Culture Night - Science in the City

The public will get a chance to handle some ancient fossils, meet slithering reptiles and view some amazing carnivorous plants when the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at UCC throws open its doors for Culture Night 2013 on September 20th.

This is the first year that BEES has participated in Culture Night and visitors will get a chance to see some unique animal specimens collected by Charles Darwin himself during his famous voyage aboard the Beagle. The School of BEES is one of just a tiny number of institutions worldwide that houses Darwin specimens.

BEES Culture Night organiser Tara Duggan says there will be lots to see during the family-friendly event: "Starting at the historic Cooperage building, once part of the Jameson Distillery, visitors can tour our geology garden, wind turbine, fish ponds, greenhouses and laboratories. They can also try their hand at some experiments and step back in time while browsing the exhibits of our natural history museum and dinosaur fossils".

Throughout Culture Night BEES staff and students will be giving rapid-fire talks and showing short films about our environment and the world-leading research going on at BEES.

Culture Night 2013 takes place on Friday September 20th. BEES will be open for visitors to drop in from 5pm-8.30pm, with guided tours taking place at regular intervals. info

For full details on Culture Night in Cork, see the Culture Night Cork website.

Image: Tomas Tyner/School of BEES, UCC

Irish deep sea research on National Geographic Channel

Image: VENTuRE Expedition

Irish research will take centre stage this weekend when UCC and NUIG research that has led to discoveries in the mid-Atlantic Ridge, which will feature in a National Geographic programme to be broadcast this Sunday, 28 October.

National Geographic has produced a five part series, The Alien Deep, which takes viewers into underwater worlds where no human has gone before.

The series takes viewers into an underwater world 3,000m deep, where, on the slopes of the Mid-Ocean ridges that divide the earth’s tectonic plates, chimney-like formations spew black plumes of superheated water, packed with chemicals, minerals and dissolved gases allowing life to thrive against the odds.

The scientific team leader was Dr Andy Wheeler, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork who worked with scientists from the National University of Ireland Galway, Geological Survey of Ireland, the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre in the UK. “It's great to see Ireland's expertise recognised on TV”, says Dr Wheeler.  “Discovering a new volcanic landscape three kilometres below was a thrill.”

The scientists were on board the Irish National Research Vessel, Celtic Explorer and used the Remotely Operated Vehicle Holland 1 - named for the Irish submarine pioneer John Philip Holland- for their explorations of the deep and was supported by the Marine Institute under the 2011 Ship-Time Programme of the National Development Plan. 

The team named the previously uncharted field of hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the first to be explored north of the Azores, the Moytirra Vent Field.  Moytirra is the name of a battlefield in Irish mythology, and appropriately means ‘Plain of the Pillars’. Patrick Collins from the Ryan Institute, NUI Galway led Ireland’s marine biological team on the survey.

The programme featuring Irish scientists will be broadcast this Sunday 28th October at 6pm on the National Geographic channel on Sky (channel 526) and also UPC (channel 215). The programme presenter is explorer Dr Robert Ballard who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985.

Edwin Butler Honoured

I've written before about Edwin Butler - the man who was born in Kilkee Co. Clare and went on to become known as the greatest plant pathologists and mycologists of his generation.

Now, Butler has been honoured in his native Kilkee with the unveiling of a plaque at Kilkee Library last month.

Born in Kilkee in 1874, Butler went on to study medicine at Queen's College Cork (now UCC) but never practiced. Developing an interest in fungi and plant pathology, he was eventually to become known as the "Father of Indian Plant Pathology" and the founding director of the Imperial Bureau of Mycology at Kew, London.

Butler's book 'Plant Pathology' was to become the international standard for teaching the subject. Butler was a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and he was knighted in 1939.

Tuesday's event was attended by Prof. Peter Jones, Acting Head of Plant Science at University College Cork who gave a brief outline of Butler's connection to Cork.

His Excellency, the Indian Ambassador to Ireland Mr. Debasish Chakravarti was also in attendance to mark Butler's contribution to science in India. The Mayor of Co. Clare, Pat Hayes unveiled a plaque in Butler's honour at the newly renovated Kilkee Library.

Another in series of fitting tributes to one of Ireland's neglected scientific heroes.

Irish scientists unravel the mystery of the 'pink swans'

In a paper to be published in the international journal Wildfowl UCC researchers, describe for the first time, the cause of pink coloration in Mute swans which has been observed in many parts of Ireland, Britain and North America. 

‘Symmetrical salmon-pink colour was first evident on the wing feather tips and then spread to the entire wing as the year progressed, darkened as winter approached, and sometimes developed to a brown colour’ according to Professor John O’Halloran the study director and Head of the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES) at the University.

Unfortunately, ‘the affected feathers tended to become brittle, fragmented and lose their ability to repel water and the plumage could no longer function and some birds died from hypothermia’. Surveys made at nine sites in Britain and Ireland found between 12–85% of swans with pink coloration.  The highest prevalence occurred amongst flocks dependent on artificial food in eutrophic water bodies.

Feather samples (white and pink), bill swabs and swabs of preen gland oil collected from swans, and also pink fungus isolated from bread samples, were cultured and subjected to analysis, to identify organisms and pigments. Salmon-pink Chrysonilia sitophila fungus colonies developed on agars inoculated with samples from pink swans and from the bread sample, but were absent from control swans.

The pigments in pink feathers were generally consistent with those found in C. sitophila, indicating that C. sitophila is the most likely agent responsible for the pink colour on swan plumage.

‘The evidence from this study suggests that C. sitophila is acquired through exposure to contaminated food via the bill and is preened onto the plumage’ says O'Halloran.

A layer of environmental contaminants and debris that coats the plumage of swans inhabiting eutrophic water bodies may provide a substrate for fungal growth and added to the problems for the swans.

‘The clear message from this study is to feed swans natural foods not stale bread- contaminated with fungi’ according to O’Halloran.

Eircom Spiders 2011

I'm delighted to announce to that the Communicate Science blog has been shortlisted for an Eircom Spider 'Big Mouth' award for the second year running.

The 'Big Mouth' category will be decided by a public vote - details soon.

The full shortlist includes our friends at the Cork Independent and the wonderful Science Calling blog by Maria Daly.

Also, congratulations to the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES) at UCC who's website has been nominated in the 'Education' Category.

It's great to see so many great science websites being recognised in these important awards.

The award ceremony will take place on 10th November in the Convention Centre, Dublin. The ceremony will be hosted by comedian and science enthusiast Dara Ó'Briain.

Father of Seismology Celebrated

Irish Scientist Robert Mallet is regarded by many as the 'Father of Seismology' (the study of earthquakes), but despite this he is one Ireland's many unsung scientific heroes.

Now, an exhibition at University College Cork will serve to celebrate the work of this great nineteenth century Irish scientist.


The exhibition, entitled Robert Mallet: Irish Engineer and Scientist, A Commemorative Exhibition will be open at UCC's Boole Library today and run until the 24th of October. The exhibition was curated by the RDS and comes to Cork thanks to the  College of Science, Engineering and Food Science and the School of Biological , Earth and Environmental Sciences at UCC. The exhibition is generously supported by the Heritage Council, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and The Irish Times.


Mallet, an engineer, geophysicist and seismologist, was born in Dublin on 3rd June 1810, the son of John Mallet who owned a successful iron foundry business. The business, under Robert Mallet's leadership was to provide the ironwork for the Fastnet Rock lighthouse along with the ornate railings around Trinity College, Dublin.

Mallet was elected to the Royal Irish Academy aged just 22, he was a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now the British Science Association) and the Royal Geological Society of Ireland.

Mallet's 1846 paper, "The Dynamics of Earthquakes" is considered to be one of the foundations of modern seismology and in 1849, Mallet along with his son, John William,  set out to conduct experiments on Killiney Beach, Co. Dublin.

Mallet buried a container of gunpowder under the beach and detonated it, measuring the energy wave that the explosion created. Using a seismoscope, the father and son team were able to detect and measure the detonation a half a mile away, as the energy travelled in a wave through the sand.

Detail from "Great Neapolitan Earthquake"

Mallet also had a major impact on the fledgling science of seismology when he travelled to Italy at the end of 1857 to study the after affects of the "Great Neapolitan Earthquake".

Writing from his home in Glasnevin, Dublin on 28th December, 1857, Mallet wrote to the Royal Society in London, requesting funding for the trip to Italy:

"The very recent occurrence of a great earthquake in the Neapolitan territory presents an opportunity of the highest interest and value for the advancement of this branch of Terrestrial Physics.
"Within the last ten years only Seismology has taken its place in cosmic science - and up to this time no earthquake has has its secondary or resultant phenomena - sought for, observed, and discussed by a competent investigator - by one conversant with the dynamic laws of the hidden forces we are called upon to ascertain by means of the more or less permanent traces they have left, as Phenomena, upon the shaken territory.
"I have long looked for the occurrence of an opportunity so favourable for inquiry as that which has been just presented. It is one so rare, and in so peculiar and suggestive a region, that I venture to urge, through your Lordship, the Royal Society, that it should not be permitted to be lost to Science.
"I respectfully offer, my Lord, if such be the will of the Royal Society, to proceed at once to Naples and the shaken regions, to collect, discuss, and report the facts.
"In the humble but earnest confidence that I can in this do good service to Science, I submit to the Royal Society whether it see fit to make such a grant, and to entrust the work to me; if so, I should be prepared to set out by the middle of next month."

The scientist used the new invention of photography to record some of his results and the resultant publication: "Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857: The First Principles of Observational Seismology' is considered a seminal work.

By 1861, Mallet had moved to live in London, where he died in 1881.

Irish Scientists Search for New Species in the mid-Atlantic

A group of Irish scientists will today lead a mission to the mid-Atlantic in search of strange new species at the bottom of the ocean.

The VENTURE mission is led by Dr. Andy Wheeler from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at UCC and includes a host of scientists from that institution, along with colleagues from NUIGalway, the Marine Institute and the UK's National Oceanography Centre.

The scientists leave Galway this morning aboard the Marine Institute's research vessel, the RV Celtic Explorer. The mission is being filmed by the National Geographic Channel.

The mission will investigate life 3,000 metres below the surface of the sea and seek out hydrothermal vents using the ship's Remotely Operated Vehicle, the Holland 1.

The Holland 1 is named for the Irish scientist and inventor John Philip Holland who invented the first modern submarines. I've written extensively about Holland on this blog already.

Patrick Collins of NUI Galway says this mission will allow him to find some new marine species: "We hope to find a whole community of previously unknown species, increasing our understanding of deep sea biogeography. There is potential here to put Ireland on the global map as a serious player in deep sea science. This is all the more timely with the exploitation of deep sea and hydrothermal vents for precious metals and rare earth minerals now a reality.”

You can find more information on the VENTURE mission here.
For a Q&A on the mission, see here.
The scientists will be maintaining a blog of their activities during the trip here.
Aaron Lim, a 4th year Earth Science student from UCC is also blogging from the mission here.

Lough Hyne - 'A Natural Laboratory'

Europe's first Marine Nature Reserve and one of the world's most studied marine sites, Lough Hyne, celebrates its 30th birthday this year amidst a flurry of activity.

Communicate Science correspondents were in Skibbereen, Co. Cork last night to attend a talk by Terri Kearney of the Skibbereen Heritage Centre about Lough Hyne: The Marine Researchers – in pictures. 

This is the title of a new book by Terri prepared with the assistance of the Gwendoline Harold Barry Trust, Skibbereen Credit Union and the Heritage Council. 

The School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences (BEES) at University College Cork and the Skibbereen heritage Centre are also organising a series of events this week, including a conference on Friday, Lough Hyne at 30, to celebrate the 30 years since Lough Hyne was designated Europe’s first Marine Nature Reserve.

The Lough is a semi-enclosed marine lake, located about 3 miles west of Skibereen in West Cork. It's believed that the Lough was a freshwater lake up to 4000 years ago, when a rise in sea level joined it with the sea. It is now a highly sheltered, seawater basin connected to the North Atlantic by a narrow inlet.

This inlet constricts at one point to form the "Rapids" - 5 metres deep at high tide. It leads to an 'asymmetrical tide' with water flowing in for 4 hours and taking 8.5 hours to go out. This rock pool effect means it is a very unique ecosystem and a popular location for scientific studies. 

The School of BEES, UCC operate three research laboratories on shore of the lough - the Renouf, Kitching and Bohane Labs. 

The Kitching lab is named after Prof. Jack Kitching who carried out marine biology research at the Lough from 1946 to 1986. He built two of the onsite labs. The Bohane lab is named for John Bohane, a Lough Hyne resident who was involved in UCC research at the site for over 60 years and was the first warden when the Lough became a Marine Reserve in 1981.

The Lough is one of the most studied marine biological areas anywhere in the world! Well over 300 scientific papers have been written about the biology and ecology of the lough.

Last night's talk was a lively jaunt through over 120 years of scientific endeavor in this corner of Ireland. From Victorian expeditions to early 20^th century visits aboard the Helga (before it was fitted with guns to play a role in War of Independence and Civil War). 

The triumph of fashion over the logistical nightmares of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, the development of the various laboratories and the people who visited and continue to visit, they were all touched upon during the evening. 

The strongest characters to emerge from the many photos on show were those, such as Louis Renouf (who built the first research station), who spent years, and in many cases decades, of their lives at Lough Hyne, returning year-in, year-out (as many still do) to work there. 

It was noted that, in many cases, scientists who have been returning for 30 years are almost unknown by the wider community – capturing the strange sub-culture that existed, no doubt encouraged by the sense of remoteness, self sufficiency and adventure felt by earlier scientists.

The pictures also showcased Skibbereen, Lough Hyne and Baltimore in bygone days and the local people who helped the scientists along the way. It also captured the almost-military-like way in which the logistics of the expeditions were run.

You can read about Louis Renouf's early work at the Lough, in his own words, here (pdf). 

from Annals of Botany (1932)

Fancy getting to name a new marine species?

Image: (c)Patrick Collins

A team of Irish and UK scientists will shortly embark on a 25-day trip to the depths of the Atlantic ocean as part of a National Geographic-funded study to examine a previously uncharted hydrothermal vent ecosystem.

The work will be filmed by National Geographic and the campaign will be led by Chief Scientist Dr. Andy Wheeler of the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC.

The Marine Institute's research vessel, Celtic Explorer will travel to the mid-Atlantic ridge to examine the unique ecosystem in July. "It is literally, an alien world", according to Andy Wheeler.

UCC scientists Prof. John Gamble, Dr. Jens Carlsson, Prof. John Benzie Prof. Tom Cross, Dr. Boris Dorschel will all contribute to the study, alongside a number of scientists from NUI Galway, National Oceanography Centre (UK) in Southampton, University of Southampton and the Geological Survey of Ireland.

For more background on the Venture project, see this article from the Irish Times.

RV Celtic Explorer

Patrick Collins, a researcher at NUI Galway, also taking part in the project, has organised an exciting competition for secondary school students in Ireland. The prize? To get to put your name on one of the many newly discovered species that the team are likely to find as part of the study.

The competition is open to all secondary school students across Ireland and the UK. To enter, students must use their imaginations and understanding of biology and habitats to design their own deep sea hydrothermal vent creature.

The organisers are looking for carefully thought out illustrations along with a description of the creature’s habitat, diet, life and evolutionary history, and whatever else you think is important. The competition will close on June 15 2011, and the winner will be announced after the Celtic Explorer returns to Ireland in August.

For more details on how to enter see the BEES Research Blog.

Mystery Science - Can you tell what it is yet?

Thanks to everybody who tweeted their guesses as to what the mystery item was. Unfortunately nobody got it right - better luck next time!

In fact, it was not a whole animal but just a 'small' part of one of the largest animals on earth. It was.... an elephant molar tooth. From an Indian elephant to be exact.

The pointy bits towards the top are the 'root' part of the tooth which would have been embedded in the gum of the animal. The specimen is resting on the rough grinding surface of the tooth.

If you compare it to the image of the molars in situ, you can see what it looks like from the underneath. An Indian elephant will produce six sets of molars in it's lifetime, although just one pair will be in use at any one time. Once that pair has been worn down, it is replaced with a new pair which push forward from the back of the mouth.

Mystery Science!

I had the pleasure of attending the University College Cork Spring Open-day yesterday and spending some time on the School of BEES Stand. 

The School of Biological. Earth and Environmental Sciences teaches undergraduate degrees in Zoology, Ecology, Earth Science, Environmental Plant Biotechnology, Environmental Science, and Geology and you can find out more about them here.

The stand contained just a hand full of specimens from the historically and scientifically important Zoology Museum in the School - the museum contains a number of specimens collected by Charles Darwin on his voyages and the School of BEES is one of just a few institutions in the world to possess such specimens.

One item on display is pictured below. Can you tell what it is? Leave your answer as a comment to this post or tweet it to me @blogscience. No prizes on offer I'm afraid - just a bit of fun.

Science in the field

For many years now 3rd year Applied Ecology students at University College Cork have spent a week in the Algarve at this time of year.

It's part of a field course in Practical Field Ecology and is a very popular part of the Applied Ecology course.

The course is organised by the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) at UCC.

In a novel move, the students have been writing a daily blog from Portugal to update us on the progress of the field course.

You can follow the progress on the BEES Research Blog.