MyScience.ie

Stephen Troughton-Smith is a first-year DCU student who’s making $5,000 from his iPhone apps which are on sale through iTunes. Stephen was recently the subject of a feature in the Irish Times on applications being developed for Apple’s latest gizmo. RTE News recently caught up with him and here’s the video of the interview.

My Piece on RTÉ News / first TV appearance! from Steven Troughton-Smith on Vimeo.

We’re partnering with CareersPortal to offer careers advice for anyone interested in pursuing a science, engineering or ICT career. We’ve just uploaded some new video interviews with people working in these field which are available to view here.

Here’s some info on the interviewees:

Shane Callanan works as an Electronic Engineer with Excelsys Technologies. He heads up the  Applications Engineering group and specialises in the area of power supplies. He received a Batchelor of Engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology.

Caitriona Jackman went to secondary school at Crescent College Comprehensive in Limerick. From there, she did a degree in Applied Physics at the University of Limerick. During that time she did a 9-month co-op placement at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey.  After graduation she moved to the University of Leicester to do a PhD in Planetary Science. She is now working as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London.

Máiréad Breathnach works as a Technology Development Scientist  for a company called Technology From Ideas. She followed her love of maths from a young age and went to UL (University of Limerick) to complete a BSc in Applied Physics, and then on to do a PhD in a similar area.

After his Leaving Cert, Karl Stanley went to Trinity College Dublin to do a degree in Mathematics. He then went on to compete a M.Sc in Computer Science and currently works as a Software engineer with ticket-text.com.

Sinead Kenny works with Creganna in Galway as a Design Engineer in the Medical Device Sector. She did a degree in Material Science from the University of Limerick where she continued with her studies and was awarded a PhD in Biomedical Cements.

James Stewart is employed to manage the design and delivery of a programme of workshops, shows and events hosted by W5 in Belfast. He holds a Degree in Geography and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education Management Qualifacation from ILM. Over the past two years he has been involved in delivering a programme of events to 35,000 post primary students in areas ranging from animation to anatomy.

Brian Macken is working on the Science Bus.  In secondary school he studied Physics, Applied Maths, Business, German, Geography, English, Irish and Maths. He then went on to study Theoretical Physics and Computer Science in NUI Maynooth.  Following that he did a one-year Masters in Science Communication in Dublin City University. Beyond that, all the training for working on the science bus has been on the job training – you learn by doing.

Brian O’Connor works as an Analytical Chemist for Wyeth.  He joined the company as an Analyist working in the lab and has since been promoted to the position of Manager of the Raw Materials Lab. He did his a degree in Chemistry in Maryville College in Tennessee and then moved to the University of California Riverside where he completed his Masters of Science in Analytical Chemistry.

The scientists at UCD’s Nanoscale Function Group have access to six world-class atomic force microscopes (AFMs), incredibly powerful microscopes capable of imaging objects as small as single atoms. (For more background on AFMs, read this recent post and check out this online AFM tutorial.)    

Every day these scientists see stunning images of our world on the nanoscale, where the surfaces of tiny pieces of metal look like huge mountain ranges and the detail in biological components just a few atoms thick can be seen.

Let’s take a look at some recent images from the UCD lab.

This image of the residue left behind by ivy glue shows an area just 25 micrometers x 25 micrometers in size. A micrometer is one millionth of a metre.

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Tennessee used an AFM to reveal that ivy plants secrete a glue that contains uniform nanoparticles 70 nanometres across to achieve their incredible gripping abilities. The team is currently investigating what makes the nanoparticles stick to surfaces and hope to develop a paint that can protect walls from damage by climbing ivy.

Lipid bilayers are composed of two layers of fat cells organised in sheets. At just 5 nanometers (nm) thick, these minute structures form a layer that allow only water and gases to pass through cell membranes. This image shows the surface of a lipid bilayer that’s 5 nm x 5nm in size. A nanometre is one biollionth of a metre, approximately the size of a single carbon nanotube.

Dr. Khizar Sheikh, a Senior Research Fellow in UCD is using AFM technology to study lipid bilayers. “This is the only instrument that can look at lipid bilayers in their natural environment,” says Sheikh.

See more incredible AFM images after the turn.
Read the rest of this entry »

Make sure to add Dr Cormac O’Raifeartaigh’s blog Antimatter to your reading list. A cosmology lecturer at Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland, O’Raifeartaigh writes about the universe and its puzzles. Ever wonder what is outside the universe, O’Raifeartaigh tells us more.