My first Magazine SFI Little Book - April Re-print edits included | Page 44

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Drones
Dr Tim McCarthy and his research team at the
National Centre for Geocomputation have their
drones in everyone’s pies, working on 4D fencing
for no-fly zones with national start-up company
Verifly, precision agriculture with Teagasc, marine
and off-shore monitoring with Science Foundation
Ireland Research Centre iCRAG, and emergency
response with the European Space Agency. The
sky appears to be the limit for drone technology.
www.nuim.ie
Bat Clues
Dr. Emma Teeling is looking at the genetics of bats.
Why? Because therein could lie clues about how genes
play important roles in health. At University College
Dublin her work compares genomes of bats and
various other animal species to tease out how nature
has addressed particular problems. The findings could
help us better understand conditions such as inherited
deafness, as well as more general topics such as ageing
and the immune response. Dr. Teeling’s work also
feeds into a wider international project that is using
“phylogenetics” to examine evolution, and the analysis
is uncovering new information about how mammals
diversified when dinosaurs became extinct.
www.ucd.ie
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