How do STEM devotees celebrate an illogical, incalcuable and inflammable holiday? Well, Ms. Phelan and her Sixth Year Biology students put on mad scientist costumes and visited the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training in UCD… for great hands-on bio-fun!

Our students learned all about the career and educational opportunities in the biotechnology industry in Ireland, including the lucrative reanimation of stolen corpses from the nearby Merrion Cemetery. They also got a tour around the training facility which is used by companies such as Pfizer, Amgen, Abvie, and Sanofi for training and education. We extend a big thank-you to Dr. John Milne, Training Director and Dr. Hannah Jones, for their time and enthusiasm. Their love for their work was infectious (relax, everyone wore masks!) and they, in turn, were impressed by our gang, even saying that there were some students on the trip whose scientific acumen was so evident, that NIBRT would happily have cloned them on the spot! Leo then explained that he had already been cloned during a recent ‘close encounter’ but that he was willing to go again. On the other hand, some of our other kids blended right in with the reanimated cadavers, the less twitchy ones in particular. Well, it takes all types in a bio-diverse world… and school!