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A GROUP OF students from Cork are hoping their design for an app that tells whether a drink has been spiked will bring them success at the BT Young Scientist exhibition this week.
Their design – which is at an advanced stage – will combine a device called a spectrometer with a smartphone app, which can then be used to test any drink at a pub, nightclub or party.
In simple terms, the spectrometer shines a light through the liquid – and can detect whether anything unexpected shows up. The results will then be detailed on the smartphone app.
The project is the brainchild of Coláiste an Chraoibhin students Aisling Nolan, Wiktoria Biedron and DJ Cahill.
Aisling and Wiktoria talk us through the science in the clip below:
Starting work on their Young Scientist project in January of last year, the group initially worked on detecting lead in drinking water – which, as Wiktoria explains, was “very topical at the time”.
Their initial experiments were successful, “and since we’re all influenced by drugs both voluntarily and involuntarily we decided that this would be very interesting to do, and help others”.
Says Aisling:
It’s such a big thing, drugs, and we figured if we could detect lead in water why can’t you detect drugs in drink?
The device needs darkness to be effective – and unfortunately couldn’t be demonstrated for TheJournal.ie under the bright lights of the RDS.
The plan, as the project moves forward, is to combine the spectrometer with the app technology – as Aisling explains:
“At the moment, we’re putting the phone into the spectrometer – but the ideal thing would be if we could create a spectrometer small enough so that it could be linked to the camera-phone.
It could be built into the camera-phone, and then you could just have your phone and it’s perfect, and you don’t need any device.
Young Scientist
From an initial 2,048 projects, some 550 projects are on display at the RDS in Dublin this week as part of the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Around 60,000 visitors will have passed through the doors of the Ballsbridge complex by tomorrow evening.
The overall winner of the competition will be announced tonight.
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This headline should read ” insurance company reaping the benefits of gender directive”.
My insurance hasn’t gone down whatsoever! Also under this directive can I get a refund on the €4200 I paid for my first Years insurance back in the day
It’s all about equality.
Equality not so great now ladies.
Can men reclaim the horrific car insurance payments they made in their late teens and early twenties whilst women drove off paying less than half those rates? It was pure discrimination.
So is the article complaining that there is equality now?
It seems so.
Michelle must have enjoyed all those complimentary comments yesterday, because she’s on fire this morning.
I thought it was more that insurance companies are taking advantage of the directive?
It’s about time.
Isn’t equality nice!
I suppose the usual bleaters will complain now because things are not equal enough for them…
… and perhaps post such thoughts up in the form of articles.
There are positives and negatives of equality. You can’t expect to reap the gains and avoid the loses!
Cue Sinéad giving out!
Can’t wait for the age directive so older motorists have to pay the same as younger motorists
Mine still costs €1200 a year, which I can’t afford. Even my friends who now have full licences are paying at least €800 a year.
Complete Bo#$&x. Not a claim ever my renewal quote doubled this week, I don’t recall having a sex change. Even scouring around general quotes more than last years premium.
Mine went up significantly after the gender directive, but I noticed that my older sister, who doesn’t even have a full licence, still paid less than me. So age must be a factor too. My premium has now come down again thankfully, but all savings will be lost by the time I have to renew my health insurance!
Go online to renew health insurance, big money can be saved that way
Mine went down in fact all i pay is €350 fully comp. Its great really considering it was 800 two years ago… roll on the equality movement… next i hope that ALL my fellow citizens who drive around in 2014 brand new cars and hi-aces have to pay actual income tax and have benefits stopped until they can prove income… now there’s a novel idea.
I’m amused you are envious of those who drive HiAces…
There should be a tax on excess cynicism and assuming the worst about your fellow citizens.
Good
They obviously didn’t talk to Aviva if the research is indicating an average price drop for men.
My claim trippled this week. When I rang them I was told that all insurance was going up all across the board due to more claims. I had to shop around, I got a cheaper quote only 100euro over my old quote. Insurance companies are like criminals. Charge what they like with no fear.
Seeing as this a gender directive should LBGTI persons incur more costs , on account of their sexual mis-adventures and the dangers therin …, or is gender not a social construct when it comes to health insurance ?
Sorry?
Are you suggesting a gay person sleeps around more then a heterosexual?
Go out on any Saturday night and you’ll see a heterosexual person hooks up sleeps around the same as somebody that is gay, their all human’s after all with the same urges and desires.
Gender is not the same as sexuality.ffs.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/service/advertorials/sexually-transmitted-infections-in-men-who-have-sex-with-men-msm-continue-to-soar-30086359.html , I’m merely stating a fact and proposed that perhaps a person who “identifies” as gay should bear the financial brunt if their lifestyle choice endangers their health
Don’t feed the troll/Neanderthal lads
Gay women are at a lower risk. Should they pay less?
As a gay women, I don’t think so.
They say gender doesn’t matter, yet they all ask if you’re male or female with no choice to ignore answering so I’m sceptical regarding any real change.
My Broker is charging a fee of €45 for renewal through them. I went online myself and got a cheaper quote than they got for me. A follow up call from the insurer got me another 5% off. Needless to say I’m taking care of business myself this year.
‘Gender directive’ – hate these euphemisms.
It’s not a euphemism. There really is a European Directive and it really does deal with gender. Council Directive 2004/113/EC if you’re interested.
So equal pay will be next on the agenda. Men get paid more than women in the same job so I suppose when they balance it as they have done here, the extra pay we will get will offset the hike in insurance. Of course by the same token the drop in wages for men will be offset by the drop in insurance
No they don’t
Equality, its all fun and games untill you see what it really means :)
Smoking , drinking heavily , pharmacuetical drug dependence , illegal drug use , over or under eating & depression would be factored into a quote for health cover , why not the practice of unsafe sex?
It depends on how the companies define unsafe sex? It also would depend on how they would regulate it and prove it. If people don’t admit to it, and are healthy, it can’t be proven. Unlike smoking, drug use, dangerous work etc.
have your say