Credit (Wiki)

Co Waterford in Ireland’s ‘sunny southeast’ has produced some of its greatest ever scientists.

Robert Boyle, born in Lismore, is considered one of the founding fathers of modern chemistry, and is famously remembered for Boyle’s Law, which says that pressure and volume, in a gas, are inversely proportional.

Ireland’s only ever Nobel Laureate in science, Ernest Walton, was born in Dungarvan, and famously was part of a team in the Cavendish Laboratory, at Cambridge, UK, that split the atom in 1932, and heralded in the atomic age.

Then there was Thomas Grubb, perhaps the most famous telescope maker of the Victorian era, who was involved with making the famous Birr Castle leviathan telescope that was the world’s largest for more than 70 years.

Listen: Interviews with Donald Brady and Eric Finch on the lives of Boyle, Walton and Grubb

Interviews originally broadcast on Science Spinning, on 103.2 Dublin City FM

Credit (travelinireland.com)

Co Offaly, highlighted on the map on the right, might commonly be associated with our former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, or great All-Ireland winning hurling and gaelic football teams, but it is not often associated with producing famous scientists.

Fact is, though, that this small midlands county, with a current population of just 76,806 (2011 Census) has produced at least three world class scientists: William and Charles Parsons and John Joly.

Today we’ll be talking to John Joyce, a retired scientist and tour guide at Birr Castle, the ancestral home of the Parsons family, about the lives and achievements of William and Charles Parsons, and to Patrick Wyse-Jackson, geologist, and curator of the TCD Geology Museum about the life of John Joly.

Listen:

Interview with John Joyce & Patrick Wyse Jackson discussing famous Offaly scientists

First broadcast on 2.02.2012 on Dublin City FM 

Charles Parson's yacht Turbinia, pictured here, was powered by his steam turbine. He dramatically demonstrated its speed at the British Navy Review before Queen Victoria in 1897 when it was easily the fastest vessel on view. The British naval establishment was impressed and soon adopted the turbine in its latest battleships (credit: Wiki)

A plentiful supply of cheap electricity, and much faster passenger steamships and military battleships. These were some of the things made possible by Charles Parsons, who grew up in Birr, and invented the steam turbine in 1887.

Charles was born in 1854 and came from a brilliant scientific lineage. His father was the famous astronomer, William Parsons, who had built the world’s largest telescope on the grounds of Birr Castle in the 1840s.

The steam turbine invented by Charles, hugely increased the power that could be harnessed from a steam engine. The invention made him a rich man, and it changed the world.

LISTEN:   Charles Parsons interview with  Birr Castle tour guide, and retired scientist, John Joyce

First broadcast on 103.2 Dublin City FM

South African philosopher, Professor David Benatar argues that it is immoral and selfish to bring children into the world (credit: newbornbabyzone.com)

It is the most natural thing in the world for many of us. Find a partner we love, and bring a child, or children into the world. But, is this drive, or need to bring children into the world immoral and selfish?

Well, Professor David Benatar a philosopher, based in Cape Town University, argues that it is, and has backed up that view with well articulated philosophical arguments in his book,  Better to Have Never Been, The Harm of Coming into Existence.

The views of Benatar were the subject of debate at a recent lecture in the 2012 UCC public lecture series when Dr Tom Moore, a reproductive biologist at UCC, outlined the reasons why he believes that Benatar deserves to be taken seriously.

Broadcast on  Dublin City FM on 19.01.2012

The world’s largest telescope, seen here above, was for more than 70 years, the so-called Leviathan, built by William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, and the local people of Birr, Co Offaly in 1845.

In the year the Great Famine officially began, the massive telescope at Birr Castle was put to work, peering out into the heavens and making new discoveries.

One of the discoveries made by the Earl, when using the telescope was that galaxies often formed into a spiral shape, and the first one of these spiral galaxies he discovered was the Crab Nebula.

The Earl was a genius with chemistry and materials, and this was crucial in the building of such an effective and powerful telescope, which people travelled from all over Europe and beyond to see.

Listen: Interview with John Joyce, Birr Castle Guide, on the life of William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse

First broadcast on Dublin City FM.

This 32 metre satellite dish based in Midleton Co Cork, will be used to track and monitor dangerous 'space junk' (Source: National Space Centre)

Since the launch of the the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union in 1957, there have been an estimated 600,000 pieces of space debris, of varying sizes, transported and dumped in space by mankind.

These pieces of ‘space junk’ no longer serve any useful purpose, but they have the potential to cause serious damage to the orbiting International Space Station, and its crew, and represent a hazard to any future space travellers.

There are thousands of no longer used spy satellites orbiting in the Earth’s atmosphere, as well as tiny pieces of paint or pieces of metal that have fallen off spacecraft of varying kinds over the past five decades or so.

Even small pieces of space junk have the potential to cause huge damage should they impact on the Space Station, or future spacecraft, as they are travelling at thousands of miles per hour.

In order to make space safer for mankind to explore, it is important that all space debris is, in the first instance, tracked and monitored, and ultimately cleaned up.

An Irish company, called the National Space Centre, based in Midleton, has signed a joint agreement with a number of Russian companies to monitor and track space debris.

This will be done using its 32-metre satellite dish, which was built in 1984 to transfer telephone calls between Ireland and the USA.

Listen: Interview with Rory Fitzpatrick, CEO National Space Centre

This interview was broadcast on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 15.12.2011

Researchers at DIT, including Brendan Duffy (left) and Suresh Pillai, pictured here, have developed anti-MRSA technology.

The bacteria known as MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, kills as many as 250 people in Ireland each year. It also kills tens of thousands more around the world, including in the region of 18,000 people each year in the USA.

MRSA has developed resistance to antibiotics which means there is no treatment for those affected by the bacterium, which most people get while residing in hospital.

It’s great news, therefore, that a group of researchers based in Ireland have developed a technology that kills MRSA.

The reseachers at the Crest Centre at Dublin Institute of Technology have developed floor tiles that can be used in hospitals to kill the bug. The tiles are coated in a special material, which when activated by light, kills MRSA.

The technology was presented recently at the European Innovation Conference.

Listen: Interview with John Colreavy

Broadcast on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 15.12.2011

Scientists believe that time travel between different places in the Universe could be possible through theoretical structures called 'wormholes' as pictured here (Credit: The Daily Mail)

Time travel has been a beloved topic of science fiction writers ever since HG Wells wrote about it in The Time Machine, published in 1895.

We tend to think of it as a far-out concept, and one that could never happen. Well, the reality is that time travel to the future has already happened. It’s a done deal.

Time travel to the past, meanwhile, is trickier, but should also be possible – in time! Just in case you’re wondering, however, it is not possible to travel to the past, and make changes.

To find out more about this mind-binding concept, and what is, and what isn’t possible I spoke to Professor Paul Davies, a scientist based at Arizona State University, who wrote a book on this subject called How to Build a Time Machine.

Prof Davies is a physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, science writer and founder of the Beyond: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, which looks at some of the biggest and most important questions facing science and mankind.

Listen:  Interview with Professor Paul Davies

Broadcast on Science Spinning on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 08.12.2011

PET scan images of a 'depressed' brain compared to a non-depressed brain produced by the Mayo Clinic in the USA (Credit: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

It hasn’t happened quite yet, but advances in brain scanning technology mean that in future doctors will most likely be able to diagnose mental illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using brain scans.

At the moment there is no biological or physical test for mental illness, and the presence, or not, of disease is down to the experience and the judgement of the consultant psychiatrist.

The decision as to whether a person is mentally ill or not is based on verbal responses, and close observation of body language and things like personal hygiene.

There are plenty of technical obstacles to overcome first, but in future doctors should be able to use brain scans not only to confirm the presence of mental illness, and then to determine how well prescribed medication is working in the brain.

The Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory in NUI Galway has studies underway using brain scans to look at volunteers that have psychosis and bipolar disorder.

Listen: Interview with Dr Dara Cannon, Co-Director of the Clinical Neuroimaging Lab at NUIG

Broadcast on Science Spinning on 103.2 Dublin City FM on 08.12.2011

Source: Sterling Publishing, New York

Physics, while undoubtedly fascinating as a means to understand the world, and the cosmos, can be a hard sell to the general public, and even to scientists trained in the natural sciences, such as Botany, or Ecology.

Science writers and journalists tend to be from natural science backgrounds, which probably doesn’t help, and there is a definite lack of passionate physicists that also happen to be great communicators.

That’s why Clifford Pickover, a profilic US author and scientist, is so important. He brings Physics to life in his latest book, The Physics Book, From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection 250 Milestones in the History of Physics.

Clifford charts the entire history of Physics, from the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago, through the most important discoveries made by mankind, right up to the present day. He also takes a look at the potential future for the Universe, whether it will continue to expand at an accelerating rate or not, as well as some possible futures for mankind.

He tackles questions like, Is time travel possible (theoretically – yes)?, Will scientists be able to create an invisibility cloak (yes again apparently)? and will all of us, after we die, reappear as ourselves again in the Universe, given enough time? – the idea of quantum resurrection.

Cleverly, he has decided to tackle his topics, one page at a time, so that if you are bored with quantum resurrection, then simply flip to the page on the Big Bang, or the one which discusses whether we are living in a computer simulation (alá the film The Matrix) or not.

This book is well written, and cleverly structured, and a good reference book to have for anyone interested in developing a basic understanding for the most important concepts and ideas in Physics.

Interview with Clifford Pickover

Broadcast on 1.12.2011 on 103.2 Dublin City FM