MyScience.ie

Careersportal.ie have a video overview of the ICT sector, which should be of interest to anyone thinking of pursuing a career in this space. Chris Horne and Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain narrate the video, outlining the opportnities available and the work involved in this space.

Tommorrow night will see the next Alchemist Café Dublin event. Alchemist Café Dublin is part of the Café Scientifique movement, a group of people that are interested in discussing scientific topics outside of the typical scientific environment and instead over a cup of coffee or similar. The Alchemist Café in Dublin invites regularly to free discussions and the next one deals with the topic “The Big Bang: fact or fiction?”. Dr Cormac O’Raifeartaigh of the Waterford Institute of Technology discusses the origins of our universe. How old is it? How did it come into being? The Big Bang model of the origin of the universe is one of the most famous of all scientific theories. But is it just a theory or established fact? The evidence for the Big Bang will be reviewed in this session, and the limitations of the model explained. Recent discoveries that have revolutionized our view of the universe will also be discussed. The Alchemist Café will take place in the Flux Café in the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin on Wed 10 June 2009 at 20:00. The event is free and all are welcome. http://www.alchemistcafedublin.com/

The Digital Hub are running a series of summer camps.

• Get Animated takes place from 22 – 25 June between 11am and 3pm each day. It’s aimed at 10-13 year olds and costs 100 euro. It’s aimed at teens who would like to learn how to create Wallace and Gromit animations. They’ll capture their creations with digitial cameras and learn how to use animation software to bring them to life
• YOUth Can Make Music is aimed at 14-19 year olds who want to learn how to create their own music. This course runs between 10-14 August between 11am – 3pm and costs 130 euro. Participants will learn how to use Garageband to record their music.

Limited places are available on both courses. To book, call 01 4806200 or email: elevate@thedigitalhub.com

Blackrock Castle Observatory are holding their second annual space cam over the summer with four sessions to choose from:
July 6-10: Morning (10am-12:30pm)
July 20-24: Morning (10am-12:30pm)
July 6-10: Afternoon (2pm-4:30pm)
July 20-24: Afternoon (2pm-4:30pm)

Students aged 9 to 12 will find out about life as an astronaut, the solar system & the search for alien life. The highlight of the week is the day students build and launch rockets. Here’s an overview of the week:

Day 1: Astronauts and Moon landing
Learn the basics of space science. Today we design and build landing craft which we then test by dropping from the roof of the Round Tower

Day 2: Mars – The Red Planet
What can an analysis of Martian dust and ice tell us about life on Mars?

Day 3: Comets & Craters
What do you do when a comet is heading straight for Earth? Mission Control: your task is clear!

Day 4: The Search for Alien Life
Is alien DNA different from human DNA? Would aliens look anything like humans? We will extract your DNA and look at the biology and chemistry that makes you alive.

Day 5: Rockets
What did Isaac Newton know about rockets? On Friday – the highlight of the week – we will build, test and launch our own rockets.

If it’s of interest call Frances McCarthy on 021 4357917 or email francesmccarthy@bco.ie for more information or to register. Places are limited and the cost is €95 per student.

The Science Gallery are running an event called the Science of Taste on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of July. The weekend workshop will be run by David Jackson, flavour chemist and food enthusiast. David works for Diageo (Guinness) in the area of flavour analysis and tasting and also teaches an evening course on The Science of Taste & Aroma at the UCD Adult Education Centre. He has now running an interactive two-day workshop on this subject on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July. The workshop will cover the following topics:

Saturday 5th

Morning
• Exploring Taste & Smell (The Chemical Senses)
• The Physiology and Psychology of Taste
• Flavour Chemicals – what are they?
• The Science of Tasting – scientific sensory analysis techniques

Afternoon
• An introduction to wine and wine making – how the grape, process and geography affects the flavour?
• Wine Taste Training – using flavour standards to train the nose to detect common wine flavours
• Wine tasting exercises and tasting tests – blind tasting, describe the flavour of a wine sample, pick out the odd sample out of a triplet of samples, identify grape variety from the taste

Sunday 6th

Morning
• An introduction to Coffee and Coffee Flavour – coffee varieties, production and roasting process
• Coffee Taste Training – using flavour standards to train the nose to detect common flavours in coffee
• Coffee Cupping Exercise – cup coffee like the experts, assess and describe different coffee samples, blind tasting and taste tests

Afternoon
• Key scientific concepts used in Molecular Gastronomy
• Demonstrations on how to make novel foods like apple caviar, pea ravioli or hibiscus paper with the scientific insight into what is happening
• An opportunity to experiment and develop your own El Bulli-esq creations!!

For more information checkout www.sciencetastearoma.ie or email David on sciencetastearoma@gmail.com

For a bigger list of event, check out the summer edition of Mary Mulvihill’s science@culture bulletin

Villa81.com were out at UCD last week to get an overview of an Autonomous Sailboat that has been developed in conjunction with Siemens. There’s a video available below.

UCD are hosting a talk next week on Wednesday June 10 about extra-terrestrials, time travel and telescopes. It takes place at 11:00am in Theatre A, in the Science Hub at University College Dublin. Dr Andrew Newsam is a Reader in Astronomy Education at The Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, where he specialises in turning sets of astronomical data into a collection of useful numbers that can be used to do science with. Dr Newsam is also Director of the National Schools Observatory, a project aimed at giving school children the opportunity to make their own observations alongside professional astronomers on top-quality telescopes. His talk is part of the UCD Schools Astronomy Lecture Celebrating International Year of Astronomy 2009 and is entitled ‘Exploring the Universe – A tale of telescopes, time travel and extra-terrestrials. This talk is suitable for TY, 5th and 6th year secondary school students. Admission is free but prebooking is essential by emailing orla.donoghue@ucd.ie

The Astronomy Ireland newsletter reports that two stamps have been launched by An Post featuring world-famous astronomical images as part of the celebrations for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) and in conjunction with the Europa stamp collection (issued every year by European postal authorities to promote public awareness of a shared European culture.) The An Post stamps contain images of the Crab Nebula and a Brown Dwarf, and are an exciting release for astronomers and stamp collectors alike. For more information about the stamps visit www.irishstamps.ie.

The 3rd Annual Science, Engineering, Communications & Outreach conference took place in Engineers Ireland last week. There were a number of interesting presentations made on the day and the webcast is available to view online. Individual videos of the different presentations are all available.

The latest Astronomy Ireland newsletter has pointed out that the Den, RTE’s long-running and ever-popular children’s TV show, is looking for kids with an enthusiasm for astronomy to come together with like-minded children to have a chat about what they love about their fascinating hobby. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop your child’s interest in astronomy and it will also give them a chance to be a star for a day. The anticipated feature is a series of 30 second soundbites from children aged 8 to 13, and these soundbites are broadcast throughout the year on ‘The Den’. Filming will take place next week and for more information please email sec@astronomy.ie or call Astronomy Ireland on (01) 847 0777.

This year’s Bealtaine Festival of Outdoor Science, organised by CALMAST at Waterford Institute of Technology, will run from May 17 – 24th and offers primary and secondary school pupils along with the general public the chance to explore the natural world around them.  The festival has events for primary, secondary schools and events on in the evening and weekends to suit adults and families.

In ancient Celtic times the festival of Bealtaine celebrated the arrival of Summer. The Bealtaine Science Festival of Outdoor Science celebrates our Living Planet with an emphasis on activities outdoors understanding our surroundings and the plants and animals that we share the world with.

For more details visit the website.

One of the interesting exhibits at the Science Gallery‘s INFECTIOUS exhibition is the Immune Lab. Visitors to the exhibition can give samples to see whether they are susceptible to getting bacterial infections. The lab highlights the importance of the Science Gallery of bringing science to the public at large. Last year, a similar neuroscience exhibit was on display and it proved to be a fantastic method of introducing neuroscience to the public, but also to provide large samples of data to the scientists involved. Watch the video below to find out more about the Immune Lab, and please try to make it down to the exhibit before it closes o the 17th July.

Villa81.com was down at the Imagine Cup Finals at the Science Gallery. Check out their video below to see who was successful and will go on to represent Ireland at the world finals in July.