UCC appears in How I Met Your Mother

So, lots of people are familiar with the hit US comedy 'How I Met Your Mother'... a story about a group of New York friends and their antics. 

Perhaps the character who has reached cult status from the show is one Barney Stinson played by Neil Patrick Harris. Imagine the surprise then, when we see Barney show an image of University College Cork's Quadrangle at the start of his "College... it's a confusing time" presentation during the latest episode (Series 7, Episode 5, about 8 minutes in).

Given that UCC is Ireland's only five-star university, its natural he would have chosen such an image! As Barney would say, Legend....ary!

UCC Quad on HIMYM

Bread and Circuses: Putting plants back at the centre of our city

As part of my regular series of posts for the new Cork Independent Blog, I look at the recently announced 'Mardyke Gardens' project and argue that, far from being a waste of money, it could serve to refocus much needed attention on the importance of plants to society.

"While I don’t expect the Mardyke Gardens project to feed the world, it is essential in that it refocuses all our minds on the important of plants, both for their integral beauty and uplifting place in our lives and in our city; and also for the economic benefits they can provide for us. If this project is handled correctly and the scientific elements emphasised, it may well encourage people to look at plants afresh and begin to face the challenges of a rising global population, knowing that plants are central to all our lives on earth."

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Mallow Science and Maths Fair

The Teaching and Learning Dept. of University of Limerick will host Mallow Science and Maths Fair this Sunday 16th October from 12 noon to 3.30pm.

And what is the Mallow Science and Maths Fair?
An action-packed fun day for all the family, with many attractions:
Chemistry Magic Show
Planetarium
Live demonstrations and interactive displays
Stars and Planets Show
Superheroes Talk…
Who wants to be a Maths Millionaire/..
Balloon Rocket Car...
Give-away items, entertainment and lots, lots more ….

This event is free of charge and booking is not necessary
For further information contact: the NCE-MSTL at 061 234786

Check out the poster for the event here (pdf).

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.

Death is life's best invention - Steve Jobs

Inspiring words from the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers.

Communicate Science @ Cork Independent

From today, I'll be regularly contributing to the brand new Cork Independent blog. The blog covers a diverse range of topics - from Business to Food and Politics to Technology and I'm really looking forward to contributing some science-themed posts to the mix.

I'll still be posting just as frequently (and irregularly :) here, but this is a chance to reach a new audience and excite more people about the wonders of science.

My first post looks at this week's Nobel Prize controversy. Canadian scientist Ralph Steinman has thrown the Noble Prize organisers into a crisis after it was discovered that he had passed away a few days before they had awarded him the Nobel Prize for Medicine....read more.

Fish Using Tools - Caught on Camera

The use of tools had long been considered a uniquely human trait until Jane Goodall's reports of tool use in chimpanzees in the 1960s. Now many other primates, some birds, dolphins, elephants and other animals have been observed using tools. Although there have been some reports of fish doing the same, we now have conclusive evidence, with stunning video footage of an orange-dotted tuskfish using a rock to open a clam.

The video has been published in the journal Coral Reefs by Giacomo Bernardi, an ecologist at the University of California. While diving in four feet of water, the scientist watched the fish carry out the elaborate procedure twice before switching on his camera and recording the event.

Shot in Palau in July 2009, the video shows the fish digging a clam out of the sand, carrying it to a rock and throwing it repeatedly against the rock to crush it.

"What the movie shows is very interesting. The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell," Bernardi said. "It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it's a pretty big deal."

The actions recorded in the video are remarkably similar to previous reports of tool use by fish. Every case has involved a species of wrasse using a rock as an anvil to crush shellfish.

"Wrasses are very inquisitive animals," Bernardi said. "They are all carnivorous, and they are very sensitive to smell and vision."

Writing in the published article, Bernardi notes:  "the similarity of the behaviours [between wrasse species] suggest that either they emerged independently or they correspond to a deep-seated beahvioural trait"

Bernardi says there may well be other examples of tool use in fish that just hasn't been observed:

"We don't spend that much time underwater observing fishes," he said. "It may be that all wrasses do this. It happens really quickly, so it would be easy to miss."