chose quiet cages over musical cages had mothers who never sang to them and families, that never listened to music. Would children raised without music also choose the quiet place? Is the human love of music the result of pleasant associations or is the pleasure from music, part of the hard drive? Is the response to music specific to pitch and rhythm or is it part of a general pleasure centre which enjoys patterns, or putting things together to make something more complicated, or enjoys the familiar, or delights in the unexpected or likes resolutions, (music usually finds its way back to the key it began in). These days for a new piece of music to become popular it must be similar enough to engage the supporters of its genre and also have something original in it.

Other questions are: why do dingoes, whales and birds sing? Do all communal creatures have the potential to become lovers of music? How does that tingling sensation work? Does music produce the tingly feeling or is it caused by the endorphins? Are music and grooming together in one part of the brain dedicated to bonding? Do they happen to lie next to each other, and is there some spilling over of nerve impulses? Why donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t other pleasurable experiences produce the tingling up the spine?

Whether the love of music is innate, independent of learning, or part of the cultural training, I feel sure it has contributed to human survival by promoting group bonding and it continues to do so. Social cohesion is a great survival asset for the group and the individual. Getting along with others is the key to satisfying most of our needs.

Humans have spent a great deal of our past existence as hunter-gatherers and a relatively short time as farmers and traders. I think it is important for the remaining huntergatherer cultures to be allowed and encouraged to keep their languages and culture as much as they want to, for their own identity and also because we can learn a lot from them.

When geneticists worked on discovering early human genotypes they collected large samples of DNA from around the world. They found concentrations of early genotypes in Central Asia, Central Australia and somewhere in Africa, but also at least one among their own student population. Like black sheep, old genotypes reappear. This shows us that all thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needed to become a university student was already there in the brains of the earliest humans. We havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t done a lot of evolving lately. If our love of music has given us an evolutionary advantage, it was something we could do better than other creatures or pre-humans a long time ago.

Wendy Baarda, from Yuendumu, majored in psychology and after studying for a Masters in Education, spent 39 years teaching in an aboriginal community.

Music had a prominent place in cultures around the world, China, India, Persia, Egypt, the Americas, Africa, Australia, and as shown here in an ancient vase painting, Greece.

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The picture of health, cattle grazing in County Galway. Although rare, toxins produced by bacteria in decaying organic matter can suddenly hit healthy herds.

Photo: Tom Kennedy/Source Archive.

Below: A scanning electron microscope view of the deadly Clostridium botulinum.

Image: NJAU education.

THE HIDDEN KILLER

BOTULISM Animals are unpredictable so life as a vet, writes Cornelie Kennedy, is also unpredictable. One thing is you never get bored Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a long tale of little triumphs and disasters and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve really got to like it to stick with it.

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late call out to a young sturdy cattle herd that had been healthy, bright and mischievous only four hours earlier and now were restless, poorly co-ordinated and knuckling over on their feet had all the makings of a disaster. Indeed, on arrival not one, but three of these beautiful young animals were dead.

Thirty cattle in all were affected: all with similar signs but varying in their intensity; unsteady gait, paralysis of the tongue with drooling, progressive muscular paralysis from hindquarters to front quarters, head and neck. The sudden and group onset of symptoms made poisoning the most likely cause.

The clinical signs all pointed to a botulism incident.

What is Botulism?

Botulism, a serious but relatively rare disease, is caused by an extremely potent toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.

The bacterium is naturally abundant around the world, it is common in

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soil, and it forms spores that are able to survive in a dormant state for long periods until favourable conditions allow them to grow. The poisoning commonly affects wild fowl and poultry, cattle, horses, some fishes, but botulism in humans is, fortunately, rare.

Botulism has been known since the dawn of history, and, with good reason the name comes from the Latin botulis, sausage. Growth of the anaerobic bacterium in meat, when it goes off, has been a common cause of the disease since antiquity.

Although the incidence of botulism is relatively low, the disease is of considerable concern because of its high infectivity and high mortality rate.

SPIN

Botulism in cattle has increased, and in England and Wales the number of incidents has risen from four a year in the 1990s to 20 in 2005, and 29 in 2006.

There are seven distinct toxins produced by C. Botulinum (designated by letters A-G) Toxin types B, C and D cause most problems in animals and toxin type A, B, E and F cause most cases in humans.

The botulinum toxin causes flaccid paralysis by blocking motor nerve terminals at myoneural junction. It blocks the signals between the nerves and the muscles. This paralysis progresses downward, usually starting with the eyes and face, then progressing on to the throat, chest and extremities. Death results when the diaphragm and chest muscles fail, resulting in asphyxiation.

In animals botulism is classified as two forms: foods borne and toxicoinfectious (wound form). The food borne form occurs when animals ingest toxins directly from decaying matter, such as spoiled silage, or contaminated carcasses or maggots.

This is caused by bacterial growth on the dead tissues around wounds on the skin or within the body.

Botulism is one of the most important diseases among wild migratory birds: it kills an estimated 10 to 50 thousand wild birds per year.

Ducks appear to be more susceptible than other migratory birds. Although ultimately fatal, the ducks die by drowning.

Botulism in cattle has increased, and in England and Wales the number of incidents has risen from four a year in the 1990s to 20 in 2005, and 29 in 2006.

A large portion, as also was the case with our unfortunate farmer, were associated with direct or indirect contact with poultry litter or contaminated feed. Farmers use poultry litter to fertilize their land.

In humans wound and infant botulism can occur, but the most frequent is food borne botulism. Foods associated with botulism include

inadequately processed home canned foods, or inappropriate handling and cooking of meat products, canned vegetables and seafood products.

Botulism is not communicable by casual contact in either humans or animals. However, tissues from infected animals can be toxic if ingested by other animals.

Treatment

The success rate for treating botulism is not high. The stomach and intestine can be washed out to remove some of the toxin, and antibiotics can be useful;

Bioterrorism

According to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, botulinum toxin, along with anthrax, smallpox, tularemia and hemorraghic fever viruses, represent the biggest threats to human health. This view is based on the fatality rate, the ease of dissemination and transmission, and on the potential to inspire panic.

Botulism toxins, which can be spread in aerosols, as well as in food and water, are known to have been put to military use in several countries and when Allied troops landed in Normandy towards the end of World War II they brought one million doses of a vaccine in case Germany was ready to use biological weapons. In the 1930s the Japanese army ran tests on prisoners in Manchuria, and in more recent times, Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult, attempted to use aerosolised botulinum toxin in Japanese cities on at least three occasions between 1990 and 1995; fortunately, these efforts were unsuccessful, because, according to some experts, it is among the most toxic of all known substances. One gram has the potential to kill over a million people.

the success rate depends on the type of toxin causing the illness. In humansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; intensive supportive care, including mechanical breathing assistance is possible. The recovery rate in animals is very low, in humans with proper supportive care it can be 60 per cent: however recovery is slow and it can take several months and survivors report fatigue and shortness of breath for years.

In our case the situation is being investigated by the Department of Agriculture as appropriate steps must be taken to protect the food chain. Recovery in animals is rare and unfortunately affected cattle are euthanised to avoid unnecessary suffering, leaving us with the bitter realisation that even vets are left helpless.

Wrinkles

Because botulism toxins have such a powerful affect on muscles, they have found a role in treatment of some human disorders, such as crossed eyes.

Paralysing some of the eye muscles can correct this.

Recently this ability has made the poison popular as a means of eliminating face wrinkles. The cosmetic use of Botox, based on botulinum toxin Type A has increased It blocks nerve signals effectively, paralysing the muscles that cause wrinkles. However, this cosmetics effect only lasts three to six months, which means users must repeat the toxic dose on a regular basis â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what a high price to pay for vanity!

Cornelie Kennedy is a vet currently working in a mixed animal practice at Naas, County Kildare.

Mind Matters Tune in to Ella McSweeneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new series on Mind Matters. Starting on March 6th on RTE 1 radio, the series looks at what scientists now know about brain disorders.

For details and podcasts visit www.rte.ie/radio1/mindmatters/ SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 27

Photograph by Wojciech Szczygiel, showing volcanic vents in Italy exhaling heated sulphur dioxide and other vapours.

The Du Noyer photographic competition organised by the Geological Survey of Ireland in association with the Irish Geological Association celebrates the memory of the 19th century surveyor and artist, George Victor Du Noyer. The competition, open to all, focuses on images that reveal the wonder of our rocks and landscape. This year, Wojciech Szczygiel, from Graiguecullen, took the top prize for his photograph of eroded rocks in the High Atlas mountains.

GEO IMAGES

Photographs from the GSI Du Noyer competition

Wojciech Szczygiel’s photograph of sand-dunes near the town of Erfoud, in Morocco, marking the western edge of the Sahara Desert.

The winning photograph of eroded slopes in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco by Wojciech Szczygiel.

Carboniferous limestone exposed on Inis Mean, one of the Aran Islands. Although in County Galway, this is an extension of the Burren landscape, sharing many of its features. This fly-by photograph by Con O’Rourke, author of the recently published guide to the natural history of the islands.

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Peter O’Donnelly’s splendid panorama of the Knockmealdown Mountains, Co Waterford.

Three of John Linehan’s photographs, right, fossil crinoids in Carboniferous limestone along the shore at Ballyconnel, Co Sligo. Above, inclined bedding reflected in rock pool at Ballyconnel, Co Sligo. Left, algae draped rocks by the sea, Ballyconnel, Co Sligo.

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Conor Power’s photograph of Classiebawn overlooking an inclined bedding plane along the Sligo shore.

Right: Queen of the Glen, an erratic in Glengarrif Glen, Co Antrim, and below, The Gobbins at Islandmagee, Co Antrim, by Robert B Stewart

Entries for the next Du Noyer competition are welcome. The closing date is 16th November 2007.

Entries should be posted in an envelope marked “Du Noyer Competition” to: The General Office, Geological Survey of Ireland, Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd, Dublin 4.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 31

Survey takes flight Seán Duke reports that an airborne survey is providing wealth of new geological information The Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) has released data from an airborne survey conducted by two small planes, carrying a range of specialised equipment, flying low over Kerry, Cavan, Monaghan and Leitrim. The data provides a wealth of new information on soil, water, topsoil, and bedrock, and is expected to prove an invaluable resource for local authorities, state agencies, and quarrying and mineral exploration companies.

The new data – released by the GSI in December — will vastly improve on existing geological

maps, by providing more detail.

Furthermore, the airborne survey could help state agencies locate illegal dumps, pinpoint areas of high indoor radon risk, identify lands where there is excessive use

of nitrates, monitor the loss of peatlands, measure the quality of groundwater, and help exploration companies find minerals and aggregates. In short, this is a data revolution.

Above: the specially equipped twin-engined Otter in action.

Photo: GSNI. The regional geology of the Castleisland area.

The blue colours are limestones, the brown is sandstone and the green is shale and sandstones.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 32

SPIN

The data was collected in June 2006 by two small, ‘twin otter’ aircraft equippent with sophisticated systems for measuring magnetics, electromagnetics and radiometrics.

The magnetic and electromagnetic properties of the Earth were measured as well radiometric signals coming from the ground below.

It was not possible, with the funding allocated, to survey the entire landmass of the Republic, as has been done in the north, so three sites were specially chosen as pilot studies. These were the border counties of Cavan, Monaghan and Leitrim, the area around Castleisland County Kerry, and around Slivermines County Tipperary.

The biggest of the three surveys in the Republic was in Cavan, Leitrim, and Monaghan, where it took the two aeroplanes eight days to survey 5,077 km of area (working in straight lines).

The Castleisland survey took six days, with 4,583 km surveyed, while the Silvermines area was surveyed in a single day with 111 km surveyed. The measurements were taken at intervals of between seven and 70 metres and the flight speed of the low flying twin otters was approximately 210 km per hour.

Noel Dempsey, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, speaking at the official launch, said that the main focus of the Cavan/Monaghan/Leitrim survey was on getting better data

on groundwater. There was now a water framework directive from the EU and it was important that Ireland keep good track of the quality of its groundwater, he said.

The focus of the survey at Silvermines, the minister said, was to provide information that would help with the €10 million remediation work — to repair the damage from centuries of mining — that is going on there. In Kerry, he said, there was a potential hazard from indoor radon and that was the focus of the survey there. The RPII (Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland) is using the survey findings to help with that work.

The minister went on to say that the survey could help to promote mineral exploration activity. The exploration companies need to pinpoint where the minerals are, and to get them out of the ground in the most cost-effective way, while limiting the environmental damage, he said. The Minister added that it was also very important that there was a north south dimension to the survey.

Border counties

It is hoped and expected that the data gathered in the three border counties of the Republic by the GSI will be integrated with data already gathered by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI) through its Tellus airborne data-gathering project.

The linking of data sets on both sides of the border will provide the means for co-operation in areas such as keeping a close eye on the quality of groundwater and illegal dumping activities, both of which can be monitored using airborne data.

On the commercial side, the authorities on both sides of the border are keen to encourage mineral exploration, and there are a number of licences held in the border region. If the data sets were integrated it would be of great benefit to these exploration companies. The airborne data could also help locate aggregates of use to the building industry.

In geological terms, the survey in this area sought to find answers to questions such as how thick the glacial till and peat layers are in different locations, while attempting to pinpoint the break between the two main rock types in the region, the limestones and the lower Palaeozoic rocks.

The topography of the Castleisland area broadly reflects the geology.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 33

Castleisland

A ternary radiation image from Castleisland (Potassium (K)=red, Uranium (U)=blue, Thorium (Th)=green) from the airborne radiomentrics survey. White indicates all (K, U and Th) are high, dark areas indicates all low. The image gives an overall picture of exposure from these three sources.

This region was chosen because, as geologists know — but perhaps many members of the pubic don’t know — it is an area of relatively high radon risk.

In geological terms, the area around Castleisland is characterized by a large ‘anticline’. An anticline can be imagined as being somewhat akin to what a folded newspaper looks like when it is stood in an upright position on a table. It takes massive temperatures and pressures to bend and fold rocks into that kind of shape, but that is what happened to the carboniferous limestones and the shales in this region.

The goal in this area is to draw up a radon risk map that can help local people identify the locations that are at the highest risk, and to take the appropriate action. It is estimated that between 200 and 250 people die of radon induced cancer in Ireland every year, so knowing where the radon threat is most severe could help save lives.

The survey produced images of the areas of high uranium that corresponded to the areas of high radon risk. A high incidence of uranium was found over the local limestone rocks and also over the shales. However, the concentration of uranium can vary from limestone to limestone and this was also shown up in the survey results.

Silvermines

This image from Castleisland shows the relative concentration of uranium as mapped by radon222. High values are red-white.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 34

This area is well known in Ireland as a silver and lead mining area. Mining activity was recorded here as far back as the Middle Ages and underground production of minerals only finally ceased in 1995. The geology of the area is characterised by a geological fault, while the rocks are a combination of Devonian rocks and limestones.

There is a tailings pond where the waste from the long years of mining was deposited. The goal here was to detect the environmental fallout from past mining. For example, it was important to determine whether there was contamination of groundwater in the area, something that is of major concern to local residents.

The government has provided €10 million for remediation works to counteract the negative affect of mining in the area, and the survey will assist with that work.

The tailings pond was clearly seen by the survey, and maps of the region were drawn up in different colours, showing where limestones and sandstones are located. There are a number of mineral exploration licences held in the area, and the new data will be useful to exploration companies, as well as local authorities and geologists.

Access

The director of the airborne survey pilot studies at the GSI, Eibhlín Doyle said that there is to be a charge for accessing the data. While company consultants are being charged €150 for each of the three survey areas, Eibhlín said that the data would be made available to every government department and county council at nominal cost. This is positive, but the lack of staff that are properly trained to apply the new data is an issue that must be addressed before the full potential benefits from the release of the data can be realised.

Garth Earls, director of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI) noted that there is an urgent need – north and south – to have people in every government department and county council trained to deal with this valuable new information. “The data is useless unless there are people that can apply it,” he said.

Sampling on the ground was an important part of the NI Tellus project.

The regional geology of the Cavan-Monaghan-Leitrim area. The blue areas are limestone, the green and purple are greywacke and shales, and the red is granite.

Northern Ireland The airborne surveys on both sides of the border began with the all island project called the Resource and Environmental Survey of Ireland.

From this, the GSNI moved to initiate the Tellus project, which gathered airborne data on the entire Northern Ireland landmass during 2002 and 2003. A vast amount of data was gathered by the GSNI in those two years, and the analysis of the data is ongoing. But, it is already abundantly clear, that the data will provide huge new insights into the understanding of the geology of Northern Ireland.

The Tellus project received funding of £6 million. The aim of Tellus, said GSNI director Garth Earls, who spoke at the GSI launch, was to refine the old, existing geological maps, to produce new images of the geology of the landscape, to map the urban and rural geochemistry, and to assist with mineral exploration. The main drivers behind Tellus, he said, were agriculture, environment, mineral

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 35

The magnetic intensity for the same area. The obvious linear features are dykes. The granite, shown in the map above, is picked up by the magnetic survey. exploration, medicine (geochemistry), and civil engineering (road planning).

The Tellus survey also took samples from soils and from streams to investigate the geochemistry of Northern Ireland. A lot of nickel was found, but this wasn’t surprising as the basalts of county Antrim are high in nickel.

Nitrates were also measured, and, again, not surprisingly, an east-west split was identified. There were more nitrates found in the eastern region — the more fertile region. Nitrate levels are commonly used as one of the indicators of soil fertility.

On the public relations side, the GSNI made sure to contact everyone that might be affected by the activities of the low flying survey aircraft before the surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2006. This helped to create public goodwill, said Garth Earls. The PR campaign also ensured that Tellus had the highest public profile of any Earth Science research project ever

conducted in Northern Ireland, the director said.

The Geology of NI is divided into four parts, he said. In the NE there is basalt, in the NW there are the Dalradian rocks, the old schists, in the SW it is mainly limestones, and in the SE it is the shales of the lower Palaeozoic and the granites of Newry and Mourne. Tellus, said Garth Earls, has provided an incredible amount of new information that has been imposed onto the old maps. “The new information has confirmed what we knew and allows us to take our knowledge on to the next stage with a huge amount of confidence in our interpretations.”

Tellus also took radiometric images.

The Mourne Mountains are the most radioactive rocks in Britain or Ireland.

The survey allowed geologists to draw up radon risk maps. The basalts of Antrim have little radioactivity, but the Mourne Mountains are different as these are near granite, and are at higher risk from radon.

The high potassium areas were monitored, down to the areas where there has been increased use of fertilisers. This capability to monitor fertiliser usage provides the authorities in the north with the means to enforce the EU Nitrate Directive.

The survey was also used to identify changes in land usage and the thickness levels of peat. “We can map the thickness of peat in Northern Ireland and compare the thickness of peat now and on maps from maybe 100 years ago,” said Garth Earls.

Groundwater can also be better understood and its quality monitoring through the use of Tellus data. For example, the GSNI understand that there are lots of basalt dykes in County

Fermanagh and that these dykes appear to compartmentalise water. Tellus can help geologists to determine what groundwaters are linked around Fermanagh and this can help greatly with pollution monitoring.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 3

Garth Earls called for cross-border co-operation using the GSNI and GSI airborne data. He cited the case of waste, as an example of what could be achieved. “This cross border waste management approach is begging to be done,” he said. The two surveys could identify priorities, he said, by focusing in on areas where there are suspicious anomalies in the airborne data sets. This could help the authorities on both sides of the border, he said, to prioritise what needs to be done regarding enforcement.

The GSNI Tellus project is a model well worth following, as Northern Ireland and Finland are the only places in the EU that have surveyed their entire landmass from the air. Air surveys have been conducted in many places around the EU, but this has only been done in patches.

If Ireland were to have an integrated airborne data set available for the whole island this would put the entire island – north and south - out in front as a world leader in terms of the quality of its geological data.

REVIEW

D

Blood of the Isles

on’t get the idea that the Celts, Vikings, and Normans ganged up to wipe out the Irish, and as for the English, well, the truth of it is that they were not much different from us anyhow. In fact, the English have managed to convince themselves that they are some sort of Saxon hybrid, and the rest of us, the Welsh, the Scots, and the Irish, are just a bunch of wild and troublesome Celts. As Bryan Sykes explains in his book, Blood of the Isles, the Irish may be troublesome, but they should not be accused of being Celts, and the English should stop going on about their brave Saxon ancestors, because they actually don’t have that many to boast about. Alas for the myths, our genes tell a different story, and as Bryan Sykes writes, if the English had not been so inventive about their past, the world would have been spared an awful lot of trouble.

Bryan Sykes is a scientist, Prof of Human Genetics at Oxford, and his quest to map our genes began some years ago, his interest sparked off by the discovery that DNA from the earliest inhabitants of Britain is not that different from that of people living now. That these fragments of DNA have come to us, unchanged, over thousands of years, said Bryan Sykes, still fills him with awe.

Those genes are the key to unlocking our past, and the history they tell is nothing but the unvarnished truth.

Like it or not, DNA, unlike the usually selective family tree, really shows us where we came from.

In his book, Bryan Sykes describes how the gene mapping project expanded, and as luck would have it, an Irish study, under Dan Bradley at TCD, had started, so the two sister isles could be studied as a whole, and as the conclusions show, genetically this made a lot of sense.

This is a book packed with asides, Bryan Sykes constantly strays off the beaten path while describing how the thousands of samples were collected, so much so that the reader is in danger of losing the core plot. We get the genetics, and we also get the Táin and the Book of Invasions in which 90 warriors after arriving in Kerry go north to encounter the Tuatha Dé Danaan.

The asides are quite interesting, and significant, because so many of the

really old stories, unlike the more recent Saxon and Celtic myths, seem to square with the genetic evidence. The early medieval Irish annals, for example, give an account of people moving up from the south, Spain, North Africa, and east from the Mediterranean, and our genes now tell us that this is indeed where most of the Irish came from. Ireland and Britain were populated by people moving up the Atlantic coast. There was no Celtic invasion, and as Bryan Sykes writes, the Celts were invented

by Cdwad Lhuyd at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The word was derived from an ancient Greek term, Keltor, referring to uncivilized foreigners, and some people, like the nasty surgeon and bigot, Robert Knox, seized on it as a term of abuse. Knox publicly denounced the Celts, declaring that the race “must be forced from the soil, by fair means if possible, still they must leave.” Chilling sentiments from a man who did not realise that this was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Like many of his kind, Knox thought of himself as fortified with Saxon blood, but if Bryan Sykes and his team had been around in his time, they could have set the record right. The reality is, that despite the various invasions and hit and run raids, the genetic bedrock of Britain remains that of the original inhabitants. As Bryan Sykes comments, the damage caused by the perpetuation

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 37

of that Saxon myth is staggering. Not only did the English set themselves apart from their brothers and cousins, but the myth, fostered for political reasons, took a more sinister twist in the 20th century as it mutated into a the notion of Ayran supremacy.

Coming back to the Celts, the genes tell is one thing, and the archaeology shows us something else. Those wonderful swirls and interweavings that we think of as typically Celtic, are, in the author’s view, no more convincing than a Rolex watch bought over the internet. That naturalistic Le Tene style, ultimately laying the foundations for the flowering of Art Nouveau, originated by the lakes of Switzerland, a cross-roads of the ancient world. Style, then, as now, took the world by storm, so this was a movement of fashion, not people Naturally, Bryan Sykes has a lot to say about how the genetic evidence is read, and, while the idea of tracing mitochrondrial genes back to a small number of ‘clan mothers’, has become familiar, he explains that we can now find the daddy of us all. The mothers can be traced back because all our mitochondrial DNA comes from the female side, but the fathers can be traced by slight variations in the Y chromosome. In Ireland, or Britain, most men can trace themselves back to just one of five clan fathers, which have been fancifully named, Oisín, Wodan, Sigurd, Eshu and Re. In Ireland, 80 per cent of the population belongs to the Oisín clan, and these are no blow-ins.

In the sunny south east, the Oisins are down to 73 per cent, and when Dan Bradley and graduate student, Emmeline Hill from TCD, looked at the surnames, they concluded that this must have been due to the arrival of the Normans. In Munster and Connaught, the Oisins held their own, 95 and 85 per cent respectively.

It’s an entertaining and informative book, and it certainly puts a lot of our history into perspective.

Tom Kennedy Blood of the Isles, exploring the genetic roots of our tribal history, by Bryan Sykes, published by Bantam Press. Hardback, £17.99.

SPIN

REVIEW

A safe haven for

DIVERSITY

Brackloon

The story of an Irish oak wood Deirdre Cunningham

T

hirty years ago there was a common belief that trees could not grow in Mayo. Over most of the county the landscape had been stripped bare, and if fields were not tilled, they were being grazed. Farmers did not want trees, they were a waste of space, so they chose not to believe in them. The scenery my father looked over is a lot different from the view I see out the window today. If someone who left Mayo thirty or forty years ago were to come back now, they would hardly recognise the place. Gone are the neatly walled-in fields of oats, there’s not a single donkey in sight, the once bare ditches have been completely overgrown with scrub, and now that they have been left to grow, the seedlings of ash, rowan, and sycamore have become sizeable trees.

Of course trees could grow in Mayo, in fact they grow very well, but even so, it still comes as a surprise that oaks have been thriving for centuries near Croagh Patrick at Brackloon.

Even by north west Mayo standards, this is an area of bare severity, yet this is where we find one of Ireland’s Sessile oak, one of Vincent Coleman’s illustrations

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 38

longest established forests of oak, birch, ash, wych elm and rowan. In a beautifully produced and fascinating book, Deirdre Cunningham, currently working as the Heritage Officer for Mayo County Council, explains why Brackloon is so special. As a PhD student at UCD Deirdre worked with the Forest Ecosystem Research Group, and having chosen Brackloon as the focus of her studies, she certainly had plenty of material to fill this book. The book, published by Coillte, is not just about the trees. We get the whole story, the flora, the fauna, and the history. The 74 ha area of woodland survived into the twentieth century because it had been an important asset in Lord Sligo’s vast estate. Wood from Brackloon, in the form of charcoal, fuelled the local iron industry, and down the road, at Knappagh, 150 men were employed at the works established in 1687 by Colonel John Browne, who, of course, was one of the Brownes of Westport House. There was no shortage of iron ore in the area, but huge quantities of timber were required to make the charcoal fuel. It took 100 tons of timber to produce 25 tons of charcoal, and over a few centuries thousands of tons were produced by slow controlled combustion at Brackloon. For every ton of wrought iron produced at Knappagh, 1.7 tons of charcoal had to be burnt at the foundry. To give an idea of how big this industry was, Deirdre

mentions an order from the garrison in Sligo in 1687 for 220 shovels, 56 spades, 85 pickaxes, and 965 cannon balls. The works at Knappagh supplied Galway and Athlone garrisons, so the demand for charcoal was substantial, and the woodlands at Brackloon were managed, and coppiced, to keep up the supply.

In time all these activities, like the old estates, declined, and when the Land Commission took over in the 1940s, it was seen as a relic of the past.

The mill race, once feeding three mills, and a lake in the centre, had started to fill in with vegetation, and, at the time, the State had adopted a rather hostile, and in many respects, a short-sighted attitude to slow-growing deciduous trees. Fortunately, we have come through this dark and gloomy period, and as Deirdre explains, the core area of Brackloon survived, and the intrusive conifers have since been weeded out. Brackloon is, once again, seen as an area of great value, only this time the assessment is not just economic.

Hardwoods are indeed much more valuable per cubic metre than sitka, but the real value of Brackloon is the immense diversity of life there. Over nine pages, Deirdre lists hundreds of botanical species, ferns, mosses, fungi, and even the curious slime moulds. Then there are the birds, the bats, all described and illustrated by Vincent Coleman, together with a very comprehensive description of how the different soils within the area were formed. No doubt, many students of forest ecology would like to have this book, and it would certainly help make going down the woods an enriching experience. Anything you are likely to see at Brackloon is described and explained in this book.

Mature trees provide a home for mosses, ferns and insects.

A schematic drawing showing how bellows, driven from a water wheel forced air into the furnace.

A constant supply of charcoal was needed to keep the furnace going.

Tom Kennedy Brackloon, the story of an Irish oak wood,

by Deirdre Cunningham, was published

by Coford. Hardback copies can be ordered from Coford for â&#x201A;Ź35 including post and packing. To order, visit: www.coford.ie

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 39

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Helping children. The National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght is launching Project Romania which will take place May 26th to June 2nd 2007. This event will help raise vital funds for the hospital and its work with sick children. The project involves the building and decoration of a residency shelter for abandoned mothers and children.

By taking part you will also be raising much needed funds for the Children’s Hospital Tallaght. If you would like to take part, contact the National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght on 01-4142375 or email Romania@ thenationalchildrenshospital.ie. We will give

you tips and advice about how to raise the €3,500 you will need to participate.

Medical research. About 70,000 people in Ireland are affected by age-related macular degeneration, leading to blindness.

Researchers at Waterford Institute of Technology are conducting a long term study of macular degeneration, and they would welcome more volunteers between the age 40 and 60 to help in their research. Contact: 051 842423 or e-mail Mrs LeighAnne Maddock at lmaddock@wit.ie. Website: www.wit.ie/mprg.

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SCIENCE SPIN Issue 21 Page 40

Science Foundation Ireland Scholarship 2007 School leavers Deadline for applications is June 29th 2007

Young women in engineering PART OF A PROGRAMME TO INCREASE THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH IN IRELAND

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with support from Dell is awarding research driven scholarships to encourage more young high-achieving women into engineering.

Up to 10 scholarships will be awarded in 2007 to women entering designated engineering degree programmes in Ireland.

The Dell notebook computer comes complete with a backpack and the security of three years next business day

Scholars will receive an annual award of â&#x201A;Ź2,000; a Dell notebook computer; the support of an active researcher as a mentor throughout their undergraduate career; and at least one summer researchinternship in an academic research laboratory or an industry R&D laboratory during their degree.

onsite warranty from Ireland's largest computer manufacturer.

Full details of the objectives and eligibility requirements, including how to apply for the scholarship can be obtained on the SFI website: www.sfi.ie/scholarship or by e-mailing: scholarship@sfi.ie Completed applications should be sent to the address below for delivery on or before 5pm on Friday June 29th, 2007.

SFI Scholarship - Young Women in Engineering Science Foundation Ireland Wilton Park House

www.sfi.ie

Wilton Place

Dublin 2, Ireland

tel +353 1 607 3200 fax +353 1 607 3201 email info@sfi.ie

The National Foundation for Excellence in Scientific Research

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