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Pretoria Branch S2A3 News Exploring

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Pretoria Branch S2A3 News Exploring Our April talk: Reinet Andrew started a life of trading, hunting and Pretoria Branch S2A3 News exploring. In 1825 he and Benjamin Kift travelled and March & April 2005 th traded widely north of the Orange River, visiting the Date: Wednesday, 6 April 2005 site where Kuruman was later founded. The next A newsletter of the Pretoria Branch of the Southern year he and John B. Biddulph undertook an Africa Association for the Advancement of Science Time: 17h15 (to 18h15) expedition into Botswana and were the first Europeans to penetrate as far north as present Since a number of committee members, including Venue: Discovery Centre, Gabarone. In 1829 they set out overland for Natal, myself, will be away during March, we decided to University of Pretoria Main Campus and though forced to turn back by hostile locals they combine the March and April issues of the (Use the Prospect Street Entrance to the managed to return with a load of ivory. newsletter. Since 2005 has been declared the World campus. The Discovery Centre is in the He started his last hunting trip in August 1834, Year of Physics, it is appropriate to start this year’s large white building on the right of the travelling towards the Molopo River to procure live lectures with a historical perspective of the great animals and skins for American buyers. However, in work done in Physics in the early 1900’s. Our April road approx 100 m from the Prospect fleeing from an attack by a Matabele impi he lost his talk will be on Nutrition, where the factual basis of Street Entrance.) wagon and collections, and after considerable some common beliefs will be discussed. – Ed. hardship managed to return to Graaff Reinet in Speaker: Dr J Kotze December. He then joined the fighting in the Sixth Specialist food and nutrition consultant Our March talk: Frontier War of 1834 1835, attaining the rank of Captain. As reward, he received a farm near the Date: Wednesday, 2nd March 2005 Topic: Nutrition: Facts and Fiction present town of Alice, but following a change in British policy it was taken away again when the area Time: 17h15 (to 18h15) was returned to the Xhosa nation in October 1836. Refreshments will be served after the talk. Bain’s popular writings Venue: Discovery Centre, Talk Summary University of Pretoria Main Campus Andrew was a keen observer, a good writer and The following nutritional questions will be addressed draughtsman, and endowed with a keen sense of (Use the Prospect Street Entrance to the in this very interesting and topical lecture: humour. He wrote accounts of his travels and of campus. The Discovery Centre is in the • Is saturated fat the cause of heart disease ? events in Graaff Reinet for two newspapers, the large white building on the right of the • What is the effect of trans-fatty acids on heart South African Commercial Advertiser in Cape Town road approx 100 m from the Prospect diseases ? and the Grahamstown Journal, signing them "an Street Entrance.) • What is the function of cholesterol in the body ? intelligent correspondent at Graaff Reinet". Thus he • Must we eat high-carbohydrate diets ? helped to disseminate knowledge about the interior Speaker: Prof J Boeyens of the country. Extraordinary professor, Chemistry In 1838 he combined his writing ability and Department, University of Pretoria. Andrew Geddes Bain (1795-1864): The shrewd humour to compose a burlesque, Kaatje father of South African geology. Kekkelbek; or, life among the Hottentots, which was Topic: Quantum Personalities performed on stage in Grahamstown in November Cornelis Plug, [email protected] that year and subsequently published in various newspapers. It was a satire on the philantropy of the Andrew G. Bain was born in May 1795 in Thurso, missionaries and as one of the earliest works in Refreshments will be served after the talk. Scotland. He was an only child, orphaned at a young Afrikaans became very popular. age, and received his schooling in Edinburgh. He Talk Summary came to the Cape in October 1816 and two years Building roads and passes At the centenary of Einstein's most productive year, later married Maria E. von Backstrom in Cape Town. that also provided a firm basis for quantum theory, Having acquired some experience of road building They had twelve children, including Thomas C.J. near Graaff Reinet, Bain was appointed as an many historians look back at subsequent Bain who followed in his father's footsteps as a road developments between 1905 and 1935. The debates assistant to the Royal Engineers to superintend the builder. construction of military roads on the frontier. The and personalities that featured in the process are often forgotten. Some incidents, rival theories and training that he received in this position, combined A life of adventure with his natural ability, made him into the best South the human side of events will be the topic of the After working for some time as a saddler in Graaff lecture. African road engineer of his time. A reorganisation of the Royal Engineers led to his studied by the paoaeontologist Richard Owen and 1855, while his son Thomas succeeded him as dismissal in 1845. Fortunately, by that time the Cape later purchased by the British Museum. Owen's Inspector of Roads for the Western Cape. Despite government had commenced the building of urgently descriptions were published in the museum's the nature of his work he managed to participate needed passes across the Cape mountains. Bain Catalogue of South African fossil reptiles in 1876. actively in public affairs. Thus around 1855 1860 he accepted an appointment as Inspector of Roads and The species Pareisaurus baini was named in Bain's served on the committee of the Albany Public started building Michell's Pass, near Ceres, in honour. Encouraged by the reception of his finds he Library; was a Justice of the Peace in Albany; served October 1845. The pass was opened in December continued his fossil hunting and sent further on the management committee of the Literary, 1848. The remainder of his career was devoted to shipments to England, including the first substantial Scientific and Medical Society of Grahamstown (as building and improving passes. An important collection of invertebrate remains from the Bokkeveld vice president for some years); was a member of the innovation that he perfected was the stacking of dry Group. first executive committee of the Eastern Province stone retaining walls to support the roadway along Agricultural Association; was a director of Cawood steep slopes. Some of these walls are still in good Father of South African geology and King's Mining Company; and in 1858 arranged condition after 150 years. Having discovered a Meanwhile he had started to compile the first the fossils of the Albany Museum. passage through the mountains between Wellington geological map of the Cape, complete with geological In 1860 he began his most ambitious project, the and the Breërivier Valley, now named Bain's Kloof, sections and a descriptive memoir. It was dispatched Katberg Pass, some 50 km long, over the Winterberg he built a long pass through it between 1849 and to the Geological Society of London in December range between Queenstown and Fort Beaufort. 1853 an impressive feat of engineering for which he 1851. Though necessarily incomplete and based on However, in 1863 heart problems forced him to take received public acclaim. some inaccurate observations his work represented leave before the work was completed. He went to an essential and important first step in unravelling the Britain in April 1864, where he was warmly received Fossil hunting complex succession of geological strata covering a by leading geologists and palaeontologists. Meanwhile his interest in rocks and fossils had been huge area. He was the first to determine the Returning to South Africa he died in Cape Town on aroused in 1837 by reading Charles Lyell's popular stratigraphic succession of what came to be known 20 October that year. and influentual Principles of geology. Further reading as the Cape Supergroup. It struck him that there confirmed his determination to apply geological and were no marine fossils in the Karoo rocks; hence he palaeontological knowledge in a personal study of hypothesized that they had been deposited in a great the rocks of the Cape – a spirit of enquiry that ruled freshwater lake and named them the Lacustrine What is the S2A3? the rest of his life. In 1838 he and his friend M. Formation. Though this view was accepted for many The S2A3 aims to stimulate a broad public interest in Borcherds found their first pieces of fossil bone near years, later research showed that the Karoo science and its applications, research, discoveries, Fort Beaufort. One or two days later Baine made his environment was deltaic rather than lacustrine. The history, ethics and philosophy. To do so, the S2A3 first important discovery just south of the town – a Geological Society, recognising the significance of arranges regular meetings, with speakers who are reptile skull with only two large teeth which he named his work, described it as "the triumphant results of both entertaining and knowledgeable, as well as field a bidental and which became famous as Dicynodon the single handed labours and unaided research of trips, excursions and other interesting events. – the dominant herbivorous mammal like reptiles of one who, by his own perseverance and talents alone, Being added to our e-mail address list is free. the Karoo era. has not only worked out so grand a geological Anyone wishing to receive S2A3 announcements via Around this time he submitted his first scientific problem, but has trained and wholly educated himself e-mail but who has difficulty using the listserver paper, "On the head of an ox found in the alluvial for the task".
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