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Faculty of Science FACULTY FOCUS A MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT FACULTY OF SCIENCE Frontiers of science Page 6&7 Homegrown knowledge Page 4&5 Big data Page 10&11 Citizen science Page 8&9 All images licensed under Creative Commons, and accessed via Wikimedia Commons. Full details available online. 2 MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT SCIENCE 3 A WORD FROM BLINDED THE DEAN BY SCIENCE? Professor Anton le Roex Curated by Yusuf Omar Dean of Science UCT facilities that let you take a closer look at the world around The Faculty of Science has a long and distinguished history. Formally you – whether you’re peering into the depths of space and time, or established in 1918 by UCT’s founding act, today it’s a sizeable faculty studying the behaviour of subatomic particles in very cold conditions. of 12 departments and multiple research units, whose teaching and research is internationally acknowledged for excellence. Colleagues of days gone by include To maintain this high standard, building on our established research and learning that is going on in the two Nobel Prize winners (Aaron and to increase our international strengths and critical mass. They faculty at any one point in time, Klug and Allan Cormack, both visibility and impact, the faculty also lend themselves to cross- and I hope it inspires you – whether from the Department of Physics), agreed earlier this year to focus multi-disciplinary engagement – the you’re involved in the sciences or while today, some 40% of our its research energies on six broad watchwords of academic research not – to make connections with academic staff are rated by the impact areas that straddle the and teaching today. You can read and in the faculty; whether by NRF as either international leaders disciplines represented by the about each of them in the graphic engaging with students, teachers, (A-rated), having strong international existing 12 departments. These below. and colleagues, or simply by reputations (B-rated), or being impact areas are: African Climate This strategic focus also informs considering new perspectives. outstanding young researchers and Development; Biodiversity the overarching theme for this with the potential to become and the Cape Floristic Region; Monday Monthly supplement focused on the sciences: the importance of world leaders (P-rated). With over Chemistry and Biology for Health Further information about the faculty, Image supplied understanding the world we live in, Michael Hammond by Photo BV Cryogenics of Leiden Image courtesy 800 research master’s and PhD in Africa; Marine Biology and its departments, research units and students, the faculty also contributes the Southern Oceans; Southern so that we can leave it an improved world for future generations. centres can be obtained from the 25% of the publication output of Skies and the Evolving Universe; website: www.science.uct.ac.za Electron microprobe Optical telescope Dilution fridge the university and over a third of the Human Evolution and the African While the stories you’ll read in university’s annual PhD graduates. Quaternary. These areas leverage this supplement represent only a With an electron microprobe, you can study the chemical It’s not immediately visible to passers-by, but neither UCT’s Physics Department will be home to the coldest composition of tiny volumes of solids (from boron through are the things it sees. The Department of Astronomy’s place on the African continent when the department takes There is much to be proud of. our geographic advantage, while fraction of the research, teaching to uranium), at the micron scale. [A single hair is 40 to 50 new optical telescope is tucked away in the dome of the delivery of a dry dilution fridge in early 2015. This state-of- microns wide]. This device effectively shoots electrons at RW James building. Offi cially named the Tony Fairall Teaching the-art instrument has a base temperature of 7mK, which your sample, causing elements contained in it to emit X-rays Observatory in December 2013, the facility comes equipped is seven thousandths of a degree above absolute zero. At that the microprobe diffracts through different crystals, and with a new Celestron 14-inch telescope, as well as a charge- -273.15 degrees Celsius, absolute zero represents the lowest then measures. coupled device, which captures light more effi ciently than temperature possible – nothing can be colder, and an object SETTING THE At UCT it’s often used to analyse kimberlite (a form of photographic plates, and a spectrograph cap (a device that at absolute zero retains no heat energy. igneous rock in which diamonds are found), for elemental allows you to see and record the lines in a spectrum of light). The cryogenic system uses a mixture of the isotopes mapping (showing the distribution of elements in a sample), The Celestron’s large 14-inch aperture gives stargazers helium-4 and helium-3 in combination with high-powered or for cathodoluminescence imaging of zircon grains (if you a sharp view of the solar system under clear conditions, MagLev (magnetic levitation) turbo pumps to achieve its SCIENCE AGENDA shoot electrons at luminescent materials, it can cause the including all the features on the moon, detail in Jupiter’s ultra-low temperatures and high cooling power. What kind of emission of visible wavelengths. Zircon (seen in this image clouds and belts, and even a faint glimpse of Pluto. Weather research can it be used for? Quantum cryptography (encoding Science’s new research focus has six areas of strategic impact – through an electron microprobe) is not only luminescent, but permitting, astronomers can also feast their eyes on deep- messages using physics, not mathematics), transporting single also incredibly durable, meaning it is contained in some of sky objects such as nebulae and galaxies. The Department electrons at a time, and the characterisation of nanocomposites making the most of the faculty’s research strengths and critical the oldest rocks on Earth. of Astronomy is compiling a 2015 calendar featuring images (man-made materials built using nanoparticles), for example. mass, in conjunction with our geographic advantage. UCT’s JEOL Superprobe JXA-8100 Electron Probe taken through the telescope. This facility will provide valuable training opportunities for Microanalyser facility is operated by Chief Scientifi c Offi cer The telescope is already being used to teach astronomical students at all levels and allow UCT to become a player in Christel Tinguely and supervised by Dr Johann Diener. techniques to second-year students and optical photometry to a very active and exciting international fi eld, says Professor third-year stellar astrophysics students. Mark Blumenthal, the physicist who will oversee the use of African Climate Biodiversity & the Chemistry & Biology The observatory runs under the direction of Professor Claude the dry fridge. & Development Cape Floristic Region for Health in Africa Carignan and Associate Professor Patrick Woudt. Africa occupies a critical global position for the study The Greater Cape Floristic Region includes two Mediterranean biomes; The major global medical need of the 21st century of large-scale climate and environmental processes. fynbos (which includes renosterveld) and the succulent karoo. The will be in Africa, given the high disease burden Straddling the tropical, subtropical and temperate succulent karoo biome is the world’s greatest arid hotspot and the and scale of the populations. The clinical expertise climate systems, as well as the Indian, Atlantic and fynbos biome diversity competes with that of the Amazon forest. at UCT, coupled with the wide ethnic diversity Southern Oceans, the continent is infl uenced by a wide Besides encompassing an enormous amount of plant biodiversity, of patients, makes the Western Cape a good variety of atmospheric and oceanic circulation systems, the region includes high levels of animal biodiversity, archaeological environment to conduct translational science and including the dominant Agulhas and Benguela currents. diversity and important perspectives on landscape development, medicinal research relevant to Africa, and the These systems affect much on the African continent; its climate change and earth history. Faculty of Science is well placed to play a major changing climate, its biota and human development. As a role in this regard. The Western Cape is arguably developing continent, our location also provides us with the biotech hub of Africa – enjoying strong support a clear advantage in terms of science and technology from the Department of Science and Technology applications to social development in Africa. and strong links with the pharmaceutical industry. Bolus Herbarium curator Terry Trinder-Smith. Photo by Je’nine May Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan inside the Michael Hammond by Photo FACULTY OF SCIENCE Bolus Herbarium Palaebiology Laboratory. Photo by Je’nine May Human Evolution & Mantle Room the African Quaternary UCT’s Bolus Herbarium houses more than 350 000 specimens of dried plants, and is particularly noted for its broad representation Palaeobiology Laboratory Thought to be the largest collection of its kind, the Mantle of Cape fl ora. The third-largest herbarium in South Africa The western and southern seaboards have archaeological Bones might be all that’s left of them, but that’s just enough Room in the Department of Geological Sciences houses a Southern Skies & Marine Biology & the and the third-largest university herbarium in the southern and palaeontological sites of world importance, which for UCT’s Palaeobiology Laboratory to uncover some of the collection of over 10 000 upper mantle-derived materials hemisphere, the Bolus Herbarium is ideal for teaching students shed light on human evolution and the behaviour of the Evolving Universe Southern Oceans mysteries of vertebrates past. (mantle xenoliths and xenocrysts, kimberlites and related early modern humans. Our geographic position, and about the diversity of Southern African fl ora, and for researching rocks, megacrysts, and deep-crustal xenoliths). These are our ‘living laboratories’ of local resources, provide The astronomical landscape in South Africa has changed dramatically The marine environments around South Africa are individual specimens.
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