On the radar

The pick of news from the science world

Computer brain

TCD lecture by Colin O’Dowd: data from Carna used by world’s climatologists

A “wet computer” that mimics features of the human brain could be on the cards thanks to a new €1.8 million European project scheduled to start next month.

The set-up takes its inspiration from brain biology and will contain stable “cells” to process signals using chemistry and to form networks. “The type of wet information technology we are working towards will not find its near-term application in running business software,” project collaborator Klaus-Peter Zauner of the University of Southampton told BBC News. “But it will open up application domains where current IT does not offer any solutions – controlling molecular robots, fine-grained control of chemical assembly, and intelligent drugs that process the chemical signals of the human body and act according to the local biochemical state of the cell.”

Climate talk

Next Thursday, Prof Colin O’Dowd, of NUI Galway’s school of physics, will give the Irish Met Society Lecture, entitled Mace Head: Atmospheric Composition and Climate Research. The Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station, near Carna, Co Galway, has been collecting data for more than 50 years and its output is used by climatologists around the world. No booking is required for the free talk, which takes place at the Botany Theatre in Trinity College Dublin on January 21st at 7.30pm. For more information, e-mail info@irishmetsociety.org or telephone 01-8064236.