THE BALD eagle perched inside the door of Sligo Institute of Technology yesterday might have looked hungry as his darting eyes swept the foyer. But he was far from the scariest being at the annual science fair.
In a lecture hall down the corridor, "science communicator" Paul McCrory, a great believer in audience participation, was inviting members of the audience to trust him and sit on a seat of nails.
But the eerie sound of agonised shrieks wafting through the campus was nothing to do with failed experiments in the sharp nail department.
The competition to find Sligo's loudest child continued throughout the day in room B2031, courtesy of a lady wearing a white lab coat, pink wellies, a pink wig - and a pair of purple ear muffs.
Lecturer Margaret Savage also had a "mad scientist" sign pinned to her back and she spent the day urging bewildered children to scream even more in a bid to break the magic 108-decibel record set by no fewer than four children whose parents were the object of profoundly sympathetic looks from other adults present.
The science fair marks the beginning of science week at Sligo IT. In the coming days there will be a great deal of analysis and discussion on such weighty topics as the source of meteorites, the possibility of an Irish tsunami, the relevance of DNA and the lessons to be learned from the discovery of 1,300 ancient skeletons at the site of the Ballyshannon bypass.
Yesterday though was a day for children, a day when they learned how to make wine glasses sing, how a robot can manufacture goods and the truth about whether earwigs really can get into your ear and burrow a hole in your brain.
Lauren Cawley (11) - a terrifying 106 decibel score in the loudest child competition - described the fair as "class". If she had to pick a favourite part, it was the "magic science or mystery" lecture given by Mr McCrory where the audience was invited to figure out the science behind the tricks.
Star of that show was parent David Durkin from Enniscrone, Co Sligo, who was invited up to sit on a chair studded with 152 nails, sharp side up.
David sat down very gingerly but was still smiling minutes later.