CRANN announced today that it is bringing the STAGE International Script Competition to Ireland as part of Dublin City of Science 2012.

The first fabrication of the Weaire-Phelan foam which is the natural formation of bubbles in soap lather has been created in a laboratory for the first time in Trinity College Dublin by the Foams and Complex Systems Research Group in the School of Physics with help from CRANN, a nanoscience research facility based in the Naughton Institute. The ideal foam, which has bubbles of equal size- making it low energy, had been hypothesized in ’93 by Prof. Denis Weaire and his student Robert Phelan in TCD but it was unable to be made until now. This hypothetical structure became infamous with the building of the Water Cube Aquatic Centre for the Beijing Olympics, which based its outer walls on the Weaire-Phelan structure.

Some people might be suffering from QR fatigue, but CRANN believes that they have just created the smallest QR code in the world! The image was unveiled today at the launch of Science Gallery’s 2012 programme. CRANN will partner with Science Gallery for the “NANOLAB” exhibition in September 2012.
 

“The Hive”, an image taken in CRANN of a porous surface of the polymer polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) was named by Science Foundation Ireland as the “Research Image of the Year” for 2011. The announcement was made by Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock TD, at the recent SFI Science Summit in Athlone, attended by 300 researchers.
 

CRANN has announced the launch of an innovative educational package, ‘Nano in My Life’. The package will introduce Transition Year and Senior Cycle students to nanoscience, which is set to become part of the proposed new Leaving Certificate syllabi.

The ‘Nano in My Life’ package, for the first time, will bring nanoscience – an area of research at which Ireland excels to the Irish classroom. It will encourage students to relate science subjects to innovative careers, with exciting and challenging applications.
 

Professor Jonathan Coleman, a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)-funded researcher from CRANN and Trinity College Dublin’s School of Physics who has achieved international success in the area of nanostructures, was last night announced as the ‘Science Foundation Ireland Researcher of the Year’ for 2011. The announcement was made by Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock T.D., at the SFI Science Summit in Athlone, attended by 300 researchers.