Sarah Wild

Science Journalist, Scribbler, Question-asker, Audio-wrangler, Note-taker, Tea-drinker, and (Occasional) Author

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Category: Science

Baby MeerKAT exceeds expectations

Posted on 5th September 201615th November 2017 by Sarah

The first image from South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope shows that the telescope “will be a remarkable discovery machine”, MeerKAT chief scientist Dr Fernando Camilo said on Saturday. “The images tell us all that MeerKAT is the best telescope of its kind in the southern hemisphere, with only 16 dishes,” he told an assembled audience of…

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SA versus Australia: Rugby, cricket and astronomy

Posted on 30th August 201615th November 2017 by Sarah

South Africa and Australia have more in common than clear blue skies, rugby and a penchant for burning meat on an open fire. The two countries – whose economies were founded on the mineral resources under the soil and which are separated from European, Asian and North American markets by thousands of kilometres – also…

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Ethical issues dog genetic testing and biobanks

Posted on 30th August 201615th November 2017 by Sarah

IT COULD change the way disease is diagnosed and treated: millions of human tissue samples, their information stored in vast databases, allowing health researchers to trawl for patterns. The patterns could point to disease risk among population groups, and could one day lead to the possibility of personalised medicine. This sort of research is particularly…

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Abalobi app gives SA fishers data they need

Posted on 30th August 2016 by Sarah

A smartphone app that logs data on fish catches is giving small-scale fishers in South Africa hope they can persuade the government to allocate them more of what they regard as their traditional fishing rights. Abalobi, the app which is named for the isiXhosa phrase abalobi bentlanzi,meaning “someone who fishes”, aims to give small-scale fishers…

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Break-ups, body clocks and the mad mob: ESOF16 Day 3

Posted on 28th July 20169th August 2016 by Sarah

It’s going to be a long time before I sit through another closing ceremony like that of ESOF2016. Usually, in a post chronicling of the day, I’d offer you some form of chronological structure, but this was just too good: tinged with entertainment, nostalgia and a serving a discomfort. We shuffled into the hall like…

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Awkwardness, the bugs in your body and Twinkling satellites: ESOF16 Day 2

Posted on 26th July 201627th July 2016 by Sarah

The second day of a conference is when things start to get awkward. On the first day, with your misguided sense of exuberance and nervous energy, you try to meet everyone. You insert your ready-to-be-shaken hand into circles of people like a knife in a birthday cake. (This is also the day when most people…

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Gravitational waves and the road to a Nobel prize

Posted on 26th July 2016 by Sarah

The question on the lips of participants of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting was not if the detectors of gravitational waves would win a nobel prize for their work. It was a matter of when. The Nobel prize for physics will be announced within the next 100 days. On 11 February this year, scientists from…

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Mentorship: the route to networks, upliftment, science

Posted on 26th July 201615th November 2017 by Sarah

“Mentorship is important in all fields, but it’s particularly important in science,” says Dr George Smoot. Ten years ago, Smoot won the Nobel prize for physics, after he discovered the cosmic microwave radiation background, the ancient radiation left over from the Big Bang. Last week, he was one of 29 Nobel laureates who, along with…

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Manchester, robot cars and the apocalypse: ESOF16, Day 1

Posted on 25th July 201627th July 2016 by Sarah

There’s a bright-eyed eagerness to the first day of a conference. People bustle from session to session, take notes while speakers talk, and are prepared to wait their turn in the line for coffee. It won’t last. In two short days, the polite veneer rubs off. The coffee queue will become a mosh pit, all…

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