Science Spin 56

ISSUE

56

January/February 2013

€5 including VAT £4 NI and UK

SCIENCE

SPIN

IRELAND’S SCIENCE NATURE AND DISCOVERY MAGAZINE

www.sciencespin.com

SURVEYING

THE BORDER COUNTIES

Choosing sCienCe as a Career

What choices should STEM students take to get a life in science?

SCIENCE FOR LIFE

SUPPLEMENT PLANT FOSSILS HURRICANES

and climate change

FREE WILL SCIENCE

SPIN

does it exist?

How can I work with digital humans and still have time for real ones?

There can be no answers without people who ask questions. People like Kristy Myers.

Kristy Myers’ workplace is cyberspace. She and her team develop the software used for virtual simulations of production processes. This helps make business more efficient and creates safer work environments. It’s a demanding job that requires dedication and commitment.

But because Kristy is able to work flexitime, she can

balance her family life and her work life.

Siemens is always looking for people who are looking for new ways of doing things. Because to discover great answers, you have to ask big questions. How can you turn your curiosity into a career? Dare to ask.

siemens.com/careers

SCIENCE SCIENCE

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

Left: Surveying on the ground for the Tellus Border project.

Above: one of the Carboniferous plant fossils from County Kilkenny.

Upfront Hurricanes and climate change Margaret Franklin

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Choosing science as a career SUPPLEMENT

What sort of careers can STEM students aspire to?

Talking to scientists who are counting badgers, working with industry, probing the brain, and going commercial with research results

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Tell us more

Anthea Lacchia reports on the Tellus survey of Ireland’s border counties

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Free Will

Jeff Harte wonders if the pause before coming to a conscious decision means that we need to think again about the meaning of free will 34

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY Peadar McArdle, author of Gold Fever and former Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland talks about the Wicklow Gold Rush at the RDS. 6pm April 3rd 2013 All are welcome, but booking required from librarydesk@rds.ie

Plant fossils

Anthea Lacchia writes about plants from the past

Pressure

Dr How explains about pressure

Young scientists

Using water to save on transport fuel

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Depressed connections

A fAilurE to make good connections between brain cells can be linked to depression. researchers from Yale university, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, that stress is likely to suppress the formation of synaptic connections. in a healthy brain, an enormous number of connections are constantly being made between neurons, and if this level of activity is low, cognitive functions are compromised. ronald Duman, one of the lead researchers, reported that several genes involved in creating synaptic connections can be switched off by a single factor, known as GATA1. This was found by studying brains from donors. in the case of brains from people who had been suffering from depression, the genes involved in synapse formation exhibited a lower rate of expression. Dr H J Kang, a postdoc researcher with the group, found that in rodents, at least five of these genes are regulated by GATA1.

When GATA1 was activated the rodents began to exhibit depressive-like symptoms. This suggests that GATA1 is likely to be a target for diagnosis, or indeed treatment, of depression.

UPFRONT

Above, the Kameni islands are on the rise. The increased elevation is shown in this model by blue rising to orange. Image M Parks.

Wandering planets

liKE Earth, Jupiter or Mars, planets usually orbit around stars, such as our Sun. However, it is possible that a number of planet-sized objects are wandering through space.

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory Very large Telescope and the Canada-franceHawaii Telescope have identified what appears to be one of these free-floating planets. The wandering planet, known to the astronomers as CfBDSir2149, is about 100 light-years away from Earth in among a group of young stars.

As one of the observers, Phillippe Delorme, noted, free-moving planets could provide an opportunity to study details that would otherwise remain out of reach. As he remarked, “looking for planets around their stars is akin to studying a firefly sitting one centimetre away from a distant, powerful car headlight.� Without the dazzling lights, more details can be observed. it is not yet known how such freefloating planets form. It is possible that they have been ejected from former orbits around a star. it is also possible that they are quite common.

Fira in Santorini, perched at the edge of the collapsed caldera Santorini.

Photograph by Yoo Chung.

Volcanic unrest

THE massive eruption of Santorini 3,600 years ago is thought to have had an enormous impact on civilisation, shifting the balance of power in the entire region.

All that remains of what may have been a thriving and powerful Minoan centre is an enormous crater, a flooded caldera, in which lie the Kameni islands. it appears that Santorini, having blown its top is still far from dormant.

Satellite observations show that the Kameni islands have risen by up to 14 cm since January 2011.

There has been continuous volcanic activity, and in 1950 there was an eruption on the islands. More recently, there have been a series of minor earthquakes, just enough to rattle glasses

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 2

in bars, but geologists now detect rising pressure from what they believe is a growing chamber of molten rock about four km below the islands. As the chamber fills with magma, the crust above deforms, adding to the size of the Kameni islands. Geologists estimate that island growth, of over a million cubic metres a year, is on the increase.

According to Juliet Biggs, one of the scientists involved in studying the satellite data, the recent observations do not mean that Santorini is about to blow again. Earthquake activities have actually decreased over the past months.

However, the catastrophic Minoan eruption is thought to have originated in filling of a shallow magma chamber, with a significant amount arriving less than a century before the explosion.

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Stem cell switch

eLeCTrICALLY stimulating adult stem cells from bone marrow can cause them to develop into cells with cardiac-like characters. researchers dr Valerie Barron and dr Mary Murphy from reMedI at nuI Galway, working with nanotechnology scientists under Professor Werner Blau at TCd, have found the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes can influence how stem cells develop. In this case, bone marrow stem cells within a carbon nanotube scaffolding developed into cells which may allow for repair of damaged heart muscle tissue.

After a heart attack, the damaged muscle tissue has very little capacity to recover, and at present it is not possible to replace or regenerate these specialised cells. If bone marrow stem cells could be induced to develop into heart cells, it might become possible to develop a cellbased therapy.

According to the researchers, these results suggest that a similar approach may be applied to generate other cell types.

Road trains

TruCkS with enormous trailers have become quite common especially in countries such as Australia where towns can be hundreds of miles apart. not surprisingly, the idea of stringing passenger cars together has often been suggested, and with more and more of our highways turning into dull and seemingly endless channels, lots of drivers might be quite happy to let someone in front take over the controls.

Car manufacturers have been investigating this possibility and under one european project, SArTre, the aim is to put sensors in control. The developers argue that allowing sensors to take control is safer because reaction times are faster than humans can achieve.

According to the developers, 87 per cent of traffic accidents are caused by slow reaction time.

Because reaction times are faster, vehicles in a road train could be closer together, and one of the benefits of this is that fuel consumption could be cut by up to 20 per cent.

The concept is likely to appeal to those who have to travel long distances, and the developers suggest that having a good lead

UPFRONT

A Dutch giant

When machine operator, Carlo Brauer was digging out chalk from a big quarry at SintPietersberg near Maastricht he noticed something glistening in the morning sun. Curious, he had a look and found what appeared to be big teeth. The quarry operators were quick to react, and called in palaeontologists from the local natural history museum.

The area was once covered by an ancient sea, and fossil finds are quite common in the chalk, but the scientists were amazed as they kept finding more bits and pieces that once added up to a big marine monster Mosasaurus. As they explained, the big marine reptrile was probably attacked more than 67 million years ago and its remains scattered.

The palaeontologists scoured the area and found enough of the skeleton to piece the 13-metre-long animal together.

This has become the fifth, and biggest partly complete Masasaurus skeleton to be found in The netherlands. After careful assembly all the parts are being assembled to go on show at the Maastricht museum.

Engineering competition

ThIrd-LeVeL students have been invited to come up with award winning microelectronics or electronics design and development projects.

The competition has been organised by MIdAS, a body promoting the microelectronics industry in Ireland, and the closing date is April 12th 2013. More details at: www.midasireland.ie driver would give everyone one of the big advantages of public transport without having to leave the car.

In the most recent trials, a road train, consisting of a lead truck and three cars, travelled at up to 90 km/hour around Volvo’s text track near Gothenburg in Sweden.

The aim is to add more vehicles, but before that can be achieved a number of problems have to be solved. For example, can the technology be robust and reliable enough to react to a immenent crash.

There is also the legal aspect to consider, and one suggestion is to have designated lanes, similar to those already being used by buses. http://www.sartre-project.eu/ Road trains have already become part of the Australian outback.

Photograph Thomas Schorch.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 3

Call-up a pod

In another move to automate transport, diesel-powered buses at heathrow airport have been displaced by electrically powered passenger pods. under a CITYMOBIL project, four-seater pods can be called up by passengers to bring them from a car park to terminal 5. The driverless pods, which come on demand, and travel at up to 35 km per hour, have replaced two diesel-powered buses. using optical navigation, the pods can stay on course when following pavement lines.

The international team working on the CityMobil project aim to apply the heathrow experience to develop an efficient city transport system for widespread use. engineers from eleven european countries are collaborating in the project which is being led by The netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. ultimately the intention is to enable people to call-up driverless pods to bring them to a range of destinations According to the developers, the system would save energy and reduce city traffic congestion.

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Controlling TB

The currently available vaccine, BCG, is not effective enough to prevent an epidemic and, with the rise of antibiotic resistance, the problem is becoming more serious. TB already kills 1.4 million people a year.

A new vaccine, MTBVAC, has been shown to be effective in pre-clinical trials, and approval has now been given to progress on to the next stage. If these clinical trials are successful, larger-scale testing will follow.

According to the vaccine’s lead developer, Professor Carlos Martin from Zaragoza University in Spain, the hope is that life-long protection will be possible against all forms of TB. A number of researchers have been working on this development for some years. The vaccine is based on the bacterium that causes the disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and, although harmless, is live. Because of this, the immune response is strong.

Renewables

POlICy decisions can have unintended knock-on effects. By setting a ten per cent target for renewables in europe’s transport sector, the demand for palm oil has increased dramatically. According to the Stockholm environmentInstitute, more than three-quarters of eU biodiesel is produced from palm oil.

The palm oil is grown in tropical countries, and most of the supply comes from Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Stockholm environmental Institute claims that the boom in palm oil has led to large scale deforestation, pollution of water and drying out of adjoining farm lands upon which local communities depend.

UPFRONT

Holy prints

WhIle the holes made by wood-boring beetles are a familiar sight in old furniture, they also appear in woodblocks.

In the early days of printing, illustrations were cut into fine grained wood, and the highly skilled art of creating woodcuts continued well into the 19th century. As far as the woodboring beetles were concerned, blocks were just as good to chew into as a table or chair.

Because old printing blocks sometimes had holes caused by beetles burrowing out to the surface, prints made from them have small round blank spots.

Blair hedges, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, who has been studying old woodcuts, explains that prints reveal how two different species of wood-borers were distributed in the past. In a paper published in Biology Letters, hedges points to a clash between two species as they came together across central europe.

Old prints, he maintains, are a more reliable source of information because the blocks themselves would have remained open to renewed attack. Many of the prints give publication dates and as hedges said, this serves as a biological timestamp. hedges measured the size of more than 3,000 printed wormholes dating from 1462 to 1899. holes from northern europe were small and round, averaging 1.43 mm in width. holes from southern europe were larger, averaging 2.30 mm in width. The smaller northern holes were most likely made by Anobium punctatum, the Common Furniture Beetle, while those in the south were made by Oligomeus ptilinoides, the Mediterrenean Furniture Beetle.

At the time these holes were made, the geographical distribution of these two species was well defined, but for the past century both species have been more widely distributed, not just in europe, but elsewhere in the world. This spread, said hedges, can be explained by the increase in travel, shipping and movement of furniture.

Anobium punctatum, the Common Furniture Beetle

Learning about science

IN A competition to find more effective ways of teaching science, Dr Shane Bergin came up with the winning project.

Dr Bergin’s proposal is to have interactive content about physics on display in public transport that passengers can explore using mobile devices.

In the competition, organised by the TCD Science Gallery and the National Digital Research Centre, Neil and Sean McDonagh with Shane O’Malley were awarded second for their murder mystery project in which Junior Cert students have to solve a problem using science.

Investing in food

The Kerry Group is making a major investment in a food development campus. €100 million is being made to establish the campus on a 28-acre site at the Millennium Business Park, Naas, Co Kildare. By 2016 several hundred people will be employed in the campus, many of whom will be engaged in food research. Apart from Kerry Group, funding is coming from the Department of Jobs, enterprise and Innovation through enterprise Ireland.

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The Young Scientists Exhibition takes off in the United Republic of Tanzania

A

Publishing. In addition, the Embassy of Ireland in the United remarkable event happened in the United Republic Republic of Tanzania and successive Irish ambassadors of Tanzania on October 24th and 25th 2012, one that have been hugely supportive from the outset. The Pearson had been conceptualised in mid 2009. Over 300 secondary Foundation and Irish Aid, through the Irish Embassy, school students together with their teachers representing generously offered incubation funding to test the concept 100 schools throughout the country converged on Dar by staging a pilot event involving four schools in November es Salaam’s Diamond Jubilee Hall to exhibit their research 2011 during the first Science Week in the country that marked projects at the Young Scientists Tanzania (YST) Exhibition.

50 years of independence. The pilot event demonstrated the positive The first of its kind in both the United Republic of Tanzania and impact on students and the feasibility and importance of staging sub-Saharan Africa, the programme aims to promote and popularise a larger exhibition involving schools from all regions of the United science and technology by linking these disciplines to social themes, Republic of Tanzania. such as active citizenship and the fight against poverty. Participating YST was established as a legal entity with Dr. Kamugisha Gozibert, students generate the ideas for their projects in four broad categories a CDPC fellow from the University of Dar es Salaam, as director, Mr. – Biological and Ecological Sciences, Chemical, Mathematical and Joseph Clowry as the project manager and guided Physical Sciences, Social and Behavioural Sciences, by a Board of Management with NGO and private and Technology. sector representation. While the major sponsors The story of YST begins with the decision for YST are the Pearson Foundation and Irish Aid of Irish Aid to invest in a strategic partnership many other sponsors have generously contributed with Irish Higher Education in 2007. One of the to the event (see http://www.youngscientists.co.tz/ programmes funded under the first Round of the sponsors/background/). The challenges in organising Strategic Partnership with Irish Aid was The Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium (CDPC) centred at NUI Dr. Tony Scott chats with a student from this first event in the United Republic of Tanzania have been significant, starting with gaining interest Maynooth. The CDPC was conceived as a short-term Pemba about his project. and commitment from students and their teachers training platform, up-skilling early-career researchers and then mentoring projects through visits to each and trainers in both east Africa and Ireland in pursuit school on several occasions and finally in securing of capacity-building to better address diseases of sufficient funding to host the event. All of this was poverty. A component of the CDPC programme was carried out and co-ordinated by Mr. Joseph Clowry to bring greater awareness of development issues with support from Dr. Kamugisha Gozibert, YST to secondary school students in Ireland, specifically director, and Dr. Brendan Doggett, a YST scientific transition year students, by encouraging them to consultant. undertake science projects that focused on human The ultimate story of Young Scientists Tanzania, health and development issues thus demonstrating however, is about the students, their interest in the importance of science for development. As part science, and their passion to help their communities. of the training programme, east African CDPC fellows Posters on how to measure and ameliorate the effects of Global Climate visited secondary schools to discuss some of the health and research Change figured prominently, especially in schools from North and challenges in developing countries and to mentor Irish Secondary Central Tanzania, as these areas, with so little responsibility for this School students working on development-themed projects for the BT process, are paying a disproportionate cost for its effects. Other projects Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition Ireland. This component were on novel uses of avocados to produce commercially viable of the programme was driven by the CDPC Education Officer, Joseph products and there were several innovative stove designs employing Clowry. To a person, all the east African fellows were excited by this power sources as diverse as solar energy to waste oil and water. initiative and how Young Scientist Ireland operated and some queried Ultimately, the YST is about ingenuity and resilience – the universal whether the Irish Young Scientist exhibition could be replicated in their human capacity to meet challenges with reason and imagination – and home countries. develop solutions.

The CDPC’s brief emphasised demand-driven solutions to capacityThe overall winners of YST 2012 and the Irish Aid prize are Aisha building problems, so the Consortium opened discussion with the Nduku, Monica Shinina and Nengai Moses from Kibosho Girls network on starting a young scientists exhibition in one of the CDPC Secondary School in Kilimanjaro. They will display their winning project partner countries in east Africa. Discussions were also initiated with titled Industrial fertilisers and increased nitrites in water at the BT Young Dr. Tony Scott, co-founder of the Irish exhibition, together with the Scientists and Technology Exhibition at the RDS in January 2013. Expect organisers of the event in Ireland. The assistance and advice provided to see some interesting uses of virtual environments by the girls from

by Dr. Scott and his team from the outset has been instrumental in Kilimanjaro in presenting their project. YST hope to strengthen and bringing the event to the United Republic of Tanzania. The choice of increase connections between students in Ireland and the United the United Republic of Tanzania over Kenya or Uganda was dictated Republic of Tanzania and hopefully exhibit joint projects at future by funding and organisational issues. Irish connections played an exhibitions in both jurisdictions. important part where Mr. Jonathan Sutton, Chief Executive of Radar Group in Tanzania, helped in opening discussions with the Pearson For more about YST see Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of Pearson http://www.youngscientists.co.tz/

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UPFRONT

Community of cells

All our tissues are made up of cells, but they are not just like building blocks joined together with a bit of intracellular cement. Cells communicate with each other, and there is strength in numbers. normally, this is good, but it is also possible that some of the exchanges are harmful, and may even be involved in the spread of cancer to secondary sites.

An international consortium, led by lorraine O’Driscoll at the school of Pharmacy, TCD, is investigating how cells communicate. Cells exchange information by sending out small packages, termed microvesicles and exosomes, and according to the researchers, these are key players in health and disease.

Plants eating plants

PlAnTs usually get what they need from sunlight, minerals, carbon dioxide and water. However, one form of green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, has a back-up to photosynthesis. As researchers at Bielefeld University, Germany, have found, this species can feed on other plants. When Dr Olaf Kruse and his team cultured the alga they discovered that reducing the level of carbon dioxide did not stop it from growing. By secreting cellulosedigesting enzymes, the alga was able to break down and digest the cellulose of neighbouring vegetation.

It was not previously known that plants could feed on others in this way, and as Prof Kruse commented, this discovery could open up some new opportunities for bioenergy production. Digesting cellulose is difficult, yet vast quantities are available, and it is possible that the algal enzymes could turn this into biofuel.

Bridging the gap

POlITICIAns and scientists seldom meet, yet both could benfit from understanding each other’s point of view. A welcome move to improve that situation has been made in the northern Ireland Assembly. The Royal society of Chemistry has taken the initiative in launching an inaugural science and stormont event. This event brings public representatives into direct contact with representatives from science, technology and industry.

Bill McCrea, UUP member of the Assembly, who sponsored the face-toface meeting said that it is important to have this kind of engagement and the economy would benefit.

Interestingly, in view of what has been happening in the Irish Republic, the Royal society of Chemistry has been leading a campaign to have an independent Chief Scientific Adviser appointed to the northern Ireland Assembly. This would be in line with similar appointments in scotland and Wales.

Willow energy

One of the fast growing plants that are being used to grow energy crops is willow, but there are many different species and varieties. To provide information on which varieties are most suitable, Teagasc has produced an identification guide.

Available to download from: www.teagasc.ie/publications

Antibiotics

THe european Centre for Disese Control, eCDC, reports that there has been a rise in resistance to antibiotics within the european Union. In over one third of the eU Klebsiella pneumoniae and E coli have shown increased resistance to multiple antibiotics. A more serious trend has been a rise in the use of last-resort antibiotics, the carbapenems.

The use of antibiotics is not uniform throughout europe, and while Iceland, latvia and the UK had a 5 per cent increase in 2009 to 2010, consumption in Austria, lithuania and Poland declined.

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Mitochondrial disorders

WHIle most of our genes are inherited from both parents, mitochondrial genes are passed on by the mother. This is because they remain in the egg but not in the sperm. like other genes, those genes can be defective, and as mitochondria are so essential to life, mutations can have serious consequences.

These maternal genes lie outside the cell’s nucleus, and because of this, researchers are interested in the possibility of removing the defective genes and replacing them with mitochondrial genes from a donor.

This, of course, raises ethical issues. not least of these is the fact that a child produced from such a procedure would have the genetic input of three parents.

Another concern is that the change itself would be inherited. The procedures involved are only at a research stage, and while one approach is to take mitochondrial DnA from a donor egg, another line of research is to make the switch after fertilisation of the donor.

At present this issue is being examined in the UK, where the Human Fertilisation and embryology Authority is engaged in consulation with the public.

At present, mitochondrial replacement is not allowed in the UK, and the aim of the consultation, which continues until December this year, is to determine if the ban should continue or if exceptions can be made.

The approach being taken by researchers is explained clearly in an informative video — http://vimeo.com/45389280

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How many species?

UPFRONT

The concept of what constitutes a species is really quite elastic, for no two plants or animals are exactly the same. Biologists have always had a problem in defining a species, and the usual rule-of-thumb was that if organisms were similar enough genetically to breed then they belonged to the same species. however the naming is vague, and open to interpretation, so there is a lot of confusion, especially among the less familiar species.

A number of marine biologists who decided to check on how many species live in the world’s oceans found that current estimates of over a million are completely wrong. In a paper published in Current Biology the experts, including Professor Mike Guiry from NUI Galway, explain that figures copied from textbook to textbook have boosted the numbers. The authors of this study state that the final tally is more likely to be about 500,000, less than a quarter of widely quoted figures.

Professor Guiry, who has catalogued the names of algae, commented that estimates of how many species there are in the world vary from 5 to 50 million, but in fact a more reliable extimate might be 1.9 million, of which insects account for 1 million.

Contrary to popular opinion, he said, the marine environment is relatively species poor, with less than 12 per cent of all currently described species occurring in the oceans. As against that, however, species numbers are made up for by great diversity, and marine organisms play an important role in maintaining life on Earth. More than 75 per cent of all photosynthetic oxygen, he remarked, is produced by marine algae.

In his forthcoming book, A Catalogue of Irish Seaweeds, Prof Guiry reports that 7.5 per cent of all seaweeds occur in Irish waters, compared to just 0.25 per cent on land for our flowering plants.

Showing diversity and beauty, the Common Knobbed Star, Pentaceraster mammillatus, agaist the seagrass, Thalassia hemprichii. Photographed off Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean by Prof Guiry. (AlgaeBase) View of south pole, Venus, day and night.

Frozen layer

VeNuS has a hot surface, yet 125 km above, the temperature is about minus 175ºC. This surprisingly cold layer was detected by Venus express as it gathered observations of carbon dioxide concentrations at different altitudes in the area dividing the day and night side of the planet. By combining these observations with data on atmospheric pressure, scientists have been able to calculate temperatures at different elevations. Surprisingly, this low temperature level is sandwiched between two comparatively warm layers.

Arnaud Mahieux, lead author of a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, said that the cold layer is likely to have highly reflective clouds of carbon dioxide ice. Such bright regions have been observed, and they are likely to be composed of frozen carbon dioxide.

Crossing species barriers

DISeASe-causing organisms are constantly seeking ways to gain access to new hosts. The invasion of bacteria and viruses has been going on since life first emerged on Earth, and naturally we would like to stop new pathogens from breaking through our immune barrier.

New diseases tend to hit us hardest because we have not yet built up any kind of immunity.

Over half of the new diseases that appear in humans have managed to cross the species barrier from other animals. hIV and SARS are well known examples and this raises a question on just how many other potential disease-causing organisms are out there?

Almost certainly there are quite a few, and it appears that a rare or unusual contact is often all it takes for a pathogen to make the jump from one species to another. however, once in, there is, initially at least, not that much that we can do to stop the spread. Fear of cross-infection is one of the reasons why scientists are being extremely cautious about tissue or organ transplants involving non-human hosts. A virus

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that has resided in pigs so long that it no longer causes much, or any, trouble, might just be lethal if let loose in humans.

Researchers at TCD, harvard and Georg-August-Universität in Gottingen, have been finding out how many diseases we already share with other species. In general we share most pathogens with closer relatives, such as gorillas and chimpanzees, but the risk is in proportion to proximity rather than relationship. In reporting their findings in the journal Ecology Letters, the scientists point out that the threat comes from primates that have the most contact with humans.

It was found that sharing of pathogens is much higher in animals that have more interaction with humans, so we have more in common with rats and domestic animals than with wild primates. Dr Natalie Cooper, from the School of Natural Sciences at TCD, said the results initially came as a surprise, but it highlighted the fact that contact is such an important factor in the spread of diseases.

The researchers said the lack of knowledge about diseases in nonhuman animals, particularly primates, is worrying. Lack of knowledge means that it’s harder to predict future risks for humans.

Reaching out

VolUnTeerS from industry have been visiting schools to promote interest in science. employees from 12 Abbott facilities have been out to primary and secondary schools around ireland in a partnership that involved over 100 teachers and almost 1,00 parents. Through the programme, students learned what it would be like to work in a science lab, and how science can be applied in industry.

Abbott reported that the irish success of this programme has led to the launch of similar initiatives by the company in China, Germany, Puerto rico and elsewhere.

Alex and Vanessa O’Meara from St Oliver’s School, Clonmel, picking up some science tips from one of Abbott’s volunteers.

Photosynthesis

inSTeAD of using expensive and rare materials such as platinum and indium in photovoltaics, why not use the readily-available proteins that are involved in photosynthesis? researchers at Vanderbilt University in the US have reported in Advanced Materials that one of these proteins, Photosystem 1, PS1, which continues to work after extraction from plants is an ideal candidate to construct biohybrid photovoltaic cells.

According to the researchers, David Cliffel and Kane Jennings, the conversion of light into electrical energy with PS1 is almost 100 per cent efficient, much better than the efficiency of under 40 per cent for synthetic materials. however, the problem is to harness this efficiency into a working photovoltaic device.

The researchers said that progress in achieving good results has been slow, but steady. Some of the initial problems, such as low power output and limited life span of the protein have been overcome, and researchers have been working on more efficient extraction of PS1 from green leaves.

Given the present rate of progress, the researchers believe that in about three years biohybrids will have caught up with conventional solar conversion technology.

SciFest

SinCe 2008 more than 13,500 students have exhibited at SciFest events. This year, Shiela Porter, who initiated and heads up the event, reports that 1,864 projects were presented by 4,290 exhibitors, and 367 teachers were involved from 227 schools around the country. Projects included one on effect of magnets on rotation of water molecules, energy from cow manure, testing for peanuts in food, and an alternative way to treat mastitis. www.scifest.ie For more details contact Sheila Porter at sheila.porter@scifest.ie

First glance

When Miguel eckstein, professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara and his research assistant, Matt Peterson, got 50 people to glance at 100 photographs of faces, they found that the initial glance was focused just below and between the eyes. There were just a few exceptions to this, suggesting that this is an innate reaction. The glance, which we are not even aware of, is quite brief, just 250 milliseconds. While culture might be a factor, in that looking directly at the eye might be considered impolite,

focusing just below the eyes might be the most efficient way to read information from other facial clues to identity, gender, and emotion. instead of having to glance from area to area, all of these clues might be gleaned from peripheral vision.

According to eckstein, the brain can probably combine these indicators into a first impression.

Modelling how people look at each other is likely to prove useful in studying conditions such as schizophrenia and autism, or prosopagnosia, a peculiar disorder in which there is an inability to recognise someone from his or her face.

Genetic switches

There is an obvious difference between neurons and muscle cells, yet their genes are just the same. The difference arises in how these genes are expressed.

Finding out what makes embryonic cells develop into specialised lines is an important part of stem cell research, and researchers at Trinity College Dublin have made some progress on this with the discovery of a protein switch. A team, led by Dr Adrian Bracken, has found that a protein, known as polycomb group protein, or PhF19, is needed if mouse embryonic cells are to develop into heart, lung, brain or other specialised cell lines.

As the researchers explain, embryonic cells have a distinctive molecular marker, known as h3K36me3. The PhF19 protein acts on this to make it change into another marker, known as h3K27me3. This change acts like a signal, telling the cell that its embryonic days are over.

Dr Bracken commented that this discovery is an important step in understanding how stem cells begin to specialise.

Announcing the launch of the next F1 challenge to design and build a winning compressed air driven racer were the St Ailbe’s team with the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruiarí Quinn. The team from St Ailbe’s Secondary School in Co Tipperary, were winners in last year’s competition which was held in Abu Dhabi. From left, Megan Cleary; Eoin Brennan: Sinead Cummins (F1 Team Quasar’s Manager) and Maeve O’Gorman with Minister of Education and Sport, Ruarí Quinn.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 8

Science Week 2012

EvEryday ExpErimEnting 2013 dates announced

a huge success

In a time when science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are more important than ever for economic growth, the recent Science Week 2012 coordinated

by Ireland’s national science promotion programme Discover Science & Engineering (DSE), exceeded all expectations. Over 200,000 people participated in more than 800 events run by schools, colleges, libraries, teachers, researchers and students throughout the country.

that each of us is a part of Science. You are constantly experimenting! To read the latest news and check out some great photos visit www.

ScienceWeek.ie where you can also sign up for the quarterly eNewsletter to ensure that you are kept up-to-date with details of Science Week 2013. You can also connect with Science Week on — www.Twitter.com/ScienceWeek and www.FaceBook.com/ScienceWeekIreland

Science Week 2012, which ran from 11th – 18th November, was kicked off with Limerick’s own comedy duo, The Rubberbandits, who interviewed some of Ireland’s most imminent scientists for their viral video series ‘Doing Science’.

Regional festivals supported by DSE were held in Cork, Galway, Waterford, Sligo and Mayo and one of the many highlights of the Week was a visit from European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

Dr. Graham Love, Director of Policy and Communications for Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with responsibility for Discover Science & Engineering said “Science Week 2012 encouraged people to get involved with science at all levels across society. We had a huge response to all events throughout the country and we are already thinking ahead now to next year and how to get even more people involved.

A date for your diary – Science Week 2013 will take place from 10 to 17 November 2013.”

The objective of Science Week each year is to promote the relevance of STEM in our everyday lives and in 2012 the theme was ‘Everyday Experimenting’ demonstrating

Why not watch the 2012 Science Week lecture series with your students at www.YouTube.com/DSEvideo

SciFest SciFest is a series of one-day science fairs for second-level students hosted at local level in schools and at regional level in the 14 Institutes of Technology and the University of Ulster, Derry, culminating in a national competition for the overall winners from the third-level colleges.

The winner of the national SciFest science fair receives an all-expenses-paid trip, along with their teacher, to represent Ireland at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which is held annually in May in

the USA. The aim of the project is to encourage a love of science, maths and technology (STEM) through collaborative, inquiry-based learning and to provide a forum for students to present and display their scientific investigations. Almost 4,300 students took part in 2012 and entry is free.

Since its launch in 2008, SciFest has been jointly funded

by Intel and Discover Science & Engineering. The closing date for receipt of entries to SciFest 2013 is 8 March 2013.

The entry forms will be downloadable from the website at the end of January. For more information about SciFest@ School, email sheila.porter@scifest.ie

Dates for your diary – Science Week 2013 will take place from 10 to 17 November 2013

ClImaTE ChaNgE

margaret Franklin writes about

Hurricane Isabel photographed by astronaut Ed Lu from the Interntional Space Station.

T

he earth’s climate is getting A warmer climate causes warmer, due (at least partly) more evaporation from the oceans to increasing emissions and the warmer atmosphere can of the so-called ‘greenhouse hold more water vapour. This gases’. The main culprit is carbon is a source of potential energy dioxide, which is released into for storms, since solar energy is the atmosphere when we burn absorbed during evaporation. fossil fuels (coal, oil or gas). It Meteorologists have observed is also released when we burn that extreme weather events, such wood and other biofuels, but as heatwaves in some places and these are, to a certain extent, torrential rain elsewhere, have renewable, while fossil fuels are become more frequent. While not. Another greenhouse gas is climatologists cannot say for certain methane, produced by cattle and if there is a causative link between other ruminant animals. These hurricanes and human emissions of greenhouse gases are transparent greenhouse gases, it was noted that to light, allowing the sun’s energy, parts of the Atlantic were about in the form of visible radiation, three degrees Celsius higher than to penetrate the atmosphere. The normal for October, as hurricane Scientific opinion is divided on the extent to which humanearth’s surface absorbs the energy.

Sandy passed over. Meteorologist induced climate change may have contributed to the ferocity Since the earth is at a much lower Jeff Masters has reported on his of hurricane Sandy. But there is no doubt, writes margaret temperature than the sun, when it ‘Weather Underground’ website Franklin, that global warming was a factor. in turn radiates some of that energy, that the number of hurricanes and the radiation is of lower energy, in tropical storms over the past three the infrared region of the spectrum. As their molecules vibrate, years was higher than usual. There were 19 named storms in greenhouse gases absorb this infra-red radiation, trapping the 2010 and 2011 and 19 so far this year as well. The average for energy and warming the atmosphere in the process. In contrast, previous years was only 12 per year. nitrogen and oxygen, the two main gases in our atmosphere, are It is instructive to compare hurricane Sandy with the transparent both to visible light and to infra-red radiation, so previous major hurricane Irene and with Katrina, which caused they do not contribute to global warming. such devastation in New Orleans in 2005.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 10

Left: Coastguard, shawn Betty, flying over New Orleans on the lookout for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Right: The HMS Bounty, a 180-foot replica sailing ship was overwhelmed by Hurricane Sandy last October. Photographed by US coastguard Tim Kuklewski.

Katrina was the strongest, classified as a Category 3 hurricane, while Irene and Sandy were both Category 1.

Katrina’s top wind speed was 125 miles per hour, Irene’s was 85 mph and Sandy’s 94 mph. But it was the huge size of Sandy, with a diameter of 940 miles, that made it so destructive. Katrina was ‘only’ 400 miles in diameter and Irene had a diameter of 530 miles.

The low pressure at the centre of a hurricane sucks in the winds, as air rushes in from higher pressure, so it is also instructive to compare the pressures. Normal atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1013 millibars. Katrina had an extremely low pressure of 920 millibars, Irene’s was higher at 951mbar and Sandy’s was 940mbar. This was the lowest pressure ever recorded for a hurricane making landfall north of North Carolina.

The steeper the pressure gradient, the faster the wind speed.

The earth’s rotation causes the winds to swirl around the low pressure centre, like water running out of a bath. The air mass is saturated with moisture, which has evaporated from warm tropical waters, but as it hits cooler latitudes, the moisture condenses, causing torrential rain and widespread flooding.

Katrina brought 15 inches of rainfall and Irene’s was similar.

Sandy brought 13 inches of rain but also 34 inches of snow! This was because it came late in the season and made landfall farther north than the others. The death toll from Katrina was by far the greatest, with 1,833 lives lost. Irene was responsible for 56 deaths, while Sandy killed some70 people in the Caribbean and over 100 in the US. Property damage caused by hurricane Katrina was $81 Billion and that of Irene was $19 billion. Estimates for the damage caused

by Sandy are between $50 and $60 billion.

Apart from the destruction caused by the rain and high winds, a huge amount of damage and flooding is due to the storm surge which occurs when a hurricane makes landfall.

The force of the wind drives the ocean water onto the land, piling up wave upon wave along the shore. The effect that this has depends on the geography. Where there is a bay or river estuary, a funnelling effect occurs.

If a hurricane strikes around the time of a full moon or a new moon, high spring tides add to the problem. Katrina produced a storm surge of about 5 metres, funnelling to 9 metres at New Orleans.

Irene had a storm surge of less than 3 metres, while Sandy produced a surge of about 4 metres.

Global warming causes the volume of water in the oceans to expand, while the melting of polar ice adds more water to the oceans. This makes sea levels rise, increasing the risk of severe flooding in coastal areas. The ocean rose about eight inches

(more than 20 centimetres) during the 20th century, and now the rate seems to have accelerated. Some scientists predict that if this trend continues, the sea level could rise by a metre in this 21st century! Future hurricanes are likely to cause even worse flooding from the storm surge. Sandy was not the strongest of hurricanes, but it was its sheer size that generated the enormous surge of ocean waters.

We are lucky that we rarely have hurricanes in Ireland. But we have had plenty of rain and flooding in recent years. While scientists and politicians argue about the exact cause, it would be prudent for us to err on the side of caution as we try to cut down on our use of fossil fuel and reduce our carbon footprint.

Margaret Franklin is a chemist and her column on science appears regularly in the The Westmeath Independent.

Marine Institute Foras na Mara

Ireland's National Agency for Marine Research and Innovation

Our Ocean

A Shared Resource

www.marine.ie

DUE OUT FEBRUARY 2013

THE SENSATIONAL

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

m r br ain u o y f ex o

at ter?

BRAIN

Researchers imaging the t boysbrains of regular cocaine users son’s, bu p Parkin tism and found that their memories lo ve de lop au ely to more lik e likely to deve ected seem to work better when to be aff Men are es mor role oftaking cocaine compared to e likely are 3-6 tim omen are mor ession. Yet the people who never use the drug W pr . .

D de ed H d D ut A rvival, illness an e is hotly disp normally but did for the trial. This l su ta r en ou gland by n, for seas by m d why brain di ies in En Not just how an a nder in rly 1900s, stud as Francis Galtosuggests that some cocaine users g portant. ge in im nd is ex do benefit in the short term from dersta that such . Sex is the ea , un ed es cs In r m as ni fo ai se ge cl ain di but also A every the drug. Regular cocaine ents of eu es in the brain, wer IQs. using fferent br actically propon go lo ely fferenc we get di g factor for pr ury may also be more sensitive nder di ler heads and er ter that centusers more lik a, e in ge ar in on en rm la at get more pleasure than the used d smal g and risk dete n disease. Wom is, schizophreni in ha as w nd en e la ai wom os ferenc igrants s average person from using it. pus and major br multiple-scler ad circum hite imm entry to school sease, lu are lop small he against non-w imer ’s di Whereas men to deve ist Dublin researchers have found d their inate on, Alzhe en. prevente lebrated scient evidence e, autism ). king that cocaine users accumulate to discrim ew York, and ce depressi sorders than m inson’s diseas lin e D ts H th , en D m (A rk di nd, N in 2007 his com anxiety y to develop Pa ctivity disorder o of the most Ellis Isla jobs. Recently, ed todamage in the areas of the brain which inhibits addictive zed for ra el tw r ople. was forc Ubehaviour. y critici This suggests initial use can set in motion addictive more lik ion deficit hype n’s disease are and he e S. and bette son was widel t older pe th IQ ec in w aff r so nt lo d at rewiring of your brain. g Harbo ith and atte er ’s and Parkin disorders which tion ages, and James W gender, race an ld Sprin y associated w r popula Alzheim odegenerative million n in Co n size, or ies Naturally if the only source of pleasure in your life is ur sing as ou economy €350 0 years brai from his positio colourful hist ral studBRAIN ne ea ve cr on se in e m e sh n, 10 you’ll be even more likely to become addicted to it, as mal com brai incocaine, is ever ite th resign st the Iri ed over cidence er, desp es in the nal differences you’d have no other source to stimulate your ever demanding ated to co es were identifi ctors have Their in Howev nder differenc nctio been estim diseas risk fa on ge l and fu old age pleasure pathways. So addiction is a mixture between they have t although the ive. Yet several studies d physiologica nd while est A Bu us . e. el ar as n un ye se ai scientific and sociological factors. per bigg e di rem have fo e brains. e of the r causes sociated with th al ap tually on times the risk of ago, thei and fem d to be as nder is ac 1.5 lves have suggested thatadms early ice the been foun s contender, ge Old men have two hciaen f have tw ts r he The love drug o . ou en tis es ou vi in om as to ob w se ra in b old from daytime During hours is ant night your th di is freeas A ired our ancestral l and neuros daylight bomind l ia and tw r e ta at fo ho s sp en e r se or m ar When it comes to falling in love, when the first flush of di fact of processing e. p bette riskduties greater chance asfrom ical, and lohad betteofral skillswould have Develop d vertebrates inson’s information er ’s dise ply more phys der men ng Park an verb ale brains deve males developattraction meanders into long term bonding, our brains do imown lopi Alz ol m deve the bodyloand left toheits devices. although nowadays if reading womfeeding t fe b, m or mating , bu— ve ping that men are si efore with age s. e tions a lot to answer for. of dethese riskfrom connec Freed sensory itl,can you’ve been out on a Saturday nighthave you’ll disorder on. In th essing ther ve argue shackles d iti tfu ul gn gh ty oc co It’s difficult to study love in a lab, and could be dangerous u e thou and omen get co ide varie wanderYothrough your thoughts know that the opposite is true. visual pr mor ross a w simply and w depending on the state of the relationships you’re supposed womaen sorders parent ac produce rangeen of freewheeling images, Our biological clock is exactly 24 em t di nces are also ap movsights. getand re sounds Uncensored by our hours and 30 minutes long. The ffe di 3 er 12 t gend Buyou . senses, can find yourself crossing existence of this internal clock was ases 84 ain dise riding ice rapids Chinaofonbrhorseback, demonstrated in 1962 by the French in the Arctic, wrestling marshmallow geologist Michel Siffre who spent two tigers or dancing with the Man on the months in the darkness of an ice cave.

Moon. And then without warning, you’re dragged from wonderland back to reality Sleep science in a cave with the ringing of an alarm clock.

During his time in the cave Siffre’s only link Sleep accounts for up to a third of our lives to the outside world was a telephone. Every time on this planet. It is one of the most important he went to sleep or woke he had to call the surface. But activities we do, and yet it is also the one we understand he was never told what time it really was. After two months, the least. But though we may not understand why we dream he was told that the experiment was over. But he disagreed. we do know how we do it.

He thought that it was only August 18, when in reality it was September 14.

Circadian Rhythms Although he had lost the ability to tell the time, as he Circadian rhythms is not the name of a 70s rock group couldn’t see day or night, his body was still ably regulated by but they are the 24 hour cycle of our sleepful and wakeful his biological clock. Siffre’s calls to the surface showed that behaviour. Normally our circadian rhythms are linked to the his wake-sleep cycles were exactly 24 hours and 30 minutes. day and night cycle and are designed to let us rest in the dark If he spent more time awake, then his sleep time was shorter, and be active in the light.

Does t

he s

S

DREAMING, SLEEPING AND HALLUCINATIONS

A

to be studying. So one way to study love is to try to see what is it that makes people and animals want to stick together.

So far, it appears that two different neuro-hormones are thought to facilitate long term pair bonding.

These two hormones are vasopressin and oxytocin. You might have heard of oxytocin in relation to the female menstrual cycle, but it’s also made by men in small quantities, as testosterone is by women. It’s known that both men and women make more oxytocin when they are in monogamous long-term relationships.

The brain regions which are rich in vasopressin and oxytocin are also rich in dopamine receptors. If you look at the brains of people who have just fallen in love you find the same areas light up as when people take cocaine.

One theory is that when dopaminergic reward and pleasure centres of the brain overlap with the centres that facilitate long term bonding, this combined chemical reaction primes you for meeting somebody and falling in love. You could say you fall and stay in love with the person that makes you happy.

Serotonin the happy amine

Serotonin is manufactured within neurons from tryptophan an amino acid found in protein foodstuffs like beans and fish, which flows in the blood to the brain, across the blood/brain barrier and into neurons.

The sensaTional brain

95

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

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

Choosing sCienCe as a Career

What choices should STEM students take to get a life in science?

SCIENCE

SPIN

How can I work with digital humans and still have time for real ones?

There can be no answers without people who ask questions. People like Kristy Myers.

Kristy Myers’ workplace is cyberspace. She and her team develop the software used for virtual simulations of production processes. This helps make business more efficient and creates safer work environments. It’s a demanding job that requires dedication and commitment.

But because Kristy is able to work flexitime, she can

balance her family life and her work life.

Siemens is always looking for people who are looking for new ways of doing things. Because to discover great answers, you have to ask big questions. How can you turn your curiosity into a career? Dare to ask.

siemens.com/careers

admissions@ait.ie

www.ait.ie/science

Probing the brain Researcher and writer, Veronica Miller likes to balance a sharp focus on solving problems with tackling broader challenges outside the lab.

a hospital or private practice so I picked Natural Sciences to study at university. I really enjoyed my time as an undergraduate, and very nearly specialized in Geology for my final degree, but instead chose Biochemistry.

Little did I know back then that I’d be researching brain diseases ten years later.

What sort of other interests have you got?

I think it’s healthy to do things that are different or scare you every now and then. For example, last year I confronted my fears of enclosed spaces and deep water and went scuba diving for the first time in Cambodia, which was initially pretty scary, but also fun. I’ve managed to trek tiny rocky paths across the high hills in the Andes and Machu Picchu in Peru, gone fishing for trout in forests in Japan, seen the Golden Palace in Beijing, sea kayaked around the “James Bond” island and in limestone caverns off the coast of Thailand. Since moving to the US I’ve started hiking and skiing some of the mountains in upstate New York. I’ve not picked up the art of stopping gracefully on the ski slopes yet, but you can’t beat the rush of whizzing downwards, that’s for sure.

Veronica taking a break recently in Thialand.

What got you interested in science, and was there much talk about science at home?

I’ve always been curious about the natural world. I grew up in Kingscourt Co. Cavan, where I was surrounded by books, and one of my favorite hobbies was reading. I remember getting a giant cardboard blue world atlas which had pages which were almost the same size as I was, when I was five. And apart from ripping the pages out to make a playhouse, I also remember looking at those pages filled with strange minerals and animals and thinking one day I want to go to all those countries and see all those things.

I got a microscope when I was about eight, and I can remember looking in awe and horror at spider’s legs, skin samples and pieces of leaves in fine detail. After some pleading, I got a chemistry set.

Although my parents wouldn’t allow me to use the gas Bunsen burner I did have fun making invisible ink, and enlisting friends and siblings into assisting with experiments.

What about school?

In primary school, we didn’t have science on the curriculum, but I did do Biology and Chemistry in Secondary School. I went to St. Louis Secondary School in Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan and the Holy Faith School in Clontarf, Dublin.

Although I loved science, maths and history were my favorite subjects. At that time our science curriculum was geared towards exams which left little room for discussion or creativity in the classroom.

Hopefully things have changed for the better nowadays.

What made you think of going to university?

I went to visit Trinity College on a school tour when I was about ten years old.

After walking through the front arch, and seeing the fantastic historical buildings I decided that was where I wanted to study when I was older Did you find it easy to choose a subject?

I knew I was interested in researching diseases and had an interest in medicine but didn’t see myself working in

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 16

You seem to have lots of interests outside the immediate area of science.

I enjoy writing, and really enjoyed the opportunity to combine my interests in brain research and writing to produce the forthcoming book explaining all about the brain. I got to formally combine my interest in science and love of writing a few years ago, when I completed a Masters in Science Communications at DCU. While doing that course it was clear there is a disconnect between science and society. Research is often seen as an obscure area filled with mysterious people in white coats and large glasses, rather than something that anybody can do. But science is really an innate thing. Most people come up with hypothesis and test ideas unconsciously every day. Whether it’s choosing the best bus route, fastest queue in a shop or favorite sandwich, most of us have our own method. I think the future of science depends on us including a greater diversity of people and harnessing the best of our collective creative minds.

Lots of students seem to focus in on a subject to the exclusion of other interests. What do you think of that?

I think that a laser-sharp focus is very important and can work well for some people. We all approach things from

different angles. Personally I think it’s good to challenge yourself with different disciplines so you can use your insights from one area to solve problems in another. But following ones course and having a steady interest in a topic and mastering it to develop expertise is useful. Work-wise I think it’s important to be flexible, but it’s also important to develop unique skills that mark you out from the crowd.

What line of research did you choose to follow?

As an undergraduate I became very interested in neuroscience and the biology of Alzheimer’s disease. I knew I wanted to do more research and was lucky enough to obtain a fellowship from the Alzheimer’s Trust in the UK to study the role of blood pressure changes in dementia. I also had two great clinical scientists as mentors for my PhD studies, Professor Rose Anne Kenny, who is now at Trinity College, and Professor Rajesh Kalaria who is continuing his research at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK. What was it like to become immersed in research?

In the beginning it was strange because you’re suddenly thrown into a world where everybody seems to be speaking a foreign impenetrable language. I’d spent the summer beforehand working on a science TV show, “Scope”, in which we were filming science researchers. So it was a little weird being on the other side of the lens and getting familiar with laboratory life. But once you get past the acronyms and jargon, research is actually not that different than many other jobs.

I see research as problem solving.

That process works best when you collaborate with others, so being able to communicate well and work in teams is vital. You also need good business acumen to be involved in research, because it is driven by the funds that are available and your ability to translate

your work into something meaningful.

I think that the financial and personal skills necessary in science are often neglected in teaching courses.

After a spell in the UK, why did you decide to head off to the US? In the UK for my PhD I spent hundreds of hours peering down a microscope quantifying dead and dying brain cells.

The objective of my project was to see if brain areas which regulate blood pressure contain more dying cells in older people with dementia, in other words if blood pressure changes are a symptom of brain problems. During my studies I became more and more curious to understand what was causing the cell death I observed in the brain tissues.

So, a few weeks after I finished my doctorate, I flew to the US, to the New York State Department of Health Laboratories and started research on the role of environmental chemicals and immune responses in brain diseases. I knew this was risky as it meant having to start over on my own in a new country, but I thought that learning new topics and techniques would in the long term make me a stronger scientist.

What sort of work are you doing in the US, and why do you think it is significant?

At the moment I’m researching the role of environmental chemicals and immune responses in autism. I’m using post-mortem human tissues to uncouple the molecular biology of the disease.

Developmental disorders such as autism have life-long social and economic consequences, not only for individuals and their families, but also for society as a whole. I believe that we will miss opportunities for early diagnosis and treatments without a true understanding of the biology of brain diseases.

Would you like to continue working in this area, or do you ever think your interests will lead you into other areas?

In the longer term I’d like to work on technologies and/or diagnostics arising from the basic biological research I’ve been involved in. I’d like to see a real world translation and application of my research findings on immune or metabolic changes in developmental disorders. In science there is a great emphasis on publishing in journals, but in the future, with a growing number of open access online publications available, the number or type of publications may not carry as much weight. Rewarding researchers based on publications can seem is a bit like valuing businesses based on how many times they are mentioned in newspapers.

If school students were to say that they are interested in science, what sort of advice would you give them?

I think you should follow the things you love, and if you work hard and you’re lucky you will find employment and enjoyment from them. A science education is a passport to the world, and can open doors in industries and disciplines which are not directly or purely science orientated. Don’t be afraid to try and fail. If we only did experiments that we were confident would work, there would be no sense doing them!

Veronica in conversation with Tom Kennedy

Would you consider continuing research in Ireland, and if not why?

I think Ireland produces exceptional research from gifted researchers. We are very strong in technology and have a

THE SENSATIONAL

BRAIN What is it and how it works Dr Veronica Miller

highly educated population. I think if I was able to initiate collaborations with researchers here and at home that would ideal. Cross-pollinating our research in Ireland with novel ideas and availing of international expertise is pivotal to positioning Ireland at the forefront of research and technology in the future.

DUE OUT FEBUARY 3013 available from www.sciencespin.com and independent bookshops

This skull of a Neolithic young wom an uncovered in France and dating to abou 3500 BC show t that trepann s ing has a long history.

Mad busin

During the

BRAIN

ng the Researchers imagi e users ar cocain brains of regul memories found that their better when seem to work ared to comp e taking cocain use the drug people who never the trial. This for normally but did cocaine users suggests that some short term from do benefit in the e Regular cocain using the drug. ive be more sensit users may also ure than the and get more pleas using it. n from average perso found have s Dublin researcher users accumulate addictive cocaine which inhibits evidence that tive areas of the brain motion addic damage in the l use can set in suggests initia behaviour. This brain. your life is rewiring of your only source of pleasure in ted to it, as become addic Naturally if the nding more likely to dema even be ever l cocaine, you’l stimulate your een other source to a mixture betw you’d have no So addiction is asure pathways.

ess

19th century

people cha the words So one way to nge used to des to be studying. asylum sup d. Doctors for the to try to see what mad becam cribe mad erintenden study love is keepers of e ts became s people and ma psychiatric alienists, is it that make became lun dhouses became to stick together. want als attendants. physicians, acy, mental anim ent Madness illness. The derangeme ars that two differ itself So far, it appe trea to nt, ht tment of ma insanity or are thoug science or mental dness the neuro-hormones pair bonding. psychiatry n bec term ame men — and gra people was facilitate long tal ressin dua legislated ones are vasop people to for and bec lly treatment of ma These two horm heard be admitte ame profita d You might have cin. d loo to ble. oxyto k after the madhouse and female mselves; s tended to The first relation to the poor, des By 1845 The by be unable of oxytocin in titute, old to Lunatics , but it’s also made e is or female. and Wales menstrual cycle testosteron to make pro Act required all cou quantities, as nties of Eng vision for men and two years, men in small both that n the thir land know ty six of the care by women. It’s when they fifty two cou of lunatics. Within more oxytocin nties had women make onships. built public long-term relati us gamo and are in mono rich in vasopressin look at ns which are receptors. If you The brain regio you find the rich in dopamine oxytocin are also le who have just fallen in love 66 peop le take cocaine. the brains of up as when peop rgic reward and pleasure mine same areas light dopa long that when es that facilitate One theory is with the centr s you for brain overlap ical reaction prime you fall centres of the combined chem say this could ing, term bond g in love. You body and fallin you happy. meeting some n that makes with the perso and stay in love

Trepanning kits treat injured , such as this from abou soldiers dur ing the Am t 1850, were used to erican Civ il War. asylums.

By the 185 0s the maj women. In ority of inm 1851, afte ate populat r a visit to Dickens wro ion St Luke’s te Hospital Cha were “… insanity rles is Of the 18,7 more prevalent amo ng women hospital, 11,1 59 patients admitte than men d during ”.

62 were wom the history en. of the

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madhouse In Victori an Britain rising num campaign bers to politics. And enter professions suc of women began to h of “female at the exact same tim as law, medicine and nervous” e there was disorders actually the an epidemi such Greek wor c the time app d for wom as hysteria. Hysteri a is b. The opt eared to be ions either mar riage or the for women at madhouse.

Counting badgers Andrew Byrne, who has been trapping badgers in County Kilkenny, maintains that if they are to be given protection against TB enough of them have to be caught for inoculation to work.

A

ndrew Byrne, a zoologist, said he is happy to be working on the largest badger trapping project ever undertaken on that species. As he explained there was a good reason to launch this study which has embraced 755 km2 of countryside in County Kilkenny. Badgers have long been associated with the spread of TB in cattle, so for many years attempts have been made to bring this situation under control. Opinions vary on how this should be done, and while many farmers are in favour of culling, others claim that inoculation would solve the problem. Badgers are a protected wildlife species, part of our native biodiversity, and there are strong feelings involved in which approach would be the best one to take.

With the support of a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship, Andrew has been gathering the facts that would help people make more informed decisions on what course of action is best for everyone.

One way or the other there is a serious problem to solve, said Andrew, who pointed out that avoiding the evidence has not helped stem the alarming rise of bovine TB in Britain. The whole point of carrying out such a big scale survey, he said, is to establish the relevant facts about badger population density, and in particular to determine what proportion of that population can be trapped because this has a bearing on control.

Within the 755 km2 area of north west Kilkenny, he said there are about 1,000 setts, and these are the burrows in which badgers live and breed. There is usually one main sett for each social group, and for 24 weeks a sweep was made over the entire area to determine where these are. Then, traps with peanuts for bait were set up. “Badgers love peanuts,” said Andrew, and over eight nights the animals were collected, anaethesised, marked with identification numbers, and chipped just like a household dog. After that, the badgers were released.

“We had 1,780 captures,” said Andrew, and quite a few were returns, coming back for another snack. The males were more likely to turn up again, and when these were eliminated, the researchers ended up marking 960 badgers.

“We also recovered 66 dead badgers,” said Andrew, and most of these were road kills, and he estimated that about 2 to 3 per cent of the animals die each year on roads.

It is quite hard to calculate the density of a badger population, but based on trapping, Andrew said that there would have been between 0.7 and 1.1 badgers for every square kilometre. “Compared to Britain,” he said, “this is low.” In the south of England population densities can be much higher, with up to 20 in every square kilometre. However, as he explained, the population density

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 18

in Kilkenny is more typical of western Europe as a whole.

“We probably capture about 35 per cent of the population per sweep,” said Andrew, and this is probably the most important finding of the study.

Before this study, no one knew how many badgers in any given population can be trapped. This finding has great significance in working out an effective strategy for control.

For example, if badgers are to be immunized, a capture rate of 35 per cent might be too low to bring the disease under control. As Andrew explained, there is a parallel in human disease control where a high enough proportion of the population has to be immunized for it to be effective. It is hard enough to work that out for humans, said Andrew, and with badgers it is not yet known what the threshold might be, but 35 per cent is unlikely to be high enough.

Designing better traps would be one way forward, he said, and developing a bait that incorporates immunization, would be another avenue to explore.

At present, while adults are caught, younger badgers can slip through, so there is scope for improvement. Catching them young, said Andrew, is important because that’s the best time to give them immunity.

“I didn’t start out with badgers,” he said. On leaving school in Carlow, Andrew went to Trinity College Dublin to study zoology. “I was always interested in nature and in how things work,” he said, so zoology was an obvious choice.

However, there was one minor problem.

Andrew did not have a European language, and that was a requirement.

Fortunately, however, that barrier was overcome because Irish had gained official status as a European language.

At TCD, Andrew was presented with a range of subjects, from which he selected maths, geology and geography combined, biology, and chemistry. “There were some excellent lecturers,” he said, and starting off with a broad range of subjects was a great help. “The great thing about getting a general science education is that you can apply all these things to different problems,” he said.

“So, if you do zoology, it does not stop you from becoming a medical researcher, doing mathematical modelling or becoming a geneticist. At the end of the day it is a good general training.”

At undergraduate level Andrew studied spinal cord regeneration in eels, and during the summers he worked as a research assistant on a national bee conservation project. From there

he worked on molluscs at the National Biodiversity Data Centre as a research officer.

For someone well used to diversity, getting immersed in the badger study was no problem, especially as it combined his interest in wildlife with statistical modelling.

There is a strong economic imperative to come up with workable solutions to the problem of disease control, he said.

Given that uncertainty is not helping to solve this problem, Andrew concluded that “I think I’ll be working on badgers for a few more years.”

Report, Tom Kennedy

Siobhán beside the Roche 454 pyrosequencer at Morepark. The sequencer, the first of its kind to be installed in Ireland, is used for DNA analysis.

Reducing weight gain

In the fight against obesity Siobhán Clarke has been investigating how probiotics could reduce weight gain

U

ntil her sister fell and cut herself, Siobhán Clarke could not decide whether to go into nursing or study science. “`I saw the blood and fainted,” she recalled, and that was that.

At Grennan College in Kilkenny, Siobhán had already become fascinated by science. “I had a lovely science teacher,” she said and one of the things she remembered most about Christine

Kehoe was “that it wasn’t that she made science fun, she made it easy to understand.” The fact that Christine had studied science and had worked for a time in industry, said Siobhán, meant that she knew a lot more than an ordinary teacher.

During transition year the school became involved in a women in science programme, and Siobhán was among the

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 19

lucky few to be invited to look around the labs at University College Cork. “I fell in love with it all,” she declared, and not surprisingly she headed back there later to study science.

To study for her doctorate, Siobhán joined the Teagasc researchers at Moorepark. University College Cork has close links to Moorepark on food research, and there Siobhán focused on the role of our gut microbiotica in controlling weight gain.

Excessive weight gain has become an enormous problem, she said, and around the world about 2.8 million adults die prematurely every year due to obesity. It is both a health and an economic problem because the costs of dealing with obesity and obesity-related disorders are high.

As Siobhán explained, some of our gut microbiotica can actually be far too efficient in converting food into energy, and if we don’t use up that energy it becomes stored as fat.

The make-up of our gut microbiotica is surprisingly diversified, with hundreds of different species and distinct populations. Siobhán said that the point of her research is to show that how this microbiotica is made up has a direct bearing on how efficient we are in converting our food into fat. What many people do not realise, she explained, is that the microbiotica in our gut is

The Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Limerick invite you to come to UL to share the career experiences of our graduates.

Graduates will give brief presentations on their careers to-date outlining the opportunities and horizons opened to them since graduating. This will be followed by an informal Q&A session with the opportunity to meet and chat with presenters and university faculty.

Spring Schedule for Graduate Career Information Evenings: 17 January 2013 24 January 2013 28 February 2013 21 March 2013 25 April 2013 20 June 2013 24 June 2013

Electronic and Computer Engineering Mechanical, Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Design and Manufacturing Engineering and Civil Engineering Chemical and Environmental Sciences and Life Sciences (Pharmaceutical & Industrial Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science & Health, Equine Science) Computer Science and Information Systems (incl Computer Games, Digital Media, Music Media & Performance Technology) Mechanical Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Electronic & Computer Engineering

Other important diary dates include

l Engineers Week: 25 February to 1st March, 2013: Events include ‘Secrets, Lies & Mathematics’ show for secondary school students and Formula1 Schools Competition for secondary school students. l UL Mature Student Evening 2013: 13th February 2013 l Science and Engineering Summer School, Cybercamp, Mathematics Modelling School: June 2013 l Special Mathematics Entrance Exam for those interested in a Science and Engineering programme who meet the CAO requirement but did not get the required grade in Maths. Exam date: 22nd August 2013.

For a full list of all degree programmes and further information visit www.scieng.ul.ie Tel: 061 202642 almost like another organ. Altogether, these tummy bugs have about 150 times more genes than the human genome, and, apart from making it possible to digest food, they are involved in a range of essential processes such as the development of our immune system.

This year, Siobhán was chosen as one of the young researchers to talk about their work at the annual Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Seminar. At the seminar, held at the RDS in November, Siobhán outlined how tests on mice supported the view that altering the balance of our gut microbiotica could help reduce the world-wide rise in obesity.

To demonstrate how this might work, Siobhán used an antibiotic, vancomycin, which is known to be active against the bacterium associated with weight gain.

This was a purely experimental procedure, said Siobhán because, in practice, it would not be desirable or practical to use antibiotics in this way. However, the test did show that suppressing that particular species of bacterium effectively prevented weight gain.

In another experiment, mice were fed a probiotic, Lactobacillus salivarius.

Probiotics are living microorganisms that have a beneficial affect on the gut population, and in this case there was also a reduction in weight gain.

However, with both approaches, the weight-reduction benefits were not permanent, and detailed studies based on analysis of faecal pellets, indicated that the desired gut balance has to be maintained. As Siobhán explained, the results are very promising, but without the support of a healthier lifestyle and exercise, “there is no magic bullet,” for the control of obesity.

The next step could be to develop a probiotic that could be incorporated into normal foods. “We have identified some,” said Siobhán, and the aim of researchers will be to focus in on those with the most promise of being produced as a product.

As Siobhán observed, incorporating probiotics into foods raises an issue on whether or not food producers are entitled to claim health benefits. This has become a highly controversial issue, and understandably food producers are keen to cash in by enhancing the appeal of popular brands. However, health authorities are not too keen to give approval for products that have not undergone extensive clinical trials in the same way as new drugs. The European Food Safety Authority, EFSA, recently refused to approve 74 submissions from major food producers, banning them from claiming that probiotics in products such as yoghurt are of benefit to health.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 20

Naturally, the big food producers that have invested heavily in probiotics are annoyed because the scientific evidence to back up their claims is not in dispute.

In defence of the ESFA position, Siobhán said that at present there is no control over health claims, so consumers have no way of knowing which are false and which are true. “If you google for probiotics,” she said, “you can even find things like duvets, and how can they possibly be probiotic?”

Like everyone involved in probiotics research, Siobhán is keen to see their health-enhancing role being acknowledged, but as she points out, in the long term, some control over the claims would be a good thing. Australia, the Americas and Asia do not have this problem, she said, but in Europe, “it needs to be sorted out.”

Siobhán considers herself fortunate not just to be following her interests, but to be working on research that has global appeal. Siobhán would like to continue her research. “I love Moorepark,” she said, and “if there is a job for me I would stay on. If not I will just have to go further afield, and would be happy to work for one of the food companies.”

Report, Tom Kennedy

Materially protecting our health Anna Nolan writes that after working as a mechanic, Patrick Cronin began research on coating textiles and as a result he is now about to go into commercial production.

T

he MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) superbug is the cause of dangerous and dreaded infections that hospitals and medical personnel are constantly fighting. One useful defence is making sure that patients’ gowns and bed linen do not carry the microbe, but obviously it is expensive to keep throwing such items away after one use. Developing antimicrobial textiles that can be laundered and reused was the focus of Patrick Cronin’s research for his PhD, which he recently completed.

These useful textiles are made by attaching selected nanoparticles (which are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair) to conventional textiles already used by manufacturers. What was special about the technique developed by the team to which Patrick belonged was that they were able to attach the nanoparticles without using adhesives.

This is an important advantage, because the problem with using adhesives is that they block light, and ultraviolet light (UV) is a key weapon in attacking MRSA and other microbes.

“We place commercially-available nanoparticles onto the surfaces of textiles, very efficiently, and without the use of adhesives,” Dr Cronin told Science Spin.

“Not having to use adhesive means that

the look and feel of the textiles remain the same, and crucially, the ultraviolet light is not blocked.”

Ultraviolet light has been used for a long time for sterilisation. We have all seen it being used by hairstylists to keep brushes and combs sterile, and there is a variety of UV devices used in medical surroundings. Special devices are not always needed, as ordinary light contains UV, helping the textiles to stay hygienic, though the effect is not as strong.

Fighting MRSA and other infections within hospitals is a major application of course, but the materials could be useful in many other situations also.

“The manufacturers can tailor the materials into drapes, gowns, linings for dog baskets, horse blankets, headrests for trains and aeroplanes, and soft furnishings,” he said. “The textiles could be used anywhere there is movement of people.”

Gaining experience

Patrick was awarded his doctorate in November 2012 for his work at the Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI) at the University of Limerick.

He belonged to a European Unionfunded international research team that developed an efficient means of coating the textiles as already described.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 21

Led by the University of Limerick, the consortium had members from several countries including Denmark, Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as well as from NUI Galway and Cook Medical Ireland. Dr Syed Tofail of MSSI was the overall co-ordinator, and the funding came under EU Framework 7.

Patrick is already working towards setting up his own company to commercialise the research, under licence. He is based in the Nexus Innovation Centre, a new development at UL set up to assist entrepreneurs to take business ideas from early concept up to a stage where there is a business plan that will attract investors.

“My PhD was based on this technology and now I am trying to understand the business side of the industry,” said Patrick. “I am looking at the commercial aspects of the technology and validating it for industry, because this is different to what we do in the laboratory.”

His work currently includes looking at regulations, standards and crucially, what is acceptable to potential customers.

He is also being assisted by Enterprise Ireland, with a grant for commercialisation. The grant is for verifying the technology, benchmarking the textile performance, and generally making it suitable for industrial production.

The working name for the new company is Textilise, but it will not necessarily keep that name when it is officially set up.

Adding business experience and training to his academic research capabilities is another step for Patrick on a path of ever wider-ranging studies.

“When I was five or six years old I started playing with Meccano and Lego, and growing up I was always interested in cars, particularly Formula 1 racing – I was crazy into that,” he remarked.

Not surprising then, that after attending school in CBS Sexton Street primary school and St Munchin’s College, both in Limerick, he was apprenticed to become an automobile mechanic.

He trained for four years, during which he had work experience at O’Mara Motors, and studied at FÁS in Limerick and the Limerick Institute of Technology. He finished his FETAC Level 7 apprenticeship in 2004.

“I loved my apprenticeship, because I just wanted to know how things worked,” he said.

He worked for a further two years with automobiles. He was encouraged to study for a degree in mechanical engineering, and was accepted as a mature student by the University of Limerick. He had studied biology at school, but not physics or chemistry, so it was difficult for him at the beginning of his degree course.

“It was tough at first, with the maths and the sciences, but there were six or seven other mature students and that gave us a good environment,” he recalled. “After the first year, I absolutely loved it.”

An industrial placement is an integral part of the degree course, so at the end of his second year at UL he went to

Reactivating HAMLET

Louise Sullivan, a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship researcher and former Young Science winner, is finding out how to give adults protection that keeps babies healthy.

B

abies fed on breast milk are less likely to develop childhood cancer. This had led scientists to wonder if breast-fed infants have some kind of protection that is absent in adults.

As Louise Sullivan, a researcher based at Teagasc in Moorepark, explains, there is a big difference between the digestive tract of an infant and the mature gut of an adult. This difference could explain why an anti-cancer complex, composed of two commonly-occurring components in milk, is effective in babies, but not in adults.

These components, alpha-lactalbumin and a fatty acid, oleic acid, also occur in whey, the by-product of cheese production. When milk is curdled, or simply goes sour, a tangle of proteins

forms the curd, leaving the liquid whey.

While the curd is used to make cheese, the whey was, until recently, regarded as having little value. However, as Louise explained, whey is now seen as a source of biologically-active products, including the components that make up what is known as HAMLET. This is the complex that offers a great deal of promise in treating a range of cancers, and HAMLET is the acronym for Human Alphalactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumour cells.

Louise has been working with the TCD Biomedical Science Institute, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, and the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at UCC to find out how this complex could become active in adults.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 22

Germany for eight months as a design engineer intern with SchuF Fetterolf in Frankfurt. After graduating in 2009, he worked for five months as a design engineer with the Oshima Group in Shannon, before embarking on his PhD research at UL – the same research that led him to his current goal of setting up a company to commercialise the results of the team’s research.

He succeeded in earning his PhD in three years, which is not all that usual these days. “I worked night and day for those three years, and put in every effort to do it in the time,” said Patrick.

Still working hard, he is also carrying out postdoctoral research at MSSI, since November 2012.

Detailed analysis of the molecular structure, said Louise, revealed that there appeared to be no significant difference between the complex formed in an infant gut and the combination formed from alpha-lactalbumin and oleic acid from whey. However, as a battery of in-vitro tests revealed, while the HAMLET complex from infants caused cancer cells to undergo an orderly programmed death, the same complex from adults was not effective. Remarkably, the active complex was effective against a whole range of cancers, and it is known to be a powerful antimicrobial, knocking out the bad bugs. These antimicrobial actions were, in fact the properties that first brought HAMLET to the attention of researchers. A team of scientists in Sweden working on immunology decided to run a few tests on cancer cell cultures. To their surprise the complex proved to be highly effective in causing the cancer cells to self-destruct. Since this discovery about 20 years ago, researchers have focused in on the anti-cancer properties of HAMLET. “There are other complexes out there,” said Louise, “but unlike others, HAMLET has been involved in clinical trials.”

In terms of developing an anti-cancer treatment, this is a significant advantage in that it would make it a lot easier to get regulatory approval. The complex already has an impressive record, and as Louise explained, it has been found effective against a currently untreatable brain tumour, and it has proved effective against human bladder cancer.

Unlike many existing treatments, the complex only acts against cancer cells, and not alone are the surrounding tissues

left intact, but healthy growth and recovery is enhanced.

However, getting the complex to function in an adult gut is a challenge, and the aim of Louise and her colleagues is to see if they could mimic the sort of conditions that make it active in the baby gut. What we wanted to find out, said Louise, is why should there be such a difference between what was observed in the lab and what actually happens in the adult gut.

To understand what happens as a complex moves through the adult gut, healthy adult volunteers had naso-gastric tubes inserted. These flexible tubes allowed the researchers to take samples as the complex progressed through the gut. As expected the pH goes through a series of changes, and this has an effect on how the proteins fold. As Louise said, it’s a bit like the opening and closing of a fist. At first, the fist is closed. Then, on reaching the pH neutral environment in the small intestine the fist unfolds so it can catch a ball. In this case the ball is the oleic fatty acid, and once caught, the fist closes, and this is how the active complex is formed.

This is an important step, but it is not the only factor involved in making the complex active. The researchers suspected that mixing of materials in the gut could have an influence, and this was confirmed by introducing miniature cameras through the gastric tube of the volunteers.. These tiny cameras, producing three images per second, provided the researchers with close-up action movie enabling them to witness how the appearance of protein complexes change as they go from an acidic to a neutral environment, and how they become mixed through other gut contents. By making these observations the researchers concluded that the mixing in an adult gut is not adequate to enable the complex to work effectively.

As Louise explained, understanding what is going on means that researchers now know what sort of problems they have to solve. The potential benefits are enormous, both as an anti-cancer treatment, and as a possible probiotic that people could eat as part of their diet.

For example, said Louise, a probiotic based on a whey derived complex, might clear up a bad tummy bug, but

of course that all depends on how the research progresses. There are still quite a few unknowns, she said, and as for stabilising the HAMLET complex so that it can be used in adults, “we are not fully confident that it would have exactly the same effects.”

Louise cannot remember a time when she was not interested in science. “I entered the Young Scientist competition when I was 15,” she said, “and came second overall, going on to represent Ireland at the international science and engineering fair in 2002.”

At the time, Louise was attending the Institute of Education in Leeson Street, Dublin, and from there she went on to study biotechnology at Dublin City University.

Learning that breast-fed babies have a lower incidence of childhood cancer made her curious as to why this is so, and it was one of the reasons she wanted to go into and continue with research.

Understandably, there is big interest in this area, both from a medical and a food perspective, and as Louise remarked, “I can’t see myself leaving the science field anytime soon.”

Report, Tom Kennedy

Why

choose the Faculty of

Engineering, Mathematics & Science at Trinity College Dublin?

• The Faculty is part of the oldest University in Ireland • The University Library is one of the largest and best stocked in Europe • You can avail of our world class research facilities and laboratories • You will be part of a unique student body with over 15,500 students from over 90 different countries • There are aver 100 societies and 50 sports clubs for students to join

UG courses include: • Nanoscience – Physics and Chemistry of Advanced Materials • Geography & Political Sciences • Earth Sciences • Human Health & Disease • BA (Mod) Computer Science

What can you study?

The Faculty has excellent undergraduate and postgraduate programmes including: • 4 year honours degrees • Taught Postgraduate programmes

• Masters programmes • PhDs

Students are offered a variety of options from across 8 Schools:

Biochemistry & Immunology

Chemistry

Computer Science & Statistics Engineering

Genetics & Microbiology Natural Sciences Mathematics Physics

The Faculty accommodates a wide range of research interests including: Bioengineering Bioinformatics Energy Immunology Nanoscience Neuroscience The Environment Transport

• BAI Engineering

Science in TCD Looking for excellent training in Science with maximum flexibility & choice? See our Science course (TR 071) which offers no less than 17 specialist areas.

www.tcd.ie/Science

Why not see what we can offer YOU by visiting us at:

www.ems.tcd.ie

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 23

NUI Galway offers innovative and career-led science degree courses for the job market of today…and tomorrow.

Overview

NEW IN 2013

NUI Galway offers you a wide range of science courses. Our courses are structured, yet flexible, to enable you to explore your interests and passions.

(Physics, with degree options in Applied, Astrophysics, Biomedical, Theoretical Physics) This four-year degree will give you flexibility in how you study physics at NUI Galway. There is a lot of commonality in the first two years of the course. In addition to core physics, students study specialist options chosen from Applied Physics, Astrophysics, Biomedical Physics and Theoretical Physics. The advantage of this structure is that it gives students the opportunity to experience a number of options before making a final decision in their third year.

Science has contributed significantly to the development of the global economy and NUI Galway scientists are at the forefront of research and development. This cutting edge, innovative research feeds into teaching, giving students the best possible learning experience.

The requirement for scientific solutions to the problems mankind faces is as great as ever, and industry leaders repeatedly point to the need for more science graduates to retain and build on Ireland’s economic competitiveness.

GY301 Bachelor of Science

GY320 – Bachelor of Science

The Bachelor of Science is the most popular choice for Science. The course is designed for students who want a career in science, but are not yet ready to narrow their options to a specific topic. On this course you study a broad variety of science subjects (e.g. Applied Mathematics, Organic Chemistry, Microbiology) before deciding to specialise in one scientific area.

Course Highlight —

BSc Environmental Science

This course provides a thorough grounding in the sciences and environmental law with opportunities for specialising in later years. Through group and independent work, students acquire extensive practical experience through case studies and field work by analysing data, identifying problems and designing appropriate solutions to environmental problems. The interdisciplinary nature of the programme ensures that graduates have found employment in a wide range of careers.

Come and see us in person at the NUI Galway Open Day and Information Evenings

l Thurles Information Evening – 17th January l Enniskillen Information Evening – 21st February l Letterkenny Information Evening – 6th March l Derry Information Evening – 21st March l NUI Galway Open Day - Saturday, 20th April More information at www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/open-days

Denominated Science Courses

These courses are ideal for students who have already decided which direction to take for their scientific careers.

Courses for careers in Biology GY303 GY304

Biomedical Science Biotechnology

Courses for mastering Mathematics GY309 GY319

Financial Mathematics and Economics Mathematical Science

Courses in specialised subjects GY308 GY310 GY313 GY314 GY318

Environmental Science Marine Science Health and Safety Systems Earth and Ocean Sciences Biopharmaceutical Chemistry

Science Experience Summer Event!

Get a taste of life as a scientist with two days of hands-on practical experience l Opportunities to do your own lab experiments l Tours of the research facilities at NUI Galway l Find out about careers in Science l Hear about our latest discoveries and inventions l For 5th and 6th year students

Application information available from April onwards at www.nuigalway.ie/science/experience

View our Science courses with videos by lecturers and students at www.nuigalway.ie/courses/undergraduate-courses

The Energy Saver

Seán Duke reports that applying what she had learned in college made Jean Malone more enthusiastic about engineering.

hadn’t been observed by any of the fulltime engineers at Chiroxia. This was a technical breakthrough for the company, which led to some design changes.

Jean was offered a nine-month contract, which she accepted. In that time she applied knowledge that she had learned in her first three years of college. This work experience changed everything, and any doubts she had about a career in engineering disappeared. “I went back to do my final year full of energy. I was so excited about the topic when I got back, and it completely changed how I viewed the course as well,” said Jean.

Crash response

A

s fuel costs rise, industry must find ways to reduce its energy costs in the short-term and introduce efficiencies that protect it against future price hikes.

The Energy Centre at Siemens Ireland is helping customers all over the world — from Cork to China — to do that, and heading up this operation is TCD engineering graduate Jean Malone.

The Centre in Ireland is set to be at the heart of Siemens’ strategy to be a strong local partner to its customers by providing energy savings for them despite the relentless rise in fuel costs as the demand for fuel increases, and the taxes on their use — greenhouse gas taxes — likewise increase. At the heart of this is Jean Malone and she is proud of what’s been achieved so far for Ireland. ”We are gearing up at the moment.” said an excited Jean. “Our system can handle a couple of hundred customers right now, but we are planning to add around 1,000 new customers per year.”

Siemens Ireland is engaging with local branches of Siemens in Turkey, the Czech Republic, Italy, Holland, Portugal as well as Germany, and as far away as Chengdu in China to help a new manufacturing plant.

Human’ engineering

Jean, from Clane in Co Kildare, recalls loving maths, technical graphics and all the technical subjects when she was in secondary school. She was specifically drawn to the medical device sector, as it combined engineering with some direct

human benefits. However, after her Leaving Certificate in 2001, she decided that it would be best to select a general engineering course to begin with, and she chose engineering at TCD. She enjoyed college life at TCD, but after Jean completed her second year, she began to have some doubts as to whether engineering had been a good idea. “The course was tough, but rewarding — but I couldn’t foresee what my future job or career would be like,” recalled Jean. “I wasn’t sure if it was right for me — and I took a year out between 3rd and 4th year.” She needed some time and space to go travel, and figure out exactly what she wanted to do. Her parents were okay, she said, but wanted her to do work experience, for at least part of the time she was out of college. She agreed to do that.

Jean applied, and was accepted, to do six weeks of work experience at a company called Chiroxia, based at Citywest, which had been set up by Jim Coleman, a vascular surgeon, who had returned from the US full of ideas for various kinds of medical devices. The company employed engineers to realize Coleman’s vision. It was an exciting place to work, and Jean immediately felt at home there, and enjoyed her work immensely.

Her profile at the company increased when she observed a particular behavior of a substance — at high and low temperatures — that was being prepared for insertion into the human body, which

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 25

When the Irish property market crashed ‘almost overnight’ the Irish arm of Siemens AG – the massive engineering and electronics corporation, headquartered in Munich, and employing 370,000 people in some 190 countries — started to look at how existing or old buildings could be improved or upgraded, as the ‘new build’ market had evaporated.

Siemens put a toe in this market when they developed an energy efficiency plan for a large Ireland-based customer. The idea was to conduct a complete ‘audit’ of the energy usage at the customer’s manufacturing plant. This was done by strategically placing energy meters at key locations in the production plant, and gathering a data stream. That data was then looked at by a team of energy engineers at Siemens Ireland, who made recommendations to the customer on how to improve energy efficiency.

Siemens Ireland decided to set up an Energy Centre locally, so that this large customer could go online at any stage and look at how it was consuming energy. Once the Centre was up and running, it made sense to offer similar services to other companies based in Ireland. Eventually, what had started as a local R&D project attracted the interest of Siemens HQ in Germany, who have supported the development of the Centre to provide energy efficiency services for its customers across Europe and beyond.

Success at Siemens

Jean completed her degree at TCD in 2006. After that she worked briefly as a waitress in Belfast before returning home to Co Kildare, where she lived again with her parents for a short time and got a temporary position with Green Isle Foods in Naas. She was glad to be back home, but was keen for a job that would allow her to live more independently.

She started to look for work in Dublin, and an opportunity came up with Siemens. Initially, her job involved working with customers to identify the exact product that they required; to help them find the right product, and the correct complementary products. The idea was to refer customers to websites and give them the skills and knowledge to be able to source new parts themselves. She did that successfully and then moved on.

The next role was more interesting, as it involved working with a customer to develop an energy efficiency solution.

First, Jean worked with a salesperson to design a solution suited to the customer’s energy needs, then she worked with a project manager who would roll out the solution for them. It was a challenging, diverse and interesting job.

It also helped Jean’s career and she was offered the role of Siemens Energy Centre Manager. In this role she deals with some very large customers in Ireland, in energy-intensive sectors such as pharma, chemicals, food and leisure. The Irish Centre is also responsible for meeting the energy needs of Siemens’ customers based in Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as a growing number of customers across Europe and beyond.

“I enjoy the diversity of the role, each site brings different challenges, and you have to adapt to those challenges,” said Jean. “Within Siemens there are so many different opportunities. I do enjoy the idea of working towards something that will create more jobs for engineers in Ireland.

We have a plan to expand and we have just taken on four new people recently under the Job Bridge scheme,” she added.

Science and Technology @ IADT IADT has innovative and interesting programmes in science and technology in the Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies.

• BEng in Audio Visual Media Technology (DL133)

• BSc (Honours) in Computing Multimedia Systems/ Web Engineering (DL143) • BSc in Computing in Multimedia Programming (DL131) • BSc (Honours) in Applied Psychology (DL141) Explore our Multimedia programmes at Level 7 and Level 8. We have a PSI accredited honours degree in Applied Psychology.

Our Engineering programme at Level 7 is Engineers Ireland accredited.

Come along to our Open Evening on 16 January 2013 from 4pm to 8pm and hear about the programmes.

Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin T: + 353 1 239 4000 / E: info@iadt.ie / www.iadt.ie

COLOUR

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

M

COLOUR

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

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

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

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

The science and art of colour explained by Margaret Franklin and Tom Kennedy. A colourful and informative paperback. €15 post free from www.sciencespin.com Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin T: + 353 1 239 4000 / E: info@iadt.ie / www.iadt.ie

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

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

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

Towerstown, Co Photographs: Tom

Kennedy.

tion is the Mour during initial event. The excep it developed n years old and to the melting only 55 millio , possibly due Atlantic Ocean basalts (see ding Antrim opening of the crust by the ascen ” earlier). of the Earth’s Rocks other Volcanic e in the base of granit “Basalts and n molte of hot of plates: The generation by the movement driven sinks to is plate crust l crusta the Earth’s e, the over-ridden granite (see Figure where they collid liquid it melts to form they release extremely a depth where plates pull apart the crust it in turn melts 3). Where those mantle which the from hot basalt The granite with granite rocks. is well-endowed out from the Figure 15. Ireland northeast stands Mountains is the er — only 55 million years old. of the Mourne significantly young others in being

67

ROCK AROUND IRELAND

Peadar McArdle guides us around Ireland’s diversified geology.

Paperback €15 postfree from www.sciencespin.com

SUBSCRIBE TO SCIENCE SPIN Ireland’s science and discovery magazine 6 issues a year, €30 post included. www.sciencespin.com

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

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

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

Tellus Border?

Tell us more Left, collecting geophysical data from the lowflying plane. Above, geochemistry sampling in the border counties.

Following Tellus Border’s recent completion of its geophysical survey, Anthea Lacchia caught up with Ray Scanlon and Mairéad Glennon at the GSI to hear how the project is progressing.

A

s I walk through the poster-lined corridors of the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), I notice countless newspaper articles about the Tellus Border project displayed in large glass frames, hung between many posters illustrating the different phases of the project.

The Tellus Border project is a regional mapping project that is collecting and interpreting scientific data across the six border counties: Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. The brainchild of Ray Scanlon, GSI Tellus Border Project Manager, and Mike Young, Director of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, the project is managed by a crossborder partnership between the Geological Survey of Ireland, the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, Dundalk Institute of Technology and Queen’s University, Belfast.

The airborne geophysical survey, which was a large component of the project, is now complete.

Assistant Project Manager Mairéad Glennon explains: “The overall objective is to create a baseline of environmental and geological conditions in the border region. So part of that involved going out and completing a survey; there were two aspects to the survey: an airborne geophysics survey, which involved a low-flying propeller plane flying over the border region collecting geophysical data and then a ground-based geochemical survey which involved teams of field samplers out taking soil, water and sediment samples. Both of those started in summer and autumn 2011 and finished in summer 2012. It was a very busy field season.”

Throughout the survey it was a very busy time for outreach and communications as well. “We needed to tell people why we were flying a plane in the region and what we were doing out in the field taking samples. Then we had

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 29

to communicate to all our stakeholders what the value of the data was, for instance making sure that farmers knew that you can use the geochemical data for assessing trace elements in soil, which helps with agricultural productivity, as well as making sure that researchers knew about the data.”

The geophysical data and some of the geochemical data will be freely available online from February 2013.

“Because we get the geophysical data as soon as it comes off the plane that’s ready sooner. In the case of most of the geochemical data, samples get sent away and then the data comes back to us.

There’s quite a lot of quality control to be done which takes a few months so it it’ll be later in 2013 before we have the geochemistry available to everyone.”

“It’s inorganic geochemistry we’re looking at in our ground-based survey”, explains Ray Scanlon.

“We’re monitoring most of the periodic table, 55 to 60 elements. We’ll have that available in several formats like Excel spread sheets, with grid coordinates and in GIS format. There will be pre-made maps for people to interact with and query on a web browser. We’re very keen that people get the data easily and readily and can make informed decisions on it very quickly. So even though the project doesn’t end officially until December 2013, we’re pushing out the data as soon as we can and we’re going to have a big data launch in early February here in GSI. We’re keen that by the end of the project we will have case studies of people using it.

“The other thing we’re doing at the moment is to make sure people use the data in a research call” says Mairéad.

“Very shortly we’ll be publishing a request for tender, which will invite people to tender for short projects which will use Tellus Border or Tellus data in

Sampling in cropland, Co Donegal, and right, sediment sampling Northern Ireland, which exists already to create short research projects which are aligned with the objectives of Tellus Border.”

Among the funded projects there are three post-doctoral positions, two in Queen’s and one in Dundalk. In addition to this, funds are available for shorter, more targeted applied research projects to last 12 months or so.

“We’re hoping to fund seven or eight research projects in that time frame and hopefully before our final conference at the end of October 2013 we’ll have some research outputs from those,” says Ray. “We’re putting about a quarter of a million euro into that research call, out of an overall project budget of about 5 million.”

Tellus Border is funded by the INTERREG IVA program of the European Regional Development Fund, which makes funds available to border regions around Europe. While this contributes to about 75 per cent of the project, the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (RoI) and the Department of Environment (NI) are topping it up to 100 per cent.

“These regions may not have had the same attention from governments due to conflict or other issues,” says Mairéad.

“The aim is have an environmental and natural resource management structure and there are always conflicting demands on natural resources whether it’s soil, water, metals, anything. Having just a baseline understanding of what is there allows informed decisions,” adds Ray. Some surveys were undertaken in the border region before now, such as geochemical mapping at a lower density, and the work of Tellus Border will complement them.

So with the sampling season now over, data is being gathered from the laboratories and the geophysical airborne contractors. “We are doing quality control

on the data, making sure it is correct and that we understand it. That’s the phase we’re currently in. The next phase is coming up with the story behind the data, the interpretation. Between February and October 2013, we’ll be interpreting the data and working with researchers,” says Ray.

Different types of data

So what types of data are involved?

The three types of data that derive from the airborne survey are magnetic data, electromagnetic data and radiometric data.

Magnetic data, determined by the magnetic minerals in the rocks, can tell us a lot about the structure of the rocks and this helps identify things like faults and dykes in the landscape. This is being used to update the bedrock geology maps in the survey. Of course this is especially helpful in areas where there is up to 20m of boulder clay on top of the bedrock geology.

The data are used to produce a Panning for gold at the BT Young Scientist 2012 exhibition, Kate Knights, Minister Fergus O’Dowd, and Mairead Glennon.

magnetic map, which highlights geological features such as the Antrim basalts, that are strongly magnetised, as well as several igneous dykes cutting across the countryside. “These act as really useful markers for faults,” says Mairéad. “There are also really nice structures in the Mourne and Cooley Mountains, such as an igneous ring dyke, which had been mapped before but not in so much detail.”

The electromagnetic sensor collects data by sending out a weak signal, equivalent to a light bulb’s strength, through a pod on each wing. “Depending on the conductivity of the ground, which is determined by the chemistry, we can tell what’s happening in the ground in terms of chemical status.”

Radiometric data is obtained by a gamma ray detector, which measures the natural radioactivity of the soils.

Uranium, thorium and potassium are the main radiogenic elements from which radiation is measured.

The geochemical data is taken from water, soil and sediment samples. “The soil samples had to be taken in natural conditions, so areas away from roads, buildings, industries, anything which could influence the natural signal of the geology. Then, when dealing with stream sediments, we targeted first and second order streams, which are the smallest streams in a catchment: because there are no other rivers flowing into them, they just represent the runoff from the catchment, therefore the contribution of geology to the water chemistry.”

Applications

The project is all about getting baseline geological information that can spin out into a multitude of uses.

“It’s pure geological survey work, related to agriculture, radon, human health, contaminated land, and basic geological mapping. And an improved

geological map of any area will improve people’s understanding of how to manage it,” commented Ray. For those involved, one of the most exciting applications so far has been radon assessment. Radon is associated with high levels of lung cancer: in Ireland, each year an estimated 200 people die from radon exposure.

The Tellus Border team are working with the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) in advanced radon risk mapping. In fact, the geophysical data is used to pull out the radon signature from the equivalent uranium signature.

It’s also possible to pick out Caesium-137 data, which is related to Chernobyl fallout patterns.

“This for the first time will allow the geological inputs to radon to be modelled and assessed in detail, whereas before the risk was solely based on in-house measurements. This is an extra aspect to the work which will hopefully really help to improve how authorities deal with radon in this country,” explains Mairéad.

Understanding the geogenic sources of radon and their locations will also help the RPII target areas for follow-up measurements.

The radiometric data can also provide information on exploration for hot dry rock or geothermal energy by highlighting areas of natural radiogenic heat. “A project called IRETHERM is being completed by DIAS, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies: it is looking at the potential for geothermal

energy around Ireland and we can collaborate on this aspect,” explains Ray. Another important application relates to agricultural productivity.

“Governments all around the world are looking at how to increase agricultural productivity while still protecting the environment because people’s demand for food is getting higher and higher. So looking at trace elements in soils and at crop health and animal fertility, which really strongly depend on the soil that you rear them on, is really important,” says Mairéad.

Given that the government aims to increase agricultural productivity by 50 per cent by 2020 without any environmental impact, information on trace elements in soils can be of great help. “It’s a surprising avenue that we’ve discovered during the project,” she adds.

What’s next?

It is hoped that this type of survey will be extended to the whole island and there are some plans to extend it after December 2013.

“It’s really a matter of getting the funding to do the work. I think we’re demonstrating the value of the work not just to the stakeholders but also to the funding body. It’s part of an overall vision to complete geo-environmental mapping of the whole island of Ireland, which was first conceived back in the 1990s by the geological surveys of Ireland and Great Britain and the

The role of communication

THE Tellus Border communications team recently picked up an award for excellence in communications at the CIPR Northern Ireland PRide Awards. Collecting Gold award in the Community Relations category, as well as a Silver in the Public Sector category, the team was recognised for its wideranging and innovative communications outreach prior to and during its geological survey.

“We’re very happy to be recognised because we did put in a huge amount of work in it,” says Mairéad, “we aim for constant engagement with our stakeholders on every level, from central government, to local government, to policy makers, to environmental managers, to environmental consultants and all the way to community level. It’s all about keeping people up to date with what’s available, when and how they can use the data.

We made contact with the Irish Farmers Association, many community groups, and local authorities. We went around and

Recording for Nationwide television broadcast. met them to make sure they understood what we were doing and to take on their point of view for how the data would be used. Farmers were a key aspect of our communications program: because the airborne survey was very low-flying, it did have the potential to startle animals, so we had a database of hundreds of animal owners who needed to be notified every day. We also had a very strong media

United States. In 2005 Northern Ireland had the opportunity, through the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, to complete the mapping of northern Ireland, and they did the same as we’re doing here now, an airborne survey and a geochemical survey. A very important aspect of what we do with Tellus Border is to integrate the data fully with Northern Ireland. For instance water doesn’t stop flowing across political boundaries and it’s very important to manage resources like water on a truly cross-border basis.

We need to make sure both that the data is seamless across the border and that organizations that manage environmental resources are talking to each other and using the data together.”

The best estimate is that it would cost about 40 million euro to survey the rest of the country. “That’s a lot of money but apparently it’s only about 1.7km of motorway! So in that kind of perspective it’s a good investment,” argues Ray. Don’t forget to drop by the Tellus Border stand at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in January. “Last year we had a gold panning interactive exhibit to show how we pan for all sorts of mineral concentrates. It was brilliant fun,” says Mairéad. “We’ll be there throughout the duration of the exhibition and we’ll be happy to meet everyone and tell them about Tellus Border.”

To find out more, visit

www.tellusborder.eu presence, with over 130 newspaper articles and around 30 radio interviews.

Certainly with the plane in the air, the project became very familiar to people.”

“We even managed to get geology on AA Roadwatch at one stage!” adds Ray. “In fact, at one stage the flight lines were running parallel to the M1 so it would have been very important to us to get the message out there to the motorists that the plane wasn’t trying to land on the road or anything. So AA Roadwatch broadcasted our message on Twitter and National Radio to make sure people knew what we were doing.”

Of course, the Tellus Project has highlighted the fundamental role of geology in our everyday life: “Geology is more important than people realise because the soil comes from the rocks and we grow our crops on the soil. Our animals are reared on the soil as well and we put our waste in the soil in landfills, we take our water from it. It can also be the recipient of a lot of contaminants due to human activity, so the more we know about it the better,” says Mairéad.

H

Science Week at Teagasc

ow clean are your hands? use them in medicines; they are Demystifying DNA. of great benefit to society while Reducing greenhouse gas the bad fungi can cause disease emissions.’ These are some of and serious harm to plants, the many topics that over 1,000 animals and Man! Fungi have second-level students got the evolved into some of the most opportunity to investigate, unusual and fascinating living while also participating in creatures. Did you know the many hands-on experiments, oldest living organism on Earth at Teagasc’s Science Week is a fungus?” events around the country this Students visiting Teagasc November.

Ashtown in Dublin were shown Brian McGuinness, Teagasc some of the good, some of the Horticultural Development bad and some of the weird from Unit asked: “What is all around the world of fungi. They also us, is very hard to see but both got to grow their own personal shapes and dismantles the fungal zoo.

Brian McGuinness, Horticultural Development Unit, with pupils World?”

Brian McGuinness manages from Dominican College, Griffith Avenue.

He explained: “Fungi are the Phytopathology clinic, everywhere. They are in the water you drink, the air that you diagnosing plant diseases for Teagascs’ customers. He is also breathe and the food that you eat. In the Ashtown Mushroom part of the Mushroom research team who provide support to Research and Plant Pathology laboratories we deal with both Ireland’s booming mushroom industry. the good fungi and the bad fungi. We eat the good fungi and

Grand challenges for global agriculture and food G lobal food production has, to date, maintained pace with population growth. However, past successes in food production have come with a high cost to the environment and have not at all addressed the issue of fair access to adequate food by all of the world’s population. As we look forward, the task of meeting the fundamental challenge of providing adequate food and nutrition for all will become increasingly problematic and complex. Between now and 2050, growth in global population and changing diets in emerging countries are projected to bring about a 70% increase in food demand.

This demand must be addressed in the context of increasingly unpredictable weather events and the changing pattern of disease in crops and livestock. Simultaneously, depletion of fossil hydrocarbons will increase demand for biomass for biofuels and other raw materials, which may compete with land use for food production.

These “Grand Challenges” are a real threat not only to future food supplies, but also to global stability and prosperity.

As the national body responsible for supporting the science and technology needs of the Irish agri-food industry, Teagasc aims to focus greater public attention on these critical issues by organising a series of public lectures in association with the RDS. This series of high profile lectures, presented by

outstanding international scientists and policymakers, will contribute to heightening awareness of the scale of the problem and how all of us - governments, civil society, the private sector and individual consumers – have a role to play in addressing the challenges.

The third lecture in the series will be presented in the RDS Concert Hall on March 14, 2013 at 6.30 pm by Professor Charles Godfray, Hope Professor of Zoology at Jesus College, Oxford and Director of Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food. Professor Godfray will examine the role of science and technology in addressing the challenge of producing sufficient food sustainably.

For more, see: http://www.teagasc.ie/events/rds-lecture-series/index.asp

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 32

Pictured at the second in the Teagasc & RDS lecture series are (from left): Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, Senior Economist and Team Leader of the Global Perspectives Studies Team at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) who gave a talk entitled ‘Will we run out of natural resources needed for food production?’; Dr Frank O’Mara, Director of Research, Teagasc; and, Leo Enright, moderator of the panel discussion.

Teagasc success in DAFM funding call

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he Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, recently announced grant awards of approximately €32 million for 55 research projects being undertaken, on a collaborative basis, by researchers from institutions across the island of Ireland.

The awards cover a broad range of research activities relating to sustainable food production and processing, as well as forestry.

Many of the projects funded are applied and pre-commercial in nature, while there is also a heavy emphasis on research involving the modern biosciences. Meat-related research features prominently, which, when taken with additional investment in dairy research, ensures that the two main parts of the sector continue to be supported to the maximum extent possible.

Teagasc will lead 30 of these projects and will participate as a partner in a further 13. Welcoming the announcement, Teagasc Director of Research, Dr Frank O’Mara, noted that this significant investment in agriculture, food and forestry research will underpin future innovation and job growth in the Irish bioeconomy. In particular, Dr O’Mara highlighted the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s rigorous review process, which drives excellence in the formulation and planning of projects. He also welcomed the all-island inter-

institutional collaboration, which is displayed in the funded projects: “These projects bring together the best Irish researchers from all institutions, in collaborative teams, with a focus on delivering the targets set out in Food Harvest 2020.”

Teagasc’s Research Programme is made up of four key research areas and among the projects to receive funding in these areas were: In the Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Programme, Dr Aidan Moloney will lead a project on ‘Profitable production of bull beef to market specification while ensuring optimum quality for the consumer’.

The Crops, Environment and Land Use Research Programme received funding for ‘Strategies for controlling cadmium contamination in Irish food production’, led by Dr Denis Griffin.

In the Food Programme ‘An investigation of Verocytotoxigenic E. coli super-shedding in beef and dairy cattle and the factors underpinning human virulence potential and strain emergence as a result of vt phage transduction’ will be led by Dr Geraldine Duffy.

And in the Rural Economics and Development Programme, ‘Profitable dry stock enterprise development: Pathways to growth’ will be led by Dr David Meredith.

Teagasc Walsh Fellowships Programme

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he Teagasc Walsh Fellowships Programmes offers a unique opportunity to young graduates to undertake postgraduate research in Food; Animal (including pigs) and Grassland Production; Crops, Environment and Land Use; Rural Economics and Development, and other related disciplines. Currently, there are 160 ongoing fellowships, with a turnover of up to 50 new ones each year.

Dr Lance O’Brien, coordinator of the Programme explains: “The programme promotes closer liaison and collaboration between Teagasc and the universities on the island of Ireland, as well as with institutes of technology and universities in Europe, the USA and the southern hemisphere. Walsh Fellows are usually based in one of Teagasc’s research centres. These centres are staffed by scientists and supporting technical and other staff working in wellequipped modern laboratories and field-based facilities. Students will also attend all academic modules as required under their degree programme.”

Many former Walsh Fellows are currently employed in Teagasc and many others are in key positions in universities, public services, agri-food companies and financial institutions at home and abroad. “The large numbers of alumni from the Programme working in industry highlights how public research expenditure can facilitate capacity building within Irish industry. The vast majority work in Ireland or for Irish companies,” says Lance.

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

Website: www.teagasc.ie

Teagasc alumni have also been very successful in pursuing university academic careers, continuing to add to research output in the sector, as well as transferring knowledge to students. “Many of our alumni working in the University sector now act as cosupervisors to our PhD students, continuing the collaborations started when they themselves were students,” explains Lance.

Each year, some of our Walsh Fellows are given the opportunity to present their research results during Science Week in a public seminar organized in association with the RDS. The 2012 Seminar took place in the RDS, Dublin, on November 22. Eighteen young researchers presented the results of their research, with a further 21 postgraduate students publishing posters. The overall winner and Walsh Fellow of the year was Noeleen McDonald for her paper on ‘Utilizing the soils nitrogen supply potential for efficient grass production’. She was presented with the RDS medal.

See: http://www.teagasc.ie/research/pg_pd_opportunities.asp The winners of the Walsh Fellowships seminar are pictured (from left): Ciara McDonnell (best food presentation); Noelle O’Riordan (best threeminute presentation); Tom Cannon, Chairman of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee, RDS; Declan Troy, Assistant Director of Research, Teagasc; Noeleen McDonald (overall winner); Rory Ryan (Institute of Food Science and Technology of Ireland President) and Nora O’Shea (best poster).

Could Free Will be an Illusion?

Jeff Harte wonders if the time-lag leading up to a conscious decision to act means that our actions are predetermined. lllllll ll ll l l l

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Conscious decisions are preceded by a period of brain activity

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here are an estimated 100 billion neurons in the human brain. It weighs about one and a half kilogrammes. It is responsible for all thought, intelligence and experience which occur during consciousness. It operates through the electrical charging and uncharging of these neurons, known as repolarisation and depolarisation, in large numbers and in complicated patterns.

Through modern neuroscience we have learned what happens with neurological disorders, how the brain can direct actions and make connections to sensation. Conscious thought, perception, reasoning and imagination are things that are actually far too complex for us to understand until scientists understand a great deal more about the brain.

Evolution of the mind is an incredibly important aspect of mammalian development, yet how is it that scientists can only illuminate, for us, the simpler and more robust of actions it carries out?

From a neuroscience perspective, there is no ghost in the machine; the brain and the mind are one and the same. All our actions can be explained through a deeper understanding of the chemical and electrical patterns of the billions of neurons themselves.

Yet, could there be something else involved in one’s thoughts that could compromise an idea of free will?

What if I told you your brain made the decision for you to move, before you had consciously decided to do so?

This was the big question raised in the 1970s by a scientist, Benjamin Libet.

He conducted a series of innovative experiments regarding conscious decisions and our concepts of free will. He wondered if there was any uncontrollable, unconscious involvement in the process of conscious decision making.

Libet tried to investigate this question with an experiment in 1983.

It was a simple enough test made up of two parts. The first part involved a timer. It had only one hand and carried out a full rotation of the clock face every two and a half seconds. This was representative of an external objective measurement of the participant’s own subjective experience. When the subject lifted their finger, the time would be recorded.

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The second part of the experiment involved the participant’s experience of the test. The subject’s instruction was to lift their finger whenever they felt like it, while their mental activity over the course of the experiment was monitored using electroencephalography (EEG) equipment. EEG is a noninvasive technique involving multiple electrodes which record the brain’s electrical activity.

Once the participant lifted their finger they were to use the clock’s markings to inform the researchers when they believed they had consciously intended to move.

Libet repeated the trial 40 times and showed that in the tests, on average, the EEG showed a build-up of electrical activity in the brain 550ms before the action was recorded (finger lifting).

This “preparing for the movement” is referred to as the readiness potential.

Although this readiness potential was to be expected, the average time people thought they had the conscious intention to carry out the action, with no reports of specific pre-planning to act, was only 200ms before the action. This implies that there was 350ms of brain activity before consciousness of the decision is even registered.

Take a moment to think about this.

The idea one can carry out an action, of their own volition, is essential to the concept of free will. What the experiment seemed to suggest was that something had happened, unconsciously, that prepared the body for movement outside of the subject’s own awareness. This is

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 34

different to the unconscious actions of breathing or digestion which occur all the time, as it’s to do with the very idea of conscious thought.

These results had profound scientific, philosophical and even legal implications. It was hugely controversial in the worlds of science and philosophy.

The idea that brain activity precedes conscious intention of an action could change the very way science thinks about the mind and the brain. In philosophy, would those who strongly believe in the notion of free will be forced to admit the correctness of determinism? Was conscious thought dictated by unconscious brain activity and could someone’s actions be predicted before they had even made their own decision?

One of the leading British neuroscientists, Patrick Haggard, has shown even more recently that a monitored brain’s activity can build up to 2000 milliseconds before the movement occurs.

The mystery lies in that instant before you decide to move. To know or be aware of those instants beforehand are where free will or even preordained fate could be discovered. Even though these moments seem so short and fleeting in the fullness of time, maybe they do contain valuable secrets.

The findings of these experiments are incontestable. How they are interpreted has proven to be far more divisive. Libet himself has repeatedly warned against jumping so quickly to conclusions regarding his results.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph Haggard declared that he does not believe in free will, at least not the extent of the traditionally defined free will, where our decisions can be made based on what we perceive objectively as choice.

“No one wants to be told they’re just a machine. But there is simply nothing approaching convincing evidence for the quantum view (freedom based on the randomness of the Universe at the most minute levels)” he says.

Interestingly, there is a major project in America currently assessing these fine lines between free will and brain science which could have massive legal implications. The Research Network

UPFRONT An old water flea

on Law and Neuroscience addresses a In a lecture for the Royal Society for A 450 million year old Crustacean, complete with fossilized softof Arts, Manufactures focused set of closely-related problems the Encouragement has been of found in Herefordshire.

One of the scientists at parts, the intersection neuroscience and and Commerce in 2010 he explained involved in thewhich discovery, Profthe David from the University criminal justice includes lawsSiveterthat it is brain activity that causes of Leicester, said that whatofmade the 5mm consciousness long fossil so special relating to the mental states defendants which in turn causes an is not it is a previously un-named species, butFor thatmany the soft and eventhat their capacity for self-regulating action. individuals that may parts have been preserved so well that eyes and thetheir antennae canfree will (while it their own behaviours. distort idea of be made out.

“As a neuroscientist, you’ve got to be may support others’) but again Haggard The fossil,There named flata, belongs to the same a determinist. areNasunaris physical laws, concluded; “Wegroup like to think we’re as water-fleas and are that common which the electrical andshrimps. chemicalTheir eventsdescendants wonderful, we have this marvellous in lakes and oceans, said. and geologists often use the as be more intoday the brain obey,” Haggard capacity.

Butfossils we should indicators of past climates.

impartial: perhaps we overestimate the value and the excitement of having free will.”

Jeff Harte has a BSc in Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin and he is currently studying for an MSc in Science Communications at Dublin City University.

Internal image of the showing soft parts and eyes.

Image: In fossil discussing thethe results of a recent study to observe what happens before we make a David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. TCD Briggs, Derek J. Siveter and O’Connell Mark D. said that it takes time for the brain to decision, researcher Redmond Sutton. process all the information that is likely to be relevant to that decision. One influential theory, he said, is that enough information has to accumulate before the brain commits to a particular decision, and this is the point when we become aware that a decision has Later, one of David’s successors, King Hezekiah, fearing that confirmed that this is a previously fruits and vegetation. They live in groups been made. the Assyrians would take Jerusalem using the same approach, species, Cercopithecus and observations are described as shy and quiet.

In a paper published Nature Neuroscience, Dr O’Connell said that these A medium-sized primate, similar to a inunknown rerouted the water into the city via a 550 metre long tunnel. It JERUSALEM’s fate was determined by the underlying geology. lomamiensis.

Biologists are concerned that they are coulddiscovered help us understand a number of brain disorders in which decision making velvet monkey, has been in a proved to be a good decision, for in 701 BC, Jerusalem was the At the annual Geological Society of America last Themeeting Lesula monkeys inhabit an area under threat, both from loss of habitat appears to Republic be distorted. (TK) remote area of the democratic only city that the Assyrians failed to take.

October, Michael Bramnik from Illinois University explained forest mature everygreen extending over and from commercial bush-meat hunting. of Congo. Known as the Lesula, the Water still remains a major factor in shaping modern history that underground passageways in the karst17,000 limestone enabled square kilometres between the monkeys were found by John and Terese in the region, and Michael Bramnik said that when he went in King David to take the city. Water was drawn from the Lomami andSpring upper Tshuaps rivers.

Illustration, Kimio Honda, Yale Hart from the Lukuru Wildlife Research search of hydrological maps for other towns and settlements of Gihon, which lay just outside the city walls. The David’s soldiers monkeys live on the ground and Photo, Terese Hart station. First spotted as a captive in he was often rebuffed with a claim that such maps do not climbed down into the spring and by tunnelling under the main in the trees and their diet consists of a village in 2007, genetic analysis has exist. walls got access to the city.

Another Bedrock species of history

SCIENCE Issue5541Page Page SCIENCESPIN SPIN Issue 10 4

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 35

Perfect plants Anthea Lacchia writes that ancient plants have left us their impressions

Top left, Carboniferous plant, Palaeopteris hibernica, Co Kilkenny.

Top, fossil leaf from Carboniferous, Co Kilkenny.

Above, fossil plant from Castlecomer coal, Co Carlow.

From GSI collection.

Photographs TK, Source Archives.

W

Left, Cooksonia, early Silurian, Co Tipperary.

Courtesy Patrick N. Wyse Jackson, TCD

hen asked to think of a fossil, our minds are often drawn to massive bones of dinosaurs being excavated from Mongolian desert sands.

Plants are usually not the chosen fossil for magazine illustrations or book covers. However, they represent an entire kingdom of life forms and their fossils have a lot to teach us about past environments. The earliest plants were marine algae, which do not become easily fossilized but nevertheless have a long fossil record going way back to the Precambrian. By the Ordovician, plants began their colonisation of land, but it wasn’t until the Silurian that one of the most important evolutionary steps in plant evolution took place: the appearance of vascular tissues. A system of vessels capable of transporting water and nutrients would have been extremely important in a terrestrial environment, as well as other adaptations, such as a protective skin to prevent water loss and the presence of stems rigid enough to support themselves without being surrounded by water. Cooksonia, an early Silurian land plant with a vascular system, is known from Moneygall, Co. Tipperary.

A major expansion of plant groups such as horsetails, club mosses, ferns and conifers took place from the Devonian to the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) and Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous).

The Pennsylvanian swamp forests were dominated by horsetails such as Calamites and Annularia, by ferns and by the 30-40m tall clubmoss Lepidodendron. Fossil plants in Ireland are mostly known from the Carboniferous, which actually gets its name from the plants found in the rocks of its age, found as coal. The seed-bearing plants,

gymnosperms, developed during the Mesozoic and include conifers, cycads, ginkgos and glossopterids.

The flowering plants (angiosperms) we are familiar with today evolved and diversified in the early Cretaceous. And flowers, although rare, can become fossils too.

One of the main difficulties faced by those who study fossil plants (palaeobotanists) is the fragmentary nature of plant fossils, with stems, roots and leaves often found separated. It is often tricky to relate these scattered plant organs to a single plant species.

Plant fossils can be preserved in several different ways: they can be 3-dimensional or 2-dimensional, they can contain organic matter or be devoid of it and they can be preserved as mineralised plant tissues.

The study of assemblages of spores and pollen (palynomorph assemblages) is of great interest to geologists who are interested in correlating rock layers in different locations based on their fossil content (biostratigraphy). Palynomorphs and fossil plants are also used in palaeogeography, the study of geographical features in the past history of the Earth. Sometimes a tropical flora is found preserved in a region that is now arid and this provides information on past climates. For instance, fossil plants can be used to trace the many shifts of climate that happened between 65 and 2 million years ago.

Certainly there is still much to learn about plant evolution, but this is part of what makes the study of fossil plants so much fun.

To find out more‌ Introducing Palaeontology: A Guide to Ancient Life by Patrick N. Wyse Jackson.

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 36

Top left, Carboniferous, Co Kilkenny, Palaeopteris hibernica Top right, Alethopteris loachitica, Carboniferous, Co Tipperary.

From GSI collection.

Photo: TK Source Archive.

Right, Maple leaf.

Courtesy Patrick N. Wyse Jackson, TCD Centre: A remarkably well preserved cross-section of a Devonian stem from the Rhinie chert, Scotland.

Below: Miospore, Mississippian, Scotland.

Courtesy Patrick N. Wyse Jackson, TCD Bottom right, Lepidodendron, Ohio, USA, photo by Mark Wilson

Dr. How's

Science Wows! ...exploring Pressure!

What is Pressure?

Lets learn more!

Air molecules are pushing against our bodies all the time but we are so used to it that we are not aware of the feeling.

The air pressure we are used to at sea level is about 15 pounds per square inch (15 p.s.i).

Water Pressure

Testing Water Pressure!

When the atmosphere is pressing down with a lot of pressure we call it High Pressure, when it is pressing down with less force we call it Low Pressure.

Did you know...

Air pressure is higher at sea As there is no air level and becomes lower as we go higher up in the atmosphere. in outer space astronauts have to wear pressurised space suits which create So why do our the same force on their bodies not get squashed bodies as the air by all the air molecules pressure on pushing against us? earth!

The reason is that we have air in our bodies too and this air pushed outwards with the same force as the air pushing in on us!

Air Pressure Experiments you can try

When the weather forcast predicts a high pressure system it means we will get a mass of cool dry air that should bring fairer weather and lighter winds.

A low pressure system means warm, moist air with stronger winds and Weather more stormy weather. forcasters usually measure air pressure with a When we watch Barometer!

The areas the weather forcast the areas of high of low pressure systems are pressure systems marked with are marked with a an L H

Experiments you can try

Junior science by Dr. Naomi Lavelle

Pressure is force applied over a certain area!

Air Pessure is the force pushing on us by tiny Water Pessure particles in the is the force air (air exerted by water molecules) on it‛s surroundings

Pressure is very important in determining the weather!

You will need.. an empty plastic bottle (1 or 2 Litre), a balloon, a needle or tumb tac

Testing Air Pressure!

Carefully make a number of holes (about six) up the side of the plastic bottle - using the tumb You will need... tac (or ask an adult to help). an empty plastic Make the holes one above the other, leaving bottle (1 or 2 Litre) about an inch between each hole. a tumb tac, Now cover the holes with one strip of tape. cellotape or Fill the bottle to the top with water. duct tape Sit the bottle beside the sink with the taped side facing in to the sink.

Remove the tape and look at the streams of water that escape from each hole!

So what is happening?

Did you know... the reason our ears pop when we are in an aeroplane is because the air in our bodies is adjusting to the change in air pressure from high to low as the aeroplane rises

Put the balloon inside the empty bottle and fold the neck of the balloon over the neck of the bottle.

Note: Now try blowing into the balloon to You can turn this into a inflate it inside the bottle... what fun trick using two bottles happens?

Now make a hole in the side of the bottle -one with a hole in the side an one without. Hand the with the thumb tac (or ask an adult). one without the hole to Try blowing up the balloon again - what someone to try while happens this time?

So what is happening? you use the other bottle!

Even though we cannot see air it has a weight and takes up space!

When you blow in the balloon the Blow up the balloon inside the bottle again but this first time the pressure of air on time cover the hole with tape once the balloon is the balloon from inside the bottle inflated! stops you from blowing up the Now bring the bottle outside and pour water into the balloon. When you make a hole balloon using a jug, until it is full. in the bottle the air can When you are ready, remove the tape from the hole now escape, allowing in the bottle and watch as your water fountain erupts! air into the balloon!

Or turn it into a water fountain!

Water pressure increases the deeper we go so the force of pressure near the water at the top hole is less than the pressure on the water below it. This means that the water coming out each hole travels further than the one above as it is under more pressure!

It is air pressure and the difference between high and low pressure that allows aeroplanes and birds to fly!

The wings of both birds and planes are shaped in such a way as to make the air travelling over the top of the wing move faster - this creates low pressure at the top of the wing and high pressure below the wing. The high pressure pushing up on the wing is stronger than the low pressure pushing down on it so the wing is held up in the air!

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

BT YOUNG SCIENTIST AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION

Gas boost for fuel Three students from Boyne Community College found that the hydrogen and oxygen from water could make cars go further on the same amount of fuel.

Adam Grant, Leanna Conlon and Aaron Kenny from Boyne Community College with their fuel boosting unit at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

A

s everyone knows, motorists and transport companies are having a hard time paying for fuel, so any increase in engine efficiency would be more than welcome. Not much, apparently, can be done about high taxes, but three students from Boyne Community College, Adam Grant, Leanna Conlon, and Aaron Kenny, were at the BT Young Scientist and

Using electrical power to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.

Technology exhibition 2012 to show that adding a mix of hydrogen and oxygen could give fuel a cost-saving boost.

Although tanking up with petrol or diesel is now the norm, some of the very first internal combustion engines ran on different fuels. The De Rivaz engine of 1806 ran on a hydrogen-oxygen mix.

Henry Ford originally wanted his cars running on ethanol produced from farm crops, and engineers are now looking at hydrogen as the fuel of the future.

The students became interested in the alternatives after watching a television programme about cars running on hydrogen. This got them thinking about the possibilities and it struck them that one of the experiments they had done in first year seemed to offer an opportunity to enhance existing fuels.

In first year they had seen how the hydrogen and oxygen of water can be separated in a Hoffman voltameter. As an electrical charge passes through, water bubbles of hydrogen form on the cathode and oxygen on the anode.

The students decided to design a modified version of the voltameter so that it could be linked up to a

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 39

conventional internal combustion engine.

As they explained, the idea was to make use of both gases, hydrogen and oxygen, and these would be fed into the air intake of the engine.

The first step in their project was to make a suitable gas-generating unit.

Based on the Hoffman design, they made up the unit using high-grade steel for the anode and cathode. This called for some fabrication skills, but overall, they said, the costs were not that high. Of the €50 they had to spend, the most expensive components were those made of stainless steel. Not all of this could be done in school, but it helped that the three could bring complementary mechanical and scientific skills to bear on setting up the project.

Having made up the unit, the students then used a hose to connect it to the air intake, and power to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen came from the car battery.

“We only added very little amounts,” said Adam, who noted that the effects increased as the engine warmed up.

The four cylinder car engine was mounted on blocks to carry out a test, and as Adam explained, this approach eliminated a lot of variables. “We ran it on half a litre of fuel and got (the equivalent of) 5.2km without the system.

With the cell, we got 7.2 km on the same amount of fuel.” One of the big problems in splitting water is that it takes a lot of energy to break the hydrogen-oxygen bonds, but the results of this test suggest that the gain in fuel efficiency makes up for this.

Given that kind of boost, the students expressed surprise that this kind of device is not in widespread use. As far as they could determine, the system seemed to work well, and as Adam remarked, if hydrogen is seen as the fuel of the future, their approach to on-board generation could be a step in the right direction.

Fuel alone

Fuel with O2 and H2

In their bench test the students found that injecting the hydrogen-oxygen mix boosted fuel performance.

Report Tom Kennedy

2013 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition January 9th to 12th at the RDS

Luke Finnegan from Scoil Mhuire, Clane, Co Kildare showing how numbers are up for the 2013 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Colm O’Neill, CEO of BT Ireland, Eimear O’Connell and Sinead McIntyre from Scoil Mhuire, Clane, Co Kildare, watch on from below.

Entries to the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition have continued to climb making 2013 a record breaking year. 1,879 projects have been submitted from schools in 32 counties. One notable trend has been the rise in projects with commercial potential. Compared to 2012 the technology category has increased by 24 per cent.

The break down by category is — 504 in biological and ecological science, 308 in chemical, physical and mathematical science, 697 in social and behavioural sciences, and 370 in technology.

Many of the entries are group projects, and in all 4,189 students are involved.

The exhibition, among the most successful of its kind in the world, is now in its 49th year For more information on the exhibition visit

www.btyoungscientist.com

or connect on http://www.facebook.com/BTYSTE or http://twitter.com/btyste.

Alternatively, you can call 1800 924 362 (ROI) or 0800 917 1297 (from NI).

Don’t forget to call into the Science Spin stand at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

SCIENCE SPIN Issue 56 Page 40

Peadar McArdle guides us around Ireland’s diversified geology.

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

Gold Frenzy

The story of Wicklow’s gold Peadar McArdle

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

FOR YOUR DIARY Peadar McArdle talks about the Wicklow Gold Rush at the RDS. April 3rd at 6pm All are welcome but booking required from librarydesk@rds.ie

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

Albertine Kennedy Publishing ISBN 0 906002 08 7

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Research Group Systems (ACORN) 051 302090 undertakes multidisciplinary work jlawlor@wit.ie on sustainable energy manag www.wit.ie/amt ement in the industrial, comm ercial and utility sectors. The key Alimentary Glyco themes includ e renewable energ 51 Research Clust science y sustainable manu technologies, er, AGRC A grouping of research intere smart grids and facturing, sts environmental established in 2009 management.

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Applied Physics Research Group

A multi-faceted research group whose activities range from conducting oxide surface science investigations, spin electronics, the fabrication and characterisation nanowire arrays of .

Prof Igot Shvets School of Physic s, Dublin, Dublin Trinity College 2.

Aquaculture and Fisheries Development Centre, AFDC

A centre for aquac research. Resea ulture and fisheries rch fish biology, shellfi includes work on sh health, marin mammals and fishing practices. e Director Dr Sarah Cooperage BuildinCulloty North Mall, Cork. g, Distillery Fields, 021 4904646 s.culloty@ucc.ie

Research centre working in partnership with Seagate Techn ology on computer hard improved sensor drives, new and s advanced coatin and a host of Advanced Auto gs.

ArcLabs lokesh.joshi@nuigal School of Mathe way.ie Electronic Cont motive matics Established by and Physic www.agrc.ie Queen’s Unive WIT rol Group, rsity Belfast Belfas s provide a one-st and TSSG to AAECG BT7 t op shop for ICT 1NN to enable them The Group 68 firms Alimentary Phar 028 90073572 to ms research, education consultancyperfor mabiotic There are conne locate in the SE. and training in Centre, APC r.m.bowman@qub ctions now to over software rting science 18 companies .ac.uk and electronic po sup Resea in the region. system in rch on gastrointesti s applicable Manager Tom to automotive nal health s involved and the role of Corcoran ion applications.

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The organisations, the research groups, innovation centres and services for the Irish science community.

Over 800 contacts with brief descriptions.

Published to coincide with City of Science 2012.

Softback A4 €10 post free from www.sciencespin.com

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

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

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