A record 653 projects, from almost 2,000 students, have been entered in this year's Esat Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
Now in its 37th year, the exhibition continues to attract more male students, with boys outnumbering girls by three to one. Against that trend, Loreto College, St Stephen's Green, has 19 projects involving 43 girls.
A world-renowned scientist, Professor Mildew, and lab assistant and fellow Muppet Tumbler were at the school science lab yesterday to announce details of this year's exhibition.
Fourth-year students Ciara Furlong and Andrea Kelly were busy mixing vodka and salicyclic acid with salivary enzyme amylase. Happily, the resulting cocktail was purely for scientific investigation. Transition-year students Erica Tobin and Emma Walsh were using natural substances to make clothing dyes.
Orla Ormsby was directing a laser beam at a hair to measure its diameter. She and fellow transition-year students Aisling Corcoran and Eimear Kiely are looking at the tensile strength of hair. So far, they've found brown hair is stronger than red and blond while straight hair is stronger than curly strands.
Mr Michael Kennedy, marketing director, Esat Business, said: "This year's exhibition promises to be better than ever, and we especially welcome entries to the new technology category".
The exhibition runs from January 9th to January 13th at Dublin's RDS and is open to the public from 11th to the January 13th, from 10.00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Full details at the website: www.esatys.com or freephone 1800 924 362.