Live.Laugh.Learn in Ireland

Keep away grumbling ghouls, sinister spirits and ghastly ghosts on Halloween night by positioning your pumpkin lantern in a window. Dim the room, light the candles and watch the cackling face flickering in the eerie darkness!

Tools Needed

1. A knife with a short strong blade – no long knives. Children should be supervised with this.

2. A large spoon or ice-cream scoop for scooping out the flesh.

3. Newspaper – As it makes a bit of a mess!

4. Nightlights for inside the carved pumpkin or nightlights, inside a jar, inside the carved pumpkins.

Carving Tips

1. Draw your design on the pumpkin with a water-based marker beforehand.

2. Out of the top, cut the lid at an angle with a sharp, straight-edged knife. This prevents the top from falling into the pumpkin when it shrinks. Remove seeds and pulp.

3. Never hold the knife in a stabbing position.

4. When carving, keep a portion of the knife blade in the pumpkin and use slow, steady saw strokes.

5. Carve the facial features closest to the centre first and work outward. Cut out the larger features in sections.

6. Remove carved portions by gently pushing them into or out of the pumpkin.

7. Reattach a section that is accidentally removed by using a toothpick to pin it back in place.

8. Flatten a spot at the base of the pumpkin for the candle, but avoid digging too deep because the pumpkin becomes prone to rot.

Happy Halloween!

A Trinity College Dublin lecturer has discovered a new family of plants while surveying the rainforests of Honduras

IT DOESN’T happen very often so when it does it’s a big deal. An Irish botanist discovered a tree that is so different it deserves its own particular branch on the family tree of plants.

“I am delighted,” says Dr Daniel Kelly, a senior lecturer in Trinity College Dublin’s school of natural sciences. “It is a nice example of how science progresses.”

The small tree is now known as Hondurodendron urceolatum , and is the first tree to be categorised within a completely new genus, Hondurodendron , Kelly says.

Read the full circle of life story by DICK AHLSTROM in Irish Times

Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan, TD, presented two DCU companies with Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Awards.

The event was part of the Big Ideas Showcase, which is an annual event (now closed for ‘10), aimed at allowing 18 researchers to pitch “exciting” new technologies to more than 200 potential investors and partners.

The event will see more than 100 one-to-one meetings between the inventors and the potential investors to explore the options to either licence these new technologies or use them as the basis to form new companies in the energy, life sciences, medical engineering and IT sectors.

The first award winner is Astryne Limited, a DCU spin-out company based in DCU’s Invent Centre, which will manufacture liquid filters for VARs. The company had its origins in a research technology proposal from two DCU research centres, NCSR and BDI.

The second winner, the Centre for Digital Video Processing (CDVP) partnered ‘Fairview Analytics’ to commercialise their digital processing technology, InSPeCT, for use in vehicle traffic analysis at seaport, land border crossings and Urban Congestion Zones. The research grew out of Enterprise Ireland-funded research which looked at advanced digital processing techniques of streamed media content.

Read the full story on DCU News

For the first time, the American Society of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) has elected a President from outside the United States. Professor Diane H. Sonnenwald, Head of the UCD School of Information and Library Studies, will serve as the next President of the Society.

Read the full story in UCD News

Scientists led by researchers at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth have solved the mystery of how complex life formed.

“Nature’s big bang” - when two single cells fused into one living organism - has been mapped for the first time by researchers.

Senior biologist Dr James McInerney said the discovery in effect traced humans’ oldest ancestors.

“This was a remarkable event, which appears to have happened only once,” he said. “These two primitive single cell life forms came together in an event that essentially allowed nature to grow big.”

Dr McInerney said the research would help explain what gave rise to all multi-cell organisms we know today - insects, plants, animals and humans.

Read the full story in Irish Times today.

University College Dublin (UCD) students meet former 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, when he was presented with the Ulysses Medal by the President of University College Dublin, Dr Hugh Brady, in recognition for his ongoing commitment and contribution to the peace and prosperity of this island and to the elimination of poverty, disease and suffering worldwide.

Read the full story and watch a video clip of the former Presidents Address highlights at UCD News

Read Gill’s account as to why full marks were achived…

Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney T.D., and Minister for Labour Affairs and Public Service Transformation, Dara Calleary T.D., have welcomed the announcement today of a partnership agreement between Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Health Research Board (HRB), with the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the UK. 

The new SFI-HRB-Wellcome Trust Biomedical Research Partnership will mean that the prestigious Wellcome Trust will jointly fund biomedical researchers in Ireland with SFI and the HRB.

For the story in full check out SFI website.

A recent survey of graduates of the Mitchell Scholars Programme – which brings US students to postgrad studies in Ireland – offers a revealing outsider’s view of the highs and lows of the Irish university sector.

All respondents said they’d recommend the Mitchell Scholarship to others, and four out of five said they would recommend their Irish university and their programme of study to other students.

Read the full story by LOUISE HOLDEN in the Irish Times

What will you see? 

Check out Culture Night tonight!