Photo was taken at the BT Young Scientist, RDS, Dublin (Irl)

Col√°iste Choilm students from Ballincollig celebrate when news of their award was announced on Friday night.

Thought on Monday – January – 14/01/2013

‘Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but both look out at the same universe. Both are worthy of respect.’ ~Physicist Freeman Dyson

It was great to attend the 2013 BT Young Scientist Exhibition during the week at the RDS in Dublin. There were 1,197 students displaying 550 projects. They hugely impressed teachers, parents, judges and the 45,000 people who viewed the projects. Cork did exceptionally well with Ciara Judge, Sophie Healy-Thow and Emer Hickey from Kinsale Community School winning the overall prize. I now it’s a cliche but the 1,197 students who took part were the real winners. Each student started many months ago with an idea, pondered on it, thought about it, developed it, worked on it and in the end produced something really special.

This is the beauty of science. It gives us a unique window into our world, working together to generate new possibilities and beginnings. Science allows us to understand our world so much better based on evidence, which is then open to testing, scrutiny, peer review and assessment. Religion on the other hand is not in competition with science. It simply is a different window looking into this amazing world of ours, created by God and slowly evolving over millions of years. Religion allows us to look at it from a completely different angle, allowing us to reflect on deeper questions and knowing there is a deeper meaning to life. Having attended all four days of the 2013 BT Young Scientist, I can confidently say that our future is bright with the enthusiasm, energy and creativity of our 1197 Young Scientists!