RTÉ Brainstorm
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About RTÉ Brainstorm
Welcome to RTÉ Brainstorm's Story of the Day, where we select the best of our reports and analysis about Ireland and the world.
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Are you a morning shower person or a night shower person? Morning shower enthusiasts will say this is the obvious winner, as it helps you wake up and start the day fresh. Night shower loyalists, on the other hand, will argue it's better to "wash the day away" and relax before bed. But what does the research actually say? Over to microbiologist Primrose Freestone who says there is actually a clear answer to this question https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0521/1513861-showering-morning-night-hygiene/
Joint pain is a common issue for people of all ages and is the reason for over 20% of GP appointments in Ireland. As Clodagh Toomey explains, the recommended treatment for most joint conditions is appropriate exercise and education on how to manage pain during daily activities. Unfortunately, misconceptions about prolonged joint pain can be a stumbling block for people starting a new activity or treatment programme so what do you need to know about how to treat the issue without the need for MRIs or surgery? https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0520/1513720-joint-pain-knee-osteoarthritis-hip/
Ireland's Atlantic coast presents both an enormous opportunity and a formidable challenge for renewable energy development. The recent withdrawal of the Sceirde Rocks Project off Connemara, which would have been Ireland's first commercial west coast offshore wind project, tells an important story, writes Ross O'Connell. The project was set to incorporate fixed-bottom offshore wind technology, and this setback has indicated that if we want to harness the Atlantic's energy, we may need to think differently about how to do it - two emerging technologies could hold the answer. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0526/1514909-ireland-offshore-renewable-energy-floating-wind-wave-sceirde/
10 years ago today, Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour (62%) of the legalisation of the marriage between people of the same sex in the referendum with one of the highest turnouts (60.52% of voters) in the country to date. Campaigns were hugely facilitated by social media at the time. Twitter (as it was at the time) was the second most popular social-media platform in Ireland in terms of regular usage and communication in 2015, and played a crucial role on popularising the discussion around the referendum. As Caroline B Pena explains, research now shows it also played a major role in polarising the debate too https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0521/1514094-marriage-equality-referendum-twitter-social-media-research-polarisation/
The cyberattack that has targeted Marks & Spencer's is the latest in a growing wave of cases involving something called sim-swap fraud. While the full technical details remain under investigation, a report in the Times suggests that cyber attackers used this method to access M&S internal systems, possibly by taking control of an employee's mobile number and convincing IT staff to reset critical login credentials. So what is sim-swap fraud and how can you protect yourself against it? https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0515/1512968-marks-and-spencer-sim-swap-fraud-hackers-cyberattacks/
Happy birthday Bob! It's Dylan's birthday tomorrow and, in honour of the man enjoying one heck of a resurgence in popularity right now, Thomas Caffrey compiles a decade by decade guide to the master storyteller's best narrative songs. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0523/1514482-bob-dylan-best-narrative-songs-the-lonesome-death-of-hattie-carroll-isis/
Dogs have long held a special place in our lives, not just as loyal companions, but as trusted protectors of our homes, families and livestock. Their protective instinct is one of the earliest reasons humans formed bonds with them. While most domestic dogs are no longer fending off wolves, their protective instincts remain strong. Some even find a vocation as service dogs extending their role to emotional and physical protection, guiding the visually impaired, alerting people to medical emergencies and providing support to those with PTSD or anxiety. Indeed, the role of canines can go further than this, as Shelley Brady explains. "New research is looking at how a dog's natural instincts, combined with technology, might help people with epilepsy by predicting seizures and enabling faster intervention." https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0528/1514944-dogs-smell-epileptic-seizures-pawsense/
You might be familiar with that niggling sense that you have not finished something. It might be an email you intended to send before lunch, the meeting notes you promised to circulate or the project that is edging towards completion. These unfinished tasks often nudge us while we are in the shower, on our commute or lie in bed at night, using valuable cognitive resources that could be spent elsewhere. 'Thinking about the content of unfinished tasks could be using up prime mental resources and causing stress', explains Elaine Kinsella. 'While many factors influence our cognition, there is an opportunity for us all to reflect on our own experience of unfinished tasks at work, and to consider adopting strategies to work with it, not against it.' https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0527/1515089-work-unfinished-tasks-to-do-list-zeigarnik-effect/
Ireland is enjoying some unusually dry, warm and sunny weather this spring and early summer and it's all thanks to an 'Omega block'. So what is this blocking area of high pressure all about? Will it continue? What does this have to do with the Stratospheric Polar Vortex? And does this mean we're in for a decent summer? Met Éireann climatologist Paul Moore explains all https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0516/1513060-ireland-weather-paul-moore-met-eireann-omega-block-high-pressure/
The year is 1971. Dana's "All Kinds of Everything" had won the 1970 contest and RTÉ was readying itself to hold the contest in Dublin, to be presented by Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir (above). Dana’s song was Ireland’s first winner in the contest’s then 14 year history so this was a Very Big Deal. The only problem, as Morgan Wait explains, was that the broadcaster was broke. "The station was already struggling financially due to falling advertising revenue, increased radio hours and increased payroll expenses. In order to hold a successful contest - and film the event and broadcast it in colour - RTÉ needed to make cuts elsewhere and this did not amount simply to cutting a few corners" https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0513/1217976-rte-1971-eurovision-colour/
