On the radar

News from the world of science

Take a walk with Rowan

Dig out your walking shoes, because on Saturday week (October 16th), the annual Hamilton walk in Dublin will commemorate the great Irish mathematician who discovered quaternions, a type of four-dimensional number.

Quaternions have enabled many innovations since, including the development of the wireless telegraph and computer graphics.

The roughly three-mile walk starts at Dunsink Observatory and ends at Broombridge in Cabra. It was there on October 16th, 1843, that Hamilton was inspired to scratch formulas for quaternions into the bridge, giving rise to modern algebra.

Contact Dr Fiacre Ó Cairbre in the Department of Mathematics at NUI Maynooth at 01-708 3763 to book a place on the walk, which is part of Maths Week

"The Census enlarged the known world. Life astonished us everywhere we looked."Myriam Sibuet, Vice-Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Census of Marine Life, on the announcement this week of the 10-year survey's findings

Nasa looks at Earth ice cover

Nasa now offers an online tool to learn more about ice cover, complete with data on ice loss and views and of present and past at various points around the globe. The “global ice viewer” is at nasa.gov/externalflash/ globaliceviewer/ but be warned, it makes some noise.

And while you are on the Nasa website, you could scout out details and images of a meteorite spotted last month by Nasa’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity while on the way to the red planet’s Endeavour Crater.

And there’s a particularly Irish flavour to the nickname the team gave to the nickel-iron meteorite: “Oileán Ruaidh”, as they spell it. See nasa.gov/ mission_pages/mer/multimedia /gallery/pia13419.html