Livewire science journalist Sarah Wild reminded an eager young audience at the Christina Scott Memorial Lecture that creativity is at the heart of science. Danielle Gordon caught the excitement.
Livewire science journalist Sarah Wild reminded an eager young audience at the Christina Scott Memorial Lecture that creativity is at the heart of science. Danielle Gordon caught the excitement.
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
The quote is from Carl Sagan, but his mission to involve more people with the scientific discoveries and technological advancements transforming our lives could have come from Sarah Wild.
Wild, the science and technology editor for Business Day, told a packed audience at Scifest’s Christina Scott memorial lecture that if we do not pay attention to the basic sciences we will always be focused on our immediate needs, never looking further than our next meal.
“Science is a way of thinking, and at its heart it is creative,” she said. The perceptions that still surround science and mathematics have translated into fewer pupils studying these subjects and going on to become scientists or engineers, in spite of society’s great need for these skills.
Wild, who earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, Electronics and English Literature at Rhodes University, recently published Searching African Skies: The Square Kilometre Array and SA's quest to hear the songs of the stars, approached the lecture the same way she does her book – with attitude and enthusiasm.
Although the programme billed her talk as focusing on the need for the media to better communicate the role of science to ordinary South Africans, Wild was met with an audience of school pupils.
She deftly turned her talk around, however, and demystified the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) by making it fun and applicable to everyone. In answer to children’s questions, Wild explained that the SKA is an array of radio telescopes that extend a distance of at least 3 000km in the Karoo.
The purpose is to view planets never before seen by picking up on more sensitive radio signals which planets and objects emit.
This project is the first of its kind and South Africa, with Australia, will be at the forefront of this project.
According to Wild, SKA will support human capital development, increase job opportunities, will prompt new technological discoveries and change perceptions around South Africa.
SKA would place South Africa at the main discussion table for scientific discoveries along with other first world countries.
Encouraged by Wild, children's hands shot into the air as they became excited to find out more about SKA and how they could get involved.
One boy recommended that SKA should be on Facebook or Twitter so that pupils could follow its progress. Wild responded that SKA does have a Facebook page.
This sparked teachers and scientists to grumble about the media not supporting their vision of communicating science in a fun, accessible manner.
Wild believes young South Africans are eager to learn about science, as long as they feel some connection with it.
In the second Christina Scott memorial lecture, in memory of a quirky, passionate, science journalist who spent her life communicating science to the public in a fun, easily understandable way, Sarah Wild left all who attended her lecture with the sense that we all have a role to play in making science fun.
For those who heard her, she shattered the stereotype that science is boring, not relevant to the real lives of young people, and belongs to dusty university corridors and old men.
