Two second-year students from Co Cork have won the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
John O’Callaghan, 14, and Liam McCarthy, 13, both students of Kinsale Community School, Co Cork won the competiion with their project entitled “The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production”.
The project demonstrated a quick test for somatic cells in milk, which reflect infection in the mammary gland of the cow and downgrades the processability of the milk during cheese making.
"John and Liam are two farmers' sons from Cork. They were concerned with the financial losses incurred if milk sold from their farms had high contents of somatic cells," the judges commented.
"Current tests for somatic cells are expensive and slow. After searching the boys discovered that if a small amount of detergent is mixed with a fresh sample of milk the mixture becomes progressively more viscous as the somatic cell content of the milk rises."
With this knowledge in mind they derived a simple apparatus that could be used by the farmer to quickly test the milk and determine its status.
The judges said the project would be of "tremendous commercial help" to farmers. "Thus what they have achieved is utterly practical and brilliant in its simplicity," they said.
The students will go on to represent Ireland at the 21st European Union Contest for Young Scientists, which will take place in Paris in September.
The pair were presented with their prizes - a cheque for €5,000 and a Waterford Crystal trophy - by Taoiseach Brian Cowen and BT Ireland's chief executive Chris Clark.
"Never has this exhibition been so important. The students who win these awards are the natural resource that will power this island in 5, 10, 15 years time," said Mr Clark.
"John and Liam's project not only showed ingenuity and creativity but is a prime example of a innovative idea that has commercial viability."
Andrei Triffo, from Synge Street CBS scooped Best Individual for his Chemical, Physical & Mathematical category project in the Senior section entitled "Infinite Sums of Zeta Functions and Other Dirichlet Series". He received €2,400 and a BT Perpetual Trophy.
Runners-up were awarded a cheque for €1,200 and a perpetual trophy. The group runner-up prize was awarded tp Rhona Togher, Eimear O'Carroll and Niamh Chapman from Ursuline College, Sligo, for their project entitled "The Sound of Silence – An Investigation into Low Frequency Therapy for Tinnitus Sufferers" entered in the senior section of the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category.
Henry Glass from Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare was named individual runner-up for his project entitled "The Distribution of the Freshwater Limpet Ancylus Fluviatilis in a Short Stretch of the Moneycarragh River", in the Senior Section of the Biological & Ecological category.
More than 1,600 entries were received in four subject areas and three age categories for this year's competition, with the 500 group and individual projects representing the country's most innovative science and technology projects