Alien world New discoveries of exotic lifeforms & volcanic metal chimneys in the deep ocean

Dr. Andy Wheeler, UCC (Chief Scientist) & the Irish-British VENTuRE survey scientific team., Tuesday 24 April 2012

Andy Wheeler led a groundbreaking Irish-led marine research mission aboard the national research vessel RV Celtic Explorer investigating life at 3,000 metres below the surface of the sea on the ‘45o North MAR hydrothermal vent field’ using the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Holland 1. These vents, which spew mineral rich seawater heated to boiling point by volcanic material in the earth’s crust below, are home to a rich variety of marine life that thrives in complete darkness on bacteria fed by chemicals.

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Seamus Heaney and Olivia O’Leary in conversation:
‘The isle is full of noises’

Thursday 2 February 2012

On the 2nd of February the Royal Irish Academy Committee for Literatures in English hosted a public interview with Seamus Heaney and Olivia O’Leary in St. Ann’s Church Dawson Street. The interview opened a two day  event run by the RIA entitled ‘Voices in the Ether: Irish Writing on the Radio’ and was attended by around 270 people.

 

 

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Academy discourses

Count Dracula and Bram Stoker

Wednesday 19th April 2012

Terry Eagleton

The lecture considered Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the context of some traditional notions of evil, including the very different presentation of the idea of evil in Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman. It also raised the question of Stoker’s Irish Protestant background and its relevance to his fiction.

 

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God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says
Thursday 16 February 2012

Professor Michael Coogan, Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum and Lecturer on Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School.

Opposing sides on abortion, same-sex marriage, and other so-called “family values” often appeal to the Bible in support of their contradictory positions, as though the Bible were an authority beyond question. But the Bible speaks with many voices, not one, and some of its values are no longer ours. A close look at the story of David and Bathsheba, one of the most famous and most ambiguous biblical narratives, will illustrate these issues.
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The End of Ageing

Monday 12 December 2011

Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Mercer's Institute for Successful Aging, St James's Hospital and Neurosciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin

In this discourse Professor Roseanne Kenny explained what is happening in age prevention, and shows how we can lengthen our own life spans. Professor Kenny also looked at how and why people are living longer than ever before; the social, biological and scientific changes that are increasing our life spans; and how Ireland is leading the way in the development of age prevention technologies.
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Molecules that changed the world 

Thursday 3 November 2011

Professor K. C. Nicolaou, University of California, San Diego

Professor K.C. Nicolaou is a Cypriot-American chemist known for the total synthesis of natural products.

His research is focused on a specialized field of organic chemistry called total synthesis, which involves the creation of organic molecules from scratch in the laboratory. This process allows rare molecules found in nature to be made in great numbers for study or to serve as the basis for drugs. Or, completely new types of complex organic molecules can be made from simpler precursor molecules. Through his work Nicolaou is developing new synthetic technologies and strategies that will advance the fields of biology and medicine
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Professor Hermione Lee, CBE

Friday 7 October 2011

Hermione Lee's previous books include biographical studies Elizabeth Bowen and Willa Cather, the internationally acclaimed biography Virginia Woolf, and Edith Wharton, long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize. She is a well-known reviewer and broadcaster, and, in 2006, Chair of the judges for the Man Booker Prize. She is the first woman Goldsmiths' Professor of English at Oxford University, a Fellow of New College, Oxford, of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature. She was awarded a CBE in 2003 for services to literature.

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Learning from one another? US and European policies toward university-industry technology transfer David C. Mowery, 20 September 2011

 

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Learning from one another? US and European policies toward university-industry technology transfer.

 

Craig Barrett Lecture on Competitiveness, 8 February 2010

 8 February 2010 in the Mansion House

 

 

 

 

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The role of the University in a changing world, Drew Faust, 30 June 2010

In a speech to the Royal Irish Academy at Trinity College Dublin on Wednesday 30 June, Harvard president Drew Faust surveyed "the role of the university in a changing world." While she celebrated the expansion of education globally, she warned of the rising pressures threatening to undercut that trend. She lauded the career-defining role of higher education and defended the ongoing importance of the humanities. The event was co-sponsored by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

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Celebrating Thinking Series, 2 - 30 March 2010

 

2 March 6 pm: Is thinking really good for us?

Featuring Kevin Mitchell; Maeve Cooke: Mary Corcoran and Myles Dungan.

Does a lively public culture of thinking make for a better society? Why we do celebrate our writers, artists, musicians, sporting personalities but not the achievements of our thinkers? Is critical thinking the great casualty of our educational system? Do we need more thinkers in public life? Is the unexamined life really that bad?

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9 March 6 pm: What's wrong with dumbing down? 

Featuring Olivia O'leary; Gavan Titley; Alan Gilsenan; Sheila Greene and Paul Drury.

Is there a relentless race to the bottom in the media and in Irish public life? Is there a continuous appeal to the lowest common denominator so that anything which is difficult, complex or unsettling is studiously avoided? Is the instantaneous soundbite culture hostile to any form of deep or searching analysis? Is the cult of the celebrity the ultimate triumph of style over substance?

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23 March 6 pm: The Decline of intimacy

Featuring Karlin Lillington; Kieran Keohane; Emily O'Reilly; Marie Murray and Caroline Fennell

From the prevalence of reality TV to widespread forms of surveillance, it seems that nothing much is secret anymore. Is this a good thing? Is the right to privacy or intimacy a fundamental value that needs to be protected? Is the quality of inner lives being permanently damaged by endless public exposure?

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30 March 6 pm: Are Small Nations Small-minded?

Featuring Luke O'Neill; Tom Arnold; Richard English; Doireann Ní Bhriain and Ivana Bacik.

Do small nations engage in too much navel gazing? Do they remain obsessed with local concerns and fail to engage with the wider world of ideas? Do they need to radically change the way they think about themselves or to talk to others to have a fuller engagement with the world?

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Clare Island Lecture Series

Clare Island Abbey and its paintings

Conleth Manning speaks about Clare Island Abbey and its magnificent wall paintings - a very rare, intriguing and charming example of an Irish medieval painted church interior.

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Clare Island: Ice ages and climate change

Peter Coxon brilliantly outlines the effects of ice ages and climate change on Clare Island and describes how these have shaped its remarkably diverse landscape.

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Assembling the home team: from A.G. More to R.I.I. Praeger

Declan Doogue unravels the influences and players in Irish natural history field studies from A.G. More to the present day.

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Talks from the Heron-Allen Society

Edward Heron-Allen gives a lively first-hand account of his time working on the Clare Island Survey in his journals. John Whittaker of the Heron-Allen Society discusses the journals and the memorabilia that Heron-Allen collected during his work on the Survey.

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Clare Island - the record of a 600-million year assembly line

Clare Island's dramatic and diverse landscape shows the evidence of 6000 million years of climate change. John Graham tells this fascinating story.

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