No science museum for Dublin?

davros

Last week, development plans for the Stack A warehouse in the IFSC were announced. Shops, restaurants, bars, maybe an art museum. But no science museum. I remember a couple of years ago there was a suggestion to use Stack A for a science museum. It's not happening apparently.

Are there any other plans or proposals for such an institution in this country?

stabu

Sorry to raise a six year old post .. but it's an interesting question .. Ireland owes a good deal of its recent wealth to disciplines such as computer science and biological sciences and there's so few science exhibits here in Ireland?

Maynooth has a science museum ([HTML]http://www.nuim.ie/museum[/HTML]). I'm kind of assuming there are Rowan Hamilton exhibits, and occasional shows based on other luminaries. Even, I'd say the Universities set up their mini-exhibits every now and then.

However, it does seem a little paltry ...

Of course, you could say that the Guinness museum is a science museum, there are alot of technical exhibits there. And it does very well. Lots of visitors. Scientific enlightment their only aim ... :-D

cavedave

you could say that the Guinness museum is a science museum

Student a very important statitician worked for Guinness but he is not mentioned in the Storehouse tour.

At the moment we do not have a natural history museum which sort of illustrates the lack of interest in science museums here.

Irish Halo

The science gallery in CRANN in Trinity is styled as a "science centre" as are a lot of the science "museums" here in the UK. Things like W5, @Bristol, Science Oxford are science centres (it is a fuzzy definition and boils down to having a collection sort of) with most of the real science museums being part of the National Museum of Science and Industry.

There is another planned for Kilmainham called the Exploration Station (http://www.explorationstation.ie/, PDF file with details).

The lack of a science centre in the republic has been a sticking point in the Sci Comm "community"(what there is of one) in Ireland.

stabu

ref. Student. Would you believe I wrote that comment without him in mind? I forgot about it ... I spoke truer than I knew.

The thing is that there are clear signs of a large improvement in arts museums in the past severill years, but, loik, naffsville for Science.

r3nu4l

A dedicated science museum is very necessary.

The science Museum in NUIM is mostly dedicated to Nicholas Callan of Maynooth (originally from Louth), inventor of the induction coil, but it does cover other aspects of science. However it is small.

In Dublin airport, on the way to Terminals A and D there are a few information boards that highlight current heroes of Irish science but to be honest, a lot of that is very subjective imo and let's face it, how many people actually stop on their way to the gate just to read these boards? Not many in my experience.

Scientific communication is very important in counteracting ridiculous claims such as the 'vaccines cause autism' shambles of a few years ago. Museums do have a role to play in education and 'museum' should not mean a dusty building paying tribute to history. Yes, acknowledge and celebrate scientific history but also celebrate current developments.

stabu

going to Science Gallery this week, to see what it's like .. anybody been? Is it really ... scientific?

i.e. is it about Gallery science (the science of exhibits) or is it in fact a gallery of Science?

g'em

stabu wrote: »

going to Science Gallery this week, to see what it's like .. anybody been? Is it really ... scientific?

With the exhibition on at the moment, yes! Lab in the Gallery is on right now (running for the month of October); they've taken some of the working labs from the Institute of Neuroscience next door and set them up in the Science Gallery - you can actively take part in the experiments and the results are being used by the researchers. Most of the experiments have been fully booked every day and it's been a great success so far. More info.

Phototoxin

Irish gov + science = oil plus water.

They give tonnes to the arts and lots of places have arts centres but nothing for science which is more useful to humanity!

stabu

science which is more useful to humanity!

bit of a flame honeypot but I'll take the bait and add that science is also very useful to inhumanity as well.

Also we can say that Art is useful under a number of premises. For example it keeps people occupied and entertained. It attracts tourists. Art works by association, science works by implementation.

In any case, it's not a question of one winning and the other losing. In fact they usually both lose. The winners are usually fake art and pseudo science.

Nooo ... stop now stabu!

lostexpectation

arn't they building a place at heuston and there that place in sandyford

is chq still not getting footfall, could be a msuem yet.

Pgibson

r3nu4l wrote: »

A dedicated science museum is very necessary.

The science Museum in NUIM is mostly dedicated to Nicholas Callan of Maynooth (originally from Louth), inventor of the induction coil, but it does cover other aspects of science. However it is small..

Good catalogue of Callan's lab here(Probably out of print.):

http://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Instruments-Catalogues-instruments-collections/dp/1898706018/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225459989&sr=1-1

AtomicHorror

Phototoxin wrote: »

Irish gov + science = oil plus water.

They give tonnes to the arts and lots of places have arts centres but nothing for science which is more useful to humanity!

Tell that to postgrads in the arts. They're thrilled to get a grant of any kind. Science gets great funding by comparison, there's no such thing as an unfunded science PhD. Problem seems to be focus, rather than funds. The building of a "science culture" is secondary to the building of a base of professional scientists. The balance is out of whack.

r3nu4l

The balance is out of whack but there are plenty of underfunded science PhDs out there. There are even some that can't get funding at all despite being valid areas of research.
If the science isn't on the list of 'currently sexy' topics, it doesn't get funding, if your proposal for the grant can link it to sexy science it gets plenty of cash...even if it's exactly the same project either way.

La Cucaracha

lol you sound like my old Population Biology professor. He used to call Genetics "sexy science" in a very scornful way. Probably because it overshadowed his own profession in the 60's and 70's.
I fully agree with you though. I still think Irish politicians havent embraced science because we, as scientists are not very good at kicking up a fuss. Science however, does recieve its share of bad publicity. Take the case for the LHC creating a black hole in Switzerland for instance, an example of how people are still wary of science.

johnl

Does anyone know of a computer museum or even a prospective computer museum?
I have a bunch of old computers, some rare, which I will have to dispose of fairly soon.
I would love to have them form part of a computer museum for Ireland where people could make use of them.

Turbulent Bill

I've been impressed by the Science Gallery in TCD. It's basically a cross between a traditional science museum (displaying basic concepts) and an art installation space - all of the events seem to highlight where science and art come together.

stabu

I find the Science Gallery really well staffed and extremely active. It's easy to be impressed, as it focuses alot on the flashy side of things.

I miss an air of scientific rigour and elegance to the place.

But I suppose it is what it says on the tin ... a gallery. Not a museum. I mean, it happens to be a gallery with science as the theme.

In as much as that, it's attracting arts graduates to science, which - I'm supposing - is good.

rgunning

stabu wrote: »

I miss an air of scientific rigour and elegance to the place.

That would be the complete and utter lack of science involved. It is an art galllery, no more. Just cause things light up and make noise when you press a button, doesn't make it science.