IRISH SCIENCE has managed to become part of the agenda during Queen Elizabeth’s visit. Today she will visit one of our key research centres, the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork.
And yesterday during her visit to the National Stud she heard about the latest in genetic technology as applied to horses.
University College Dublin scientist Dr Emmeline Hill discovered what has been dubbed the “speed gene”, a piece of genetic code that contributes to how far a thoroughbred horse can run at high speed.
All of this would have been of great interest to the Queen who reportedly has a passion for horse racing and breeding. She owns Carlton House, the favourite for next month’s Epsom Derby and a classic race one of her horses has yet to win.
Dr Hill found the gene and then developed a test for it. The test can identify the best racing distance for a particular animal – whether it will perform better on short tracks or long.
She co-founded a company, Equinome, to exploit the discovery and earlier this year won a business award for her efforts.
The Queen may have been even more interested to learn of Dr Hill’s family history in the racing business: her grandmother Charmian Hill was the owner of Dawn Run, the only racehorse to complete the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup double at Cheltenham.
Today the Queen will visit one of Ireland’s leading research centres, the Tyndall National Institute. It conducts research into nanotechnology, a branch of science where the objects being studied are measured in billionths of a metre across.
Staff led by chief executive Prof Roger Whatmore will tell the Queen how nanotechnology can be used to produce computer chips, medical treatments and more sensitive diagnostic equipment. Ireland ranks eighth in the world out of 162 countries in the nanotechnology area, thanks to research conducted by Tyndall, by the Crann centre at Trinity College Dublin and other research centres here.
The Government’s chief scientific adviser, Prof Patrick Cunningham, commented on the Queen’s visit, referring to the “great history of collaboration between the UK and Ireland with science”. He is also planning for next year’s Dublin City of Science 2012 conference.