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We are inundated with advice about the importance of a good night’s sleep and how to get it. Photyograph: iStock

In search of a good night’s sleep

Juliana Adelman

The definition of ‘a good sleep’ is not the same at every time, in every place and for every person

The trouble with ammonia

Algae on a tree in Moninea Bog in Co Fermanagh, where lichen and sphagnum moss were killed by ammonia.

Ella McSeeney

With levels of the toxic gas rising due to intensive livestock farming, scientists warn the impact on Ireland’s ecological and public health will be very serious

Making the switch in immune cells to fight TB

Dr Laura Gleeson: “In the lab, you are working towards long-term goals, slowly testing hypotheses and accumulating evidence to answer questions that have never been asked before.”

Claire O'Connell

Research lives: Dr Laura Gleeson, specialist registrar in respiratory medicine

‘Voyager 2’ leaves Solar System 41 years after launch

This Nasa artist’s concept shows the general locations of Nasa’s two Voyager spacecraft, which have both left the Solar System. Voyager 1 (top) and Voyager 2 (bottom) are still exploring 41 years after being launched from Florida. Photograph: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/AFP.

Nasa still in touch with vessel, the second human-made object to reach interstellar space

Young scientist exhibition entries indicate girls embracing male-dominated subjects

For the 11th year running, there are more girls (56 per cent) than boys competing in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Photograph: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography

Kevin O'Sullivan

Number of female students in chemical, physical and mathematical category up 62%

One source of randomness is atmospheric noise, the “static” generated by lightning discharges. Photograph: Julian Stratenschulte/EPA

Random numbers plucked from the atmosphere

Peter Lynch

Randomness defies precise definition despite attempts to define it over the years

Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, proposed eugenics as a science in the late 1800s

New eugenics proposals must be interrogated very carefully

William Reville

William Reville: Social pressure on parents to go along with genetic enhancement of offspring would be great

Many critics now blame this self-esteem movement for producing a generation of emotionally fragile young adults. Photograph: iStock

Self-esteem is great – so long as it is rooted in reality

William Reville

William Reville: The misguided US self-esteem fad lingers on this side of the Atlantic

An illustration of Prof James Moriarty in Conan Doyle’s work bears a striking resemblance to a photograph of Prof George Boole (left) and may well have been based on it.

Could Sherlock Holmes’s true nemesis have been a mathematician?

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: New book suggests Arthur Conan Doyle based Moriarty on George Boole

Kepler’s idea was not warmly supported by his contemporaries, but harmonic relations are known today to be crucial. Photograph: Getty

Harmony was at the core of Johannes Kepler’s cosmic model

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: For Kepler, music played a key role in the emergence of the new astronomy

Surprisingly for a scientist, Richard Dawkins supports his charge on the long-term psychological damage of a religious upbringing with little more than anecdotes. Photograph: Alan Betson

Is religion good for children?

William Reville

Harvard study indicates religious upbringing helps adolescents navigate life’s challenges

Life began on Earth early, about 3.4 billion years ago. Photograph: Getty Images

We know Earth is special. So are we alone in the galaxy?

William Reville

The Milky Way is extremely unlikely to contain another technological civilisation

Vital subject: weusemaths.ie shows the links between the curriculum, courses and careers. Photograph: iStock/Getty

Who needs maths? Oh, only animators, builders, nurses, plumbers...

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: You’d be surprised how many people use mathematics at work

The dominant male in a gorilla group services a harem, hogging all the sex with all females in the group and denying the subservient males any “look-in”. Photograph: Alan Betson

Are humans naturally monogamous or polygamous?

William Reville

Balance of evidence indicates we are biologically inclined towards monogamy

The 200th anniversary of the birth of William Rowan Hamilton, in 2005: then minister for state Noel Treacey with TDs Joe Costello and the late Tony Gregory and members of the Cabra Community Centre Project on their way to Broombridge for the unveiling of a plaque.

The many modern uses of quaternions

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: A surprising application is to electric toothbrushes but they have many vital functions

There has been a recent explosion of “predatory” science journals that aggressively solicit research papers from scientists who pay to have the papers published.

The dodgy science of wiping your backside

William Reville

William Reville: Predatory journals can contaminate scientific literature

Tom Lehrer: a comical, musical, mathematical genius

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: Famous for his ballads, Lehrer was also one of the great satirists of his time

The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 paved the way for the development of sophisticated gene-editing techniques. Photograph: Getty Images

Biological elitism: the result of tinkering with human genomes?

William Reville

Despite ethical unease, germ-line modification will surely find mainstream acceptance

You have probably noticed the little rectangles in the camera of your smartphone; this is face detection in action.

Automatic face recognition: how it works

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: We are photographed numerous times every day and have little idea who is collecting the information

A spiral has appeared over the past decade or so on the beach between Booterstown station and the Merrion Gates, southeast of Dublin. A sandbank (pictured) has gradually built up, driven by the action of the sea waves, and has assumed a form close to a logarithmic spiral.

What’s behind the miraculous spiral on Booterstown Strand?

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: Something must have altered to trigger this development

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can renew themselves through cell division and, under certain circumstances, can develop into differentiated organ-specific cells. Photograph: Getty Images

How human cells can be reprogrammed to renew our bodies

William Reville

Scientists hope to use pluripotent stem cells to replace organs that have failed

Kelvin’s tide machine. Belfast-born William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) developed the science by constructing the harmonic theory of tides.

That’s Maths: tides are a tug-of-war between Earth, moon and sun

Peter Lynch

Software packages (and apps) now analyse tidal records and use the results to make predictions

Senator David Norris, then Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and Marian Harkin MEP at the GM-free Ireland Network protest rally outside Leinster House, Dublin, in 2006. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

Are genetically modified organisms safe?

William Reville

Green criticism has undermined public and political confidence in GMOs but science proves they are no riskier than more traditional methods

Ireland recorded 392 suicides last year. Photograph: iStock

Suicide: the best strategies attempting to counter this major problem

William Reville

We have been surprisingly passive in Ireland in responding to issue

Piet Hein: “The Universe may / Be as great as they say / But it wouldn’t be missed / If it didn’t exist”

The Empty Set: this article is about nothing at all

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: Many philosophers regard ‘nothing’ with anxiety, nausea or panic

The first exoplanet transit was detected in 1999 and within 10 years more than 100 exoplanets had been detected. Photograph: Stocktrek RF/Getty

Searching for planets beyond our solar system

William Reville

The discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence would be truly transcending

Measurement of the Lough Foyle baseline in 1828-29.

Trigonometric comfort blankets on the top of mountains

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: angles can be measured very precisely by taking theodolite sightings to distant peaks

The scientist David Goodall (104) at a press conference a day before his assisted suicide in Switzerland, last month. Photograph: Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP

Next big debate in Ireland will be about assisted suicide

William Reville

Do you agree that all lucid adults should have the legal right to end their own lives?

The Parthenon: the observer sees the eight columns of the façade as a perfectly regular array, but this is achieved by deliberately introducing subtle distortions.

Optical refinements at the Parthenon

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: This Greek masterpiece is an enduring paean to the power of geometry

The Joyce tower in Sandycove, Co Dublin, from which Stephen Dedalus began his odyssey in ‘Ulysses’.

Leopold Bloom’s arithmetical adventures

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: James Joyce included oblique mathematical references in ‘Ulysses’

Research indicates about 60% of premature deaths can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyles and are therefore preventable.

How to live 10 years longer

William Reville

Five lifestyle practices can dramatically lower mortality rates, research shows

Winton Gallery exhibition’s first World War biplane, surrounded by a stretched canopy of synthetic fabric, curved in the form of the gyrating airflow.

Maths, aesthetics and culture

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: London’s Winton Gallery reveals how numbers shape our world

Other well-regarded studies have reported that drinking one to two units of alcohol a day markedly protects against death from cardiovascular disease. Photograph: Johnny Green/PA Wire

First drinking ‘protects your heart’. Then it ‘shortens your life’. Who to believe?

William Reville

Health researchers should tread carefully to avoid the alcohol-guidelines morass

Prof Richard Dawkins and physicist Stephen Hawking are dismissive of philosophy. Photograph: Alan Betson

The power and the limits of science

William Reville

Science’s success in understanding the natural world motivates some scientists to claim that it is all-powerful and will eventually explain absolutely everything

Ulam played a seminal role in the development of the H-bomb

Stan Ulam, a mathematician who figured how to initiate fusion

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: from the Manhattan Project to the Monte Carlo method

Columnists

David McWilliams

David McWilliams -

David McWilliams: France's unrest shows the limits of economics

Cliff Taylor

Cliff Taylor -

Cliff Taylor: Ireland may face very uncomfortable choices in a no-deal Brexit

Diarmaid Ferriter

Diarmaid Ferriter -

Diarmaid Ferriter: Wilful disregard for Ireland at Westminster is nothing new

Pat Leahy - Political Editor

Pat Leahy: Fianna Fáil is not acting solely in the national interest

Citizen Science The Irish Times and citizen science researchers have teamed up. See the results here

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Features & Opinion

Why peatlands matter in the battle against climate change

Living peatlands sequester carbon-dioxide, drawing it down from the atmosphere through plants and trapping it underground as carbon

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