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27 October 2006

Professor Roy Booth
Ms Beverley Damonse
Distinguished guests
Educators and learners
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my great pleasure to be with you today especially our budding scientists. Our country is unique in its history, diversity and people. It is a country alive with opportunities. Our southern skies offer the world an extremely clear window to the universe. My Department intends to make that window an international gateway to the stars and South Africa needs you to be world-class astronomers soon.

For those of you that have made it this far in the competition, I want to say congratulations and well done. You have shown remarkable talent for space and star exploration and I want to encourage you to pursue the story of the stars. I can assure you that the Department of Science and Technology is developing South Africa to become a renowned astronomy destination of the world. This quiz saw the participation of four provinces and over 600 grade 7 learners. So to those who are seated here, I want to say that you have earned the right to hold your head up high and have an extra bounce your step.

The success of the astronomy quiz lies not only with the organisers here but also with each and every one of the participants. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the dedicated educators who have worked so hard behind the scenes, this occasion is also a recognition of your endeavours and commitment.

I commend also the officials from my Department, South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) and other contributing agents for finding such an exciting and fun way of unleashing the science and technology potential in our youth. You have set a high bar and I look forward to next year, when I know that you will surpass it.

Not only are we celebrating the stars of our stars but we are also standing on the very ground that, in a few days, mark the development of the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT). I mentioned that my Department wants to make South Africa an astronomy destination and now I want to tell you about some of the leading edge instruments that we have and plan to build for our remarkable country.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope ever built in our short history. It will consist of approximately 4 500 reception dishes, which will have a total area of a million square meters. When built, SKA will be the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. It will assist astronomers in mapping the evolution of our universe, understanding the structure of the Milky Way and the life cycle of stars. South Africa has been short listed as a potential host for the SKA. The announcement was made in September 2006 and the Ministry of Science and Technology hosted a media briefing session in this regard. In order to strengthen our bid at this stage and further illustrate our technical, infrastructure and human resource capabilities, we have started the process of constructing the SKA demonstrator telescope, the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT). Think of KAT as the baby SKA. It will have about 1% of the receiving area of SKA, but it will still be a powerful radio telescope in its own right.

Last year saw the inauguration of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in Sutherland in the Northern Cape. This magnificent optical telescope is currently the most powerful of its kind in the southern hemisphere. How powerful is SALT? SALT is so powerful that it is able to record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the naked eye as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon.

You'll be proud and encouraged to know that the highly advanced optical system of SALT was designed and developed by South African astronomers at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town. Not only are we leading the way in terms of high tech instruments but we are also leading the way in high tech astronomers.

The High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) in Namibia is a system of telescopes that search and investigate cosmic gamma rays. HESS in part was named after Victor Hess, who in 1936 received the Nobel Prize for physics for his discovery of cosmic radiation. What are cosmic gamma rays? (You may ask.) Well the smallest unit of light energy is known as a photon. Gamma rays are a type of photon that has the highest energy and shortest wavelength. By studying gamma rays we develop our understanding of interstellar interactions, supernova explosions and the earth's magnetic fields. HESS is an international collaborative project that includes South Africa, France, the United Kingdom (UK), Poland, Germany and Namibia.

Developing leading edge facilities will go a long way in furthering global astronomy research and our participation in international astronomy. However, I need South African astronomers who will have the technical and theoretical knowledge to use these wonderful instruments. In other words I want you and your schoolmates to become experts in science, engineering and technology. You are the captains of this country. In order to highlight the opportunities of science in South Africa and to show that science is neither difficult nor dull, my Department have several annual science promotional campaigns.

The Science Platforms Promotional Months Campaign highlights research in four areas where South Africa shows geographic and knowledge advantages. During June, we celebrate Antarctic Month. Antarctica is coldest, windiest and most exciting place on earth. Our scientists (both male and female) do research that include astronomy and engineering.

Marine Bioscience is the study of life in our oceans. The South African coastline is about 3 000 kilometres and stretches from Alexander Bay on the Namibian border on the cold west coast to Ponta do Ouro on the Mozambican border on the sub-tropical east coast. South Africa is uniquely positioned and has two enormous oceans. The Benguela current of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mozambique current of the Indian Ocean embrace each other beautifully at the southern tip of Africa. This divides the region into two different marine ecosystems that rank amongst the most biologically diverse, oceanographically complex and richest on earth. This is the underpinning reason for Marine Biosciences Month, which is celebrated in August.

South Africa has some of the earliest records of human evolution. Fossils such as Mrs Ples and Little Foot and sites such as the Sterkfontein Caves, show the rest of the world how we have developed. My Department hosts African Origins Month during September.

Finally, in October Astronomy month, we celebrate humankind's wonder of the stars, constellations and attempt to answer the question of "are we alone?"

National Science Week, which was celebrated from 13 to 20 May this year is another initiative of my Department to show you that science can be fun and is certainly for everyone, boys and girls. You may not realise this but you do science everyday and all of the time. Simple activities such as walking, blinking your eyelids or even breathing is explained by science such as Newton's Laws of Motion, atmospheric pressure, density and volume. Studying subjects like physics, mathematics and chemistry will unlock your scientist potentials.

Last month, the Department of Science and Technology hosted the International Science, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (INSITE) in Johannesburg. INSITE is one part of our initiative to make South Africa more scientifically aware by exposing our nation to such an "explosion in new knowledge". Physics, mathematics and chemistry are fundamental building blocks to sustaining our socio-economic development and advancement. To the learners I want to say that we hand over our power of freethinking and free will when we shy away from firmly grasping an understanding of numbers, chemical reactions and Newton's Laws. Being illiterate in the basic sciences is as bad as not being able to read and write.

INSITE provides us with an invaluable platform to showcase our country's advances in scientific knowledge and to compare and benchmark our achievements with those of our neighbours across the world. INSITE 2006 was designed to give us direct exposure to our scientific and technological advances, understand the challenges we need to achieve sustainable economic growth and afford us the opportunity to create excitement among our young people for careers in science and technology.

I am also excited by the news that South Africa will host the international science fair in 2007. The Department of Science and Technology is privileged in their support of this bid. We are excited that we, as a country, are also meaningfully involved in strategically important areas such as science, engineering and technology.

Finally and certainly with the same measure of excitement, I want to mention the book: "The Crocodile Who Swallows The Sun". Human ancestors have always gazed at the constellations in wonder, fear and amazement. They used the stars to track the changes of season thereby determining when to start planting and harvesting their crops. They used it to record events in their history such as births and deaths. And they used the stars and moon to tell stories. "The Crocodile Who Swallowed The Sun" is a wonderful collection of South African stories showing Africa's bond with the night sky.

I want to conclude by saying that whatever the mind of humankind conceives and believes, it will achieve. In the words of a popular animated character, you can go to infinity and beyond.

Thank you!

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
27 October 2006
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za/)