The European Space Agency's science programme committee has given the final go-ahead to Smart-1, the first in a line of space missions designed to demonstrate new technologies. It will be the first ESA spacecraft to orbit the moon. Its most innovative work will involve a lightweight instrument which will provide new insights into the composition of the moon.
The D-CIXS instrument, which was mostly designed and made in Britain, is a complex imaging X-ray spectrometer. It is designed to seek out the different minerals which make up lunar rocks by detecting Xrays emitted from the surface. "If the moon is really made of green cheese, we'll be the first to tell the world," said Dr Manuel Grande of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
OF every 16 engineers in the Republic, just one is a woman. This "depressing statistic" is compounded by the slow rate of progress in third-level courses, according to Prof Jane Grimson, chartered engineer president of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.
The IEI in association with WITS (Women In Technology and Science) are currently developing a programme aimed at raising awareness among girls of what engineering is all about, what a central role it plays in all our lives, and the potential it offers as an exciting and different career choice. It will include a move to designate a particular day when industry will have presentations and demonstrations for girls from local schools.
THE NUI postdoctoral fellowship in science, valued at £40,000, has been awarded to Patrick O'Leary, a chemistry graduate from UCC, who will take up a twoyear fellowship at the department of chemistry in his alma mater. He will be researching "asymmetric synthesis of sesquiterpenoid derivatives, which are potassium channel agonists".
Speaking at the presentation of the fellowship, NUI registrar Dr John Nolan said: "I would ask members of the science community who are here today to make allowances for me if I stumble over the title . . . This gives an excellent illustration of the gap which has developed between the activities of the science community and the understanding which the general public, even a fairly well-educated public, has of the sciences today. Strenuous efforts are needed to expand the public understanding of the sciences and to encourage more students into the sciences."