Chemistry has definitely come a long way from the propositions of the ancient Greek that all matter on Earth was comprised of four elements: wind, fire, earth and water. The elders of ancient Athens obviously forgot to account for the scores of elements that form the modern periodic table. Man has undergone an epic journey of discovery in the intervening years, gaining a better understanding of the natural world and its properties – and learning how to exploit its abilities to ensure a safer and healthier environment for its species. Today, our standard of living has been largely determined by chemistry.

One of the latest hot properties in the world of chemical industries is the research of what are called ‘ionic liquids’, which were discovered as recently as the late 1940s. Frank Hurley and Tom Weir, working at the Rice Institute in Texas, discovered that they could make some salts turn liquid at close to room temperature. They mixed a powdered organic salt known as alkylpyridinium chloride with another salt, aluminium chloride, before gently heating the mixture. They observed that the two powders reacted together quickly and – to their surprise – formed a clean, colourless liquid: the world’s first ionic liquid.

Ionic liquids are a particularly attractive prospect, because of the manner in which the cations and anions can have their physical, chemical, and biological properties modified to cater for whatever specific purpose required. The applications of ionic liquids are vast, and interlinked with vital everyday processes: new ionic solvents can be easily tailored to address the needs of a specific chemical reaction across a wide range of applications.

To understand the economic importance of ionic liquids – also known as ‘ionic salts’ – and liquid electrolytes, we must consider their properties. As the name suggests, ionic liquids contain clusters of ions (or electrically charged atoms), characteristically associated with salts. Ionic liquids, just like the powdered sodium chloride you sprinkle on your food, are salts. But distinguishing theses fine salts from your standard everyday table salt couldn’t be any easier: while table salt has to be heated to over 800 degrees Celsius to become a liquid, the anti-biofilm agents in ionic liquids remain fluid at the ambient room temperatures found in hospitals. Thankfully, therefore, there’s no chance of you accidentally grabbing a bottle of ionic liquid next time you’re in the chipper.

The ionic salts consist of an organic ‘cation’ (or positively charged ion), typically an ammonium or phosphonium salt, and an inorganic ‘anion’ (or negatively charged ion). The beauty of such salts is that anions and cations can be fine-tuned to offer a wide range of solvent properties, which in turn can be manipulated and utilised to their full chemical or medicinal advantage. Ultimately, ionic liquids possess properties similar to many other polar solvents with high boiling points.

Many types of bacteria (such as the hospital superbug MRSA, which is resistant to antibiotics) exist in colonies that reside on the surfaces of materials. Such colonies are typically cloaked in coatings, known as biofilms, which protect them from antiseptics, disinfectants, and antibiotics. These microbial biofilms have not only blanketed our hospitals in recent years, but have also been seen to lodge and thrive inside water pipes and cause pipe blockages in industrial processes. The aim of the game in tackling this bug therefore, from a medicinal point of view, is to concoct a medicinal mixture that strike a balances between having the lowest possible toxicity to humans, while being potent enough to erradicate the colonies of bacteria that live on our skin.

Luckily for us, the shield of resistance built by these biofilms has been breached, thanks to ionic liquids – and what’s more, it’s Ireland that has left the rest of the planet green with envy, as we emerge as one of the world leaders in mastering the chemical application of ionic liquids. The Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (or ‘QUILL’) in Belfast, considered to be one of our island’s hidden gems in the field of green chemistry, is the world’s first specialist facility in the research of iolic liquids. Experts at QUILL have recently developed new agents to combat MRSA in the form of ionic liquid which attacks the infection in two ways – by killing colonies of these lethal microbes, and by disabling the ability to produce the biofilms that provide shelter for such bacteria. “We have shown that when pitted against the ionic liquids we developed and tested, biofilms offer little or no protection to MRSA, or to seven other infectious microorganisms,” reports Martyn Earle, QUILL’s assistant director.

There are a multitude of applications for an ionic liquid-based antiobiofilm – mostly, such as the aforementioned effects on MRSA, in the medical arena, where they can be used to improve infection control and reduce patient morbidity in hospitals, thus alleviating some of the financial burden to healthcare providers. But another project QUILL and other institutes have initiated deals with the application of ionic liquids for the removal of chewing gum on our streets. After all, if ionic liquids can dissolve rock and plastic, dissolving chewing gum is a bite-sized problem that ionic liquids can most certainly resolve.

Who knows, the substance may be just that elixir of life needed to boost our globe’s immune system against the symptoms of global warming, or Earth’s other imminent dangers. There’s no limit to what ionic liquids can do – it seems that we, unlike the ancient Greeks, are smart enough to acknowledge that, as once coyly noted in Mean Girls, the limit does not exist.

The fact that wine is greeted into the goblets of both fine nobles and the humble mug of college students is proof that its appreciation has not fizzled out. Wine is notably a stimulant – an agent needed by the body – as claimed by some well-respected figures in the fields of politics and science, like Benjamin Franklin, Sir Alexander Fleming, and Sir Winston Churchill (who famously quipped that “Remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for – it’s Champagne!”).

The winemaker – traditionally known as a ‘vintner’ – can produce a reasonable vintage over a hot year in a warm climate. Thus, one might think that the general trend of global warming may be beneficial to the winemaking industry. However, it seems that excessive climate change could cause disastrous effects to the vineyard – as increasingly hotter climates tend to produce over-sweet wine with a high alcohol component. This may seem like good news, but such qualities are generally not appreciated by wine makers.

Global warming has spurred several problems, including challenges in irrigation, soil erosion due to flooding and heavy rain, and diseases spreading within the vineyard and annihilating the batch. A certain rise in temperature may be welcomed, but global warming hasn’t even began testing its limits yet. During the European heat wave of 2003, vineyards in the North of France profited while waves of alarm propagated down South as temperatures soared too high for the harvest to cope.

It is in Southern Europe and California, in particular, where global warming can really take these effects. Climate strain has left a burden on clusters of grapes, with experts forecasting a massive reduction in wine output. By the end of this century, California’s coastal wine growing areas may be the only settlement for grapes to thrive in the entire United States, where the sea breeze is the only breath of fresh air keeping the vines alive. As much as 81 per cent of California will be rendered unfit for grape growing in the future. Let us not drown our sorrows yet, though – a century might pass before only one fifth of the Golden State’s soil is still golden.

Although global warming’s danger to the wine industry isn’t immediate, the warmer regions have already began forming strategies as they commence the battle to cope with higher temperatures, such as planting vines in shallow soil to reduce their water consumption, shading the grapes from the scorching sun, and introducing controlled irrigation schemes. Switching to different grape varieties could also be another short-term solution, as would be the breeding of heat-resistant grapes through genetic engineering.

Wine is obviously big business in the World when an international emergency summit is called – who would have imagined a World Congress of Climate Change and Wine being gathered to challenge global warming as a principal worry? Yet two years ago the second such meeting attracted over 350 vintners from over 40 countries to Barcelona. There’s no point dodging that global warming will reign. The wine industry will not be immune to climate change, and cannot adapt at its pace.

Grapes are a sensitive bunch – they require a stable temperature within a narrow range if they are to produce a high quality of wine. A variation of one degree Celsius in temperature is significant – these tiny changes can be the distinct difference between an expensive Chardonnay and cooking wine. When global warming causes a major shift in the thermal equilibrium, the imbalance in alcohol and acidity will make most wine taste less like Chardonnay and more like a bottle of ethanoic acid.

A few startling facts will leave any wine lover in despair. Global warming will lead to a loss in colour in red wines, an inherent increase in alcohol content, and a reduction in the ageing potential for classic wines. With a higher yield in low-quality wine will come lower-priced, bad quality wine (though the average student punter might not think this such a bad thing).  Higher-quality booze will bear a heftier price tag as a result, with its supply declining by half. Global warming has Earth’s tipple in its hands.

Perhaps you’re an arachnophobe, a Spiderman fanatic, or maybe you just want your own Spiderpig. Whichever category you fall into, it’s impossible to deny how phenomenal the spider web is as a natural structure. Spiderwebs are a place where insects become pasted to what resembles a distorted dartboard. Its strands merge to create, in this confined habitat, a unique food web. The glistening threads sparkle as if cutlery is set: the spider’s home is, in essence, a 24- hour fast food restaurant. It’s also where nature has recently linked arms with technology, in its remarkable attempt to mimic the biological structure.

Spider silks contain outstanding mechanical properties, with those of the Black Widow topping the poll, designating her status comparable to that of the queen bee, monarch of her beehive. This serves as a means of differentiating spider from spider in the arachnid kingdom, attaining status based on the silk they fabricate. The Black Widow’s spindles of spider web are extremely versatile; for instance, her dragline silk can be used as a fuel to store energy.

The silver glittery lining of a web is a thermal sheet, absorbing radiation, but things get even more heated when passers-by become stitched to this patchwork design. No mercy, and no silver lining is apparent for these poor creatures, victims to this net of sticky residue and stores of energy.

In nature, the glue-like gossamer that spiders use to form webs is secreted from the creature’s silk glands, transported to the spinneret through a duct where the arrangement takes shape. The spider then squirts out a thick gel of a silk solution before using their hind legs, body weight and centre of gravity to fashion their consistent design by elongating the gel into long threads. Spinning thread-like filaments and riding in air currents (a process called “ballooning”), they can extend the threads in an orderly manner. Essentially, the spinning of spider silk is the process of morphing a liquid thread into a solid. However, the explicit details of the process are still mysteriously unknown.

But there may be more than just natural interest to the Black Widow’s dragline silk. Its properties have been carefully studied in the synthetic manufacturing world and its applications could extend to the construction of lightweight, super-strong body armour. There have also been reasonable developments in medical technologies – researchers have already filed patents after identifying the two proteins, MaSp1 and MaSp2, that compose dragline silk. As a result it has emerged that these scientists have completely cracked the web’s genetic code. Production of this protein could be carried out by inserting the correct genetic data into a host, such as bacteria. Nevertheless, the challenge lies in the spinning of the silk. There are many artificial spinning techniques that could be viable; it’s just a matter of experimentation to identify the most efficient type.

Nothing to date has been manufactured to be as efficient as the natural dragline silk, but its study has identified the ingredients and combinations necessary for manufacture in the artificial world.

Weaving and paving its way into the medical field, the spider’s silky threads may have medicinal application. Arachnophobes need not fret, though – spiders might be of more economic value than one would expect. Forget paracetamol: a pharmacy near you will soon be updating to brands such as ‘webetamol’. As for dressing a graze? You’ll be sure to invest in a durable, reliable roll of cobweb, which will do the trick better than any of the synthetic plasters stocked in chemists at present.

Spider webs rival the strength of steel and the elasticity of rubber, so the production of new bio-based adhesives seems promising as a greener replacement for the current petroleum-based merchandise. Scientists presently lack knowledge about web glue, the coating of web threads, but it is thought to be made of glycoproteins, or proteins with sugar units attached. Irrespective of its makeup, it is boasted to be one of the globe’s strongest biological glues. Even the military has expressed a keen interest in these fibres, hoping to create thinner but stronger packaging films for soldiers’ readymade meals. Textile companies responsible for the manufacture of nylon and Lycra are also monitoring such developments with an eager eye.

Another remaining spidery mystery is how a huge web plastered Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas, when a pandemonium of spider ‘sheets’ trapped the park in a wide film in August 2007. Texas was in complete awe as the superweb drew over 3,000 visitors over the three-day Labour Day break.

Texas’s wasn’t a typical web – it was “sheet webbing”, entirely blanketing a large area of trees, and typical of a web spun by a funnel spider. Observations suggest that the spider population of the park expanded due to the wet conditions of the summer, resulting in a rather large abundance of small insects for the spiders to feast. To balance the food web, a mountain of spiders appeared to spin a web big enough to feed the entire colony.

If genetic engineering can generate synthetic fibres of spider web, the future may just pose the possibility of genetically engineering Homer Simpson’s Spider Pig. From artificial tendons and ligaments, parachutes and bulletproof vests, we might have to reconsider our view of this eight-legged creature, because without it we may not have a leg to stand on in the future. The spider’s products could be instrumental as we progress into a new decade.

The spider is a powerful creature which may be emerging as king of the jungle. As an Ethiopian proverb states: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”

“Chlorophyll? More like bore-ophyll.” Chlorophyll has come a long way since it was described by Adam Sandler in the 1995 movie Billy Madison.

Oh yes, this green puppy might soon be making an appearance in the B&Q catalogue, or even Homebase!

No clue what I’m on about? Read on my friend. There’s ongoing research into how viable and efficient it would be to use the green pigment, i.e. chlorophyll, in solar panels, and it’s good, really really good.

A molecular electronics group at the University of Sydney, led by Professor Max Crossley, have investigated the possibility of adapting aspects of natural photosynthesis into a solar cell design. The researchers have developed a synthetic chlorophyll molecule in the design of the shape of a soccer ball, or – as it is known in the scientific world – a molecule of Buckminsterfullerene C₆₀.

The structure has a dendrimer scaffold, a highly branched nanosized polymer made of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. Attached to the dendrimer are synthetic versions of the light-harvesting pigment, porphyrin. Spherical carbon molecules are perched between the porphyrin and absorb electrons from the photons of collected light.

A leaf is about 30-40 per cent efficient at converting light to electricity, in comparison with as little as 12 per cent efficiency for conventional silicon-based solar cells. “In the long term what we’re trying to do is have something we can simply paint on a roof, like a thin layer”, explained Prof. Crossley.

Barack Obama’s inauguration speech highlighted how even world leaders are supporting the development of cutting-edge technologies with the goal of finding a renewable energy. “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil”, he said, “to fuel our cars and run our factories.”

Ireland itself, renowned for being the Emerald Isle, is presently in dire need of restoring its ‘greenness’. Our government, though, seems still to be crying over the spilled champagne of the Celtic Tiger’s extravagant soirées. Suffocated by financial matters and public services crises, we are forgetting more long-term issues such as the quest for clean energy.

Faraway hills are green at the moment, and the Green Party could do with a boost of chlorophyll in Government buildings to wake up and realise once again the underpinning principles they had when they entered power two years ago. No other western country would be jade with envy of Ireland as a green country any more.

The aim of reaching Ireland’s 2020 targets – of having 40 per cent of electricity generated through renewable sources – looks out of focus. Manipulating nature, and the science we currently understand, is the key answer to reaching these goals. It is still theoretically possible for Ireland to meet this goal if we put our minds to it.

Solar energy is definitely the most abundant renewable energy source in our world. Extraordinarily, more light energy falls on the planet in one hour than is used by humans in one year. In the cruel light of day (pardon the pun), this statistic sheds light (sorry) on how we aren’t using our resources wisely enough.

Another exciting breakthrough is an electronic device that uses spinach to convert light into electrical charge, developed by US researchers. Zhang Shuguang and research collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have combined a protein complex extracted from spinach chloroplasts, with organic semiconductors, to make a solar cell that could be incorporated with solid state electronics. “Nature has been doing this for billions of years,” Zhang says, “but this is the first time we’ve been able to harness it.”

With nanotechnology and the minimalist idea of ‘less is more’, thinner and lighter panels are making way to a more efficient design of a solar panel.

Zhang’s team artificially stabilised the protein complex at the heart of their system, consisting of 14 protein subunits and hundreds of chlorophyll molecules, using synthetic peptides to bind small amounts of water to it, within a sealed unit.

Photons then ‘excite’ coupled pairs of electrons within chlorophyll, causing an electron to transfer to a nearby receptor molecule. Plants use this transfer to complete photosynthesis. Zhang has fostered this principle into his device, feeding electrons into organic semiconductors aligned on top of a layer of glass.

Zhang encountered difficulties with the use of organic materials in system. The protein complex is kept stable for about three weeks by the peptides, and the cells convert only twelve per cent of light to electrical charge. The solution seems to point towards layering numerous cells atop each other, so that a certain amount of light can pass through.

Interestingly enough, in New Zealand other researchers are on a similar wavelength. Solar cell technology developed by Massey University’s Nanomaterials Research Centre will enable New Zealanders to create electricity from sunlight 90 per cent cheaper than the current silicon-based, photo-electric solar cells.

Dr Wayne Campbell and researchers in the Centre have developed a prototype range of coloured dyes for use in dye-sensitised solar cells. These synthetic dyes are made from very basic organic compounds closely linked to those found in nature, such as chlorophyll and haemoglobin. They can also be effectively incorporated into tinted windows that trap light to generate electricity.

The green solar cells are more environmentally friendly than silicon-based ones, as they are made from a chemical called titanium dioxide. This white mineral derived from New Zealand’s black sand is in an abundant supply, is renewable and non-toxic, and already has economic benefits used in such consumer products as toothpaste, white paints and cosmetics.

Refining pure silicon is an energy-consuming task, and is quite expensive despite its plentiful supply. Another disadvantage of the silicon-based cells is that they require direct sunlight, whereas the green cells also work well in low diffuse light conditions.

The Centre claim that they now have the most efficient porphyrin dye in the world, and aim to optimise and improve the cell construction and performance before developing the cells for the commercial market.

The ultimate aim of using nanotechnology to develop a better solar cell is to convert as much sunlight to electricity as possible. There can surely be little doubt in this light (again, sorry) that the leaf itself is one of life’s most crucial structures.

The rich shades of terracotta, amber and burgundy mean that the season’s trends ablaze this autumn. It wouldn’t surprise me if fairy lights were invented to compensate for the lack of flamboyant colour ignited by autumn in a bid to allow a more graduated transition from autumn to winter.

Autumn really basks us in that golden warm glow despite bringing our days to a shorter close. Scattered around the place is some remaining evidence of last season’s bright styles. The planet’s fashion trend luckily is very predictable and this autumn gone by proved no different to any other. Earth’s biological cycle doesn’t fail to fuel our greenery with the over-familiar hints that signal autumn’s arrival.

The green leaves of the summer months saturated in the pigment of chlorophyll, reflects the underlying process of photosynthesis. The green plant is itself a molecular factory, fulfilling the important transformation of carbon dioxide and light into glucose, which serves as an excellent energy source for growth and storage. The removal of chlorophyll uncovers autumn’s spectrum of oranges, yellows, browns – even reds and purples – that leave any artist or onlooker in awe.

Leaves sweat through pores called stomata on the high surface area to exert a force of suction through the tree, and draw water from the ground in summer. Wintertime poses a different scenario: these leaves could cause the trees to dry out and die. As a natural defence mechanism, the trees need to shed the leaves – so nature allows for this with a process known as abscission.

In autumn many chemical changes arise and the abscission zone begins to swell, preventing the flow of nutrients from tree to leaf and vice-versa. Following this, the zone begins to tear and the leaf falls off or is carried by the wind. A protective layer seals the wound, preventing water evaporation and any entry of bugs.

The shorter days which stimulate the abscission process also initiate another process in the leaves of certain trees, to produce a group of chemicals called anthocyanins, which are deep red or purple in colour. The red colours are used to conceal the shades of yellow which attract aphids. Effectively trees which are more susceptible to aphids, or are native to habitats where aphids are a problem, are able to confuse their enemies and survive until another spring.

Evergreens have adapted, protecting their needle-like foliage from freezing by adopting waxy coatings and natural “antifreezes” – but broadleaf plants, like sugar maples, birches, and sumacs have no such protections, resulting in them shedding their leaves. Before they shed their leaves, the plants first try to retain important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

Leaves contain carotenoids, a kind of natural pigment, which produce yellow, orange, and brown colours in plants. These carotenoids are always present but their colours are easily disguised by green chlorophyll, until autumn brings with it a shorter day and reduced temperature. Factors influencing nature’s rate and general operation such as soil moisture and weather ensure that no two autumns are identical.

Cooler temperatures, shorter days, and the changing angle of the sun’s rays upon the plant leaves are indicators for the plant to stop producing chlorophyll. The internal process being carried out in the leaves ceases, reducing the amount of green pigment. As the green pigment decreases, the other pigments play a more predominant role such as xanthophyll (a yellow pigment) and carotene (an orange pigment).

Observers have long noted, however, that the predominant colour found in autumn foliage in North America contains shades of red, while Scientists have long questioned why the main autumn leaf colour in North America is red and in Europe, yellow.

Of course the type of tree will come into play but this only slightly justifies this contrast. At Israel’s University of Haifa and at the University of Kuopio in Finland, however, two scientists have recently proposed a theory based on geography, insects, and climate change to explain this observance.

The two professors in Finland have constructed their research around the idea that evolution during the Ice Ages influenced leaf colour. According to the researchers, large portions of the world were covered by evergreen jungles. As the climate shifted from tropical to cold and the Ice Ages began, dry spells were common and deciduous tree species evolved.

Their reasoning is that North America and East Asia contain mountain chains that run north-south, so animals and insects migrated southwards as the glaciers advanced as a result of the Ice Age. In Europe, the mountain chains run east to west, and insects and animals could not possibly migrate to escape the ice age. Over time, the trees adapted to the insects, the red leafed tree surviving better in the United States.

In Europe, however, the lack of migration meant that trees that couldn’t survive the ice ages died, along with the insects dependent on them for survival. Therefore these trees maintained their common yellow colour in the autumn opposed to the predominant red colour visible in the U.S.

In other words, North American trees had adapted to repel insects and thrived to produce red leaf colours. In Europe, there was no need for the red to survive and the yellow emerged as predominant.

This theory is fairly recent, but it is intriguing that this evolutionary process may have in fact dictated the colour palette of our 21st century autumn. Trees are a monkey puzzle – a puzzling natural structure – and we still haven’t figured them out to their full extent. Leaves’ veins are effectively networks communicating with the surrounding ecosystem.

In the words of the famous poet Emily Brontë, “Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” Science voices itself in our global forest, each distinctive tone on each patterned leaf signifying change and the cycle’s next revolution.

The first year of Innovation Dublin has undoubtedly launched scientific research in UCD to a heightened level of professionalism and originality. The festival has already been pencilled into next year’s calendar, having established itself as a mainstay affair.

The profile of research in UCD was raised tremendously last week, creating new links and networks between researchers, representatives from industry, and the general public. In the present economic climate, mounting concerns demand a better comprehension of the environment, science and technology. In the 21st century, escalating problems are emerging on a day-to-day basis, and so Innovation Dublin claims that science plays a predominant part, gearing society towards sustainable and viable solutions.

Enterprise by definition is seeing a need, a want or an opportunity, and doing something about it. It is the basic everyday rituals and informalities that we all stumble across when we are quick enough in identifying faults, seeing a need for improvement and spotting a niche. Innovation Dublin celebrates this, the “doing something about it” aspect, of society.

The days when the entrance to Plato’s Academy read “Let no man enter who does not know mathematics” are fortunately long over. The whole of science isn’t rocket science, but rather applied thinking.

Addressing some of the world’s pressing issues involves looking for simple changes that affect every walk of life – for example, evolutions to the world of finance, or climate change. As climatic factors are varying and shifting non-uniformly, the future is unpredictable – and as a result, we need to engineer our lives to be more adaptable to change. Change has always been around, and is a major component of scientific thinking – as Heraclitus quoted, “All things are in a state of change, nothing remains the same.”

Last week, UCD’s Science block was not alone in being referred to as ‘the hub’ of scientific activity: the whole of campus, and Dublin city in general, are considered to be prime incubators in the development of new innovation. In many cases projects have been interdisciplinary, highlighting the scope of research that encompasses different domains of the science and technology fields. For example, a collaboration between UCD’s School of Computer Science & Informatics and the Conway Institute has established software for use in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market.

Another particularly eye-catching project on display, ‘Sentiment Analysis Tool for the Irish Media’ by the Machine Learning Group and Clique, garnered a lot of attention amongst the assemble press. This project monitors the balance between positive and negative economic news published by different media sources – in the absence of George Lee, RTÉ News is currently (statistically speaking) the most positive news source on economic developments. The University Observer, sadly, has yet to be included in the group’s research.

One of the project’s aims for the moment is to analyse press coverage so as to predict the end of the current recession; given time, it could possibly transform our ideas on journalism and serve as a better forecast of the future state of the Irish and international economies.

Elsewhere, in the world of video gaming, Evolutionary Gait Animation are leading a movement moved away from the clunky, artificial, virtual world. Using an approach based on theoretical physics, the company aims to add a new dimension to the gaming industry by proving a more realistic user experience through real-life physical interaction. If you think things are ‘real’ with the Wii console, think again – these guys believe there’s plenty more realism to come.

TRIL was another enthusiastic group, improving the safety and welfare of the elderly by using sensor technologies in order to make domestic life for elderly people safer and more efficient.

Similarly, at Entrepreneurial Universities last week, the ‘Bettie’ programme was identified as a unique solution for bridging the gap between the Bebo generation, who use web-based services to blog and keep in contact with others, and the elderly. By using custom-built hardware accessible to older people, Bettie allows the elderly to stay in contact with their children and grandchildren.

Innovation Dublin incorporated an exciting and fresh ensemble of science-meets-commerce. Although the cutting edge research went well over this writer’s head at times, all in attendance were left in no doubt that innovation is the answer to stimulating a more thriving ecosystem. Merging logic with a spark for creativity, researchers have developed a medium for venting their ideas and works. That medium being Innovation Dublin, where white lab coats meet pinstriped suits, and conferences meet laboratories.

In the words of the genius Nobel Prize winner, Albert Einstein, “the whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.” The whole of science isn’t beyond comprehension, a fact proven by the existence of the Ig Nobel Prizes.

The 2009 Ig Nobel Prizes, organised by Improbable Research, were awarded earlier this month at Sander’s Theatre in Harvard University, with the aim of providing and promoting “research that makes people laugh, and then think”.

This year, the Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Stephan Bolliger and his colleagues from the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining experimentally whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or an empty one. The scientific title of the work told a lot of the story: ‘Are Full or Empty Beer Bottles Sturdier and Does Their Fracture-Threshold Suffice to Break the Human Skull?’ Apparently, they’re both capable of breaking your skull if the bottle is big enough. Bolliger et al even went so far as to recommend prohibiting half litre beer bottles “in situations which involve risk of human conflicts”. There goes all of them then… The Chemistry prize, in a related vein, was awarded to researchers from Mexico for creating diamonds from tequila – making a popular night for alcohol-related research.

Women, too, were a common theme among the Ig Nobel Prizes this year. The Public Health Prize was awarded to scientists from Chicago for their joint effort in a unique and innovative brassiere. In the event of poisonous gas emergency, this smart invention can be quickly and readily converted into a pair of protective face masks, one serving the brassiere owner and the other to be given to a needy bystander on the scene.

The project, entitled ‘Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks’, has us all eagerly awaiting this ultimate wonderbra’s arrival in our nearest La Senza – though for the male population, sadly one will need to be a ‘needy bystander’ to benefit from this latest fashion accessory.

It only gets better when physics is involved. Ever consider why a pregnant woman isn’t slightly off-balance? Some people clearly have been doing a lot of thinking on the matter. The prize for physics was presented to scientists from various American universities for their collective analysis determining the logic behind why women during pregnancy don’t tip over.

‘Fetal Load and the Evolution of Lumbar Lordosis in Bipedal Hominins’ can be traced back to predictions originally made by Charles Darwin, who postulated that bipedal posture (the ability to walk on two legs) and locomotion (the ability to move from place to place) were important distinguishing features of the earliest known hominids.

Bipedalism poses a unique challenge to pregnant women. To compensate for the extra weight of pregnancy, evolution has given rise to the S-curvature of the spine, and reinforcement of the lumbar vertebrae. Essentially, the female race has evolved over quite a long period of time to adapt to baby-weight. This is where biology meets physics and the two agree: equilibrium and a centre of mass are established because Mother Nature has done her share of talking and allows physics to take care of the rest

The Veterinary Medicine Prize also provided the usual mix of scientific discovery and irreverent humour. Catherine Doughlas and Peter Rowlison of Newcastle University were honoured with this prize, for showing that cows who have been given a name by their carers give more milk than cows who are left nameless.

Their study, ‘Exploring Stock Managers Perceptions of the Human-Animal Relationship on Dairy Farms and an Assocciation with Milk Production’, was a great success in the veterinary field, also incorporating aspects of social and behavioural science involved in the management of livestock. On farms where cows were called by name, milk yield was significantly higher than on farms where cows were not assigned names.

Elite winners of the Nobel Prizes in the past including Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Marie Curie and Sir Alexander Fleming have high contenders following in their footsteps, but we are now looking at two different science brackets. The Nobel Prizes represent the highbrow standards of science and diplomacy, while the Ig Nobel Prizes represent something more recent and fresh. In the modern day, though, both are part and parcel of scientific research, and both are valuable contributions.

As Alfred Nobel himself once said, “only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.”