Author: Sarah
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Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting 2016 in pictures
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There is something truly magical about Lindau, the home for the annual Nobel laureates meeting. It might be because you feel as though you’re on the set of a movie — the cobblestones in the quaint pavements are arrayed like small rainbows; everyone is eating gelato and, well, you’re on…
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Gravitational waves and the road to a Nobel prize
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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…
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Mentorship: the route to networks, upliftment, science
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“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…
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Manchester, robot cars and the apocalypse: ESOF16, Day 1
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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…
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Science Today 2016 candidates announced
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WildonScience in conjunction with Stuff Magazine are proud to announce the 2016 Science Today candidates. A collection of their writing, published as The Best Postgrad Science Writing 2016, will be published in September. Sphume Ndlovu (University of KwaZulu-Natal) Zikhona Tywabi (University of Zululand) Theodora Ekwomadu (North-West University) James Burns…
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South Africa’s still in the R&D doldrums: the 10 things you need to know
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South Africa’s latest R&D figures were slipped into the public domain last week, with none of the fanfare of previous years. It is easy to understand why. Science and technology minister Naledi Pandor has been pushing increased investment in research and development, and these figures seem to show that no one is listening.…
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MeerKAT to get an optical companion
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It can happen in the blink of an eye: millions of light years away a star collapses in on itself. From Earth, that cataclysmic event is only a sudden brightening of a point in the night sky, and on the ground, astronomers scramble to investigate it. A new telescope, to…
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New app for small-scale fishing industry
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A free app – co-developed by academics, government, civil society and fishing communities – will be the lynchpin in the government’s efforts to launch and roll out a small-scale fishing industry in South Africa. Traditional and artisanal fishing communities, according to an Equality Court ruling in 2007, have been consistently…
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Industry doubles government research chair spend
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For every R1 invested in the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI), industry had invested R2, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said in Cape Town on Wednesday. The SARChI, established in 2005, aims to address the shortage of postgraduate supervisors and increase the country’s research output. Research chairs are…