A University of Limerick scholar, Evanna Winters, has captured the 2024 Mary Mulvihill Award for her “poignant, brilliantly depicted piece” on the cognition processes of forest fungi. The Mary Mulvihill Award honours the late science writer Mary Mulvihill’s contributions, providing a €2,000 prize to aspiring third-level science communicators.
Róisín Ferguson, a student at Dublin’s Trinity College, was also celebrated with the judges’ commendation. This year’s contest theme was intelligence, casting a broad net across the cognitive capacities of humans and other beings as well as the swiftly growing artificial intelligence (AI) sector, which is seen as both a blessing and curse in innovative contexts.
There was a variety of submissions including photographs, essays, audio files, and multimedia formats covering diverse aspects such as biological computing, AI, intelligence and genetics and the ecological and ethical implications of our limited perception of intelligence.
Winters, the first recipient from the University of Limerick and a recent bioscience graduate, presented her piece – “Walk in the Woods,” a study of the “wood wide web,” a complex underground fungus network beneath the forest. The network exemplifies vital interconnectivity and communication, challenging traditional notions of intelligence. Winters wrote about fungi showcasing intelligence through vast mycelial systems, signalling patterns, and symbiotic alliances, despite lacking a central nervous system or brain.
She pointed out that at a microscopic level, mycelia resemble human brain neurons in form as well as function, conveying electrical impulses and electrolytes across the network. Some research indicates that fungal electrical communication mirrors human speech patterns.
Ferguson, a recent graduate in genetics from Trinity College Dublin presented her ambitious exploration of intelligence and cognition, using the seemingly brainless scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz as a reference point. She discussed the interconnectivity of intelligence with the brain and simpler biological systems found in “aneural organisms” like worms, vegetation, and microbes – all of which lack a brain.
An audio essay and an interview with Dr Kevin Mitchell, a neurobiology and genetics associate professor at TCD, formed her entry. Dr Abeba Birhane, a senior fellow in trustworthy AI at the Mozilla Foundation and a visiting professor in the School of Computer Science at TCD, handed out awards at a ceremony organised by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies last Thursday. In 2018, during her time as a PhD student at UCD, Dr Birhane and her team mate Siobhán Grayson received a competition award that was only in its second year. From there, she built a global reputation as a researcher investigating the societal and moral consequences of AI and machine learning technologies. Her work includes analysing and assessing large data sets and models that reveal embedded hate, racism and misogyny within these systems.
Last year, Time Magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential individuals in AI and she’s part of the UN’s AI High-Level Advisory Panel and the Government’s AI Advisory Council. According to Dr. Birhane, distinguishing between overstated AI claims and feasible objectives has indeed become a major challenge. She believes that the best solution for this issue is through educating the masses and delivering reliable scientific output. Dr Birhane is thankful for such initiatives for preserving Mary Mulvihill’s legacy and recognising worthwhile scientific communication.
Anne Mulvihill, Mary’s sister and a member of the judging panel, remarked all were thrilled to award two entries that would have sparked interest in Mary, and two winners she would have relished interacting with. The event’s lineup also showcased the annual Science@Culture talk, a name initiated by Mary back in 1995 for an email newsletter (which later became a blog) to keep readers updated with scientific affairs and events. Prof. Mitchell, an author of various mass-market science books based on the brain, evolution and free choice, discussed ‘communicating complexity’. He debated the difficulties of explaining intricate subjects to the masses in a manner that is intriguing but not too simplified, specifically focusing on autism science and pseudoscience, and its depiction in conventional media and the growing influence of podcasts.