Geosciences rock first open day

Fossils, meteors and Mars absorbed top Johannesburg matrics last week in an open day that Wits Geosciences hopes will draw more students to study Geology. “Geoscience companies are banging down my door saying ‘where are your graduates?’” said Senior lecturer Dr Susan Webb. The Exploring Earth open day, held during the university break, was a first for the School of Geosciences. The School recognised a need to expose high school students to earth science before they applied for university, and to attract top performing students. Around 50 students were invited from the top 25 feeder schools in Johannesburg and were split into teams to compete in the five challenges of the day. The first challenge was to match the microscopic image of a rock to its life-sized partner. The wide-eyed students were free to interact with the rocks and minerals, the microscope samples and the machine itself.

“It’s good fun, this,” said Cameron Dry (above right) from St John’s College, who wanted to be a fighter pilot before a vocational training session convinced him otherwise. “I love science. I just never thought I could have a career in it.” On the library lawns, the students used a mallet to hit a metal plate in the geoscience equivalent of a carnival Strongman game.

“The hammer was really heavy,” said Jeppe Girls’ pupil Athena Tsai. A computer collected information about the hit for the students to use in calculating the thickness of the soil below. Next, the students used Google Earth to explore the surface of this planet, and Mars, before sitting down to a free lunch in the Bleloch Geological Museum.

Prof Lew Ashwal headed up the meteorite challenge with an array of space rocks worth around R500 000. He told them meteorites were important because “they’re cool” and “they’re worth a f**k lot of money”. He said people often phoned him, thinking they had found a meteorite. But “nine times out of ten it’s a ‘meteowrong’”.

The last challenge was for pupils to reconstruct a skeleton from loose fossils after briefly studying a complete version.

“Judging by the students’ reactions [today] was a success,” said PhD candidate and associate lecturer Grant Bybee, who had manned the microscope challenge. The winning team members each received a mineral box worth about R300.

Photos: Anina Minnaar

Published on Vuvuzela online, 15 April 2012

SKA: “A wonderful boom for Africa, through science”

South Africa is ready to host the world’s most powerful radio telescope. That was the message Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology, wanted the world to hear.

SKA: “What a wonderful boom for Africa, through science, ” said minister of Science & Technology, Naledi Pandor. PHOTO: ANINA MINNAAR

She was speaking at a media briefing held on Thursday, 29 March 2012, by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the South African Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project team and the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF).

The SKA Founding Board had been expected to announce a final decision on the SKA host country next week. Instead, the meetings on April 3^rd and 4^th would address concerns and finalise the site selection process, said DST Director General, Dr Phil Mjwara, and SA SKA Director, Dr Bernie Fanaroff.

But Pandor insisted that South Africa would push for a final answer. “Our site is better…We think we’ll be a brilliant decision.”

She said the benefits of the SKA project to South Africa would mainly be in the form of human capital. “Expanding the number of Africa’s scientists and technicians will allow South Africa and Africa to play an increasingly important role in the global knowledge economy.”

Almost 400 postdoctoral, PhD, Masters and undergraduate SKA bursaries have already been awarded to South African and African students since 2005. Two Wits students were among this year’s bursary recipients.

The SKA facility will also generate employment in infrastructure construction and, along with other large-scale astronomy facilities like the MEERKAT, will attract tourists and drive socio-economic development.

When asked what would happen if South Africa was not chosen as the host, the minister replied: “Plan A: we are ready to host the SKA. Plan B: we are ready to host the SKA. Plan C: we are ready to host the SKA”.

Wits is home to one of the seven SKA research chairs, Prof Sergio Colafrancesco, chair in radio astronomy. Colafrancesco is currently abroad supporting South Africa’s SKA bid and was unavailable for comment.

Published on Vuvuzela Online, 30 March 2012

Female condoms: practice makes perfect

Having sex more often using female condoms (FCs) reduces the chance of condom failure according to a recent publication by Wits researchers.

Dr. Mags Beksinksa and her research group at the Wits Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health (MatCH) unit, published their study of 170 women in Durban in Contraception earlier this year. Their article, partly titled Practice makes perfect, concludes that “female condom failure rates decreased markedly after use of the first five condoms”.

“The Practice makes perfect article finds that after a few uses women do get comfortable with insertion and experience few problems”, said Beksinska. “It is important to get some positive information [out] about FCs, especially to students.”

She said that since condoms offer the best protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, it is great to have a choice between different types of male and female condoms. This is particularly the case for “young people who may be having sex infrequently or [who] don’t see their partners all the time” – for these people hormonal contraception, like the birth control pill, is not ideal and does not provide protection against STIs.

Condom failure includes breakage of the condom before, during or after sex, or slipping of the condom out of the vagina during intercourse. Failure also occurs when the penis is inserted between the condom and the vagina wall, or when the part of the condom that should be on the outside of the body is pushed into the vagina.

According to another article in Sexual Health by Beksinska’s group, FCs and male condoms (MCs) are freely available at public health facilities, but FC distribution is much lower than that of MCs. FCs are also generally not available in condom cans or dispensers like MCs, because women, and men, should be properly instructed on how to use them by a health care provider.

The limited distribution of FCs is also to reduce wastage since they are about 18 times more expensive than MCs. Despite the price and limitations, South Africa has one of the highest FC distributions in the world.

The Wits Campus Health and Wellness Centre at the Matrix has free FCs on their reception desk along with the familiar government Choice brand of MCs. According to reception, counselling on how to use the FCs is available and instructions are printed on the back of the condom packaging.

Published in Vuvuzela, 5th Edition, 9 March 2012