The festival will build on the success of City of Science 2012 in promoting Ireland’s scientific achievements and encouraging people of all ages to follow their scientific curiosity, through a combination of cultural events, a ‘Curiosity Carnival’, public conferences and lectures from high-profile international speakers. The Festival of Curiosity will also host innovative workshops through an artist in residency programme where science teachers, scientists and members of the public will join forces to create a curious Dublin by collaborating on new ways of engaging people with science.

The festival will be supported by Dublin City Council, Matheson, the RDS and Science Foundation Ireland.

The announcement comes as the Ministers marked the end of the hugely successful Dublin City of Science 2012 which saw over 600,000 people take part in a celebration of science with over 160 events and activities that crossed the worlds of art and culture to entertain the public and bring science to life. The highlight of the year was the international Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (ESOF) event in July where 4,500 delegates and 400 international journalists from over 70 countries descended on the Convention Centre Dublin over five days to hear 600 speakers, 27 keynote speakers and five Nobel Laureates.

Making the announcement, Minister Bruton said:

“As a country we have a long history of scientific achievement over a number of centuries, and in the past decade we have built on that heritage with dramatic improvements in publicly-funded research. We sometimes forget about these major scientific achievements by Irish people over the years, but Dublin City of Science was remarkably successful in promoting this heritage and capturing the public imagination. This summer we showed the global scientific and business community that we truly are a centre of scientific excellence and I am determined to ensure that we build on this legacy.

“The numbers speak for themselves, and I, along with Minister Sherlock, would like to commend Forfás, the former Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Patrick Cunningham and the entire team for their hard work and success. Thanks are also due to our partners and supporters, particularly the EU Commission and Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn.

“It is of course crucial that we build on this success and continue to find ways of promoting our scientific heritage and engaging people in science. That is why we are announcing today the establishment of an annual festival of science in Dublin, starting with a three-day event in July 2013, with ambitions to rival the best science festivals in the world. My Department and its agencies will continue to provide strong support for this hugely important initiative as we seek to engage people with science, build our scientific capability and reputation, and ultimately help support the jobs we need”.

Minister Sherlock said:

“ESOF exceeded all expectations in stimulating and provoking public interest, excitement and debate in science and all related disciplines. All of this was greatly complemented by the Dublin City of Science 2012 initiative, which had a remarkable impact in terms of raising science awareness through the many events held all over the country. I am glad that we have partners on board now to build on the legacy of ESOF and Dublin City of Science by embarking on the ‘Festival of Curiosity’ due to be held in Dublin in July 2013 – this will help the overall effort to keep science firmly in the public consciousness”, said Minister Sherlock.

Ministers Bruton and Sherlock were joined in closing the year-long science event by Prof. Luke O’Neill, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin and Chairman of the ESOF2012 Programme Committee, Arlene O’Neill, ESOF 2012 ambassador and PhD researcher at CRANN and Martin Shanahan, Chief Executive of Forfás, who supported the organisation of ESOF and Dublin City of Science 2012.

Martin D. Shanahan commented “2012 has been a significant year for Ireland and science. Dublin City of Science and ESOF 2012 firmly put the spotlight of the international science community on us and we rose to the challenge. Forfás is delighted to have played a central role in the organisation and planning of what has been a hugely successful initiative for the country. We are in an excellent position to build on this success to ensure that science, technology and innovation policy further delivers growth and jobs for Ireland.”

Key events during the year included:

• The St Patrick’s Day Festival Parade in March where participants brought the science theme to life based on questions posed by children.
• The Dublin Mini Maker Faire brought together tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, scientists, students and authors of all ages and backgrounds to showcase their work.
• The three month Awakening Curiosity programme at The Ark in Dublin stimulated the curiosity of children in scientific discovery, art and biodiversity and the venue reached record audience figures during the summer.
• Zoo in My Garden was a hugely popular theatre performance that brought some of the animals in the Natural History Museum back to life. The show was a collaboration between Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, the National Museum of Ireland Natural History’s Education Department and Theatre Director Denis Conway of Ouroboros Theatre.
• The week-long science and arts festival CuriousCity took place in Cork in June and Accelerating Science, CERN’s flagship travelling exhibition visited Galway in September.

The ‘RCSI Innovations’ expo will run from 2pm to 5pm and will feature demonstrations from leading experts from our Schools of Pharmacy and Physiotherapy; as well as from the Departments of Surgery, Anatomy and Physiology & Medical Physics.

One of the most popular displays at the exhibition will be a 3D video presentation called ‘Anatomists, Engineers & Artists – Anatomy from the Outside In’. This computer aided learning method acts as an on-line Surface Anatomy Guide in 3D, which shows the motions of muscles and the sites of structures from the surface inwards, combining artistic representation, engineering expertise and anatomical accuracy.

RCSI Innovations will be educational for both adults and students who are interested in science, health, medicine and research. Attendees will be able to witness many other demonstrations at the event such as a simulation of surgical procedures through virtual reality and using the Nintendo Wii Fit to aid physiotherapy rehabilitation.

Those wishing to attend RCSI Innovations are asked to register online at www.rcsi.ie/innovations by Friday 23rd November.

The RCSI Innovations exhibition is part of the Dublin City of Science 2012 Festival which is a year long celebration of science that brings together a community of cultural institutions, organisations and individuals to showcase the best of Irish culture, arts and science.

Renowned composer Ian Wilson and members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) lead by Kenneth Rice are in residence in the hospital for three months. Visual artist, Lucia Barnes, also completed a residency earlier this year where she worked with people with dementia and their carers and created work in collaboration with them.

The residencies will culminate in a unique seminar, Arts and Alzheimers, to be held on Wednesday November 28th 230 – 530pm at the Royal College of Physicians Ireland.Wilson’s new work will be performed by the ICO and Barnes’ art will be on exhibition. Composition and fine art students are an integral component of this project as they learn about the role of arts in health-care and with particular reference to patients with dementia.

The seminar will explore arts and dementia, particularly the role of the arts in understanding and supporting the experiences of people with dementia. This project is supported by the Meath Foundation and is a Dublin City of Science event. Tickets will be limited.

Find out more: www.artshealthwellbeing.ie
Tickets are free but limited numbers.
To book please email esther.nyambura@amnch.ie

Pictures at an Exhibition: Art meets the Science of Alzheimer’s

Wednesday November 28th
Venue: Royal College of Physicians, Kildare St, Dublin
Time: 1430 – 1730

Arts and Alzheimers Seminar

Wednesday November 28th
Venue: Royal College of Physicians Ireland.
Time: 14.30 – 17.30

The top teams from all around the country will be invited to Trinity College, Arlene O’Neill, Dublin Rose of Tralee and PhD researcher at CRANN will act as quizmaster. The winners will receive generous cash prizes sponsored by PharmaChemical Ireland.

There will also spot prizes and this year they will include copies of “A Neutron walks into a Bar”, where all the royalties go to Cystic Fibrosis Research.

Full details and application forms will be posted  www.ista.ie

Regional Finals: Thursday 15th November 7.30 – 9.30pm (application available on line)
ISTA Senior Science Quiz Final: Saturday 24th November 2pm (by invitation only)

BIOPHOTOLOGIA explores the elusive interplay between science and art by discovering their common matters of contention and working means. The exhibition portrays the imaginative process shared by both disciplines where the conventional frontiers between them can no longer be detected. The work is characterized by a subtle depiction of these differences and the productive tension that results from their constant frictions.

The exhibition includes a wide variety of artworks, including photographs from the ZoonosisArt initiative showcased at the Science Gallery and a set of anaglyphs illustrating the “FISH” diagnostic technique exhibited at theMedizinhistorischesMuseuminBerlin. The exhibition will also feature a series of human portraits created in an aesthetic experiment between volunteers and bacterial biofilm images, and a couple videos that creatively re-imagine diagnostics.

Artist Bio: Pablo Rojas is a PhD candidate at the Humboldt University in Berlin and holds a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology and a Masters of Science in Bacterial Epidemiology from UCD. He also studied photography at university and has been collaborating with other artists and working as a freelance photographer for the last eight years. His images are currently being used by a diverse number of prestigious scientific and political bodies, including the Wellcome Trust, FAO, the Government of Ecuador, various NGOs, UCD, and The Health Research Board in Ireland. Recently, three of his projects have been selected by the Centre for Contemporary Art in Quito, Ecuador. Visit www.dadafoto.com

Supported by: DublinCity of Science, UCD Research, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine, Biofilmzentrum des Deutschen HertzzentrumsBerlin

Date: 20 November 2012
Time: 5:00-7:00pm
Location: Number 6, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Clinical update on Critical Care, speakers will include:

• Dr Danny Collins, Intensive Care Unit, St. James’ Hospital on Critical Care Management of Stoke
• Dr Brian Marsh, Intensive Care Unit, Mater Misericoridae University Hospital on Management of Acute Severe Asthma
• Dr Donal Ryan, Intensive Care Unit, St Vincent’s University Hospital on Life-threatening upper GI bleed
• Dr Gerry Fitzpatrick, Inventive Care Unit, AMNCH Tallaght on Critical Care Toxicology

Contact: courses@rcpi.ie

The 2012 Statutory Public Lecture of the School of Theoretical Physics (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) is in association with the School of Cosmic Physics and it will take place in UCD on Monday 19 November at 6:00pm.

The lecture entitled “Cosmic perspectives: from planets to the multiverse ” will be given by Professor Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, O.M., F.R.S.

It will be held in Theatre L, Newman Building, Arts Block, UCD.

Astronomers have made astonishing progress in probing our cosmic environment. We can trace cosmic history from some mysterious ‘beginning’ nearly 14 billion years ago, and understand in outline the emergence of atoms, galaxies, stars and planets — and how, on at least one planet, life emerged and developed a complex biosphere of which we are part.

Unmanned spacecraft have visited the other planets of our Solar System (and some of their moons), beaming back pictures of varied and distinctive worlds. And, probing far beyond our Solar System, telescopes, have revealed a vast universe, containing billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars.

An exciting development in the last decade has been the realisation that many other stars are orbited by retinues of planets — some resembling our Earth.

But these advances pose new questions: What does the long-range future hold? How widespread is life in our cosmos? Should we be surprised that the physical laws permitted the emergence of complexity? and:  Is physical reality even more extensive than the domain that our telescopes can probe? This illustrated lecture will attempt to address such issues.

Find out more 

Dr. Gianpiero Cavalleri, a geneticist from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has teamed up with Dr. Jim Wilson from the University of Edinburgh and former Irish Olympic boxer, Francie Barrett, in order to trace the origins of Ireland’s Travelling people.  An event is being held to discuss these findings as part of the Dublin City of Science on Sunday 18^th November.

In 1996, 19 year old Francie Barrett captured the imagination of the Irish general public with his impressive performances in the Atlanta Olympics. Once forbidden to join his local boxing club because he is a Traveller, it was a defining moment in Traveller history when Francie was nominated to carry the Irish flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Now 16 years on, in the same year that fellow traveller John Joe Nevin won silver medal in boxing at the London games, this new research hopes to shed light on the history of the Travelling Community in Ireland.

The roots of this community has been debated for many years and many theories have been put forward such as Travellers predating the arrival of the Celts; being relatives of Romani Gypsies; and even being settled Irish people who ‘took to the road’ during times of famine and times of eviction during the Cromwellian Settlements. Barrett wants to uncover the history of his people and in doing so try to understand why their culture is in danger of being wiped out today.

Over the past year, Barrett has collected Traveller DNA samples from every corner of Ireland. This DNA has been analysed, by RCSI and the University of Edinburgh, using cutting edge technology and the results will break the mould on what was known up until today about the history of the Irish Travellers.

This event will also consist of a screening of the RTE documentary, The Blood of the Travellers, followed by a Q&A session and will take place at the Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 on Sunday November 18th at 1p.m. 

This weekend of talks, film screenings and events celebrates the conservator’s work.  We’ve invited our conservators to come out from behind the scenes and we invite you to come and meet them to hear some of their fascinating stories.

All welcome, admission free. See the full programme