Gillian Arendse

A hectic National Science Week was had by all. But it's quite possible that nobody had a more hectic NSW 2008 than Dr Gillian Arendse, fisika fundi at iThemba particle physics accelerator on the other side of the highway from Khayelitsha. The man who comes from Paarl - home of rugby, he says, which he played in the days when they didn't use boots like softies do nowadays - and does mad physics shows.

That's because Gillian is also second tenor in the Libertas choir from the University of Stellenbosch, where he lectured until recently. And just before NSW 2008, he was up the West Coast in Lutzville, doing science outreach. Then it was bombing down the road to prepare for NSW. Then he had a performance up by the West Coast again. Then down for the first day of NSW for a brunch with teachers and other events.

Then it was up to Darling (site of South Africa's only wind-power) to perform just in time to relax, watch the rugby ... and travel back down to Cape Town again for the next day of NSW. And so forth, and so forth...

We salute your dedication, Gillian. But what's your carbon footprint like after something like National Science Week? At least with SciFest in Grahamstown - which is equally busy, and also lasts a week - there's always a lift from the Monument building down the hill into town!

Steve Sherman

Steve Sherman of Living Maths was one of the stars of National Science Week in May at the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town.



It was usually Mr S himself - occasionally his facilitator Mark Whitehead - who bombarded incredibly diverse groups of kids - grade 4 to grade 12, isiXhosa and Afrikaans and English speaking - with brainteasers.

Who else but Mr S - seen here below surviving Victoria Girls' Primary School at SciFest in Grahamstown - could pull it off?

Varsity students pay it forward

Rondebosch-based Tsungai Jongwe (see above), a microbiology Masters student at the University of Cape Town medical school, was one of several young women scientists who gave motivational talks to high school students during National Science Week in May at the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk, part of a string of events happening across the country.

To remind the audience from Milnerton and Thandokulu high schools that scientists don't match the stereotypes put out by Cartoon Network, Jongwe pointed out that she competes on the UCT women's soccer team, loves movies and makes beaded jewellry for her friends. In addition, she's devoted to finding solutions to drug-resistant bacteria, like the mycobacteria that causes tuberculosis. She told the audience how - having failed one course - she put herself through the toughest class possible in order to graduate from her first degree in the minimum three years, with the help of a tutor who helped her for an hour every day and five hours on Saturday.



Talented biochemist Jennifer de Beyer, a Pinelands resident and a graduate of Herschel High School in Claremont, also participated. Jen, above is seen, speaking to students from Rhodes High School in Mowbray, including 15-year-old Lauren Lasker from Mandalay in Mitchell's Plain, and 16-year-old Gaironesa Cupido from Surrey Estate in Athlone, who both are interested in forensics.

Interesting questions for Jen included one young man who wanted to know if biochemists could cook up cocaine. She pointed out that first-year stuents get to make beer and bring two litres of it home, and the third floor of her building is devoted to wine - but no, not cocaine. Another student wanted to know if she was a ballet dancer - perhaps Cartoon Network ideas of scientists are stronger than we think!

National Science Week may be an annual event but the 2008 week may have been one of the last opportunities the public gets to interact with de Beyer, who leaves Stellenbosch University in September for Oxford University in the United Kingdom on a prestigious Commonwealth Bursary to get her doctorate in the new field of systems biology. Both de Beyer and Jongwe are 23 and did their honours degrees with funding from South African Women in Science and Engineering (SAWISE).

Lynthia Paul and National Science Week 2008

This is Dr Lynthia Paul, a microbiologist and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town - a long way from the little girl in the tiny copper mining town of Nababeep in the remote Namakwaland who dreamed of being a nurse!

Lynthia was a star of National Science Week 2008 - on the Friday she spoke about following your science dream to the students from many high schools who assembled at the Cape Academy of Science for the official launch; on the Tuesday she spoke to Cobus Bester, the presenter of the morning Afrikaans current affairs programme Monitor on Radio Sonder Grense, on Thursday she participated in a talk show on the women's programme Otherwise on English-language SAfm radio with presenter Nancy Richards and guests Tsungai Jongwe (who herself spoke to students from Milnerton and Thandokhulu high schools on Friday) and our own chemical engineer Fikiswa Majola.

And on Thursday evening, Lynthia was in the audience at the Ericsson auditorium at the MTN Sciencentre with some friends to watch and listen as renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes demolished the long-lasting urban legend about lactic acid pooling in athletes' muscles and causing fatigue. (It's the brain, dummies, that makes the difference!)

Thanks to Lynthia for being such a good role model and talking about how she really battled to adapt to her first year at Stellenbosch University - both socially and academically - and how once she discovered science, she never, ever regretted it.

Students and National Science Week

An article about the launch on National Science Week appeared in Independent Newspapers, available online at http://www.iol.co.za:80/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=2934&art_id=iol1210858605164S522

Here it is below, with a few pictures.

SA tackles science basics

May 15 2008 at 03:42PM

Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore, speaking at the opening of National Science Week on Friday May 9 in the Western Cape, announced a renewed focus on getting the basics of mathematics and science right at primary school level.

Dugmore, who spoke to teachers at the end of the launch ceremonies at the Cape Academy of Science, Mathematics and Technology in Tokai, beneath Table Mountain, said ''the numeracy rates are a major concern in grade 6. We need to strengthen what we do in our primary schools.''

On May 22, for the first time, the province will honour those primary schools which have made the greatest improvement in maths and science, he told the assembled teachers.



Also attending were Western Cape science communicators such as Sivuyile Manxoyi and Isobel Bassett from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Observatory and Dr Gillian Arendse, Ryan Linden and Ambrose Yaga from iThemba particle physics laboratory in Faure.

''If we don't get this right, in mathematics and science, our country is going to lose its competitive edge,'' Dugmore warned the audience, which included Busisiwe Maqubela, Jani de Bruin, Fikiswa Majola, Phakamisa Kwinana, Edzon Robyn and Detlef Basel from the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk in Cape Town.

Also present were National Youth Strategy science graduate volunteers Candice Arendse and Meshack Magatshavha, and National Research Foundation interns Samuel Motlhabane and Noluvuvo Maile, all from the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory, which monitors disturbing changes in the earth's protective magnetic belt.




Fortunately, many high school students (see above)attending the launch of National Science Week, which runs from May 10 to 17 with special events around the country, were already convinced of the value of science.



Southfield-based Monique Timmie, age 15, a grade 10 student at Heathfield High School, said ''I like physics, it's my best subject. You can go anywhere in the world with physics and South Africa needs more scientists.'' That's Monique on the righthand side of the photo above.



Kuils River-based student Spencer Horne, above, who studies and boards at the Cape Academy, spoke to the audience.

''Science is constantly evolving. There are daily discoveries. Science is stimulating,'' the teenager said.

Bersan Lesch, a speaker from the ''science and youth unit'' at the Department of Science and Technology in Pretoria, said over 250 000 science career booklets had been distributed and over 200 000 people were expected to participate in National Science Week.

Dr Lynthia Paul, a University of Cape Town microbiologist from Nababeep in Namaqualand, told the students ''sometimes there were people who told me my dreams were too big.

Don't let anyone tell you your dreams are too big. If you set your mind to it, it doesn't matter what your circumstances are.''

* South Africa's National Science Week runs until May 17th with lots of free things to do and try. The MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk in Cape Town is throwing open its doors, with free entry, from 9 am to 6 pm on Saturday, May 17.

In addition to the standard favourites like spinning in the gyroscope, the hourly trip to the camera obscura to watch the ever-changing fantastic views of the Cape Town skyline, gross-out dissections of eyeballs, kidneys and fishguts at Lucky's Lab and the daily 2 pm blow-it-up chemistry show with the fabulous Fikiswa Majola and the dashing Detlef Basel, there are quite a lot of additional activities.

Consider a free screening of the movie Bushman's Secret, featuring breathtaking footage of the Kalahari landscape, or hang out with the man who was nearly the next president of the USA, Al Gore, as he explains how we're cooking the planet in ''An Inconvenient Truth.''

Or attend ''Not too hot, not too cold,'' a workshop which is a praise poem by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to the unique qualities of our home planet.

Or outsmart Lente Mare of Chess for Change with chessboard war, or make your own volcano out of kitchen cupboard ingredients such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring.

If you prefer something more active, head off on the hike of nearby Intaka Island wetland.

National Science Week 2008 on YouTube

Busi Maqubela on SAfm

Busi Maqubela joined the MTN sciencentre at the very beginning in 2000 as a callow University of the Western Cape graduate in biochemistry and microbiology, having survived boarding schools in Bloemfontein in the Free State and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, courtesy of a well-connected relative.

She's since grown into an incredibly efficient floors and programmes manager of the MTN Sciencentre, and is busy putting the next generation of family members through high school in her turn.

But can she cope with an interview? Efforts to tape her for YouTube dissolved in laughter. So we're trying again. Busi will appear live on the English-language SAfm radio station, on the current affairs programm Saturday PM, which airs between 8 and 9 pm, to talk about the first day of national science week. Listen out for her at about 8:20 pm, on May 10.

She went to boarding school in Bloemfontein in the Free State and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, but says it was nothing like the stories in Johan van der Ruit's Michaelhouse novel Spud. The MTN Sciencentre staff - including education manager Rhyme Setshedi, Fikiswa Majola, Detlef Basel, Anwar Goolam and Ryan Bruton - recently returned from Grahamstown after putting on a slew of exhibitions and workshops and shows at SciFest 2008.

Stukkend about National Science Week!

National Science Week kicks off from Saturday May 10 to 17th with lots of free things to do and try.

The MTN Sciencentre here in the Canal Walk shopopolis in Cape Town is throwing open its doors, with free entry all this weekend, from 9 in the morning until 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday. And the offer gets repeated on the following Saturday, May 17 as well.

In addition to the standard favourites like spinning in the gyroscope, the hourly trip to the camera obscura to watch the ever-changing fantastic views of the Cape Town skyline, gross-out dissections of eyeballs, kidneys and fishguts at Lucky's Lab and the daily 2 pm blow-it-up chemistry show with the fabulous Fikiswa Majola (picture above) and the dashing Detlef Basel, there are quite a lot of additional activities.

Consider a free screening of the movie Bushman's Secret, featuring breathtaking footage of the Kalahari landscape, or hang out with the man who was nearly the next president of the USA, Al Gore, as he explains how we're cooking the planet in ''An Inconvenient Truth.''

Or attend ''Not too hot, not too cold,'' a workshop which is a praise poem by Laurie Bowell and company from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to the unique qualities of our home planet.

Or outsmart Lente Mare of Chess for Change with chessboard war, or make your own volcano out of kitchen cupboard ingredients such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring. If you prefer something more active, head off on the hike of nearby Intaka Island wetland.

Late-risers can come in at noon to find out how to use your cellphone to operate a robot with Neels van der Westhuizen from FischerTechnik toys and find what's really inside the Nintendo Wii remote, or compete in the traditional marabara and mankala board games or polish up your paparazzi skills at the digital camera workshop.

Later in the week, there are talks:

* MTN Sciencentre founder Mike Bruton, now with MTE studios, on the funny side of science
* 23-year-old Stellenbosch biochemist Jennifer de Beyer, who's just won a scholarship to study at Oxford University in the UK
* young University of Cape Town microbiologist Tsungai Jongwe, who's sifting through indigenous plants in search of fresh medicines against drug-resistant tuberculosis
* renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes, who says new research indicates that belief in yourself may control whether you come in first, second - or last.

* Local science teachers mark the beginning of national science week with physics researcher Dr Zinhle Buthelezi at a brunch on May 10 at South Africa's only particle physics accelerator, the massive iThemba Laboratories complex off the N2 freeway near the Stellenbosch turnoff. But kids and their parents can come to iThemba's family day next weekend (17th) to celebrate the tail end of the week-long celebration of discovery. Mayhem is expected as the ebullient Steve Sherman of Living Maths joins Libertas choir tenor/physicist Gillian Arendse to present "Mal about Maths & Stukkend for Science". Cost is only R5, but booking is required because of super-strict safety regulations at iThemba. Deal with Ambrose Yaga at 021 843 1000 or 073 7273141.

* There's so much iron in the core of the planet that the Earth is a giant magnet. And that's a good thing for us. Without the magnetic field, we would get crisped by the solar wind. But there are troubling signs of changes in the planet's magnetosphere, which is why scientists at the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory are keeping a close eye on what's happening in this invisible but powerful force. Elisa Fraser of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory in the Western Cape is also a participant in national science week on 028 312 1196.

* SciFest Africa, which just hosted the MTN Sciencentre at the national science festival in Grahamstown last month, is on the road to Lusikisiki this week for national science week, where Rhodes University students Dube Nyoni, Zandile Makina and James Aitchison will be explaining the biotechnology of umqombothi (traditional sorghum beer) and amarhewu, the popular soured milk drink. For more on national science week in the Eastern Cape, speak to Asanda at SciFest Africa on 046 603 1155 .

So wherever you are, get thinking, get doing. It's national science week, and it only comes once a year!