Robert Boyle Winter School 2020

The 2^nd Robert Boyle Winter School took place in partnership with the RDS Dublin on Saturday 25^th January 2020 (Robert Boyle’s 393rd Birthday!) and explored “Climate Change the Irish Story” with presentations about the past, present and future engagement with Climate Change. Over 80 people attended on the day.

Evelyn Cusack Head of Forecasting at Met Eireann and Kevin O’Sullivan Environmental and Science Editor of the Irish Times chaired the morning and afternoon sessions.

The audience was introduced to Robert Boyle by Eoin Gill, learning about his approach to experimental science and witness some of Boyle’s pioneering experiments on the air, culminating in Boyle’s Law which is fundamental to weather and climate modelling. This presentation was dedicated to Dr Roy Johnson who passed away in December 2019.

This year, 2020, marks the bi-centennial of John Tyndall who was born in Leighlinbridge Co. Carlow. Tyndall was a major figure of Victorian science and he demonstrated that different gases absorbed heat at different levels in other words the mechanism causing climate change. Dr Norman McMillan a leading champion of John Tyndall in Ireland talk about Tyndall’s life and pioneering work on the “Greenhouse Effect” and also gave a detailed account of efforts to preserve Tyndall’s legacy over several decades. Norman also paid tribute to the work of Dr Con O’Rourke in highlighting Ireland’s science heritage.

Professor J Owen Lewis former dean of the faculty of Engineering and Architecture, UCD and CEO of Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has been at the forefront of sustainable energy research in Ireland since the 1980s. He looked back at several decades of work on low energy buildings and the potential to make serious savings in carbon emissions.

Dr David Robert Grimes author of the “Irrational Ape” is a DCU based physicist working in oncology. He has written in the Irish Times, the Guardian and other media combating pseudoscience. His recent book, “The Irrational Ape: Why Flawed Logic Puts us all at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World” has been described by Robin Ince as “A beautifully reasoned book about our own unreasonableness”. David explored the climate change denial in the context of wider rejection of science and evidence-based knowledge.