Podcasts about ryan institute

Analysis of over 70 spider venoms finds potency depends on a spider's diet Photo Credit: Andrew Downes, Xposure, A salmon pink tarantula Embargoed until 0001hrs Wednesday May 21, 2025: A new study by researchers at the University of Galway's School of Natural Sciences has revealed why some spiders possess venom that is far more potent than others. Why are some spiders are more venomous than others? By analysing the venoms of more than 70 different spider species, the team explored whether factors such as body size, prey type, and hunting method, including the use of webs, could explain the wide variation in venom strength. The research was published today in the journal Biology Letters. While spiders are infamous for the widespread arachnophobia they induce for a multitude of reasons, including erratic movements, eight spindly legs, sticky webs, and most notably, their venomous bites, the actual effects can vary dramatically depending on the species. For instance, a bite from the Brazilian wandering spider can result in serious medical complications, whereas the venom of a giant house spider typically poses no threat to humans, raising the question, what drives such differences in venom potency? The researchers discovered that diet is one of the most important drivers influencing the potency of spider venom. They found that spider venoms are what is called prey-specific, meaning if a spider primarily hunts insects, its venom is likely to be particularly effective at killing insects in general, such as crickets and flies, but far less effective against other non-insect prey, like small mammals. Lead author Dr Keith Lyons from University of Galway's School of Natural Sciences, said: "Our results show that spider venoms have evolved to be especially potent when tested on animals found in their diet in the wild. This may explain why species that are known to occasionally prey upon small mammals, such as the Brazilian wandering spider or Black widow, have venoms that can cause medically significant effects in us humans, whereas species that only prey on invertebrates, such as the Giant house spider, have evolved venoms that target invertebrate physiologies rather than our own, posing little threat to us." The researchers also tested whether the use of webs to capture prey was related to the potency or volume of a spider's venom. Dr Kevin Healy, Senior author and Head of the Macroecology lab at the University's School of Natural Sciences, said: "We predicted that web-hunting spiders might have less potent venoms because they may have evolved to rely more on their webs to immobilise prey. Surprisingly, we found no relationship between whether a spider used their web and the potency of their venom, suggesting that webs are likely important for restraining prey in web-hunters, regardless of how deadly their venom is. "This study helps us to understand the evolution of spider venoms and aids in our understanding of why some spiders, such as the Noble False widow become invasive species in some parts of the world, or how some venoms may be of particular interest for future drug discovery, or the development of pest species-specific, pollinator-friendly insecticides." Dr Michel Dugon, Head of the Venom Systems Lab, Ryan Institute, University of Galway, said: "By understanding the fundamental drivers of venom evolution we can better predict the types of biomolecules in spider venoms that have yet to be explored for drug discovery and why some species of spiders are more likely to become invasive species." About University of Galway Established in 1845, University of Galway is one of the top 2% of universities in the world. We are a bilingual university, comprised of four colleges, 18 schools and five research institutes, with more than 19,700 students, including around 3,000 international students. We have been accredited with an Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award, and 12 out of our 18 schools hold individual Athena SWAN Awards. We ...

The Mary Robinson Centre and University of Galway, along with partner Mayo County Council, will host the third Mary Robinson Climate and Nature Conference. The conference will bring together climate justice advocates, scientists, activists, community groups and policymakers to address local, national and global challenges and opportunities in relation to climate justice and nature conservation. Centering on the theme "Courage in Crisis", the annual conference will take place in Ballina, Co Mayo, on May 26th and 27th where the former president grew up, and where the new Mary Robinson Centre is located. Mary Robinson Centre and University of Galway host 2025 climate and nature conference Mary Robinson said: "The Mary Robinson Nature and Climate Conference will centre on a call to courage in the face of the climate and nature crisis, a crisis that touches every part of our shared world. In these urgent times, it is through meitheal, the Irish tradition of coming together in collective effort, that we find strength, purpose and hope. Only by standing together can we meet this moment with the boldness it demands. I'm looking forward to being in community in my hometown of Ballina, imagining together what each of us can do to build a better future." Along with Mary Robinson, the conference will feature a distinguished lineup of Irish and international speakers including: Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, DCU; Anja Murray, ecologist, policy analyst, broadcaster and author; Dearbhla Richardson, youth climate justice activist; Dr Elaine McGoff, An Taisce; Dr Gerard McCarthy, physical oceanographer and climate scientist; Professor Hannah Daly, UCC; Professor John Barry, Queens University Belfast; Professor Navjot Bhullar, University of Canberra, Australia; Tom Arnold, Ireland Africa Rural Development Committee; Dr Omnia El Omrani, Global Climate and Health Alliance; and Laura Cook, Project Dandelion. The conference will feature a diverse range of workshops, panel discussions, walks, music and art, and aims to create space for people to connect, share ideas, and collaborate, with several of the conference events open to the public. Dr Caitríona Carlin, School of Natural Sciences and Ryan Institute at University of Galway and conference co-chair, said: "It was uplifting to hear Mary Robinson recognise the interconnections between climate and biodiversity, when she changed the name of the conference to climate and nature in 2024. This is the first year that the conference formally addresses climate and nature and we are grateful to the funders and sponsors who have supported us. The conference enables us to acknowledge that actions for climate, for nature are also for us. We are part of the environment, and in finding common ground, we can make space for courageous conversations and actions to meet the multiple challenges ahead." Dr Sinéad Sheehan, School of Psychology and Ryan Institute, University of Galway and conference co-chair, said: "This year, while we are bringing the conference to Ballina, we also want to bring Ballina to the conference! There's a great programme of events planned around the conference, including an art exhibition at the Mary Robinson Centre, a 'Connecting With Trees' walk in Belleek Woods on Sunday, and an eco-gathering on Tuesday featuring groups working on climate and nature. We're also looking forward to a special 'Oíche Cultúr agus Craic' on Monday night with music, poetry and storytelling - it should be a brilliant few days for Ballina and the wider community." Dr Alma Clavin, Lecturer in Sustainability at University of Galway and conference co-chair, said: "This conference creates a necessary courageous space for those activated in climate and nature work to connect with each other and new ideas. The conference is taking place in a county that has a fantastic network of community-led climate and sustainability initiatives and a distinctive biodiversity-rich landscape. We're delighted to host this important ...

An international development expert from University of Galway is to support the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment of climate change and its impact. Dr Una Murray, Director of the MA in International Development Practice in the University's College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies and a Principal Investigator with the University's Ryan Institute, will provide advice on the topics of climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded in 1988 and provides the evidence to the governments of the world through comprehensive Assessment Reports about knowledge on climate change, its causes, potential impacts on people and the planet and response options. International experts are invited to its Working Groups to synthesise all available evidence on climate change and identify how best to reduce emissions, how to make societies more resilient and how to ensure a just transition for those most affected by climate change. Minister for Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan, T.D., welcomed Dr Murray's appointment and said, "Governments rely heavily on the gold standard evidence on climate change that is provided by the IPCC. This is critical to ensure our policies are evidence-based and to reduce risk of any maladaptive policies in response to climate change." Ireland has well recognised experts who can contribute to this evidence. We are also beginning to shake off our label as a climate laggard and are developing a reputation instead as a country that is showing that climate action can and is working. This is driven by the progress we are making nationally in reducing our own emissions, but also because of the calibre of the academics, scientists, researchers and policy experts we have working in the field." Professor Peter McHugh, Interim President of University of Galway, said: "Dr Murray's engagement with one of the leading climate change bodies at the UN is testament to both her insight and expertise on international development issues as well as our university's strategic commitment to sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The invitation for Dr Murray to advise on the issues of climate and its impact on people and society is a testament to the value we place on research-led excellence for the public good." Dr Murray said: "This is a great honour for me but also for University of Galway. One of my key aims is to provide IPCC contributions in relation to climate change and human migration. At the University of Galway, my research team is working on climate change, migration and social protection which I have presented at the UN Climate Summits over recent years. My team's research advocates for climate adaptive social protection as a key policy response to help tackle climate vulnerability and reduce inequalities." Dr Murray's expert advisory role is with the IPCC's Working Group II, which will be scoping the next IPCC Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), focusing on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The IPCC AR7 Scoping Meeting is being organised from December 9-13, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

On hearing the news of Lonesome George's death, the last Pinta Island tortoise, most people are likely to think it is sad and noteworthy news. But do we really care? As the world experiences what experts describe as the sixth mass extinction researchers have studied how people react to the news of animals, such as Lonesome George, disappearing from the planet for good. The team, led by University of Galway in collaboration with UCD and Maynooth University, turned to big data and the world of culturomics to measure how we react to the demise of animals and plants and whether we mourn their loss or if we are numb to the effects. The full study has been published in the journal Animal Conservation and is available here. Dr Kevin Healy, School of Natural Sciences and the Ryan Institute at University of Galway, said, "Culturomics is an approach where we gather large amounts of online data to understand cultural patterns. In our study we tracked changes in tweets, and Wikipedia page visits before and after the extinction of eight species ranging from Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise, to more obscure species such as the bean snail." The research team analysed data of more than two million Wikipedia page visits and more than 100,000 tweets and retweets on Twitter between 2007 and 2023, relating to eight species now extinction species including the Pinta Giant Tortoise; the Christmas Island Whiptail-skink; the Bramble Cay Mosaic-tailed Rat; the Alagoas Foliage-gleaner; Captain Cook's Bean Snail; the Oahu Treesnail; the Rabb's fringe-limbed treefrog and the West African black rhinoceros, to test if people increased engagement after the extinction and how global it was. By measuring interactions on both X and visits to Wikipedia, the researchers were able to gauge how people engage with the more immediate world of social media in comparison to the expected slower paced world of an online encyclopaedia. The study showed that while tweets, retweets and posts on X relating to a species increased after its extinction, this was only a short-lived phenomenon. In contrast, visits to Wikipedia pages relating to an extinction had longer lasting engagement. Dr Susan Canavan, School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway and lead author on the study, said, "Overall, we found that people mentioned a species on twitter more often directly after its extinction, however this increase was quite short lived. However, when we looked at Wikipedia page visits the increase in page visits after an extinction was sustained for far longer." The researchers also found that the most commonly used words are strongly associated with sadness and that for a brief moment even those relatively obscure species found in highly localised parts of the world are mourned across the globe. Dr Canavan added, "Overall, it does look like people care and are saddened by the news of extinction. We see words like 'RIP' and 'lost' commonly appear, and that the location of tweets expand from close to the species range, to across the globe after extinction." However, while people display a sense of caring on hearing news of extinction, where they hear it from, or how they hear it, was found to be an important driver in how they engage with it. The researchers found that a small cohort of "influencers" drive the majority of engagement on X. For example, engagement on X after the extinction of the West African black rhinoceros were heavily influenced by posts from the comedian Ricky Gervais. And while people respond to the news of extinction on mainstream media, there was no noticeable increase in engagement or page visits associated with official extinction announcements from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Dr Healy said, "From a conservation point of view, these results show that we can do better in communicating species extinction by more clearly linking in with media outlets and engaging with particular parts of social media. People's ...

An international research team led by the University of Galway has discovered a new method to accurately measure past polar sea surface temperature changes and climate change. In a new study published in Nature Communications, Dr. Audrey Morley, lecturer in Geography and Ryan Institute and iCRAG scientist at the University of Galway reveal how polar climate history can be detected by analysing the shells of foraminifera - microorganisms no bigger than a grain of sand. The scientists involved in the project describe the research method as invaluable, as it can be applied to new and previously published datasets worldwide to re-evaluate the magnitude and geographical extent of marine polar climate change. Dr. Morley, lead author of the research paper, said, "In the future, our new method will allow us to evaluate the ability of climate models to simulate polar amplified warming and cooling, which is especially important as climate model simulations targeting warmer than present climates have historically not captured the full extent of polar amplified warming." "This information will enable a major leap forward in our ability to assess the sensitivity of Arctic climate and its role and variability within the global climate system. This will lay the foundation for an improved understanding of climate change." Foraminifera are small unicellular organisms that build a miniscule shell out of calcium carbonate and other elements available in seawater. In doing so, they record the chemistry and climate of seawater in their shell. At the end of their life, the empty shells sink to the seafloor and are deposited in sediment, like a marine archive year after year, millennia after millennia. Through analysis of the magnesium and calcium (Mg/Ca) preserved in the shells, scientists can get an indirect measure or 'proxy' of sea surface temperatures. These climate proxies allow scientists to reveal the earth's climate history from a few hundred years to billions of years ago and thereby improve an understanding of future climate change. However, in cold polar waters, this method doesn't work because it is compromised by the carbonate chemistry of seawater, leaving us without a tool to measure past marine polar climates. The new research method solves a long-standing problem in Arctic Climate Science. The team set out on several oceanographic cruises, including the Marine Institute's RV Celtic Explorer in 2020, to collect living polar foraminifera together with the seawater that they lived in. This allowed the researchers to identify exactly how the carbonate chemistry of seawater impacts the temperature signal recorded in the magnesium and calcium Mg/Ca values of the tiny organism. The research showed that for polar foraminifera, the oxygen isotopes preserved in the shells can be used as a proxy for the carbonate chemistry of seawater and when measured together on fossil foraminifera, Mg/Ca and oxygen isotopes can be used to reveal past polar sea surface temperatures globally. Dr Morley said, "For example, when applied to the last ice age, this method shows that current estimates of cooling over North Atlantic mid-latitudes have been underestimated by up to 3?C." "Direct observations of sea surface temperatures in the Arctic are short and at best 150 years long. These short records leave us with a gap in our understanding and large uncertainties when predicting how future climate change will respond to rising greenhouse gas emissions." "To improve our understanding and reduce uncertainties we look to the past using climate proxies - such as the foraminifera. Yet, most proxies of essential climate variables, such as sea surface temperatures, suffer from limitations when applied to cold temperatures that characterise Arctic environments." "These limitations prevent us from constraining uncertainties for some of the most sensitive climate tipping points that can trigger rapid and dramatic global climate change. For example, the enhanced warmi...

University of Galway, Galway City Council, and PorterShed have come together to host the 2024 Galway City Climathon. The one-day event is designed to allow attendees and experts to share and develop innovative ideas actions and solutions to tackle local, urban challenges in Galway city. The 2024 Galway City Climathon takes place on Friday, October 25th in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall, Quadrangle, from 9 am to 4 pm. Frances Fahy, Director of the University of Galway's Ryan Institute, said: "For the ninth year in a row, the Ryan Institute, home to environmental research at the University of Galway, is hosting the Climathon for Galway City. We are delighted to be inviting innovators, entrepreneurs, students, and interested people from all sectors and communities across Galway City to join us on campus once again for this event. "This year our one-day event is a partnership involving Galway City Council, the University's Sustainability Office, and our long-term Climathon partners, the PorterShed. We are looking forward to hearing the many innovative and climate-positive ideas that emerge from the day to tackle local urban challenges in Galway City," said Fahy. Damien Redington, Climate Action Coordinator at Galway City Council, said: "Events like Climathon are vital in harnessing the creativity and innovation of our community. By bringing together bright minds from various sectors, Climathon empowers us to develop local solutions that can have a global impact. Galway is committed to being a leader in sustainability, and this event plays a key role in driving forward our climate action plan goals. I encourage everyone to participate and contribute to shaping a greener, more resilient future." Initiated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology Climate Knowledge Innovation Community (EIT Climate-KIC) Climathon is a global 24-hour climate change event that will take place simultaneously in major cities and this year the event aligns with Urban October and World Cities Day, global initiatives that highlight the critical role cities play in climate action. Galway City Climathon is part of an ongoing collaboration between the University of Galway and Galway City Council, to inspire action and innovation in tackling local and global climate challenges. For more information or to register for Climathon 2024 click here.

The University of Galway has embarked on a geothermal heat pump project on campus to heat the swimming pool in the Sports Centre. The University campus is already part of Galway's decarbonisation zone, which is aggressively targeting a 51% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and to decarbonise the campus by 2050. The ground source heat pump system is being developed and operated as a pilot in the European Union Horizon 2020 project GEOFIT, which is devoted to the adoption of innovative technologies to support and enhance ground source heat pump technologies in Europe. Site works commenced in September 2022 on the lawn in front of the Alice Perry Engineering Building with 18 boreholes for a thermal network of underground pipes as part of a dual source ground-air heat pump system. GEOFIT will extract heat from the ground and feed two heat pumps to generate hot water which will be carried through an existing district heating network of underground pipes to warm the University swimming pool in the Sports Centre. Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President of University of Galway, said: “With this investment, University of Galway is demonstrating that our values of sustainability and excellence are embedded not only in our research and education but also in how we operate as a campus. Our students were to the fore in pressing the case for sustainability and securing a clean, green and efficient energy source for our Sports Centre. GEOFIT is an important stepping stone on our decarbonisation journey.” Assistant Professor Marcus Keane and his colleague Luis Blanes, University of Galway GEOFIT Research Manager, School of Engineering and Built Environment and Smart Cities Research Cluster lead in the Ryan Institute, said: “The GEOFIT pilot will provide an invaluable asset for the scientific community in Ireland and Europe. Like never before, we will be able to understand the long term performance and potential of ground source energy and plan how much energy we can harness from natural and renewable sources that include the ground and ambient air.” The GEOFIT project will capture, process and monitor data relating to the performance of the geothermal heat pump system for at least 5 years, utilising an advanced, innovative Fibre Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing System in collaboration with Ireland's Geological Survey Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland's iCRAG Geosciences Research Centre. The technology innovation and research data in University of Galway's GEOFIT project will provide future management capability to extensively monitor, manage and maintain the renewable geothermal resource field over the next 25 years. The findings will help the University, as well as other operators of public buildings, to determine the feasibility and scalability of ground source heat pumps and other complementary solutions such as district heating and novel heat storage technologies. Michael Curran, Head of Building Services, Energy and Utilities, University of Galway, said: “This is not about just changing boilers with heat pumps – we will use this pilot as a teaching tool and a research laboratory. This is only a first step of a wider campus decarbonisation plan and an opportunity to monitor different performance data, leading to better decisions for large scale heat pump applications.” In addition to the GEOFIT project, the University has already invested in heat pump project to retrofit Áras de Brún building which is funded by Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathfinder Programme, supported by Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Higher Education Authority and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. It will provide equally extensive monitoring of heat pump performance over time and indoor air quality. For more information visit:/ More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes...

Dr John Dunbar Ryan Institute in NUI Galway on False Widow Spiders - CorkToday Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Home to a mixture of important habitats, the NUI Galway campus has been recognised as the most biodiverse university campus in Ireland. Nuala Ní Chonghaile joins Caitriona Carlin from NUI Galway's Ryan Institute and School of Natural Sciences, on a walk through the NUI Galway Biodiversity Trail in this edition of the Cois Coiribe Podcast – a series that explores major societal issues and the role that NUI Galway, and our global alumni network play in creating new knowledge, in research and in policy making.

Unless action is taken, by the year 2050 approximately ten million deaths per year will be attributable to antimicrobial resistance. In this episode of the podcast, hosted by Jonathan McCrea, Professor Cormican and Professor Morris discuss the global problem of antimicrobial resistance and how dependence on antibiotics has meant they don't work as well as they use to because bacteria have changed, rendering the medications ineffective. Professor Martin Cormican is a Consultant Microbiologist at Galway University Hospital, Professor of Bacteriology at NUI Galway and the national lead for Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance in Ireland and clinical lead for COVID-19 vaccination roll out in Ireland. Professor Dearbhaile Morris is Professor of Antimicrobial Resistance and One Health at NUI Galway and head of the Discipline of Bacteriology at the School of Medicine at NUI Galway. She is Director of the Antimicrobial Rseistance and Microbial Ecology Group and Director of the Ryan Institute for One Health at NUI Galway. www.nuigalway.ie/leadingminds

The IIEA and the Department of Foreign Affairs jointly hosts this public webinar on “Ireland and the Arctic Council” to discuss some of the issues and opportunities arising from Ireland's application for observer status to the Council. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, delivers the keynote address. The proceeding panel is moderated by David Donoghue, former Ambassador of Ireland to the United Nations and to the Russian Federation. The Arctic Council, established in 1996, is recognised as the primary forum for international cooperation and coordination in the Arctic region. The Council focuses in large part on environmental issues within the region and the situation of its indigenous peoples. About the Speakers: Keynote by: Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence Richard Cronin is Principal Adviser for Marine Environment for the Irish government and the current chair of the OSPAR Commission. He leads a team who work to ensure that Ireland has a clean, healthy and sustainably-used maritime area. Through the Chairmanship of the OSPAR Commission, he leads the consensus-based decision making that underpins the multilateral cooperation on the protection of the marine environment between the countries of the Northeast Atlantic, including European members of the Arctic Council. Professor Anne Husebekk was elected Rector of UiT The Arctic University of Norway in 2013 and is serving a second term. The research and education in the University focuses on climate, environment and sustainability in the Arctic and globally. Previously, Professor Husebekk was appointed by Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg as the Norwegian member of a Norwegian-Swedish-Finnish group of experts tasked with identifying potential of business development in the Scandinavian Arctic. Dr Audrey Morley is a lecturer in Physical Geography at the National University of Ireland Galway, and affiliated with iCRAG, the Ryan Institute and the PRU. She is also President of the Network of Arctic Researchers in Ireland (NARI). Dr Morley's central research objective is to assess large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate dynamics during past warm climates to improve our understanding of future climate change. Heather A. Conley is senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic and director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Previously, she served as executive director of the Office of the Chairman of the Board at the American National Red Cross. Ms Conley also was also deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

As part of Science Week, a research group from NUI Galway will host the event, ‘Plastic Recycling in Ireland – How to improve plastic recycling together’. This event will focus on the fate of plastic after it has been used and how we can improve plastic recycling as users. It takes place today (Thursday, 12 November) at 5 pm and is free and open to the public. The Innovative Energy Technologies for Biofuels, Bioenergy and Sustainable Irish Bioeconomy (IETSBIO3) is an international research group led by Professor Piet Lens at NUI Galway. The group’s focus is on novel technologies for alternative fuels and renewable commodities from waste and wastewater treatment. Ireland is one of the biggest producers of plastic waste in the EU per inhabitant. Often, recyclable plastic ends up in the general waste bin or non-recyclable products are mixed within the recycling bin. Or even worse, plastic ends up on the streets, in rivers and the ocean. The event will feature presentations from professionals from industry, academia and society, followed by an open discussion where contribution is invaluable and all questions and suggestions for improving plastic recycling skills are encouraged. Presentations will be made by: Liam Dunne, General Manager, Panda Group will discuss – Domestic Recycling in Ireland. It will cover what happens to your plastic when it has been collected for recycling; how plastic is collected and then separated, and the most common problems of incorrect disposal and how this affects the recycling process; the measurements that Panda Group is taking to improve recycling practices. Dr Liam Morrison, Earth and Ocean Sciences, Ryan Institute, NUI Galway will discuss – To flush or not to flush – wet wipes as a source of microplastic in the ocean. This presentation will focus on white microplastics fibres in the marine environment from the inappropriate disposal of sanitary products in Ireland. Sediments adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant in Galway City are consistently strewn with white microplastic fibres that are comparable to those from commercially available consumer sanitary products (wet wipes and sanitary towels). Increased public awareness of microplastic pollution is required and human behaviour should shift away from the inapt disposal of sanitary products down the toilet. Michele Hallahan – Advisor to the Office of the Provost, TCD will discuss – The evolution of behaviour regarding recycling of plastics. It will focus on sustainability, based on the experience of the speaker, how the behaviour of the people has evolved in the last few years in Ireland. As well as a short overview about some of the programmes carried out to promote and improve plastic recycling skills. And in Michele’s opinion how we can improve it at home day by day. Professor Lens’ group at NUI Galway aims to achieve more environmentally friendly technologies and is working to further develop sustainable practices in Ireland at all levels, such as households, education, industries, and policy. By sharing the specific knowledge of different stakeholders it will help towards achieving a zero-waste and circular economy approach to environmental concerns. The group is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and is part of MaREI and the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway. To join the event on MS Teams, logon to

This podcast was recorded on 23rd September 2019 during the global week of climate action. In this episode, Sadhbh O'Neill, political theorist, environmental activist and representative of Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), discusses the concept of climate justice. She also explains two recent judgments of the Irish High Court in cases brought by FIE, and she refers to ongoing activism by the Irish NGO coalition, Stop Climate Chaos. Sadhbh was in Galway to participate in the first of a series of public lectures on climate justice, co-hosted by the Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR) and the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway. The recording of that event is available on the ICHR's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YNrwQrOV3Z-dXiUb7X-5w The title of the event was 'Climate Justice: Whose Responsibility Is It?' and the activists who spoke included Kaluba Banda, Bulelani Mfaco, Niamh Garvey, Sadhbh O'Neill, Saoirse McHugh and Eddie Mitchell.

Humans have an instinctive fear of large cats, or bears, or crocodiles, essentially anything big enough to maul us to death. It makes sense. But why are we afraid of spiders, snakes or insects? It almost certainly comes down to one of evolution’s great levellers. Venom. So what exactly is Venom? How does it work and how can we turn it to our advantage? Jonathan is joined by John Dunbar from the School of Natural Sciences at the Ryan Institute in NUI Galway

PM Narendra Modi addresses students' convention on 125 years of Swami Vivekananda's speech at the Chicago Parliament of World’s Religions; Haryana Police focuses on Ryan Institute; Rafel Nadal wins 16th Grand Slam at US Open; Airtel to launch Jio Phone competitor; Harley Davidson announces price cuts.

Catherine Taylor, senior adviser for policy, partnerships and community engagement at the Ryan Institute at the University of Rhode Island talks about research there into the impact of diet and exercise on dementia

2014/10/19. Business as a Calling Day. Director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, University of St. Thomas. Michael Naughton is the director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, and holds the Alan W. Moss Endowed Chair in Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN). He is the author and editor of several books, including Bringing Your Business to Life, Managing as if Faith Mattered, Rediscovering Abundance, and Rethinking the Purpose of Business. He earned a Ph.D. in Theology and Society from Marquette University, and an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas. He serves on several corporate boards and has brought together an international community of scholars and practitioners to engage practical and theological questions about theology and business. He has also spearheaded collaborations on topics such as A Theology of Institutions and Seeing Things as a Whole.

2014/10/19. Business as a Calling Day. Director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, University of St. Thomas. Michael Naughton is the director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, and holds the Alan W. Moss Endowed Chair in Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN). He is the author and editor of several books, including Bringing Your Business to Life, Managing as if Faith Mattered, Rediscovering Abundance, and Rethinking the Purpose of Business. He earned a Ph.D. in Theology and Society from Marquette University, and an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas. He serves on several corporate boards and has brought together an international community of scholars and practitioners to engage practical and theological questions about theology and business. He has also spearheaded collaborations on topics such as A Theology of Institutions and Seeing Things as a Whole.