In The Papers 26 August

26-08-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

UCD researchers smash Swiss atoms | Hospital websites fare badly in web survey

The Irish Times reports that Irish researchers have been carrying out early tests on the EUR6 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is due to be fully switched on next month at CERN in Switzerland, firing atomic particles around a 27km circuit at close to the speed of light. The purpose of the LHC is to recreate the temperatures and conditions seen an instant after the Big Bang that created space-time and our universe. University College Dublin researchers are central to the testing of a detector known as Velo and have been involved since 2003, according to Dr Ronan McNulty of the School of Physics at UCD. Velo analyses the results of particle collisions.

The paper also reports that only 18 out of 49 hospitals in the State have a website and, among those that do, the customer information they provide is patchy and erratic, according to a survey by the Irish Patients Association. A researcher sought information on 10 facilities or services in hospitals from their websites, with the hospitals given a score of 10 for each of the services on which there was information. Beaumont Hospital and St Vincent's University Hospital each scored 80. The lowest scoring hospitals for website information were the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and St Michael's Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, which each got 20 points. Hospitals that had no websites included Cork University Hospital, Waterford Regional Hospital and Wexford General Hospital.

The Irish Examiner reports that Professor Gerry Boyle, the director of Teagasc, told a conference at University College Cork that it was not the State authority's role to get involved in the politics of biotechnology but to examine the science involved. He said it was Teagasc's job to research the benefits and faults of adopting GM (genetic modification) technology and to evaluate its use in other countries. Prof Boyle said the emergence of biotechnology had raised many questions of enormous public interest, such as the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production and the effects of GMOs on the environment.

The paper also says that changes to how maths is taught could risk dumbing down the subject and reducing the international reputation of the Leaving Certificate, a senior maths lecturer has warned. Michael Brennan, lecturer at Waterford Institute of Technology's department of computing, maths and physics, said recent international studies have shown the dangers of adapting maths education to make it more applicable to real-world situations. The National Council of Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has developed Project Maths, which will involve more practical applications of the subject and problem solving to try and increase interest in the subject, particularly at higher level. But Brennan said a different approach may be needed. "Perhaps a more applied type of practical maths, which would be somewhere between the standard of the higher and ordinary-level courses, would allow more students to get higher-level grades, as an alternative to widening the current course," he said.

According to the Financial Times, Hewlett-Packard is on Tuesday expected to close its USD13.9 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems, a deal that marks a renewed challenge to IBM's dominance of IT services. EDS is the world's second-largest provider of IT services, and when the deal closes HP will become the second-biggest IT services group behind arch-rival IBM. Services accounted for USD16.6 billion of HP's USD104 billion in revenues last year, well behind IBM's USD54 billion in services sales. EDS's total revenues last year were USD22.1 billion, down slightly from the year before.

The paper also says that Infosys Technologies has launched the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian IT outsourcing company, with a STG407.1 million cash offer for UK-based consultancy Axon Group. The acquisition values Axon at STG6 per share, representing a 19.4 percent premium over the company's Friday closing price on the London Stock Exchange. The deal, which was agreed by Axon's board and supported by founding and large shareholders, follows long-standing speculation that India's burgeoning computer services firms would use their strong cash balances to make big acquisitions in Europe.

The Wall Street Journal reports that NBC's decision to limit the amount of Olympics footage on its website has not only angered sports fans; the decision also left NBCOlympics.com generating just USD5.75 million in video-ad revenue from the Games, according to estimates from research firm eMarketer. At a time when video ads are starting to catch on, analysts say NBC had an opportunity to make a lot more money had it offered more online content during the Games. CBS Sports, by contrast, streamed all of the NCAA's March Madness basketball-tournament games live earlier this year and made USD23 million in ad revenue, the CBS Corp network said.

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