Science Week 2026 explores water at every scale – an essential building block of life on Earth and a powerful force that has shaped our planet, our lives and our future. From rainfall, rivers and lakes to peatlands, wetlands and more than 7,500 km of coastline, our island has been shaped by water for thousands of years. It has guided early settlers, enabled trade and travel, sustained communities and inspired enduring myths, from the Salmon of Knowledge to the Children of Lir. Today, researchers across Ireland are deepening our understanding of water in all its forms – from its role in

Professor Brian Cox is back with his new world tour Emergence. Brian has appeared in many landmark science programmes for BBC radio and television over the last 15 years, from the Peabody Award-winning Wonders of the Solar System to the world-wide hit series The Planets. In the winter of 1610 Johannes Kepler was crossing Prague’s Charles Bridge when he noticed a snowflake land on his arm. Why, he asked, are all snowflakes six-cornered? “I do not believe,” he wrote, “that even in a snowflake, this ordered pattern exists at random.” 400 years later, we have part of the answer.