SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
Saturday, 25 May 2013
'Ultimate' botanist Skelton flies South African flag high
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2012 was something of an annus mirabilis for PhD botany student Rob Skelton. First, he flew the South African flag as part of the national Mambas team (in which he's known by the tag 'Helter') at the Ultimate world championships in Japan. Record number of schools at Mathematics Competition
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He didn't look it, but Athini Nkota was feeling the pressure. The grade 11 learner from Zola High School in Khayelitsha was one of more than 7 000 participants waiting to get stuck into the annual UCT Mathematics Competition on 17 April. Three of UCT's best in Paris
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Women scientists lit up the Champs-Élysées in Paris recently in a display of posters featuring the 77 Laureates of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award, an exposition to mark the award's 15th anniversary. Open lecture puts SA's water future under the spotlight
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South Africa's water future was beset with challenges, but there was much room for optimism, too. This was the message from Dhesigen Naidoo, chief executive officer of the Water Research Commission (WRC), during his recent Pro Vice-Chancellor's Open Lecture. Doubles for UCT in the prestigious A- and P-ratings
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UCT has a double pairing of new A- and P-rated researchers following the culmination of the 2012 National Research Foundation ratings cycle. They are Professors Jack van Honk (Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health) and Heribert Weigert (Department of Physics), who have received A-ratings, and Drs Dr Åke Fagereng (Department of Geological Sciences) and Andrew Hamilton (Department of Physics), recipients of P-ratings. The latter are significant as they indicate a strong line of developing scholars who show the potential to become future leaders in their fields. Single-dose cure for malaria is Elsevier review's top story
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The news of a possible single-dose cure for all strains of malaria not only dominated headlines worldwide following its release in August last year, but Elsevier's Malaria Nexus review voted it their most popular story of 2012. The news detailed the discovery that a compound, MMV390048, from the aminopyridine class, has the potential to become part of a single-dose cure for all strains of malaria - and could also block transmission of the parasite from person to person.
Flamingos in the Black River
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A surprisingly large population of flamingos has found a new home in the neighbouring Black River alongside the N2. Professor Les Underhill, director of UCT's Animal Demographic Unit, says: "It's not the first time that flamingos have been found it the river, but it is rare."
New discovery determines gender in fossil birds
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An international team of palaeontologists led by UCT's Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan has discovered a way to determine the sex of a 125 million-year-old bird species. Chinsamy-Turan (head of Biological Sciences) conducted the study with Dr Luis Chiappe, director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's (NHM) Dinosaur Institute; Dr Jesús Marugán-Lobón of Madrid's Universidad Autonóma, Cantoblanco; and Gao Chunling and Zhang Fengjiao of the Dalian Natural History Museum in China. Leading ornithologist Phil Hockey dies
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UCT is saddened by the death of Professor Philip Hockey, director of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology and a leading global authority in the field, who died of cancer on 24 January. The Percy FitzPatrick Institute is one of UCT's two DST/NRF Centres of Excellence. Hockey was instrumental in elevating the centre to one of the top three in the world. Chemist not just any visitor in Argentina
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Prof Mino Caira of UCT's Department of Chemistry ended his three-month research stint at the National University of Córdoba (UNC) in Argentina on a high when the university awarded him the title of Visitante Distinguido, or Distinguished Visitor. Young scholars make their marks among peers
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The good standing of two young UCT mathematicians-slash-physicists - and they happen to be a couple - should help allay any concerns that their department may have about where its next generation of scholars is coming from. Firstly, Dr Amanda Weltman, based in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics where she works on string theory and cosmology, has been elected onto the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) for 2012. Hapgood receives Grand Challenges Explorations Grant
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Professor Janet Hapgood of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology has received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) grant, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled "Determination of differential effects of progestins on HIV-1 infectivity: towards choice of progestin for contraception in high-risk developing countries". UCT palaeontologists open cold cases
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The fossils of pre-historic animals, often found in bits and pieces, are jigsaw puzzles that have to be pieced together, calling for lots of study and deductive reasoning. Palaeontologists in UCT's new Department of Biological Sciences have recently been applying their sleuthing skills to two fossils dating back hundreds of millions of years. UCT lecturers the pick of the teaching crop
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Research accolades are common for UCT scholars, but now they're also picking up teaching awards. A number of UCT winners featured among those honoured in the 2012 National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Awards, awarded by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the Higher Education Learning & Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA), a professional association primarily for educators in the tertiary sector. UCT to celebrate life and achievements of pioneering physicist
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UCT has lost a dedicated academic, who was considered a pioneer in the physics and application of neutron detection and spectrometry. Emeritus Professor Francis Dey 'Frank' Brooks, 80, of the Department of Physics, died on 30 August, a few days after suffering a fall. Princeton honours Cape Town- born academic
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A two-day symposium in honour of Professor George Philander, an internationally renowned scholar with strong ties to UCT, which explored controversies around climate change, took place at Princeton University in the US on 7 and 8 September. Philander, a UCT graduate and a Professor of Geophysics at Princeton, is highly regarded for his contribution to the understanding of the El Niño and La Niña phenoma. He is responsible for naming the latter.
Learners have fun with marine animals at Ma-Re outreach
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Grade four learners from Sun Valley Primary near Noordhoek enthusiastically interacted with exhibitions and marine animals which formed part of the UCT Marine Research Institute's (Ma-Re) School Outreach in early September. The school is one of many hosted by Ma-Re throughout the year. Hard work pays off for Hattas
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Juggling work and studies has never been easy, more so if you're doing a research-intensive doctorate. But Dawood Hattas, chief scientific officer in UCT's Department of Botany, appears to have managed well. So much so that his work for his PhD on plant chemical defences won the best poster presentation award - his first - at the recent annual conference of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa. Why the Higgs Boson matters
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Public interest in physics spiked after the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s announcement on July 4 that it had detected a particle that looked and behaved like the mythical Higgs Boson particle that scientists have spent decades searching for. Many have been wondering just what all the fuss has been about. Women's Day: Farrant is cooking, says mag
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Not only does Fresh Living list Professor Jill Farrant as one of its local heroines, but in its latest edition the lifestyle magazine also draws some very flattering comparisons between the UCT scientist and the famed Marie Curie. Centre ropes in UK scholar for drug discovery research
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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, UCT's Professor Kelly Chibale is very taken with the pharmaceutical industry's ingenuity and systems when it comes to discovering and developing new drugs. To help him imitate that expertise, he has called in someone from the industry – Dr Leslie Street, a senior scientist with more than 25 years' experience in the pharmaceutical sector, has become the first recruit of Chibale's Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3-D). Chemistry student selected for elite programme
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After initially believing the email confirming his selection to be a cruel joke, UCT doctoral student Nicholas Njuguna found out to his delight that, yes, he will participate in the 2012 SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme in the US in August.