Science Series

Listen to President McAleese’s speech on the significance of the Clare Island surveys and the Royal Irish Academy’s work on Clare Island. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Public Lecture - Making Science Work Sir Paul Nurse Friday, 14 June 2013, Academy House Sir Paul Nurse, President, The Royal Society, gives a lecture on Making Science Work. The photo of Sir Paul Nurse is courtesy of the BBC. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Robert Lloyd Praeger and the Darwinian Revolution Greta Jones, University of Ulster Ulster naturalists long sought to gain an insight into the nature of God through the study of nature. Greta Jones looks at how Darwin's theories affected Praeger and influenced his work. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Talks from the Heron-Allen Society Edward Heron-Allen Edward Heron-Allen gives a lively first-hand account of his time working on the Clare Island Survey in his journals. John Whittaker of the Heron-Allen Society discusses the journals and the memorabilia that Heron-Allen collected during his work on the Survey. John Whittaker, former head of micropalaeontology at the Natural History Museum, is a member of the The Heron-Allen Society Committee. He is an honorary member of the Micropalaeontological Society (awarded to members who have made an outstanding contribution to The Society) and is one of the world's leading micropalaeontologists. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Clare Island Abbey and it's Paintings Conleth Manning Conleth Manning speaks about Clare Island Abbey and its magnificent wall paintings - a very rare, intriguing and charming example of an Irish medieval painted church interior. Conleth Manning studied Archaeology and Early Irish History at UCD, where he also did an MA in Archaeology. He is a senior archaeologist in the National Monuments Service, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. He has studied and directed excavations at many national monuments in Ireland, including Cashel, Clonmacnoise, Dublin Castle, Roscrea Castle and Glanworth Castle and has written and lectured on many aspects of Ireland's archaeological heritage. Conleth Manning is co-editor of two volumes in the New Survey of Clare Island Series: New Survey of Clare Island Volume 4: The Abbey and New Survey of Clare Island Volume 5: Archaeology. He is a past president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Mr Manning is Secretary of the New Survey of Clare Island Committee. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Clare Island - The Record of a 600-Million Year Assembly Line John Graham Clare Island's dramatic and diverse landscape shows the evidence of 6000 million years of climate change. John Graham tells this fascinating story. John R. Graham is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Geology at Trinity College, Dublin. He was educated at the University of Manchester and the University of Exeter and lectured for five years at Plymouth Polytechnic (now the University of Plymouth before joining TCD in 1978. He was elected Fellow of the college in 1985 and currently lectures in sedimentology, stratigraphy and aspects of Irish geology. He has worked on sedimentological aspects of rocks varying from Ordovician to Carboniferous age in many parts of western Ireland from West Cork to Donegal. Professor Graham is the editor of New Survey of Clare Island Volume 2: Geology. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Assembling the Home team: from A.G. More to R.I.I. Praeger Declan Doogue Declan Doogue unravels the influences and players in Irish natural history field studies from A.G. More to the present day. Declan Doogue is the Honorary Vice-President of the Dublin Natuiralists' Field Club and has served as its President for three separate periods. He is also an Honorary Life Member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles and a Fellow of the Linnean Society and has recently been appointed an Honorary Research Fellow of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. His main botanical interests include the Flora of Kildare project, where he is BSBI recorder ,and he is currently working, with others, on the revision of H. C. Hart's 1887 work, The Flora of Howth. More recently he has commenced research on several critical genera particularly Rosa, Rubus and Taraxacum. His PhD thesis was concerned with the botanical composition of Leinster hedgerows. He has been deeply involved with the promotion of distribution studies on the Irish flora and fauna and the subsequent interpretation of these distributions patterns in historical and geographical contexts. To this end he has organised a number of botanical recording projects on behalf of the DNFC and also coordinated the Republic of Ireland section of the recent BSBI survey of the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. He has an on-going involvement with training and encouraging many of the expert bona-fide naturalists who generate these major data sets. More recently he worked to advance the skills of the biological recording community to the point where its accumulated knowledge and experience can find recognition and relevance in modern Ireland in areas such as habitat conservation and species protection. To this end he is fronting a project to foster identification and fieldwork skills in the study of Bryophytes and continues to be associated with a number of the biological distribution recording schemes initiated by the original Irish Biological Records Centre of An Foras Forbartha. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy's Praeger Committee. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Clare Island: Ice ages and Climate Change Peter Coxon Peter Coxon brilliantly outlines the effects of ice ages and climate change on Clare Island and describes how these have shaped its remarkably diverse landscape. Peter Coxon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography. a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He is currently the Secretary-General of the International Union of Quaternary Research (INQUA - http://www.inqua.tcd.ie/ ) and the Chairperson of the Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA - http://www.tcd.ie/Geography/IQUA/ ). After completing a PhD on 'Pleistocene environmental history in East Anglia' at the Sub-Department of Quaternary Research at the University of Cambridge, he took up a lectureship at TCD in 1979. His interests in the Irish landscape were strongly influenced by a close working relationship with the late Frank Mitchell. His current research includes analysing Irish landscape evolution during the Tertiary and Quaternary, Tertiary and Quaternary biostratigraphy, vegetational history and biogeography of Ireland, glacial and periglacial geomorphology and the analysis of flood events and mass movements in Ireland. In addition to an active interest in the geomorphology and vegetational history of western Ireland, his recent research has included mapping large-scale Pleistocene flood events and glacial limits in the Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh and in Ladakh, northern India. He has published on a range of Quaternary topics and has reviewed much of his Irish work in Charles Holland and Ian Sanders' 2nd edition of The Geology of Ireland (2009). Peter Coxon was author of the chapter "The Quaternary history of Clare Island" in New Survey of Clare Island Volume 2: Geology and is co-author of a chapter on the Holocene vegetation of the island in the forthcoming volume in the series New Survey of Clare Island Volume 7: Vegetation. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Academy Discourse - Molecules That Changed the World Professor K. C. Nicolaou, University of California, San Diego Thursday, 3 November 2011, Academy House Professor K.C. Nicolaou is a Cypriot-American chemist known for the total synthesis of natural products. His research is focused on a specialized field of organic chemistry called total synthesis, which involves the creation of organic molecules from scratch in the laboratory. This process allows rare molecules found in nature to be made in great numbers for study or to serve as the basis for drugs. Or, completely new types of complex organic molecules can be made from simpler precursor molecules. Through his work Nicolaou is developing new synthetic technologies and strategies that will advance the fields of biology and medicine. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Academy Discourse - The End of Ageing Professor Roseanne Kenny, Mercer's Institute for Successful Aging, St. James Hospital and Neurosciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin Monday, 12 December 2011, Academy House In this discourse Professor Roseanne Kenny explained what is happening in age prevention, and shows how we can lengthen our own life spans. Professor Kenny also looked at how and why people are living longer than ever before; the social, biological and scientific changes that are increasing our life spans; and how Ireland is leading the way in the development of age prevention technologies. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Marine Institute/Royal Irish Academy Lecture - Alien World - New Discoveries of Exotic Lifeforms & Volcanic Metal Chimneys in the Deep Ocean Dr. Andy Wheeler, UCC (Chief Scientist) & the Irish-British VENTuRE Survey Scientific Team Tuesday, 24 April 2012, Academy House Andy Wheeler led a groundbreaking Irish-led marine research mission aboard the national research vessel RV Celtic Explorer investigating life at 3,000 metres below the surface of the sea on the ‘45o North MAR hydrothermal vent field’ using the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Holland 1. These vents, which spew mineral rich seawater heated to boiling point by volcanic material in the earth’s crust below, are home to a rich variety of marine life that thrives in complete darkness on bacteria fed by chemicals. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

RIA and Science Media Centre Event - Introduction to the News Media for Ireland's Geoscientists Thursday, 17 May 2012, 13:30 - 18:00, Academy House Chair: Fiona Fox – Chief Executive, Science Media Centre Speakers: Clive Mitchell – Press Officer, British Geological Survey Tom Sheldon – Press Officer, Science Media Centre Journalist Panel: Dick Ahlstrom – The Irish Times David Derbyshire – Daily Mail Leo Enright – RTE Radio 1 Tom Kennedy – Science Spin Mike McKimm – Environment Correspondent, BBC NI Geoscientist Panel: David Ball – Independent Hydrogeologist Garth Earls – Consulting Economic Geologist Ian Jackson – OneGeology Project Co-ordinator Dr. Deirdre Lewis – Technical Director, SLR Consulting Ireland Prof. John McCloskey – Seismologist, University of Ulster Prof. Pat Shannon – Petroleum Geologist, University College Dublin www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

A Conversation with Professor Peter Higgs and Colleagues Thursday, 2 May 2013, Academy House On Thursday, 2 May 2013, in the Royal Irish Academy, Professor Peter Higgs was joined by University of Edinburgh colleagues, Professor Alan Walker, Dr Victoria Martin and Francisca Garay to explore four generations of research on the Higgs boson. Speakers explained how the Higgs boson fits into modern theories of particle physics, what it's like to work at the Large Hadron Collider and the Inspiration for the Higgs boson. Finally, speakers looked at how the work of one scientist, Professor Peter Higgs, inspired generations of physicists to work in particle physics and how the Higgs boson was eventually discovered. The event was open to public. www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Public Lecture - The Double Helix and Its Irish Forbearers Nobel Laureate James Watson (Response by David McConnell) Monday, 29 April 2013, 6pm, Academy House A Public lecture by Nobel Laureate James Watson entitled “The Double Helix and Its Irish Forbearers” was held in the Royal Irish Academy . www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Academy Discourse - The Speed Gene Dr. Emmeline Hill (Response by Prof. Dan Bradley) Thursday, 7th March 2013, 6pm, Academy House Dr Emmeline Hill is a co-founder and Chairman of Equinome. She is one of Ireland's most prominent genomics scientists and leads the Equine Exercise Genomics research group at the College of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, where she is a lecturer in Equine Science. She joined UCD in 2002 with a B.A. Genetics (1995) and a Ph.D. in Molecular Population Genetics (2000) from Trinity College, Dublin. In 2000, Dr. Hill and Prof. Patrick Cunningham published one of the first molecular genetic research studies of Thoroughbreds that identified errors in The General Stud Book. Her publication record includes articles in the leading academic journals Nature, Science, PLoS ONE, BMC Genomics and Animal Genetics. In 2004 she received a Science Foundation Ireland President of Ireland Young Researcher Award, Ireland's most prestigious award for young scientists. In 2009 she published the first description of the genes that contribute to the Thoroughbred athletic physique. http://www.ria.ie Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Weather: Meteorology and Metereological Collections at the Royal Irish Academy and Met Eireann - Mairead Treanor, Librarian, Met Eireann The 2012 Science Lecture Series was organised by the Academy Library as an integral element of an exhibition Science at the Royal Irish Academy: ‘Uniting whatever is pleasing with whatever is useful’: an exhibition: July 2012-May 2013. Details of the exhibition are available at: http://ria.ie/library/exhibitions.aspx An accompanying publication may be purchased online at http://ria.ie/Publications.aspx or at the Academy. We hope you will enjoy these presentations which engage with the exhibition themes: The role of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65), whose mathematical genius led to discoveries including his work on dynamics which formed the basis for Erwin Schrödinger’s work in quantum mechanics; The work of Richard Kirwan (1733-1812), chemist, barrister, meteorologist and mineralogist; Scientific collections in Dublin, including the Worth Library, an important collection assembled by a Dublin physician, Edward Worth (1678-1733), and curated at Dr Steevens’ Hospital. Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Scientific Collections of the Edward Worth Library - Elizabethanne Boran, Librarian, Edward Worth Library The 2012 Science Lecture Series was organised by the Academy Library as an integral element of an exhibition Science at the Royal Irish Academy: ‘Uniting whatever is pleasing with whatever is useful’: an exhibition: July 2012-May 2013. Details of the exhibition are available at: http://ria.ie/library/exhibitions.aspx An accompanying publication may be purchased online at http://ria.ie/Publications.aspx or at the Academy. We hope you will enjoy these presentations which engage with the exhibition themes: The role of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65), whose mathematical genius led to discoveries including his work on dynamics which formed the basis for Erwin Schrödinger’s work in quantum mechanics; The work of Richard Kirwan (1733-1812), chemist, barrister, meteorologist and mineralogist; Scientific collections in Dublin, including the Worth Library, an important collection assembled by a Dublin physician, Edward Worth (1678-1733), and curated at Dr Steevens’ Hospital. Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

The 2012 Science Lecture Series was organised by the Academy Library as an integral element of an exhibition Science at the Royal Irish Academy: ‘Uniting whatever is pleasing with whatever is useful’: an exhibition: July 2012-May 2013. Details of the exhibition are available at: http://ria.ie/library/exhibitions.aspx An accompanying publication may be purchased online at http://ria.ie/Publications.aspx or at the Academy. We hope you will enjoy these presentations which engage with the exhibition themes: The role of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65), whose mathematical genius led to discoveries including his work on dynamics which formed the basis for Erwin Schrödinger’s work in quantum mechanics; The work of Richard Kirwan (1733-1812), chemist, barrister, meteorologist and mineralogist; Scientific collections in Dublin, including the Worth Library, an important collection assembled by a Dublin physician, Edward Worth (1678-1733), and curated at Dr Steevens’ Hospital. Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

The 2012 Science Lecture Series was organised by the Academy Library as an integral element of an exhibition Science at the Royal Irish Academy: ‘Uniting whatever is pleasing with whatever is useful’: an exhibition: July 2012-May 2013. Details of the exhibition are available at: http://ria.ie/library/exhibitions.aspx An accompanying publication may be purchased online at http://ria.ie/Publications.aspx or at the Academy. We hope you will enjoy these presentations which engage with the exhibition themes: The role of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65), whose mathematical genius led to discoveries including his work on dynamics which formed the basis for Erwin Schrödinger’s work in quantum mechanics; The work of Richard Kirwan (1733-1812), chemist, barrister, meteorologist and mineralogist; Scientific collections in Dublin, including the Worth Library, an important collection assembled by a Dublin physician, Edward Worth (1678-1733), and curated at Dr Steevens’ Hospital. Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

The 2012 Science Lecture Series was organised by the Academy Library as an integral element of an exhibition Science at the Royal Irish Academy: ‘Uniting whatever is pleasing with whatever is useful’: an exhibition: July 2012-May 2013. Details of the exhibition are available at: http://ria.ie/library/exhibitions.aspx An accompanying publication may be purchased online at http://ria.ie/Publications.aspx or at the Academy. We hope you will enjoy these presentations which engage with the exhibition themes: The role of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65), whose mathematical genius led to discoveries including his work on dynamics which formed the basis for Erwin Schrödinger’s work in quantum mechanics; The work of Richard Kirwan (1733-1812), chemist, barrister, meteorologist and mineralogist; Scientific collections in Dublin, including the Worth Library, an important collection assembled by a Dublin physician, Edward Worth (1678-1733), and curated at Dr Steevens’ Hospital. Disclaimer: The Royal Irish Academy has prepared the content of this website responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.