31 Jan
The Asian Clam has spread rapidly throughout Ireland’s inland waters since it was found last year gathered in large numbers at the bottom of the River Barrow (Credit: Inland Fisheries Ireland).
Science Spinning: ‘The Show with an Irish Spin on Science’, Presented and Produced by Seán Duke
Broadcast on Dublin City FM, 27/01/2011
Asian Clam Threat, Tree Pests & Global Warming, Ireland’s Brown Trout
To contact the show email: sciencespinning@dublincityfm.ie
31 Jan
First published in The Sunday Times, 30th Jan. 2011
IMAGE: Waves seen here on the right below crashing ashore onto the Dingle Peninsula, a rugged, beautiful area of southwest Ireland [Credit: killarneylake.com] 
There are few places where waves crash so powerfully and consistently on the shoreline as the west of Ireland. The USA, South Africa, Australia and Chile have locations that might rival Ireland’s west coast for wave power potential, but none surpass it. If Ireland can find a way to better harness and store wave energy we have the potential to lead the world in this field and also create thousands of new, ‘sustainable’ jobs into the future.
Waves are generated by the action of the wind on oceans. When wind speed is faster than the movement of waves at the ocean surface there is a transfer of energy from wind to wave. This transfer of energy can build up right across a large ocean, such as the Atlantic, with the energy eventually released, and lost to mankind, when a wave crashes onshore.
The locations around the world where waves are strongest are on the western side of landmasses, large and small, from western Australia to western Ireland. This is due to prevailing westerly winds driving the waves ashore. These ‘westerlies’ are strongest during winter, and that is why wave energy too is more powerful during winter months.
The current government in its ‘Ocean Energy Roadmap 2010:2050’ states that ocean energy can create 70,000 new jobs, provide a greater security of energy supply due to reduced reliance on gas from Russia and oil from the Middle East, reduced carbon dioxide ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, and establish Ireland as a leader in ocean energy.
There are huge efforts going on right now in many nations to develop technology that will allow, in the first instance, for the capture of wave energy. This is not a simple engineering problem to solve. For example, it is logical that wave energy is highest during a storm, but think of trying to develop machinery that can withstand and harness the power of an enormous storm hitting the west coast of Ireland in the depths of winter.
The two leading wave energy firms in Ireland are Ocean Energy Ltd. from Cobh, and Wavebob from Maynooth. These firms have different approaches to the same problem. How to capture the energy locked inside waves, and to convert it into electricity. They have both tested their ideas first in a wave energy test tank at the Hydraulic and Maritime Research Centre, UCC, and in Galway Bay. The next step is the open ocean.
The Government’s policy of supporting Irish firms that wish to conduct research into the harnessing of wave energy has undoubtedly contributed to the success of Wavebob and Ocean Energy, and got them to such an advanced stage. These supports for indigenous Irish wave energy firms must continue and be accelerated by the incoming Government.
The potential rewards are enormous if an Irish firm could win the technology race to commercially harness wave energy. A world’s first here for Ireland could establish it as the leader in wave energy. Wave power can provide for up to 40 per cent of our domestic electricity needs from waves. That would mean cheaper electricity for Irish homes and businesses, increase competitiveness, reduce our dependence on imports of fossil fuels, give Ireland greater control over its energy supply, and help us meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets.
The potential benefits don’t stop there either. If a way could then be found to solve the ‘wave energy storage’ question, where wave energy could be stored, for example, on a stormy day and released for use as electricity on a calm wave-less day, ensuring consistency of energy supply, then the sky’s the limit. A solution to this tricky ‘storage question’ would mean that Ireland could meet 100 per cent of its electricity needs from wave energy alone, and still have lots of electricity over to export.
The potential for wave power to provide all of our electricity needs and for Ireland to become an exporter of electricity is a feasible and exciting long term strategic goal. For that to be achieved, and it is within our capability to do it, the new Government should set out is own clear strategy to continue the good work in this area that has been done up to now. It would be a terrible mistake for the next Government not to continue the drive to make Ireland a wave energy leader.
It is worth recalling here the fate of Ireland’s once promising wind energy sector. Like wave power, Ireland is blessed with an incredible wind energy resource, one that few nations can rival and, once upon a time, if the right steps were taken we had the potential to lead the world in wind energy technology.
It never happened, as not enough supports were put in place to make it happen. This allowed Denmark to step forward to become the world’s wind energy leader. The Danes now are too far ahead of the rest of us to be caught up. The wind is in their sails now, and they are the world’s acknowledged wind technology leaders.
Let’s hope the next government – despite all the distractions they will face – will not let history be repeated, and, through neglect, indifference or blindness to the vast potential of Ireland’s wave power, open the door for some other nation to become the world’s wave energy leader.
14 Jan
Interview with Richard Kirwan on 103.2 Dublin City FM, Broadcast 6th Jan 2011
Author: Richard Kirwan
Publisher: Londubh Books
Price: €14.99
Aged six he saw a very old map of Waterford hanging in the shop window. It was love at first sight. The fan-shaped outline of the old Viking city – his home town – left an indelible impression on young Richard Kirwan, former director of the Ordnance Survey.
This is a story about maps, map-makers, people and places. It is also a biography that charts the life and times of Ireland’s leading map-maker across several decades. It is a charming, honest book by a man who could proudly state by the time of his retirement that Ireland had been entirely re-mapped for the first time since its independence in 1922.
In parts it is also an intensely personal book that describes a life-changing event, which caused the author to re-evaluate his life, and move into unexplored new areas.
In the passages describing the Waterford of his youth, and his explorations around the city with his father and grandfather, his love of the town is clear. The author accepts that for many people the town might have appeared dull and depressed in the 1950s, with the emigrant boats leaving, but, not for him. He was too busy exploring, and feeding his mind.
He made maps of his city in his mind, and came to know every road, laneway and building in intricate detail. His childish dreams fused with his innate map-making to create a mind’s-eye map that was colourful, multi-layered and full of social meaning.
It was perhaps inevitable that he would be drawn to the Ordnance Survey, which he joined in 1971, after some initial hesitation. There were plenty of attractive jobs available back then for a young civil engineering graduate, and joining the Survey meant also joining the army, something he never really fancied. Nevertheless, he signed up.
He was mentored by Gerry Madden, the then Assistant Director of the Survey, and under his guidance, rose quickly through the ranks. He took a post-graduate degree in surveying and mapping with the British Army, and returned to start work in the field.
Ireland was perhaps the world’s best mapped country by1922. The British Ordnance Survey was set up in 1791. In Ireland, priority for the Survey was to assess the acreage of townlands to ensure a ‘fair’ taxation system was applied to Irish landowners. In England and Scotland, meanwhile, the priority was to draw up accurate topographic maps for the military in advance of a possible attack from Napoleon’s France.
The author describes some of the pioneers of British map-making. Thomas Colby, for example, was appointed to lead the British Ordnance Survey in 1920. He set about drawing up new maps for Ireland. He struggled with developing Anglicized forms for Irish place names and brought in an Irish scholar John O’Donovan to help out.
There was more sympathy towards retaining at least the spirit or meaning of Irish place names by another big early name in the Survey, Thomas Larcom. There are other map-makers mentioned, but Colby and Larcom stand out as the two early giants.
Ireland was mapped in great detail by the time of its independence. Following independence, however, there was no great renewed period of activity by the new state. In fact, it took years, decades, before the Irish were to re-map their own country.
One of the great motivating factors for the author throughout his career was to re-establish the reputation of map-makers in Ireland as innovators, and to restore map-making to its former glory by re-mapping the entire county. He achieved all of that.
The author describes the changes that took place across four decades, including the arrival of women in the map-making office around 1973, which broke the all-male map-making profession, as it had been up to then. He describes the impact of the new printing building for creating maps in 1977, the expansion of the service throughout the 1970s, and the cutbacks and recruitment embargos of the 1980s, and the changes that computers and software brought to the map-making profession.
It is also a personal account, of a man’s life. Richard’s beloved father died when he was 13. He didn’t grieve properly at the time, and, one day in 1998, an avalanche of grief hit him, during a hypnosis and relaxation session at the Irish Management Institute.
Richard was shell-shocked by the emotions that were unleashed that day, and it changed his life. He became a ‘healer’ and a ‘Reiki master’. He surprised even himself, as he says that up until that point, he had always been a logical person.
I would recommend this book, as it is beautifully written, evocative in many places of a bygone era, and with enough personal reminiscences included to hold the attention of readers that might have little or no interest in maps, or map makers.
14 Jan
Interview with Kieran Hickey on 103.2 Dublin City FM, Broadcast 13 Jan 2011
Author: Kieran Hickey
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Price: €14.99
What on Earth have we Irish done to deserve this? As our economy fell apart, and all the pain and suffering that this brought in its wake, then we have to face floods, record cold spells, snow and ice, a volcanic ash eruption that cut off our air links with the outside world, and even a meteorite crash and an earthquake. Are the Gods punishing us for our ‘greed’ and alleged ‘partying’ during the Celtic Tiger? To some it might appear so. Our financial woes are dealt with in detail elsewhere, but for the rest, this is a great resource.
Kieran Hickey is a lecturer in geography at NUI Galway, and this book certainly has an academic ‘air’ about it, in that facts and figures are presented regularly, and there is a huge amount of detail available for those that are fascinated by getting answers to say, how much rain fell in Gort during the November 2009 floods. But, there is a lot more too.
There are stories about the heroism of people who helped their neighbours in difficulty; about the politics of the crisis, and what lessons we can learn to better cope with such events in future. There is also lots of interesting material for the history buff, and the weather ‘anorak’ with records of extreme weather here going way back. For example, the ancient Irish annals talk of 668BC as being a year when the snow tasted of wine and the grass blackened. This could have been the result of ancient eruptions of Icelandic volcanoes and the wine tasting snow and black grass may have been caused by acidic ash.
This book shows up that we were to a great extent the architects of our own downfall. There was little or no preparedness for dealing with a combination of extreme weather conditions, and it took some time before the Government called a national emergency to deal with the crisis. Meanwhile, our planning laws had facilitated the building of many new homes on floodplains all over Ireland, and these homes were inevitably badly hit.
There is an interesting chapter analyzing what happened in Cork city, where there occurred arguably the most serious single flooding event in the country throughout this chaotic period. The reasons why Cork is always so vulnerable to flooding our outlined, and there is detailed consideration given to the decision by the ESB to release damn waters from the Inniscarra dam, as fears of a dam collapse grew. That decision led to the flooding of Cork. It was a decision that had to be taken, most agree, but many in Cork still feel that the ESB could have done more to warn people in advance.
More than anything this book again highlights how nature can quite easily bring a supposedly modern, developed society to its knees, leaving us with flooded homes and property, cold, without water, and unable to get about our daily business. That said, we can, and should, do far better in these weather crises than we have done up to now.
For example, one figure Kieran provides is instructive. The flood damage from the November 2009 flooding event alone, just one of many, was estimated at €100 million. A similar amount, at least, the author reckons should be provided for future flood prevention measures, but the Government has provided just €50 million. So, it might be an idea to buy a kayak, and a set of skies in advance of the next, inevitable flooding or Arctic freezing spell.
The big question for most people reading this would be: Is our weather changing permanently and are we going to have to suffer these severe floods and severe cold spells on a more regular basis from now on? Well, thankfully, it appears that the last few years somewhat bucked the general trend that would be expected as global warming proceeds. Under global warming we can expect longer, drier summers, but longer, wetter winters. No need to worry then.
11 Jan
Published in the Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Science Spin
Eighteen people die from cardiac arrest every day in Ireland, with two per week under the age of 35, and a whopping 70 per cent of those die outside hospital.
That’s according to figures from the Sudden Cardiac Death Support Group. This means there is a significant number of people that collapse from sudden cardiac arrest at home, on the street, playing football, or any number of places.
These people may have had a chance of survival if a defibrillator device was applied to them quickly to get their heart going again, but that wasn’t available. Therefore, the idea of two Belvedere College students, Owen Killian and Lucas Grange [both pictured here outside their school- Owen is on the right] to use a mobile phone as a defibrillator is a potentially life saving one.
The idea is that when someone collapses, a person – ideally with medical training – would arrive on the scene carrying their smartphone defibrillator. The first thing the smartphone user would do would be to attach a small peripheral device, a little larger than a matchbox in size, to their phone.
This device would have electrodes already attached and ready to go, and it would easily fit into a coat pocket, doctor’s bag, or someone’s briefcase. The operator would then attach pads to the person in trouble, and a special phone ‘app’ would be opened that would analyse the rhythm of the heart.
At the same time, a call could be made to the emergency services to inform them of the situation and ensure that they would arrive for backup if required. The phone then comes back with a reading which tells the operative if the heart rhythm is ‘shockable’ or not. If the answer is yes, the device applies the shock, and talks the user – if a non medical professional – through the use of CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation).
Owen Killian said that there are other AEDs (automated external defibrillator) on the market, but they are not light, with the lightest right now being 400g. The Belvedere lads say that their AED is much lighter than what is available right now, cheaper, simpler, more portable, and not designed just for doctors’ use.
The boys have ambitions to develop their AED into a real world commercial product, and they have got it as far as the ‘proof of concept’ stage just now. At the moment they are working on developing the parameters for the device to analyse heart rhythms that are shockable and not shockable.
The students are modest enough to state, meanwhile, that being lucky enough to be in a school with such great science facilities and teachers has helped greatly. “The reputation the science department has built up over the years of being an innovative, accessible and driven section of the school is greatly deserved,” said Owen.
11 Jan
Published in Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Science Spin
We all remember the chaos caused by the eruption of the volcano in Iceland earlier in the year, and how fearful airlines were of the resulting ash cloud. Therefore, it is very timely that Ahmed Saeed, Seán Power and Craig Laurie, – pictured on the right – three transition year students at Castletroy College, Limerick, have been investigating how to prevent damage to a jet engine from volcanic ash.
The students had been exploring a number of ideas for the BT Exhibition, and eventually started thinking about environmental problems in the modern world. The biggest environmental problem Ireland faced in recent years, of course, was the disruption caused when the cloud of ash erupted out of the Icelandic volcano.
The idea was also triggered by a relative of one of the students getting caught, and being unable to travel into or out of Ireland following the Icelandic eruption. Their teacher, Leonard Coughlan, says the students are running a test at the moment that aims to replicate what happens in a jet engine when ash enters. The idea then will be to design a system that can render the ash harmless to jet engine. One danger is to avoid creating a problem worse than the initial problem.
The students are realistic and believe that he problem will not be easily solved. However, they are determined to come up with a solution to a ‘real world’ issue. Certainly, should the students come up with a solution to this problem, they have an idea that could be potentially commercialized and sold as a product in future.
This could help ensure that flights are no longer grounded following eruptions, and geologists believe that more eruptions are a possibility this year, or next. As for the importance of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition to the students, Leonard said: “In my opinion I think the show is quite important to them, as it gives them a look at how other teenagers approach science and their curiosity affects their investigations.”
11 Jan
Published in Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Science Spin
The story begins with a male caller phoning into the Ray Darcy show on Today FM to describe his disgust at having seeing a mother breast feeding in Dundrum Shopping Centre. Then one of the girls at Presentation Secondary School, Thurles, spoke of her father’s discomfort at seeing a woman breast feeding.
That did it, and a group of students at Presentation Thurles decided to find out exactly what Irish attitudes were to breast feeding compared to another country. The country they decided to compare with was Germany, by virtue of the fact that the school had long standing connections with a school in Rosenheim, Bavaria.
The plan was to conduct a survey of attitudes among Irish mothers and German mothers to the ‘emotive’ issue of breast feeding and the results were fascinating.
In general terms it appears that German women are more enthusiastic for breast feeding with more than 90 per cent of women surveyed in Rosenheim adhering to World Health Organisation guidelines to breast feed for the first six months. However, this doesn’t apparently tell the whole story as many German women also said that the breast fed, despite the fact that they didn’t particularly like it. The reason, it seems, is a strong desire to do the right thing, and follow the rules.
As we know in Ireland, people are not as bothered by rules, and the issue for women here was a sense of guilt when a decision was made to bottle feed.
The survey, conducted among 50 Irish and 50 German women was conducted by students Alison Kelly, Sarah Jane O’Riordan, and Orlaith Quigley. The survey was done with the guidance of their teacher Emma Kavanagh. [The three students and their teacher, Emma, are pictured here above]
The aims of the survey were to determine the percentage of mothers that initiated breastfeeding; the average length of time breastfeeding was continued; the emotional, social and physical difficulties faced by breastfeeding mothers; how mothers were supported, and by whom. Clear differences emerged.
The survey determined that 100 per cent of the German women had initiated breast feeding with at least one child, while 56.25% of Irish women had done so. The survey found that, for the first child, 84 per cent of Irish mothers did not feed beyond three months. The mothers continued longer with breastfeeding for subsequent children, with 70 per cent not feeding their second child past three months, and 56 per cent deciding not to feed their third child past three months.
The results that came back from the students’ survey correlated closely with the Irish and German national statistics on breast feeding. A 2009 report in Ireland found that 47 per cent of women tried breast feeding to begin with, but that the figure had fallen to 28 per cent after four weeks. In Germany, meanwhile, the statistics indicate that 90 per cent start breast feeding and are still doing it six months later. That is despite the fact that many German mothers don’t like it.
In Ireland it appears there are huge pressures on women to breast feed, and that they are made to feel guilty when they decide to bottle feed instead. Then, for those mothers that do breast feed in public they are often met with open hostility.
11 Jan
Published in Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Science Spin
Many of us are interested in music, and would love to play an instrument, but never found the time to put in the hard hours to learn the necessary skills.
For many then, it will be of interest to learn that a group of students in St Mary’s College, Rathmines, Dublin are developing an instrument anyone can play. The idea is that the instrument will be so simple, that even a musical novice, or a disabled person, will quickly be able to produce music of a decent quality.
David Howard, Gavin Wynne, and Emmet O’Toole, all 5th years, and keen musicians are developing the idea, under the supervision teacher, John Nisbet. The students want to develop a brand new instrument based around electronics and physical principles. The idea, simply put, is for the person ‘playing’ the instrument to put their hand in a box and control the music in that way.
The instrument, they believe, will be simple enough for the complete music novice to play it, or for a person suffering from many physical disabilities. It is very visual, and very clear, says John Nisbet, and it can be thought of as one step up from the musical mats that young children can step on to make music.
The inspiration for the idea came from things like the ‘light harp’ which is based on breaking up a beam of light, and the degree of breakage, creates the sound. The students are getting help from their teacher to develop the programmable integrated circuits that control a set of three musical notes and process them.
The broad idea is that a person’s hand, or a tool of some sort, can be used to control the amount of light being allowed into a square that controls the notes. This is dependent on the use of an LDR, or light dependent resistor, which ensures that the level of light allowed into the square, controls the music.
The students are currently designing and manufacturing their instrument at their school on the Lower Rathmines Road, in Dublin 6, in advance of the Exhibition. However, they already have their sights set well beyond January and the RDS, as they believe that their instrument could be commercially developed.
“They have a vision for this, it is not just for a laugh,” said John. “They have a vision for its use in a concert performance, or in a kids bedroom as a performing tool, as well as a training thing for musicians. They have thought about all this.”
