The annual Geminid meteor showers are currently under way, offering those with a taste for astronomy an alternative to the usual diet of stars and planets. About half a dozen meteors, or shooting stars, occur per hour on any given night. During meteor showers - displays linked to Earth's passage through trails of space dust left behind by asteroids and comets - this can rise to hundreds of events per hour.
The Geminid showers, on display from December 7th to 16th, occur courtesy of debris left behind by the asteroid Phaeton. Those hoping for a look should watch the eastern sky. More details are available from Astronomy Ireland at 1550 111 442 (Northern Ireland: 0891 881950).
RISH students have won two medals in the ninth International Olympiad on Informatics, which took place this year in Cape Town. Eoin Curran, of The High School, Rathgar, won a silver medal, and Robert Beatie, of Methodist College, Belfast, won a bronze medal in the competition, which involved 230 second-level students from 61 countries.
The Informatics event is one of a series of olympiads in which participants must answer questions on science subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics. IBM and Dublin City University have joined forces to sponsor the first Irish Science Olympiad on January 31st and February 1st, during which Irish participants in next year's international olympiads will be selected.
Children who own clothing and items which carry tobacco company logos are four times more likely to be smokers and have a higher risk of becoming smokers in the future, according to a US study published yesterday "We found that, in effect, children are being used to market cigarettes to their peers," said Dr James Sargent, of Dartmouth University, who published his findings in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine .
"It's like having a billboard in your school. We believe that our findings . . . support regulations from the FDA to restrict the distribution of these items by tobacco companies." Tobacco companies spend $1.5 billion annually on promotional giveaways.
Readers wishing to contact Science on Monday can email Science Editor Dick Ahlstrom at dahlstrom@irish-times.ie