Why are some snakes more venomous than others? When did plate tectonics begin? What geological mysteries await our discovery on Mars? How do organisms build their own bodies? How do businesses manage biodiversity?
These are just some of the interesting and diverse Lightning Talks which were presented at a recent event in the School of Natural Sciences. Researchers from the disciplines of Botany, Geology, Geography and Zoology had just two minutes to present their work to colleagues and friends. The strict format created an interesting evening filled with bite-size chunks of science.
We were very lucky to have a great judging panel comprised of Professor Fraser Mitchell (Head of School), Donal Daly (Senior Scientific Officer at the EPA), Thomas Deane (Press Officer for Engineering, Maths and Science), Aoibheann Bird (Education and Outreach manager, Insight Centre for Data Analytics) and Diane McSweeney (Education team at the Science Gallery). The speakers were judged on their content, delivery and use of props. Prizes were kindly sponsored by the Trinity Foundation, the Science Gallery, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and the Graduate Student’s Union.
Botany PhD student, Brian Murphy, won first prize for his talk “A hidden force that will feed the world”. Brian’s research focuses on endophytes: fungi that live in the roots of plants that have great commercial potential for increasing crop yield in an eco-friendly and sustainable way. There were two runner up prizes: Kevin Healy for his talk on the evolution of snake venom (which also featured as part of the Science Gallery’s recent event, Dead Beats) and I won a prize for story about how looks can be deceiving in tenrecs. Other prize winners from the evening included Alwynne McGeever, Hannah Hamilton, Gary O’Sullivan and Mike Williams.
It was a great evening filled with lots of interesting talks and a good chance to find out about the diverse research in the School. Thanks to the fantastic organising committee: Jane Stout, Maria Long, Frances Leogue, Rachel Kavanagh, Tara Kelly, Clare Stead and Alwynne McGeever for making everything run so smoothly!
Videos of all the prizewinning talks can be found on the School’s YouTube channel.
Author: Sive Finlay, @SiveFinlay
Photo credit: wikimedia commons