Boole's House: Problem hasn't gone away

The Evening Echo reports that after two and a half long years, the repair works to Grenville Place in Cork City are finally complete.

The quay wall was partially demolished here during the flooding of 2009. The roadway is directly adjacent to the former home of George Boole, a building which partially collapsed in October 2010.

Since then there has been pressure on those responsible, including Cork City Council to save the building and protect Cork's cultural, historic and scientific heritage.

Since Cork City Council had earlier stated that it would "subject to the consent of the owner, establish the level of interest in its future use/development, from the range of bodies which have expressed views to the Council on its historic importance" and given that the building now seems to be for sale on the open market, it's time to act.

The rebuilding of the quay wall was suggested as an obstacle to progressing the project. That obstacle has now, finally been cleared.

Given the length of time taken to deal with the quay wall, I won't hold my breath but Cork City Council and those responsible for the building's present condition would do well to hear that it hasn't gone away, you know.

How to Grow a Planet

This week sees the start of what promises to be another great series of science programmes from the BBC with How to Grow a Planet.

The three part series, presented by Prof. Iain Stewart, aims to reveal how the greatest changes to the Earth have been driven, above all, by plants.

Stewart is a geologist and professor of Geoscience Communication at Plymouth University so expect to see the links between ancient plants and geology feature highly in this series.

“I had always thought of plants as being rather boring – less dramatic than the earthquakes and volcanoes I had been studying. But when you realise what plants do at the planet scale, and when you discover just how fundamental they are to life on Earth, they take your breath away", said Stewart.

In the first episode, to be aired on Tuesday 7th February at 9pm on BBC2, Stewart examines how plants first harnessed light energy to create our life-giving atmosphere. He looks at the epic batle between dinosaurs and poisonous plants and promises to use remarkable imagery to show plants 'breathing' and communicating with each other for the first time.

Also in episode one, Stewart will be sealed inside an air-tight chamber at the Eden Project in Cornwall in an attempt to demonstrate the oxygenating properties of the plants sealed in the chamber alongside him.

Stewart added: “I think it was being stuck in a transparent air-tight container for 48 hours with 274 of them that really made me appreciate plants. Locked in there, with half the oxygen removed, I suddenly realised how much I needed plants to keep me alive. It is a hell of a way to highlight something we so take for granted: photosynthesis!”

Here's a sneak preview of episode one:

Lifetime Lab “Chemistry It’s Elementary” Show

Cork primary school pupils will help celebrate 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry with Lifetime Lab as “Chemistry Its Elementary” comes to Cork Institute of Technology on Thursday October 20th and Friday 21^st October.

Over 1200 school children from across the city will  journey from alchemy to chemistry on a whistle stop tour of gases and the states of matter, density, acids and bases, chromatography, crystals, metals, fireworks and much more over.

 

“Chemistry Its Elementary” introduces primary school pupils to the elements, the building blocks of our universe, beginning with Hydrogen and finishing with Calcium. It’s Elementary showcases chemistry through lots of activity and interaction, offering an introduction to the periodic table and the first twenty elements; where they are found and the  quirky things they do. There will be lots of experiments and information about the elements, their properties, their occurrence and their uses with many of the experiments suitable for teachers to recreate in class.

Mervyn Horgan, manager of Lifetime Lab said “We were looking for an event to mark the international year of chemistry and received fantastic support from MSD, CIT and PharmaChemical Ireland when the idea was discussed; through close collaboration and synergy Lifetime Lab is able to bring a marquee science event to a large Cork audience, we also included transport to and from the venue making the event more accessible and attractive for schools to participate”.

“Chemistry – It’s Elementary “will be at Cork Institute of Technology on October 20^th and 21^st with three shows per day 9.30am,11.00am and 12.30pm.Further information is available from Lifetime Lab at 021 4941500 or lifeetimelab@corkcity.ie

Defying Gravity

The labour of rising from the ground, said the artist, will be great, as we see it in the heavier domestic fowls; but, as we mount higher, the earth´s attraction, and the body´s gravity, will be gradually diminished, ´til we shall arrive at a region where the man will float in the air without any tendency to fall: no care will then be necessary, but to move forwards, which the gentlest impulse will effect.
—Samuel Johnson, 1759, The History of Rasselas

Johan Lorbeer in Cork (Image: Irish Independent)

Gravity is the theme for a new exhibition at the Crawford Gallery, Cork which touches on the idea of physics, gravitational forces and even deep space.

The exhibition contains a variety of works from over 50 artists including Dorothy Cross' new work Whale. Cross' is a unique interpretation of gravity, with the skeleton of a whale hung from the fabric of the gallery itself. Located in the Crawford's historic sculpture galleries, it works perfectly with the marbles and plaster-works that surround it.

The exhibition was opened by Minister Jimmy Deenihan on July 15th and runs until 29th October.

The exhibition features a variety of pieces from the collection of the 3rd Earl of Rosse, William Parsons.

William Parson's sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy

Parsons built the 'Leviathan of Parsonstown' on his estate in County Offaly in the 1840s. The largest telescope of the nineteenth century, the Leviathan was considered a marvelous technical and architectural achievement. He used it to catalogue a number of galaxies including the famous 'Whirlpool Galaxy'.

With spectacular off site installations by Cross and Johan Lorbeer, the exhibition is well worth a visit. It's great to see science and art combining once again in the Crawford - a building  financed by WH Crawford, a man who himself was intrigued by both.

Communicating STEM

The fifth annual Communicating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Conference takes place in Cork on Thursday 23rd June.

This years conference theme is 'Success Through Synergy' and the goal will be to encourage participants to create successful partnerships in order to increase scientific literacy and numeracy in Ireland.

Representatives from organisations involved in STEM activities will be in attendance including Discover Science and Engineering, Dublin City of Science, STEPS, The Lifetime Lab and Blackrock Castle Observatory.

Speakers will include David Fahy, project Director for Dublin City of Science; Katherine Jensen of Abbott who will speak on "Corporate Social Responsibility and STEM: The Perfect Partnership"; and Katherine Mathieson, Director of Education for the British Science Association.

If you can't make it to Cork, you may want to follow proceedings on twitter using the #stemconf2011 hashtag.

Communicating STEM 2011

The fifth annual Communicating Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) Conference takes place on 23 June 2011.

The goal of the conference is to provide delegates with the tools required to create and develop partnerships that promote science, engineering, technology and maths. Case studies of successful partnerships between education, science outreach organisations and industry on a European, national and local level will be shared and discussed.

Practical ways for industry to integrate these activities into a corporate social responsibility programme will also be presented.

Speakers will include -

    Lionel Alexander (Chief Executive, Hewlett Packard)
          o Driving innovation: Keeping Ireland competitive
    Katharine Mathieson (Director of Education, British Science Assoc.)
          o Creating and developing successful STEM partnerships
    Katherine M. Jensen (CSR Manager, Abbott Laboratories)
          o CSR and STEM: The perfect partnership
    Michelle Star (Liaison Officer, NCE-MSTL)
          o Partnering with Pedagogy: Working together to support the curriculum
    Bernard Kirk (Director, Galway Education Centre)
          o Pedagogy and Industry - The operational level
    Aoife O'Donoghue (Cork Outreach Community)
          o STEM Partnerships - A Local Focus
    Dave Fahy (Director, Dublin City of Science)
          o Opportunities to put collaboration into practice

The conference takes place at The River Lee Hotel, Western Road, Cork. Early Bird registration (€50) is available up to the 23rd May.

For more details and bookings see here.

Images of Science

The 11th Wellcome Image Awards were announced on 23 February 2011, recognising the creators of the most informative, striking and technically excellent images among recent acquisitions to Wellcome Images, as chosen by a panel of judges.
All of the winners can be seen on the awards website. A few of my favourites are presented below.

Cavefish Embryo
Confocal micrograph of a cavefish embryo at around five-days-post-fertilization, viewed from the side (lateral view). The embryo has been stained with an antibody that targets a calcium binding protein (calretinin) shown in green, which highlights different neuronal types and their processes in the nervous system. This staining also reveals taste buds, that in the cavefish are located around the mouth and extend along the body.

The eyes are still present at this stage of development but they will degenerate naturally during the lifetime of the fish as they live in a dark environment where eyes are redundant. Thus, adult cavefish are blind.

Ruby tailed wasp
Photomicrograph of the ruby-tailed wasp. Chrysis ignita is the most commonly observed (of several) species of the ruby-tailed wasp. It is easily recognised by the vibrant iridescent colours on its body. The head and thorax is a metallic green / blue, while the abdomen is a ruby red / bronze colour, which gives it its name. The underside of the abdomen is also concave, which allows the wasp to roll itself into a protective ball if threatened.

Ruby tailed wasps are 'parasitoids' meaning that they eventually kill their hosts. Chrysis ignita parasitizes Mason Bees - the females lay their eggs in the same nest as mason bees, so, when the ruby-tailed wasp larvae hatch, they feed on the mason bee larvae. Ruby tailed wasps do have a sting but it is not functional and most species have no venom.

Cell division and gene expression in plant cells
Fluorescent micrograph showing cell division in an Arabidopsis seedling used to study in vivo gene expression and cell growth analysis, cell by cell from living tissue

Using this technique fluorescent proteins are targeted to the nucleus, so plants can be imaged as they grow, this also allows for simultaneous and automated quantification of gene activity and cell growth in a cell-by-cell basis. As the plant is alive different time points can be captured to track changes in cell size and gene activity in each cell. Information regarding cell growth and gene activity can be extracted from living tissue at different stages.

The red fluorescence is always expressed (acts as a reference), other promoters of interest are fused to different fluorescent proteins and co localized to the nucleus. In this case the green fluorescent protein (GFP) is regulated by a gene of interest (and is therefore only expressed when that gene is active and is therefore variable among cells). A third fluorescent protein is attached to plasma membrane to visualise the segmentation of cells as they grow.

Small red cells that don't have the gene active and do not express GFP are precursors of stomata. Cells that are yellow have both the red and green expressed.

Ergot fungus infection in wheat
Fluorescent micrograph showing wheat stigmas infected with the ergot fugus (Claviceps), which causes ergotism in humans.

David Bellamy - Happy Birthday

Today is the birthday of British botanist, broadcaster and author David Bellamy who was born in 1933. Although he has some controversial views on the environment and global warming, as a science broadcaster he was ahead of his time.

Great News for Science Blogging

Congratulations to Frog Bloggers Jeremy Stone and Humphrey Jones for taking home the 'Big Mouth' award from the Eircom Spiders which were held in Dublin's Burlington Hotel last Thursday night.

The fact that two science blogs were nominated in this category and that the Frog Blog took the prize home is great news for Irish science blogging which is going from strength to strength at the moment.

My Secret Life

I'm delighted to announce that I've joined the team  of guest bloggers who will be making regular contributions to the second series of the highly successful 'Secret Life of Scientists'.

Secret Life is part of the long-running and highly successful NOVA series which has run on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States since 1974. Nova has picked up multiple Peabody and Emmy Awards for its work in bringing science to a broad audience in new and exciting ways. It is America's longest-running and most esteemed science programme.

Secret Life presents scientists, not only as brilliant researchers, but also as real human beings with a variety of outside interests. For example, the first series featured an astrophysicist who sailed around the world, a biochemist who participated in the Miss America pageant and an ethnobotanist who dances salsa in the Bronx.

The second series kicks off here with  an interview with Mollie Woodworth, a cheerleader who also happens to be a neuroscientist.