ISSUE
52
May 2012
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SCIENCE
SPIN www.sciencespin.com
IRELAND’S SCIENCE NATURE AND DISCOVERY MAGAZINE LIVE LINK
Is fear more dangerous than knowledge? CommunICatIng sCIenCe missing the point of education
Where creativity and great science meet LIVE LINK
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SCIENCE SCIENCE
SPIN SPIN Green-veined White, a butterfly of damp meadows. One of the splendid photographs from a new book on Irish butterflies.
Publisher Science Spin Ltd 5 Serpentine Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. www.sciencespin.com Email: tom@sciencespin.com Editor Tom Kennedy tom@sciencespin.com Contributing editor Seán Duke sean@sciencespin.com Business Manager Alan Doherty alan@sciencespin.com
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Upfront
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Is fear more dangerous than knowledge? Attempts to block publication of research details will do more harm than good.
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Molecular gastronomy Adding a pinch of science to improve the flavour.
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Bright future for Geoscience Anthea Lacchia reports that geologists can export their knowledge.
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Communicating science As the press fails to deliver on content, researchers also rebel against the scientific journals.
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Butterflies Getting close up to Ireland’s 29 resident species.
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Junior science Dr How explores rocket science.
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Young Scientists Lichen filters and table top computing.
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Irish fossils Anthea Lacchia writes about plant-like animal fossils.
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Get the point, not the points The colleges have it within their power to scrap the system
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Books An Irish Flora, and a book of factual entertainment.
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SCIENCE
ON AIR Go to
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Geological Survey of Ireland Suirbhéireacht Gheolaiochta Eireann
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Resisting addiction
GIvING mice a dose of cocaine or methamphetamine can turn on an antiaddiction response. An international team of researchers working in collaboration with the Salk Institute have found that a single injection of these addictive drugs to the brain triggers a response that stops them producing a pleasurable sensation. While the researchers do not know why this happens, they suggest that it might be possible to mimic this response in treating addiction in humans. Paul Slesinger, from the Clayton Foundation laboratories for Peptide Biology, expressed surprise at how strong the response is, and he suggested that it might be a natural reaction of the brain when exposed to such disruptive substances. The response inhibits the dopamine transmission that is involved in producing a pleasurable response to sex, food or drugs.
Expanding trade
WhIlE European and the US markets are down, many other countries, such as China, India, Russia and Brazil are undergoing rapid growth. Many people in industry have suggested that Ireland should make a special effort to establish trade links wth these countries. The same sort of attractions that brought US based multinationals into Ireland could apply to many other companies that want to establish a base within the European Union. One of the latest comments on this topic comes from John Power, Director General of Engineers Ireland. According to a survey conducted by Engineers Ireland, 64 per cent of their membership expressed the view that Ireland is not doing enough to promote trade links with these non-EU countries. According to the engineers, rather than continuing to focus on European and US markets, Ireland should be looking further afield for new opportunities. In a statement to the press, John Power said that “the continuing uncertain state of the European economy places great importance on the drive to create new commercial, business and technological links with emerging markets. The Government needs to continue prioritising its support for Irish companies to generate business interests in countries like China, India and Brazil, as well as facilitating greater investment from these countries in Ireland. Failure to do so could be an opportunity missed when economic activity in traditional markets such as the US and Europe is so sluggish.�
UPFRONT
Cavefish
Although the Mexican Cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, is blind and colourless, it is still the same species as the surface dwelling Tetra that has normal sight and pigmentation. A team of scientists from Portugal and Mexico studied cave and surface dwelling populations and in BMC Evolutionary Biology, reported that this had not been the first time for the species to diverge. One of the researchers, Prof Richard Borowsky, from New York University, said that genetic analysis revealed that the cave dwelling variant
Ancient beer
ANCIENT records from Mesopotamia give details of deliveries of emmer, barley and malt to breweries. however, no one knows how these products, delivered more than four thousand years ago, were used, and one historian, the late Peter Damerow, from the Max Planck Institute for the history of Science, claimed that we cannot even be sure that the brewers were making beer.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 2
Two surface dellers keeping their eyes on the sightless members of the same species. had evolved not just once, but at least on five different occasions. At one stage, the cave dwellers survived while all the surface dwelling Tetra population in the Sierra de El Abra river area had been wiped out. The fact that a species could adapt itself in the same way on a number of occasions is seen by the scientists as a very good example of convergent evolution in action. While the surface dwellers were found to be genetically much the same, the cave dwellers had much less diversity, those that had been in isolation the longest, had the lowest diversity. In addition to losing their sight and pigmentation, the cave fish have developed their own sleep pattern, yet they retain the ability to breed with the surface dwellers.
The records, inscribed in baked clay tablets, tell us about the raw products, but the recipe or recipies have been lost. As Peter Damerow observed, the details of production would have been common knowledge, so no one would have bothered to put them on record. There was a song, or poem, in praise of brewing, known as the hymn of Ninkasi, preserved in a Babylonian text from about 1800 BC, but unfortunately, while the verses are long and elaborate, the composer was not too bothered about the details. Furthermore, brewing experts from Munich working with archaeologists tried to recreate the ancient process in what became known as the Tall Bazi Experiment. Although they succeeded in making a beer, Damerow pointed out that there is no reason to assume that modern methods are exactly the same as those used in ancient Mesopotamia.
Science ireland n o i t a d n u Fo he welcomes t ience Discover Sc ing & engineer programme
T
he Discover Science and Engineering (DSE) Programme formally joined the Government’s science agency Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) at the beginning of March 2012. Now managed by SFI, the DSE programme aims to increase interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among students, teachers and members of the public by developing teaching resources and outreach initiatives such as Science Week and the Discover Primary Science and Maths Awards of Excellence. Overall DSE objectives are to increase the numbers of students studying the physical sciences and mathematics, promote a positive attitude to careers in STEM and to foster a greater understanding of science and its value to Irish society. Over the past decade, SFI has built a community of approximately 3,000 researchers in Ireland’s higher education institutions, led by 300 lead scientists. Through an unswerving use of international peer review, Ireland has speedily ascended the international rankings of research capability. Having built a solid research base, SFI has constructed 28 large, industry-connected centres, where companies partner with SFI research groups to pursue industrially relevant research. 245 SMEs and 237 multinationals now link to SFI research groups, ranging from informal connections to collaborations that involve significant financial sponsorship. The goal of these relationships is to make those companies more competitive via transferring technology and trained people out of the laboratories and into the companies. SFI also advances co-operative efforts among education, government and industry that support its fields of emphasis and promotes Ireland’s reputation for science and engineering research both nationally and internationally.
l CanSat Competition
Students from Crescent College Comprehensive in Limerick were announced as the winners at the final of the pilot CanSat competition which took place at the University of Limerick. A ‘CanSat’ is a simulation of a real satellite that’s designed to fit into a soft drink can. The winning students spent months under the guidance of their teacher Ann O’Dea and mentors from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and NCE-MSTL, designing, building and testing their CanSat in the lead up to the UL final.
The team of 6th Year students will now represent Ireland at the European CanSat competition taking place on the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway between April 22nd and 26th. The winning team, made up of Eimear O’Sullivan, Gavin Randles, James Ryan and Gearoid Moore, will be sponsored on their journey by Analog Devices and ESERO Ireland, the European Space Education Resource Office, co-funded by the European Space Agency and Discover Science and Engineering.
l ‘mathS – it iS RoCket SCienCe’ pRimaRy SummeR CouRSeS
Following on from the success of last year, the European Space Education Office (ESERO) Ireland is offering primary school teachers a unique opportunity to attend five day Department of Education and Skills approved summer courses, where they will learn how they can develop numeracy skills in an integrated way through the theme of space. The three courses are entitled ‘Maths – It is rocket science’ and will take place in Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork’s space for science from July 2nd to 6th, in the Dunsink Observatory in Dublin on the same week, and in the Centre for Astronomy in NUI Galway from July 9th to 13th. The course will focus on assisting participants to use teaching practices relevant to the current curriculum, with the emphasis on enquiry based learning. For more details on the courses and to secure a place please contact Ann Fitzpatrick, Manager, ESERO Ireland, Discover Science and Engineering, Tel: 01 607 3184
l SCiFeSt 2012 getS oFF to a Flying StaRt at Dit The 2012 SciFest series kicked off with the opening event at DIT on March 29th, with 160 second level students from all over the county showcasing their impressive explorations into things such as spider webs, light bulb efficiency and cycling posture! Second year students Laura Mooney, Julie O’Connor and Shannon Scott from Loreto Secondary School in Balbriggan won top prize on the day for their project “Is there a genetic super-taster component controlling the Irish choice of tea?”
The SciFest series is now in full swing, with GMIT hosting the next event on Wednesday, April 18th, followed by CIT on Friday April 20th. Full details on dates for each SciFest event across the country can be found at
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UPFRONT
UPFRONT
An old water flea
A 450 million year old Crustacean, complete with fossilized soft parts, has been found in Herefordshire. One of the scientists involved in the discovery, Prof David Siveter from the University of Leicester, said that what made the 5mm long fossil so special is not that it is a previously un-named species, but that the soft parts have been preserved so well that eyes and the antennae can be made out. The fossil, named Nasunaris flata, belongs to the same group as water-fleas and shrimps. Their descendants are common today in lakes and oceans, and geologists often use the fossils as indicators of past climates. Tapping trees to collect the gum, and Boswellia trees in the Arabian Peninsula. Internal image of the fossil showing the soft parts and eyes. Image: number of trees is in decline. Studies said that the population of Boswellia David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. Briggs, Derek J. Siveter and Mark D. conducted by scientists from ethiopia trees cannot be sustained unless there Sutton. and The netherlands suggest that 90 per is a change in how they are managed. cent of the trees could be gone within the Frankincense tapping, he explained, is One of the best known and longest coming 50 years. The threats areone from not the problem, the long-horn Later, of David’s successors, Kingbut Hezekiah, fearingbeetle that established perfumes, frankincense, fire, grazing and insect the attack, rather than is a real threat. using The beetle lays approach, its eggs Assyrians would take Jerusalem the same comes from a species of tree that grows from tapping. under the via bark, causing trees to die.It rerouted the water into the city a 550 metrethe long tunnel. JERUSALEM’s fate was determined by the underlying geology. inAt thethe Horn of Africa and the Arabian In one area of north-west ethiopia, More intensive grazing in the area and proved to be a good decision, for in 701 BC, Jerusalem was the annual Geological Society of America meeting last peninsula. The resinBramnik that exudes the University studies ofexplained thirteen two-hectare fires are adding to the problem and while only cityplots that the Assyrians failed to take. October, Michael fromfrom Illinois Boswellia tree is tapped and collected, Dr Fransenabled Bongers from Water Wageningen factors lend themselves to still remains these a major factormight in shaping modern history that underground passageways in the karstby limestone a King practice that goes back University, more 6,000 management, lot iswhen known in thethan region, and Michael Bramnik not saida that heabout went the in David to take the thousands city. Water of was drawn from themonitored Spring years. However, ecological Boswellia over a two-year itsother lifecycle needs be studied. search ofperiod. hydrologicalbeetle, mapsso for towns andtosettlements of Gihon, whichthe layBritish just outside the city walls. David’strees soldiers Society hasdown expressed thatand the by tunnelling Based onunder the evidence, Dr Bongers he was often rebuffed with a claim that such maps do not climbed into concern the spring the exist. walls got access to the city.
Incense under threat Bedrock of history
www.gsi.ie gsisales.gsi.ie
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Listen to Lovelock
UPFRONT
JAmES Lovelock, the scientist who came up with the Gaia hypothesis always had an enquiring mind, and one of his first questions, as a four year old, was to ask why electricity needs two wires, when water and gas only come in through one pipe. Lovelock, born in 1919, recounts highlights in his long career as a scientist in a series of seventeen short interviews in the Web of Stories series. The Web of Stories also has many other video recordings of distinguished scientists and others in an expanding and freely accessible archive. To view, go to: http://www.webofstories.com/people/james.lovelock/1
A step in the right direction
FolloWing a heart attack, damaged or dead muscle cells are replaced by scar tissue. However, this tissue is not functional in the same way as normal heart cells are, so researchers wondered if stem cells could make up for the damage. The success of a trial, in which a patient’s own heart cells were harvested for culturing has been widely reported as a breakthrough, but as researchers warn, this is just a first step in developing a treatment. The trial, carried out in the US at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute involved taking a small tissue sample from patients, and from these millions of stem cells were cultured in the lab. These cultured cells were then reintroduced to the arteries beside the heart of the patients. The researchers reported in the Lancet journal that in 25 patients, there was evidence of repair. After a year, patients who had 25 per cent scar tissue in the left ventricle before treatment, had 12 per cent scar tissue. While this is a significant result, one of the lead researchers, Dr Eduardo Marbán, reported that there was no evidence yet to indicate a return of function. Welcoming the news, Dr Stephen Sullivan, an Irish stem cell researcher, said that while new treatments will eventually emerge from trials such as this one, it is important not to raise false hopes. In a recent meeting of the Irish Stem Cell Foundation, Dr Sullivan said that great progress is being made, but he warned people not to assume that a cure for all is just around the corner. The success in reintroducing heart cells is highly significant, but as Dr Sullivan remarked, “there is still some way to go” before anyone knows whether or not this will lead to effective treatment. He said that it is unfortunate that there is still a lot of confusion about stem cell research, especially in Ireland, where there are no clear guidelines. As a result, he said, stem cells are off the research agenda, and this is not helpful for a country that has a booming bio-sector. Apart from that, the uncertainty means that many people, desperate for a ‘cure’ are being taken in by expensive ‘stem cell’ scams.
Ancient forest
During quarrying in the 1920s to provide stone for the construction of the gilboa Dam in new York State a large group of fossilised stumps of trees from 385 million years ago were uncovered. Although the find was regarded as interesting, no detailed records were made before the quarry was backfilled. The dam suffered over time, necessitating evacuation of residents downstream, and during a major programme to strengthen the structure, the original quarry floor was reexposed. This provided scientists with an opportunithy to study the ancient Devonian Era forest floor. Up to then, scientists who wanted to study the forest had to be content with individual fossils or those stored in museum collections. What makes the site so special is that an entire forest floor with lower trunks and roots has been fossilised. Dr Chris Berry fro Cardiff Univerity, one of the scientists involved in studying the site, explained that this is the oldest known forest, and as such it was part of the early ‘greening’ of the Earth. Among the fossils are roots of Gilboa trees, supported on t w o - m e t re - w i d e bases and reaching up to 10 metres in height. These trees, growing by the shore of an inland sea, would have looked like giant palms. Among them were giant club mosses and other species.
www.marine.ie
Good connections
A CompAnY finders scheme has been launched to encourage people with overseas cconnections to bring more firms into Ireland. Irish people living abroad often know about firms that might be interested in setting up a base in Ireland, and through the Connect Ireland scheme, which is being run under the IDA, company executives and the irish development agencies can be brought together. With promising projects under discussion, senior executives can be flown into Ireland to make a deal, and if this leads to the establishment of an Irish base, the finder gets a cash reward. www.connectireland.com LIVE LINK
institute.mail@marine.ie
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UPFRONT
The sea of Mars
Mars may have had an ocean which has long since disappeared. analysis of radar data collected by Mars Express suggests that low-density material covering the northern plains was laid down as an ocean floor. Dr Jérérmie Mouginot from the Institut de Planétologie et d’astrophysique de Grenoble, one of the scientists analysing the data, said that probing 60 to 80 metres down into the planet’s surface had produced strong evidence to support this view. The ocean itself no longer exists, and it might not even have been the only one,
but after a million years or so, the water had disappeared. Where it disappeared to is a matter of some speculation. It may have gone underground to be frozen in place, or it may have been vaporised into the atmosphere. scientists looking for signs of life are inclined to think that the ocean, or oceans, might not have existed long enough for life, as we have it on Earth, to emerge. However, there is now much more certainty that water played a big role in shaping the landscape of Mars. another region of the red planet, syrtis Major, once thought to be an ocean,
is now considered to be a dry volcanic province. The area, thought to have been formed billions of years ago, is distinctive enough to have been observed in the 17th century. at that time it was thought to be an ocean, but Mars Express has revealed that it is covered by wind blown dust and sand over ancient lava flows. The lava flowed into even more ancient craters, leaving the edges which stand out above the surface. Estimates, based on how often the impact craters were formed make astronomers conclude that the volcanic eruptions that covered the area occurred more than three billion years ago.
record gravitational measurements from ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite has made it possible to extend coverage over the entire Earth’s surface
in great detail. Under the The GOCE Exploitation for Moho Modelling and applications project, GEMMa, a high resolution map has been made of the Earth’s crust.
Earth’s crust
THE solid crust makes up less than one per cent of the Earth’s volume, yet this is where we live and obtain all our resources. Just over a century ago no one knew that the Earth had a crust at all, and most probably assumed that we live on a rock solid planet. The realisation that this is not so came with the discovery by the Croatian, Andrija Mohorovičić, that the speed at which seismic waves travel suddenly changes at a depth of 50 or so km. Ever since, the boundary between the crust and the Earth’s interior is known as the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho. seismic data has since been matched up with gravimetric measurements to give a clearer picture of how the Earth’s crust varies in thickness. The ability to
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New ScieNce DegreeS at ait BSc (Hons) in Sports Therapy with Rehabilitation AL841
BSc (Hons) in Audiology AL835
Sports injuries can result from accidents, poor training practices, improper equipment, lack of conditioning, or insufficient warm-up and stretching. In this honours degree, the combined facets of sports therapy with rehabilitation will develop your knowledge and skills in the key domains of sports therapy, including sports and exercise injury, injury recognition, assessment of injuries, treatment management, rehabilitation and effective counselling and education. Clinical practice is a core element of this honours degree, where you will participate in student-led clinics, as well as undergoing a practice placement. At AIT, you will be able to access sports science facilities that are second to none.A new sports science and performance analysis laboratory is equipped with all the necessary instruments and equipment for performance testing and analysis. Furthermore, a new â‚Ź12m indoor running track and sports arena includes comprehensive support facilities for elite athlete training, treatment rooms and medical facilities. Application is through the change of mind facility of the CAO. Further info at www.ait.ie/sportstherapy.
Audiologists are health professionals who diagnose, treat and manage individuals with hearing loss or balance problems.As a profession, audiology has consistently ranked high on the US News and World Report’s top careers lists, having topped the list in 2006. This exciting honours degree in audiology is the first of its kind in Ireland, and graduates will be qualified to meet an important public health need. In an Irish context, for example, 250,000 adults will have a permanent hearing impairment, due mainly to aging and/ or noise exposure, while there are up to 10,000 adults and children on waiting lists for a hearing test. On the degree, you will learn about acoustics and sound perception, anatomy and physiology for audiologists, disability and deafness, paediatric assessment, and rehabilitation and management of adults with hearing difficulties. Clinical practice is at the heart of this degree, and the extensive placement in third year will enable you to apply the academic knowledge you will have gained in a practice setting. Application is through the change of mind facility of the CAO. Further info at www.ait.ie/audiology.
Educating for Career Success
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Is fear more dangerous than knowledge? Could scientists cook up a pandemic that would sweep across the world like the Spanish Flu of 1918? Influenza researchers have succeeded in engineering an avian virus that can cross the species barrier, but as Dr Roy Sleator, Principal Investigator on advanced therapeutic engineering at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in Cork, told Science Spin, attempts to keep details of how this was achieved secret are misguided and could do more harm than good.
V
iruses are usually quite choosy about their hosts, infecting a single species, but sometimes they change, and seize an opportunity to invade new territory. Viruses can evolve to produce stronger strains, and they can also occasionally seize an opportunity to ‘jump’ from one species to another. This ability to cross the species barrier is a constant cause for
Soldiers, laid low by Spanish Flu at Fort Riley, Kansas. So many able bodied people died during the closing stages of World War 1 that the warring countries imposed a ban on reports fearing that it would give their enemies an advantage. Inset, an electron micrograph of the recreated 1918 flu virus. concern, for with no time for a new host to evolve a defence, the impact of the virus can be devastating, as the spread of HIV in humans has shown. For this reason, scientists have to be extremely cautious about doing anything that could enable diseases to jump the species barrier. This concern is not new, nor is the threat of biological warfare, but the issue came to a head recently when influenza researchers were asked not to release information on how they had conducted experiments. The research in question,
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explained Dr Sleator, had involved producing a genetically modified avian influenza virus that is capable of infecting a mammalian host. Earlier this year, an editorial in the New York Times called for the newly constructed H5N1 virus to be destroyed, and at a meeting convened by the World Health Organisation in February scientists agreed to a temporary moratorium on research and a delay in releasing the full text of scientific papers relating to this research. Concerns about this sort of research have a long history, going back to the mid 1970s when genetic engineering was in its infancy. In 1974 Paul Berg, Chairman of the US National Academy of Science’s Committee on Recombinant DNA Molecules Assembly of Life Science, called for voluntary delay on conducting certain experiments because they were considered potentially dangerous.
A year later, scientists agreed to lift this moratorium, allowing the research to continue, but only if subject to stringent restrictions. Those restrictions, said Dr Sleator, proved to be remarkably effective, and in the US they remain the official guidelines to this day. However, the concerns raised in the mid 1970s never went away, and recently the issue again came to a head when two teams of scientists reported that a genetically modified avian virus had been produced that could infect mammals. Ron Fouchier and colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka and his team at the University of Wisconsin, had submitted scientific papers to Science and Nature describing how a highly pathogenic avian virus could be genetically modified to spread infection among laboratory ferrets. When the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity was asked to review these papers in October 2011 before publication, alarm bells started to go off. The Government agency immediately recommended that details about these experiments should not be published to prevent the studies from being easily replicated by inviduduals with “nefarious intent.” The researchers and publishers, said Dr Sleator, reluctantly agreed to hold off on the details, while the US Government devised an “equitable process for sharing the knowledge with ‘responsible’ scientists and clinicians.” For many, this compromise was not enough, and an editorial of 8th January 2012 in the New York Times, called for the destruction of the modified H5N1 virus. In February 2012, scientists who got together at a World Health Organisation meeting in Genva to discuss the issue, agreed to continue the moratorium on research with the modified viruses. Fear of the unknown plays a big part in these decisions, as do memories of the Spanish Flu that swept across the world during the closing stages of the First World War. Millions of people died from this highly virulent strain which was peculiar in that it struck down people in their prime. In healthy people the reaction to infection was more severe, so the flu was more selective in striking down those with the strongest constutions. The big concern was that if a new type of flu was unleashed it would cause a catastrophic pandemic, perhaps even worse than the Spanish Flu of 1918.
Might not look like much, but the modified virus is causing quite a stir. Apart from the unreal expectation of being able to keep everything secret, or indeed trying to stop researchers around the world from second-guessing their way around any problems, this approach raises a few questions, not least of which is, who are to be the “responsible” ones to be let in on the secret? Dr Sleator pointed out that several other scientists have conducted similar experiments, reporting in Science and Nature on a specific mutation that enables an avian flu virus to bind to human tissues. In January this year a report by L M Chen and colleagues in the journal Virology has a striking resemblance to the work of Fouchier and Kawaoka that sparked off the moratorium in the first place. In this report, the researchers describe a mutation in the H5N1 virus that makes ferrets susceptible to airborne transmission of infection. As Roy Sleator observes, this clamp down, far from preventing results falling into the wrong hands, is pointless, and besides it is more likely to prevent scientists from developing an effective vaccine against a pandemic. There has been a similar controversy before involving no less than the Spanish Flu virus. Partly degraded samples of the virus, which had claimed approximately twice the number of lives than those lost in four years of war, had been recovered from corpses, and from these, T M Tumpey and colleagues had been able to salvage and amplify the RNA genetic code. In a painstaking process of reverse engineering, the researchers were able to pick out and replace genes on a contemporary virus and replace them with those from the 1918 pandemic strain. In this way, the original strain was brought back from extinction, and naturally there were serious concerns about what would happen if there were to be an accidental, or even a deliberate release of this reconstructed virus. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity raised concerns, but in this case their recommendations were much less restrictive than those handed down in the more recent developments, and in 2005 the research papers were published in full.
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Where, then, do the true risks lie? For starters, the fatality rate from H5N1 flu infections is almost certainly lower than previously thought because the positive immune reaction to the virus is higher than World Health Organisation figures for the disease. Then, there is the fact that ferrets are not humans, and one of the reasons they were chosen for these studies is that they are highly susceptible to infection from influenza viruses. However, while these factors, might help to allay some fears, the benefits of directing troublesome viruses at a nonhuman hosts are big enough to justify this line of research. Dr Sleator points out that this is the approach that has been used repeatedly to develop several generations of attenuated viral vaccines. These contain disabled fragments of the virus that cause no infection, but trigger an immune response that prevents infection from diseases such as polio. So, rather than coming up with a super-virulent H5N1 virus, the studies with ferrets could result in an attenuated variant that would give protection against infection. This might not even be necessary as viable vaccines against the H5 viruses already exist. What if the more recent attempts to hide details had been applied to the 2005 paper published in Science by T M Tumpey and colleagues on the reconstructed Spanish Flu virus? Would the world be a safer place now? The answer, said Dr Sleator, is a simple ‘no’ for we would not now know that the 1918 flu virus is sensitive to the seasonal flu jab as well as common drugs, such as amantadine and oseltamivir. “Without the Tumpey paper, we would still be living in fear of ‘nefarious intent’ and the potential for Spanish Flu to be unleashed by bioterrorists. “Blocking publication” declares Dr Sleator, “does not make the world a safer place — just a less enlightened one.” Dr Roy D. Sleator is a lecturer at the Department of Biological Science, Cork Institute of Technology. Sleator is also a Principal Investigator at CIT’s Centre for Research in Advanced Therapeutic Engineering (CREATE), UCC’s Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC). Sleator’s research is focused on the identification and characterisation of emerging infectious diseases and the development of novel therapeutics for controlling these pathogens. Sleator is also founding Editor-in-Chief of the Scientific Journal Bioengineered, published by Landes Bioscience, Austin Texas, US. http://www.landesbioscience. com/journals/biobugs/
Molecular Gastronomy Caroline Kidd reports on how knowing about chemistry and physics can transform our cooking.
W
ith professional chefs always looking for new ways to excite and tantalise diners with elaborate food presentation, textures and flavours, it is not surprising that so many have turned to science to enhance the dining experience. The source for much of this inspiration is molecular gastronomy: the chemistry and physics behind the preparation of any dish. For example why does a soufflé swell during cooking? Some of the world’s top chefs have been inspired by molecular gastronomy. Pierre Gagnaire, Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal have all embraced the science of culinary transformations in order to impress diners with their cuisine. Anyone who has watched Blumenthal cooking on TV will be familiar with his style of cooking: creating unusual
Dr Róisín Burke, Dr Hervé This, Ms Pauline Danaher and PhD student Mark Traynor at the Molecular Gastronomy Seminar held in September 2011 in The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, DIT. flavour pairings and food textures using chemicals and gadgets that would typically be found in a science laboratory. But what we see on TV is what Dr. Róisín Burke of the DIT School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology calls molecular cooking. “Molecular cooking is putting together ingredients in restaurants using techniques that you would normally use in a science lab,” she says. “Molecular gastronomy is a lot more than molecular cooking; it’s understanding the chemistry and physics behind what happens to food during cooking.” A common example of how an understanding of the chemistry and physics of culinary transformations can be exploited is by making ice-cream using liquid nitrogen. With a temperature of -196°C under normal conditions, liquid
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nitrogen can be used to make ice-cream extremely quickly and it also gives the ice-cream a smoother texture compared to ice-cream frozen the traditional way. “Using liquid nitrogen you can change from a liquid to a solid in a matter of minutes and as a result the texture of the ice-cream is completely different. The ice crystals that form are tiny compared to the much larger ice crystals that form in the slower process of freezing,” says Burke. Another aspect of molecular gastronomy involves examining recipes to see if they actually work. A recipe may say add two egg yolks one at a time. But why not add them together? Molecular gastronomy attempts to answer these questions. Hervé This, who co-founded the discipline in 1988, has tested thousands of recipes in France. “Last year one of the assignments on the module I run was to take three recipes for the same thing, for example for meringues, and compare them and assess which recipe worked the best and why,” says Burke. As a lecturer in food science, Burke became interested in molecular
Natural gas was formed, millions made in America, called ‘Gaslands’, in the healthcare industry for sterilization CITY OF SCIENCE 2012 of years ago, in a marine environment. which aims to show the risks associated and DMF is used in the pharmaceutical It arosewith froma the decomposition of the is underwriting about someone scientific background with hydraulic fracturing. Theatplot of a Cunningham, industry. However, to reassure thehalf public, of my own experience of science of tiny and cost, compared to previous events that it willremains look at of themillions evidence, and plants they will recent episode of CSI dealt with the itsame theTamboran has recently announced school, it was too corralled, narrowing There may a buzz around Molecular gastronomy is opening up gastronomy when she attended seminar animals died sank toa the the European Commission have a goodthat grasp ofand what charts andsea theme showed dramatic will not usestill anybeadditives in the fracking down, andand what this event is all images about isof elsewhere, molecular gastronomy but “Note by called Chefs MeetOn Scientists” at a of a whole new area forapparently innovationcatching when bed“When and became trapped in sediments has doubled its support, and industry statistics actually mean. this point, water from a tap water, other than sand, which helps to the opposite.” Note Cooking” is being touted as theafter the it comes to the preparation of food and conference in Paris in 2007. It was a light or sand. In conventional gasCity fields, is also expected to make strata a significant theclay Mayor said that one part of the firespite andof a huge explosion keep the gas-bearing apart In the challenge oferupting convincing next culinary trend. It involves taking it is creating a range of possibilities for bulb moment she says. Always looking natural programme gas may accumulate in pockets, voters of this, said Prof of Science that appealed from a well, thereiswas so much contribution. water has All seeped away, thus facilitating that a bigbecause investment justified, elements upgas. a food and textures, flavours and colours. for an interesting to teach science when it is trapped a dome shaped food Cunningham, is very positive, and apart strongly to him isway the under “Hacking the City” flammable gasCunningham entrained in it. No“The doubt the the escapewhich of themake natural Without Professor Patrick remarked recreating the food using these elements spin-off from molecular gastronomy to culinary students, she was enthused layerinofwhich impermeable rock. from Irishadditives, perspective, are hosting project the public willVertical have makes for good TV and in cinema thethe usual the we extraction of the thatthis there has been no division the fusing them with something else higher to by molecular because of will is enormous,” says Burke. Sheto is scare peopleor drilling thedata. overlying rock Europe’s biggest science conference at open accessthrough togastronomy council Hundreds of viewing, it also serves gas will be more costly, because political willbut to maintain support for make something new. “You could overseeing a research project its ability combine with theand, currently readily release gas. a critical time.will The current data sets, to he said, the are science being released, and make them worried any pressures have to beFramework used.present This is science and research. When about the idea of a7 carrot in athe gelcompany form or create a mixture investigating innovative methods culinary arts. “It really opened up Lough Allen Natural Gas Field programme, under which research to takeThe one example, people will bemy able attempt to extract natural gas from such a price is willing to pay, in inviting Europe’s biggest science event of aorder carrotto and a parsnip,” says Burke. eyes to the possibilities trying create novel foodfields. products using is up an unconventional gas to is funded throughout thepublic. European to do their own analysis carboniferous onand the I’m water unconventional reassure the to Ireland first came up, he said “the And it’s not just the restaurant industry molecular gastronomy. to find ways to teach science to culinary basin,how formed 350 years ago. Union,Whatever is comingdecisions to an end, and under supply, much is million there, and how it At tiger was If it in turns outand thatallthere is a are made with town, the graphs One of the aspects of the project is that is using molecular gastronomy for students that Ireland makes sense tohe them and is that time, wasAs part of a greater Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn, changes during the day. remarked, commercially viable gas prospect. regard to developing our natural were pointing up.” As we all know, that extraand bitthey of wow factor. The Boston investigating flavour of pairings. White of interest to them,” she says. land mass, see Science Spinway 37, and the a bigger, more comprehensive “Hacking the City” is a great to get the Northwest `Ireland, both the resorces, should be based on sound thein cut-backs, when they came, were Globe recently named “molecular chocolate and cheese is one of the more A twelve week molecular gastronomy was once contiguous severe, Horizon 2020, be taking theLough publicAllen more field involved in science. companies and the licencingadmitted authorities programme, scientific findings, not onwill uninformed and Prof Cunningham gastronomy at bars” as number in there module launched in DIT inin 2009. It is unusual flavour combinations are with was the Bruton, Appalachian Basin the USA, starting in 2014. Richard Minister for Jobs would do well to takemoments time that to explain scaremongering. Having saidtwo that, to having some anxious that to its place it list of the top ten food trends for 2012. being investigated. “Sometimes you get the first of its kind in Ireland. The module where natural gas is being extracted Ireland’s researchers benefit from Enterprise and Innovation, said that at public, in precise detail,have exactly how should certainly be awill public debate on all the ambitious plans would to be peaks on GC-MS chromatograms that Smoked gin and tonic left anyone? is taught asthe anconsists option in four of present. It of year tight gas sandstone this,the yet, as Prof Cunningham remarked, following continued and sustained it will be extracted. Modern fracking issue, because, to themselves, scrapped. However, as the government come out the same in totally different the Bachelor ofwhich Arts in in Culinary reservoirs, are less porous and a few years ago, all of thisalways would get it support for science Ireland theArts City of fluids consist of water, but they justplanning authorities don’t changed, the Citymainly of Science was seen Caroline Kidd has a BSc inWhen Microbiology foods that you would not normally put and on aevent DIT Springboard programme permeable than inatconventional seemed impossible. it came Science comes a good time.fields, It is usually contain certain additives, most of have right. as just the sort of event that would help UCD and she is Irish currently studying for a together, which indicates already that they have for people who have lost their and making it difficult extract the gas. to getting support, scientists were important for people to see thejobs relevance which are substances common from Ireland recover, and indeed showinthe Masters in Journalism in DIT. wish to up-skill. A third module is at matching flavours. Sometimes it’s the However, in recent years, a new method world of this support, he said, and to appreciate usethat and in should no great risk to the hardly at the starting line, but that has manypose aspects of science and situationInand isitno matchthat changed. master’s level and is taught on the MSc gas opposite been to extract “WeFranklin are moreisthan pulling thathas there aredeveloped concrete benefits to natural the environment. anythere case, istolikely Margaret a chemist andout former research, Ireland is now second none. but the flavours still seem in Culinary Innovation and gas Food Product in the from tight gas shale reservoirs. weightSenior now,”Lecturer said Prof economy from theand investment. “Thinking thepeaks gas reservoirs would at Cunningham. Athlone Institute of The government, said Profbe at a much to work. is a whole science in and that Development. This method uses horizontal drilling, lowerThere level than the water table Technology. Margaret is co-author of the area,” says Burke. combined with hydraulic fracturing, there would be a natural impermeable book, Colour, what we see and the science colloqually known as ‘fracking’. A barrier above the gas field, preventing of sight. vertical bore is first drilled to the required contamination of ground water. But the depth, then several horizontal drills are public need to be reassured about this.
BIG AND GETTING BIGGER
CITy OF SCIEnCE 2012 follows the European Science Open Forum event in Turin in 2010, and that in turn was two years after ESOF in Barcelona. The ESOF events were initiated by Euroscience, an independent group of scientists who saw the need to highlight the best in European science. In the US there is the well-funded American Association for the Advancement of Science, usually simply known as the AAAS, which acts as a showcase for American science. The members of Euroscience thought that Europe needed to have something similar, so in 2004 the first ESOF conference was launched at Stockholm, and since then it has continued to grow as a biannual event, going on to Munich in 2006, Barcelona in 2008, Turin in 2010, and this year Dublin. At a Euroscience Ireland meeting Prof Cunningham said the number of
proposals for the programme has greatly remarked that it might be a good idea exceed expectations. Four months, he to look at how it is funded. One of the said, had been spent winnowing these recent developments that could be down, and that meant that about three relevant, he said, is the recent regrouping quarters of the submissions had to be of European organisations involved turned down, and a number of these in supporting research. The former Subscription €30 a year, six issues, would have been worth including. “We European Heads of Research Councils, are trying to do something about that,” has been reorganised, and on EUROHORCs, sale in newsagents. said Prof Cunningham, and one of the and rebranded as Science Europe, and questions on many peoples’ minds now, the new organisation is made up of 42 global science viewed is just how big can the ESOF events Local get. and research funding bodies, including the The success of ESOF has taken throughHealth Irish Research eyes. Board and SFI in Ireland. many people by surprise, yet it began While recognising that there would be as a bottom-up initiative by a group issues to be resolved, Prof Cunningham of scientists who retain their ultimate said it is hard to escape the compelling www.sciencespin.com control and ownership. The group is logic — “Science Europe has endless independent, but as is often the case, money, billions, while Euroscience independence can mean having to work SCIENCE SPIN Issue 48 Page 16 just has pennies,” he commented. yet, within limited budgets. ultimately, while independence would As ESOF seems destined to grow have to be weighed up against political and grow as a major event in promoting pressures, both organisations have European science, Prof Cunningham similar aims.
IDEAL FOR THE LIBRARY
DUBLIN CITY OF SCIENCE 2012 In 2012 Ireland hosts the European open forum on science LIVE LINK
www.dublinscience2012.ie SCIENCE SPIN Issue 51 Page 21 SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 11
Irish geologists have been involved in major projects such as the Marine Survey to map undersea resources, and Tellus, combining aerial and ground surveying on a large scale.
The future is looking bright for
Geoscience Ireland Anthea Lacchia reports on a smart way to export Irish expertise.
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ecession is the father of innovation: such words dominate today’s conversation, often only in rhetorical speeches. But here’s a very real innovative idea close to home: Geoscience Ireland is one of the most exciting new developments to come out of the Irish geological and geotechnical sectors of late. The brainchild of former Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) director, Dr Peadar McArdle, this consortium is an interaction between State bodies, namely GSI and Enterprise Ireland, private consultancy companies and University research departments. By pooling collective expertise in Ireland, this collaboration aims to create new opportunities overseas, while helping to maintain existing jobs here. Since its conception two years ago, Koen Verbruggen, Acting Director of GSI, is ably seeing this project through: “This kind of collaboration between the State, private companies and the link back to research has been successfully accomplished in other countries, but in Ireland it hasn’t been done to a great extent before now,” he explains.
There are high hopes that this initiative will facilitate job creation by winning bids overseas, as Verbruggen points out: “The interesting thing about Geoscience Ireland is that the consultancy companies compete in Ireland to a certain extent, but they are putting their differences aside to win more work
Collecting samples for analysis during the Tellus survey.
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overseas. Just as things are becoming economically more difficult in Ireland, particularly with reduced spending on infrastructure, it’s vital that these firms go overseas not only to create jobs there, but also to preserve jobs here. The idea is to try to retain Irish jobs as high-paid jobs based in Ireland, with taxes paid here, while supporting new research and also the GSI’s initiatives. It’s really a question of joining the dots.” “In Ireland, we’re very lucky to have some high quality expertise in the commercial sector. Up to now, we’ve worked with a reference group of consultancy firms, which are trying to brand as Geoscience Ireland.” The main companies involved are Tobin, which specializes in water and environmental services, waste management and infrastructure, SLR, one of Ireland’s leading environmental and natural resources consultancies, White Young Green, a global management and technical consultancy to the built and natural environment, and Aurum, a mineral and exploration company. “They’re all working in Ireland, but also overseas”, says Verbruggen. “The idea is that they have overlapping expertise so they can come together, with the
assistance of GSI, to see if they can bid on bigger and more international projects. The companies involved, as well as Enterprise Ireland, have put a lot of time and effort into trying to move this project along.” For instance, SLR has been involved with the Geoscience Ireland initiative since Geological Survey of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland mooted the original idea. Working abroad is nothing new to them, given that they have a network of international offices in UK, Africa, Australia, Canada and USA. As Dr Deirdre Lewis, Technical Director, explains: “Our Irish staff have worked extensively internationally since the mid-1980s in private sector mineral exploration in Africa and latterly with the multilateral development agencies (EU, World Bank/ IFC, United Nations) through institutional strengthening and capacity building in the fields of minerals policy, resources management and regulation, and environmental management.” Geoscience Ireland is all about a new and improved kind of collaboration, as she goes on to emphasize: “There are major international opportunities which can be realised through a strongly collaborative approach among Irish companies in delivering technical expertise across the water resources, infrastructure, exploration, mining and environmental sectors, as well as the ‘softer’ supports of institutional capacity building, regulation and policy development in emerging economies. We are delighted to partner with Tobin, WYG and Aurum, under the auspices of the GSI and Enterprise Ireland, to offer a fully integrated and seamless range of multi-disciplinary services to international private and public clients in sustainable management of natural resources.” On a similar note, since the birth of Geoscience Ireland, Aurum have opened an office in Canada and Tobin have opened one in Poland. Similarly, WYG have offices in South Africa. From Enterprise Ireland’s point of view, the main concern is the development and growth of Irish businesses in world markets: “Recently,” says EI’s Paul Butler, “we opened an office in Johannesburg, South Africa, and it is from there that we hope to develop business opportunities in the whole Sub-Saharan Africa market. The Geoscience Ireland initiative will be one of the first
GEOSCIENCE IRELAND
create linkages. It’s part of GSI’s ongoing mandate to try and develop the sector, to Exploring work with it.” Developing Other examples of world-class Sustaining projects administered by the GSI include work in groundwater protection, the to use this as a springboard for significant Tellus Border mapping project and the opportunity.” INFOMAR/INSS marine mapping Logo C2 The whole point is that the market programme. is bigger abroad: “There’s a worldwide So, as Verbruggen puts it, “There are expanding market, particularly if you areas where Ireland is doing world-class look at the mining/resource industry,” work in the geosciences. This includes says Verbruggen. We (at GSI) feel that research in many of the Universities we’re very good at what we do and and then at New Boliden Tara Mines at that these companies are very good at Navan we have Europe’s largest zinc what they do. Geology is a very global deposit. So there’s work, research and business. Rocks don’t speak so you applied work going on. And the idea is can describe them Exploring wherever you go that it’s applicable in other countries.” Developing and English is theSustaining lingua franca of the “From GSI’s point of view and, geosciences.” personally, from my point of view, it’s However, Geoscience Ireland a very interesting project. It’s a little bit wouldn’t be in direct competition with different.” international surveys like BGS (British Logo C3 In terms of next steps, the Geological Survey) and USGS (United development of Geoscience Ireland States Geological Survey): “We don’t involves the appointment of a manager, have the resources in GSI to do that, as well as preparation of a website (www. but what we can do is help these Irish geoscienceireland.ie). “This, hopefully companies to do projects that are perhaps together with early stage wins, will see more specialized and more applied than Geoscience Ireland established in the the kind of work traditionally done by international market before year’s end,” the larger geological surveys.” says Paul Butler. Each of the components of this So the future of Irish geoscience collaboration has something to bring appears to be bright. As Peadar McArdle, to the table. For example, GSI is well former GSI director, comments: “In aware of current research in the geology the past 10-15 years, there has been and geoscience areas. “We manage substantial investment in geoscience a research programme (Griffiths and the resulting information is Geoscience Research Awards), which being increasingly transformed into is funded by our parent department, knowledge. This has enormous potential which is Communications, Energy and to generate and sustain new enterprise Natural Resources. We’re also involved in and will build on the impressive success various European projects with the other recently achieved in other sciences, surveys. This gives us a slightly different such as biotechnology and information dimension than the companies might technology. Geoscience in Ireland have,” explains Verbruggen. already has a distinguished history And connecting to University of successful enterprise in the area of departments is essential to Geoscience natural resource development, partly Ireland: “With Enterprise Ireland, through direct foreign investment, and we’ve started the process of talking some new commercial initiatives have to the University Geoscience already sprung from the upsurge in Departments about opportunities for recent activity. It is good to see that commercialisation, making them aware we are now poised, based on sectorof what we’re doing and then trying to wide collaboration and the support of Enterprise Ireland, to witness this experience of The largest zinc deposit entrepreneurial developments in Europe is at Boliden’s being extended to other areas Tara Mines. of geoscience.”
GEOSCIENCE IRELAND
For further information see:
www.gsi.ie/ GeoscienceIreland LIVE LINK
CommuniCating sCienCe Scientists would like everyone to understand what they are doing, and most people would like to know what goes on in our labs. As Tom Kennedy reports, the connection between the two is not being made effectively and science communications has become a mess that leaves no one satisfied.
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ommunicating science will be high on the agenda in the City of Science 2012 programme, and one of the primary aims of the event is to remind everyone that science is just as much part of our culture as are the arts. Yet at the same time as promotion to encourage interest in science seems to be rising to an all time high, the door is being slammed on the story tellers who could be making science a lot more accessible to the public. Science journalists from around the world will be debating this and other issues during the July event, and it will be interesting to learn if the science community has managed to make any progress at all in addressing some of the serious flaws in communication that were highlighted at the previous European Science Open Forum in Turin. When science journalists from around Europe met at the previous Open Forum, one of their main concerns was that everyone has come under increasing pressure to deliver more content in less time. While this is true for journalists in general, the situation for science writers, most of whom are free-lance, is particularly bad because newspaper and magazine publishers are no longer able to fund commissioning of in-depth reports unless they bring in advertising income. Lynda Lich-Knight from the German Science Journalists’ Association observed that with less time to go out and talk to researchers, journalists are starting to rely more and more on professionally prepared press releases, so there is a serious loss of independence. Science writers are not happy with this situation, and as Lynda remarked, “many science journalists are scientists by training, they really like what they are writing about,” so the erosion of standards is just as big a concern to them as it is to the entire science community. Paradoxically, as newspapers struggle to cover science, scientists and institutions have become far more involved in communications in recent years. Dr Hans Peters, a social scientist at the Free University of Berlin, said that in the “mediasiation” of science, independent reporting is being overtaken by public relations, and this has implications on science itself. Researchers have become more willing to talk to the media, but in general, communications are being managed. “Science communications is becoming increasingly strategic, they (the institutions) are using the media to promote their own interests.” As a result, he said, “people now talk about managing issues, branding, and so on, just as they do in the business world.” The situation, he added, is “one in which the scientist is more concerned with “is it good for me” rather than “is it accurate.” Dr Peters had conducted a study among information offices in a number of universities, and from this he found that the main goal in managing media coverage was to secure financial support, and this was followed closely by marketing of services, attracting students, and funding for research and development. “Only at the very end was some mention of public education,” he said.
As staff in a number of Irish institutions have found, talking directly to the press is often discouraged, often on the grounds that researchers might inadvertently let the “cat out of the bag” before results can be protected. In the US and Britain, said Dr Peters, there is often an obligation for researchers to go through the PR department, and his impression is that this trend is spreading in Europe. As in many developments, there is a good as well as a bad side to these developments, and indeed, as this writer has found, press offices can be very supportive in arranging interviews and back-up material, and press releases often alert journalists to developments that they would not otherwise know about. The down side is that the ultimate aim is to manipulate coverage to present a positive image of the institution. There is also a significant loss of academic freedom, and as Dr Peters remarked, there is “an over-emphasis on the practicality of research with a downplaying of the science.” “There is nothing wrong with PR itself,” he said, “but journalists should be able to stand apart, and be critical, understanding PR, but using a variety of sources — they should go the labs and see what’s going on there.” Don Powell, press officer at the Wellcome Sanger Institute at Cambridge, explained that while his job involves managing media relations, he sticks firmly to the belief that journalists must have the freedom to draw their own conclusions. He expressed a degree of disappointment at seeing so many of his releases appearing virtually unaltered, but at the same time he remarked that science journalists have his “unending sympathy” because they are under such pressure. “Many are expected to file on-line stories as well,” he said, “so it becomes a non-stop production line.” If journalists write up stories that do not agree with his own point of view, Don is not disappointed because it often shows that they have done their homework. On this point, he said that it is important to provide science journalists with enough resources to do their job. Dashing off a report is not the same as writing a more considered piece, and this takes more time. Unfortunately, he added, an editor might not see the difference, and may even cull text from a blog to fill a science slot rather than spend time and money commissioning a report. In this way, readers of a supposedly free press are being cheated by being presented with content that lacks any kind of objectivity. Before going into communications, Don was a molecular biologist, and this is the sort of background that is quite common among science journalists. Patrick Imhasly, science editor of a Swiss Sunday paper, Neue Zuercher Zeitung am Sonntag, began his career as a biologist working on insects. “When I started off, science journalism was booming in Switzlerland,” he said. “Even small regional papers had their own science sections, and there were lots of jobs.”
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Patrick was working in a paper with a circulation of 75,000, yet he had enough time to go to conferences “spend all day there, and in the end decide not to write about it because it was not interesting enough — now that is impossible — if I leave my office for three hours I have to come back with a story.” “Science journalism in Switzerland is in trouble,” he said, “but maybe not so bad as in other countries.” As far as Ireland is concerned, Patrick is right, regional papers seldom, if ever, cover science, they never ever commission reports from science journalists, and while The Irish Times has Dick Alhstrom as science
editor, in the Irish Independent and the Examiner science stories are passed on to staff business or news reporters. Patrick said he is quite pleased to be in a fairly good position, and he is not under too much pressure to sensationalise his reports. However, with four or five short items to write up in an afternoon, he relies a lot on releases based on scientific papers or research results for content. “It is tempting to do more of this,” he said, “because nowadays the releases tend to be very well written, but it’s a dangerous practice, because it is using someone else’s judgement.”
Rebellion
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hile communicating science to the general public is weak, communications between specialists is much more effective. Within a discipline, scientists know what others are doing by reading scientific peer-reviewed journals, but even in this, the grumbles of distontent are growing. For some time academics have been complaining about the high cost of accessing scientific papers. Journals are expensive, and many scientists have begun to question the need to charge such high prices when web based alternatives seem to offer an opportunity to do the same job for much lower cost. Undoubtedly this is something we are all going to hear a lot more about as academics, and not just scientists, start thinking of making a break with tradition. The latest move, sparked of by a high profile mathematician at Cambridge University, Timothy Gowers, and taken up by one of his colleagues, Tyler Neylon, is a boycott of Elsevier, one of the giants of scientific publishing, producing more than 2,000 high priced journals including Cell and the Lancet. Although the issue is not new, and academics have threatened to do this before, more than 4,000 researchers, some from Ireland, recently decided to sign on to a boycott campaign directed at Elsevier. What the outcome will be remains to be seen, and while the current copyright and price barrier restrictions are a real problem, the alternatives might not be as attractive as many people like to think. PLoS (Public Library of Science) is seen as one of the examples to follow, but while the papers are freely available to readers, the authors are charged a fairly hefty up-front publication fee. One way or the other, academic publishing is always likely to be expensive.
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As in all other branches of the media, academic publishers are taking stock of where they stand and in February WileyBlackwell announced that they are going for a free-to-view model with their journal, Evolutionary Applications. The full articles are now available for anybody to view, and the only restriction is on commercial use. Scientists have also been experimenting with video as a means of publishing results. The Journal of Visualized Experiments, VoVE, is an outstanding example of what can be done. VoVE, published from the US, www.jove.com, posts professionally produced videos of scientists describing and actually conducting their experiments and procedures, so many of the details that are difficult, if not actually impossible to describe in print, are presented in a way that is a lot easier to follow. However, VoVE has a major drawback — cost. Compared to print, the production costs are much higher. In response to our query, VoVE told Science Spin that costs are too high for individual viewers, so subscription to the service is only available to institutions. The service has been running now for five years, and an interesting point is that, like traditional scientific journals, all content is peer reviewed. In another development that could have a big impact on academic publishing, is the proposal being put to Congress in the US to oblige state-funded researchers to publish their results in a publicly accessible online repository. Naturally, the publishing giants are up in arms in opposing the bill, but the proposal is in line with a long standing rule that taxpayers should not have to pay twice for research that the state has already supported. This is one of the main reasons why so much more information is available from institutions in the US compared to Ireland and rest of Europe where high fees are often required to unlock publicly held data.
Science
CiTY oF SCienCe 2012
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Insects have been around for millions of years and over that time they have evolved into an enormous diversity of forms, the most admired of which are the butterflies, 29 of which are resident in Ireland. Deirdre Hardiman, one of the three contributors to a new book on Ireland’s Butterflies explains that there is a lot more to these spectacular creatures than meets the eye.
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utterflies and moths belong to emerges (eclosion occurs). Sometimes a pupa may enter the same order of insects called hibernation but this is less common than larval hibernation. Lepidoptera and comprise the dayBecause the pupa cannot excrete, all waste products of flying butterflies and the mainly night- metabolism accumulate and are excreted as a reddish liquid flying moths. The word is derived after emergence of the butterfly. from the Greek words lepis meaning Butterflies in their adult stage can live for a week to nearly “scale” and pteron meaning “wing” a year depending on the species. Species that hibernate as an in reference to the thousands of tiny, adult, such as the Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Brimstone, often brightly coloured scales that are our longer living species. cover the body, appendages and wings of this distinctive insect group. The various colours and discrete patterns of the butterfly wing scales Hibernation (overwintering) is a dormant or quiescent state. not only play a role in insulation and The metabolism of the butterfly slows down enabling it to Peacock Inachis io. thermoregulation but also help protect conserve and survive on very little energy. Butterflies can Patterns such as ocelli hibernate at each stage of metamorphosis and each species it from predators by camouflage, (false eyes) on wings are mimicry and warning. of butterfly has evolved to use only one of its life stages for considered to be either Like all lepidopterans, butterflies hibernation. These butterflies can produce substances in their deterrents or distracters eggs or haemolymph (blood), such as glycerol or sorbitol that, for would-be predators. undergo complete metamorphosis. Once a particular species of adult besides playing a major role in energy metabolism, acts as butterfly lays an egg, which is usually antifreeze which protects them from freezing during the winter. on the food plant or plants genetically determined by the species, the embryo develops into a tiny larva which emerges from the egg after about ten days or more. The larva spends most of its time feeding upon its food plant. For many years Ireland was believed to have twenty eight It increases in size and matures through a series of stages called resident native species of butterfly. In 2000 a second Wood instars by moulting at the end of each instar. When fully fed White species was discovered bringing our resident species to after about 4-5 weeks, the final moult results in the formation of twenty-nine. the pupa. Although, some species may go into hibernation as a Between the spring and autumn months Ireland has a small late instar larva, they will resume feeding the following spring number of regular migrant butterflies, namely the Red Admiral, and when fully mature will then commence pupation. Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow. During recent years and During the pupal stage some of the caterpillar structures possibly favoured by climate change there are now indications that two of these, the Red Admiral and Clouded Yellow, are are carried through to the adult butterfly such as the imaginal capable of overwintering and producing discs (germ cells) of the wings, legs and antennae and they develop further and off-spring here. Another fairly recent arrival is mature. Other structures are newly the Comma. Small numbers have developed such as the wing muscles. LARVA been reported from several counties While the central nervous system is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, since 1998. The Essex Skipper was maintained the nerves are reconnected. 4th, 5th instar also confirmed present in Co Wexford The malpighian tubules of the excretory EGG PUPA in 2006. These now appear to be system are also retained. Structures that BUTTERFLY successfully breeding and overwintering are not required are broken down and the in Ireland. Other rarer vagrants/ protein reused in the formation of adult migrants, such as the Camberwell structures. Beauty and Monarch, are unable to Pupation can last from one to several survive our Irish climate. weeks depending on the species and at the end of this period the adult butterfly The life cycle of a butterfly.
Hibernation
Residents and migrants
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Form and function
Exoskeleton
cranial air sac
dorsal prothoracic lateral mesothoracic dorsal metathoracic air sac air sacs 1 & 2 air sacs
The integument or exoskeleton forms a tough, strong but flexible outer covering that wing tracea surrounds the surface of the butterfly and larva permitting freedom of movement while dorsal abdominal conferring a high degree of protection and air sac defence. The exoskeleton is not just a protective outer covering, it is a living organ that dorsal tracheal trunk provides structure, maintaining anatomical integrity. It forms the wings in the adult butterfly and provides areas for the insertion of muscles of locomotion. It protects against infection, prevents damage by mechanical and chemical injury and inhibits water loss. The butterfly’s thoracic exoskeleton is ventral prothoracic tracheal shunt first abdominal ventral tracheal lateral longitudinal tracheal trunk spiracle air sac trunk almost exclusively adapted for locomotion. One pair of legs is attached to each of the intersegmental muscles. In addition, circulation in the appendages three thoracic segments and a pair of wings is is assisted by accessory pulsatile organs (APOs). attached to each of the second and third segments. Some of the many functions of haemolymph are (i) to ensure delivery of nutrients, salts and hormones to all tissue cells (ii) removal of waste metabolites, (iii) sealing-off of wounds by haemocytes, (iv) encapsulation and destruction of internal dorsal prothorax (dorsal sclerite) mesothorax (notum) parasites or other invaders by phagocytes and provision of intersegmental (notum) tergum mesothorax (notum) muscles immunity against harmful organisms. phragma flexible membrane Oxygen is supplied to tissues and carbon dioxide is removed by ventilation through the butterfly’s tracheal system and not the circulatory system. wide membranous neck haemocoel (body cavity)
ventral intersegmental muscles
Circulatory system
sternum (ventral sclerite)
Butterflies like all insects have an open circulatory system in which the heart drives the haemolymph (blood) flow within the body cavity or haemocoel. In the abdomen the dorsal vessel is called the heart which is divided into distinct chambers separated by small valve-like openings called ostia through which blood enters. The section of the dorsal vessel in front of the heart is a simple tube that facilitates transport of haemolymph to the head and is called the aorta. Well regulated and constant perfusion of vital organs and tissues is ensured by the pumping of the dorsal vessel which is aided by dorsal and ventral diaphragms and abdominal
Tracheal system
Similar to most terrestrial insects, butterflies ventilate through an extensive interconnecting and branching network of air-filled tubes called tracheae. Each spiracle opens into a chamber called an atrium which divides to form tracheal trunks in each body segment. These trunks form branching networks of tracheal tubes of decreasing diameter that extend throughout the body providing a pathway for the rapid movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide directly between the insect’s tissues and the surrounding environment. In some areas of the trachea densely coiled ridges called taenidia reinforce the wall, hold it open and resist pressure changes during movement of the integument and peristalsis of the intestine which is important during the larval stage. In adults, certain parts of the trachea have no taenidia and the tracheal tube enlarges to form thin-walled air sacs capable of storing air. As gas exchange occurs directly between the air in the tracheoles and the tissue cells, the efficiency of gas exchange in butterflies is high.
The Endocrine system
The endocrine system is a collection of glands that work interdependently and produce hormones that regulate moulting, body growth, metabolism, sexual development and function. Each of these glands produces hormones that target a particular area of the insect’s body and are released and transported in the haemolymph (blood) to the target cells where their modifications may be stimulatory or inhibitory.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 17
Brain and ventral nerve cord
Together the butterfly’s nervous system and endocrine system control its behaviour. It is not possible to point to a particular part of the central or peripheral nervous systems that might comprise the regulatory system in insects but it is known that insects have a number of related regulatory mechanisms such as ‘higher’ brain centres, motor and sensory neurons, neurosecretory neurons and neurohormonal organs that function to achieve such control.
Proboscis and Sucking pump
The feeding mechanism of the butterfly is a simple device for extracting nutrient fluids from deep inside flower corollas. Essentially the feeding mechanism consists of a long tube called the proboscis whose lumen opens into the mouth and a pumping organ (sucking pump) formed by the anterior wall of the foregut.
Ireland’s Butterflies David Nash, Trevor Boyd, ans Deirdre Hardiman
Describing and illustrating all the butterflies of Ireland and including information gathered by several hundred recorders over a fifteen year period. Hardback. All colour printing, 272 pages. €25. Published by Dublin Naturtalists’ Field Club. ISBN 978 0 9530037 2 3.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 18
photographed by Deirdre Hardiman
Speckled Wood. Widespread and common. This butterfly is unusual in that it may overwinter as either a larva or a pupa, thus resulting in several overlapping generations of adults from spring to early October.
Ringlet is widespread and common in damp meadows, marshes and along hedgerows. Its flight season is from the end of May to early September.
Red Admiral. The Red Admiral is one of our largest butterflies and the most regular of our migrants, originating in the Mediterranean area. It is widespread and successful breeding results in a substantial Irish generation which may be found in autumn feeding on nectar from a variety of flowering plants. Flight season may be as early as April and continues until November.
Painted Lady. One of our large migratory butterflies originating in North Africa and Southern Europe. The numbers arriving in Ireland are very dependent on successful breeding in Morocco and favourable timely winds. In some years migrant numbers are extremely small. In good years, the Painted Lady is reported in May or June from all over Ireland, especially on the south and east coastlines.
Common Blue is widespread, common and double brooded. Main flight period is late May through June with a second flight period in August to September.
Brimstone is local and restricted to areas where either or both of the two species of its larval food plants, Buckthorn and Alder Buckthorn, grow. The Brimstone hibernates as an adult but often comes temporarily out of hibernation on mild, sunny winter days. The overwintering adult flies from late February into June or early July and the new generation from July to the end of September before entering hibernation.
Green-veined White is widespread, common and double brooded and may be seen almost any time from early April to mid-September. It is typically a butterfly of damp meadows.
Small Blue is scarce and local. The sole larval food plant is Kidney Vetch. This tiny butterfly, Ireland’s smallest, is not really blue at all. Its colour ranges from smoky blue-black to dark bronze-brown. Its distribution is mainly on coastal sand dune systems and on limestone pavement, but it may still be found on some eskers/moraines and quarries in the Midlands. Main flight period is early May to the end of June. Its Irish Red List status is endangered.
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Green Hairstreak is widespread but local. It is typically found where there is either Gorse or Bilberry on moorland, bogs and hillsides. Main flying period from late April to mid-June, but a limited number of sightings in the period from mid-July to early September suggest a partial second brood.
Marsh Fritillary is local. This species, the smallest and most colourful of the fritillaries, is in apparent decline. The larval food plant is Devil’s-bit Scabious but hungry larvae have been known to eat Honeysuckle and Plantain. The flight season is from mid-May to the end of June. Its Irish Red List status is vulnerable.
Pearl-bordered Fritillary is Ireland’s rarest butterfly. It is found in the ‘Burren’ area of Co Clare and in the adjacent area in south Co Galway with their thin soils over limestone pavement. Colonies are located in open areas of scrub/woodland where Hazel and Bracken grow. It has been recently reported (2006) for the first time in the Aran Islands. The flight season is from mid-May to roughly the end of June. Its Irish Red List status is endangered. Comma. Until recently regarded as a migrant. Small numbers have been reported from several counties since 1998 and now appear to be successfully breeding and overwintering in Ireland. It resembles a rather ragged Small Tortoiseshell in appearance. Its main habitats are open woodland, wood edges and country lanes. The butterfly (imago) emerges from hibernation in March and gives rise to the next generation which appear around late June and July. Photo shows a freshly emerged Comma butterfly.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 21
The imporTance of finding Science in our food By Cushla Dromgool-Regan, Marine Institute
T
he idea that the consumption of certain foods can improve our health has long been established - whether it has come from folklore or recipes of ‘potions and lotions’ passed from generation to generation. Advances in scientific research and the development of new technologies, have helped in establishing a better understanding of how foods can affect our health and well-being. This knowledge, coupled with an increased consumer awareness of impact of food on our health, contributed to the popularity of functional foods and dietary supplements. Consumer demand has led to a growth in the development of functional food products and the search for new bioactive ingredients that can be incorporated in such products. Goldberg (1994) defined functional foods as ‘any food or food ingredient that has a positive impact on an individual’s health, physical performance or state of mind, in addition to its nutritive value’. Over the last 30 years a broad range of ‘functional foods’ have emerged that are now consumed as part of our daily diet. Some common examples of these include low calorie products, cholesterol lowering spreads to products that include antioxidants. Food ingredients based on natural products, such as thickening agents derived from seaweeds are also now commonly used in consumer foods. More recently, functional foods research has become more specific where there is an on-going search for bioactive ingredients that can contribute to reducing the incidence of diet related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity to also improving mental health and boosting the immune system. At the recent international conference “Nutramara 2012”, held in Dublin research was presented on the potential of marine resources, including seaweeds, aquaculture, microalgae and seafood processing by-products, as a source of bioactive functional food ingredients. Studies on the use of seaweed carbohydrates in the treatment of obesity and inflammation; anti-cancer properties of Irish seaweeds on colon and breast carcinogenesis in vitro; the use of seafood processing waste as a source of novel food ingredients and the importance of the untapped resource of microalgae were among the subjects of functional foods highlighted.
With the consumers’ understanding of the linkage between diet and disease, there is an increased global market demand for so-called functional foods. This market for ‘wellness’ and ‘nutritional’ products presents Ireland’s food industry with a wealth of new food product opportunities. However, as noted in “Food Research Ireland” attempts to develop functional foods based on novel bioactive ingredients, is reliant on nutritional biochemistry expertise, molecular biology and the capability to design and perform dietary intervention trials to substantiate health claims. As we learn more about the significant and expanding global market for marine products, such as the role of oily fish as suppliers of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA) – all of which are linked to the development of the brain function and health, as well as cardiovascular health – we have more to do to improve our understanding of the marine as a source of novel bioactive ingredients and how these may contribute to improving our health Over the past decade, marine microorganisms have become as an important and untapped resource for novel bioactive compounds. Of the billions of species of marine micro organisms, only a few thousand have been isolated and described. The Nutramara Project highlights the potential of bioactives derived from micro-algae in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and healthcare, in addition to functional food applications. It is believed that micro algae can provide a new source of food ingredients due to their fatty acid, vitamin, mineral and protein content.
Irish seaweeds used in the study of macroalgae research input in Nutramara. Photograph by Dagmar Stengel, NUIGalway
The Marine Functional Foods Research Initiative (NutraMara) was established in 2008 by the Marine Institute and the Department of Agriculture Food and Marine to build new expertise in the area of marine functional foods research in Ireland. Declan Troy, Director of NutraMara and Assistant Director of Food Research in Teagasc said, “The global market for functional foods is expected to reach $176 billion by 2013 - this demand for functional foods is a driver for research into novel ingredients with demonstrated health benefits. The research carried out by NutraMara’s scientists will help Irish companies to secure a share of this global market”. According to Dr. Peter Heffernan, CEO Marine Institute, “Ireland’s seafood sector already contributes over €700 million to the economy and supports 11,000 jobs and the potential to grow this is significant. Ireland is well positioned to excel in this area with our 220 million acre marine resource supporting a variety of habitats and species and an internationally recognised research capability in marine sciences and food research. Research in the areas of “Food for Health” and “Sustainable Food Production and Processing” were recently highlighted as targets for public investment in the Governments’ Research Prioritisation Steering Group Report, as a result of our demonstrated expertise in these areas and because of the real potential for these sectors to deliver jobs”. NutraMara supports the objectives of Food Harvest 2020 – a vision for Irish agrifood and fisheries and the strategic research agenda of Food Research Ireland which sets out to meet the needs of Ireland’s food sector through research and innovation for the next decade. Along with the increasing world population, changing demographics and a drive for health and wellness food products, the success of developing functional foods in Ireland will depend on the critical role of research in which science can validate the many contributing factors, including functional foods safety, usefulness, taste, convenience, and value. NutraMara is a research consortium led by Teagasc and including researchers at NUI Galway; University College, Cork; University College, Dublin; University of Limerick and the University of Ulster, Coleraine. For further information see:
www.nutramara.ie. LIVE LINK
Gaelscoil Charman Wexford participating in the national finals of the ericsson primary science competition with their project “measuring myths”
Primary science finals P
upils from schools around the country were at Athlone Institute of Technology to compete in the national finals in the Ericsson Primary School Competition. The competition was organised by with the Atlantic Corridor with support from Ericsson. There were three categories of winner in the competition, Middle, from 3rd and 4th class, Senior from 5th and 6th class, and special needs. Middle – 1st, Stokane NS, Enniscrone, Sligo for their entry on “Farm Safety”, 2nd, Scoil Naisunta Inis Mean, Oilean Arran for “Staidéar an ar Aimsir in Inis Meáin i rith an Gheimhridh”, and 3rd was Scoil Mhuire GNS, Lucan, for “We Dig Earthworms.”
Special Needs – 1st, Central Remedial Clinic, Dublin , for “The Science of the Wheelchair”, 2nd St Michael’s School, Castlerea, Roscommon for “Our School Garden”, 3rd, St Brigid’s NS, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, for “Changes In The Canal Through The Seasons”. St Peter’s National School, Athlone received a special commendation in this category for their project on the River Shannon. Senior — 1st Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada, Tullamore, for “Bees v Wasps the true story, Beacha v Pocanna an fiorsceal”. 2nd, Scoil Niamh Fiachra, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, for the “Digital Robotic Themepark,” and 3rd, Ardnagrath NS, Walderstown, Co. Wesmeath, for “The Perfect Breakfast.”
Pupils from Largy NS, Leitrim with their project on sheep scanning using ultrasound.
Pipils from Stokane NS, Sligo.
Pupils from Scoil NÁisúnta Inis Meáin Cora Ní Chonghaile, Eadaoin Ní Dhomhnaill, Michael Ó Coinceanainn, Cathal Ó Fátharta and Eoghan Ó Domhnaill with Jackie Gorman, CEO Atlantic Corridor, Photo Ann Hennessy
Pupils from Knockavilla NS , Dundrum, Co Tipperary, Caoimhe McCarthy, Stephen Browne and Reuben Bourke with their Daffodil project, Photo Ann Hennessy.
Gaelscoil De hIde, Roscommon with their project on air pressure.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 23
Winners of 1st place in the senior category of the national finals, Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada, Tullamore.
Dr. How's
A rocket can describe any object that is propelled by fast moving liquid or gas!
Science Wows! ...exploring rocket science! Experiments you can try
What is a rocket?
Junior science by Dr. Naomi Lavelle
Lets learn more! Most rockets have a nose or cone at the top, a body that houses the fuel and fins at the base. Rockets are usually powered by a chemical reaction (explosion) within the rocket itself.
The chinese were the first to invent rockets when they started filling bamboo tubes with gunpowder and lighting them.
Teabag Rocket!
You will need... A teabag (the ones with the staple and string), a match, a plate
Remove the staple from the teabag and open it out. Pour off the tea inside the teabag so you are left with an empty teabag. Open it out into a cyclinder shape and stand it on the plate. Ask an adult to light the top of the teabag and let it burn down. Watch the burnt out teabag suddenly take off!
So what is happening?
This chemical reaction requires both fuel and oxygen, both of which must be carried within the rocket.
The air inside the empty teabag heats up as the teabag burns. This creates a difference in air density between the air inside the teabag and the air outside the teabag. The warmer, lighter air rises above the cooler air with enough force to lift the ash remais of the teabag.
The fuel and oxygen are called the propellant. There are two types of propellant, liquid propellant and solid propellant. A solid propellant rocket is easier, simpler and cheaper to make. However, these rockets are harder to guide and A liquid propellant control as once the rocket is more complex chemical reaction is and expensive to make started it is hard but the burning of the to stop. liquid fuel is allot easier to control.
Rocket science really began with an english man called Isaac Newton. He formulated three laws to explain the physics of motion. These laws explain how rockets work! Newton‛s 3rd Law of Motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction!
Make a stomp rocket!
Tape one end of the rubber
Experiments you can try
to the neck of the bottle You will need... tubing and tape the other end to one an empty 2L plastic end of the PVC pipe. bottle, paper, make the body of the insulation tape, a Next rocket by wrapping a piece 1/2 inch PVC pipe, of paper around the PVC pipe a length of rubber and secure it with tape at the tubing overlap. Remove the rocket from
the pipe. Cut four triangles of Armstrong and paper and attach to the body of Aldrin travelled to the rocket near one end; these are the rocket fins. the moon in a rocket Make a nose (cone shape) for the other end of the called Saturn V. rocket and attach it with tape. You are now ready to In 1969 It was 100 metres tall launch your rocket. (Best to do this outside!). Neil Armstrong and weighed more than Sit your paper rocket over the PVC pipe and place the and Edwin Aldrin 3,000 tonnes! 2L bottle on the ground on its side. Stomp on the became the first men It was the bottle and watch your rocket shoot off! on the moon. So what is happening? largest rocket ever launched! When you stomp on the bottle the air inside it shoots The first out through the tubing and liquid propellant the pipe, forcing the rocket rocket was launched off the end of the pipe! in 1926 by an american Just blow into the called Robert Goddard. pipe to re-inflate He is considered to bottle to the father of modern start again! rocket science!
To understand this law think of a balloon full of air. If the balloon is untied and the air suddenly let out it will escape the balloon with such force that it will propel the balloon in the opposite direction. The force of the air leaving the balloon is called the thrust! The thrust that powers the launch of a rocket comes from the force of the gas (generated by the burning fuel) being ejected from the rear of the rocket! LIVE LINK
If you want to know HOW something works why not write to Dr. How and ask? Send your e-mail to naomi@sciencespin.com
Natural filter
The lichens that grow like colourful splotches of colour on rocks and walls could help clean up our drinking water. Lichens have an ability to extract nutrients from apparently bare surfaces, and that is why they can thrive where everything else would die of starvation. The same ability makes lichens good at picking up the traces of metal that otherwise would make water dangerous to drink. Water draining from old industries can be contaminated with heavy metals, so Brian O’Rourke and Oonagh Pierce from Coláiste Chiaráin thought it would be a good idea to find out if it would be possible to develop an effective lichen filter that could be used in areas where water supplies are suspect. With the help of their crafts teacher, they designed and built a stack of containers through which contaminated water could flow. Each container was filled with lichen, and the water was allowed to cascade down through the stack. “We used ordinary tap water,” they said, “but deliberately contaminated it
Table top interaction
InsTeAd of sitting in front of a screen all alone it could be much more fun if interactive computer games could be played with a group of real live friends. With touch screens, the technology to do this exists, but as Caoimhe Barnes and Ian harrison, students at sutton Park school in dublin pointed out, costs are extremely high, so they decided to see what they could do to come up with an affordable alternative. The students were in transition year and they thought this would make a good technology project, so they set about finding out how a computer could
Oonagh Pierce and Brian with salts of nickel and lithium.” O’Rourke at the RDS. Although these traces of heavy metal were just parts per million, such levels would be unacceptable in drinking water. The contaminated water was fed into the top of the filter stack, and the students varied the rate of flow to see how long it would take the lichens to remove the metals. “We took our samples to Limerick Institute of Technology,” they explained. There, the levels of metals could be determined with high precision using an absorption spectrometer. What they found was that the amount of metals remaining in the water depended on how long it has been exposed to the lichens. “After seven hours,” they said, “we would have half the amount that Could a lichen stack be useful in you would have after an hour.” practice? The students thought a working The lichens themselves eventually stack would have to be quite big and become exhausted, so have to be tall to be a practical proposition, but the replaced, and the students thought it design is simple, and as they pointed would be worth doing a follow up study out, living in isolation would not be a on how the absorption takes place. They problem because solar energy could be would also be interested to know if some used to power circulating pumps. lichens are more effective than others.
be linked up to an interactive screen that could lie flat and be big enough for a group of participants to sit around. Their teachers were a big help in telling them about different types of technology that might be useful in construction. It was possible to project an image from a computer up onto the back of
Caoimhe Barnes and Ian Harrison with their table top interactive screen.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 25
a large transparent screen, but for this to be useful it also had to serve as a touch-screen. That problem was solved by using an infra-red camera that could detect position and movement, and as the students found, this worked very well. Ideally, the screen itself should be of ground glass, but to keep costs down, the students simply back-projected onto ordinary tracing paper. As they admitted, it might not look the part, but it certainly works. everything that can be done on a PC or laptop, can be done on their table-top device, so its ideal for working or playing games, such as Monopoly, in a group. naturally, the device has proved a big hit at school.
Searching for gold in County Wicklow, by the late 18th century Irish landscape artist, Thomas Sautell Roberts. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.
GOLD FRENZY The story of Wicklow’s gold by Peadar McArdle
IN 1795, following the chance discovery of a nugget, there was a gold rush as people were drawn by the prospect of picking up instant wealth from Wicklow’s Goldmine River. Gold has always been mankind’s enduring passion, and long after the initial rush which the Government tried to crush, the belief persisted that great wealth remained undiscovered among the Wicklow hills. Charles Stewart Parnell was among those eager to support the prospectors, and with independence, nationalists were convinced that Ireland was about to rediscover its source of ancient gold. In his entertaining and highly informative book, Peadar McArdle, former Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, describes how the frenzy has never really died down, and to this day, panners dream that one day they might strike it rich.
Gold Frenzy is available from the Science Spin website, Dubray’s, Kenny’, Hanna’s, the GSI store and from other sselected bookshops. Hardback €20 IBSN 0 906002 08 7 Enquiries to: mail@sciencespin.com
LIVE LINK
Albertine Kennedy Publishing, Cloonlara, Swinford, County Mayo
IRISH FOSSIL SERIES Crinoid fossils from Hook Head. Photo courtesy of the Ulster Museum.
Crazy Crinoids Anthea Lacchia introduces us to plant-like animal fossils.
C
rinoids, also known as sea lilies or feather stars, are among the most ubiquitous of fossils. You don’t have to head out into the wilds, hammer in hand, to find a fossilized crinoid: just glance at the limestone building stones of the National Library on Kildare Street, Dublin. You will probably find that they are packed with strange, polo mint shapes: these are crinoid ossicles, the disarticulated remains of crinoid stems. In fact, most crinoids have long stems, anchored to the sea floor via holdfasts. Others are free-living and drift or swim weakly, in some cases attaching themselves to objects by means of flexible cirri. The ossicles can be round, elliptical or five-sided and their central opening is called the lumen. The main part of the
animal consists of a cup or calyx, from which arms extend out in multiples of five. The calyx contains the gut and soft parts of the organism and its domed roof is called the tegmen. The arms commonly carry fine branches, called pinnules, used in filter feeding. This process begins with the capture of food particles, which then pass down a food groove in the arms, before reaching the mouth. The anus is found on the tegmen and, in some taxa, faeces-feeding (coprophagous) gastropods are found there. Crinoids are entirely marine organisms and in some places they live together in groups, forming so-called “gardens”. They gracefully wave their arms in the currents, leading to the mistaken impression that they are plants. Crinoids are in fact echinoderms, animals with high magnesium calcite skeletons, bodies with pentameral symmetry (a five-rayed arrangement of the body) and a water vascular system. The skeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates, each made of a single calcite crystal. These crystals break along cleavage planes, leaving sparkly and lustrous surfaces, a useful clue that you are in the presence of an echinoderm fossil. Crinoid classification is based mostly on the arrangement of calcite plates of the calyx, the branching pattern and number of arms and external sculpture. Don’t be fooled by the carefree dance of those Right, a living crinoid in deep water off the reef front, Jamaica. Photo: D.B. Macurda Jnr. Left, a crinoid from the Gulf of Mexico, Photo: NOAA.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 27
elegant arms or by the simple shapes of the ossicles: crinoids are a very complex group to study! Crinoids first appeared in the early Ordovician and are still living today, even though they are not as common in shallow waters as their Palaeozoic and Mesozoic counterparts. Modern day crinoids live in various water depths, stalkless forms, the feather stars, being more common in shallow water and stalked forms commonly found below 100 metres depth. Today feather stars are very numerous in some reef environments. Interestingly, some crinoids prefer unidirectional current flow, while others seem to favour random current direction. Some fossil crinoids, such as Pentacrinites, lived attached to floating logs. Crinoid skeletons disarticulate rapidly after death, so that complete specimens are quite rare and reflect rapid burial. Disarticulated crinoid ossicles are common at many localities in the Carboniferous of Ireland. More complete specimens are known from Bundoran, County Leitrim, St John’s Point, County Donegal, Portmarnock and Feltrim. Through the study of fossil crinoids we discover elegance and grace, beautifully combined with a danse macabre of skeletal features. To find out more… Introducing Palaeontology: A Guide to Ancient Life by Patrick N. Wyse Jackson Fossils: the Key to the Past by Richard Fortey
CITY OF SCIENCE
The scientific programme
Just a few of the subjects lined up for ESOF 2012
To view or download the entire programme esof2012.org/programme LIVE LINK
GOING TO COLLEGE
Get the point, not the points N
o one knows for sure what makes a student suitable for higher education and the students themselves often choose to embark on courses that do not suit their needs. Students often make their choice simply on the basis of being able to jump over the entry barrier. Like a competitive sport, higher points, based on Leaving Certificate results, are widely seen as some kind reward that qualifies a student to become a better nurse, engineer, or teacher. Not everyone is happy with this system of selection, and one of the most common criticisms is that students are being rewarded for memory rather than comprehension. In addition, the points system takes little account of aptitude, talent or ability to solve everyday problems. Áine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education at University College Cork, and Chairperson of the 1999 Commission on the Points System, is among those who would like to see a change in how students are assessed. In a discussion paper presented to the NCCA and HEA last September, Prof Hyland noted that there is no obligation to stick with a system that is obviously defective. As she remarked, “universities and institutes of technology are responsible for their own policies in relation to the selection and admission of students.”
Left, entrance to University College Cork, and, right, walking through the grounds of the University of Limerick. Photos: Source Archive TK.
Should students be in training to get high points, or would they be better off getting a good general education? Tom Kennedy reports that in a discussion paper presented to a higher education conference last September, Áine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education at UCC, argued that the intense pressure to clock up points is not the way to prepare students for university.
One of the reasons why the issue has become so critical is that there has been an enormous increase in the number of students entering third level. Since the mid 1960s there has been a tenfold increase in student numbers, and while there are now more colleges, competition to enter popular courses can be intense. Where places are limited, not everyone can get in, and the appeal of the points system is that it is an easy way for colleges to streamline selection. Students, teachers and parents accept that this is currently their one and only route into third level, so they do everything they can to optimise their points. As Prof Hyland observed, this encourages everyone to work the system, choosing subjects that yield the maximum return for what is often perceived to be the minimum effort. This makes achieving points more important than acquiring knowledge, so it has a negative impact that spills over into
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 29
every aspect of education. The syllabus itself is truncated because students focus only on topics that are likely to come up in exams so that they can be trained to repeat the right answers. Where special requirements are made in addition to points, the same attitude applies, so that, for example, students take grinds or extra coaching to help them prepare an impressive presentation or portfolio. As Prof Hyland points out, “nonexamination subjects get little or no attention, and in many cases, broader co-curricular activities are ignored or minimised.” Not alone do students lose out on education, but for many, the final year in school is an unhappy stressful experience, and if they don’t get high points they begin to think of themselves as failures rather than good, welladjusted all-rounders. When asked, “how did you do in the Leaving Certificate, most students” would reply “I got X number of points.”
There is an all-or-nothing finality about these points, mainly because the assessment does not involve the students’s own teachers, and grading is done on one set of answers written down on one particular day. The fear of missing the bus, or feeling a bit ‘off’ is hard to avoid, but in many other countries a significant proportion of marks in state examinations is allocated to the candidate’s own teacher. These issues are not new. “Concerns that the second level education system does not prepare students adequately for third level have been expressed with monotonous regularity during the past fifty years,” Dr Hyland stated. In 1967 the Commission on Higher Education stated that “the low standard of entry is, we think, one of the reasons for the failure rate in first university examinations — at some first university examinations the percentage of those who fail at first attempt may reach 40 or 50 per cent — the low entry standard, taken in conjunction with (these) circumstances, makes high initial failure rates almost inevitable.” In 1999, the Report of the Points Commission drew attention to the negative impact of using points as a measure of each students abilities, and in 2003 the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) after a wideranging consultative process on reform of the senior cycle made the proposal that “a greater variety of modes of assessment will be available,” and this would include assessment of written exams, oral and aural presentations, projects and performance. Furthermore, the NCCA stated that; “the current concentration of assessment into one event at the end of senior cycle is unacceptable and unproductive in relation to meeting many of the desired aims and principles of assessment and of senior cycle education.” This was a fairly blunt condemnation of the prevailing system, but, as Prof Hyland explains, the then Minister for Education and Science, Noel Dempsey, rejected the proposals on the grounds that they constituted a ‘Rolls Royce’ model of reform.
There appears to be a significant gap between educational aspirations and the reality of the points system. Prof Hyland points to the Department of Education and Skills website which states that the Leaving Certificate programme “emphasizes the importance of selfdirected learning and independent thought; a spirit of enquiry, critical thinking, problem solving, self-relienace, initiative and enterprise; preparation for further education, for adult and working life and lifelong learning.” Laudable aims, but Dr Hyland goes on to explain that they remain aspirational, and she quotes the remark of former President of DCU, Ferdinand von Prondzynski, who made his position clear. “We have a final secondary school examination that we all know isn’t fit for purpose. It encourages learning methods that offend the most basic principles of pedagogy. Its curriculum is outdated and hard to change to something better. By all accounts it fails to engage the interest and enthusiasm of either teachers or students. It doesn’t attract any respect from the wider world, including the world of business.” Prof Prondzynski is far from alone in calling for reform. In 2010 Professor Tom Collins, Chairman of the NCCA told guidance councellors that “the points system rewards rote learning, instrumental learning and memorization, while simultaneously discouraging exploration, self-directed learning and critical thinking.” This year, Dr Tom Begly, Dean of the Smurfit School of Business at UCD, described the Leaving Certificate as “dysfunctional.” There is some evidence to indicate that the race for higher points is having a significant impact on core skills. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in grades, while OECD figures show a decline in literacy and mathematics in Ireland compared to other countries. Compared to other OECD countries, our ranking for literacy fell from 5th in 2000 to 17th in 2009. During the same period, our numeracy ranking fell from 16th to 26th. Oddly enough, greater transparency in marking exams while being fairer
to students and teachers who might be puzzled by unexpectedly low marks, is also providing ‘crammers’ with more information on how to answer questions. “As they approach the examination period, students focus more and more on exam techniques and are reluctant to engage with any form of learning which will not be rewarded in the examination,” said Prof Hyland, “and it can be very difficult for an examiner to distinguish between analyses and evaluations which are original and are the work of one candidate, and answers learned off in advance of the examination.” Some of the problems created by the points system seem relatively easy to fix. For example, in many courses, there is no requirement to have studied relevant subjects for the Leaving Certificate, and that could change. At present, students try to choose subjects that will maximise their points, rather than concentrating on subjects that will be helpful or relevant to their studies in college. This does not have to be the case. In 1999 the Points Commission recommended a change that would relieve some of that emphasis on points. Instead of going directly from school into a specialised course requiring a high number of points, the Commission recommended that “where possible” the first year subjects would be generic. For example, students who take general science, get a good grounding in three or four subjects before taking an informed decision to specialise in one. Another solution to the excessive emphasis on points is to set realistic entry requirements for all courses, as is done in The Netherlands. There, all students who satisfy basic requirements are eligible for selection through a lottery system. Undoubtedly there are students who have no problem with the points system, and it may in fact suit them, but overall the evidence is that end of school assessment is badly in need of reform. As Prof Hyland clearly states, there are serious problems, and the universities and the institutes have it within their power to change things for the better.
To download the original report www.hea.ie/files/files/file/News/1335_HEA_Conference_01.pdf LIVE LINK
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 30
REVIEWS
An Irish Flora
Generations of botanical students set off on field trips equipped with handlenses and a copy of Webb’s Irish Flora. The step-by-step keys made it a handy, self-learning guide to the wild flowers of Ireland, and it proved so durable that the book, first issued in the 1940s was reprinted through several editions. The Dundalk publishers must have been amazed at having such a long and sustained demand, but eventually the time came for a major revamp, a task that over a decade to complete. While Webb’s earlier editions were small enough to fit into a coat pocket, the 8th edition, from Cork Publishing, is a 504 page brick of a book. John Parnell and Tom Curtis have comprehensively revised and expanded the content, and Elaune Cullen’s fine illustrations help in identification of species by showing points that would be difficult to describe in words. Apart from being a welcome re-working of a classic guide, the classification has been brought up-to-
Factual entertainment
WHAT sparks off an interest in science? Some scientists recall an inspiring parent or teacher, while others remember a television programme, article or book that made them hungry to learn more. I am not really sure how successful the book, Discover the Extreme World will be in providing such a spark, but without doubt it will be enormously popular. Strictly speaking, it is not a book about science, but it presents us with an array of scientific facts. The book, packed
date. In Webb’s day, taxonomists often had to take an educated guess at where specific plants should be placed in an evolutionary tree. More often right than wrong, biologists are now on surer ground thanks to genetic analysis. For this book, the authors adopted the latest phylogenetic arrangement, known as the APGIII scheme, which takes into account genetic relationships rather than superficial appearances. The 8th edition is in fact probably one of the first floras to have adopted this approach. John Parnell is Professor of Systematic Botany at TCD, and Dr Tom Curtis is an ecological consultant and a research associate in botany at TCD and he lectures on plant sciences at NUI Galway. Revising the original flora was a daunting task, but the authors are keen with colourful graphics, bombards readers with lots of interesting facts from elaborately designed pages. In a way, its like television in print, and indeed it was published with the Discovery Channel, which, by definition is a “factual entertainment channel.” Nothing wrong with that, the book is quite entertaining, but in a flick-through sort of way. There are lots of visual hooks and headlines but texts are quite short, so the book suits readers with a brief attention span. Obviously quite an effort was made by the publishing team to produce a book with a strong ‘wow’ factor and in this they have succeeded. However, I wonder if the same team are right when they stated that to produce a book “that young adults and parents will pick up to learn from”, a combination of “bright colours, dramatic layouts and compelling facts is really the only way forwards.” I am not really convinced that this is true or that it works, at least not in the way intended. The thinking seems to be in line with a widespread assumption that best way to make young people swallow a dose of knowledge is to sugar coat the pill. This is particularly so of science, suggesting that in some way it is hard to swallow. Some people think that making science fun is the way to go, while others, donning false beards, wigs and fancy dress, try to break through the boredom barrier by performing scientific tricks. It
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 52 Page 31
to explain that they were following a path laid down by Webb. David Webb, with his wild head of hair and blue jeans, was a colourful figures that was hard to miss, but, more significant was his impact on Irish botany. As the authors point out in their introduction, having his name on the title is a good way to acknowledge Webb’s role in laying such good foundations that enabled them to produce this impressive Irish flora. (TK) Webb’s, An Irish Flora. Hardback, €35, 560 pages. John Parnell and Tom Curtis with illustrations by Elaine Cullen. Cork University Press.
might make a change from being locked up in a classroom to take instructions from an uninspiring teacher, but I am sure that many of the brighter students would actually much prefer to engage with the real thing. This raises a question on what we hope to achieve in promoting science. Stimulating general interest in science, is not quite the same as stimulating interest in engaging with science. Its a bit like music. Everyone wants to listen, but only a few want to play. The mass market approach to promotion undoubtedly helps to maintain much needed public support, but it might not be quite so successful in reaching those who might actually like to engage with science, and indeed, making science look too easy or trendy might even create false expectations and lower academic standards. Not that this is to suggest that science should be dull and deadly serious, but I would not be surprised if younger people, particularly if they are bright and hungry for knowledge, would be disappointed by being offered a big box of sweets when what they want is a real meal. (TK) Discover the Extreme World Miles Kelly in association with Discovery Channel. Hardback, 224 pages. £17.99
REVIEWS
The rural landscape
ThroughouT the length and breadth of Ireland it would be hard to find a patch of ground that has not been modified by humans, and even on the western fringes, there are stone walls buried below the blanket of peat. As soon as humans landed, they began to dig for copper and clear patches of forests, and ever since a process of adapting the landscape has continued, so, in many ways most of what we see around us is form following function. There is not much wilderness, but wishful thinking makes us inclined to think of the features we like as ‘natural’ and those we do not like as a ‘dreadful blight on the landscape’ that ‘someone must do something about.’ In the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape there is a telling quote from a French geographer, Vidal de la Blache, who commented that we are as close to the landscape as a snail is to its shell. He is correct, and even if our shell is a better built concrete box, it is just as much an extension of ourselves. For this large and comprehensive volume, the editors, F H A Aalen, Kevin Whelan, and Matthew Stout have brought 25 contributors together to examine how this interaction with our surroundings had produced what we have come to think of as a typical Irish landscape. As these assorted geographers, architects, archaeologists, historians and scientists note, our ability to shape the landscape now is far greater than it ever was in the past. We have moved on from working in harmony to taking control, and one of the consequences of this is that the environment suffers. With traditional farming, we had biodiversity because plants and animals were provided with a diversity of habitats. Fields were small, houses blended into the landscape, and, of course, nutrients went back into the soil. Obviously we no longer inhabit this kind of Darby O’Gill landscape, but as the authors explain, having gained more power to take control can also make us a
lot more destructive. Loss of biodiversity is just one of the prices we pay for pushing nature aside. As suburban housing spreads out into the countryside, commuters travel 50 km or more to work, and instead of farmhouses, six bedroom palaces for smaller families have been built on tiny scraps of land. With some of the authors, there is more than a hint of disapproval of this trend with a clear suggestion that planning authorities should not have allowed urban housing to intrude so much on rural environments. It is certainly true that planners have a shameful record in giving approval to developments that made absolutely no sense, but on this issue there seems to be a lot of confusion between the assumed right to impose ‘good taste‘ and the need to take practical considerations such as drainage, access to infrastructure and traffic density into account. Much as the thatched cottages were admired from afar, those that lived in them with the dozen children, the granny and the hens, were not that keen to maintain that particular tradition, so when the opportunity came to do
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something different they moved into bungalow bliss. Complete with running water, power and a proper kitchen sink, these houses were what people wanted, so in a way they became just as much part of the living countryside as the “vernacular long-houses” that they displaced. Whether or not Spanish arches satisfy our aesthetic sensibilities is neither here nor there, for like the crannogs, ring forts and cottages they are an expression of how people choose to interact with their environment at that particular time. The way people live has a huge impact on the landscape, and not just in superficial style of houses. One of the biggest changes in the appearance of the Irish landscape has come about by the decline of tillage. Fields, which were once filled with waving oats, have disappeared under a spreading cover of Sitka forestry. In some parts of the country, particularly in the north west, the wide-open landscape of thirty years ago bears no resemblance to the landscape we see now. On awakening, Sleeping Beauty would think she had been transported to some other part of the world. In covering fifteen topics ranging from mining, boglands, plantations, house design, demesnes, and transport, the contributors to this book show how the landscape is, as one of the editors, F H A Aalen puts it, a synthesis of habitat and history. When first published in 1997 the Atlas of the Irish Landscape was an enormous success as a best-seller, going to print six times. In this revised and up-dated edition, much of the content has been rewritten, sections, such as one on the impact of the Celtic Tiger, have been added and there are some detailed case studies of areas of particular interest. (TK) Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape. Editors, F H A Aalen, Kevin Whelan and Matthew Stout. 2nd Edition. Hardback, 432 pages.
Presenti ng the b est of Irish s cience to thousan ds of peo ple from hom e and abroad
IRISH SCIENCE
HANDBOOK SCIENCE
CHARTING THE STRUC
S P IN
2012
TURES, STRENGTHS AN D SEC TORS OF IRISH SCIEN CE
Biotechnology Pharmaceuticals IT and communications Environmental sciences Medical devices Energy Engineering Food sciences Agricultural research Health care Marine science Geology and earth scien ces Education and training Mathematical sciences Physics Astrophysics Nanotechnology Science careers
Science Spin will publish The Irish Science Handbook to coincide with the Dublin ESOF Dublin City of Science Event in July 2012. It will be a shop window for all aspects of science and innovation in Ireland and will serve as a valuable promotional tool both at home and abroad.
The Handbook will help everyone understand who is doing what in science and where the researchers are based. Many organisations are now deeply involved in science, and at most of the third level institutions there are large, well equipped research centres, such as the Tyndall National Institute, REMEDI in Galway, and Conway at UCD. Ireland has become the research base for a growing number of multinationals, and in all sectors, growth is coming from innovation. Thousands of visitors will be coming to Dublin for the 2012 City of Science event, and apart from a high level conference in the capital, partner organisations from all around the country will be involved in an ambitious national programme of local events.
Includes an A-Z of organisations involved in science and research in Ireland, third level colleges, research institutes, state bodies, associations and organisations Also, an OUT and ABOUT section giving a county by county listing of places to go and experience science throughout Ireland. To book space in The Irish Science Handbook contact Alan Doherty at
alan@sciencespin.com
The Irish Science Handbook will be distributed at City of Science events, low cost copies will be available to the public, and the digital edition will be free-to-view on our websites www.sciencespin.com and www.sciencespin.eu SCIENCE SPIN Issue 48 Page xx
Renewable energy, nanotechnology, space technology, computer animation and game development: A career for you? MyScienceCareer.ie is a new website which aims to provide resources for students, career guidance counsellors, teachers, parents and people of all ages who are interested in finding out more about a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Check out career profiles written by young professionals from all areas of science, along with useful resources such as video interviews, for some valuable insights into a career in science. Find out the difference between various sciencerelated jobs, what subjects you would need to study, what a typical day involves and what other areas could be open to you in the future by pursuing a career in STEM. Use the Resources section to direct you to some important websites that will help you to get more information on what colleges to consider, what points you may need and what options are open to you. Read about Ireland’s rich scientific history and famous Irish scientists of the past, as well as finding out more about our brightest Science Ambassadors of today. LIVE LINK
www.MyScienceCareer.ie is an initiative of the national integrated awareness programme Discover Science & Engineering.