Need a few Irish Gaelic words for the pub? Want a few trivial tidbits to impress your fellow revelers? Plan to discuss science (eolaíocht) over pints? Read on!
Take a PDF cheat sheet with you to your local tavern and impress the lasses with your ability to order another pint, ask friends if they're drunk, and even wrangle a few kisses because you're Irish.
After downing a few pints of Guinness, it's time to get down to business. Do you study éiceolaíocht (ecology)? Or do you prefer eolaíochtaí saoil (life sciences)? Perhaps you could discuss the latest forás na heolaíochta agus na teicníochta sa mhíochaine agus sa bhitheolaíocht (scientific and technical developments in medicine and biology). Find more fun scientific references here.
Tidbits from fair and balanced Fox News: According to legend, on the day of Judgement, while Christ judges all other nations, St Patrick will be the judge of the Irish. Also, since 1962, tons of green dye are tipped on St Patrick’s Day into the Chicago river, although the quantity has reduced, for environmental reasons, from 100 to 40. ABC News contributes with 10 facts about Ireland, including the little known revelation that Belfast has a world-leading hospital for kneecap reconstruction.
Famous Irish scientists include Robert Boyle (Boyle's Law), Francis Beaufort (the Beaufort Scale, used at sea), George Boole (Boolean algebra), William Thomsom (Kelvin scale), John Tyndall (atmospheric science), J.D. Bernal and Kathleen Lonsdale (x-ray crystallography), Ernest Walton (Ireland's only Nobel Laureate, built first successful particle accelerator with John Cockroft), Denis Burkitt (Burkitt's lymphoma), John Bell (Bell's Inequalities in quantum physics), Jocelyn Bell Burnell (discovered pulsars), and many more.
