Madam, - Karlin Lillington appears disappointed that schoolgirls may not have had enough encouragement at the BA Festival of Science to pursue science studies ("Rose proves girls bloom as scientists", The Irish Times, September 9th).
My own impression was that girls outnumbered boys among the visitors to the young people's programme. Certainly, some of my stronger memories of the festival relate to the presence of girls and young women.
It was strangely affecting to see two groups of schoolgirls, each in their respective uniform, hail each other in Trinity College with, "Are you going to the nanochemistry lecture?" The word can have entered their vocabulary only in very recent times.
A teenage girl and her mother came to two events on science and literature in the Science in the City programme. The mother explained that it was her transition year daughter who had dragged her to events and that she, a teacher of English, was delighted to have been dragged.
A young girl waited patiently with her hand up at a discussion on robots to ask the small but perfectly formed question, "What will happen to us if robots inherit the earth?"
But we have reason to fear that school science may dull such wide-eyed curiosity. At a debate on the agenda for science, a young science teacher from a girls' school explained how, because of her experience of a period working with research scientists, she found it difficult to join the campaign to tell students that there are exciting and rewarding jobs in science. As she observed, many of those in research have insecure employment, heavy workloads and uncertain prospects.
This reality may be at least part of the reason why it is proving difficult to attract young people - particularly young women - into science studies and careers. You express the hope ("Wonders of Science", Editorial, September 10th) that the festival may have helped boost the attraction, but also say that career paths in sciences and engineering need to be created.
If the festival has a "lingering impact" (your phrase) among young people, it will be more by showing how science can be intellectually stimulating and socially relevant, than by trumpeting questionable claims about the financial rewards of working in labs. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN TRENCH, Griffith Avenue, Dublin 11.