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BT Young Scientist - is there something fishy? MOD Note in OP

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  • 14-01-2018 1:28am
    #1
    Marty Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭


    I was watching this and see the winners mother is a very well known senior medical scientist/lecturer with the microbiology department of University College cork, she oversaw a very similar study back in 2007 with another post grad student a very strange coincidence, I’m not saying the lad didn’t do the work but to have a parent who is directly involved in that particular field and to have supervised a similar study 11 years ago is strange.

    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/mrsa-faces-defeat-from-wild-flower-48105.html



    MOD Note
    This thread was started off with the word 'fraud' being used. As this comes with a big can o' worms with it, I think that we should just allude to something fishy going on rather than making bold claims.

    I'd like for the thread to continue in this vein, no allegations as such and to have a healthy discussion on the BT Young Scientist award.

    Cool.


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    #2
    Fann Linn
    Registered Users Posts: 7,772 ✭✭✭Fann Linn


    First prize €7k approx. Not bad if ye can get it.


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    #3
    boombang
    Registered Users Posts: 2,108 ✭✭✭boombang


    Call me cynical, but I've often thought there's no way these kids are coming up with this stuff themselves without constable considerable adult direction that goes beyond meer support and mentoring.

    Don't get me wrong, I would be tempted to do the same if I was an adult that wanted to bring an idea to prominence. However, it's unfair on the more modest, but genuine contributions from other kids.

    Looks like good research by the OP.


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    #4
    AllForIt
    Registered Users Posts: 8,275 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    I was watching the news reports over the last few days and I have to say I view the whole thing with a great deal of scepticism.

    Obviously these youngsters have been given a great deal of 'guidance', and that is not to take away anything from the intelligence of the youngsters involved, nor their enthusiasm for the subject matter, but I do feel they are being used in some way to promote STEM subjects.


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    #5
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 32,996 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Mmm...interesting.


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    #6
    SteelyDanJalapeno
    Registered Users Posts: 14,237 ✭✭✭✭SteelyDanJalapeno


    This needs to go to straight to the top


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    #7
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 32,996 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    How did his Ma not think this wouldn't be noticed?


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    #8
    Fann Linn
    Registered Users Posts: 7,772 ✭✭✭Fann Linn


    TiltedBrain wrote: »
    This needs to go to straight to the top


    ...where it will probably be just ignored.


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    #9
    _Dara_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭_Dara_


    Well, it’s never a surprise to me when the parents of winners are involved in the sciences themselves. Makes sense. But this is a bit suspish in that you’d wonder how much of it was original work by the kid and how much is data from his mother’s lab.


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    #10
    Subcomandante Marcos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,683 ✭✭✭Subcomandante Marcos


    There was another winner a while back (1999?) from Cork, a girl called Sarah Flannery who developed an encryption algorithm. The algorithm itself ended up having some major flaws, but what was interesting about it at the time is that her father is/was a math lecturer in CIT and had worked in this area for a while.
    So was a 15 year old really reading unpublished work from obscure Irish academics and basing her work on their research or did her dad use a friends unpublished work as a springboard to get his daughter a load of media attention and scholarship offers?


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    #11
    corner of hells
    Registered Users Posts: 8,356 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    Do you think we could do a bit if the 'ol blackmailing ' and go on the piss with the seven grand ?


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    #12
    Duckworth_Luas
    Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    Do potential prize winners not have to defend their research in front of the adjudicating panel?


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    #13
    Wombatman
    Registered Users Posts: 3,337 ✭✭✭Wombatman


    Watched his bit in this clip this morning. I felt he was just reciting a spiel he had learned for such interviews and didn't have a deep understanding of the science behind the project.

    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/killer-superbug-project-wins-top-prize-for-budding-young-scientist-36483862.html


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    #14
    c.p.w.g.w
    Registered Users Posts: 4,994 ✭✭✭c.p.w.g.w


    here is a functioning link

    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/mrsa-faces-defeat-from-wild-flower-48105.html


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    #15
    Marty Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭Marty Bird


    I also found his reply to Turbidy on the Late Late as odd..

    Turbidy: Well what won it for you ?

    Simon: What won it for me ? Well I can’t tell myself I wouldn’t want to skew the result.


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    #16
    Wombatman
    Registered Users Posts: 3,337 ✭✭✭Wombatman


    Marty Bird wrote: »
    I was watching this and see the winners mother is a very well known senior medical scientist/lecturer with the microbiology department of University College cork, she oversaw a very similar study back in 2007 with another post grad student a very strange coincidence, I’m not saying the lad didn’t do the work but to have a parent who is directly involved in that particular field and to have supervised a similar study 11 years ago is strange?

    https://www.google.ie/amp/amp.irishexaminer.com/ireland/health/mrsa-faces-defeat-from-wild-flower-48105.html

    The winners name is Meehan, the supervisor was Dr Brigid Lucey. Am I missing some connection?


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    #17
    AllForIt
    Registered Users Posts: 8,275 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    Duckworth_Luas wrote: »
    Do potential prize winners not have to defend their research in front of the adjudicating panel?

    No. None of what they claim is in any way verified by the adjudicating panel. Which kinda makes of mockery of the idea that their is a 'winner'.


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    #18
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,840 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    does he have a different surname to his mother? I presume Dr Brigid Lucey is the mother?

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #19
    Marty Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭Marty Bird


    Wombatman wrote: »
    The winners name is Meehan, the supervisor was Dr Brigid Lucey. Am I missing some connection?

    That’s his mother.


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    #20
    Subcomandante Marcos
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,683 ✭✭✭Subcomandante Marcos


    silverharp wrote: »
    does he have a different surname to his mother? I presume Dr Brigid Lucey is the mother?

    Fairly common for women in academia to keep their maiden name, especially if they're publishing before they marry.


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    #21
    NinetyTwoTeam
    Closed Accounts Posts: 619 ✭✭✭NinetyTwoTeam


    Wow that's a disgrace, total cheats IMO.


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    #22
    diomed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,744 ✭✭✭diomed


    Next year's winning project
    The connection between winners of Young Scientist and their parent's work.


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    #23
    Junkyard Tom
    Registered Users Posts: 10,117 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    Well done Dad! Was how one of my homework offerings was marked when I was a bout 6/7 years old.


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    #24
    _Dara_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭_Dara_


    There’s a Cork Echo article in the google results that mentions his parents in the google-visible bit (mother is called Brigid apparently) but click on it and it appears to have been removed.


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    #25
    Marty Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭Marty Bird


    From the IT..

    The fourth year student has dedicated his work to his grandfather, Eddie Lucey, a well-known herbalist and science teacher in Bandon. Now 82, he helped people with medical conditions using herbs grown in his back garden; a tradition going back generations in his family.

    Not one mention of the mother working in that field whatsoever..


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    #26
    Marty Bird
    Registered Users Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭Marty Bird


    _Dara_ wrote: »
    There’s a Cork Echo article in the google results that mentions his parents in the google-visible bit (mother is called Brigid apparently) but click on it and it appears to have been removed.

    I looked at that earlier it showed a picture with him and his parents gone now.


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    #27
    Noveight
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,813 ✭✭✭Noveight


    diomed wrote: »
    Next year's winning project
    The connection between winners of Young Scientist and their parent's work.

    My God that'd be good.


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    #28
    _Dara_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭_Dara_


    Marty Bird wrote: »
    I looked at that earlier it showed a picture with him and his parents gone now.

    Hmmm, that’s strange. Why remove that if there’s nothing to hide? Normal for pictures of the winners and their parents to appear in the media.


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    #29
    Wombatman
    Registered Users Posts: 3,337 ✭✭✭Wombatman


    _Dara_ wrote: »
    Hmmm, that’s strange. Why remove that if there’s nothing to hide? Normal for pictures of the winners and their parents to appear in the media.

    Better screenshot that article from 10 years ago so :D


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    #30
    c.p.w.g.w
    Registered Users Posts: 4,994 ✭✭✭c.p.w.g.w


    its all a cover up...maybe we should be posting over in the conspiracy theory thread:D:D:D:D:D:D


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    #31
    humpsterfire
    Registered Users Posts: 20 ✭humpsterfire


    I mean, put a seconds thought into it and its obviously sham-tastic.

    But if its true the mother was working on basically the same project.....its a new level of eye-rolling.

    Its basically a publicity stunt for Ireland, "look at how clever our children are!", the powers that be couldnt give a fig if the thing is genuine or not!

    Then they'll send his ma, sorry, I mean him over to the European version of the event, where his ma will compete with a german da, an English school, an Italian ambassador etc

    Its national dick-waving, but using adolescent dicks as a front, with big, secretive, hefty langers swinging pendulously in the background shadows.


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