The Mountain - Applications open

RTÉ Young Peoples is looking for applications for the second series of its science adventure show The Mountain. 

You can watch episodes of The Mountain here.

The Mountain is looking for teams of three children aged 11 or 12 on April 30th 2011. Participating teams will be required for one day and the series will be filmed on location in Carlingford, Co Louth, in May.

The Application Form and Terms & Conditions can be downloaded from the website. The closing date is Monday April 11th 2011.

For more information contact The Mountain at themountain@rte.ie or at 01 208 3186.

Exploring Irish Marine Life

The wonders of Irish marine life will be investigated at Cork's Lifetime Lab with the launch of a fortnight of school workshops in collaboration with the “Explorers” Primary Marine Outreach and Education Programme.

The "Explorers" Education Programme brings the excitement of the sea into the classroom and has already been successfully rolled out to some 40 primary schools in the West of Ireland from Mayo to Clare, and in six schools in the greater Dublin area. The Cork project is a collaborative effort between the Marine Institute, Forfas Discover Primary Science, University College Cork and Lifetime Lab.  

The Explorers Education programme aims to integrate marine themes as closely as possible with lessons already taught in national schools through the Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE) curriculum and other cross curricular subjects and hopes to reach 500 primary school pupils in Cork. 

Workshops will run from March 28^th to April 8^th ,are available to primary schools free of charge, and  may be booked by contacting Lifetime Lab at 021 4941500 or lifetimelab@corkcity.ie

Mervyn Horgan Manager of Lifetime Lab said “We are delighted to be involved in the pilot series of workshops, we are always looking for new and innovative ways of engaging in science education and raising the awareness of marine science in Cork classrooms can only bring long term benefits”   He further added “We perceive Lifetime Lab as an extra classroom for every school in the city and county, a science nursery for institutions whose high level graduates ensure that Cork has a well educated and highly skilled workforce long into the future”.   

“The Explorers Programme focuses on Ireland’s two greatest natural resources – our vast undersea territory and our young people,” said Dr. Peter Heffernan, CEO of the Marine Institute. “If Ireland is to develop a thriving marine sector in tomorrow’s world, then it will be the young people of today who will make it happen.” 

Pupils will engage in activities based around animals and plants that live in Irish waters, the power of the sea, the real map of Ireland and will also make their own submarine and periscopes.Classes participating in Discover Primary Science can use an explorers workshop visit to fulfill Step 2 of the steps required to achieve a DPS Award of Science and Math’s Excellence.

Science Live!

The RDS have launched the call for their Science Live Demonstration Lecture Bursaries.

The RDS Science Live Demonstration Lecture series involves funding science communicators to develop high quality workshops that are aimed at those in primary and secondary school.

The aim is to take science out of the classroom and focus on the interactive, practical elements of a topic in order that the students gain as much from the experience as possible.

Recipients of the RDS Science Live bursaries are required to conduct the demonstration lecture as part of the RDS Science Live Demonstration Lecture series held at the RDS every October and November.


For more details on how to apply, visit the RDS website.

Robert Bunsen - 200 years of science

 "As an investigator he was great, as a teacher he was greater, as a man and friend he was greatest."

- so said Sir Henry Roscoe about his colleague Robert Bunsen, the 200th anniversary of whose birthday we celebrate this Thursday 31st March.

Bunsen was one of the most influential chemistry teachers of his time - some of his students included the noted Irish scientist John Tyndall and Dmitri Mendeleev, the creator of the Periodic Table.

Bunsen was born in Germany in 1811 and is probably best remembered for inventing (or at least refining the design of) the Bunsen Burner. His father was a professor of modern languages at Gottingen and he received his doctorate from that university at the age of 19.

Bunsen-Kirchoff spectroscope

As well as being a noted chemist, Bunsen had a lifelong interest in geology and took a trip to Iceland, sponsored by the Danish government to study the eruption of Mount Hekla in 1845.

The chemist collected gases from the erupting volcano and analysed the volcanic rock. He also investigated the theory of geyser action and showed that the water from geysers was not volcanic in origin and that the boiling of water below the surface caused the water above to move upwards:

"To confirm his theory, Bunsen made an artificial geyser, consisting of a basin of water having a long tube extending below it. He heated the tube at the bottom and at about the middlepoint. As the water at the middle reached its boiling point, all of the phenomena of geyser action were beautifully shown, including the preliminary thundering. That was in 1846. From that day to this Bunsen's theory of geyser action has been generally accepted by geologists." (Darrow, 1923)

Bunsen's statue in Heidelberg faces the building where he and Kirchoff worked.

Kirchoff (left) and Bunsen (right)

He also discovered the elements cesium and rubidium with his colleague Gustav Kirchhoff.

Announcing their discovery of cesium (Latin caesium, "sky blue"), the scientists wrote:

"Supported by unambiguous results of the spectral-analytical method, we believe we can state right now that there is a fourth metal in the alkali group besides potassium, sodium, and lithium, and it has a simple characteristic spectrum like lithium; a metal that shows only two lines in our apparatus: a faint blue one, almost coinciding with Sr, and another blue one a little further to the violet end of the spectrum and as strong and as clearly defined as the lithium line."

The apparatus referred to here is the Bunsen-Kirchoff spectroscope, developed around 1865, which had its origins  in a "prism, a cigar box and two ends of otherwise unusable old telescopes". The pair discovered rubidium (Latin rubidus, "darkest red") a few after cesium using the same apparatus.

Bunsen never married and devoted much of his time to his work in the laboratory and his teaching. he received many honours for his work but once remarked: "Such things had value for me only because they pleased my mother; she is now dead." He died in 1899 after a ten-year retirement which he spent indulging his first love of geology.

Google are celebrating Bunsen's 200th birthday with a specially comissioned logo on their homepage:

Ireland's Biodiversity Recorded

The National Biodiversity Data Centre has just published a document outlining the state of knowledge of Ireland's biodiversity in 2010.

This impressive report outlines the breathe of knowledge about Ireland's flora and fauna, while at the same time, highlighting where gaps in this knowledge occur.

The importance of such work cannot be over emphasised, given that services provided by Ireland's biodiversity are estimated to contribute at least €2.6 billion per year to the Irish economy. This figure is arrived at, given the importance of biodiversity in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism industries, as well as the significant contributions towards clean air, water and productive, healthy soils.

Figure 1 (Click on the image to see a larger version; NBDC)

As the report authors point out: "as the Irish economy seeks ways to revitalise itself, gaining a greater understanding of Ireland's biodiversity and protecting Ireland's natural capital should be one of the building blocks of that recovery".

Ireland has 11,422 species of insect; 8000 non-insect invertebrates; 5500 species of fungi and 2328 different species of plant (see figure 1).

Figure 2 (Click on the image to see a larger version; NBDC)

Despite this high level of knowledge about Ireland's rich biodiversity, the NBDC estimate that about 25% of the country's species are yet to be recorded. Significantly, they estimate that up to 5,000 more species of Irish algae need to be recorded.

The report also indicates the threat of extinction of Irish species, with 23% of known species currently threatened, according to IUCN red list data (see figure 2).

You can read the report in full here.

I'm a Scientist and I'm out of here!

As I'm a Scientist, draws to a close for now, I'm sorry to report that this scientist has been evicted before the final on Friday next.

Over 2200 students across the UK have been voting in 6 different zones on the fate of 30 scientists and the democratic will of the students has been implemented in all its devastating abruptness!

I've really enjoyed my time on IAS. The camaraderie of the inmates/scientists, the joviality of the eager students, the bizarre, weird and almost universally thought-provoking questions have all been a contributing factor in this enjoyment.

I've taken part in about 11 live chats with individual schools and in many ways, these have been the best parts of the whole experience. Though challenging and frustrating in parts, the live chats provide for the sort of student-scientist interaction which is at the heart of the IAS project.

From an Irish point of view, it would be great to see more Irish schools and scientists taking part. Gallomar, who organise the project, and the Wellcome Trust, who provide much of the funding are open to Irish involvement - they have had Northern Irish schools take part previously and there is currently a school from Singapore taking part.

Australia now has its own IAS event and it would be nice to see an Irish event taking place. Perhaps Dublin 2012 might be an opportunity for developing such a project?

In the meantime, teachers and scientists who wish to sign up for the next IAS event (in June) can sign up to take part by going to www.imascientist.org.uk

I'm a Scientist: The story so far

Day Seven in the Big Brother house....So, things are going well over on I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here. We've all been receiving large volumes of questions to our inbox over the past seven days. Some of these are more scientific in nature than others.

For example, I've had "How are diamonds formed?" and "Is there other life in the universe?"; both very valid questions, but I'm stretching it a bit as a plant scientist trying to come up with a half decent answer. On the other hand, I've also been asked "What makes types of flowers different?" and "is it true that with some plants, the colour of their petals depends on the ph of the soil? and if so why?", which are right up my street!

Broadly speaking, the type of questions seem to be falling into a number of categories:

• Questions about my research area (plants, soils, etc.)
• Questions about life as a scientist: Are you married to a scientist? Do you have any social life, etc.
• Questions about the sun/earth/universe ending (we all blame Prof. Brian Cox for these questions).
• Questions about fantastic biological fights/races: Who will win in a fight -  a 30ft Grizzly or a Giant Squid?
• Questions about our preferences for xbox, playstation, Call of Duty, etc.
• General questions about all kinds of science topics.

In reality , there are lots more interesting and well thought out questions than strange ones - as we tell the kids: there is no such thing as a silly question; and I imagine the moderators do a very good job of weeding out some of the more obvious ones!

We've also been doing daily live chats with some of the classes taking part in I'm a Scientist. These feature many of the same types of questions, but it is fast-paced and edge-of-the seat-stuff as you get quizzed on a range of topics almost simultaneously by a classroom full of eager students. These chats are actually great fun, but you do feel a little 'shaken' afterwards!

All in all, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time as a member of the team. This coming week is when things get a little more interesting, with daily evictions voted for by the students. I'm happy to stay for as long as I can - but that's up to the students - the power is in their hands.