Sarah

Sarah Wild is a multiaward-winning science journalist. She studied physics, electronics and English literature at Rhodes University in an effort to make herself unemployable. It didn't work and she now writes about particle physics, cosmology and everything in between. Sarah was the science editor for both Business Day and the Mail & Guardian before moving on to WildOnScience, and the world of freelance writing and training. In 2012 she published her first full-length non-fiction book, Searching African Skies: The Square Kilometre Array and South Africa's Quest to Hear the Songs of the Stars. In 2015 she published her second non-fiction book, Innovation: Shaping South Africa through Science.

10 things to know about SA’s 2016 science budget vote

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To save you having to watch Parliament TV when no one is toyi-toying, or reading the minister’s 17-page speech, here are my top 10 things to take away from this year’s science and technology budget vote. #1 @SKA_Africa has supported 730 students and researchers, from undergrads to postdocs since 2005 #DSTBV2016 #SAscience — Sarah Wild … Read more

Four fracking futures

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The Strategic Environmental Assessment for shale gas exploration has given us four possible fracking futures: No shale exploration Exploration, but no economically viable gas About 5-trillion cubic feet of gas, which would be enough for one 1,000MW power station About 20-trillion cubic feet of gas, which could power two 2,000MW power stations and a gas-to-liquid … Read more

Fracking likely to burden small towns

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Fracking, already controversial for its potential environmental impact, could spell disaster for poor and corrupt municipalities, bringing further harm to areas already poorly governed. This is one of the possibilities sketched out in an as-yet-unreleased assessment of the possible impact of hydraulic fracturing to recover shale gas in South Africa. This week, an assessment team … Read more

Mapping South Africa’s fracking future

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It began in 2010: whispers of “shale gas”, “game changer”, “fracking” and “Karoo”. They issued from boardrooms, diplomatic quarters, government circles and the quiet corners of sleepy towns and soon infiltrated conversations all around South Africa. By 2013, this murmur had turned into a cacophony of contestation, thousands of newspaper centimetres and hours of television … Read more

Do African countries have to worry about a zika resurgence?

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Researched by Sarah Wild The zika virus, which has been associated with cases of microcephaly in Brazil and nervous system disorders in Micronesia, was originally discovered in Africa in 1947. “For 60 years, [zika] was seen as a mosquito-spread virus causing mild illness occasionally in African populations across the equatorial belt,” Prof Jimmy Whitworth, with … Read more

Belt-tightening hits SA’s SKA budget

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South Africa’s radio astronomy ambitions are feeling the pinch of austerity as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s 2016 budget cuts its Square Kilometre Array (SKA) allocation by R250-million. (*The department later noted that this was an error in the budget. The budget decreased by R89-million.) The SKA will be the largest radio telescope in the world, … Read more