This year's winners managed to combine a rural myth with clever thinking and some meticulous research to develop a cheap and efficient way for farmers to detect infection in milk cows
"We have done over 1,000 tests and the test developed dramatically . . . This is a test that farmers can use all over Ireland and all over the world . . . It is very encouraging when you get good results"
A RURAL myth, clever thinking and meticulous research combined to help two Cork students win the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2009.
John O'Callaghan and Liam McCarthy's project involved developing a cheap and efficient way for farmers to detect infection in milk cows, and they now become the Young Scientists of the year.
The best individual prize went to a Dublin student for his research into extremely complex mathematical functions.
The runner-up group prize went to three Sligo students and involved a possible treatment for those with persistent ringing in their ears. A Co Wicklow student won the runner-up individual prize for his meticulous research into fresh water limpets.
A long-held belief that a drop of washing-up liquid could help warn of infection in milk cows was the trigger that got John (14) and Liam (13) two first years from Kinsale Community School started on their project, entitled "The Development of a convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production".
Somatic cells are a sign of infection and these appear in the milk. "If the level is high, the cow is fighting an infection," explained Liam. It is "a big deal for the farmer", who receives less if the cell count is high but enjoys a bonus if it is low, said John.
The only way to test was to send a sample for analysis, but this took days, by which time the milk had already reached the production plant.
The students were aware of the "rural myth" and began checking to see if there was any truth to it. They added the washing-up liquid to high cell count milk and found it thickened. They then began a series of tests to study the effect and to devise a way to use the finding.
They focused on a method where viscosity could be gauged by how quickly a sample ran through a narrow tube. "We have done over 1,000 tests and the test developed dramatically over time," Liam said.
The result is the "Ballymartle Milk Test", named after their townland. "This is a test that farmers can use all over Ireland and all over the world," Liam said. "It is very encouraging when you get good results," John added.
The two won a perpetual BT Young Scientist trophy, a cheque for €5,000 and the opportunity to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.
Andrei Triffo (17) a fifth-year student from Synge Street CBS, Dublin, claimed the prize as best individual project with his study "Infinite Sums of Zeta Functions and Other Dirichlet Series".
Andrei, whose family originally comes from Romania, conducted a comprehensive study of Zeta functions, a form of infinite series based on the powers of the series elements.
"The basic question is under what conditions can you obtain an enclosed formula," he said. He began researching Zeta functions and found some interesting functions in a book from the 1990s. He became more deeply involved in the study and broke into new territory in this challenging area of pure mathematics.
He came up with fresh connections between infinite sums of Zeta functions and infinite products. "I am interested in expanding my work in the Dirichlet series," he said, referring to another tool of analytic number theory.
At the moment, Andrei is unsure whether to study accounting or mathematics at third level. His prize as best individual project includes a BT perpetual trophy and a cheque for €2,400. Andrei also won the Intel student travel award, which provides a trip to the US.
The runner-up group award went to Rhona Togher, Eimear O'Carroll and Niamh Chapman, all 18 and sixth-year students at Ursuline College in Sligo. Their study involved the development of what they believe could be a way to reduce ringing in the ears caused by the auditory condition tinnitus.
They conducted surveys and found that up to 96 per cent of students experienced tinnitus after high volume sound exposures at concerts and clubs and after using MP3 players. "Tinnitus affects the hairs in the cochlea of the ear," explained Rhona. "It means they are bent and in the worst case they can break."
They reasoned that if the hairs could be brought back up straight, then the symptoms might reduce. Research and experimentation helped them establish that a low tone of between 50 and 120 hertz seemed to reduce symptoms, by restoring the position of the hairs.
They also found that hearing was significantly improved in their test subjects after listening to the tone for about a minute.
They created a website where anyone can try their approach, www.mysoundofsilence.com They received a BT trophy and a cheque for €1,200.
The runner-up individual prize went to Henry Glass (17) a fifth-year student at Clongowes Wood College and his project, "The Distribution of the Freshwater Limpet Ancylus Fluviatilis in a short Stretch of the Moneycarragh river".
He studied how water velocity in the river affected the orientation of limpets in the river bed and what other factors might affect this and limpet distribution. He used ceramic tiles on the river bed as one way to study this and he also examined limpets in the existing bed.
He found that limpets tended to orientate themselves in line with water flow and very seldom fixed themselves perpendicular to flow.
He also found that they were more likely to occur in sunny parts of the river, which he suggested was due to the limpets harvesting the more abundant algal growth found where the sun could reach the water.
The limpets tended to accumulate in clusters, a condition he described as "contagious distribution", with areas of larger population separated by gaps of low habitation. Henry received a BT perpetual trophy and a cheque for €1,200.
The Analog student travel award, which involves a trip to the US, was won by Christopher Hobbs and Daniel Hobbs of Maynooth Post Primary School for their project on soundwaves.
The Intel teacher award went to Kieran O'Dwyer of St Ailbe's Vocational School, Tipperary Town, and the Analog teacher award went to Sinéad Greene of Salesian College, Celbridge, Co Kildare. Both prizes involve a trip to the US.
The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition remains open today until 5.30pm. Family tickets are available for €30, adult tickets are €12 and students and concessions are €6.