In the near future we will increasingly live and work in smart environments marrying the technologies of nano science, sensors and the computing power of the internet. Irish Scientists are looking at applications that will come from this new world. With each sensor having potentially the power of the most intelligent computer that we know of today, the possibilities are endless and one of the most exciting areas will be in health monitoring from outside to actually inside the human body.

Barry Smith, UCD Clarity – this new unit is working on a range of physical sensors using all forms of technology including mobile phone networks to design devices which can be worn, woven into buildings and can be used to monitor everything from physical and possibly mental health to the environment

Briain McCraith – National Centre for Sensors – DCU is developing a home diagnostic system by which a patient can test themselves at home by simply wearing a small unit or using a swab of sweat or saliva placed on a chip which is inserted into a mobile phone type device at home. The results will then arrive on the GPs and will allow him to make diagnosis of illnesses at a very early stage before symptoms have even appeared.

Prof John Lowry, Maynooth is working on intelligent chemical sensors which can be inserted into the human body as indicators of dysfunction for example someone suffering from bipolarity or schizophrenia may have a permanent implant or probe which will monitor seratonin levels and adjust medication accordingly. With funding from Enterprise Ireland, industry is looking to his collaboration with Oxford for devices that will help diagnose disease and even possibly provide a cure.

Ireland’s agricultural economy is changing. Where once Irish crops were used almost exclusively for food, fuel and animal feed, there is now an array of new possibilities. New technologies and dedicated research into new areas has opened up new horizons for crop growers in areas such as human health. In the international year of the potato it is appropriate that developments in genetic mapping will allow Irish researchers to develop new breeds of blight resistant potatoes which are being exported all over the world. As our knowledge of the genomes of a large variety of crops increases so does the capacity for crops to play key roles in people’s health and the environment.

Denis Griffin & Dan Milbourne, - Denis Griffin is one of Ireland’s key potato breeders. His work involves a long and intricate process which begins with the identification of notable or desirable characteristics. Over a period of 10-12 years he carefully cross breeds, produces the initial seeds, grows thousands of seedlings and finally whittles down to less than 100 plants. He then checks for key positive and negative traits and the process begins once again. His collaboration with Dan Milbourne has helped him to identify key traits in potatoes in a much quicker way using the increasing amount of information gained by the ongoing mapping of the potato genome. Working together they can identify key traits in the potato both for the consumer in terms of taste and cooking styles but also for farmers in terms of their natural resistance to certain airborne blights and pesticides.

Ashtown Research Centre & Neutraceuticals – Super breads – Nigel Brunton & Eimear Gallagher. Researchers are continually looking at new ways to improve the inherent nutritional value of our foods. Barley is one of Ireland’s most important crops and is known to contain a compound known as Betaglucen which has important properties which can help to lower cholesterol and aid the immune system. Brunton has found in his research that in fact there are over 4 times the amount of this compound in the barley ends which are normally thrown away. For Nigel and his team the challenge now is to find ways to incorporate this into a popular and tasty “superbread”.

Phil Dix, NUI Maynooth, – though the use of plants as “factories” for pharmaceuticals or medicinal compounds is a relatively new field – Phil Dix is already classed as a world leader because of his work on the unique system of developing and growing key proteins in the Chloroplast of the Tobacco plants which could help in the production of a vaccine for HIV/Aids. We have also interviewed one of the key researchers on this project - Matthew McCabe (currently working in Teagasc – Grange)

In order to properly understand what is happening with climate change and what the effects might be in the future – Scientists throughout the world must understand the processes driving climate change, the interactions and feedbacks between different parts of the earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land mass and the earth’s interaction with other parts of the solar system. Developing and testing theories to explain the earth’s climate is an important part of solving the challenges of climate change.

Understanding of the various climate feedbacks (negative and positive) is essential for effective policy making. One of the techniques used to represent the physical drivers of climate is mathematical modelling run on high spec computers operated by the UCD Meteorology and Climate Centre and the Irish Centre for High End Computing. Researchers are also looking at Ireland’s relationship with the sun and the seas and what the possible results of existing climate change may bring. One researcher is also examining how the melting of glaciers in the last ice age might help us better understand the outcome of the two remaining ice sheets on earth.

Prof Ray Bates, UCD expert in climate systems and feedback mechanisms; uses modelling to test theories and develop explanations for climate functions.

Prof Peter Lynch UCD is using these new models to help to better predict the results of climate change for Ireland. As one of the leading weather forecast modellers, he is currently collaborating with colleagues in the UK to use the systems he has developed for short and medium terms weather forecasting to help produce the most efficient global climate model possible. Though in some cases he is attempting to “predict the unpredictable”, the better the quality of model that can be produced the more reliable the information.

Alistair McKinstry – IBM Blue – Gene computer for high end computing for EC Earth is liaising closing with Peter Lynch on the C4I project and providing the computer power necessary to process the enormous amount of information involved.

Paul Dunlop and Sara Benetti – Glaciologists – they are working on the premise that investigations into clues left by Ireland’s last ice age may yield clues as to what will happen when the last two remaining ice sheets (Greenland and Antarctica) melt. We follow them as they head out to the far shores of Irish waters and drop a drilling core into the sea bed to take samples and analyse the results

Space – the final frontier! As mankind prepares for more and more missions into unexplored parts of the universe, the European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to ‘beyond’. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues throughout the 21st Century. It may come as a surprise to viewers to learn that Irish Investigators are fulfilling a number of valuable key roles in this field.

Mercury Mission - Donagh O’Mahony, at the Tyndall Institute, has come up with a new material which he hopes will be selected for use on ESA’s planned 2013 mission to Mercury. His material has been proved to withstand immense heat and therefore to be capably of protecting the craft from heat and radiation. As we join him he’s completed the tests of Phase I and is waiting to hear if his results stand up and if funding will be approved for Phase II

Radfet – Based in the Tyndall Institute in Cork, Brendan O’Neill and Aleksandar Jaksic have created a device which can be placed beside the electronics on satellites which then measure radiation. It will be vital as it will determine when radiation levels will become critical and will help Europe to secure its telecommunications networks going forward. In an incredible unforeseen spin off this technology has been adopted by cancer treatment specialists in the US to improve the regulation and efficiency of radiation dosage for cancer patients.

Integral project– It’s said that only 4% of the universe is actually visible. Lorraine Hanlon of UCD is part of the team which developed the OMC - an optical monitoring camera which is currently working on the Integral satellite in space at the moment. It is being used to photograph and map the outer reaches of our solar system. This is truly the stuff of Star Trek as she explains the impact of seeing a Gama Ray burst. This is an event that because of the huge distances in space actually happened millions of years ago and until recently had never been captured on film. Similarly while before we would have expected to see a small number of black holes in our Galaxy she is also thrilled to have found a spine of 400 black holes which were previously unknown. Filming for this sequence has taken place in Dublin & Madrid

Ireland’s population is getting older. The number of people over 65 will double in the next 15-20 years. With this comes a myriad of sociological, medical and financial issues. Health problems include the increase of age related diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Osteoarthritis. We can also expect greatly increased infrastructural pressure on the care of the elderly in hospitals, care institutions and in the home. Irish Investigators are looking closely at the earlier diagnosis of related diseases in order to treat and possibly prevent their onset.

Dominic Walsh – UCD has identified a key Amyloid protein and his work on the behaviour of this protein in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease has been so well received that he has had a number of Nature Papers within the last 12 months and he now claims that he can not only arrest the early development of the disease but possibly even reverse it…. We have filmed with a patient who is suffering with the disease and is looked after by his wife, daughter and a team of nurses.

Dr Michael Farrell in Beaumont Hospital Consultant on the country’s first brain banking system where they are encouraging people to donate their brains to research in order to better understand the pathology of certain diseases. Farrell works with Walsh on donor’s samples and explains the physical impact of this devastating disease on the brain.

Frank Barry, Remedi, Galway – Over 50% of people over 50 will develop the painful and severely debilitating disease of the joint cartilage known as Osteoarthritis. Stem Cell research is genuinely a treatment of the future. Sidestepping the ethical issues by only working with adult stem cells – Barry’s tests on injecting stem cells into the joints of goats have shown some remarkable results in arresting and reversing the early stages of Osteoarthritis. We will be filming with a patient who is suffering with the disease and discussing with a knee/hip replacement surgeon what the possibilities are for the future treatment of this disease.

There’s a revolution underway in scientific research that has the power to influence every aspect of our lives. Developments in nano science will radically change our physical world, how we work, live and play. From superlight and strong, building materials to efficient IT systems to the better diagnosis and treatment of a vast range of illnesses. By 2020, there will be 400 billion transistors on a single chip (the equivalent of the number of stars in the galaxy) bringing us to the limit of Moore’s Law or the known physical limit of our current technology. In order to move beyond this the focus of research is moving down to the nano level a world where the normal rules of physics no longer apply. Irish Investigators are looking at creating new materials technologies invisible to the human eye but strong and powerful and intelligent than anything we know of or can possibly even imagine.

Professor Mike Coey, probably Ireland’s most celebrated scientific researcher, Fellow of the Royal Society and author of countless Nature Papers Coey is working on 3 major ways to revolutionise our computer science industry. His particular area of expertise is in the use of magnetics to completely change the way we use information technology

Ken Dawson – has recently been awarded a prize by the American Institute “National Academy of Sciences”. This is an award rarely bestowed outside the US and it is in recognition of his work in the field of minimising materials so that substances such as potential medication can be directly introduced into the very nucleus of the human cell.

Suresh Pillai - DIT, has designed a nanoparticle which can be activated by fluorescent lighting designed to kill MRSA. His tests have been proved successful and he has patented the technology. It is a very real possibility that very soon in order to make sure a hospital’s wards, theatres and corridors are free from MRSA they will simply have to switch on the light! He has set his sights next on the major killer Clostridium Difficil