Search Results ... (127)
-
George Gabriel Stokes
George Gabriel Stokes
<P> Stokes (1819 1903) was born in Co Sligo and came from a noted Irish scientific family. He went on to become one of the towering figures of 19th-century science and held the same job at Cambridge University as Isaac Newton before him, and Stephen Hawking today: Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. </P> <P> A measure of Stokes's importance is the many things named after him: Stokes's conjecture, Stokes's phenomenon, Stokes's layer, Stokes's line, Stokes's law of hydrodynamics and his law of fluorescence, the Navier-Stokes equations... there is even a unit named after him: the stokes, the standard unit of kinematic viscosity, is equal to 1cm^2/second. And if you prove the Navier Stokes equations describing how a viscous fluid flows, you can claim a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute. </P> <P> <EM>Image: Portrait, widely used and not credited, but may have originated with the Royal Society</EM> </P>
-
Fossil Footprints
Fossil Footprints
Some 385 million years ago, an early amphibian walked along a mud flat while the tide was out. The footprints it made in wet sand later turned to stone. The tracks were discovered in 1992 by a Swiss geologist on Valentia Island off Co Kerry. The creature resembled a salamander and lived partly on land and partly in water. It was about one metre long and waddled like a crocodile.
Image: Courtesy of the Geological Survey of Ireland
-
Sir William Rowan Hamilton
Sir William Rowan Hamilton
Hamilton (1805-65) was arguably the greatest Irish scientist. He made many contributions to physics, especially in mechanics and optics, as well as inventing quaternion algebra. His greatest work is his general theory of dynamics. His Hamiltonian operator (H) was crucial to the development of quantum mechanics, and today it is used by physicists, engineers and even economists. Hamilton spent all his working life as Astronomer Royal at Dunsink Observatory.
Image: Sir William Rowan Hamilton, MRIA, 1805-1865 (© RIA)
-
The Steam Turbine
The Steam Turbine
This invention changed the world: it revolutionised marine transport and naval warfare and made cheap and plentiful electricity supplies possible. Power stations still use turbine generators based on the principle - were it not for the turbine, we would still be using, gas lighting and gas-powered appliances. The turbine was the brainchild of Sir Charles Parsons (1854-1931), from Birr Castle. It was significantly more efficient than conventional steam engines: instead of using the steam to drive pistons, Parsons used it to turn a rotor directly. The design was ideal returning dynamos, and power stations quickly spotted the potential. Turbine-powered ships, such as the Turbinia (pictured above), revolutionised transport at sea.
Image: Alfred John West (1857-1937)
-
William Dargan (1799-1863)
William Dargan (1799-1863)
Carlow-born William Dargan set up his own construction company. His projects included the railway line from Dublin to Kingstown and the Ulster Canal.
Wiki Commons
-
Boyne Bridge
Boyne Bridge
Located 3km upstream from Drogheda, the Boyne Bridge is the first major cable-stayed bridge in Ireland. It incorporates a tall pylon at the south side with cable stays fanning out from it supporting the main structure, is 350m long and has a span of 170m.
Images & Text: © NDP.ie
-
The Age of the Earth
The Age of the Earth
Dublin-born James Ussher counted the generations in the Old Testament, consulted ancient Egyptian and Hebrew texts and calendars and concluded that the world began on October 23rd 4004 BC. Other scholars calculated similar dates, but Ussher's was the one that was widely accepted. In the 19th century, scientists tried other ways of calculating an age: based on the amount of salt that had accumulated in the oceans, for instance, or the time it had taken the Earth to cool from a molten ball to a solid planet. Some techniques were useful, others were flawed. The discovery of radioactivity in the early 20th century provided new ways of dating rocks accurately. We now know our planet is 4.6 billion years old. Irish scientists who made important contributions to this work in the 19th century were geologists Samuel Haughton and John Joly and physicist William Thompson (Lord Kelvin).
Image: James Ussher (1581-1656)
-
It’s best not to create waste in the first place
It’s best not to create waste in the first place
The waste keeps piling up.
Copyright Environmental Protection Agency
-
John Macneill (1793-1880)
John Macneill (1793-1880)
John Macneill was appointed engineer-in-chief to many projects in Ireland including plans for 800 miles of railway.
Courtesy of the National Science & Engineering Plaques Committee
-
Charles Parsons (1854-1931)
Charles Parsons (1854-1931)
Charles Parsons was born in 1854 and was the youngest son of the third Earl of Rosse. His work revolutionised sea travel by enabling propeller blades to go at higher speeds.
Courtesy of the National Science & Engineering Plaques Committee