Science Communication

Thought I'd share some websites that keep us informed of science developments and science communication in Ireland.

http://www.science.ie/
Science Spin Magazine
Science Magazine
Eureka Science Supplement for Primary Schools
Women in Technology and Science
The Alchemist Cafe Dublin
http://interactive.ucc.ie/ucc/
http://www.discover-science.ie/
Think for Yourself

One can even find the works of Darwin online.

Oops!

Haven't done much new research lately, I've been writing up my work and creating posters and preparing seminars based on this work. Have some more changes to make to the latest draft and I'll post a link to it once I'm done. Then I can be back to some good real work! Visit my site for electronic versions of my latest poster and recent seminar slides. If you're interested, it's all on weights on codes over rings. i.e. math of coding theory. Should be fairly accessible.

Reading Orson Scott Card's Ender Series at the moment, incredibly addictive! Will post reviews once I stop reading for long enough! Also will post a review of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, another excellent book.

Found myself reading lots of motivational-based books to beat the 2nd-year slump of the phd. I'm open to any good suggestions! Or if anyone has suggestions for coding-theory or algebraic geometry 'summer' schools or workshops etc.

Gathering together some scientists from all walks to put together a science-communication group in Ireland, might post some more information here as it arrives. Could be interesting and lots of fun!

Scrabble in Research

Have finally found a way to describe my research area to 8 year olds. If they know about Scrabble that is. Essentially I work on proving extension theorems about weights on ring linear codes. If one really simplifies this you can think of it as follows. Think of the words we make in scrabble as being codewords, out of the set of possible combinations of the letters only some of them are actually words. Every letter has a score assosciated with it, usually on the letter tile. If we call this the weight of the letter and the total score (neglecting any triple-letter-score bonuses etc) we call the weight of the word. Then the possible scores that we can attatch to the letters and the repercussions of these changes are essentially what I work on. Not much help in real scrabble though! Of course the alphabets I use are different, the rules for making 'valid' words must have certain properties and there are infinitely many of each letter in the imaginary scrabble bag.

Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis long thought to be plaque sticking to the artery walls has been thorougly discussed in the article linked here. Fascinating and an important read for anyone with a heart.

Book Reiew: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' by Jean-Dominique Bauby

VERDICT: Pleasant

A wonderful book. A fantastic view of life from a man who could only move his left eyelid to communicate. Humbling and instills one with a renewed love and appreciation of life and all those things we take for granted. Read it, it won't take you long and it will change your perspective.

Book Review: Mc Cathy's Bar

'Mc Carthy's Bar' by Pete Mc Carthy

VERDICT: (mostly) put-down-able

This book reminded me of
Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a fridge'
a book I greatly enjoyed. Both follow the near-random wanderings of an Englishman around Ireland.

Pete Mc Carthy's travels centre mostly around West Cork, the idyllic setting of his childhood holidays and a place he has never lost his grá for. Through the humour of bizarre happenings we glimpse the changes brought on by the 'celtic tiger'. Although intended as a comic story, and parts can be funny, I felt a melancholy undertone borne out of our narrator's longing to rightfully claim Ireland as his home, despite his English birth. The book characterises certain elements of Irish culture and landscape that escape many writers and makes an intersting read for any Irish person, or potential visitor.

The Giving of Thanks

If I were a turkey-loving American traditionalist and lover-of-holidays I would be celebrating thanksgiving today. Although I will be saving myself for Christmas-day-turkey in less than a month I will share some little things I'm thankful for in a small way today:

sunshine + dry weather on my walk into work.
ESB (electricity bill) not as scarily big as the last one.
free cake + fizzy lemonade for the arrival of IRU
chocolates from Belgium courtesy of Vijay
warm clothes fresh from the drier
feast of boris three times in one month (pity no-one was ready to ascend)
having lunch with a brilliant book and the guts to do so
being able to do more than blink one eyelid

things I thank my lucky stars for everyday include:
greg (everything about him)
my family + their health + well being
my friends
my health (being able to dance, walk, laugh and have fun)
nature ( from kicking fallen leaves to being mesmerised by waterfalls)
life!

What are you thankful for?