Science - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

Wells and Wellbeing – new book links the water science and traditions behind Irish holy wells

Dr Bruce Misstear, Fellow Emeritus in Trinity’s School of Engineering, recently launched a new book – Wells and Wellbeing, The Hydrogeology of Irish Holy Wells.

21 Dec 2023

Culture|Environment|Science

12 things we learned in 2023, thanks to Trinity research

In the last year Trinity’s researchers have made significant contributions to their fields, enriching our culture, building better futures and increasing our understanding of the world we live in.

20 Dec 2023

Culture|Health|Research|Science

Yes, climate change is a crisis. But let’s stop using the language of war

We talk about the need for improved flood defences, the need to protect ourselves against the forces of nature. But what we really need is to work with nature, writes Prof Iris Möller in an analysis piece first published in The Irish Times.

19 Dec 2023

Research|Science|Sustainability

Trinity researchers win distinguished IRC Advanced Laureate Awards

Seven researchers across a range of disciplines at Trinity have been announced as successful applicants to the Irish Research Council (IRC) Advanced Laureate Awards (ALA) programme.

12 Dec 2023

Awards and Funding|Health|Research|Science|Society

Seti: how we’re searching for alien life at previously unexplored frequencies

Is there life beyond Earth? The question has turned out to be one of the hardest to answer in science. Find out how astrophysicists from Trinity are seeking ET in this piece published by The Conversation.

7 Dec 2023

Research|Science

SandboxAQ funds two Quantum Science and Technology MSc scholarships for under-represented students

As part of an ongoing collaboration these scholarships, available to students from the Global South, will help train the future quantum workforce and bring greater diversity to the quantum ecosystem.

6 Dec 2023

Awards and Funding|Research|Science|Students

How AI can decode ancient scripts – from medieval manuscripts to hieroglyphics

The ethics and dangers of AI have received important attention over the past year, but its power to make legible and navigable our cultural heritage also deserves attention, writes Dr Mark Faulkner in this piece for The Conversation.

5 Dec 2023

Arts|Culture|Science

Why reading nursery rhymes and singing to babies may help them to learn language

New research shows that babies learn from rhythmic information – the changing emphasis of syllables in speech – which, unlike phonetic information, can be heard in the womb.

1 Dec 2023

Research|Science

Bees are still being harmed despite tightened pesticide regulations

A new study has confirmed that pesticides, commonly used in farmland, significantly harm bumblebees – Ireland’s most important wild pollinators. In a huge study spanning 106 sites across eight European countries, researchers have shown that despite tightened pesticide regulations, far more needs to be done.

29 Nov 2023

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Trinity to headquarter Climate+ Co-Centre

The new €41.3 million research centre will be the home of research, innovation, and policy development across the interlinked challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and water degradation on the islands of Ireland and Britain.

28 Nov 2023

Awards and Funding|Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Deoxygenation levels similar to today’s played key role in marine extinctions during major past climate change event

Newly published research serves as a further warning that present day marine ecosystem stability is likely more fragile than apparent. And marine deoxygenation is projected to significantly increase in response to global warming and increased nutrient run-off from continents.

27 Nov 2023

Research|Science

Trinity pair win European Research Council Consolidator Grants

Professors Kate Maguire and Michael Monaghan will use the funding from the EU Horizon Europe programme to better understand how and why stars explode, and to create a new cardiac patch to regenerate heart muscle.

23 Nov 2023

Awards and Funding|Research|Science

How do we learn? Neuroscientists pinpoint how memories are stored in the brain

New work by a team led by Dr Tomás Ryan shows that learning occurs through the continuous formation of new connectivity patterns between specific "engram" cells in different regions of the brain.

21 Nov 2023

Research|Science

Building national capacity for open research

Three Trinity projects have received funding under the National Open Research Forum (NORF) as part of a drive to build national capacity and infrastructure for open research.

20 Nov 2023

Awards and Funding|Health|Research|Science|Society

Plants might be able to absorb more CO2 from human activities than previously expected

This research paints an uncharacteristically upbeat picture for the planet, but despite the headline finding, the environmental scientists behind the work say it does not mean the world’s governments can take their foot off the brake in their obligations to reduce carbon emissions as fast as possible.

17 Nov 2023

Environment|Research|Science

Accounting for nature a priority for Ireland’s prosperity – new report

The team behind a pioneering project for nature, INCASE, has issued a series of recommendations to value, restore and protect Ireland’s resources through applying a natural capital accounting framework as a national priority.

15 Nov 2023

Environment|Research|Science

New research offers hope for reduced muscle wastage for cancer patients

Researchers from Trinity, in collaboration with Artelo Biosciences, have made a breakthrough in cancer cachexia. Their work shows the drug ART27.13 protects against the muscle degeneration associated with colon and lung cancers (cachexia) and believe it may also positively impact life expectancy.

10 Nov 2023

Health|Research|Science

Autism brain states hold the key to unlocking childhood memories

Neuroscientists have discovered a fascinating connection between the retention of early life memories and brain developmental trajectories associated with autism. Their research reveals that “infantile amnesia” – the forgetting of memories formed during early infancy – is both reversible and preventable.

9 Nov 2023

Research|Science

Why a surprise discovery, warming seas and the demise of the ‘Meg’ may spell trouble for sharks

Some unexpected shark strandings and subsequent surprises following autopsies have, ironically, taken marine biologists millions of years back in time as they look to the future with concern.

8 Nov 2023

Environment|Research|Science

First winners of Joly Cancer Leadership Programme award named

The first two awardees under the Joly Cancer Leadership Programme are Dr Nina Orfali, Consultant Haematologist, and Mr Michael Kelly, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon.

3 Nov 2023

Health|Research|Science

Late not great – imperfect timekeeping places significant limit on quantum computers

New research from a consortium of quantum physicists, led by Trinity College Dublin’s Dr Mark Mitchison, shows that imperfect timekeeping places a fundamental limit to quantum computers and their applications.

31 Oct 2023

Research|Science

ET phone Dublin? Astrophysicists scan the Galaxy for signs of life

The astrophysicists, from Trinity and the Breakthrough Listen team and Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, are scanning the Universe for “technosignatures” emanating from distant planets that would provide support for the existence of intelligent, alien life.

24 Oct 2023

Research|Science

New project chases net-zero renewable energy systems for the Atlantic Area

Researchers from Trinity are leading a €3.2 million project (HY4RES) that will see them develop hybrid renewable energy systems for the green transition of the Atlantic area of Europe.

19 Oct 2023

Awards and Funding|Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Mental health of staff working in nursing homes declined further despite COVID-19 pandemic restrictions easing

Follow-on findings from an initial study showed that nursing home staff working after Ireland’s pandemic restrictions had been lifted reported substantially higher levels of post-traumatic stress, moral injury, low mood and suicidal thinking than during the pandemic.

16 Oct 2023

Health|Research|Science

New research sheds fresh light on mystery of infant consciousness

There is evidence that some form of conscious experience is present by birth, and perhaps even in late pregnancy, an international team of researchers including Trinity neuroscientists has found.

12 Oct 2023

Science|Society

Free Agents: How evolution gave us free will

Kevin Mitchell, Professor in Trinity’s School of Genetics and Microbiology and the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, launched his fascinating new book at a special event in Trinity this week.

12 Oct 2023

Culture|Research|Science

Drunk? Adventures in 16th-Century Brewing – food historian debunks myth that pre-industrial beer was weaker

A new documentary following food historian Dr Susan Flavin as she recreated a beer last brewed in Dublin Castle 450 years ago was premiered at the closing evening of the Trinity Arts and Humanities Research Festival.

30 Sep 2023

Arts|Research|Science

Scannán nua ina mbréagnaítear an miotas go raibh an bheoir a bhí ann sa tréimhse réamhthionsclaíoch níos laige

Bhíodh lucht oibre in Éirinn sa 16ú haois ag ól beoir a bhí an- chosúil leis an mbeoir atá againn sa lá atá inniu ann, a raibh ABV 5% ann agus suas le 270 calraí in aghaidh an phionta.

29 Sep 2023

Culture|Research|Science

Bí i d’abhatár, bain triail as bheith i do scríobhaí meánaoiseach agus cláraigh do dhianchampa luibheolaíochta ag Féile START

Is cuid d’Oíche Thaighdeoirí na hEorpa í Féile START (Start Talking About Research Today), imeacht poiblí ar fud na hEorpa, ina dtaispeántar an éagsúlacht taighde agus an tionchar a bhíonn aige ar shaol laethúil saoránach ar bhealaí spraíúla spreagúla. I mbliana beidh imeachtaí á reáchtáil in 26 tír ar fud na hEorpa.

29 Sep 2023

Arts|Innovation|Research|Science|Society

Does AI have a right to free speech?

Granting AI free speech rights would both support and undermine our freedom of thought, writes Dr Simon McCarthy-Jones, Psychiatry, in this piece originally published in The Conversation.

28 Sep 2023

Innovation|Research|Science