Winning idea could be commercial success

THE simple test for testing fresh milk for infection that won teenagers John D O’Callaghan and Liam McCarthy the title of BT Young Scientists 2009 could become a commercial success.

As well as earning Kinsale Community School in Co Cork the top prize in Dublin on Friday night, the project also won them a special award from the Patents Office, which is made to the project that best demonstrates the use of technology in new or improved applications, enhanced efficiencies and clever innovations.

The judges were highly impressed by the apparatus they devised to allow farmers test milk for somatic cells, which can indicate infection in a cow and reduces the milk’s processability during cheese-making.

They had discovered that mixing a small amount of washing-up liquid with a fresh sample of milk can help show the somatic cell content, as the higher the content the more viscous the mixture becomes.

“This will be of tremendous commercial help to farmers and it is a marketable product. Thus what they have achieved is utterly practical and brilliant in its simplicity,” the judges said.

While current testing for somatic cells is slow and expensive, the device which they have come up with could prove revolutionary.

The pair are both from dairy farming families and used their knowledge of the problems facing farmers to develop the project.

They were travelling home yesterday and looking forward to a heroes’ welcome when they return to school today, along with other category winners at the same school.

Another pupil at the school, Aisling Judge, was the overall winner in the same competition in 2006.

The 2009 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition finished on Saturday evening, with almost 1,100 students competing with their 500 projects chosen for the event.

John D and Liam will represent Ireland at the EU Young Scientist competition in Paris next September, and also share €5,000 and the overall winners’ trophy.