MyScience.ie

Molecular Gastronomy mixes the culinary and scientific worlds and over at LifeHacker this week it’s Food Week. They have a great feature on the subject which we recommend reading. Why not watch how to make a cantaloupe molecular shake below.

Cantaloupe Molecular Shake Recipe from Ricardo Ferrer Rivero on Vimeo.

We spotted this fascinating video from Berkley Bionics of eLEGS, an exoskeleton designde for people with spinal injuries. It is pretty inspirational to watch the reaction of some of the users.

Here’s someone who obviously enjoyed Space Week.

The Cassini Mission to Saturn is one of the greatest robotic space exploration missions of our time. Now you have an opportunity to become involved and maybe put your school’s name on the map internationally by taking part in The Cassini Scientist for a day Contest 2010. To take part, you need to write a 500 word essay on why the Cassini Spacecraft should target certain objects for imaging and investigation. Watch the three short videos on the Cassini website and write your essay based on either Rhea, Titan or Saturn. There are three age group categories – 11-13 years old; 14-16 years old; 17-18 years old. All winners will be given a copy of their chosen target image which will be taken by the Cassini spacecraft in October 2010. The youngest category winner will also get an iPod shuffle and books by Lucy Hawking. The middle category will win a Nintendo DS and books by Lucy Hawking. The oldest age category winner will be offered a one week research placement with Professor Carl Murray from Queen Mary University London. Send all entries to Deirdre Kelleghan contest coordinator for Ireland (email skysketcher@gmail.com) Make sure to include your name, age, postal address, name of you school, name of teacher, and teacher’s email address. The deadline for Irish entries is 5 November.

A long standing supporter of education in Ireland, ICS Skills (formerly ECDL Ireland) is launching the new ICS Grid for Learning. The grid, which is a digital content and learning management service, will provide access to over one million digital learning resources, as well as a hosted LMS (Learning Management System) which will enable collaboration among teachers in creating courses and sharing their own resources.

Starting with Project Maths, the resources will be mapped to the Irish curriculum, and examination syllabi. Every resource is age appropriate and copyright-cleared for education so that teachers and students can use, edit and repurpose digital content in any way they like.

The library of learning resources, coupled with the content shared by the experienced teachers who use the ICS Grid delivers high quality digital content to education, helping teachers provide fun, engaging and personalised learning experiences for their students. Online tools are also provided to allow teachers to deliver and manage a digital curriculum to students both in the classroom and outside 24/7.

You can explore the ICS Grid by clicking here. The official ICS Grid launch will take place at the Irish Teaching and Learning Festival, Saturday 16th October at 1:00pm.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan TD, has met the 2010 National F1 in Schools Champions, Govannan Racing from Dundalk Grammar School, Co. Louth to launch the 2010/2011 season of the F1 in Schools™ Technology Challenge powered in Ireland by the Irish Computer Society and supported by Discover Science & Engineering.

F1 in Schools™ is a global competition that challenges students to design, build and race model Formula 1 cars powered by compressed air canisters. The competition’s strong emphasis on the use of technology throughout the project – from the use of Computer-Aided Design (CAD)/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software in the design and build of the cars, to project and financial management tools, and digital imaging has given students a true sense of the broad range of exciting, rewarding career opportunities that computing offers. Participants appreciate how technology is essential throughout all activities of a business and are encouraged to think of novel ways of applying the latest technologies.

F1 in Schools shows students how technology can be fascinating and fun and teams wishing to experience the thrills of the competition can now register for the 2010/2011 F1 in Schools™ race season by clicking here.

Euroscience Ireland is a new grassroots, member-driven association that works to advance science and technology for the benefit of Irish society. Euroscience Ireland gives its members a voice on a national and European stage in a constantly changing world. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in science and technology and its impact on society.

Euroscience Ireland is linked with Euroscience, a pan-European science and technology association, which runs the biennial Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF). ESOF2012 will be held in Dublin.

The current acting Executive Committee of Euroscience Ireland is selecting an Executive Committee, which will uphold the values, set the strategic direction and oversee the activities of Euroscience Ireland. The new Executive Committee will be approved at the next General Meeting of Euroscience Ireland, which will take place in November 2010.

The Committee would like to invite interested individuals to send an expression of interest to Euroscience Ireland. Along with your expression of interest, please include a brief statement outlining your background and interest in Euroscience Ireland.

The Executive Committee will be broadly representative of all those interested in science in Ireland. This means achieving a good balance of age, gender, regional and scientific interests.

Send your expressions of interest to the acting Secretary of Euroscience Ireland, Vincent Mc Carthy, at mccvince@gmail.com by Friday October 1 2010.

Visible form Earth, the Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm which has lasted for at least 180 years and possibly as long as 345 years or more. The storm area is so vast, scientists believe it would be possible to fit two planet Earths inside the phenomenon. The video below discusses these and other fascinating facts about the Great Red Spot.

The Red Bull Stratos science team has unveiled the first space suit ever to be produced for a non-governmental space programme. Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space, will see Felix Baumgartner ascend to 120,000 feet in a stratospheric balloon and make a freefall jump toward Earth at supersonic speed before he parachutes to the ground. His feat holds the potential to provide valuable medical and scientific research data for future pioneers.

Felix, a famed Australian athlete hopes to become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier. For more information on the mission, click here.

Congratulations to Cork student Hannah Hayes (16) from Glounthaune who developed a groundbreaking method to recharge batteries in a tumble dryer. Hannah, who is going into fifth year at Midleton College in Cork, devised the unique method to recharge domestic batteries using a rotating ball placed inside a tumble dryer.

The system works by harnessing the kinetic energy of a household appliance with a green hamster ball containing batteries being placed in a tumble dryer. A pendulum provides the means to harness the tumbling motion to turn a generator that contains the batteries, which are recharged through a charger circuit.

Hannah who was inspired by her household environment conducted both medchanical and electrical experiments and plans to patent the system with a view to developing it into a marketable product.