Tag Archives: Dublin

Science City: Manchester 2016

Manchester (UK) is celebrating its designation as the European City of Science concurrently with the European Open Science Forum (ESOF) 2016 which will be held there as I noted in a May 8, 2015 posting, which focused largely on the forum. An Oct. 22, 2015 Manchester: European City of Science announcement reveals early details about the city’s celebration of science,

Be part of the Manchester Science Formula

We’re concocting something special for Manchester for 2016. You might have already heard about Manchester becoming the European City of Science, and we would like to invite you to get involved!

Manchester’s year was started by celebrating alongside the launch 2015 Manchester Science Festival, at the Museum of Science and Industry. We captured everyone’s enthusiasm for science in our pop-up photo booth, where many made a promise to bring science alive in Manchester over the next year.  You can see more pictures and promises here.

We’re inviting everyone to be involved and make the most of the focus on science in Manchester in 2016. If you would like to find out how to join us, please visit manchestersciencecity.com to join our newsletter and you can also discover more about our plans for The Manchester Robot Orchestra and the Big School Science Share, just two of the exciting developments announced at the launch.

The 2015 Manchester Science Festival is still ongoing and once it ends Manchester is hosting a science policy week,

Manchester Science Festival

Running from 22 October – 1 November, the Manchester Science Festival is in its 9th year and promises to be bigger and better than ever before.

Curated by the Museum of Science and Industry, there will be events held city-wide that are suitable for all ages.

Keep an eye on #MSF15 for trending topics and the website for all the available events.

Manchester Policy Week

For five jam-packed days in November, the Manchester Policy Week takes over the University of Manchester. There will be everything from lectures to workshops to films and they’re open to everyone.

This year, Manchester Policy Week has the theme of ‘Science, Technology and Public Policy’ as part of the European City of Science.

Policy week runs from 2-6 November.

I’m quite taken with what they’re doing in Manchester and with how this ‘city of science’ festival has grown. I believe it was introduced by the Irish when they hosted ESOF 2012 in Dublin and later adopted by Copenhagen when they hosted ESOF 2014. Each city has given this festival its own flavour and it is becoming a richer experience each time. Bravo!

European and Asian science get cozy

The Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) meeting scheduled July 11 – 15, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland features a session on titled ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) – EU (European Union) Partnership Symposium: A Year of Science. Few details are available in the programme but I have found more information in a Feb. 23, 2012 news item on Nanowerk about Thailand’s NANOTEC,

NANOTEC researchers participated as speakers during the visit of science journalist from 8 European nations. The visit is organized under the umbrella of the FP7 funded SEA-EU-NET project, in which NSTDA [Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency]  is a partner, and the ASEAN-EU Year of Science, Technology and Innovation 2012.

I guess it makes a certain kind of sense that I found out more about ASEAN in a news item originating from Thailand as it turns out that ASEAN was founded in Thailand in 1967. Meanwhile, the SEA-EU-NET website provides some insight into this ‘alphabet soup’ of international scientific cooperation (from the home page),

We are deepening S&T [science and technology] cooperation between Europe and Southeast Asia in a strategic manner by identifying opportunities for S&T cooperation, creating a policy dialogue between the countries of Europe and Southeast Asia on S&T cooperation, and increasing the participation of researchers from Southeast Asia in the EC’s Seventh Framework programme (FP7). FP7 is the European Commission’s €53 billion programme for funding research and is open to Southeast Asia partners across research institutions, universities, and industry (including SMEs).

Here’s a bit more about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ and European Union’s Science and Technology Year 2012,

The EU-ASEAN Year of STI 2012 is a SEA-EU-NET activity which was launched in November 2011 and will be carried out during 2012. Offering a plattform for the bi-regional STI dialogue, this activity coordinates a wide variety of joint scientific and technological events.

I hope I can get to Dublin to hear more about this ASEAN – EU effort.

AAAS 2012 Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012 roundup: quantum computing, nanocellulose, religion & science in the classroom, and ESOF in Dublin

Strangely, I have an increased interest in quantum computing after attending a few session yesterday where I didn’t understand much of anything in detail. There was the ‘Quantum Computing: Current Status and Future Prospects” session where various speakers spoke eloquently about their discoveries and outstanding challenges. There was a plea for researcher to keep the field ‘open’ and not to focus exclusively on one line of research or one material (don’t focus solely graphene/silicon/carbon nanotubes/etc.) as the ‘holy grail’ of quantum computing. The other ‘quantum’ session, “Quantum Information Science and Technology: A Global Perspective,” featured researchers working in China, Singapore, Canada, Germany, and the US. Unfortunately, I only managed to attend part of the session. (One of the problems with conferences is the number of sessions being run simultaneously and trying to attend as much ass possible means makings all kinds of compromises. It’s a good problem to have.)

The “NanoCellulose : An Abundant, Sustainable, Versatile Biopolymer” session was partly concurrent with the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) press briefing so I managed to hear only two of their (nanocellulose) speakers, Ted Wegman of the US Forest Service and Nils Petersen, Director General of Canada’s National Institute of Nanotechnology (NINT). Wegman presented an overview of nanocellulose research progress in the US and its potential use in many products while Petersen focussed on the NINT research team and their projects. Petersen did mention the overall Canadian scene somewhat summarily.It was not the presentation described in the programme and it had the air of something cobbled together out of well worn material.

ETA Feb.19.12 at 9:50 am: Wegman mentioned two nanocellulose plants being readied in the US, one being in the state of Maine (100Kg/day?)  and the other in the state of Wisconsin (opening in April/May 2012 and producing 20Kg/day). (I will check those numbers.)

The ESOF briefing promised some excitement at the July meeting in Dublin. They released their programming schedule and spoke at length about the science meeting and the related cultural activities being planned. (I’ll have more about that in a later posting.) The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) representative, Al Teich, noted that the US is having to grapple with a changing landscape regarding science and research (in other words, no longer being the ‘top dog’) and he explicitly stated that the ESOF meetings are fun. I guessed that from the previews (A tale of two cities and their science meetings: vibrant Dublin and sad sack Vancouver) but it’s nice to hear it confirmed.

One other thing, the “Beyond Evolution: Religious Questions in Science Classrooms” was one of those presentations I attended accidentally and I’m sorry I didn’t hear more. They were discussing science as process rather than doctrine and there was some discussion about the impact various religions had on scientific progress.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones

Making sounds with bones—but not as you might imagine.

Image from slideshow of Transjuicer exhibit in Science Gallery, Dublin, 2011 and John Curtin Gallery, Perth 2010

Christopher Mims in his Dec. 27, 2011 (?) article for Fast Company explains what artist Boo Chapple is doing with her Transjuicer installation of speakers made from bone tissue,

Turned on its head, bone’s response to physical stress can be used to produce music—or at least musical tones. That’s what artist Boo Chapple discovered during the course of a year-long collaboration at the University of Western Australia’s SymbioticA lab, the only research facility in the world devoted to providing access to wet labs to artists and artistically minded researchers.

When Chapple began this project, she knew that extensive scientific literature suggested bone had what are known as piezoelectric properties. Basically, when a piezoelectric material is bent, compressed, or otherwise physically stressed, it generates an electric charge. Conversely, applying an electric charge to a piezoelectric material can change its shape. This has made piezoelectrics the backbone of countless environmental sensors and tiny actuators.

Poring through this literature, Chapple realized that applying a current to bone at just the right frequency should make it vibrate like the diaphragm in an audio speaker. And because bone retains its piezoelectric properties even when it’s no longer living, it should be fairly straightforward to transform any old bone into the world’s most outre audio component.

Because Chapple is an artist and not a technologist, her goal wasn’t to pursue this technique until it yielded a new product. Rather, the point was to accomplish what all good art can: “making strange” otherwise familiar objects.

I first heard about the SymbioticA lab when they showed their Fish & Chips project (the report I’ve linked to is undated) at the 2001 Ars Electronic annual event in Linz, Austria. I never did get to see the performance (fish neurons grown on silicon chips and hooked up to software and musical instruments) but their work remains a source of great interest to me. (I last mentioned SymbioticA in my July 5, 2011 posting where they were scheduled for the same session that I was, at the 2011 ISEA conference in Istanbul.)

Here’s a bit more about the SymbioticA lab at the University of Western Australia (from their home page),

SymbioticA is a research facility dedicated to artistic inquiry into knowledge and technology in the life sciences.

Our research embodies:

  • identifying and developing new materials and subjects for artistic manipulation
  • researching strategies and implications of presenting living-art in different contexts
  • developing technologies and protocols as artistic tool kits.

Having access to scientific laboratories and tools, SymbioticA is in a unique position to offer these resources for artistic research. Therefore, SymbioticA encourages and favours research projects that involve hands on development of technical skills and the use of scientific tools.

The research undertaken at SymbioticA is speculative in nature. SymbioticA strives to support non-utilitarian, curiosity based and philosophically motivated research.

Boo Chapple, a resident at the SymbioticA Lab, had this to say about her installation, Transjuicer, and science when it was at Dublin’s Science Gallery (excerpted from the Visceral Interview),

Do you think that work like yours helps to open up science to public discussion and debate; and does this interest you?

I’m not sure that Transjuicer is so much about science as it is about belief, the economy of human-animal relations, and the politics of material transformation. These are all things that are inherent to the practice of science but perhaps not what one might think of when one thinks of public debate around particular scientific discoveries, or technologies.

While I am interested in the philosophical parameters of these debates, I do not see my art practice as an instrument of communication in this respect, nor is Transjuicer engaged with any hot topics of the moment, or designed in such a way as to reveal the technical processes that were employed in making the bone audio speakers.

The work being done at the SymbioticA lab is provocative in the best sense, i.e., meant to provoke thought and discussion.

Art of Science in Dublin

An Irish hit musical inspired by Schrödinger? As Dublin gears up to for its 2012 City of Science experience (mentioned in my April 29, 2011 posting), it seems that various organizations are hosting events in preparation. The Dublin Contemporary 2011 organization is hosting The Art of Science event on Oct. 20, 2011 at 7 pm. From the Art of Science webpage,

The Art of Science: How Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger’s time in Dublin influenced Rough Magic’s Musical “Improbable Frequency” and other probabilities

7PM
RSVP to dc2011events@gmail.com

Erwin Schrödinger came to Dublin in 1939 as first Professor of Theoretical Physics in the newly constituted Dublin Institute for Advanced Study. By this stage he had completed his primary work on quantum physics, including the eponymous Schrödinger Wave Equation and the “Schrödinger’s Cat” thought-experiment, an illustration of the paradox arising when quantum concepts meet human (or feline) reality. Probably (a risky choice of word here) the most significant contribution from his time in Dublin is the 3 lecture series “What is Life”? Professor of Physics at Trinity College Dublin, Iggy McGovern discusses the significant years that Schrödinger spent living in Dublin.

If the first half of the 20th century was the era of physics, then the second half would be the era of biology – thanks largely to Schrödinger’s book,  ‘What is Life?’ Mary Mulvihill takes a whirlwind look at some of the key developments in the world of science in the 20th century, and examines our changing public perceptions of science and technology.

How did Schrödinger end up being the inspiration for the hit Irish musical “ Improbable Frequency” ? Lynne Parker, Artistic Director of Rough Magic questions the great divide between Art & Science and Arthur Riordan expands on how the famous physicist came to appear in his musical “Improbable Frequency”.

You can read more about the speakers on the Art of Science page and here are a few snippets from the musical,

Dublin’s beautiful elements

Trinity College’s Science Gallery launched an exhibit celebrating the Periodic Table of Elements and the International Year of Chemistry, Elements, on July 15, 2011. The exhibit will be open until September 23, 2011.

GrrlScientist in her August 8, 2011 posting on the Guardian science blogs waxes rhapsodic about the exhibit [ETA Aug. 12, 2011: This is not a review of the exhibit. GrrlScientist notes elsewhere in her post that she has not yet been able to view it. Thank you to Michael Flynn for emphasizing that point. I should have been clearer about it.],

What does an invisible (lead) man, a (dead) man and a revigitator [sic] have in common? POISON? No … They all make an appearance at the hot new ‘Elements’ exhibition that’s on right now at Trinity College Dublin’s Science Gallery in Ireland!

One thing that I especially love about this exhibition (from just watching the videos) is the crowd-sourced periodic table, which the Gallery is building now.

You can see what she means,

I last mentioned Dublin in my April 29, 2011 posting about the city’s upcoming status as Europe’s City of Science 2012 and its self-organized celebration, Dublin City of Science 2012.