"commitment will be tested further in the difficult years to come"

In a wide-ranging speech at the Royal Irish Academy today, the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn, TD has outlined his plans for the third-level sector in Ireland.

You can read the full text of the Minister's speech here.

The Minister struck a positive note with regard to the Irish higher education sector and was confident that it could be a crucial part of Ireland's recovery from difficult economic realities. Quoting Vere Foster, the 19th Century educationalist and philanthropist, the Minister recalled that "a nation's greatness depends on the education of its people".

Minister Quinn outlined the positives as they are and noted that these achievements owe much to "the strong commitment and ethos of public service of those working in and leading our higher education institutions". The Minister made clear in his speech however that "this commitment will be tested further in the difficult years to come".

In terms of entry to third level, the Minister rightly recognised that the system needs to change. Simply going directly from the Leaving Cert to college is no longer the reality for many entrants to the sector and that needed to be recognised with a rethink of the CAO system:

"We have to think in terms of how we manage for a more diverse cohort of students, with new levels and forms of demand for flexible learning and non-traditional routes of entry", said the Minister.

Minister Quinn also recognised the effect that the "points race" was having on student development at second level. Any changes made at second level could well be undermined if we do not address "the demands and pressures that the current points system places on both teachers and students".

Announcing a review of admissions procedures to third-level, the Minister was clear: "We need to be prepared to think in terms of radically new approaches and alternatives to the current arrangements". I'm not sure if we should hold our breath!

In terms of the third-level sector itself, it is to be welcomed that the Minister has made a clear statement on the integration of research with teaching and learning. "In sustaining [a] broad base of knowledge", the Minister said "I want to be clear about the expectation that all teaching staff will be research-informed or research-active and that all researchers will be active in teaching". Hear! Hear!

Funding for third-level is another one of those political hot potatoes and there seems to be little light at the end of the tunnel: "I have asked the Higher Education Authority to undertake further work on the sustainability of the existing funding framework over the course of this year". So no change there then!

The minister welcomed and backed the idea of the Institute of Technology sector forming new Technological Universities in an "organic" manner and said that he would be endorsing the need for third-level institutions to have autonomy over their operations, while at the same time, balancing this with the "requirements of public accountability for performance".

There is much to contemplate in the Minister's speech.

Is Féidir Linn: Obama was right

Image: WhiteHouse

Barack Obama visited Ireland this week and while visiting his ancestral home in Moneygall, he announced that the Guinness really does taste better in Ireland than anywhere else in the world.

"The first time I had Guinness," Obama said, "is when I came to the Shannon airport. We were flying into Afghanistan and so stopped in Shannon. It was the middle of the night. And I tried one of these and I realized it tastes so much better here than it does in the States."

"What I realized was, is that you guys are -- You’re keeping all the best stuff here!”

And maybe he's right.

According to a recent piece of research published in the Journal of Food Science, Guinness does not travel well. 

Like all great funny stories to come out of a pub, it started with an Irishman, Englishman, Dutchman and German walking into a bar. The four spent a year of their spare time (probably quite happily) testing the stout across 14 different countries.

During what the authors light-heartedly describe as "extensive pretesting", a number of factors were considered as to what makes the perfect pint. Ultimately this included such measurements as the height of the head on the pint, temperature and flavour.

Additionally, in order to capture the entire experience, such factors as pub temperature, bartenders sex and nationality, level of experience and technique were also considered. It was certainly a thorough approach. 

Even the presence of females in the drinking company was considered.  The authors found that the presence of women did not “inflict any unplanned blinding of the testers, who were all dedicated to the measurements”.

For the statistically minded amongst us (come on, admit it), the research paper also involved one of the most appropriate uses of a statistical test I've seen.

From the factors considered, the authors were able to score each pint using a specially designed Guinness Overall Enjoyment Score (GOES) which, of course, needed to be compared from country to country.

To do this, the authors used what is known as Student's t-test: a relatively simple way of establishing whether there are significant differences between two groups of data, in this case, between pints in Ireland and pints consumed outside Ireland.

Student: Willaim Sealy Gossett

This is particularly apt, given that the t-test was developed at the Guinness brewery in Dublin by one William Sealy Gossett. In 1908, Gossett developed the test to monitor and improve the average annual yield of barley. Due to the competitive advantage the test could provide, Guinness were reluctant to let Gossett publish the work under his own name so he used the pseudonym Student.

The results of this t-test are clear. Pints consumed in Ireland had a mean GOES score of 74, compared to a score of 57 in pubs outside Ireland. While Ireland may not necessarily keep the best stuff to themselves, the science is clear, it tastes better over here.

[Is Féidir Linn: (Irish) Yes we can!]

An edited version of this article appears on the Guardian's Notes and Theories Blog. You can read it here. 

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Killarney wins Bioblitz

Killarney NP won the 2011 BioBlitz event which was held on 20-21 May.

BioBlitz is a scientific race against time. The aim of this fun event is to find as many species as possible within a park over a 24 hour period. 

Killarney National Park won this year’s competition with a massive 1088 species tally over the 24hr period. This included 681 plant species, 59 Butterfly and Moth species and 62 species of bird.

The tally for Killarney is double the number of species recorded by last year’s winner, Connemara National Park. It's an amazing average of 1.3 species for every minute of the competition. 

All of this year’s sites exceeded last year’s winning tally, so the standard of recording in all five sites was remarkably high.

The contestants comprised five national parks and nature reserves from around the country including Killarney National Park (1088 species), The Raven, Co. Wexford (826). Ballycroy National Park (702), Dromore Nature Reserve (688) and Liffey Valley Park (687).

As the organisers note: "The real surprise is the huge tally recorded at Liffey Valley Pary, Waterstown as it is by far the smallest park and has limited habitat diversity".

The Rap Guide to Evolution

Canadian rap artist Baba Brinkman has created the Rap Guide to Evolution. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, the music videos are now online and make for some interesting listening. You can judge for yourself whether you think they are useful teaching tools.

The videos are based on the successful theatre show 'The Rap Guide to Evolution', which was performed to critical acclaim at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

On the launch of the videos, Baba said: "The response to the show so far has been overwhelming, but these videos really take it to the next level. I hope educators all over the world find them helpful in overcoming the indifference and hostility that often impede the teaching of evolution, and science in general. Hip-hop music is all about rebellion, and no one's ideas are more revolutionary than Charles Darwin's."

The Rap Guide has been described as "astonishing and brilliant" by the New York Times, with Science magazine adding that Baba "marries the fast, complex, literate delivery of Eminem with the evolutionary expertise and confrontational manner of Dawkins".

The first in a series of twelve videos (two of which are currently available) is presented above. The remaining videos will be released over the coming months.  Enjoy!

A weighty matter

I think we all recognise that over the past few decades, the average person has become a more sedentary creature. It's nice then to get some data to back it up.

Researchers have looked at US data on occupations and physical activity and shown that, since the 1960's, the estimated mean daily energy expenditure due to the job we do has dropped by more than 100 kcal.

While this is US data, it should inform the obesity debate in this part of the world. A recent report from the European Commission found that 23% of Irish adults are considered obese. While an OECD report in 2010 found that Ireland was the second most overweight country in Europe.

The researchers used data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

The findings suggest that this significant reduction in calories expended daily accounts for a "significant portion of the increase in mean US body weights for women and men".

Figure 1. Service, goods producing and agriculture jobs in US from 1960 to 2008.

The proportion of Americans in 'service' jobs as opposed to manufacturing, construction and agricultural jobs has increased hugely since 1960. (Fig 1)

As you might expect, the amount of physical activity involved in something like financial services or teaching is much less than that required for agricultural or construction (the most energy intensive) jobs (Fig 2). Hence, the fall in average daily energy expenditure.

Figure 2. Estimated median and range of physical activity intensity (METs) as well as the estimated caloric expenditure of each occupation.

Employment is, of course, not the only factor involved here. For example, the authors note that since 1960, the amount of energy spent on housework has 'greatly decreased' for women and slightly increased for men.

Diet and exercise probably remain the two most important factors which we can influence but it is interesting to see that the job we do also influences our likelihood to be overweight.

Things like how we travel to work, whether we use stairs or not were not considered in the study and it is unlikely to be as clearcut as we might like to think.

The results come as Safefood Ireland launch a two-year Stop the Spread campaign to encourage Irish people to measure their real waist size.

Safe Food say that only 38% of adults believe they are overweight. In fact, 66% of the public are overweight. The other 285 just don't know it or are in denial!


Reference: 
Church TS, Thomas DM, Tudor-Locke C, Katzmarzyk PT, Earnest CP, et al. (2011) Trends over 5 Decades in U.S. Occupation-Related Physical Activity and Their Associations with Obesity. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19657. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019657

New Biology Textbook is "Born Digital"

Biology textbooks at third-level are about to go digital.

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) have today announced that they are to launch a series of "affordable, high quality interactive textbooks in college-level science". The first in the series will be Principles of Biology, available from September 1, 2011.

Created by a group of 50+ scientists, instructors, artists and designers, it will feature interactive lessons and continuous assessment tools.

The publishers also say the text will draw on Nature's extensive archive of peer-reviewed literature to help cultivate "mature scientific skills, including data analysis and critical thinking".

As a digital product, it will (given careful attention) be less likely to go 'out-of-date' and will be available on laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones, etc.

Publishers say it will retail at $49 per student for lifetime access.

It's great to see textbooks going digital. Perhaps this could be used as a model for 2nd-level textbooks also?

The ability to link between peer-reviewed research and textbooks is exciting - too often textbooks don't (or can't) take advantage of the most up-to-date research in the area.

For this to work, the textbooks should link to all journals - not just those produced by NPG. All articles should, of course, be open access.

John Tyndall would approve!

The Queen and the Mathematician

Queen Elizabeth II will receive a unique scientific gift when she visits Cork on Friday.

When the Queen visits the Tyndall Institute at University College Cork, President of UCC Dr. Michael Murphy will present her with a scarf inspired by the work of the university's greatest professor and the 'father' of computer science.

A lace scarf, designed by Carmel Creaner will be presented to acknowledge the role of Queen Victoria in establishing the college. The idea was inspired by the presentation by Queen Victoria of scarves to four of the bravest soldiers to fight in the Boer War in 1900. One of these scarves was presented to UCC graduate Richard Rowland Thompson and now is on display in the Canadian War Museum.

Carmel Creaner, the artist, explains that George Boole, the first Professor of Mathematics at UCC (then Queen's College Cork) is at the centre of the design:

"I chose to use the mathematical notation found in Boole’s notes as inspiration for the scarf. Some of the elements of the notation such as the three dots for “therefore” inspire random cross stitches and french knots which in turn become zeros! Binary notation is also included in the scarf, most specifically, the binary notation for 1849 – the year Queen Victoria came to Cork and 2011 the year of Queen Elizabeth’s visit. George Boole’s signature - Prof Boole Queen’s College Cork- is also printed on the scarf referring to the original name of the University. The coat of arms of the University and UCC 2011 are also featured.”