The official opening night of the 18th annual 2014 Science Festival was explosive in more ways than one. The Kingswood Jazz Band provided the entertainment, followed by talented magician Olwethu Dyanti.
The official opening night of the 18th annual 2014 Science Festival was explosive in more ways than one. The Kingswood Jazz Band provided the entertainment, followed by talented magician Olwethu Dyanti.
It was then the turn of Australian Graeme Walker, who thrilled the audience by blowing up an assortment of things.
Mandla Maseko, winner of the Axe Space Academy competition, spoke next. He is on schedule to be the first black African to go into space next year. The main attraction of the night, however, was Captain Barrington Irving Jr.
Irving gave the prestigious Brian Wilmot Lecture, titled ‘The Power of Possibility’.
In 2007, at the age of 23, Irving Jr was formerly the youngest person to fly around the world alone.
He was also the first black person to do so.
The story of his journey to how he got to fly around the world sounds like a fairy tale.
Irving Jr, was well on his way to becoming a major football star when he met Captain Gary Robinson. He inspired him to take up flying.
However, the road to him flying around the world was not as smooth as he thought it would be.
Not only did the Captain face 18 months of rejection from companies who would not sponsor him; he also did not have a plane nor did he know how to fly one.
That didn’t stop him. As Irving said, “I was poor and I had nothing to lose. But as soon as I stepped up, the donations started coming up.” He taught himself how to fly a plane using books and the internet and managed to assemble a plane from donated parts.
The rest is history, as in 2007 he successfully flew around the world in 97 days.
The lecture also focused on the importance of Maths and Science and how it can be used practically to solve problems in the real world.
One such example would be how Irving and his team plan on going to Darwin, Australia, to solve the problem of the King Toads there.
They plan to catch them, freeze them and then convert them into fertiliser.
As Irving said, “The world has two common languages: Maths and Science and it’s up to us to use to use the technology we have to improve the world.”
