WESTMEATH
New ways to fix broken bones and knees
Have you ever broken a bone? Or fallen and twisted your knee or ankle? Ouch! Professor Fergal O’Brien from Rosemount in Co. Westmeath is inventing new ways to fix damaged bones and joints, like knees.
Fergal studied engineering in college and today he is one of Ireland’s most respected researchers.
In his lab at RCSI in Dublin, Fergal and a team of researchers are inventing and making new substances that can be put onto broken bones and into sore knees. These ‘biomaterials’ help the body to fix the bits that are not working. So far, they have shown that the biomaterials can help injured racehorses to get better, and tests show the materials can help humans to get back on their feet too.
From the Midlands to Everest
You probably know that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth. What you may not know is that an explorer from the midlands in Ireland led one of the first expeditions to map Mount Everest.
Charles Howard-Bury grew up in Charleville Castle, Co. Offaly, and he lived for a long time in Belvedere House near Mullingar in Co. Westmeath.
In 1921, Charles led a team of mountaineers to the Himalayan mountains in Tibet. Many of these mountains are tall, but Mount Everest is the highest – it soars to almost 8.85 kilometres above sea level. Charles and his team spent months exploring there. They made maps of Mount Everest, they figured out routes to approach it and they recorded information that was very important for future adventurers.
LONGFORD
The (very) old bog road
Have you ever walked across bogland? It’s squishy and sometimes your foot disappears into a big puddle of water. Thousands of years ago, the people who lived in what is now Longford came up with clever ways to move quickly across bogland. They built wooden trackways above the bog, which acted as paths or roads.
The wood that formed the road sank into the bog, and because the bog is acidic the wood didn’t rot away. Recently, when archaeologists uncovered trackways at places such as Edercloon and Corlea, they were able to analyse the remains of these ancient roads and find out more about how people lived in the area a long time ago.
Hands-on learning for science
Maria Edgeworth and her father, Richard were from Co. Longford. Together they wrote an important book about teaching science. The book was called ‘Practical Education’ and it came out in 1798. The Edgeworths wrote about how children should learn about science by doing hands-on experiments and learning by looking at what happens in nature. They also write about how young students should learn to think about evidence and solve problems. They are all important skills for scientists!
Maria also wrote novels, or stories, that involved people using science to solve problems, and she wrote about how important it was that women should learn about science, which was radical thinking for her time.
OFFALY
Hello volcano in Offaly
Imagine living close to a volcano. If you live near Croghan Hill in Co. Offaly, then you do! Croghan Hill rises to more than 200 metres out of the Bog of Allen. It formed about hundreds of millions of years ago, erupting from the sea that covered it at the time. Lots of volcanic rocks are to be found on and around the hill. Experts can learn from these rocks about the history of the volcano, such as when it erupted and where lava flowed. But don’t worry, it’s an extinct volcano now, it won’t explode again.
The moon, the steam engine and the world’s biggest telescope
If you stepped on the moon, how hot or cold would the ground be? If you stepped on the part of the moon that faces the sun, it would be really hot, it would burn your feet. But on the other side of the moon, the ‘dark’ side that faces away from the sun, the ground is really cold.
A long time before anyone set foot on the moon, Laurence Parsons in Birr, Co. Offaly, figured out how to measure the temperature of the moon’s surface. He invented a ‘lunar heat machine’ that attached to a telescope at Birr and recorded radiation coming from the moon. When humans landed on the moon in 1969, they found that Laurence Parsons’s predictions were pretty accurate.
Laurence and his family invented lots of things. His brother, Charles Parsons, invented a steam turbine in the 1880s that made it easy and cheap to generate electricity. Laurence and Charles’s parents, Mary and William Parsons, built telescopes. One of them, the Leviathan was built in 1845 and was the biggest telescope in the world, in terms of aperture size. The Leviathan at Birr held that world record until the early 20th century.
LAOIS
A carpet needle from Laois
Robert Flower was an inventor born at Castle Durrow in County Laois. He liked to come up with ideas and carry out experiments, although one of his attempts to work with gunpowder backfired and injured him, meaning that he walked with a limp.
Robert Flower was more successful when it came to making carpets and rugs. He invented a loom and a latch-hook needle that were easy to use, meaning that more people could get jobs as carpet makers.
Robert Flower’s inventions helped to set up a local factory in Abbeyleix. Lots of people got jobs there making carpets and rugs, and they made them for some pretty famous customers, including the Mansion House in Dublin and even the Titanic!
Robert Flower died in 1919.
Fitz’s famous flight across the Atlantic
Today lots of planes fly across the Atlantic, but a century ago, it was a huge achievement to fly that distance. In 1928 a plane took off from Dublin and flew for 36 hours, landing on Greenly Island off the coast of Canada. It was the first time anyone flew east to west all the way across the Atlantic, and Colonel James Fitzmaurice from Portlaoise, Co. Laois, was co-pilot on the flight.
Text by Dr Claire O’Connell, thanks to Westmeath Historian in Residence Ian Kennelly for information provided on the Mullingar link with Everest Exploration. A special A3 Map exploring the Midlands and its links with science and discovery has been produced. To receive a copy please email comurchu@midlandsscience.ie