A nun, a magnet, energising a career in technology

When Cross and Passion nun Sr Brendan demonstrated to Senior Infants the properties of magnets and how they can move metal around, she contributed to exciting one Kilcullen pupil into a fascination about science, writes Brian Byrne. That young boy was Eugene Brennan of Nicholastown, who later became an electronics engineer, and today is passing on his own passion for science and technology through his blogs and Facebook pages.

“My father and grandfather were also technical people,” Eugene recalls. “My father worked as a fitter on the Curragh, and when I was very young he used to bring home scrap motors and other assorted electrical items like coils and buzzers from old equipment, and I tinkered with those.”

After the Senior Infants magnets session, Eugene came across a Ladybird book on the subject in the school library — Magnets, Bulbs and Batteries — and when he mentioned it at home his family sourced a copy for him. “It’s still my favourite science book,” he says, adding that in his own articles on his blogs and produced for other internet sites he works on the Ladybird principle of making highly technical stuff understandable to the ordinary reader. 

Eugene is the youngest of his family, with older siblings who worked in teaching, nursing and childcare, and for a state body. He had a childhood aspiration to go to Australia, by digging his way there after reading yet another Ladybird book, on Mining. "That didn't work out," he laughs. "But I still like digging holes in the garden." There was also a Chemistry Set in his growing up years, "with stuff like toxic and explosive chemicals that you'd never get in sets today." In the Patrician Brothers in Newbridge he did Science for his Inter Cert and Physics and Chemistry for his Leaving.

After studying Engineering in DIT Kevin Street in the mid-1980s, Eugene qualified with a degree in Electrical, Electronic Control and Instrumentation from TCD. He also has a FETAC qualification in Industrial Automation from FÁS Cabra. He subsequently worked on a number of projects with different employers, among these helping to develop a device used on earth-moving machinery for levelling ground. Another was development of data logging and telemetry software and equipment, used by local authorities in monitoring sewage and water treatment plants. "I also worked as a calibration technician for Weber Sensors Ltd in Naas."

Eugene's work often involved writing instruction manuals for technicians, with graphics and tables showing how to operate equipment. "I enjoyed doing that," he says, recalling how, even earlier, his first production of an infographic was in Gerry O'Donoghue's class in primary school when he made a mixing chart for paint colours, subsequently used by fellow pupils. Around two decades ago, following a period of unemployment, he began writing in earnest and particularly creating mathematics and physics tutorials on a number of websites, and also writing tool guides and about gardening and DIY.

He has three discussion groups running on Facebook. Kilcullen Gardening, Talking Tools, and most recently Kilcullen Science & Engineering. The titles are self-explanatory, the concept being platforms for people to talk about the subjects, and also to help novices in the various fields. "They are mixtures of short, original articles written by myself, and also links to other articles I've written and a variety of curated content from reputable sites. I also share links to recommended podcasts I've listened to."

For example, on the Kilcullen Science & Engineering Facebook page, recent short pieces include an explanation of why some ominous clouds in thunderstorms look like they do — it's to do with hail in suspension. There's an introduction to a podcast about editing DNA, musing about paranormal experiences in old buildings, and a link to how a heart works. Go to his blog of the same name and you have easily-understood pieces on a myriad of STEM subjects, from astronomy through electrical engineering, geology, mathematics to psychology and everything in between. 

From hubpages.com (eugbug) you can browse a wildly eclectic range of How To articles which he has written on a range of websites, from How to Fix a Button on Jeans Without Sewing to Understanding the Principle of Archimedes — both pieces of essential life knowledge — to Top 100 Cool Science Facts for Kids. "In total, I'm up to 13 million reads of my articles now on all those other websites. Some get more traffic than others, and they're seasonal — in the summer the gardening gets more interest, for instance, in the winter when kids are back to school, the others do better." The Kilcullen-specific pages don't particularly register highly, but that's a matter of Google's indexing policies. 

Eugene Brennan's mind is clearly a complex rabbit burrow network of polymath knowledge, from which he has been essentially "paying my bills for five or six years" through advertising revenue around the articles he has written. He first got involved in this process about a dozen years ago, initially not realising that it could be monetised. "It started off with one article, and then I improved on the system," he recalls, agreeing that he effectively 'fell into' internet income generation. "I started including photographs, and structured the articles better. I like explaining things."

Eugene has concerns about the future of writers like himself in the era of AI, where a search on the internet won't bring a page of links but will be capable of writing an article on the requested subject 'on the fly' from all the information already out there. There are also ongoing issues with people copy-paste stealing of his material. "I waste quite a bit of my time serving takedown notices to Google and hunting down the people who steal articles, and then I have to go to the hosting companies to notify them of copyright infringements."

But for now, it's quite probable that, somewhere out there, there are young people who are becoming energised about science and technology through a chance encounter with one of Eugene's pieces. If so, it's a nice example of life's circularity.

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