All posts by Martin McKenna

Martin is a final-year biochemistry undergraduate. Before college, he studied photography, and now he want to learn to cook. If anyone can think of a career path which combines all of these then please let him know!

Seán McLoone: Robot soccer

The football game starts, and the players dash across the field. With control of the ball, the striker readies to shoot and the goalkeeper tenses in anticipation. With a swift kick, the ball glides across the pitch towards the goals. These players aren’t humans though. They are two-foot tall, autonomous humanoid robots, programmed by a team of engineers and computer scientists in the National University of Ireland Maynooth to compete in the annual world cup of robot soccer, RoboCup. EuroScientist interviewed Seán McLoone, head of the Department of Electronic Engineering, about the team, and watched a game with team members Tom Whelan and Fiachra Matthews. Read more [...]

World class facilities plus coffee fosters enterprise in Ireland

With the arrival of fifteen cadavers, the anatomy teaching lab in Trinity College Dublin’s new Biomedical Sciences Institute will be complete. It is already fitted with fifteen stations, each with surgical lights, a high-definition video camera and flat-screen monitor. The instructor can show the feed from any station on the monitors – all controlled from an iPad. Read more [...]

Evolution-denying book causes Ireland Science Minister’s embarrassment

Ireland’s Minister for Science, Conor Lenihan, is facing criticism this week for his involvement in the launch of a book describing evolution as 'a scientific hoax' and 'an utter impossibility'. The book’s website on Monday advertised that the Minister would launch the book, The Origin of Specious Nonsense, on Wednesday, but by Monday night it emerged that the Minister had pulled out of the event and his name had been removed from the website. Read more [...]