New stamps stick science under the microscope

7 January 2015

From Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Walton and the Father of Modern Chemistry, Robert Boyle, to today’s budding young scientists whose school projects excite, delight and engage audiences at home and abroad, Ireland has an enviable scientific reputation.

The Science Gallery is a public science centre at Trinity College, Dublin. Opened in 2008, it holds exciting and engaging exhibitions and lectures to deliver science outreach and art-science collaborations. The stamp shows a pattern version of the circle and square elements of the Science Gallery’s logo. These are made up of smaller circles and squares to give a sense of movement, explosion, celebration and activity.

The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition is a schools science competition founded in 1965 by UCD researchers, Rev. Dr. Tom Burke and Dr. Tony Scott. While on a trip to America in 1963, they encountered a boy testing a ‘rocket’ for a science fair. Recognising the benefits of bringing science out of the classroom, they set about organising a similar event in Ireland. The stamp design represents both the origins of the exhibition and the role of education in pushing the boundaries of science.

Designed by Dublin-based firm, Detail, the new stamps and a special First Day Cover envelope may be viewed and purchased at all main post offices, online at irishstamps.ie and at the Irish Stamps Shop in Dublin’s GPO.