THE Irish, it seems, are a nation waiting for an extra terrestrial visit. According to a survey conducted by 16 year old Graham Cooke, as part of his project for this year's Aer Lingus Young Scientists Exhibition, 69 per cent of those surveyed believed in the possibility of life on other planets, although only 50 per cent believed it might be intelligent life.
Rather startlingly, 13 per cent also claimed to have seen an unidentified flying object.
Graham, a student at St Mac Dara's Community College in Templeogue, Dublin, is one of 535 second level students from around Ireland who have entered this year's exhibition, which opens in the RDS today and runs until Saturday.
He was prompted to investigate the Irish populace's belief in alien life forms by last year's discovery of a rock which appeared to contain primitive Martian life forms.
Of the 200 people he surveyed, 63 per cent believed in the possibility of microscopic life once existing on Mars.
"These rocks do indicate that life did once exist on Mars and the public supports that opinion," said Graham, exhibiting the kind of confidence usually exuded only by Nobel prizewinners and chaps who claim to have been abducted by little green men. "It also changes the chances of intelligent life existing beyond Earth from a possibility to a probability."
By contrast, Ellen McKenna (14) and Nuala Haughey (13), both students in St Patrick's High. School, Keady, Co Armagh, chose to focus their attentions on a pair of Capuchin monkeys named Emma and Harry, who live with one of Nuala's relatives.
"What we wanted to find out was what monkeys really are," said Ellen. "Are they humanlike and do they act like humans?"
They discovered that humans could learn a considerable amount from the monkeys. The Capuchins peel their fruit before eating it bash oranges together to create pulp from which they can suck the juice and discard broccoli flowers in favour of the stalks, leading the two young scientists to conclude that they recognised the stalks as being the healthiest part of the vegetable.
Perhaps less worthy of imitation is the Capuchin's occasional urge to engage in intimate relations with near relatives.
The Young Scientists Exhibition, which includes projects ranging from an analysis of Irish newspaper headlines to the creation of computer games, is open to the public on Friday, January 10th, and Saturday, January 11th.