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How the decline of insects affects the ecosystem

Joe Bonfield re-entered his homely kitchen, honey in hand, just as the kettle boiled. I was meeting Bonfield, a graduate of UCD, at his home in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. He completed a BSc in Physics with Astronomy & Space Science and an MSc in Space Science & Technology. In his spare time, he is a beekeeper.

I closely examined the deep yellow honey he had just harvested from his…

I wrote about NASA's $1.5bn solar mission was launched a couple of months back.

This was first published in the University Observer, online and in print.

Launched in August 2018, NASA’s $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe mission is set to revolutionise our understanding of the Sun by traveling closer to it than any spacecraft has gone before.

Released from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona, is a stream of charged particles called the solar wind, which flows out…

Octopuses are wicked smart.

This post is based on Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, a book by philosopher and diver Peter Godfrey Smith. It’s well worth a read if you’re interested in consciousness (or octopuses) and, I’d argue, even if you’re not. The quotes I use are taken from this book.

First, let’s set the record straight: The plural of octopus is octopuses, but octopodesis also…

Here's a few words about the decline in violence over time. The world is far from perfect but historical data shows things used to be a lot worse.

This is an extended version of a piece I wrote for the University Observer, which is available in print and online.

There is a sense that violence is an increasing problem and that past was generally a more harmonious era, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is that we live in the most peaceful era since civilisation began, with violence in decline in almost every domain. This…

When black holes aren’t black

At 21, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease and was handed a life expectancy of two years. Although death didn’t arrive in that timescale, the disease severely reduced his bodily control in subsequent years. Crucially for his research, however, his mind was left untouched. He did not let his disability stand in his way: “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet,”he once…

(The irony of sharing this on social media is not lost on me.)

Note: This post is displayed as it appeared on Irish Tech News.

“Watching too much television will rot your brain!” This was a common sentiment when television first came on the scene. Similar noises were also made with the advent of the telephone, and this type of fear is so entrenched in the human psyche that we can even trace it back to ancient Greece and the invention of writing. There is…

There’s a lot of lingo associated with computer hacking culture. Firstly, you have computer hackers, who can be either white hats or black hats. A white hat is an ethical hacker who specializes in ensuring the security of an organization’s information systems. This is in contrast with a black hat, which is a malicious hacker. People have been sent to prison for this kind of activity. The names…