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50% of you think that the South African Government has the potential to make the biggest impact on reducing carbon emissions in South Africa; |
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8% opted for the technology sector; and |
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42% opted for private industry. |
Shuttle Discovery landed for the last time at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre on 9 March 2011. Discovery has completed 39 space voyages (its first being on 30 August 1984), has spent a total of 365 days in space and travelled more than 238 million kilometres during it’s lifetime.
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Mathilde van der Merwe and Melissa Boonzaaier at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. |
Snails and sea turtles helped these two students obtain an exciting trip to Washington D.C. where they attended symposiums, which delved into the topics of avatars, virtual reality and epigenetic processes among other things.
Mathilde van der Merwe, Stellenbosch University, and Melissa Boonzaaier, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, have recently returned from the 177th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington, DC. This trip was their prize as winners of the 2010 Young Science Communicators Competition (YSCC).
The competition was open to those aged 20–35, enrolled at a South African higher education institution or working at a local science council. SAASTA together with the Saturday Star and SAfm as partners sponsored the competition. Entrants had to submit a 700-word plain-English article on any scientific or science-related subject, or a script for a five-minute audio drama, preferably in their own research field.
Van der Merwe won for her essay entitled In memory of a snail and Boonzaaier for the audio script Sea turtles of South Africa. Both these winning entries can be viewed on SAASTA’s website, www.saasta.ac.za, on the competition page.
Van der Merwe said her highlight was a fascinating symposium on epigenetic processes in development where it was reported that social experiences, like loneliness in early development, can result in long-term changes in neuroendocrine and immunological functioning. “It left me to ponder the idea that the environment I expose myself to today can alter my molecular composition tomorrow,” she says.
“With many symposia, workshops and lectures running at the same time, I sometimes wished I could split myself in two.” This idea proved to be not that far-fetched, considering the current research in virtual reality, simulation and robotics that was reported on at the meeting. “Research by a team of Swiss neurobiologists suggests that we can take ownership of virtual bodies (called avatars) and perceive virtual touch as if it is real.1 This holds promise for the development of neuroprosthetics – electronic devices that can substitute nervous system functions that were lost during injury or disease. The progress in the medical field made me realise that ‘there is no such thing as science fiction, only science eventuality’,2” she says.
Workshops relating to science communication were presented daily. Science communication experts conveyed the urgency of guidelines and emphasised the responsibility of scientists to share the message of discovery and progress in a truthful and understandable manner.
“I met researchers and representatives from various organisations and built a strong network. Moreover, I learnt what impact global climate change has on marine ecosystems, especially where people are dependent on marine resources like those in rural communities. After meeting some of the speakers I am now fully motivated to commence my PhD studies next year, and hopefully I’ll collaborate with researchers who attended the conference,” says Boonzaaier enthusiastically.
1 EPFL Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience: http://lnco.epfl.ch/.
2 Thomas M. Krummel. Chair of Department of Surgery, Stanford University, CA, USA.