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90% of readers believe that mobile technology and increasing online access make social media an ideal platform for attracting younger generations of South Africans to SET fields of study. |
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5% of readers say they are not sure. |
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5% of readers say that this time and money could be better spent on outreach projects. |
Exoplanet extraordinaire… Only a few weeks into the new year and already four new exoplanets have been discovered. An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star in a solar system other than that of the earth. It looks as though 2012 is going to be a year filled with discovery.
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NAMES AND FACES
Christina Scott
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Christina Scott: Science communicator, author, mentor and much-loved colleague. |
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A champion of science journalism, a science communicator, editor, author, mentor, trainer, devoted mother and much admired and loved colleague – this is how Christina Scott will be remembered.
It was with great sadness that the science community learnt of the tragic death of Christina Scott, South Africa’s premier radio and TV science journalist early in November. Just shy of her 50th birthday, she died tragically in a motorcar accident while doing what she did best – helping others. Christina was giving a friend a driving lesson.
“I felt great sadness when I heard of Christina’s death,” says Beverley Damonse, Group Executive: Science Advancement at the NRF. “It seemed unbelievable, mostly because of the essential energy that defined her – everything about her shouted life and laughter. The annual SciFest Africa advisory board meetings will never be the same again. We will miss Christina and the amazing contribution she made to science journalism in our country. Her light will continue to shine through all the people she touched through her passion and efforts to make us communicate more meaningfully with each other.”
From 1994 to 2004 Christina was a science editor at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for both TV and radio. At the time of her death she was a presenter of the popular weekly Science Matters programme on SAFM and managing editor of Research Africa.
A woman of substance, she was widely read, making her an incisive interviewer, always getting to the core of the matter, but in an engaging and friendly manner. Whether she was talking to an astrophysicist about space or a zoologist about velvet worms, she was able to make all scientists feel at ease. One scientist recalls that being interviewed by her was “like being part of a dinner conversation. You would seamlessly go into the interview without realising that the microphone was live and you were on air. That is the way it should be”.
What Christina lacked in height, she made up for in irrepressible energy and her passion for spreading the word of science into every home in South Africa and Africa, from shacks to mansions, made her a foremost science communicator and science advocate.
She leaves behind her three children Nozipho, 19, Alexandra, 13, and Benjamin, 9.
Farewell, Hamba Khale Christina.
Adapted from a tribute on the World Federation of Science Journalists’ website [http://www.wfsj.org/news/news.php?id=266]