Mangena at the Siemens Profile Awards 2008
5 March 2009
Programme director
CEO of Siemens Southern Africa, Mr Sigi Proebstl
Members of the Board of Directors
Award winners
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
South Africa has plentiful supply of coal, which we burn to produce 92
percent of our electricity. We burn more of it to provide 40 percent of our
petrol. As a result, we are becoming one of the worldâs largest, per capita,
producers of greenhouse gases. We produce one percent of the worldâs greenhouse
gases. Even though this might seem a relatively small proportion, it makes us
the 14th largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.
Our challenge, therefore, is to start thinking and acting a lot greener,
fast. We are this week, together with the Department of Environment and
Tourism, hosting a National Climate Change Summit with a similar theme at
Gallagher Estate. Therefore, âtechnology for a greener Africaâ is a very apt
theme for this year's Siemens Profile Awards, which have brought us together
here tonight. We applaud all the efforts aimed at preventing further damage to
our already vulnerable planet.
Tempting as it is, I am not going to speak to you about a greener Africa and
a greener world. Tonight I will leave that for others. I prefer to talk about
the subject that has brought us here this evening, and that is, excellence in
reporting and writing on science and technology.
I want to begin by reading you two sentences from a recent book titled
âmagnetism and synchrotron radiation.â
"In recent years the interest in x-ray spectroscopes has been revived by the
discovery of new experimental methods associated with the exploitation of the
polarisation properties of synchrotron radiation."
This sounds like good news, but what does it actually mean? Perhaps the
following sentence might throw more light.
"The detection of x-ray magnetic and dichroism in ferro-, ferri-, and
paramagnetic compounds, the detection of x-ray natural circular dichroism in
gyrotropic single crystals, and more recently the observation of non-reciprocal
X-ray linear dichroism in antiferromagnetic crystals, are good examples of such
new developments."
Perhaps the initiates in this field are likely to understand what this
entire means!
The good news is that the author is now signing copies at Exclusive Books.
If you hurry you might still catch him.
But on a more serious note, while I'm sure the writer knows a great deal
about synchrotron radiation, he clearly knows nothing about communication. And
for scientists, and the public, that is a big problem.
I happen to know that researchers using synchrotron radiation techniques are
developing promising treatments for cancer, and investigating ways to increase
life-expectancy and methods to improve the efficiency of electricity
distribution. But if only a handful of people know this, further research and
use of the techniques won't get very far.
That is why good science journalism and reporting can be as important as
science itself, and why the Siemens Profile Awards for reporting on science and
technology is such a significant event.
In many respects, we are all victims of a journalistic stereotype introduced
many years ago, in which the only person who could possibly be interested in
science, or even hope to understand it, was the scientist himself always male
and usually mad.
But things have changed. IT scientists have put computers in our laps,
telecommunications scientists have placed cellphones in our hands, nutritional
scientists are guiding our food intake, and sports scientists are designing our
running shoes. Science is everywhere there is little of consequence in our
lives that is not either the result of scientific research or a subject for
scientific scrutiny. Yet in many cases, the process of reporting on these
developments has not kept pace with the developments themselves.
Current and future sciences and technologies hold great promise in terms of
speeding up socio-economic development, which is of particular importance to
the poorer nations of the world. We need to do all we can to accelerate, not
only the fulfilment of that hope, but also the expectation of that hope.
In South Africa's case, this is both an urgent and a complex matter. We are
not a poor country, but we are not a highly developed one either. We are a
relatively prosperous nation at the southern end of a largely underdeveloped
continent, much of which is looking to us to show the way forward. But we
cannot realistically hope to do that until we solve some of our country's own
problems.
Among these are unacceptably high poverty levels, a largely inadequate
skills base, an ongoing near-emergency energy supply, the impact of climate
change and its threat to water resources, rising criminality, the degradation
of the environment, the impact of HIV infections, and now, the world economic
slump.
We have a relatively sophisticated pool of scientists, but they're ageing,
and they're not being replaced in sufficient numbers to cope with the
challenges we face. That is the downside, but on a more positive note, the work
that our scientists are doing on the hydrogen engine is looking very promising.
So does the development of South Africa's electric car by a private enterprise
in Cape Town. Researchers in the biosciences exploring our country's remarkably
rich biodiversity are very upbeat about what they're doing.
The work being done on the development of photovoltaic cells, essentially a
quantum improvement in the harnessing of solar power, is extraordinary, and
bodes well for the renewable energy programme.
The story of Sasol, which took failed technology and turned it into a
winner, seems likely to be repeated in the development of the Pebble Bed
Modular Reactor. Our achievements in the field of astronomy have been truly
spectacular, which is a fitting tribute to a continent whose astronomy history
goes back over 8 000 years. The Southern Africa Large Telescope (SALT) has been
a triumph, the MeerKAT is performing as expected, and we are crossing our
fingers to win the bid to host the envisaged largest radio telescope, the
Square Kilometre Array.
Our scientists are excelling in many disciplines, and there is every reason
to suppose that, given enough backing and support, they will come up with
workable solutions to many of the country's most pressing problems.
So, what is the role of the journalist in all this?
First, we need to make science seem less arcane to the average person.
Actually, these days it is a lot harder to tell the difference between
scientists and journalists. Both spend a lot of time in front of computers
trying to make things fit together. Both go to work in t-shirts and chinos, and
both have to smoke in designated areas. They're just ordinary people doing
ordinary jobs.
Related to this is the need to popularise science. We need more South
Africans to choose careers in science, technology, mathematics and engineering.
The number of young people studying maths and science-related subjects at
tertiary or even senior secondary level is very disheartening. We cannot do
maths and science without mathematicians and scientists. We need more young
people to open their hearts and minds to science. Everybody needs to be
reminded, as often as necessary, that these days science is ubiquitous, and
there is no such thing as a technology-free life.
In both these roles we need to interpret the work scientists are doing so
that the public is enlightened, not confused. Ordinary people need journalists
to simplify complex concepts for them, or in Siemens terminology, put science
into "an easily understandable format."
We should never forget that we live in a country with eleven official
languages, and journalists therefore have to make extra sure that the
information they present their readers with is clear. If information is
incomprehensible in the language in which it is written, there is no hope of
even a passable translation.
In summary then, South Africa and the rest of Africa will benefit immensely
if journalists are able to demystify and popularise science by simplifying it.
Siemens deserves kudos for its insight into this, and for sponsoring the
recognition of excellence in scientific journalism.
Siemens is a company that has done much careful thinking, and has come up
with many sound initiatives. Like all of us here, Siemens seeks to create safer
and healthier societies, cleaner environments and prosperous knowledge-driven
economies across Africa. We can do this so much more quickly and effectively if
our efforts can be aligned with smart, responsible journalism.
I congratulate the winners here tonight. I hope you will intensify your
efforts to develop public awareness of science and technology. And I would like
to thank all journalists here tonight, winners or not, and encourage you to
continue the good work your country needs your skills, your interpretive
abilities, and your communications flair. All hands to the journalists!
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
5 March 2009
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za/)
