Category Archives: Drivetime

Contributions to the RTE Radio 1 Drivetime Show, Monday – Friday (4:30 to 7pm)

Insect decline threatens human existence

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The unheralded Dung Beetle is one of the vital insect species in Ireland who is under threat of extinction (Credit: John Finn)

A rapid, widespread decline of insect species, both in Ireland, and around the world may be taking place, according to recent worrying scientific reports.

Without insects, ecosystems would collapse and life on Earth would not be possible.

Listen below to my report on ‘Insectageddon’ and whether ordinary people can do anything to try and stop it.

Broadcast on RTE Radio 1 Drivetime 24th Oct. ’19

 

How well prepared is Ireland for a chemical or biological attack?

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Listen below to piece broadcast on Drivetime, RTE Radio 1, on 26th September ’19

A report from Casement Aerodome, Dublin, where the defence forces, using the very latest artificial intelligence, drone and robotics technology, simulated a terrorist attack on a rock concert.

The test of the ROCSAFE system – developed by NUI Galway and the Tyndall National Institute, is lead by NUIG’s Prof Michael Madden.

 

TSSG researchers at Waterford IT at forefront of nanomachine revolution

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Listen below to piece broadcast on RTE Radio 1 Drivetime 27-06-19 on Ireland’s role in the exciting nanomachine revolution

Dr Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, pictured here below, is one of a group of researchers based at the TSSG at Waterford IT who are at the leading edge of the global nanomachine revolution in healthcare.

RCSI drug harnessing children’s bone healing ability could prevent fatal bone fractures in elderly

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Listen below to piece broadcast on RTE Radio 1 Drivetime on 25th April ’19

A drug that promises to strengthen bones in elderly and adults that have suffered bone weakness, loss or damage is under development at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin.

Laboratory experiments have shown that a new therapy can maintain the activity of a master bone repair gene which is highly active in children, in adults and even the elderly.

The research was conducted by Dr Arlyng Gonzalez Vazquez, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the RCSI Tissue Engineering Research Group, and led by Fergal O’Brien Professor of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine in the RCSI Department of Anatomy and Head of the Tissue Engineering Research Group. (both researchers pictured above).

Prof O’Brien is also Deputy Director of the Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) Centre.

 

 

 

Can we live disease-free up to 120? Scientists say, yes we can!

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healthy-ageing

Scientists believe we can live healthy lives, beyond 100 years (Credit: University of Groningen)

We are living longer with an increase in human lifespan of 2.5 years per decade. Scientists are now focused on achieving healthspans, where we live disease free, which can match our longer lives.

This piece for Drivetime on RTE Radio 1, broadcast on 21st June, features interviews with three leading scientists working on different ways to solve the ageing ‘problem’; Luke O’Neill, TCD, Fergal O’Brien, RCSI, and Emma Teeling UCD.

Burning questions remain about Dublin’s ‘Waste-To-Energy’ incinerator

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Dublin Waste to Energy [Pic Credit Blathnaid Mc Polin]

The Covanta Dublin Waste to Energy plant is now operating at full capacity, but questions remain around the safety and potential public health impact of the plant.

I visited the plant on 15th March 2018 to put these questions to its General Manager, John Daly, and to take a close up look at the technology that is required to incinerate 600,000 tonnes of black bin waste.

Listen below to the piece broadcast on Drivetime on 26th March 2018.

 

 

The world is getting better, not worse, thanks to Enlightenment values – Stephen Pinker

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Harvard University Professor Stephen Pinker, pictured above, argues the things are getting steadily better in the world

The above piece was broadcast on Drivetime, RTE Radio 1, on 19th February ’18

 

The election of Donald Trump, looming Brexit and the ominous re-awakening of fascism across Europe are just some of the reasons why many people today might think that things are getting worse, as we struggle to cope with an unstable world.

However, Stephen Pinker, the celebrated Prof of Psychology at Harvard University, argues in his new book ‘Enlightenment Now – The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress’ (Penguin Random House, 2018) that, despite all the pessimism, things are getting better.

This is due to the ongoing, and spreading influence of Enlightenment ideas around the world, the author argues, while presenting data, charts and graphs to support his optimistic position.

Prof Pinker’s is giving a talk at TCD on Friday 23rd, February

CRISPR: Ireland’s role in the DNA splicing revolution

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Broadcast on Drivetime on 4th August 2017

CRISPR is, some believe, as important to science as the invention of the microscope (Credit: natural.society.com)

A new gene-editing tool that can precisely ‘cut and paste’ DNA to remove segments that cause disease or insert pieces that promote health benefits is, some scientists believe, as important a scientific invention as the microscope.

Scientists in Ireland are part of the what’s being called the CRISPR revolution and many biological researchers are using this technology has the potential to change the world.

From the ground-shaking discovery of the double-helix of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 so much followed in the years, and decades since. We have learned how DNA passing  from one generation to the next, how it transmits signals to the cells, and the body, and how, when DNA building blocks get laid down in the wrong way, that it can cause sometimes deadly genetic diseases.

We are now at another historic moment in biological science, because scientists have in their hands a tool, which enables them to precisely manipulate DNA in a way that was never possible before. This tool is CRISPR and some scientists predict it could lead to the end of all genetic diseases, and perhaps even the eradication of all diseases, whether genetic or not.

Luke O’Neill is a professor of biochemistry at Trinity College, and one of the world’s leading immunologists. He is using CRISPR to study specific genes in the immune system, to change them, or modify them and see if they are important.

Breandan Kennedy, is a professor at the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science at UCD. He is using CRISPR to try and correct vision loss, blindness due to faulty genes and even non-inherited forms of cancer.

Dr Niall Barron is based at National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, or NIBRT in Dublin. He is using CRISPR to make the manufacture of highly effective, but expensive biologically-based drugs such as Enbrel made  by Pfizer in Dublin and Humira, made by Abbvie in Sligo. Both are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Meanwhile, at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dr Terry Prendiville, a consultant paediatric cardiologist, is using CRISPR, along with colleagues based at NUI Galway, to try and repair inherited cardiac defects in children.

Dr Prendiville points out that it could be some years before CRISPR can be used to help repair the hearts of children with inherited defects.

CRISPR is described by Luke O’Neill as being as important to science as the invention of the microscope, and it has the potential to eradicate many of the debilitating and deadly diseases that are today considered incurable.

Ireland ‘switches on’ to astronomy in historic event at Birr Castle

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Broadcast on RTE Radio 1 Drivetime, 27th July 2017

I-LOFAR, Ireland’s radio telescope at Birr Castle, pictured, was switched on today in a historic moment for astronomy here (Credit: RTE)

The most important telescope ever built in Ireland, one capable of revealing  the most closely guarded secrets of the Universe, was switched on by Minister John Halligan today (27th July 2017) in Birr Castle Co Offaly.

The scientists behind Ireland’s LOFAR radio telescope say that it can listen in to signals coming from even the most distant parts of space, and could conceivable, one day, detect a signal from an extraterrestrial civilisation.

 

Extraterrestrial radio 

Up to today, if ET was going to send a signal to the Earth via radio – which many believe would be his preferred option for technical reasons – Ireland certainly would not be the first place to pick up the historic transmission.

After today, it is entirely possible that Birr Castle, which is now proudly home to Ireland’s LOFAR radio telescope, could be the location where the world’s press gather to hear of the first radio contact from another civilisation.

The person that has, more than any other, put Irish astronomy back on the map, in a way that it hasn’t been since the 19th century, is Peter Gallagher, professor in astrophysics at Trinity College Dublin.

Peter led the countdown to the switching on of I-LOFAR this morning, and even heavy rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of a crowd of scientists, locals, journalists, as well as Minister Halligan and his officials.

History 

It is entirely fitting that Birr Castle is home to I- LOFAR as it is also home to the Leviathan of Parsonson, an enormous hulking optical, or light-based telescope, that sits in a field adjacent to the new arrival. The Leviathan, was the world’s largest and most famous telescope between the years 1845 and 1917.

It was built, designed and operated by William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse, a brilliant scientist, who used his remarkable telescope, and eyesight, to make out the distinctive spiral shape of what became known as a whirlpool galaxy, because of its distinctive shape, called M51. That was in 1845.

This discovery was huge, because it meant that there was more than one galaxy outside our own, the Milky Way and meant the Universe was a lot larger than we had thought up to then. The telescope and Lord Rosse attracted visitors from around the world who came to look in awe on the remarkable man and his machine.

The switching on of I-LOFAR today as a proud and emotional day for the current Lord Rosse, Brendan Parsons, the 7th Earl.

 

 

 

Exciting 
Today was a historic and exciting day for Irish astronomy, and puts it back on the international map in a way it hasn’t been since the 19th century. Scientists here, using I-LOFAR, will, as of today, be able to hunt for new planets, try and unravel some of the Universe’s most deeply held secrets, and even, one day, perhaps, receive a signal from whatever intelligent life form may wish to send a radio signal our way.

Let the astronomical games begin!

Butterfly and bee species are disappearing from the Irish landscape

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Click HERE to listen to report for Drivetime on RTE Radio 1

(Broadcast 5th June, 2017)

Peacock_on_Common_Knapweed800

The numbers and diversity of Ireland’s butterflies and bees is in steep decline. Pictured here is a Peacock butterfly on Common Knapweed (Credit: Jesmond Harding, Butterfly Conservation Ireland) Butterfly Conservation Ireland,

Butterflies, and bees provide a number of ecological services essential for any landscape – including pollination and   – and their numbers and diversity in an area are considered to be excellent indicators of how well insects generally are doing in a landscape.

To see how they are getting on in the Irish landscape I visited Ballyannan woods near Midleton in Cork. This is an area where cultivated fields with neat rows of potato plants lie next to Ballyannan woods, a mixed woodland, containing sycamore, beech and natural oak trees popular with local walkers.

The diversity of the landscape here makes it an ideal location for the National Biodiversity Data Centre to carry out weekly butterfly monitoring, along the same designated route, for seven months per year.

I met Dr Tomas Murray an ecologist with the Data Centre and members of a diverse butterfly monitoring and counting group, which included students, older people and people working with local community groups.

It was an  overcast day, and on days like these, it can be more difficult to catch butterflies, but after a little while we were in luck.

Chemicals 

I also spoke to Dr Dara Stanley, a lecturer in Plant Ecology in the Botany and Plant Science Dept at NUI Galway has investigated how human activities are impact on bees in particular, but also butterflies and other insects.

One of Dr Stanley’s research projects focused on the impact of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are used as seed treatments on crops.

Dr Stanley explained to me that the use of chemicals, herbicides and pesticides of all types is killing bees, but also affecting their behaviour and reducing the food that is available to them.

Over the years, many rare species of bumblebee have been migrating westward across Ireland to those areas where hay making, and hay meadows, which are full of flowers, is still common practice.

Changes in agricultural practice too have reduced the places where pollinating insects can live, and reduced the amount of flowers they can eat. The cutting of gardens in suburban landscapes has a similar effect, Dr Stanley said.

Certainly, changes in the landscape over the last half century of so around Midleton and many other parts of Ireland have been dramatic. Much of the change has come about as a result of more intensive use of the land.

Decline

The decline of butterflies and bees in Ireland has been  dramatic, and the question is what can be done to stop or reverse the decline.

An All Ireland Pollinator Plan, a north-south initiative which began in 2015, set out some specific ways that farmers, gardeners and others can help halt or reverse the decline of our pollinators, butterflies and other insects.

The recommendations for farmers include allowing field margins to grow unmanaged encouraging wild grasses to grow, or to introduce wild flower strips.

For gardeners the message is don’t cut the grass too regularly, every six weeks is enough, and allow one small sunny spot to grow unimpeded.

For now, the decline in our biodiversity is reversible, scientists believe, but if ignore the red flags that nature is raising, we’re likely to pay a heavy price for our inaction.