A new book by Sean Duke about Irish Scientists and their achievements is out now! It is definitely worth reading. Learn about the lives and achievements of men that were Irish or with a strong connection to Ireland. Examples include Robert Mallett, John Tyndall or Guglielmo Marconi among many others.
You can read my review in Trinity News and in the January Issue of Science Spin magazine.
With the start of the academic year, do you find you have your head stuck in the clouds? That may be a good thing, because it’s that time of year again, a time when we are encouraged to cast our thoughts outside our planet and into space! World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition that runs annually from the 4th-10th of October. Trinity is actively engaged in research that is crucial to the theme of World Space Week 2013: “Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth”. Through a packed programme of free talks, tours, interactive exhibits and workshops, scientists and researchers will invite the public to learn more about Mars.
Over the course of the week, a number of world-leading scientists will discuss how their research is relevant to our exploration of Mars. Not only will there be lectures on themes varying from impact craters to the origin of the Earth, but there will also be a showcase of robotics research in Trinity and a 3D visualization of Mars exhibit.
Family Day takes place in Trinity on Saturday 5th October. Throughout the day, you’ll be able to take your pick of talks, tours, workshops and interactive exhibits.
For more information and details of events and venues, please visit www.spaceweek.ie
Haven’t had much time to update this lately, but here are links to two very different pieces I’ve written:
1)- Book Review of “Light Between the Oceans” by M.L. Stedman” for BGE Book Club.
2) Did you know Loop Head was recently crowned the “Best Place to Holiday in Ireland”?
When I’m doing fieldwork in Clare, I often meet people who ask me why the area is interesting for geologists, so I decided to write about it in Science Spin. –Article on the geology of Loop Head, Co. Clare, Ireland in September edition of Science Spin magazine.
North Coast, Loop Head
It is not just fossils that inspire poems, but geology/nature/landscapes in general. So I thought I’d post part of William Butler Yeats’ poem, Under Ben Bulben, inspired by Ben Bulben, Co. Sligo, Ireland.
Ben Bulben
This imposing feature of the Irish landscape is made of Carboniferous limestone beds, which have been uplifted and dissected by faulting.
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”
Under Ben Bulben, 1938
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Every year towards the end of December, fossil enthusiasts and researchers gather to take part in the Palaeontological Association (PalAss) Annual Meeting.
This past December, the meeting was held in UCD, Dublin, Ireland.
Below is my account of the talks and events that took place, which was just published in the PalAss Newsletter.
“Dublin gave palaeontologists a warm winter’s welcome on Sunday 16th December, as they descended on the halls of UCD. After a welcome address given by Stephen Daly, Head of UCD’s School of Geological Sciences, the conference kicked off with a thematic symposium dedicated to “Taphonomy and the Fidelity of the Fossil Record.”
Firstly, Derek Briggs opened our eyes to the limits of the fossil record and delighted us with beautiful examples of soft tissue preservation. Next, Alan Channing made the case that in hot spring environments taphonomic filtering is replaced by ecological and ecophysiological filtering. He was followed by Susan Kidwell, who spoke about the use of death assemblages in evaluating modern ecosystems. She concluded that it is a great time for taphonomy and palaeoecology, which have promising applications in conservation biology.
Icebreaker Reception at UCD
After a short break, Maria McNamara took us on her whistle-stop tour of colour in the fossil record. Through her experiments and many striking images of colour in insects and theropods, she cautioned that more taphonomic experiments are needed to study how colour alters during fossilization. Next, Rob Sansom spoke about how decay affects the position of organisms in phylogenetic trees and made the case for a careful revision of phylogenetic placements. The symposium was concluded by Clive Trueman’s talk on the tissue chemical records of animal behaviour: he explored how new developments in isotope ecology may help palaeoecologists understand the behaviour of past organisms and ultimately bridge the gap between the fields of modern ecology and palaeoecology.
The take home message from the symposium was that much remains to be done in the field of taphonomy and exciting research lies ahead.
Following the symposium, delegates packed the lecture theatre in occasion of the annual address, delivered by Chris Stringer and entitled “New views on the origin of our species.” After reminding us what it means to be humans in terms of shared behaviours such as using tools and modern technology, he took us through the different ideas developed to explain where we originated. Modern genomic-scale studies have shown that Homo sapiens doesn’t have a purely African origin, but there is a small, but significant signal of introgression from archaic modern humans into early modern humans. In fact, it appears that we interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as another archaic source. This fascinating address certainly reminded us that our genome is a patchwork and it paved the way for much discussion during the icebreaker reception, hosted by Fáilte Ireland. Colleagues, friends, seasoned researchers and students all mingled by the Christmas tree in the Astra Hall of UCD.
Monday morning’s presentations kicked off in style with the wonderful Cambrian arthropods! Greg Edgecombe started the session by shedding new light on the neuroanatomy of exceptionally preserved arthropods. Allison Daley’s talk on Anomalocaris from the Burgess Shale presented new information on the morphology of anomalocaritids. And how could one forget the photos she showed us of her beloved soft toy Anomalocaris? Next, a foray into the lesser known but equally fascinating Sidneya by Martin Stein. This was followed by Martin Smith’s reinvestigation of Nemalothallus, a carbonaceous fossil previously reported to be an early-Palaeozoic land plant. Exceptional preservation of cuticle from the Silurian of Gotland allows the fossils to be interpreted as extinct coralline red algae. Finally, Lea Devaere taught us about an early Cambrian microfauna from Southern France and Thomas Harvey took us through his fascinating array of Small Carbonaceous Fossils (SCFs) from the Middle to Late Cambrian of Canada.
Following a short break, the next sessions were parallel and topics ranged from the palynology of the 2004 tsunami deposits of Thailand, to amber deposits to plant biodiversity reconstructions from pollen assemblages. Sarah Gabbott spoke about lampreys and hagfish, in the context of the evolution of visual systems. She presented new data from analysis of fossil cyclostomes, suggesting that the ancestral vertebrate had a functional visual system. In the same session, Mark Purnell captured everyone’s attention with his experimental decay of velvet worms, speaking of the rates of decay in different parts of the lobopod body and how they relate to phylogenetic analysis. Christian Klug showed us beautiful examples of soft-part preservation in Cretaceous ammonites, including stomach, oesophagus, crop, jaws, radulae and other more enigmatic structures. He noted that fossil lagerstätte have great potential for more soft tissues. So exciting times lie ahead!
Mike Howe presented a new and exciting project, which aims to create an online database of type fossils held by several major museums, with high resolution photographs and 3D scans (for more information see http://gb3dtypefossils.blogspot.co.uk/).
The afternoon sessions included talks by Neil Davies on the relationship between terrestrialization of plants and animals and Palaeozoic diversification of alluvial sedimentary facies. He made the case that changes in geomorphology, in particular expanding alluvial niches, played a significant role in driving terrestrialization of early continental life. With Jan Rasmussen’s talk, we delved into time series analysis in distal shelf environments in the Middle Ordovician of Baltica. In a parallel session, Paul Taylor’s talk critically re-examined the claim that the oldest bryozoan may coincide with the oldest pennatulacean. Many more talks entertained the delegates before a short coffee break and the final session of the day.
Dinner at the Old Jameson Distillery
What better topic to kick off the next session than dinosaur trackways? Peter Falkingham explained how computer simulations cab be used to reconstruct foot motion. Next up, Carys Bennett had us all spellbound with her pelagic trilobite eyes and the potential of oxygen isotopes from their calcitic lenses as a palaeotemperature proxy. Graeme Llyod later spoke of a new method for dating phylogenetic trees that helps bridge the molecular-fossil gap.
Soren Hemmingsen and Micheal Benton concluded the session by launching the first issue of Virtual Palaeontology, freely available online and dedicated to the origins of biodiversity.
Delegates then made their way to the Old Jameson Distillery for the Annual Dinner. Following on from a drinks reception, delegates were treated to the Jameson whiskey tour, topped off with a complimentary tasting of the famous spirit. After a delicious meal, PalAss president Micheal Benton presented the annual awards. The Hodson Award went to Jakob Vinther, a young researcher who has established himself as a global leader in the study of coloration in dinosaur and fossil birds and in the uses of fossils in reconstructing the pattern of character evolution in bilaterian phyla.
Harry Dowsett was the recipient of the President’s Medal, awarded for his contribution to palaeoclimate studies and to the field of Neogene foram evolution. And, as Mike Benton noted, personally identifying over 1 million foraminifera certainly deserves a prize!
This year the Mary Anning Award finally went to a woman, the first time since it was established in 2002: the recipient was Alice Rasmussen, who passionately collected, curated and prepared fossils, as well as planning fossil exhibitions and writing popular guidebooks. Her collections provided material for more than ten publications and a PhD thesis.
The Lapworth Medal, the association’s highest award for lifelong achievement and a contribution to science at the highest international level, went to Euan Clarkson, who made major contributions in four areas, namely vision in trilobites, the conodont animal, Carboniferous arthropods, and the evolution of Early Palaeozoic marine faunas.
Sleepy-eyed delegates made their way to the poster session early on Tuesday morning. Pastries and coffee, together with aesthetically pleasing posters, worked well in reviving and awakening the spirit. For example,
The Poster Prize went to Emma Locatelli for her poster on crab taphonomy and the prize for Best Talk went to Nicholas Longrich for his insight into how snakes and lizards (Squamata) were affected by the Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction. Through careful revision of fossil squamates from the Maastrichthian and Palaeocene of western North America, he showed that the end-Cretaceous mass extinction was far more severe than previously believed. In addition, post-extinction recovery was prolonged, thereby underscoring the role of mass-extinctions in driving diversification.
Andrew Knoll’s lecture was superb. He reminded us about the value of an interdisciplinary approach in answering key questions in the history of life.
What a fitting end to an excellent conference. But the fun didn’t have to end here: some delegates took the opportunity to attend the British Sedimentological Research Group (BSRG) annual meeting, kicking off that very evening in UCD.
Sincere thanks are due to Paddy Orr, all the organizers and the volunteers.
Forgive the dinosaur reference, but the meeting was a roaring success!”
Broken Shell is a poem I came across while browsing through books in the Saison Poetry Library, a small haven on the 5th floor of the Royal Festival Hall, London. Here the windowpanes are decorated with verse projected out towards the London sky. This poem by Anne Morrow Lindberg immediately struck me because not only is it connected to science, but specifically to spiral-shelled fossils like ammonites and goniatites.
The first line advises us to stop in our quest for perfection in life. Erosion plays its part even on the most beautiful of nature’s forms, such as a fossil ammonite.
Perhaps Anne Morrow is referring to the shells of the Pearly Nautilus, which are often found washed up on beaches. Nautilus is the only living relative of ammonoids.
Pearly Nautilus
Broken Shell
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
from The Unicorn and other poems 1935-1955
Cease searching for the perfect shell, the whole
Inviolate form no tooth of time has cracked;
The alabaster armor still intact
From sand’s erosion and the breaker’s roll.
What can we salvage from ocean’s strife
More lovely than these skeletons that lie
Like scattered flowers open to the sky,
Yet not despoiled by their consent to life?
The pattern on creation morning laid,
By softened lip and hollow, unbetrayed;
The gutted frame endures, a testament,
Even in fragment, to that first intent.
Look at this spiral, stripped to polished nerve
Of growth. Erect as compass in its curve,
It swings forever to the absolute,
Crying out beauty like a silver flute.
I often get asked what my research is about. I hope the post below sheds some light on what I do!
It’s the summer, 320 million years ago. Deep underwater, a tiny tentacle-bearing creature retreats into its spiral shell. Suddenly, a tremor! Organisms scurry for their lives. Soon after, a huge submarine landslide shakes the sea floor all around. Who will survive? Why, fossils of course!
Nautilus, a distant relative of goniatites (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nautilus_profile.jpg)
Fossil goniatites have an fascinating story to tell. Technically defined as members of the order Goniatitida, goniatites are extinct cephalopods ranging from the middle of the Devonian to the end of the Permian.
Related to squid and cuttlefish, these animals were very diverse in terms of size, shape and sculpturing. They had an external shell, divided internally into several chambers. The animal resided in the last formed chamber, the body chamber.
The distribution of goniatites in space and time is better known than their biology. In fact, the pearly Nautilus is the only known living descendant of externally shelled cephalopods. But, however tempting it may be to draw palaeoecological inferences from Nautilus, it must be noted that it is not phylogenetically closely related to goniatites.
Goniatites are a prime tool in biostratigraphy, since they evolved rapidly and achieved widespread distribution. The fossil remains of these marine-dwelling organisms are mostly found concentrated in dark shale horizons in the Carboniferous Shannon Basin, Western Ireland.
Inspecting the shale bands in the Ross Sandstone Formation, Loop Head Peninsula, Co. Clare, Ireland.
Here, the organic-rich shales contain a mixed fauna, including goniatites and bivalves. Each band has a distinctive faunal assemblage, usually with a dominant goniatite species, that allows correlation within the basin.
For instance, the index fossils employed in the biostratigraphy of the Ross Sandstone, which crops out mainly in the Loop Head Peninsula, Co. Clare, Ireland, are: Phillipsoceras paucicrenulatum, Phillipsoceras circumplicatile, Vallites henkei and Homoceratoides prereticulatus.
My current research in Trinity College Dublin aims to develop a detailed and coherent biostratigraphic framework for the Ross Sandstone Formation, a succession of deep-water turbidites which has proven to be an instructive analogue for oil and gas-bearing sequences elsewhere.
External mould of Phillipsoceras circumplicatile, Loop Head Peninsula, Western Ireland.
Sketch of Oldhamia antiqua trace fossil (gutenberg.org)
That something which was alive and kicking millions, even billions, of years ago, is now preserved as a delicate impression on a rock, is an awe-inspiring thought. So it is no surprise that they have inspired poetic musing. Not only does the beauty of certain fossils transport us to distant and wonderful worlds, but fossils have the strange power to put our own little lives into perspective.
I believe that this sense of perspective is one of the themes conveyed by Irish geologist and geophysicist John Joly in his sonnet on Oldhamia antiqua, a Cambrian trace fossil found on Bray Head, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joly, professor of Geology and Mineralogy in Trinity College Dublin, made major advances in a variety of topics, including radioactivity, geochronology and tectonics. The trace fossil Oldhamia inspired him to write this sonnet:
“Is nothing left? Have all things passed thee by?
The stars are not thy stars! The aged hills
Are changed and bowed beneath repeated ills
Of ice and snow, of river and of sky.
The sea that raiseth now in agony
Is not thy sea. The stormy voice that fills
This gloom with man’s remotest sorrow shrills
The memory of the futurity!
We – promise of the ages!- Lift thine eyes,
And gazing on these tendrils intertwined
For Aeons in the shadows, recognize
In Hope and Joy, in heaven-seeking Mind,
In Faith, in Love, in Reason’s potent spell
The visitants that bid the world farewell!”
The sonnet was written in 1886, during one of many camping trips spent in the Wicklow and Dublin hills. The poet refers to the tendrils (i.e. Oldhamia), which have been intertwined in the rock for Aeons. Throughout the sonnet, not only does Joly convey the vastness of geological time, but he is aware of the effect of geological processes on the landscape (ice, snow, rivers, rain, changing sea levels). The religious element is also alluded to (“Faith”, “heaven-seeking Mind”) towards the end (Wyse Jackson 2011).
Whether the sense of comfort alluded to is stronger than the sense of despair at the futility of humankind, also present, is a matter for debate. And that a mysterious fossil can make us question fundamental truths and our very own existence is wonderful.
Joly also published scientific papers on Oldhamia. For a comprehensive account, the reader is referred to Dr Patrick Wyse Jackson’s paper on Joly’s scientific and poetic observations of Oldhamia:
The specimen of Oldhamia antiqua illustrated by Joly in his 1886 scientific paper is held in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.
Thought I’d share a piece that has just been published in the 2012 Undergraduate Awards Journal. It was a real honour to be asked to write it. Hope you like it.
Success and Failure- what field mice and university students have in common.
Robert Burns’ touching poem “To a Mouse” is about a farmer who accidentally overturns the nest of a tiny field mouse with his plough. Inspired by the “cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,” he likens his condition to that of human kind. The mouse’s hard work and dedication in building the nest ultimately comes to nothing, much as human schemes often go awry: “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley.”
While success can be defined in many different ways, not just in terms of achieving professional, monetary or academic results, and luck plays its devilish part in determining which nests get overturned, failure and success are interwoven and what we learn from our failed attempts is important.
The discovery of the Higgs Boson, announced on 4 July 2012, excited scientists around the world. But the theoretical idea of the Higgs Bosonhad first been proposed in 1964 and it took 48 years of experiments and careful observation before scientists could confirm it.
Along the same lines, James Joyce had to approach 22 publishers before succeeding in publishing Dubliners. Indeed the original Ulysses, that of Homer, took ten years to return to his precious Ithaca after the Trojan War. Therefore determination seems to hold the key.
In his work “Of Human Freedom,” the Stoic philosopher Epictetus has some words of inspiration: “The true man is revealed in difficult times. So when trouble comes, think of yourself as a wrestler whom God, like a trainer, has paired with a tough young buck. For what purpose? To turn you into Olympic-class material.”
Indeed the London Olympic and Paralympic games this summer showcased countless examples of winners and losers, success and failure. The Irish Paralympic Team, which collected 16 medals, is surely a shining example of success; the difficulties that the athletes overcame in order to realise their accomplishments tell a truly amazing tale.
It seems in our everyday contacts, both personal and over the Internet, we are encouraged to show off our brightest colours. People usually ask what we have achieved, but rarely are we asked to list our failures. I believe the road we take to reach our goals is equally important.
During my time spent at Trinity College Dublin, both as an undergraduate and a postgraduate student, I have experienced my own share of failures and successes. In my second year, I sat the Scholarship exams, which, if successfully completed, enable students to become Scholars of the university. I did not make the grade. Undeterred, I sat the exams once more in my third year: again, I failed. This time, I was very disappointed. On Trinity Monday, the day new Scholars are announced, the sight of successful candidates walking around campus in their newly acquired black robes was a difficult one to take.
But the memory of this setback made me appreciate what I later achieved: in my final year, I obtained first class honours and a gold medal from Trinity College and was highly commended in the 2011 Undergraduate Awards for my essay on urban growth and sustainability.
Of course, like peacocks, we humans enjoy showing off the dazzling shades of our plumage and I for one plead guilty! Yet the grey, sooty feathers we try to conceal have interesting stories to tell. What gets brushed under the rug is often just as important to our personal development as what we have achieved.
Whatever the setback and whatever the goal, what counts, in my opinion, is the determination to continue trying and the awareness that there will be plenty more hiccups, but also gratification, along this exciting journey to Ithaca.
“If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”- Thomas Edison.
To view the full piece in the journal click here.
Following a brilliant launch in the Science Gallery last month, here is my piece on the lovely A Neutron Walks into a Bar (published last month in Trinity News).
You can read the full article here (p.21, Trinity News ).
Did you know that the mantis shrimp has the most advanced eyesight in the world? Or that if the DNA in your body was put end to end it would reach to the sun and back over 600 times? These and thousands more scientific facts form the body of A Neutron Walks into a Bar, a new kind of science book born in Twitter.
It all started from a tweet explaining how glow sticks work, written by Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, TV and radio presenter and postgraduate student in Trinity.
This inspired a discussion between Aoibhinn, Humphrey Jones, Irish science teacher and blogger, and Paul O’Dwyer, Irish dentist and science communicator. Together, they came up with a crowdsourcing project, called Science140, seeking to collect science definitions and explanations in 140 characters or less, the length of a tweet. The project ran from April to June 2012 and was coordinated online by Maria Delaney, former Trinity student and science blogger, and Humphrey Jones. “We had a different theme every day for a number of months,” explained Maria Delaney. People from all over the world became engaged and tweeted their favourite science facts, hoping to be included in the final product.
“The final tally was staggering with thousands of tweets (over 60,000 words worth!) written by hundreds of contributors. The team spent many hours intensely reading tweet after tweet trying to pick the best for the book. This was a difficult job considering the high quality of the submissions we received. Everyone certainly rose to the challenge of condensing complicated topics into bite-size science! I think it’s the first book to be written on Twitter,” she said.
This quirky and informative book is the result of their labour and Prof Aoife McLysaght officially launched it in the Science Gallery last week. “It’s great because on Twitter a lot of people talk, discuss, complain, but not a lot of people do things,” she commented.
All proceeds from book sales are going to the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland. “One of the tweets stated Ireland has the highest rate of Cystic Fibrosis in the world, with approximately 1 in every 19 Irish people carrying the CF gene” explained Aoibhinn while speaking at the launch. “That’s why we decided that all the proceeds should go to cystic fibrosis research.”
The next best thing to come out of science tweeps, this book incorporates thousands of science facts, ranging from more serious explanations of how the Universe works to light-hearted quips and pub-suited banter.
“It’s suitable for all ages and all levels of knowledge. It has something for everyone. We’re all delighted with how it looks. It’s hardback and has a lovely feel to it. I think it’s a good toilet book!” said Aoibhinn. Not only does it aid charity, but it’s the kind of entertaining book you can pick up and flick through anytime. You’re sure to find out something new every time you open it. What started off as a unique social media project has turned into the ideal Christmas stocking filler.
A Neutron Walks into a Bar is available online and in bookshops around Ireland.
To find out more, visit http://www.science140.org
Some of my favourite extracts from the book:
-What do you call a one-eyed dinosaur? Doyathinkhesaurus?
-The fastest winds in the solar system are found on Neptune, they reach 2,100 kilometres per hour!
-Aeroplanes go in curved lines, not straight, to reach their destinations, because of geodeisics- it’s shorter over a sphere.
-Two goldfish in a tank. One turns to the other and says, “Can you drive this thing?”
-Frogs don’t drink water using their mouths- they absorb it using their skin.
-Your fingernails grow at roughly the same speed as the Earth’s tectonic plates move. It wouldn’t be a very exciting race.
-Schrödinger’s cat has surgery. Nervously, Erwin asks the doc how it went. “Well,” says the doctor, “I’ve got good news and bad news.”
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