Cork students win Young Scientist title

Taoiseach Brian Cowen led the tributes to the joint winners of the 2009 BT Young Scientist of the Year title last night.

The pair, John D. O'Callaghan, 14, and Liam McCarthy, 13 , second-year students from Kinsale Community School, Co Cork, were entered in the Biological and Ecological Sciences category, junior section, with their groundbreaking test to establish the health of cattle using washing up liquid.

Officially termed "The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production" it is thought the research could be commercialised for use by farmers in Ireland and father afield.

John and Liam are two farmers' sons from Cork, concerned with the financial losses incurred if milk sold from their farms had high contents of somatic cells.

Somatic cells reflect infection in the mammary gland of the cow and downgrades the processability of the milk during cheese making.

Current tests for somatic cells are expensive and slow. In their research the boys discovered that if a small amount of detergent is mixed with a fresh sample of milk the mixture becomes progressively more viscous as the somatic cell content of the milk rises. With this knowledge in mind they derived a simple apparatus that could be used by the farmer to quickly test the milk and determine its status.

This will be of tremendous commercial help to farmers and is a marketable product.

An Taoiseach Brian Cowen accompanied by BT CEO Chris Clark presented the pair with a cheque for €5,000, a Waterford Crystal trophy and the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 21st European Union Contest for Young Scientists taking place in Paris this coming September.

The Taoiseach said that the industry shown by the Cork students is just what wants to see in these challenging economic times.