This article was first published in Science Spin, in March 2010. Ireland might not experience strong earthquakes, like many other parts of the world, but that doesn’t mean there is no interest here in earthquakes. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) is part of a Europe-wide network of earthquake monitoring stations, which means it [...]
Archive for the ‘FEATURES’ Category
28 Jan
Ireland emerges as marine surveying ‘superpower’
We live on a tiny island, situated off the west coast of Europe with a landmass of just 70,273 square km (Republic). That’s a bit smaller than the US state of South Carolina, and a bit larger than the state of West Virginia. Ours is not a nation blessed with rich deposits of coal, oil, [...]
8 Nov
‘What lies beneath’ becomes clearer
It has always been necessary for archaeologists to ‘dig’ for information. The problem with this is that digging destroys the site. But, a relatively new science, geophysics, can provide ways of ‘looking underground’ without the need to dig. The big contribution of geophysics to world might be that it ends altogether the need to dig [...]
14 Sep
Toxicity testing – without killing
A researcher based in UCC has come up with a new approach to testing for toxins in the environment. It is faster,cheaper and more sensitive than existing methods, and – something that is increasingly important on many levels – it doesn’t involve killing animals. Professor Dimitri Papkovsky has developed new methods for conducting toxicity tests, [...]
10 Sep
Celebrating Ireland’s ‘father of seismology’
As a working science journalist in Ireland, it always amazes me how little we celebrate – and I include myself in this group – or even know anything about, some of our most famous, and accomplished scientists. I came across yet another example of this recently, when it was brought to my attention by Tom [...]
7 Sep
Threatening western waves
The west coast of Ireland, in places such as the coastline of Co Clare and the Aran Islands, have been repeatedly hit by major storms, and even tsunamis in the past couple of hundred years. Professor Mike Williams, NUIG, has found evidence, in the form of large ‘megaclast’ rocks, that storms are so powerful that [...]
7 Aug
Bugs could stop plastic going to waste
Plastics – particularly those made from petrochemicals, called PET plastics – are very useful for all kinds of purposes. They are, however, also a major contributor to waste landfills. That is why the research of Dr Kevin O’Connor, UCD is so exciting. He has found three bacteria that can convert used PET into a more valuable [...]
