Let’s start getting serious about science

ALL OF the headlines mentioned a “breakthrough”, but there wasn’t one at all. The story first appeared in the Irish Times on Wednesday, June 1. “Heart cell breakthrough at NUI Galway”.

RTÉ’s headline said: “NUI Galway scientists in stem cell breakthrough”.

There was more breaking through in the scientific and technology website, Silicon Republic. “NUI Galway stem cell breakthrough will generate heart tissue in a lab dish,” it read. Over the following 24 hours the rest of the national media followed suit.