Darwin Opera for Cork

Science and music fans are in for a treat this year in Cork when an 'electro-opera' based on the work of Charles Darwin plays in the Cork Opera House.

Tomorrow, in a year is produced by Hotel Pro Forma from Denmark and is based on ground-breaking music from The Knife, a Swedish music group.

"An opera singer, a pop singer and an actor perform The Knife’s music and represent Darwin, time and nature on stage. Six dancers form the raw material of life. Together with the newest technology in light and sound, our image of the world as a place of incredible variation, similarity and unity is re-discovered", according to the show's website.

"The opera presents an image of Darwin that above all reminds us that the world is a place of remarkable similarities and amazing diversity. That over time - tomorrow, in a year, or tomorrow, in a million years - change is inevitable."

The music for the opera written after extensicve research of Darwin's letters, articles and books, with one of the members of The Knife attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.

The Guardian described the opera as an event "that baffles and beguiles in equal measure".

Tomorrow, in a year plays at Cork Opera House on the 24th and 25th of June 2011 as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival.


An excerpt from Tomorrow, in a year:

Well done SciFest

Well done to everyone who took part in SciFest at Cork Institute of Technology last Friday. 

There were over 220 students participating in Cork, either as individulas or in group projects, from 16 different schools in Cork City and County.

This is a great achievement for the organisers, but I can't help feeling there should be more schools taking part. Although it may well cause some headaches for the organisers (the Student Union Building was barely able to contain the huge numbers of students taking part) it would be fabulous to see even more schools participating.

There were 90 different projects exhibiting across Junior, Intermediate and Senior categories. These projects came from a diverse range of fields and disciplines.

The event was opened by Minister of State for Disability, Equality & Mental Health who clearly relished in the oppurtunity to view the products of the student's research and spoke very eloquently regarding the value of science to the community and to the country.

Judging, as you can imagine, was a difficult task given the hihgh quality of the projects on display. Some of my personal favourites included a project by James Harte of Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig who was investigating the production of UV radiation by a variety of light sources. His project was well developed and presented with an obvious flair and enthusiasm.

A group from Davis College, Mallow also impressed with a simple solution to parental backache - a child's cot with a rising base!

Other projects on offer during the day included:

• Does heavy metal music affect a person's IQ?

• The Placebo Effect

• Designing a heated riding boot

• What's lurking in your make-up?

• It will blow you away - wind turbines

• The effect of acid rain on germination

There is absolutely no doubt in mind that this sort of event encourages young people to take an active interest in science and to choose to study it at second and third level. If the enthusiasm for science on display last Friday is harnessed by the scientific community in Ireland, the future for science will be bright.

Scibernia - a new Irish science podcast

Scibernia is a new bi-monthly science podcast, with a particular interest in the goings-on in the Irish scientific community.

The podcast is put together by a (self-confessed!) 'loose collective of science enthusiasts, tech nerds, wandering journalists and radio lovers' and the podcast has just posted it's third episode.

As they spoke to Ben Goldacre in episode two, who else could they turn to but yours truly to take part in the latest episode! :)

I talk to Sylvia Leatham about my time taking part in I'm a Scientist, get me out of here!

Also featured in the latest episode of Scibernia:

• What neuroscientist and Memory Lab curator Prof Shane O’Mara plans to do with all the data collected during the recent Science Gallery exhibition.
• A debunking of Moon myths with Astronomy Ireland’s Lee Hurley.
• What Prof Jim Al-Khalili has in common with Sinead O’Connor in the BBC astrophysics programme ‘Everything and Nothing’, and why Prof Brian Cox‘s ‘Wonders’ reminds us of 1990s pop videos.
• Upcoming events, including student science festival SciFest and a talk about atom-smashing by CERN’s Dr Stephen Myers.
• News from Ireland and abroad, including how robots are set to become more human-like and the latest developments in ‘lab on a chip’ technology.

The latest episode of Scibernia is here.

My Secret Life - Climbing

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features Architectural Engineer Emily Whiting talking about her research and and her passion for rock climbing.

You can read the post and watch the episode here.

In this month's post, I look at Climbing Great Buildings.

SciFest 2011 - let the games begin

This week I'll be acting as a judge for SciFest 2011 at Cork Institute of Technology.

SciFest is an "all inclusive science fair, with no entry limits and a key aim to encourage school kids of all levels of scientific ability to enter".

It is a series of one-day festivals of science hosted by Institutes of Technology (ITs) around the country and really acts to encourage a love of science through enquiry-based learning and to provide a forum for students at local/regional level to present and display their scientific investigations.

This year, the first SciFest events will take place at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) on Tuesday April 5th; in Waterford IT on Thursday April 7th and in Cork on Friday 8th April.

The event then moves across the country until the end of May. For the full list of locations and dates see here.

Last year, a total of 2649 students exhibited 1097 projects across the country including such projects as 'Rushes as an Insulator', 'Is school deafening us?' and 'Searching for the progenitor stars of gamma ray bursts'.

One hundred and ninety-six schools took part with the help of 291 committed teachers in 28 counties. Fifty-six per cent of the students who took part were female and 55% of the projects were from the life sciences. Nine per cent of the projects were in the 'technology' category and 36% came from the physical sciences.

SciFest was launched as a nationwide event in 2008 and since then, 6241 students have exhibited a total of 2613 projects. Clearly SciFest is going from strength to strength.

At the launch of SciFest 2011, then Minister with responsibility for science Conor Lenihan praised the event as a great example of government, industry and education sectors partnering to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM):

"By clearly illustrating the links between what students learn in the classroom, the opportunities at third level and potential career paths, SciFest plays a valuable role in helping to encourage young people to pursue opportunities in the Smart Economy", said Lenihan.

I'm really looking forward to judging at Friday's event. Having spent lots of last month being judged by students as part of I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here, it will make a nice change to be the one doing the judging!

This will be my second year judging and I was really impressed at the enthusiasm and hard-work shown by all participants last year. Fingers crossed for another great SciFest and best of luck to all those taking part around the country.

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.

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