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CLAIRE O'CONNELL The next time you pour a drink of sparkling water, stop and look at the bubbles. Could our universe be like one of them, a single bubble among many other universes? That's was one of the mind-blowing (if speculative) concepts outlined by Prof Brian Greene in his keynote address at Euroscience Open Forum 2012 in the Convention Centre in Dublin.

(Image: David S. Holloway/Getty Images) Sixty-nine years ago, Erwin Schrödinger stood before a crowd at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and tackled one of the biggest questions of science: What is life? Last night, geneticist Craig Venter stood before a packed crowd at the very same college and asked that same question.

The blogosphere is a brave new news world, but it's generally assumed that blogs that report the news adhere to basic journalistic standards-like not deliberately inserting bits of misinformation into their virtual pages. Right? Former TechCrunch blogger MG Siegler took a dig at bloggers who rewrite others' reporting.

CIAN TRAYNOR A FORMER Church of Scientology member has warned actress Katie Holmes what to expect if she speaks out against the religion following her separation from Tom Cruise. Speaking at Dublin Offlines, a conference held by ex-Scientologists on Saturday, Samantha Domingo claimed that attempting to leave the church could provoke a very strong reaction from the organisation.

Running from 30 June to 22 July the 99th Tour de France comprises a prologue and 20 stages covering 3,497km. Check out our brilliant route maps, stage-by-stage analysis from William Fotheringham and guide to team tactics

Last updated at 21:01 GMT Derry City were well beaten by Drogheda United in their Premier Division game at the Brandywell on Friday night. Gavin Brennan slotted the ball past Ger Doherty from close range after a mistake by young defender Michael Barr for the opener after nine minutes.

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To-date, concerns surrounding hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, have been focused mainly on environmental risks. Now it appears federal agencies have concerns about worker health hazards in this fast-growing industry, specifically with regard to potential worker exposure to dust with high levels of respirable crystalline silica. Yesterday, the Occupational Safety and [...]

ACTA rejected by last committee, crucial blow before final EU Parliament vote Published: 21 June, 2012, 13:48 ACTA rejected by last committee, crucial blow before final vote The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament recommends to reject ACTA.

As a state legislator, I have spoken out often and passionately on the things that matter most to me and my constituents. I have spoken out against the defunding of our public schools and against tax increases to middle-class families.

A federal judge estimates that his fellow federal judges issue a total of 30,000 secret electronic surveillance orders each year-and the number is probably growing. Though such orders have judicial oversight, few emerge from any sort of adversarial proceeding and many are never unsealed at all.

ALEX LYONS OPINION: Our top Irish comedians were the fat comedy kittens suckling noisily on the Celtic Tiger WHITHER IRISH comedy and its flagship festival, the Kilkenny Cat Laughs? I keep asking the top Irish telly comedians a deadly Irish question: "Who told ya you were funny?"

Margaret "Margie" Profet has returned. In Psychology Today this month, journalist Mike Martin tells the haunting tale of a promising young evolutionary biologist who vanished without a trace. Profet won a coveted MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1993 based on her compelling but controversial ideas about the adaptive value of allergies, menstruation and morning sickness.

PADDY BUCKLEY: PADDY BUCKLEY, who has died aged 64, was the former executive secretary of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). He brought diligence, energy and enthusiasm to the position and helped transform the academy into an institution fully geared to the needs of the 21st century.

I was having a quiet evening in (just like 99.9% of all my other evenings) randomly leaping through YouTube, when I stumbled across the music video for the 80s one hit wonder Safety Dance by "Men Without Hats". Famous for its incomprehensible nonsense, coupled with a weirdly catchy tune, it was the band's only success, and is still popular amongst the nostalgic.

Today a science story was born and killed in just hours: this morning science lifted our spirits with this finding that coffee made us live a little longer, Wonkblog's Sarah Kliff gets all smarty pants on us by debunking the finding with this contrarian headline: "No, drinking coffee probably won't make you live longer."

In tune with the hipsters Posted: 16 May 2012 Think of a hipster city, one that latches on to music trends early and throws them off before they become stale. Seattle? New York? London? Try again: Oslo, Dublin and Atlanta top the charts in a study by UCD researchers Prof Pádraig Cunningham and Conrad Lee, published on the online scientific forum Physics arXiv at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.2677v1.pdf.

'This was a practice where the mother, often disguised or hiding, often under a spread, holds her baby tightly for the photographer to insure a sharply foc