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Posted on 2009-01-12 in
\'Articulate, confident and competent\' young scientists
'Articulate, confident and competent' young scientists

'Articulate, confident and competent' young scientists

GOOD science with a spark of creativity - that's the formula for success for any budding scientist. Picking the winner at this year's Young Scientist competition is no easy task for the 79 adjudicators - with the 500 top-class projects whittled down from 1,616 for the finals at the RDS in Dublin.

Nevertheless, the judges will have to decide later today on the overall winner or winners.

Sidney Blain is one of the judges quizzing some of the 1,095 students about their projects over three days. An exhibition adjudicator for more than 20 years, he is particularly struck by today's budding scientists, particularly the younger entrants.

"Presenters have become more articulate, more confident and more competent too in their presentation of material," he said.

"But when we are choosing the overall winner we look for that spark of creativity as well."

One such budding scientist is 13-year-old Flannan Sheehan, a first year student at Sanford Park School in Dublin, who has been finding out how diabetics can improve their participation in sport.

Flannan has diabetes, a type that can occur randomly, but has it well managed and, as he puts it himself, is OK with it.

He set about finding the correct snack that people with diabetes should eat before engaging in strenuous exercise so their blood/glucose levels do not drop.

He found that yoghurt-coated rice cakes were the best snacks. And a banana was a good snack for those engaging in less strenuous exercise.

"But the worst snack you can have before engaging in any sport is crisps. Avoid them if you can," he strongly advised.

Nearby, 13-year-old Katharine Deane, was presenting her study that found that it does matter what food is fed to dairy cows.

The first year student at Bandon Grammar School, Co Cork, found that cows that eat lots of grass produce more and higher quality milk.

Katharine's father is a dairy farmer and when asked if she would like to be a dairy farmer too, she replied: "If he gives me the farm - maybe!"

And, yes, it is true that intelligent people have above average amounts of copper and zinc, according to three fifth year students from Coláiste na Sceilge in Caherciveen, Co Kerry.

James Casey, 17, and Kerry Corcoran and Sinead Sheahan, 16 years old, based their findings on 25 hair samples.

Kerry said the fact, while recorded in books and on the internet, was never proven.

The trio produced an IQ test and asked hairdressers to give them to their customers and keep a sample of their hair that were scientifically tested.

"What we found out was that, generally, people with more copper and zinc are more intelligent. We did not test our own hair because we knew the answers for the IQ test," she said.

Meanwhile, a robot, called RuBot, invented by Pete Redmond from Dublin, yesterday set a new Guinness World Record time of one minute four seconds in solving a Rubik's cube.

There are cameras in the robot's eyes that scan the cube before his pneumonic arms solve it.
 
 
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