Latest news with #MacSweeney
Business Upturn
15-07-2025
- Health
- Business Upturn
Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man Encodes the Blueprint of Human Evolution, Says London Dentist
Photo Courtesy of Rory Mac Sweeney LONDON, July 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A London-based dental surgeon and researcher, Dr. Rory Mac Sweeney of Precision Endodontics, has ignited international interest with a provocative reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. His newly published research suggests the Renaissance masterpiece encodes a precise geometric ratio that reflects the biomechanical endpoint of human evolution. Dr. Mac Sweeney's theory, published in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, identifies a hidden equilateral triangle embedded in Vitruvian Man. He connects this geometry to Bonwill's Triangle—a fundamental dental structure first described in the 19th century, which governs optimal jaw alignment and function. According to Mac Sweeney, this triangular structure appears throughout the body and is mathematically anchored by the ratio √8/3, or approximately 1.633. 'Leonardo's drawing isn't just a study in proportion—it's a map of tension,' said Dr. Mac Sweeney. 'The 1.633 ratio appears in the jaw, the spine, and the skull. It reflects a state known as vector equilibrium, where structural tension and compression are perfectly balanced. I believe this marks the final step in the human journey toward full upright posture.' This ratio, derived from the geometry of the cuboctahedron, is widely recognized in biomechanics and architecture as a hallmark of tensegrity—the balance of forces within a stable form. Dr. Mac Sweeney contends that this geometry defines the Vitruvian Morphotype: a form that nature has converged on through evolutionary pressures—not because it is aesthetically pleasing, but because it is structurally optimal. 'Human evolution has been a long progression toward uprightness,' he explained. 'The 1.633 ratio may represent our evolutionary omega point—a structural threshold beyond which no further anatomical adaptation is needed to stand, move, and balance efficiently in gravity.' Mac Sweeney suggests that fossil evidence should reveal a slow convergence toward this geometric configuration, particularly in the jaw. He highlights the emergence of Class I occlusion in the fossil record—also known as the overbite/overjet 'step'—around 8,000 years ago as a key moment. While small variations remain, he argues that modern Homo sapiens are the first species to fully express this morphotype. 'It's like the hydrodynamic form of a dolphin,' he said. 'Nature solves gravity the way it solves water. Vitruvian Man is the first full sketch of what that solution looks like.' Dr. Mac Sweeney's theory is now attracting attention from experts in evolutionary biology, bioengineering, and anatomical design. He is currently conducting interviews, public talks, and media appearances to discuss what he calls the Vitruvian Ratio—and its broader implications for anthropology, architecture, and even consciousness. 'Leonardo, somehow, saw it coming,' Mac Sweeney added. 'Vitruvian Man may be the only anatomical diagram ever created that captures not just what a human is—but what a human is becoming.' About Dr. Rory Mac Sweeney: Dr. Mac Sweeney is a London-based endodontist and researcher known for his interdisciplinary work in dental anatomy, geometry, and human evolution. His work explores the convergence of structural biology and classical design, and he is the author of the book The Paradox of Lucid Dreaming. @luciddreamyoga Contact Information: Contact person: Dr. Rory Mac SweeneyCompany name: Precision EndodonticsWebsite: [ Press Contact: [email protected]
Boston Globe
14-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Dig for children's remains begins at Irish home for unwed mothers
'Some of the families have been really seeking answers to these questions for many years,' Daniel MacSweeney, who directs the excavation, said in an interview. He leads the Office of the Director of Authorized Intervention, Tuam, an independent organization established by the Irish government in 2022 to recover the remains. The team began with small motorized diggers, MacSweeney said, while specialists watched for signs of remains. Once bodies appear, he said, the work will continue by hand, noting 'the complexity of the challenge.' Advertisement Scientists estimate that infant bodies lie 'commingled' in the tanks under St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, a town in County Galway in the west of Ireland. The institution was long one of the most notorious homes for unwed mothers in Ireland. In the first decades of Irish independence, when the Catholic Church ruled almost every aspect of daily life with an uncompromising doctrine, unmarried pregnant women in Ireland were widely seen as immoral. Shunned by their communities and disowned by their families, they were often sent to one of many such homes. Advertisement There, the young women were forced to work. Their babies died at rates far above the national average. Some mothers were deceived and told that their babies had died, when the infants had in fact been illegally adopted from the facilities. 'If that's a reflection of where particularly poor and marginalized women's rights were, it's a fairly damning one,' Sarah-Anne Buckley, an associate professor in history at Galway University and a co-leader of the Tuam Oral History Project, said in an interview. 'It's the women, but it's also the children.' In that era, few people could speak out against the Catholic Church, which ran the homes and other institutions with near-absolute power. The government last year reported that there had been thousands of allegations of sexual abuse at schools run by Catholic orders in the past century. Some of the women of Tuam have spent fruitless decades searching for their children, dead or alive. They had little to go on until information about the infants' deaths began to emerge over a decade ago, thanks to the work of an amateur historian, Catherine Corless. Corless found that at least 798 children had died at St. Mary's, but only two were buried in the cemetery across the street. In 2014, after interviewing survivors and combing through the archives, she made a shocking allegation: The nuns had secretly buried infants and young children in the septic system. 'This was immoral,' she told The New York Times in an interview in 2022. 'Against Catholic ethos. This was a sewage facility!' Advertisement The home's managers, the Sisters of Bon Secours, apologized in 2021: 'We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way.' On Monday, the order declined to make its leadership available for an interview or respond to questions from the Times. The home was demolished decades ago and a housing project was built on the site. The dig, authorized by the Irish government in 2022, is expected to last for about two years, during which time active sites will be concealed from public view and protected by security. MacSweeney, the dig's leader, said that the budget for this year is about $11 million. He emphasized the many challenges. The team does not know how many children are buried in the ancient septic system, which has 20 tanks. They are preparing to separate the bones, which are believed to be jumbled together, to try to rebuild individual skeletons. They then need to try to identify the children by extracting DNA samples from the remains, which, after decades of decomposition, is not guaranteed. And the bones are tiny, making the painstaking work even harder. If they can get usable DNA samples, they will try to match them to samples given by relatives. Finally, the scientists know that there are 19th-century famine remains at the site, which was also a military barracks and execution site during Ireland's civil war in the 1920s. They do not know if bones from those eras could be mixed with those of children who died at St. Mary's. But one thing is certain: The jumbled graveyard beneath the soil tells some of the most painful chapters of Irish history, the wounds of which remain unhealed. Advertisement This article originally appeared in .
Irish Examiner
08-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Bons Secours Sisters release Tuam archives for first time as site excavation begins
The Bons Secours Sisters have opened their archives for the first time to allow forensic experts to review files from the former Tuam mother and baby home, where 796 children died over 40 years. It comes as a specialised forensic team assembled from Ireland as well as Canada, Colombia, Spain, the UK, and the US begin the long-awaited exhumation of the Tuam babies' burial ground, which will take at least two years. In 2014, it emerged nearly 800 children had died in the former institution that housed unmarried mothers. Many of these children were forcibly adopted after birth. Research led by local historian Catherine Corless indicated that 796 babies and young children died at the Co Galway institution from 1925 to 1961. The St Mary's home for unmarried mothers and their children was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns. Director of the Tuam Intervention, Daniel MacSweeney, and senior forensic consultant and forensic archaeologist, Dr Niamh McCullough, spoke on Monday as media from around the world came to Tuam. Mr MacSweeney said the nuns have given the team access to the religious order's documents. 'We needed to and wanted to get access to their archives. There will be a lot of information from various archives that will help us to understand what happened," he said. It is about having multiple sources of information. We will obviously have information that comes from the site, from the excavation, whether that is human remains or artefacts. 'It's really by cross-checking all of this information that allows us to attempt to answer these questions. Even if it is partial identification, that will help us establish a cause of death.' Mr MacSweeney said he has had around 40 to 50 contacts about DNA over the past two years, and more than 30 people have contacted his office in the past month. Families of the Tuam Babies and survivors from the home will have a private visit to the site on Tuesday. Mr MacSweeney said this will be 'the most important event of the week'. He described the forthcoming landmark construction works as 'the most challenging exhumation we have ever worked on, and we want to get it right.' The budget for the works this year is €9.4m, of which €2m was spent on the project in 2024. In 2016 and 2017, it was confirmed by forensics following test excavations in Tuam that a significant quantity of human remains was found at the site that dated to when the home was in operation. The children were aged between 35 foetal weeks, and two to three years old. Mr MacSweeney said he does not know until the area is excavated whether all of the children will be found during the process, which will take at least two years. 'We just want to get it right and we will have to see what we find," he said. Anna Corrigan, whose two brothers died in the home, was also in attendance. She criticised Taoiseach Micheál Martin, children's minister Norma Foley, and President Michael D Higgins for not being in attendance. It's a momentous day, for our loved ones and not a single member of government is here. hat is appalling that they are not here. Ms Corless, the historian who uncovered the names of the children, said she was 'overjoyed' that the exhumation was taking place and that she could 'never have given up on the little children.' "It is huge for me to know those babies are finally going to get the dignity they deserve - it is a wrong put right," she said. In 2021, Taoiseach Micheál Martin delivered an apology on behalf of the state for the treatment of women and children who were housed in mother and baby homes across Ireland. The Bon Secours Sisters also offered a "profound apology" after acknowledging the order had "failed to protect the inherent dignity" of women and children in the Tuam home. Read More International experts join mass grave excavation at Tuam mother and baby home
RTÉ News
07-07-2025
- Science
- RTÉ News
Experts prepare to start formal excavation at site of Tuam Mother and Baby Home
A team of international experts is preparing to commence a formal excavation at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway. Those overseeing the process say they hope it will add "depth and detail" to questions that persist around burial practices at the home over a 36-year period. Forensic anthropologists and archaeologists from Columbia, Spain, the UK, Australia and the United States have joined Irish counterparts in recent weeks to take part in the process. They have been participating in pre-excavation briefings over the last fortnight, before ground is broken at the site in the Dublin Road estate next week. It is expected to take at least two years to complete the dig. A media briefing to provide an update on the work is being held this morning. It has attracted a large number of local, national and international news outlets. The Director of the Office for Authorised Intervention in Tuam (ODAIT), Daniel MacSweeney, has again emphasised the importance of ensuring that survivors and relatives of those who lived and died in the Tuam Home are at the centre of the process. They will take part in a private visit to the location where the works will take place tomorrow. Mr MacSweeney said the first objective was to recover all of the human remains from the site and to re-bury them with dignity. Where possible, the remains will be identified and returned to their families. He said the complexity of the task could not be underestimated, given the size and nature of the site in question. Dr Niamh McCullagh, the Senior Forensic Consultant who will oversee the excavation and exhumation process, said the random nature in which remains were buried added to that difficulty. She already carried out preliminary excavations at the site in 2016 and 2017, which revealed the presence of 20 individual chambers two metres below ground. Each contained co-mingled (mixed) skeletal remains of children, aged between 35 foetal weeks and around three years of age. Dr McCullagh said that while radio carbon dating on some bones places their time of living between 1925 and 1961, they have lost their "skeletal order", further complicating the process. For this reason, the skeletal identification is one of the most significant challenges. DNA samples have already been collected from a small number of relatives and this process will be expanded in the coming months to gather as much genetic evidence as possible. The Bon Secours Sisters, which operated the Home for Galway County Council, has provided the ODAIT with its archive. This will be cross referenced with other records available as the process continues.
Irish Examiner
31-05-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Tuam babies' burial site to be sealed off as mass grave exhumation begins in June
The entire burial site of the Tuam babies will be forensically sealed off and monitored around the clock, as specialist teams prepare for Ireland's first exhumation of a mass grave next month. In an email sent Friday evening to the Tuam Babies Family Group, which includes many relatives of those buried at the site, the Director of the Intervention said his team is 'still on track to begin the excavation of the site in the second half of June' — although a start date has not yet been confirmed. Daniel MacSweeney who was appointed to oversee the exhumation two years ago, explained that 'Once works start, the entire site will be forensically sealed. We will erect 2.4-meter hoarding and put in place 24-hour security monitoring'. He continued 'It is expected that the works on the site may take up to 24 months to complete. 'During this time, the Memorial Garden will not be accessible. If you would like to visit the Memorial Garden, you should try to do so before mid-June.' The exhumation follows 11 years of public pressure after local historian Catherine Corless uncovered the names of 796 children believed to be buried on the grounds of the former mother and baby home. The institution, which primarily housed unmarried mothers, was run by the Bons Secours nuns on behalf of Galway County Council. It operated between 1925 and 1961. After the nuns sold the land and left Tuam, the children who died there were left buried on the property. A test excavation carried out in October 2016 and January 2017 revealed a "significant quantity of human remains" — belonging to babies aged between 35 foetal weeks and 2 to 3 years. Read More Oldest survivor of Tuam mother and baby home to purchase first home after fundraising appeal The remains were found dumped in 18 of 20 chambers of a disused sewage tank. This discovery sparked international outrage and was reported across major global news outlets. Tuam Mother and Baby home survivor Carmel Larkin, aged 70 attends to flowers left at the Virgin Mary shrine as a vigil is held at the Tuam Mother and Baby home mass burial site on August 25, 2019 in Tuam, Ireland. Picture:The intervention has come after more than a decade of campaigning from families of children who died there as well as Ms Corless. Mr MacSweeney told families and survivors: 'I am writing to update you, the people most impacted by the former Mother and Baby institution in Tuam, about the intervention.' He said this is 'the first step towards restoring dignity in death to those inappropriately buried at the site. We will confirm the exact date very soon.' Family members of the children who died in Tuam as well as survivors will be invited to the first perimeter of the forensically sealed site on July 8. Mr MacSweeney explained that 'additional dates will be added if needs be.' A family liaison officer, Paula Kennedy has been appointed to support families with details for the visits. He continued: 'I also want to let you know that we have begun further engagement with the Tuam Community and in particular the residents near the estate adjoining the Memorial Garden. 'We will host an information evening on 6th June. Most residents have received further information relating to the site works and the Information Evening.' Anna Corrigan, who was at the heart of the original exposure of the Tuam babies' burial scandal alongside Catherine Corless, said: 'It is almost surreal that this is happening. It is a day we thought would never arrive — and now it's happening next month. 'It is a small light at the end of the tunnel, I hope we find all of the children and that the mothers and my own mother included, Bridget Dolan, will be given some form of justice for what was perpetrated on them and the children will have some dignity in death. 'We still have to wait to see what is uncovered and how many children will be found, how many will be identified, or will we be left with lingering questions when this is all over.' Further information can be found on
