Judges cast eye on young scientists

THE temperature at the RDS was positively tropical yesterday as, with cold clinical eyes, the judges continued their vetting at the 44th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

All will be revealed this evening at the awards ceremony attended by Minister for Education & Science Mary Hanafin.

For their eye-colour project, Roisín, Rachel and Siobhán from Roscommon’s Scoil Mhuire gan Smal performed eye tests on fellow students, staff and family members.

And the proposition was: Does eye colour affect the quality of your eyesight?

Roisín summed up: “People with light-coloured eyes are more susceptible to light than people with darker eyes — but people with brown eyes have better eyesight.”

We struggled to absorb the conflicting views of opposing forces — those who think right is... er, right and others who confirm “lefties” as the absolute cream.

Annemarie Breathnach of the Teresian School Donnybrook, Dublin said she and project colleagues Leah Timon and Kirsten Reynolds triumphantly show the wonders of left-handedness.

“The purpose of our project was to help overcome the negative associations with left-handedness by showing famous people that are left-handed.”

It’s an awesome list. How about the world’s richest man and mega philanthropist Bill Gates? Einstein, Jimi Hendrix, Picasso, Nelson Mandela; all left-handed people, who have left their mark.

It seems our world is headed in the right direction — by producing more left-handed people, especially in the thrusting Asian countries.

Leah Timon, who is right-handed, said women who give birth later on are more likely to have a left-handed baby.

Coláiste Eanna from Dublin’s Rathfarnham literally put things back into balance — as seen from a right-handed world — with their project: Who has the upper hand?

You’re correct! Gerard Kennedy and Niall Murphy oozed the quiet certainty of people who just know they’re right.

When it comes down to the serious stuff like maths, logic and spatial awareness, the “righties” win hands down.

“So, you’re right-handed?” we ventured. “Yeah,” the two lads smiled in unison. “Our studies were based on IQ tests,” they stressed.

From Carrickmacross, the St Louis secondary school trio of Ciara McQuillan, Sarah Kieran and Siobhán Hayes were looking good.

They investigated the negative side effects of looking good in a world where young girls seek to enhance their body image.

Dieting, sun damage we can understand as potentially bad — but hair straightening?

“People don’t know there are heat defence products which protect against the effects of hair straightening,” they reported.

Looking good for the fellas was advanced by 32% of the survey for influencing their appearance. Wonderfully, only 10% were swayed by what the celebrities did.

We discovered “the truth about red hair” — from three red-headed girls from St Leo’s College, Carlow.

“We set out to disprove the view that red-haired people have tempers,” said Maeve Hosey. Not true, it appears.

Their project attracted interest as Aoife Kavanagh explained that both parents have to carry the gene — but do not have to be red-headed — to have a red-haired child.

James Delaney and Michael McCarthy from Bishopstown, Cork took their musical research to the milking shed and found cows give more milk if left in silence.

From Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh, the two lads played classical and traditional music on four farms.

“We found that cows prefer normality — no music — because any sudden change such as music results in a decrease of milk amounts,” they said.

If you are in the habit of playing the radio, keep doing it as the cows really don’t mind.