On The Radar

The pick of the science news

Across the universe on Culture Night

Tomorrow’s Culture Night in Dublin offers events with a scientific twist. If space is your thing, try to get acquainted with Jupiter, using powerful telescopes at the papal cross car park in Phoenix Park from 9pm, hosted by Astronomy Ireland. Then later, between midnight and 1am, you can join broadcaster Leo Enright and composer Iarla Ó Lionaird at Meeting House Square in Temple Bar as they use images from the Hubble telescope and Mars missions to highlight the wonders of the universe.

If you’d rather apply science to solve (fictional) crime, visit the RDS between 6.30pm and 9pm to find out how to manage fingerprints and blood types, and test ransom notes for evidence. Contact the RDS at 01-2407217 or e-mail science@rds.ie.

Ozone rising - but slowly

The depletion of earth’s protective ozone layer seems be tailing off, according to studies presented at a European Space Agency conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Scientists merged and analysed satellite data from recent years and came up with some promising results.

According to researcher Jo Urban, “a clear, statistically significant change of trend can be seen around 1997. The small increase (of 0.8 per cent to 1.4 per cent per decade) observed thereafter, from 1997 to 2008, is, however, not yet statistically different from a zero trend. We hope to see a significant recovery of (upper stratospheric) ozone in the next years, using longer, extended satellite time-series.”