tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/ska-21454/articlesSKA – The Conversation2024-03-28T18:54:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2266642024-03-28T18:54:29Z2024-03-28T18:54:29ZThis Town: new drama charts the influence of ska on inner city kids during bleak Thatcher years<p>This Town, the new BBC drama from Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, revisits the Midlands setting, also doubling as a somewhat backhanded tribute to the region and a paean to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Two-Tone-Movement-1688309">two-tone music</a> – an amalgam of ska, punk and reggae – that emerged from it. </p>
<p>The backdrop for Knight’s heroes is the aftershocks of 1970s industrial strife – chiefly Margaret Thatcher’s uncompromising response to the way de-industrialisation drove up unemployment and cut off economic possibilities for working-class young people.</p>
<p>Deprivation, combined with a burgeoning right-wing movement stoking racial tensions and police stop-and-search practices, <a href="https://pasttense.co.uk/2021/07/03/this-week-in-uk-history-1981-uprisings-and-riots-all-over-the-country/">exploded into violence</a> as the Thatcher era gathered steam. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were also still raging, their effects felt via bombings in England.</p>
<p>Some of the more musically minded kicked against these divisions, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-terry-hall-defined-the-sound-of-youth-and-disillusionment-in-margaret-thatchers-britain-196917">channelling their frustration</a> into the fusion of genres at the heart of this drama.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/this-town-first-look-picutures">Billed</a> as a “high-octane thriller and family saga of young people fighting to choose their own paths in life”, it opens with dramatic contrast as it means to go on – lines of poetry interrupted by a riot and an act of racist policy brutality.</p>
<p>Set mainly in Birmingham and Coventry, against the backdrop of 1981’s civil unrest, it uses the formation of a band as the hook for viewers and a potential escape mechanism for its young protagonists.</p>
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<h2>Family, music and violence</h2>
<p>Levi Brown plays Dante, a sheltered aspiring poet whose encounters lead him to reconsider his words as lyrics, reorientating him towards music. At odds with his surroundings, he wanders the urban backdrop with his head in the clouds. (It’s implied Dante’s what would be called neurodivergent today, though the language of his peers is blunter albeit affectionate.)</p>
<p>His cousin Bardon (Ben Rose) tries to complete college, and avoid the gravitational pull of the IRA through his father’s connections. Dante’s brother Gregory (Jordan Bolger), meanwhile, begins the series serving in Belfast with the British Army. Dante and Gregory are black, Bardon is white, but the more notable divide is the sectarian one.</p>
<p>For all this, the “thriller” label is something of a misnomer. Knight’s pacing is unhurried, and the band Dante pulls together emerges only gradually as the events unfold. While the story takes place against a background of violence – from casual to chillingly planned – the fights and eruptions are punctuations offsetting a more gradual set of revelations.</p>
<p>These include the slow journey of the band – comprising Dante, Bardon and their friend Jeannie (Eve Austin) – from stumbling hopefuls to focused professionals. Rather than the ups and downs of a rollercoaster ride, there is a building sense of unstoppability as the characters seek their path. This means negotiating the menacing coolness of IRA operatives and a gloriously over-the-top, finger-chopping psychopath of a nightclub owner. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, family travails and a background of addiction also pervade the grey, drizzly environment – there are a lot of plot strands. It’s a fine balance between giving the personalities space to develop and tightening the screws, which Knight mostly manages without either excessive slowness or by overcomplicating things, aided by some engaging and nuanced central performances.</p>
<h2>Lost in music</h2>
<p>Ultimately though, much of what drives This Town forward, and holds it together, is the music. Intimidating special branch officers, gangsters and IRA bombers aside, it wears its social commentary on the upheavals of the early 1980s comparatively lightly, filtering it through the youngsters’ aspirations to transcend their surroundings via their music. </p>
<p>Knight’s drama is to a large extent about identity, especially self-identity. As Gregory warns Dante: “If you don’t get away, you just become what everybody already thinks you are.” There’s also a telling exchange when Dante wavers as he dons the sharp suit and pork pie hat that came to define the image of two-tone music: “It doesn’t look like me.” “But it is you Dante,” his father assures him. “This is who we are.”</p>
<p>The characters’ identities are framed by their music – from ska, through rock and ballads, to Irish rebel songs. Even though Irish DJ and composer Kormac’s brooding underscore contains elements of dub and 1980s two-tone, the overall soundscape is broader. This focuses on the earlier music of the 1960s and 1970s that culminated in two-tone acts like The Specials as Thatcher’s Britain felt the social strain of her economic reforms.</p>
<p>Acts like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T3UmvutR8k">Bob Marley</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd8aBtRe6mk">The Gaylettes</a> and Desmond Dekker carry the viewer through the narrative. They also speak to the characters’ inner lives. Alternating scenes featuring Dante and Brandon are bridged by the likes of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKacmwx9lvU">The Maytals</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsnsu2tgpR0">UB40</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/diegetic-sound-and-non-diegetic-sound-whats-the-difference">non-diegetic</a> soundtrack – the music outside the frame of the story, inaudible to those inside it – is rich in historical gems. This Town, though, also uses diegetic music, which is explicitly part of the action, to reveal its characters’ psyches, underscoring the themes of identity and escape, as well as the plot. </p>
<p>Central moments hinge on singing as a way to express the feelings of the emotionally blocked protagonists. There’s a showstopping rendition of Over the Rainbow, for example – Michelle Dockery is a trained singer, and it shows.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, there’s a vocal “duel” of sorts, where Brandon and his father sing across one another with Jimmy Cliff’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7dBMYUyRAQ">You Can Get It If You Really Want</a> and Pete St John’s Irish folk balled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd7tr2eivcs">The Fields of Athenry</a>, emphasising the generational split. And all throughout, the departed matriarch – Dante, Bardon and Gregory’s grandmother – is felt and referenced via the birdsong with which she inspired them all as children.</p>
<p>The overall effect is one of deceptive simplicity. Neither quite a thriller nor a straightforward historical account of the emergence of two-tone, This Town echoes the ways in which music is forged by its social context, while shaping and defining the lives of the people who make it. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the British Academy</span></em></p>This Town echoes the ways in which music is forged by its social context, while shaping and defining the lives of the people who make it.Adam Behr, Senior Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2116042023-08-31T14:09:55Z2023-08-31T14:09:55ZHow our ancestors viewed the sky: new film explores both indigenous and modern cosmology<p>Something remarkable is happening in a remote part of South Africa’s Northern Cape province, in a semi-desert area called the Karoo. In the past 15 years 64 radio receiving dishes have appeared on the landscape. These constitute the <a href="https://www.sarao.ac.za/gallery/meerkat/">MeerKAT telescope</a>, a precursor to the <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/about-us/skao">Square Kilometre Array Observatory</a> (SKAO), which will – when it is completed and fully functional in 2030 – be the world’s largest radio telescope.</p>
<p>The SKAO will receive signals emanating from the dark regions between the stars and galaxies. This data, studied by <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/resources/what-radio-astronomy">radio astronomers</a>, has the capacity to inform us about dark matter and could change our conception of the universe irrevocably.</p>
<p>In his new, award-winning documentary, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2g7eGjWGCk">!Aitsa</a>, filmmaker Dane Dodds explores the intellectual background and science of the SKAO alongside indigenous conceptions of the cosmos held by ancient <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/">ǀXam San people</a> and their Afrikaans-speaking descendants living in the Karoo today. As the film’s advisor I saw my task as bringing into focus the hidden assumptions that must be recognised in any encounter between knowledge, traditions and cosmology.</p>
<p>!Aitsa (a South African exclamation of praise or surprise) explores the SKAO’s approach to understanding the universe through big data made comprehensible by the techniques of empirical science, machine learning, artificial intelligence and instrumentation. The film also examines <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08949468.2023.2168962?journalCode=gvan20">Karoo star-lore</a> as it is shared and spread by an interwoven tapestry of oral traditions. Conventional ideas about the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2018.1447374">nature of science</a> are challenged and the dominant structures of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533952.2020.1850626">knowledge creation</a> are questioned as a result.</p>
<p>To the ǀXam and San people, being in the world as a person includes “the sky’s things” – an understanding of and deep connection with the cosmos. In an age progressively dominated by digital and automated knowledge it was important that the film hold space for this notion.</p>
<h2>Inflected with star-lore</h2>
<p>Through <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dBUudaAAAAAJ&hl=en">my own research</a> in the fields of archaeoacoustics, rock art and oral tradition I have come to understand that there is a profound multiplicity of connections within the ǀXam knowledge tradition. In a ǀXam conception of the universe there is no alienating distance between inner and outer, person, stars and space. That’s because their cultural understanding of reciprocities encourages ecological and cosmic connection. </p>
<p>!Aitsa strives to express astronomy as a lived-body experience. One person interviewed in the film says:</p>
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<p>When I look up into the sky and look at how my star is positioned, and look up at the star’s direction, I know which way to walk.</p>
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<p>Another describes the Milky Way as being “right at the centre of a person’s spirituality.”</p>
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<h2>Animism and animation</h2>
<p>The instruments of modern science deliver facts, innovation and technical advancement. But all this comes with societal entanglements and colonial dynamics, a part of the <a href="https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu05se/uu05se00.htm">intellectual history</a> of scientific endeavour that assumes authority and stands aloof from the kinds of sensory perceptions and lived experience that are central to ǀXam San cosmology.</p>
<p>!Aitsa investigates a modern pre-disposition that considers <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/200061">animistic knowledge</a> and reasoning as inherently flawed. Animism is the notion that any living thing has a distinct spiritual essence. It’s a mistake to dismiss ǀXam cultural expression as a mythology that is intrinsically animistic and therefore quaint.</p>
<p>The ǀXam and San people are known as “<a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/People_of_the_Eland.html?id=D_wwAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">the people of the eland</a>” and so, to illustrate the way their beliefs animate “things”, an eland antelope is a key character in !Aitsa. The animal’s presence compels the viewer to consider the importance of relationship and relatedness. </p>
<h2>Soundscapes</h2>
<p>Sound plays a crucial role in the film, and was another opportunity to showcase an element of |Xam San culture. The soundtrack (you can hear a preview <a href="https://soundcloud.com/s_i_l_v_a_n/aitsa-film-ost-preview">here</a>) draws on composer Simon Kohler’s musical creativity and the archaeoacoustic research I have done on lithophones, otherwise known as gong rocks, which produce sounds not dissimilar to that of a bell when it is struck.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-music-of-an-ancient-rock-painting-was-brought-to-life-185475">How the music of an ancient rock painting was brought to life</a>
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<p>Sound is the most ephemeral and transitory of presences but in the film the gong rock sound is a thread linking voices and images, past and present. Collecting the sound required two trips into the Karoo. There we recorded a variety of rock sounds – deep bass-vibrations through to light metallic tinkles. We brought these recordings back into the Cape Town sound studio where the sound was “composed” to create the soundtrack that viewers will hear throughout the film.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.aitsafilm.com/">!Aitsa</a> had its world premiere at <a href="https://cphdox.dk/film/aitsa/">CPH:DOX</a> in Denmark in 2023, with sold out screenings and <a href="https://mubi.com/en/lists/cph-dox-2023-best-to-worst">rave reviews</a>. The film won the Grand Prize at Estonia’s <a href="https://www.chaplin.ee/">Pärnu International Film Festival</a> and was voted Best of the Fest at the Encounters Film Festival in Cape Town. !Aitsa is selected to screen in Canada at <a href="https://planetinfocus.org/">planetinfocus</a> and in October 2023 at the <a href="https://psff.cz/">Prague Science Film Fest</a> and is up for selection at the <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en">idfa Festival</a> in the Netherlands in November.</p>
<p>In 2024 !Aitsa will go on a road trip, visiting remote places in the Karoo where the film will be screened to audiences who do not have the means for or access to cinemas. </p>
<p>We also hope to take the film to Australia so that the Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal people can see, listen and connect with their counterparts in the Karoo. This is an important connection because the Wajarri Yamaji live in the Murchison region in Western Australia where the low-frequency component of the SKAO is <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/partners/skao-members/133/australia">currently under construction</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Rusch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To the ǀXam and San people, being in the world as a person includes “the sky’s things” - an understanding of and deep connection with the cosmos.Neil Rusch, Research Associate, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1969172022-12-20T18:56:59Z2022-12-20T18:56:59ZHow Terry Hall defined the sound of youth and disillusionment in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain<p>Terry Hall, who has died after a short illness at 63, was the voice of <a href="https://www.thespecials.com/">The Specials</a>, an iconic band that bridged the youth sub-cultures and mainstream pop of the late 1970s and early 1980s, embodying the sound of disaffection in Thatcherite Britain.</p>
<p>Born and raised in Coventry, Hall brought a distinctive stance, and sound, to British pop. As frontman of The Specials and then Fun Boy Three, his simultaneously deadpan yet melodic vocals, flecked with his native Midlands accent, belied the eclecticism that underpinned his music.</p>
<p>His sardonic delivery, likewise, was the filter through which he reflected a sense of alienation, both national and personal. He was plagued by mental illness <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/specials-terry-hall-speaks-depression-kidnapped-paedophile-ring-aged-12-2441294">after being abducted by a child-abuse ring</a> aged 12, which he later alluded to in Fun Boy Three’s song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfSqTO5pV0o">Well Fancy That</a>. By 15 he had left school and drifted through a series of jobs, including bricklayer and hairdresser, before gravitating towards music, first punk and then ska.</p>
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<span class="caption">The Specials in the early 1980s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Specials_crop.jpg#/media/File:The_Specials_crop.jpg">Paul Williams / Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>It was the latter that particularly infused the sound of The Specials, initially formed as The Coventry Automatics in 1977 by keyboard player and songwriter <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-specials-jerry-dammers">Jerry Dammers</a> with Hall joining soon afterwards. Early hits were a mixture of Dammers compositions such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD9NvKKY7W0">Too Much Too Young</a> and covers of ska classics like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cntvEDbagAw">A Message To You Rudy</a>, fronted by Hall and Neville Staple, who had moved to England from Jamaica aged five.</p>
<p>The mixed-race aspect of The Specials and, latterly, Fun Boy Three was more than just an element of their sound. It was a mission statement for a fractured nation. 2 Tone referred to the genre fusing ska, reggae, punk and new wave – of which The Specials were among the primary exponents – but it was also the name of their record label, founded by Dammers.</p>
<p>The band emerged in parallel with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/20/popandrock.race">Rock Against Racism</a>, a movement responding to the rise of the far-right National Front in the mid-to-late 1970s and, more specifically, <a href="https://ultimateclassicrock.com/eric-clapton-rant-rock-against-racism/">comments that Eric Clapton had made</a> in support of former Birmingham MP Enoch Powell, whose <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/enoch-powells-rivers-of-blood-the-speech-that-divided-a-nation-11339291">incendiary and racist rhetoric</a> helped to stoke tensions in the Midlands and Britain at large.</p>
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<h2>Catching the mood</h2>
<p>The broader politics of disillusionment were most starkly illustrated on The Specials’ number one hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4">Ghost Town</a>, Hall’s doleful vocals providing melodic punctuation amidst the group’s wailing and the spooky, fraught instrumental backing.</p>
<p>The song’s evocation of dereliction matched the fractious mood of the time as <a href="https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/03/this-week-in-uk-history-1981-uprisings-and-riots-all-over-the-country/">race riots rocked the country</a> alongside deindustrialisation and unemployment reaching, at that time, a post-war high of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11792706">2.5 million</a> – it would approach 3.5 million by the middle of the decade.</p>
<p>The politics of the Ghost Town were explicit, and resonated broadly. Future Labour party deputy leader Tom Watson <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/ghost-town-the-song-that-defined-an-era-turns-30-2306003.html">described its effect</a>:</p>
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<p>I was 14 years old – the summer after the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/apr/08/return-1981-austerity-household-squeeze">notorious 1981 Tory budget</a>. Ghost Town spoke to me and every other teenage kid. I remember the school careers officer telling me that if I didn’t smarten up I wouldn’t get a job in the local carpet factory. My Ghost Town was Kidderminster, but it could have been any Midlands town. We all wore our Fred Perrys and worshipped The Specials.</p>
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<p>Things weren’t much better in The Specials’ camp. As well as <a href="https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/jerry-dammers-how-the-devils-chord-split-the-specials/">intra-band tension</a>, their tours were marred by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/mar/08/artsfeatures.popandrock">audience violence</a> and confrontations with the National Front. Hall recounted having to leave the stage to stop fights, and “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1404021a-23fb-45cc-b399-b0950d53f39d">casualties all over the dressing room</a>”.</p>
<p>At the peak of their initial success, things fell apart. Hall, Staple and guitarist Lynval Golding quit the band the same night they recorded Ghost Town for Top of the Pops. And while Dammers would resurface with The Specials AKA, the trio launched as Fun Boy Three, enjoying another string of chart hits.</p>
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<h2>Personal and political</h2>
<p>Here, again, the variety of Hall’s musical influences came into play. Fun Boy Three’s duets with girl band Bananarama included a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_gzzCLSct4">Motown cover</a> and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_kjctTbMHA">1939 jazz classic</a>, reconfigured with sparse pop production. As before, though, pop sensibilities were shot through with a heavy measure of irony and lyrical bite, like on their debut single The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum).</p>
<p>Fun Boy Three split after two albums, but Hall’s output remained steady. He went on to form Colourfield in 1984 producing a hit with Thinking of You. He was an active collaborator with likes of Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics and Damon Albarn throughout the 1990s and 2000s before a reformed version of The Specials (minus Dammers) began touring and releasing new music in 2008. Their last album topped the charts in 2019.</p>
<p>He is perhaps best remembered for giving voice to the turbulent era in which he emerged. But Hall’s political commitment was a strand that ran throughout his career, from his initial shock that some working men’s clubs in Coventry employed a colour bar – only admitting white people – in the 1970s, to the reflective elements of latter-day Specials albums. As he <a href="https://youtu.be/exG0m3Sm948?t=226">put it</a>, describing the impetus behind 2019’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Y4VwDs_KE">Vote for Me</a>:</p>
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<p>From growing up in a really staunch Labour, trades union household, when I was a kid, it was almost pantomime. There were goodies, and there were baddies. And now, I can’t find many goodies.</p>
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<p>Leaving the stage much too young, Terry Hall will always be remembered for being musically exploratory, his voice and attitude embodying an aesthetic in the bleak period of early 1980s Britain, at the point where pop met protest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Behr has received funding from the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Their line up of black and white musicians was a mission statement for a fractured nation, while Hall’s doleful vocals starkly illustrated the politics of disillusionment.Adam Behr, Senior Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958182022-12-05T01:24:09Z2022-12-05T01:24:09ZIn Australia and South Africa, construction has started on the biggest radio observatory in Earth’s history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498810/original/file-20221204-24-mig410.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2326%2C1305&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist's impression of some of the SKA-Low antenna stations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DISR</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Construction of the world’s biggest radio astronomy facility, the SKA Observatory, begins today. The observatory is a global project 30 years in the making.</p>
<p>With two huge two telescopes, one in Australia and the other in South Africa, the project will see further into the history of the Universe than ever before. </p>
<p>Astronomers like me will use the telescopes to trace hydrogen over cosmic time and make precise measurements of gravity in extreme environments. What’s more, we hope to uncover the existence of complex molecules in planet-forming clouds around distant stars, which could be the early signs of life elsewhere in the Universe.</p>
<p>I have been involved in the SKA and its precursor telescopes for the past ten years, and as the chief operations scientist of the Australian telescope since July. I am helping to build the team of scientists, engineers and technicians who will construct and operate the telescope, along with undertaking science to map primordial hydrogen in the infant universe.</p>
<h2>What is the SKA Observatory?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.skao.int">SKA Observatory</a> is an intergovernmental organisation with dozens of countries involved. The observatory is much more than the two physical telescopes, with headquarters in the UK and collaborators around the world harnessing advanced computers and software to tailor the telescope signals to the precise science being undertaken. </p>
<p>The telescope in South Africa (called SKA-Mid) will use 197 radio dishes to observe middle-frequency radio waves from 350 MHz to more than 15 GHz. It will study the extreme environments of neutron stars, organic molecules around newly forming planets, and the structure of the Universe on the largest scales.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/aspiration-vs-delivery-the-long-road-to-the-square-kilometre-array-11221">Aspiration vs delivery: the long road to the Square Kilometre Array</a>
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<p>The Australian telescope (SKA-Low), in Western Australia, will observe lower frequencies with 512 stations of radio antennas spread out over a 74-kilometre span of outback.</p>
<p>The site is located within <a href="https://research.csiro.au/mro/inyarrimanha-ilgari-bundara/">Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara</a>, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. This name, which means “sharing sky and stars”, was given to the observatory by the Wajarri Yamaji, the traditional owners and native title holders of the observatory site. </p>
<h2>Tuning in to the Universe</h2>
<p>After decades of planning, developing precursor telescopes and testing, today we are holding a ceremony to mark the start of on-site construction. We expect both telescopes will be fully operational late this decade.</p>
<p>Each of the 512 stations of SKA-Low is made up of 256 wide-band dipole antennas, spread over a diameter of 35 metres. The signals from these Christmas-tree-shaped antennas in each station are electronically combined to point to different parts of the sky, forming a single view. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498829/original/file-20221205-17-8vv48o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An artist’s impression of a station of radio antennas. Each station has 256 antennas,
and the SKA-Low telescope will have 512 stations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">DISR</span></span>
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<p>These antennas are designed to tune in to low radio frequencies of 50 to 350 MHz. At these frequencies, the radio waves are very long – comparable to the height of a person – which means more familiar-looking dishes are an inefficient way to catch them. Instead the dipole antennas operate much like TV antennas, with the radio waves from the Universe exciting electrons within their metal arms.</p>
<p>Collectively, the 131,072 dipoles in the completed array will provide the deepest and widest view of the Universe to date. </p>
<h2>Peering into the cosmic dawn</h2>
<p>They will allow us to see out and back to the very beginning of the Universe, when the first stars and galaxies formed. </p>
<p>This key period, more than 13 billion years in our past, is termed the “cosmic dawn”: when stars and galaxies began to form, lighting up the cosmos for the first time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-our-universes-cosmic-dawn-what-happened-to-all-its-original-hydrogen-65527">After our universe's cosmic dawn, what happened to all its original hydrogen?</a>
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<p>The cosmic dawn marks the end of the cosmic dark ages, a period after the Big Bang when the Universe had cooled down through expansion. All that remained was the ubiquitous background glow of the early Universe light, and a cosmos filled with dark matter and neutral atoms of hydrogen and helium. </p>
<p>The light from the first stars transformed the Universe, tearing apart the electrons and protons in neutral hydrogen atoms. The Universe went from dark and neutral to bright and ionised. </p>
<p>The SKA Observatory will map this fog of neutral hydrogen at low radio frequencies, which will allow scientists to explore the births and deaths of the earliest stars and galaxies. Exploration of this key period is the final missing piece in our understanding of the life story of the Universe.</p>
<h2>Unimagined mysteries</h2>
<p>Closer to home, the low-frequency telescope will time the revolutions of pulsars. These rapidly spinning neutron stars, which fire out sweeping beams of radiation like lighthouses, are the Universe’s ultra-precise clocks.</p>
<p>Changes to the ticking of these clocks can indicate the passage of gravitational waves through the Universe, allowing us to map these deformations of spacetime with radio waves. </p>
<p>It will also help us to understand the Sun, our own star, and the space environment that we on Earth live within.</p>
<p>These are the things we expect to find with the SKA Observatory. But the unexpected discoveries will most likely be the most exciting. With an observatory of this size and power, we are bound to uncover as-yet-unimagined mysteries of the Universe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathryn Trott receives funding from the Australian Research Council, and is employed by SKAO and Curtin University.</span></em></p>Hundreds of thousands of antennas across the Western Australian outback will transform our view of the Universe.Cathryn Trott, Research Fellow in Radio Astronomy, SKA-Low Chief Operations Scientist, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831392022-05-17T15:29:21Z2022-05-17T15:29:21ZAfrican scientists and technology could drive future black hole discoveries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463262/original/file-20220516-11-yif57t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Milky Way above a single MeerKAT antenna in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Inset: EHT image of the Milky Way black hole. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SARAO, EHT</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Astronomers <a href="https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/astronomers-reveal-first-image-black-hole-heart-our-galaxy">have revealed</a> the first image of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The image was produced by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, an international team made up of over 300 scientists on five continents – including Africa.</p>
<p>Black holes were predicted by Albert Einstein’s <a href="https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html">General Theory of Relativity</a> over a century ago. They are regions of space so dense that nothing, including light, can escape. Their boundary is known as the event horizon, which marks the point of no return. That’s just one of the reasons these objects are hidden from our eyes. The other is that they are exceedingly small, when placed in their cosmic context. If our Milky Way galaxy were the size of a soccer field, its black hole event horizon would be a million times smaller than a pin prick at centrefield.</p>
<p>How, then, can one photograph them? Our team did so by capturing light from the hot swirling gas in the immediate vicinity of the black hole. This light, with a wavelength of 1 millimetre, is recorded by a global network of antennas that form a single, Earth-sized virtual telescope. </p>
<p>The light looks rather like a ring, a characteristic signature that is the direct consequence of two key processes. First, the black hole is so dense that it bends the path of light near it. Second, it captures light that strays too close to the event horizon. The combined effect produces a so-called black hole shadow - a brightened ring surrounding a distinct deficit of light centred on the black hole. In the case of our Milky Way black hole, this ring has the apparent size of a doughnut on the moon, requiring an extraordinary engineering effort to bring it into focus. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-captured-first-image-of-the-supermassive-black-hole-at-centre-of-the-milky-way-183010">How we captured first image of the supermassive black hole at centre of the Milky Way</a>
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<p>The unveiling of an image of our black hole, <a href="https://theconversation.com/say-hello-to-sagittarius-a-the-black-hole-at-the-center-of-the-milky-way-galaxy-183008">Sagittarius A*</a>, is not just a massive moment for science. It could also be an important catalyst for diversifying African astrophysics research using existing strengths. We were the only two of more than 300 EHT team members based on the African continent. The continent doesn’t host any EHT telescopes – we were brought on board because of expertise we’ve developed in preparation for the world’s largest radio telescope, the <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/">Square Kilometre Array</a> (SKA), to be co-hosted by South Africa and Australia.</p>
<h2>Why the image is important</h2>
<p>This is not the first time a black hole image has captured people’s attention. We were also members of the team that captured the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/first-picture-black-hole-revealed-m87-event-horizon-telescope-astrophysics">first ever image of a black hole in 2019</a> (this one is at the centre of a different galaxy, Messier 87, which is 55 million light years away). <a href="https://www.capjournal.org/issues/26/26_11.pdf">It has been estimated</a> that more than 4.5 billion people saw that image. Sagittarius A* has also dominated headlines and captured people’s imaginations.</p>
<p>But there’s more to this result than just an incredible image. A plethora of rich scientific results has been described in <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205/page/Focus_on_First_Sgr_A_Results">ten publications</a> by the team. Here are three of our primary highlights.</p>
<p>First, the image is a remarkable validation of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The EHT has now imaged two black holes with masses that differ by a factor of over 1000. Despite the dramatic difference in mass, the measured size and shape are consistent with theoretical predictions.</p>
<p>Second, we have now imaged black holes with very different environments. A wealth of prior research over the past two or three decades shows strong empirical evidence that galaxies and their black holes co-evolve over cosmic time, despite their completely disparate sizes. By zooming into the event horizon of black holes in giant galaxies like M87, as well as more typical galaxies like our own Milky Way, we learn more about how this seemingly implausible relationship between the black hole and its host galaxy plays out. </p>
<p>Third, the image provides us with new insights on the central black hole in our own galactic home. It is the nearest such beast to Earth, so it provides a unique laboratory to understand this interplay – not unlike scrutinising a tree in your own garden to better understand the forests on the distant horizon. </p>
<h2>Southern Africa’s geographic advantage</h2>
<p>We are proud to be part of the team that produced the first black hole images. In future, we believe South Africa, and the African continent more broadly (including <a href="https://www.ru.nl/astrophysics/radboud-radio-lab/projects/africa-millimetre-telescope-amt/">a joint Dutch-Namibian initiative</a>), could play a critical role in making the first black hole movies. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/combined-power-of-two-telescopes-is-helping-crack-the-mystery-of-eerie-rings-in-the-sky-180595">Combined power of two telescopes is helping crack the mystery of eerie rings in the sky</a>
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<p>As has been the case with the country’s key role in paleoanthropology, there are contributions to global astronomy that can only be made from South African soil. Sagittarius A* lies in the southern sky, passing directly above South Africa. That is a major reason why this image of the Milky Way’s centre, taken by the MeerKAT (a precursor to the SKA) is the best there is. </p>
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<span class="caption">The MeerKAT Galactic Centre image (top). Predicted snapshot imaging performance (bottom middle), based on a simulated black hole movie (bottom left), using an African-enhanced EHT array (bottom right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Heywood et al. (2022) / SARAO, M. Johnson (Harvard & Smithsonian)</span></span>
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<p>South Africa also has well-established infrastructure at its astronomical sites, which are protected by legislation. And it has world-class engineers at the forefront of their craft. This makes for low-cost, high-performance telescopes delivered on time and to budget. </p>
<p>New technology is also on our side: a cutting-edge simultaneous multi-frequency receiver design, pioneered by our Korean colleagues, means that EHT sites no longer need to be the most pristine, high-altitude locations on Earth.</p>
<p>All the elements are in place for a dramatic increase in the number of young Africans who participate in this new era of black hole imaging and precision tests of gravity. In the coming years, we hope to be writing about findings that couldn’t have been made without technology on South African soil, as well as African scientists leading high-impact, high-visibility EHT science in synergy with our multi-wavelength astronomy and high-energy astrophysics programmes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Deane receives research funding from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) of South Africa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iniyan Natarajan receives research funding from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) of South Africa.</span></em></p>Sagittarius A* lies in the southern sky, passing directly above South Africa.Roger Deane, Director: Wits Centre for Astrophysics; SKA Chair in Radio Astronomy, University of the WitwatersrandIniyan Natarajan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Wits Centre for Astrophysics, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1565862021-05-26T18:09:24Z2021-05-26T18:09:24ZCOVID-19 budget pressures threaten curiosity-driven science. That’s a bad thing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401830/original/file-20210520-19-1xxbb8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the dishes that make up the Square Kilometre Array's radio telescope system. This kind of "blue skies" research can have great real-world value. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Management of the COVID-19 pandemic has governments around the world walking a delicate tightrope between containing the spread of the virus and the interactions required to sustain daily living. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects">Economies</a> and <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/08/03/na080320-south-africa-looks-toward-inclusive-recovery-to-stabilize-debt-boost-growth">national budgets</a> have been placed under tremendous pressure.</p>
<p>This means that budgets are being cut. And one area that’s affected is research. In South Africa, for instance, in 2020 the national science budget was <a href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2020-7-this-is-the-butcher-s-bill-for-south-africa-s-science-cuts/">reduced by 15%</a> – a direct result, the <a href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2020-7-this-is-the-butcher-s-bill-for-south-africa-s-science-cuts/">government confirmed</a>, of the pandemic’s effects. In May 2021 it <a href="https://researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2021-5-parliament-rallies-behind-south-africa-s-cash-strapped-science-department/">was increased</a>, but only by 1.4% – below inflation.</p>
<p>A shift in government spending is likely to continue in the coming months and years. So, where does this leave blue skies science? Will it also be a casualty of COVID-19?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.labmate-online.com/news/news-and-views/5/breaking-news/what-is-lsquoblue-sky-sciencersquo/30187">Blue skies science</a> is the kind of research that’s driven by curiosity. Its real world applications – or its relevance to society – aren’t always immediately apparent; it begins because scientists ask one simple question: “why?” For example, <a href="http://aappsbulletin.org/myboard/read.php?Board=apctp&id=111">wifi grew out of a technique</a> that was developed by radio astronomers in the late 1970s to analyse radio waves from black holes, and the <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200705/physicshistory.cfm#:%7E:text=By%201920%2C%20physicists%20knew%20that,born%20in1891%20in%20Manchester%2C%20England.">discovery of the neutron in 1932</a> has led to new fields in applied science, including energy production and materials diagnostics.</p>
<p>The pandemic has underscored that the world requires agility for survival. That makes blue skies science – which encourages curiosity and nimble thinking – perhaps more important than ever. But this will require a long-term view from governments and funders, particularly by providing decades of funding and freedom to allow scientists to ask the “why?” questions. </p>
<p>I have been fortunate to spend almost two decades working in astronomy research, which is just about as “blue skies” as one can get. It was the support and vision of South Africa’s commitment to blue skies science, especially astronomy, that drew me and many other researchers back home from a position abroad. In my role at the <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/">Office of Astronomy for Development</a>, I’ve seen firsthand how blue skies science acts as a gateway into science, technology and data science fields and how a combination of skills in applied and blue-skies science can contribute to pressing socio-economic questions.</p>
<p>Now budget pressures are intensifying. But, I would argue, unless there is increased support for researchers in exploratory fields and in forays into cross disciplinary projects, the expertise, momentum and benefits that have accumulated over the last decades will be lost. There may be short-term successes, but they will likely be at the expense of longer term, potentially bigger impact science.</p>
<p>Continued funding for both blue skies and applied science is necessary as boundaries between the two become more porous. This is important because it would mean that scientists could increasingly contribute to immediate societal impact, while following avenues out of pure curiosity. </p>
<h2>Scientific agility</h2>
<p>In the year since COVID-19 first emerged as global pandemic, my colleagues and I have watched scientific agility in action in South Africa on a number of fronts.</p>
<p>One example has been the role that the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory took to help lead the country’s <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-07-from-telescopes-to-ventilators-how-the-countrys-engineers-and-designers-have-retooled-for-the-covid-19-crisis/">national ventilator project</a>. Ventilators are crucial for those with severe COVID-19, but there were limited numbers available worldwide. The national ventilator project aimed to manufacture simple non-invasive ventilators using locally available materials and processes. </p>
<p>The Office of Astronomy for Development, the African Planetarium Society and African Astronomical Society <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/call-for-covid-19-related-proposals/">collectively redirected funding</a> to assuage the effects of the pandemic. With some organisational agility, the funding could be redirected to causes slightly outside the key mission of these organisations.</p>
<p>We’ve also seen scientific agility at an individual level. Statisticians and simulation scientists from numerous fields have <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/ames/covid-19">responded to the call</a> to work with epidemiologists in modelling the pandemic.</p>
<p>Similarly, many blue skies science projects, like the <a href="https://icecube.wisc.edu/">IceCube Neutrino Observatory</a> and the <a href="https://www.bsu.edu/news/press-center/archives/2020/4/planetarium-computers-used-to-battle-covid19">Charles W. Brown Planetarium</a>, have made computing power available to model the virus protein properties of SARS-CoV-2. </p>
<h2>In it for the long haul</h2>
<p>Building solid research capabilities is a long-term endeavour. It is often internationally funded and operated, and can last several decades. One example is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-ska-telescope-is-boosting-south-africas-knowledge-economy-96228">Square Kilometre Array (SKA)</a>. A multinational endeavour, it is <a href="https://www.peralex.com/radio-astronomy/">spurring</a> technological breakthroughs and industrial spin-offs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-big-moment-for-africa-why-the-meerkat-and-astronomy-matter-99714">A big moment for Africa: why the MeerKAT -- and astronomy -- matter</a>
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<p>Projects like this have significant momentum. Due to high sunk costs as well as cross-national mutual accountability, they’re unlikely to be halted, even if they are subjected to delays or de-scoping. </p>
<p>They are even likely to survive the immediate impact of budget cuts. These, however, have an immediate effect on a range of shorter term research projects. They also affect students and training. Most students and early career researchers are funded by “soft money”, allocated to a particular project over a short timescale, usually two or three years.</p>
<p>Having less soft money to go around means fewer graduate students to train, and fewer early career researchers to be employed. For those students who are funded, it may also mean reduced opportunities to receive training that will help them exploit the available research infrastructure. This funding pressure mounts up, and the impacts become visible over the medium term: reduced numbers of publications and projects are undertaken on these facilities, and there’s less opportunity to build and develop skills.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>The value in blue skies science requires us to look beyond the obvious. It also requires us to consider timescales longer than the political. </p>
<p>The question is not so much about redirecting funding, but about designing a research environment that can accommodate integration of ideas across traditional research “silos”; an environment where there are avenues for experts to apply their skills outside their domains of expertise. As a collective, society would stand to gain so much more from blue skies research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa McBride works for the Office of Astronomy for Development and the South African Astronomical Observatory. She receives funding from the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>The pandemic has underscored that the world requires agility for survival. That makes blue skies science, which encourages curiosity and nimble thinking, perhaps more important than ever.Vanessa McBride, Astronomer, International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for DevelopmentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1536542021-01-24T06:08:36Z2021-01-24T06:08:36ZPasha 92: How we discovered two new giant radio galaxies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379691/original/file-20210120-13-jfvr1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">MeerKAT Radio Telescope</span> </figcaption></figure><p>A telescope in South Africa by the name of MeerKAT enabled the discovery of two giant radio galaxies recently. Finding one radio galaxy is special. Finding two is fantastic. Radio galaxies get their name from the fact that they release huge beams, or “jets”, of radio light. The find was made possible by the ability of a phenomenally powerful telescope called the MeerKAT to detect faint, diffuse light, which previous telescopes were unable to do. The giant radio galaxies were spotted in new radio maps of the sky created by one of the most advanced surveys of distant galaxies. The discovery will add to astronomers’ understanding of the evolution of galaxies since the “big bang”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/discovery-of-two-new-giant-radio-galaxies-offers-fresh-insights-into-the-universe-153457">Discovery of two new giant radio galaxies offers fresh insights into the universe</a>
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<p>In today’s episode of Pasha Jacinta Delhaize, radio astronomer and SARAO Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town, takes us through the finding and what it means for the future. </p>
<p><strong>Photo:</strong>
MeerKAT radio telescope. By Morganoshell found on <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MeerKAT_Radio_Telescope.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></p>
<p><strong>Music:</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Deep End” by Subarachnoid Space, found on <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Subarachnoid_Space/Also_Rising/Deep_End">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works</a>.</p>
<p>“Celestial Jerusalem ” by Minson, found on <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Minson/Mins_Illusion/01_minson_-_celestial_jerusalem">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Radio galaxies may be the oldest galaxy systems, providing clues to the evolution of galaxies.Ozayr Patel, Digital EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1534572021-01-18T13:19:03Z2021-01-18T13:19:03ZDiscovery of two new giant radio galaxies offers fresh insights into the universe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379206/original/file-20210118-17-1ljd4mt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The two giant radio galaxies found with the MeerKAT telescope. In the background is the sky as seen in optical light. Overlaid in red is the radio light from the enormous radio galaxies, as seen by MeerKAT.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">I. Heywood (Oxford/Rhodes/SARAO)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa’s powerful <a href="https://www.sarao.ac.za/science/meerkat/">MeerKAT telescope</a>, located in the Karoo region, a semi-arid area in the south west of the country. Radio galaxies get their name from the fact that they release huge beams, or ‘jets’, of radio light. These happen through the interaction between charged particles and strong magnetic fields related to supermassive black holes at the galaxies’ hearts.</p>
<p>These giant galaxies are much bigger than most of the others in the Universe and are thought to be quite rare. Although millions of radio galaxies are known to exist, only around 800 giants have been found. This population of galaxies was previously hidden from us by radio telescopes’ limitations. But the MeerKAT has allowed new discoveries because it can detect faint, diffuse light which previous telescopes were unable to do.</p>
<p>Our discovery, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/501/3/3833/6034001">published</a> in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, gives astronomers further clues about how galaxies have changed and evolved throughout cosmic history. It’s also a way to understand how galaxies may continue to change and evolve – and even to work out how old radio galaxies can get.</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="470" data-image="" data-title="How we discovered two new giant radio galaxies" data-size="7585585" data-source="The Conversation Africa - Pasha" data-source-url="" data-license="CC BY-NC-ND" data-license-url="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">
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How we discovered two new giant radio galaxies.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation Africa - Pasha</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a><span class="download"><span>7.23 MB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2111/galaxies-final-version.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
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<p>The giant radio galaxies were spotted in new radio maps of the sky created by one of the most advanced surveys of distant galaxies. The team working on it has included astronomers from around the world including South Africa, the UK, Italy and Australia. Called the International Gigahertz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (<a href="http://idia.ac.za/mightee/">MIGHTEE</a>) survey, it involves data collected by South Africa’s impressive MeerKAT radio telescope. MeerKAT consists of 64 antennae and dishes, and started <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-were-probing-the-secrets-of-a-giant-black-hole-at-our-galaxys-centre-108181">collecting science data</a> in early 2018. It will ultimately be incorporated into the <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/">Square Kilometre Array</a>, an intergovernmental radio telescope project spearheaded by Australia and South Africa.</p>
<p>The galaxies in question are several billion light years away. The discovery of enormous jets and lobes in the MIGHTEE map allowed us to confidently identify the objects as giant radio galaxies.</p>
<p>Their discovery means that a clearer understanding of the evolutionary pathways of galaxies is beginning to emerge. This is tantalising evidence that a large population of faint, very extended giant radio galaxies may exist. This may help us understand how radio galaxies become so huge and what sort of havoc supermassive black holes can wreak on their galaxies. </p>
<h2>What’s new</h2>
<p>Many galaxies have supermassive black holes in their midst. When large amounts of interstellar gas start to orbit and fall in towards the black hole, the black hole becomes ‘active’: huge amounts of energy are released from this region of the galaxy. </p>
<p>In some active galaxies, charged particles interact with the strong magnetic fields near the black hole and release huge beams, or ‘jets’, of radio light. The radio jets of these so-called ‘radio galaxies’ can be many times larger than the galaxy itself and can extend vast distances into intergalactic space. Think of them like jets of water from a whale’s blowhole, a thin column extending into a cloudy plume at the end.</p>
<p>We found these giant radio galaxies in a region of sky that’s about four times the area of the full Moon. Based on what we currently know about the density of giant radio galaxies in the sky, the probability of finding two of them in a region this size is extremely small – only 0.0003%. So, it’s possible that giant radio galaxies – those that emit the beams, or jets of light described above – may actually be more common than we previously thought.</p>
<p>These aren’t the first radio galaxies astronomers have discovered. Many hundreds of thousands have already been identified. But only around 800 have radio jets bigger than 700 kilo-parsecs in size, or around 22 times the size of the Milky Way. These truly enormous systems are called ‘giant radio galaxies’.</p>
<p>Our new discoveries are more than 2 Mega-parsecs across: about 6.5 million light years or about 62 times <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/milkyway_info.html">the size of the Milky Way</a>. Yet they are fainter than others of the same size. That’s what makes them harder to see. </p>
<h2>Clues</h2>
<p>We suspect that many more galaxies like these should exist, because of the way we think galaxies should grow and change over their lifetimes. And that’s one question we hope this discovery can help to answer: how old are giant radio galaxies and how did they get so enormous?</p>
<p>Now, telescope technology is making it possible to put these and other theories to the test. MeerKAT is the best of its kind in the world because of the telescope’s unprecedented sensitivity to faint and diffuse radio light. This capability is what made it possible for us to detect the giant radio galaxies. We could see features that haven’t been noticed before: large-scale radio jets coming from the central galaxies, as well as fuzzy cloud-like lobes at the end of the jets.</p>
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<img alt="Two massive satellite dishes are pointed up towards the night sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379207/original/file-20210118-13-h2vexp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)</span></span>
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<p>The fact that only very few radio galaxies are so gigantic has always been a bit of a mystery. It is thought that the giants are the oldest radio galaxies, which have existed for long enough (several hundred million years) for their radio jets to grow outwards to these enormous sizes. If this is true, then many more giant radio galaxies should exist than are currently known. And that’s important because radio jets can influence the star formation of their host galaxy. Essentially, they might ‘kill’ their galaxy by blowing out all the gas and preventing the formation of new stars.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-galaxies-the-mysterious-secretive-beasts-of-the-universe-64381">Radio galaxies: the mysterious, secretive "beasts" of the Universe</a>
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<p>The MIGHTEE survey continues, and we hope to uncover more of these giant galaxies as it progresses. We also expect to find many more with the Square Kilometre Array: construction of this transcontinental telescope is due to start in South Africa and Australia in 2021 and continue until 2027. Science commissioning observations could begin as early as 2023. </p>
<p>The Square Kilometre Array is also expected to reveal larger populations of radio galaxies, revolutionising our understanding of galaxy evolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacinta Delhaize receives funding from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. </span></em></p>Based on what we currently know about the density of giant radio galaxies in the sky, the probability of finding two of them in this region is extremely small.Jacinta Delhaize, SARAO Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081812018-12-18T13:44:46Z2018-12-18T13:44:46ZHow we’re probing the secrets of a giant black hole at our galaxy’s centre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248668/original/file-20181204-126674-11iq133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The region around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, imaged with South Africa's MeerKAT telescope.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Supermassive black holes are giant black holes found at the centre of almost every galaxy. Astronomers recently made the clearest image yet of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own galaxy using the new <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/science-engineering/meerkat/">MeerKAT radio telescope</a> in South Africa, revealing the features surrounding it in exquisite detail. </p>
<p>The giant black hole in our galaxy is passive, sitting by idly as galactic processes go on around it. In other galaxies, however, black holes are active: gas and dust are falling into their central supermassive black hole. This causes vast amounts of energy to be released into space and produces violent outflows of material which can travel for many thousands of kilometres through space.</p>
<p>The new MeerKAT telescope will help us unlock the secrets of these massive beasts, making this an exciting time for astronomers all over the world.</p>
<h2>Huge and mysterious</h2>
<p>A black hole is an object with such a strong gravitational pull that nothing, not even light, can escape from. This occurs because they have a large mass crammed into a very small area, creating an extremely dense object. </p>
<p>The existence of black holes <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-milky-way/scientists-confirm-einsteins-supermassive-black-hole-theory-idUSKBN1KG28G">was predicted</a> from mathematical theories by physicist Albert Einstein, astronomer and physicist Karl Schwarzschild and others several decades before they were first discovered. </p>
<p>Most black holes are about 10 times heavier than our sun. They are formed when the core of a large star collapses at the end of its life, leaving behind an extremely dense object. There are millions of these small black holes in our galaxy alone. </p>
<p>“Supermassive” black holes are particularly heavy black holes which are found at the centre of almost every galaxy. These black holes are millions to billions of times more massive than our sun – which is where they get their name from – and exactly how they form is still a mystery.</p>
<p>Astronomers first realised there is a black hole at the centre of our own galaxy by <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso0226a/">looking at the motion of the stars very close to the centre</a> and realising that they must be orbiting something very heavy that we can’t see. The only thing that could be this massive and fit into such a small piece of space is a very heavy black hole.</p>
<h2>In the Milky Way</h2>
<p>We’ve recently made the best image yet of the area around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way using the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-big-moment-for-africa-why-the-meerkat-and-astronomy-matter-99714">brand new</a> MeerKAT telescope. MeerKAT consists of 64 dishes, each 13.5m across, situated in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. It will eventually be incorporated into the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – an ambitious project to build the world’s largest radio telescope. Launched in July, MeerKAT is already the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere.</p>
<p>With this powerful new machine, we’ve been able to produce the clearest image yet of the centre of our galaxy – you can see it at the top of this story. This extraordinary image provides a wealth of new information about the heart of the Milky Way. The supermassive black hole itself is in the middle of the bright patch at the centre of the image; it’s surrounded by plasma which is glowing brightly.</p>
<p>The bright, spark-like, filamentary structures in the image have never been seen in such detail before and their exact origin remains a mystery. They are seen close to the supermassive black hole but nowhere else in the galaxy. </p>
<p>This stunning image also provides a clearer view of features that have previously been observed in the Milky Way – among them the bubble-like objects on the left-hand side of the image. These are shock waves caused when a star explodes in a supernova at the end of its life. As part of this processes the core of the star collapses and may create a small black hole.</p>
<h2>Meanwhile, elsewhere</h2>
<p>Our galaxy isn’t the only one with a supermassive black hole at its centre. In fact astronomers think that almost all galaxies contain a similar giant black hole. </p>
<p>In nine out of 10 galaxies, including our own, the supermassive black hole is passive: it minds its own business while the galaxy continues as normal around it. </p>
<p>Other supermassive black holes are feeding on nearby gas and dust, causing a colossal amount of energy to be released. In many cases, this causes the region around the central black hole to glow so brightly that it outshines the total light from all of the stars in the galaxy. </p>
<p>Some of these black holes also produce <a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-galaxies-the-mysterious-secretive-beasts-of-the-universe-64381">powerful jets of lightning-fast particles</a>, which travel for many thousands of kilometres through space. I am using the MeerKAT telescope to <a href="https://theconversation.com/telescopes-in-southern-africa-will-peel-back-the-universes-secrets-from-2018-88668">study these giant jets</a>, and the role they play in the life cycle of galaxies, like our Milky Way. It’s early days for my research, but I soon hope to provide some valuable answers to our many questions about these jets.</p>
<p>It’s early days for MeerKAT, too: it has just started science operations. That means the best is yet to come. More data and more images will help us to understand our galaxy and others far better than we ever have before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imogen Whittam works for the University of the Western Cape. She receives funding from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. </span></em></p>A black hole is an object with such a strong gravitational pull that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.Imogen Whittam, Post-doctoral researcher in Astrophysics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081142018-12-03T15:59:55Z2018-12-03T15:59:55ZWhy UNESCO was right to add reggae to its cultural heritage list<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248478/original/file-20181203-194932-sk71m9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Weinberg</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When UNESCO announced that “the reggae music of Jamaica” had been <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/reggae-music-of-jamaica-01398">added to its list</a> of cultural products considered worthy of recognition, it was a reflection on the fact that reggae, which grew from its roots in the backstreets and dance halls of Jamaica, is more than just popular music, but an important social and political phenomenon.</p>
<p>Jamaica’s application to the committee mentioned a number of artists from <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/move-over-bob-marley-peter-tosh-is-finally-getting-the-recognition-he-deserves-8914028.html">Bob Marley and Peter Tosh</a> to <a href="https://rootfire.net/chronixx/">Chronixx and the Zinc Fence Band</a>. Some observers may be wondering whether such musicians are a good enough reason to include reggae on this prestigious list. What those readers don’t fully understand is that reggae is far more significant than its musicians. Not only is social commentary “an integral part of the music”, the application argued, but reggae has also made a significant “contribution to international discourse concerning issues of injustice, resistance, love, and humanity”. </p>
<p>Reggae has “provided a voice for maligned groups, the unemployed and at risk groups and provided a vehicle for social commentary and expression where no other outlet existed or was afforded”. It has also “provided a means of praising and communicating with God”. Not only are these big claims, but they are all true.</p>
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<h2>Deep roots</h2>
<p>Culturally, politically, religiously and musically, reggae has done much heavy lifting. Born in the back streets of Kingston in the 1950s, it is proudly Jamaican. Raised in difficult circumstances, it has matured into a friendly and generous music that travels well and warmly embraces the other cultures and music it meets. Hybridisation is part of reggae’s genetic makeup. Its DNA can be traced back to West Africa and out into the world of popular music. It came into being through mento (a form of Jamaican folk music), ska and rock steady, absorbing influences from the Caribbean (especially calypso), rhythm and blues, rock, and jazz.</p>
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<p>However, not only has reggae embraced other musical styles and ideas, but in so doing, it has influenced them and given birth to new sub-genres. Particularly significant in this respect has been the innovative recording techniques developed by Jamaican producers such as <a href="https://www.factmag.com/2015/05/19/king-tubby-beginners-guide-dub-reggae/">King Tubby</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/lee-scratch-perry">Lee “Scratch” Perry</a>, and <a href="https://www.trojanrecords.com/artist/bunny-lee/">Bunny Lee</a>. What became known as “<a href="https://www.factmag.com/2014/04/16/dubbing-is-a-must-a-beginners-guide-to-jamaicas-most-influential-genre/">dub reggae</a>” has inspired generations of artists and producers around the world and is still an important influence in popular music.</p>
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<h2>Politics of resistance</h2>
<p>As well as its musical contribution, reggae hasn’t forgotten its roots. Not only does it comment on current political events and social problems, but it also provides a multi-layered introduction to the history, religion and culture of what music historian Paul Gilroy called “<a href="https://sites.duke.edu/blackatlantic/sample-page/exploring-the-black-atlantic-through-sound/">the Black Atlantic</a>”. While some reggae cannot, of course, be considered religious or political – “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/sep/22/lovers-rock-story-reggae">lovers rock</a>” for example, focuses on romantic relationships – much of it is.</p>
<p>A key moment in Jamaican political history (as well as the story of reggae) happened on April 22 1978 at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/16/bob-marley-peace-concert">One Love Concert</a> hosted by Bob Marley at The National Stadium in Kingston. Marley famously called bitter political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga to the stage and persuaded them to join hands. Few other people could have done this. Although the concert did not bring an end to the turmoil in Jamaica, it did showcase the significance of reggae as a political and cultural force.</p>
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<h2>Rastafari</h2>
<p>It is of particular significance that reggae is inextricably related to the religion of Rastafari, which emerged as a direct response to oppression within Jamaican colonial society. Often articulating the ideas of Jamaican political activist <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/garvey_marcus.shtml">Marcus Garvey</a>, who is understood by Rastafarians to be a prophet, Rasta musicians such as Marley and Burning Spear developed roots reggae as a vehicle for their religio-political messages. </p>
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<p>Even if some musicians are not committed Rastafarians, they typically identify with the movement’s ideas and culture. In particular, many wear dreadlocks, consider smoking “the herb” (cannabis) to be a sacrament, and reference the religio-political dualism of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/">Zion and Babylon</a> (the social systems of the righteous and the unrighteous). There is a hope often articulated within reggae of a better world following Armageddon and the fall of Babylon. “Babylon your throne gone down”, declared Marley in his 1973 song, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBTitBMEMA">Rasta Man Chant</a>. These biblical ideas are also creatively applied to a range of political issues, from local injustices to climate change and the nuclear arms race.</p>
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<p>Sometimes reggae itself is understood to be a form of direct action, in that musicians are understood to “chant down Babylon”. As Ziggy Marley put it:</p>
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<p>Babylon [is] a devil system … who cause so much problems on the face of the Earth … And by ‘chanting down’ I mean by putting positive messages out there. That is the way we’ll fight a negative with a positive.</p>
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<p>Examples of this include Yabby You’s Chant Down Babylon Kingdom and of course, Marley’s own Chant Down Babylon. This type of thinking is rooted in Jamaican history. Following violent confrontations with the police during the 1940s and 1950s, Rasta elders – particularly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/23/guardianobituaries.religion">Mortimer Planno</a> – appealed to Jamaican academics to study Rastafari in order to increase popular understanding and tolerance. And in 1960, three scholars (M.G. Smith, Roy Augier and Rex Nettleford) published their <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13865081M/Report_on_the_Rastafari_movement_in_Kingston_Jamaica">Report on the Rastafarian Movement in Kingston, Jamaica</a>. </p>
<p>For Rastas, the destruction of Babylon came to be interpreted less in terms of a violent overthrow of oppressive social structures and more in terms of a conversion to new ways of thinking, central to which was the strategic primacy assumed by the arts. Reggae emerged as part of this process. From the outset, therefore, it was understood by many to be far more than simply “pop music”. It was “rebel music”, a powerful political tool for the peaceful resistance of oppression.</p>
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<h2>Reggae international</h2>
<p>The potency of reggae as an educational and inspirational force became conspicuous shortly after its arrival in Britain. In 1976 it was central to the founding of the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/rock-against-racism-remembering-that-gig-that-started-it-all-815054.html">Rock Against Racism campaign</a> and by the late 1970s, reggae, dub, ska, and the terminology of Rastafari were informing punk culture as part of an emerging “dread culture of resistance”. </p>
<p>For example, in 1979, the same year that witnessed the Southall race riots, during which a teacher, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/apr/27/blair-peach-killed-police-met-report">Blair Peach</a>, was killed, the British punk band <a href="https://www.forcedexposure.com/Artists/RUTS.DC.html">The Ruts</a> released their dub reggae influenced single Jah War, on which they sang, “the air was thick with the smell of oppression”. </p>
<p>The Ruts subsequently achieved chart success with Babylon’s Burning. While some may have been bemused by the reference, for their fans – for whom <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jul/20/urban.popandrock">punk and reggae</a> were first cousins at the very least – the message was obvious: Babylon was the principally white political establishment, which oppressed ethnic minorities and the unemployed poor of the inner cities, and which would eventually be dismantled. </p>
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<p>At the same time, Jamaicans who had moved to Britain in their childhood, such as <a href="http://www.lintonkwesijohnson.com/linton-kwesi-johnson/">Linton Kwesi Johnson</a>, used a creative blend of poetry and reggae to comment on the injustices they faced: “Inglan is a bitch, dere’s no escapin it.” One of Johnson’s poems commented specifically on the murder of Peach, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHrlmwudYuA">Reggae Fi Peach</a>. Since then, reggae music has continued to “speak truth to power” – from <a href="https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/entertainment/queen-ifrica-releases-powerful-song-hitting-back-domestic-violence/">challenging domestic abuse</a> to protesting against <a href="https://jamaicans.com/reggae-songs-nelson-mandela/">apartheid in South Africa</a>. </p>
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<p>For these political, religious and cultural reasons – as much as for the music itself – UNESCO was right to finally give reggae the recognition it deserves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Partridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than just a musical accolade, UNESCO has recognised the social and political importance of Jamaican music.Christopher Partridge, Professor of Religious Studies, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065562018-11-27T13:17:44Z2018-11-27T13:17:44ZHow scientists are working together to solve one of the universe’s mysteries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246628/original/file-20181121-161641-1rc00vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist’s impression of fast radio bursts in the sky above the Australian SKA precursor, ASKAP.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most baffling puzzles of modern astrophysics is the nature of Fast Radio Bursts, which were <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4301.pdf">discovered in 2007</a>. These are seemingly <a href="http://frbcat.org">rare</a>, extremely bright flashes of light with radio wavelengths. They last <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4301.pdf">only milliseconds</a>; <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.00200.pdf">originate outside</a> our galaxy, the Milky Way; come from regions with <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1801.03965.pdf">enormously strong magnetic fields</a>; and <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.06220.pdf">pass through a significant amount of gas or dust</a> before reaching Earth. </p>
<p>All of these facts may make it sound as though scientists know a lot about Fast Radio Bursts. In reality, we don’t. For instance, though we know they’re not from our galaxy, we don’t know where exactly they come from. We don’t know what causes them. And we’re not sure whether they might be useful as <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.11277">cosmological</a> standards to measure the large scale properties of our universe.</p>
<p>Dozens of theories about Fast Radio Bursts have been proposed. Some conform to standard physics. Others are more exotic, including <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.01976">cosmic strings</a> – hypothetical, one-dimensional structures formed in the early universe – or even rather bizarre: one theory <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2124209-could-fast-radio-bursts-really-be-powering-alien-space-ships">suggests</a> that aliens are responsible.</p>
<p>Now, in an attempt to discover the truth about Fast Radio Bursts, we have created <a href="https://frbtheorycat.org/index.php/Main_Page">a catalogue</a> that lists <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.05836">each theory</a>, along with its pros and cons. Scientists from around the world can weigh in, and new data and discoveries will be added throughout the process.</p>
<p>Some of this data will come from projects on the African continent, like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-telescope-chases-the-mysteries-of-radio-flashes-and-dark-energy-101607">Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperient</a> (HIRAX), MeerKAT, and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which are expected to discover and localise thousands of Fast Radio Bursts.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-meerkat-first-light-images-have-blown-all-expectations-65246">Africa's MeerKAT 'first light' images have blown all expectations</a>
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<p>This platform will produce a great deal of knowledge. It will also provide valuable insight into scientific sociology as international researchers work together and ultimately, we hope, identify the most acceptable model. </p>
<h2>A range of theories</h2>
<p>Perhaps precisely because they are so elusive, Fast Radio Bursts have received a lot of attention from astronomers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, and physicists in the years since their discovery.</p>
<p>These are the main theories that have emerged so far. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Fast Radio Bursts involve types of neutron stars, such as pulsars (which rotate rapidly) or magnetars (which are highly magnetised). These are probably the most plausible theories, since neutron stars’ intrinsic and extremely large magnetic fields can naturally fulfil the energy requirements for Fast Radio Bursts.</p></li>
<li><p>The merging of astronomical bodies (such as black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs), and their collapse, has been proposed as a possible origin for Fast Radio Bursts.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In such processes, enormous amounts of energy are released over short timescales. This could possibly create radiation akin to Fast Radio Bursts.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>some of the more exotic models have a more theoretical basis. They involve hypothetical objects such as quark stars (quarks are the subatomic particles that constitute neutrons and protons), axion stars (axions are extremely light, hypothetical subatomic particles), and <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy">dark matter</a>: the hypothetical, unobserved matter that is believed to account for 27% of the total matter content of the universe. </p></li>
<li><p>Another fairly improbable theory is that Fast Radio Bursts are lightning striking on pulsars.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>And then there’s the suggestion that Fast Radio Bursts are evidence of aliens. It’s certainly the most unusual of the proposed theories, but it cannot be ruled out as a possibility yet.</p>
<p>Although it’s unlikely, Fast Radio Bursts may be signals from a beacon set up by an extraterrestrial civilisation, or perhaps from light sails that harness photons to travel across the galaxy. </p>
<p>There’s a remarkable variation in these models, and it’s hard work to narrow down the options and reach consensus. Of the 50 theories or models proposed to date, only three have been eliminated. This is what prompted us to set up the catalogue and to invite engagement from the broader scientific community.</p>
<h2>Platform for debate</h2>
<p>It’s no easy task to get scientists talking to each other about Fast Radio Bursts. That’s because the scientists in question have different specialisations and are from all over the world. </p>
<p>The online catalogue provides a suitable and accessible platform for discussion, debate, and the sharing of knowledge. There is also a traceable history, which creates an opportunity for us to study how as humans we work together to solve scientific problems – and perhaps how this process can be optimised in the future. </p>
<p>Part of our motivation, as theoretical physicists, was to develop this engagement and to dive in ourselves. The problems are rich and the waters are deep. </p>
<p>Data about Fast Radio Bursts is starting to pour in now, thanks to such game-changers as MeerKAT and HIRAX. As it arrives, is examined and papers are published, we’ll be able to start ruling out theories and digging deeper into viable theories. Within five years, this mystery could be solved.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Platts is supported by a PhD fellowship from the South African National Institute for Theoretical Physics (NITheP).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Weltman receives funding from The Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of South Africa. She is a member of the Global Young Academy and a Next Einstein Forum Laureate. </span></em></p>Perhaps precisely because they are so elusive, Fast Radio Bursts have received a lot of attention in the years since their discovery.Emma Platts, PhD Student, University of Cape TownAmanda Weltman, South African Research Chair in Physical Cosmology, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1016072018-08-17T11:08:18Z2018-08-17T11:08:18ZNew telescope chases the mysteries of radio flashes and dark energy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232250/original/file-20180816-2897-1biximd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">HIRAX prototype dishes at Hartebeesthoek Astronomy Observatory near Johannesburg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kabelo Kesebonye</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>South Africa is becoming one of the world’s most important radio astronomy hubs, thanks in large part to its role as co-host of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Now a new telescope is being unveiled that will be built at the SKA South Africa site in the Karoo. The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) <a href="https://bit.ly/2nQdyQT">project</a> is an international collaboration being led by scientists from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The Conversation Africa chatted to project leader Professor Kavilan Moodley about HIRAX’s scientific goals.</em></p>
<p><strong>What will HIRAX do, and how?</strong></p>
<p>It’s an <a href="http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/R/Radio+Interferometer">interferometer array</a> that will be made up of 1024 6-metre dishes. Interferometer arrays are really cool because they combine signals from many telescopes to provide the resolution of a larger telescope. </p>
<p><a href="https://acru.ukzn.ac.za/hirax-postdocs-ad/">HIRAX</a> has two main science goals: to study the evolution of dark energy by tracking neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies, and to detect and localise mysterious radio flashes called fast radio bursts.</p>
<p>Dark energy is a mysterious force driving the accelerated expansion of our universe. HIRAX can study it using a unique cosmic ruler provided by nature, called <a href="http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/B/Baryonic+Acoustic+Oscillations">baryon acoustic oscillations</a>. These were generated in the very early universe, which was a hot and dense soup of particles and light. Small irregularities gave rise to sound waves in this primordial soup. </p>
<p>These waves carried matter as they travelled until a time when matter and light separated, distributing matter in a very characteristic pattern. Neutral hydrogen gas is a great tracer of the universe’s matter distribution. This neutral hydrogen emits a signal at 1420 MHz, which is in the range of frequencies used by cellular networks and UHF television channels; the signal gets stretched to lower frequencies as the universe expands.</p>
<p>HIRAX will operate between 400 and 800 MHz allowing it to map neutral hydrogen in the universe between 7 to 11 billion years ago. Studying the characteristics of dark energy during this time has the potential to unravel its properties, as this is a vital time when dark energy became the primary component in the universe and accelerated its expansion.</p>
<p>The second focus area involves mysterious bright, millisecond flashes that scientists call fast radio bursts. Scientists do not know what causes these. They’re also hard to detect and localise since they’re so brief and most telescopes only observe a small region of the sky. </p>
<p>HIRAX’s large field of view will allow it to observe large portions of sky daily – so when the flashes happen, the instrument will be more likely to see them. We expect that it’ll see up to a dozen of these flashes a day; to put that in perspective, only a few dozen in total have ever been observed.</p>
<p>And HIRAX will add the unique capability of being able to figure out exactly where in the sky these fast radio bursts occur, by working with several other Southern African countries to build 8-dish outrigger arrays. These, in combination with the main array, will help localise these bursts to within their hosting galaxies. </p>
<p><strong>It sounds like HIRAX will be collecting huge amounts of data?</strong></p>
<p>It will need to collect large amounts of data at a rate of around 6.5 Terabits per second. That’s comparable to <a href="http://www.africabandwidthmaps.com/">all of Africa’s international bandwidth</a>. For that, HIRAX needs to design and manufacture high precision dishes, receivers and other instrumentation; we’re working with local companies on this challenge.</p>
<p>Then the team will need to figure out smart ways to compress, store and analyse this data. That will require big data hardware and software. </p>
<p>We hope that the design and manufacturing abilities required to equip HIRAX properly will open up many opportunities for local industries in the region around the SKA project. </p>
<p><strong>Is this an SKA project, or entirely separate but using space and technology at the SKA?</strong></p>
<p>The project originated as a response by UKZN and its partner institutions to a call for institutional flagship projects by the National Research Foundation. So it’s independent from the SKA and its precursor, the MeerKAT – but will benefit greatly from the South African investment in the SKA project, which gives it access to excellent infrastructure hosted by the <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/about/sarao/">South African Radio Astronomy Observatory</a>. </p>
<p>By sharing a location with MeerKAT on the SKA South Africa site, HIRAX will be able to conduct science in “radio-clear” skies across its wide frequency range; <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/about/astronomy-geographic-advantage-act/">legislation</a> has been introduced to limit radio frequency interference on the SKA SA site. It’s also a great space because it allows access to the southern sky covered by other cosmological surveys and, in turn, more of the galaxy where we’ll find pulsars.</p>
<p>Being part of the “Karoo radio park” will allow HIRAX to add to South Africa’s radio astronomy engineering and infrastructure. This infrastructure and the resulting science will increase South Africa’s reputation as a global leader in radio astronomy. </p>
<p>HIRAX will also contribute to training the next generation of scientists for the SKA; students working on the project will be trained in all aspects of the telescope, from engineering to science. Students who build hardware are also involved in data analysis, which provides a special environment for training upcoming radio astronomy experts.</p>
<p>Finally, there are strong scientific synergies with MeerKAT (which was <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/media-releases/meerkat-radio-telescope-inaugurated-in-south-africa-reveals-clearest-view-yet-of-center-of-the-milky-way/">officially launched</a> in July 2018). If HIRAX discovers any interesting new pulsars, for instance, MeerKAT can conduct follow-up timing observations at higher frequencies. </p>
<p><em>This article by co-authored by Carolyn Crichton, a technical writer with the HIRAX Project. Before joining the project, she worked for five years at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the US.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kavilan Moodley receives funding from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the National Research Foundation.
The HIRAX project receives funding from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Department of Science and Technology via the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>By sharing a location with the SKA, HIRAX will be able to conduct science in “radio-clear” skies across its wide frequency range.Kavilan Moodley, Associate Professor, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997142018-07-12T09:10:00Z2018-07-12T09:10:00ZA big moment for Africa: why the MeerKAT – and astronomy – matter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227191/original/file-20180711-27045-1rz8a6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School children at the site of the KAT-7 radio telescope in Carnarvon, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kevin Govender</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Astronomy in Africa took a giant leap forward with <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/science-and-technology-minister-mmamoloko-kubayi-ngubane-launches-64-dish-meerkat-13-jul-10">the unveiling</a> of the 64-dish MeerKAT array in South Africa on July 13. The MeerKAT will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere until the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is completed.</p>
<p>Why is this such a big deal? After all, Africa has many challenges more pressing than exploring the universe. But, as my colleagues and I recently argued in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0524-y">an article for Nature Astronomy</a>, astronomy occupies a special place among the many efforts to address development challenges. It has a unique ability to stimulate thoughts of “what is possible” in the minds of marginalised communities, women and children. </p>
<p>Astronomy connects philosophical, cultural and inspirational elements with the cutting edge of science and technology. This affords the discipline a unique advantage to foster socioeconomic development. For instance, astronomy has been used in <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/tf2/astronomy-for-literacy/">Sierra Leone</a> to improve middle school pupils’ literacy. It worked because they loved what they were learning. </p>
<p>Astronomy techniques are also used across sectors from <a href="http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/astro-ecology">conservation</a> to <a href="https://www.darabigdata.com/">medical imaging</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/">International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development</a> uses astronomy to drive positive developmental change. It has ten regional and language centres. Three are in Africa, in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Zambia. The global coordinating office is situated in South Africa. </p>
<p>Our challenge as astronomers is not only to grow the discipline in Africa. We also need to ensure that this growth is accompanied by the educational, technology transfer and societal engagement initiatives that can drive the continent’s development priorities.</p>
<h2>Skills training</h2>
<p>The funding we disburse has been used to run a number of programmes aimed at developing skills among school and university students.</p>
<p>One of these was the <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/tf1/madagascar-astronomy-python-workshop/">Madagascar Astronomy Python Workshop</a> in 2017. It focused on practical coding in the Python programming language for university students and lecturers. The aim was to build on astronomy tools that participants can develop for their own research and teaching, not necessarily in the field of astronomy.</p>
<p>At school level the <a href="https://awbnigeria.com/2018/05/07/2018-girls-astronomers-camp/">Girls Astronomy Camp</a> was held in Abuja, Nigeria earlier this year. This not only dealt with education. It also tackled the <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002534/253479E.pdf">large gender disparity</a> in science, technology, engineering and maths fields, which can be a complex, socio-cultural issue in many regions.</p>
<p>It’s crucial for educational interventions to address the fact that astronomy students often find employment outside the field. Students must learn science in a way that allows them to build their repertoire of transferable skills. </p>
<p>So the Office of Astronomy for Development has funded a number of Joint Exchange Development Initiative workshops in <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/tf1/jedi-2014/">Namibia</a>, <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/uplifting-the-mozambican-astronomy-community/">Mozambique</a> and <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/tf1/big-data-in-astronomy-a-tool-for-social-innovation/">Mauritius</a>. These workshops focus on direct transfer of specific skills in an informal but intense learning environment. They’re also excellent for data science skills, which are particularly important for economic growth and jobs in emerging markets. </p>
<p>To support this need and bridge the data science and astronomy communities, the Office of Astronomy for Development hosts a <a href="https://datascience.astro4dev.org">repository for data science resources and code examples</a>.</p>
<h2>Beyond disciplinary boundaries</h2>
<p>Astronomy can also be put to use in perhaps surprising ways to boost development.</p>
<p>One of our projects, <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/tf3/citizen-science-developing/">Accessible Citizen Science for the Developing World</a>, has married health issues with astronomy skills through running a proof-of-concept type intervention. Retinal defects are common, but curable. <a href="https://www.peekvision.org/">Peek Vision</a>, a social enterprise that works to bring better vision and health to everyone, developed a retinal imaging device that can be easily used, even in rural Kenya, with an Android phone. </p>
<p>But there weren’t enough qualified ophthalmologists at hand to use the app to diagnose retinal problems. So Peek Vision teamed up with astronomers at a citizen science portal called the <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/">Zooniverse</a>. In the same way that the citizen scientists had previously worked to classify thousands of galaxies, they were called on to learn how to identify retinal problems on the Zooniverse portal.</p>
<p>Such partnerships are quintessential examples of working together across disciplinary boundaries to achieve development outcomes.</p>
<h2>Creating spaces</h2>
<p>There are numerous other initiatives that contribute to development through astronomy. Large astronomical infrastructure investments like MeerKAT aim to stimulate the technology industry and advance the development of technical skills. </p>
<p>International aid initiatives with a science focus like <a href="https://www.dara-project.org/">Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy</a> (DARA) and its sister project, <a href="https://www.darabigdata.com/">DARA Big Data</a>, are using the momentum generated through the SKA programme to develop skills and train more astronomy students for the continent.</p>
<p>Of course, the few examples illustrated in this article hardly begin to address the myriad challenges facing Africa and the world. Technology and science can only do so much: these challenges have solutions that are, at least in part, driven by human values. </p>
<p>That’s why conversations that span natural and social sciences are key to making development progress on the continent. The Office of Astronomy for Development is one of the spaces hosting these conversations. We’re challenging astronomers and other scientists to reach across the disciplinary boundaries to explore how their skills can help Africa meet its development goals.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: the article on which this piece is based <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0524-y">first appeared</a> in Nature Astronomy and was co-authored by Ramasamy Venugopal, Munira Hoosain, Tawanda Chingozha & Kevin Govender.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa McBride does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Astronomy is accessible to anyone with a view of the sky.Vanessa McBride, Astronomer, International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for DevelopmentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/962282018-05-30T13:28:50Z2018-05-30T13:28:50ZHow the SKA telescope is boosting South Africa’s knowledge economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220623/original/file-20180528-80623-wr4ilu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The MeerKAT radio telescope under construction in South Africa's Karoo region.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy of Dr Fernando Camilo, Chief Scientist at SKA SA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’re living in a time when <a href="http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/data-raw-material-be-mined">data</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2012/apr/18/francis-maude-data-raw-material">knowledge</a> have become key resources for economic development. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.eib.org/attachments/efs/the_knowledge_economy_in_europe.pdf">Developed economies</a> have recognised this and have increasingly embraced <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/newsourcesofgrowthknowledge-basedcapital.htm">knowledge creation</a> as a way to secure their competitive advantage. They’ve done so by, among other things, <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/why-education-matters-economic-development">investing more in education</a> with an eye on producing more highly skilled graduates who can thrive in an increasingly technology-driven world.</p>
<p>Some countries have also spent a great deal on huge scientific projects that involve international collaboration. Examples include the <a href="https://home.cern/">European Organisation for Nuclear Research</a> (CERN) in Switzerland and the <a href="https://www.lsst.org/about">Large Synoptic Survey Telescope</a> in Chile, which is a billion dollar project.</p>
<p>And in South Africa, the <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/about/the-project/">Square Kilometre Array</a> (SKA) project is an example of a promising knowledge-based initiative. It <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-05-19-00-science-technology-and-innovation-transforming-south-africa">could be</a> one of the drivers that contributes to the country’s economic growth.</p>
<p>The SKA is a global project to build the world’s largest radio telescope. It’s co-located in South Africa and Australia. When it’s completed it will cover over 1 million sq metres and will help scientists seek answers to fundamental questions about the nature and origin of the universe.</p>
<p>But the road that leads from a complex project like the SKA to the creation of a thriving local knowledge economy is by no means a straightforward one. In a <a href="http://journals.co.za/docserver/fulltext/sajsci_v114_n3_4_a18.pdf?expires=1525694504&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=0D73AB64708039A06F38A14BBDFD2742">recent paper</a> for the South African Journal of Science, I explored the various factors that impede or encourage the extent to which the process might work. </p>
<p>I found four key factors that determine the extent to which the SKA will be able to contribute to the creation of a robust knowledge economy. These factors are institutions; interrelationships; innovation and individuals. My research suggests that, thanks to these four factors, the project has already borne fruit for South Africa. It has led to good collaboration, sharing of skills and substantial growth of the country’s astronomy community. </p>
<h2>Four pillars</h2>
<p>Firstly, a project like this needs to be supported by sound institutions if it’s to contribute to the long-term, sustainable growth of a knowledge economy. There must be stable and consistent funding and policies at government level. And a country’s broader institutional environment needs to be open and inclusive. This all encourages diverse participation and creative cross-over of ideas. </p>
<p>SKA South Africa has benefited from stable and consistent policies and funding. But, given that SKA SA is publicly funded, policies can sometimes be cumbersome. This can slow things down.</p>
<p>Interrelationships are also crucial. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are extremely important, especially in a field like astronomy. So the cultivation of stronger interrelationships boosts the promotion of knowledge economies. </p>
<p>These interrelationships need to be fostered across multiple disciplines and sectors, as well as across international boundaries. The SKA in South Africa is doing well on this front. Its collaboration with <a href="https://www.ska.ac.za/ska-activities-in-the-northern-cape/developing-small-to-medium-enterprises/">industry partners</a> that range from small, medium and micro-sized enterprises to multinationals has helped <a href="https://www.ska.ac.za/about/highlights/">the spread of scientific and operational expertise</a> among other sectors. </p>
<p>For instance, teachers from the towns closest to the SKA site have received training in robotics through the project. And members of the SKA’s management team have shared their skills to help the municipality with its integrated development planning. </p>
<p>Data collected by the SKA array in a single day would take <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/columns/45930/ska-a-game-changer-for-african-tech/">nearly two million years</a> to play back on an iPod. Processing and analysing such astronomical data sets requires both cutting edge technology and collaboration with a diverse set of stakeholders. The SKA in South Africa <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/16_ska_newsletter_mar2012.pdf">is benefiting</a> from both such technology and that level of collaboration.</p>
<p>More fundamentally, the different stakeholders are working together to develop technologies that have <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/columns/45930/ska-a-game-changer-for-african-tech/">not yet been invented</a>. </p>
<p>The third factor, innovation, presents an opportunity for developing economies to close the gap with developed economies. But this is only true if ways can be found to commercialise some of the initiatives that emerge. </p>
<p>SKA’s South African arm is taking part in numerous collaborations across sectors that promote knowledge sharing and joint problem solving. Its <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-12-03-ska-gives-high-tech-firms-a-boost">commercialisation strategy</a> is essential for the project to have a great impact on the knowledge economy. </p>
<p>Finally, individuals matter. A project like the SKA must be able to attract, retain and train skilled individuals to establish a viable knowledge economy. Here SKA South Africa has been exemplary. </p>
<p>It has done substantial work to <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/ska-drives-human-capital-development-in-s-africa-africa-ramaphosa-2015-03-02">grow South Africa’s astronomy community</a> through a special human capital development programme that’s aimed at training young people. <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/students/postgraduate-bursary-conference/">More than 1000</a> young people have benefited from this and similar SKA programmes, and those who’ve been trained are not limited to careers in astronomy: they contribute to the knowledge economy by using their skills in other sectors. </p>
<h2>Forward to the future</h2>
<p>The SKA project is still in its infancy. Science observations are expected to start with a partial telescope array in the mid 2020s. The second phase is set to be completed in the late 2020s.</p>
<p>But, even at this early stage, the project is already contributing to the growth of South Africa’s knowledge economy. The four pillars I explored in my research provide a framework for better understanding how further growth and gains can be encouraged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nishana Bhogal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The SKA global project could be a driver that contributes to South Africa’ economic growth.Nishana Bhogal, PhD Candidate, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886682017-12-10T12:10:01Z2017-12-10T12:10:01ZTelescopes in southern Africa will peel back the universe’s secrets from 2018<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197948/original/file-20171206-920-iuzgnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C139%2C723%2C626&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An image by MeerKAT shows hydrogen gas in M83, a famous spiral galaxy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SKA SA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the world’s largest collaborative science projects is about to enter its most exciting year yet. This will see researchers in a remote stretch of South Africa’s Karoo testing Albert Einstein’s <a href="https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html">general theory of relativity</a>; imaging neutral hydrogen – the building blocks for stars – in the distant universe; and examining galaxies that were formed billions of years ago.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/frequently-asked-questions/">Square Kilometre Array</a> (SKA) will consist of thousands of dishes and antennas spread over large distances linked together to form one giant telescope. It will be tens of times more sensitive and hundreds of times faster at mapping the sky than today’s best radio telescopes. A precursor to the SKA - the <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/science-engineering/meerkat/">MeerKAT telescope</a> - is being built right now and remarkable progress has been made in the last 12 months.</p>
<p>MeerKAT will start taking science data with all 64 dishes in early 2018, and there are some really exciting projects planned. I am involved in one of these, a survey called <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.01901">MIGHTEE</a> or the MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration – we astronomers love convoluted acronyms. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I will be using the MeerKAT dishes to make very deep images in four different patches of the sky covering a total of 10 square degrees; approximately 10 times the size of the full moon. Deeper images mean you can see both intrinsically fainter things, and things that are further away. The fact that we can see things that are further away is more exciting: you can think of this as pushing the horizon further away as you make a deeper image. </p>
<p>Because these images will be so deep we will be able to see bright galaxies up to 13 billion light years away. We will be able to see a galaxy like our Milky Way five billion light years away: the light that we see in these images left that galaxy before our earth had even formed.</p>
<p>With this information we will be able to explore how galaxies like our own Milky Way formed billions of years ago and how they have evolved up to the present day. Understanding this is key to answering long-standing questions like how our galaxy and Earth came to exist.</p>
<p>This is just one of the projects that will be conducted using MeerKAT over the next five years, starting in 2018. It’s work that will bring together more than 300 scientists. </p>
<h2>Collaborating across the world</h2>
<p>The science that’s being conducted at the SKA site is incredibly important. So too is the incredible collaboration that’s required to make the project work. Building such a ground-breaking instrument requires input from scientists and engineers at the cutting edge of their field from across the globe. Such a large collaboration, across many time zones, is logistically challenging but is vital as it enables big scientific breakthroughs to occur.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of scientists – many of them from Africa, and especially South Africa– and more than 100 institutions involved in the SKA project, from 20 countries across six continents. </p>
<p>Engineers are also a critical part of the project. They, too, come from all over the world. The telescope will have <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-square-kilometre-array-finally-has-a-home-or-two-7274">two host sites</a>: one in Western Australia and one in the Northern Cape in South Africa, in the Karoo. Additional dishes will be located in eight other African countries; <a href="https://theconversation.com/ghana-is-boosting-africas-ascent-to-astronomical-heights-82849">Ghana</a>, Zambia, Madagascar, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Mauritius and Mozambique. </p>
<p>Such a project brings with it huge technological challenges: once fully completed the telescope will generate data at more than ten times the current global internet traffic. </p>
<p>These challenges are the reason we’re building MeerKAT on the SKA site. It will allow us to test the technology required for the SKA – and, excitingly, it will also do ground-breaking science in its own right. The global science community was blown away when the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-meerkat-first-light-images-have-blown-all-expectations-65246">first MeerKAT images</a> were produced in 2016 using just 16 of the eventual 64 dishes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197851/original/file-20171205-22962-b2ka11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Large scale bubbles and arcs seen with MeerKAT show stellar nurseries (where stars are born) in the Milky Way. For comparison, the previous best image of this star-forming region is shown at the bottom, obtained with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SKA SA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Images presented by the SKA team to South Africa’s Minister for Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, earlier this year using only half of the eventual 64 dishes are particularly impressive. These include images of a distant spiral galaxy; star-forming regions in our own galaxy; and gas in <a href="http://www.messier-objects.com/messier-83-southern-pinwheel-galaxy/">M83</a>, a famous galaxy discovered in Cape Town in 1752.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197939/original/file-20171206-926-1hwsl5g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First ever radio image (right panel) of a spiral galaxy previously photographed in visible light (left panel). Both the visible light on the left and the radio waves on the right left this galaxy 230 million years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SKA SA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exciting work ahead</h2>
<p>Significant progress has been made since then. All 64 dishes are now in place and the test data being analysed by the commissioning team in Cape Town looks better each day. We are able to make images that are deeper and have a higher resolution than before. </p>
<p>The MIGHTEE survey is just one of the projects that will launch in 2018. I’m involved in it because my work focuses on <a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-galaxies-the-mysterious-secretive-beasts-of-the-universe-64381">radio galaxies</a>. These shoot hugely energetic jets of lightning fast particles out into space, and the MIGHTEE survey will give us an unprecedented view of these galaxies. </p>
<p>We hope to answer questions such as how these powerful jets affect the stars forming in the galaxy, and how these galaxies interact with and are affected by their surroundings. The MeerKAT telescope will bring us one step closer to understanding these complex and mysterious galaxies. </p>
<p>Other upcoming projects include <a href="http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/PT.3.3621">observing pulsars</a> – the spinning cores of collapsed stars which act as very precise clocks – to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity, and <a href="http://www.thunderkat.uct.ac.za/">searching for explosive transients</a>. Pinpointing these short-lived bursts of radio emission will help scientists understand some of the most energetic events in the universe where physics is pushed to the extreme.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imogen Whittam works for the University of the Western Cape. She receives funding from the SKA SA. </span></em></p>A precursor to the Square Kilometre Array- the MeerKAT telescope - is being built right now and remarkable progress has been made in the last 12 months.Imogen Whittam, Post-doctoral researcher in Astrophysics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/828492017-09-14T16:47:59Z2017-09-14T16:47:59ZGhana is boosting Africa’s ascent to astronomical heights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185644/original/file-20170912-19546-1n7hkdm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The refurbished radio telescope in Kutunse, Ghana paves the way for astronomy in Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SKA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-square-kilometre-array-40870">Square Kilometre Array (SKA)</a> is the world’s largest radio telescope project, which will collect data over one million square kilometres from radio astronomy telescopes on the African and Australian continents.
In the long run the two-phased SKA could possibly help scientists answer questions in astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics. Phase one of the project entailed setting radio telescopes in <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/about/the-project/">South Africa</a> and <a href="http://www.ska.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">Australia</a>. Phase two will include more telescopes being added by partner countries, New Zealand and the eight African countries namely: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia. The full array should be up and running by 2030, but the first phase is expected to be operational by 2023. The launch of Ghana’s radio telescope is a critical part of this process. Dr Bernard Duah Asabere explained its significance.</em></p>
<p><strong>How did Ghana get involved in the project and how does it fit in?</strong></p>
<p>Ghana has had a redundant satellite communication antenna in Kutunse – a suburb 25 kilometres north-west of the capital, Accra.</p>
<p>Between 2011 and 2017 this antenna has been undergoing refurbishment for use as a radio astronomy telescope. At the end of the first engineering phase, the refurbished telescope is capable of participating in global network observations using a technique known as <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/science-engineering/avn/">Very Long Baseline Interferometry</a> (VLBI). It also be used in single dish or standalone operational mode.</p>
<p>Interferometry is a technique in which collections of telescopes scattered over a large area function as a single radio telescope. The Very Long Baseline Interferometry technique is most well-known for:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>imaging distant cosmic radio sources, </p></li>
<li><p>tracking spacecraft, and </p></li>
<li><p>for applications in astrometry. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>But the technique can also measure the time differences between the arrival of radio waves from separate antennas to the same source in the sky. This helps astronomers get a better image resolution of an object or a region in the universe. </p>
<p>Put simply, if different telescopes at different locations are all tuned to observe the same source in the sky at the same time, astronomers can get fine details of the specific object being observed.</p>
<p>The countries that make up the African SKA project are each building their own radio telescopes or converting redundant telecommunication dishes so that they function as a network known as the African VLBI Network (AVN). </p>
<p>Ghana now becomes the first country in the African SKA partners besides South Africa to have a <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/media-releases/ghana-and-south-africa-celebrate-first-success-of-african-network-of-telescopes/">telecommunication antenna</a> converted to realise the African VLBI Network. With Ghana’s telescope now operational, it means that South Africa and Ghana will be able to do joint observations. When the other seven African SKA partner countries get theirs ready, they will join the African’s network. </p>
<p>Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia are contending to add the <a href="https://furtherafrica.com/2017/08/28/eight-african-countries-commit-to-developing-radio-astronomy/">next </a>telescope to the network.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185643/original/file-20170912-19550-ts7kx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A full view of the refurbished radio telescope in Ghana that forms part of the Square Kilometre Array project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How did we know the Ghanaian telescope was ready and what will it do?</strong> </p>
<p>Across the globe there are several very long base interferometry networks: Europe has one, as does Australia and America. Any telescope across the world is able to join an observation in one of these networks.</p>
<p>After Ghana re-engineered the antenna into a functional radio astronomy telescope, it needed to do a science commissioning of the facility to see if the refurbishment was successful and it could track and observe astronomical sources in the sky and join international observations. </p>
<p>When Ghana tested its telescope it was able to detect methanol masers, observe pulsars and also succeeded in participating in an observation with 15 other telescopes which form part of the European very long base interferometry network. </p>
<p>Until now South Africa has been the only country on the continent that had been joining in VLBI observations with other countries’ networks because it was the only country with a radio telescope on the continent. </p>
<p>With radio telescopes in Ghana and South Africa, an African network is now given birth to. Aside being a part of the African network, Ghana could join other telescopes on the globe to do science observations. </p>
<p><strong>What is the significance of Ghana’s telescope for astronomy in Africa?</strong></p>
<p>There are many celestial objects to observe in the Universe: planets, masers, galaxies, meteorites, stars and even regions in the sky. And there are global questions that astronomy community is interested in addressing. This includes questions like: is there any life outside earth? Are there other stars that are as prominent as the sun? How did the universe come into being? These are questions that the SKA will attempt to address. </p>
<p>If Africa has its own network, astronomers on the continent can choose what celestial objects and regions it wants to observe. </p>
<p>If we look at most of the existing telescopes across the world, there has been a hole in Africa. Telescopes situated in the Northern hemisphere are unable to see the region of the sky in the southern hemisphere. With an African very long base interferometry network set up, astronomers in Africa can now observe both the northern and southern hemispheres of the sky from the continent. </p>
<p><strong>What is Ghana bringing to the party and what does it hope to get out of this SKA collaboration?</strong></p>
<p>The facility at Kutunse will be used as a science instrument but also as a training facility. Ghana will help the other seven countries that form part of the African network refurbish their unused antennae. </p>
<p>Although this technology is not new and has been done in Australia, Peru, Japan and the UK, no other country in Africa has done this. </p>
<p>For Ghana, developing the skills, regulations and institutional capacity in the partner countries is a vital part of building the square kilometre array on the continent over the next decade. This is because it will optimise African participation in the SKA.</p>
<p>Ghana will build it robust research community in a field never before accessible to the country.</p>
<p>But there is also the prospect of improving the radio astronomy capacity in the country. <a href="http://skatelescope.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/01_asabere.pdf">Ghana’s radio astronomy development strategy</a> forms part of the broader Ghana Science, Technology and Innovation Development Plan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernard Duah Asabere is the manager and lead local scientist of the Radio Astronomy Observatory. </span></em></p>Astronomy on the continent has been given a much needed boost with Ghana’s converted radio telescope between it and South Africa, to conduct scientific observations.Dr. Bernard Duah Asabere, Manager of the Ghana Radio Telescope Observatory, Ghana Space Science and Technology InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781092017-05-23T14:40:25Z2017-05-23T14:40:25ZAfrican scientists are punching above their weight and changing the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170294/original/file-20170522-25082-1vum5i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Africa's scientists are doing remarkable work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past five years, Africa’s contributions to the world’s research –- that is, new knowledge –- have varied from a low of 0.7% to the present and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/26/africa-produces-just-11-of-global-scientific-knowledge">highest level of 1.1%</a>. </p>
<p>There are many reasons for Africa’s small contribution to world research. One of them, sadly, is that at least some of this new knowledge is produced by African scientists working beyond their own countries and continent. Many have <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-african-universities-can-do-to-attract-academics-back-from-the-diaspora-42793">chosen to leave</a> because they feel the facilities and funding opportunities are better than those “at home”. </p>
<p>It’s also important to point out that the sum of knowledge generated each year, including Africa’s contribution to it, is measured using research articles published by scientists and scholars in scientifically recognised journals. This means some of the actual work that’s being done isn’t getting the attention or credit it deserves, yet. The journal system is not a perfect way of assessing scientific productivity. For now, though, it’s a means that can be applied fairly to document peer reviewed research from around the world.</p>
<p>These concerns aside there is, I’m happy to report, much to celebrate about research in Africa. For starters, the world’s largest collection of peer-reviewed, African-published journals, is growing all the time. <a href="https://www.ajol.info/">African Journals Online</a> currently carries 521 titles across a range of subjects and disciplines.</p>
<p>Women researchers are also well represented, though there’s still work to be done: three out of 10 sub-Saharan researchers <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/webdav/site/cms/shared/2_events/workshops/2016/20160531/Luc%20Soete.pdf">are women</a>.</p>
<p>The continent’s researchers are working on challenges as varied as astrophysics, malaria, HIV/AIDS and agricultural productivity. They are making significant advances in these and many other critical areas. The projects I talk about here are just a few examples of the remarkable work Africa’s scientists are doing on and for the continent.</p>
<h2>A range of research</h2>
<p>Africa is establishing itself as global player in astronomical research. The Southern African Large Telescope (<a href="https://www.salt.ac.za/">SALT</a>) is the largest single optical telescope of its kind in the Southern hemisphere. Work undertaken at this facility, in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, has resulted in the publication of close to 200 <a href="http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/data/publications/">research papers</a>.</p>
<p>The telescope has support from and working relationships with universities in 10 countries. Its recent work helped a team of South African and international collaborators to <a href="http://earthsky.org/space/discover-major-vela-supercluster-nov-2016">uncover</a> a previously unknown major supercluster in the constellation Vela. </p>
<p>SALT has two siblings: <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-meerkat-first-light-images-have-blown-all-expectations-65246">MeerKAT</a>, which is already producing results, and the <a href="http://skatelescope.org/">Square Kilometre Array</a>, which is still being developed.</p>
<p>In a very different sphere, Professors <a href="http://www.caprisa.org/Leadership#gallery-details-2#filter=.the-board-of-control">Salim</a> and <a href="http://www.caprisa.org/Leadership#gallery-details-3">Quarraisha Abdool Karim</a> have won African and international <a href="http://www.caprisa.org/News/Read/30136">awards</a> for their groundbreaking and lifesaving work in the area of HIV/AIDS. Professor Glenda Gray, the CEO of South Africa’s Medical Research Council, has been honoured by Time magazine as one of the world’s <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2017/2017-04/glenda-gray-on-time-100-list.html">100 most influential people</a>. She, too, is a pioneer in <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-remarkable-journey-out-of-the-dark-decade-of-aids-denialism-62379">HIV/AIDS research</a>.</p>
<p>In Kenya, dedicated research institutes are tackling agricultural challenges in areas like <a href="http://www.kalro.org/food_crops_research_institute">crop production</a> and <a href="https://www.ilri.org/kenya">livestock health</a>. This not only boosts Africa’s research output, but contributes greatly to rural development on the continent.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Nigeria has established a number of <a href="http://www.arcnigeria.org/index.php/explore/research-institutes">research institutes</a> that focus on a range of agricultural challenges. Research is also being undertaken in the important area of oceanography.</p>
<p>Although it operates from the University of Cape Town, the <a href="http://www.acdi.uct.ac.za/">African Climate and Development Initiative</a> has been working as a partner in Mozambique. There it’s addressing the critical – and interrelated – challenges of climate change and adaptation responses for horticulture, cassava and the red meat value chain. This is important work in one of Africa’s poorest countries, which is battling drought and hunger.</p>
<p>And then there’s also research “out of Africa”. This involves discoveries about the human past and the origins of homo sapiens. Historically, this sort of research was often undertaken by people who didn’t come from Africa. More and more, though, African scholars have come to the fore. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-secrets-of-human-ancestry-emerge-from-south-african-caves-77352">scientists</a> who discovered a new human ancestor and mapped a cave system that’s serving up amazing fossil evidence are following in giant footsteps: those of <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/dr-robert-broom-discoverer-mrs-ples-born">Robert Broom</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/raymond-arthur-dart">Raymond Dart</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/professor-emeritus-phillip-tobias">Phillip Tobias</a>.</p>
<h2>Research that matters</h2>
<p>What does all of this tell us about research in Africa? Perhaps three ideas are worth considering. </p>
<p>First, while Africa and its universities, institutes and scientists need to make far greater contributions to world knowledge, high quality and important research is happening. Its overall contribution might be small, but smart people are undertaking smart and important work. </p>
<p>Secondly, the range of research being undertaken is remarkable in view of the size of Africa’s overall contribution: from galaxies to viruses; from agriculture to malaria; and from drought to oceanography. </p>
<p>And thirdly it is notable, and of great significance, that irrespective of the disciplines involved, the research is tackling both international concerns and those specific to the African continent and its people’s needs.</p>
<p>Yes, 1.1% is a small figure. What’s actually happening, on the other hand, adds up to a pretty impressive score card.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Butler-Adam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Africa’s overall contribution to research might be small, but smart people are undertaking smart and important work on and about the continent.John Butler-Adam, Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Science and Consultant, Vice Principal for Research and Graduate Education, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/709182017-01-12T20:16:26Z2017-01-12T20:16:26ZFrom rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151830/original/image-20170105-18644-1yvwr6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I grew up in a Kenyan village with dark skies and vivid stars. We admired the sky and listened to stories about it told by the elders. There were few expectations that the children in our village would ever understand the sky’s secrets as this was unimaginable at the time. </p>
<p>I excelled at maths and science, eventually becoming a teacher in the subjects. Then came a Masters degree in Physics, followed by a second Masters through South Africa’s Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. There the boy who had gazed up at mysterious skies turned into a man who wanted to become an astrophysicist.</p>
<p>But Africa has a challenge: astronomy as a profession is a little known field of science in all but one country, South Africa. Even high school science teachers are often not aware that astronomy is a branch of physics, is therefore a science, and could be presented to pupils as a viable career option. The construction of the mid frequency part of the SKA in South Africa, in partnership with eight other African countries, means the continent needs to encourage, produce and nurture young astrophysicists.</p>
<p>Very few African universities offer postgraduate degrees in astronomy. Most that do are based in South Africa; the others include the University of Mauritius and Kenya’s University of Nairobi.</p>
<p>This gap in knowledge, information and study is now being bridged by joint UK-South Africa project that trains students from Africa in the field of astronomy with a focus on radio astronomy. I am a student of the <a href="http://www.dara-project.org/">Development in Africa through Radio Astronomy</a> project currently studying towards my PhD at the <a href="http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a>. The funding stems from the UK’s <a href="http://www.newtonfund.ac.uk/">Newton Fund</a> and is matched by funding from South Africa’s <a href="http://www.dst.gov.za/">department of science and technology</a>. </p>
<p>It’s a good example of how training and partnerships can help to build the scientists Africa needs to establish itself as a key player in astronomy, radio astronomy and astrophysics.</p>
<h2>How the project works</h2>
<p>DARA conducted training programmes in Kenya and Zambia during 2015 building on a concurrent programme in Ghana funded by the UK’s Royal Fund. There it equipped 40 students with the fundamentals of radio astronomy. It was a challenging, competitive and captivating two months consisting of four different training units. We were trained in the technical aspects of radio astronomy as well as learning about data collection and reduction. We collected and analysed data from a nearby astrophysical object – the sun, for example.</p>
<p>Of those 40 trainees, six – myself among them – were sponsored for further postgraduate studies in the UK; ten others were funded to study further in South Africa. The selection was made with partner institutions in each participating country.</p>
<p>Leeds is one of four participating UK universities. The others are the University of Manchester, University of Hertfordshire and Oxford University. These are all centres of excellence. We will also, during our studies, spend some time in South Africa supervised by a South African collaborator. This is important preparation for future collaborations, which are <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-time-african-researchers-stopped-working-in-silos-59539">crucial in science</a>.</p>
<p>As trainees, we’ve enjoyed interactions with senior research scientists and presentations from renowned academics. We present our work to each other and develop the skills we’ll need to be working scientists. We’re also looking forward to welcoming fellow students from countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar and Mozambique as the project expands further across the continent.</p>
<p>This training formula has the potential to inspire and empower many more individuals across Africa. And the benefits won’t be felt just in the field of astronomy. The skills my colleagues and I are developing are widely applicable. They can be used in a number of areas: research, computing, telecommunications, land management and even business.</p>
<h2>Preparing Africa for the SKA</h2>
<p>Equally important is DARA’s role in preparing Africa ahead of the completion of the SKA, the <a href="http://www.space.com/15883-worlds-largest-radio-telescope-ska-array.html">world’s largest radio telescope</a>. It is partially hosted in South Africa. SKA-Africa is also funding the conversion of the redundant satellite earth stations in Africa into radio telescopes that will form a <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/science-engineering/avn">network of telescopes</a> called the African VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) Network – a technique that will simulate a telescope the size of Africa.</p>
<p>These are major investments in science. It’s important that preparations be made for their proper maintenance and successful operation – and that requires trained radio astronomers to do the work. The amount of data to be collected from these facilities is also large; if this collection is to be thorough and successful it will require properly trained big data managers and researchers. This is why DARA is preparing people like me for the future of African astronomy.</p>
<p>These telescopes can be seen as a sign of trust that the rest of the world has placed in Africa. They are capital intensive science facilities. With proper training programmes and the development of more African astronomers, the continent can repay this trust many times over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Willice O. Obonyo is affiliated with the Astrophysics group of University of Leeds. </span></em></p>Very few African universities offer postgraduate degrees in astronomy. This gap in knowledge and training can be addressed through international partnerships and collaboration.Willice O. Obonyo, PhD student (Radio Astronomy), University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673172016-11-10T15:34:38Z2016-11-10T15:34:38ZConsidering the technical readiness of South Africa to support the shale gas industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145066/original/image-20161108-16685-5ff7il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's Karoo region, in the south west of the country, is thought to have significant reserves of shale gas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The discovery and exploitation of very large shale gas reserves in countries like the United States have transformed <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ente.201402177/abstract">the energy market</a>. South Africa may also possess potentially large resources of shale gas. This could have a significant positive impact on the country’s energy balance should it be decided to exploit these resources.</p>
<p>The exploitation of these key energy resources might also have a significant social, economic or environmental impact while also presenting considerable technical challenges.</p>
<p>Given the recent challenges the country is facing in terms of <a href="http://www.gov.za/issues/energy-challenge">energy supply</a>, the possibility of exploiting shale gas deposits for power generation is of current significance. Shale gas also presents other downstream opportunities. Some include providing a key resource for the production of liquid fuels and chemicals, or enabling the development of a domestic market for gas as a cleaner <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/middle-east-and-africa/south-africas-bold-priorities-for-inclusive-growth">energy resource</a>.</p>
<h2>Uncertainties</h2>
<p>South Africa’s Karoo region, in the south west of the country, is thought to have significant reserves of shale gas. Recently there has been considerable interest from the government and various companies like Shell, Falcon and Bundu to develop a shale gas industry there. <a href="http://research.assaf.org.za/handle/20.500.11911/14">Considerable uncertainties</a> exist regarding the extent of these reserves and the geology at depths where they are typically found. These and other uncertainties and constraints include the following.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The quantum of shale gas in the Karoo is still unclear: estimates range between <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=11611">20 and 400 trillion cubic feet</a>. None of these reserves has yet been proven.</p></li>
<li><p>There are also constraints relating to geographical regions. For example, no fracking may take place in the vicinity of the <a href="https://www.ska.ac.za/">Square Kilometre Array station project</a>. The project consists of the largest network of radio telescopes ever built.</p></li>
<li><p>Ensuring that no hydraulic fracturing takes place at depths less than 1500m to protect groundwater resources will also reduce the geographical area of interest.</p></li>
<li><p>Shale gas exploitation requires the use of relatively large quantities of water. Given that potable groundwater should preferably not be used for any such exploitation, greater clarity is needed on the availability of deep-level saline water. This is considered to be acceptable for use in hydraulic fracturing.</p></li>
<li><p>Baseline studies need to be carried out to ascertain with greater certainty the environment at depths greater than 3 km underground. Such baseline studies should also ensure that there is a clear understanding of the status of the human and natural environments before any fracking commences.</p></li>
<li><p>South Africa has a serious shortage of the high-level skills that would be required to implement such an industry. Strategies need to be set in place to develop skills to ensure sustainable development of the shale gas industry.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://research.assaf.org.za/handle/20.500.11911/14">International experience</a> has highlighted the critical need to have all the necessary legislative and regulatory structures in place. But also, a sufficient number of regulators with the required skills before a shale gas industry is launched.</p></li>
<li><p>The implementation of a shale gas industry in an area like the Karoo may have a significant socio-economic impact on the local population. Similar concerns have been expressed in studies especially from <a href="http://www.scienceadvice.ca/uploads/eng/assessments%20and%20publications%20and%20news%20releases/shale%20gas/shalegas_fullreporten.pdf">Canada</a> and <a href="http://www.acola.org.au/index.php/projects/securing-australia-s-future/project-6">Australia</a>. So it is important to ensure that there is a full understanding of the potential impact. Plans must be developed to manage them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Resolution of these uncertainties requires extensive and ongoing consultation with all relevant parties. As such government has an important role to play as an honest broker of key information.</p>
<h2>Risk and challenges</h2>
<p>These uncertainties point to specific risks and challenges associated with the establishment of a shale gas industry in South Africa. This will require government to create an enabling environment to encourage investment in the industry while also ensuring that the state and local communities benefit. It is also critical that there is clarity regarding the pricing structures that may prevail. This is crucial when the industry begins to exploit the shale gas reserves, and obviously requires a clearer understanding of the potential quantum of the known reserves.</p>
<p>Establishing a shale gas industry presents complex technical and economic challenges, and implementation will require a whole-of-government <a href="http://research.assaf.org.za/handle/20.500.11911/14">approach</a>.</p>
<p>A structure at government level to facilitate and coordinate all the activities relating to the industry is recommended. This could coordinate the awarding of licences by various government departments and would have oversight of the activities of the regulators.</p>
<p>Awarding a production licence should proceed after satisfactory completion of terms associated with an exploration licence. This would require operators to demonstrate compliance of processes with legislation.</p>
<p>It is evident that before a shale gas industry in South Africa is implemented, important baseline studies need to be done. This will determine both the exact status quo prior to the commencement of a shale gas industry and the technical, social and economic consequences of such a development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67317/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cyril O'Connor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Shale gas holds considerable advantages. But there are still a number of uncertainties around whether South Africa is ready for such a bold step.Cyril O'Connor, Emeritus Professor Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/643812016-10-18T14:32:51Z2016-10-18T14:32:51ZRadio galaxies: the mysterious, secretive “beasts” of the Universe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141448/original/image-20161012-13485-ao5jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jets generated by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can transport huge amounts of energy across great distances.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/X-ray: NASA/CXC/Tokyo Institute of Technology/J.Kataoka et al</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most pictures of galaxies that you see, such as the <a href="http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/">beautiful images</a> from the <a href="http://hubblesite.org/">Hubble Space Telescope</a>, are optical images. These are made using telescopes which detect light in the same wavelength range that our eyes see. However, scientists can design telescopes which use different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as shorter-wavelength ultraviolet light or longer-wavelength infrared and radio emission. </p>
<p>When we use a <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/about/faqs/#toggle-id-3">radio telescope</a> to look at galaxies, we find that some have pairs of giant jets extending from their centre out into space.</p>
<p>Jets – powerful, lightning fast particles – are the beasts of the universe, far larger than anything visible in optical image. They often stretch to many millions of times the size of the galaxy itself. There is often no evidence of these jets in the optical images.</p>
<p>They also don’t give up their secrets easily. We have a good idea what jets are and how they’re formed. But, for example, we don’t understand yet what causes these jets to start in the first place. That’s where the powerful <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/">Square Kilometre Array</a> (SKA) radio telescope that’s currently being built in South Africa enters the picture. Its size and scope can help scientists probe more deeply than ever before.</p>
<h2>The making of a jet</h2>
<p>So how are jets formed? </p>
<p>Galaxies come in many different shapes and sizes, and all galaxies of any reasonable size have a supermassive black hole at their centre. The larger the galaxy, the larger the black hole at its centre. These black holes are many millions of times the mass of the sun. In most galaxies they simply sit passively at the heart of the galaxy. </p>
<p>In some galaxies, however, gas and dust is falling into this supermassive black hole causing vast quantities of energy to be released. This sometimes results in hugely energetic streams of particles – channelled by twisted magnetic fields – being ejected from the galaxy centre. </p>
<p>These powerful fountains of particles are spewed out into space at nearly the speed of light. They form the impressive jets visible in radio images. These particles travel through space for many millions of kilometres until they are eventually slowed down and stopped when they interact with old clouds of gas left over from when the galaxy formed. These jets are immensely powerful and can be thousands of light years across. </p>
<p>Although we understand the processes forming the jets, we don’t know what causes these jets to start in the first place. </p>
<p>Some observations suggest they may be triggered when two galaxies collide, thrusting large quantities of gas and dust into the path of the supermassive black hole at the galactic centre. But this certainly does not seem to be the case for all radio galaxies. There is evidence that some radio galaxies stop ejecting the streams of energetic particles, then start again many thousands of years later. However we don’t know if all radio galaxies go through several active phases like this, or if this is unusual. </p>
<h2>Still so much to learn</h2>
<p>It takes a long time for radio galaxies to grow so large – sometimes up to tens to hundreds of millions of years. This means scientists can’t study radio jets by watching one grow. Instead we have to look at lots of different radio galaxies at different stages in their life cycles. </p>
<p>And understanding radio galaxy jets is important. Because they’re so powerful, these jets have a strong influence on both the galaxy they come from and its surroundings. </p>
<p>From building models of how galaxies evolve with time and comparing them to observations, scientists know that something must be dramatically slowing down the rate at which stars form in the most massive galaxies. Scientists believe that radio jets may be responsible. They heat the gas within the galaxy, preventing it from forming into stars. </p>
<p>However, this process is not well understood. For example, there is also evidence that radio jets may increase the rate of star formation in some galaxies, by compressing gas into dense clouds. Understanding how radio jets interact with their host galaxies and wider environment is key to understanding how galaxies form and evolve with time. This is one of astronomy’s key unanswered questions.</p>
<p>The completion of the SKA, which is being built in South Africa and Australia, will help answer these questions.</p>
<h2>Solving mysteries</h2>
<p>When the SKA is fully operational – sometime after 2020 – it will observe up to a billion galaxies. That includes some of the very first galaxies to form. Using these observations, astronomers should be able to unlock the secrets of radio galaxies. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ska.ac.za/science-engineering/meerkat/">MeerKAT telescope</a>, a precursor to the SKA, is already taking data at the South African site, in the remote Karoo, and will allow us to start answering some of these questions next year. </p>
<p>Perhaps these mysterious beasts of the Universe won’t remain a mystery much longer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64381/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imogen Whittam works for SKA South Africa. She receives funding from SKA South Africa. She is affiliated with SKA South Africa and the University of the Western Cape. </span></em></p>It’s difficult to get jets - powerful, lightning fast particles - to give up their secrets. The new Square Kilometre Array radio telescope could hold the key to solving jets’ mysteries.Imogen Whittam, Post-doctoral researcher in Astrophysics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652462016-09-28T16:19:01Z2016-09-28T16:19:01ZAfrica’s MeerKAT ‘first light’ images have blown all expectations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138487/original/image-20160920-12453-b7emdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ska.ac.za/gallery/meerkat/">SKA South Africa</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Something hugely important is happening in a vast, quiet stretch of South Africa’s Northern Cape province. A new radio telescope operating at just a quarter of its full power is revealing the universe’s secrets one image at a time.</p>
<p>MeerKAT will ultimately become part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. Once it’s completed some time in the decade following 2020, the SKA will be the <a href="http://www.space.com/15883-worlds-largest-radio-telescope-ska-array.html">world’s largest radio telescope</a>. The project is shared between South Africa and Australia. It’s not just its size that sets it apart from other radio telescopes but also sensitivity and speed. At full power, the SKA <a href="http://www.space.com/15883-worlds-largest-radio-telescope-ska-array.html">will have</a> 50 times the sensitivity and 10,000 times the survey speed of the best existing telescopes.</p>
<p>It will see more, and see it faster. It can explore the universe and answer some of humanity’s biggest scientific questions – like, “Is there life out there?” and “How are galaxies formed?”</p>
<p>All of this lies some time in the future. But already, MeerKAT is yielding remarkable results. </p>
<h2>Off to a good start</h2>
<p>MeerKAT currently comprises 16 dishes (of an eventual 64) functioning as a telescope array – a radio telescope works by effectively linking smaller dishes together and operating as one. </p>
<p>These 16 dishes, known collectively as Array Release 1, recently embarked on their first assignment. It was an amazing start: Array Release 1 found 1300 galaxies in a patch of sky that was previously thought to contain only 70. That’s hundreds of new galaxies to be studied and understood, and greatly adds to our knowledge of the universe. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138501/original/image-20160920-12475-o5eluu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View showing 10% of the full MeerKAT First Light radio image. More than 200 astronomical radio sources (white dots) are visible in this image. Before MeerKAT only five were known (indicated by violet circles). This image spans about the area of the Earth’s moon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ska.ac.za/gallery/meerkat/">SKA South Africa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because MeerKAT specialises in radio galaxies, it can peer through the thick layers of dust that surround such galaxies. Astronomer Michael Rich, who wasn’t part of the study, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/radio-telescope-new-galaxies-meerkat-south-africa-space-science/">told National Geographic</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In some cases, the radio galaxy can have a great deal of obscuring dust, and you wouldn’t be able to see anything – or almost anything – with an optical telescope.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These “first light” images are extremely exciting, whether for seasoned astronomers or ordinary people who crave more information about the world “out there”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w_q6kB2nCdw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The SKA, of which the MeerKAT is part, is searching for intergalactic answers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Massive infrastructure</h2>
<p>There’s more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-square-kilometre-array-40870">pure science</a> to any project of this scope. It takes remarkable engineering to bring any radio telescope to life, let alone what will become the world’s largest.</p>
<p>Each of MeerKAT’s completed 64 dishes will be 13.5 metres, or about 40 feet, in diameter. The dishes are accompanied by a plethora of cryogenic coolers, receivers, digitisers and other electronic systems.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138456/original/image-20160920-11100-cjw78j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the MeerKAT’s massive dishes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ska.ac.za/gallery/meerkat/">SKA South Africa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s a challenge to get all of this equipment to work together in a fully integrated array. That’s why the telescope is being commissioned in phases: it allows any technical problems to be identified and resolved as early as possible. </p>
<p>As the “first light” images reveal, everything is functioning smoothly as the MeerKAT begins its sky-searching work.</p>
<h2>Space for science in action</h2>
<p>One of the important features of the SKA and MeerKAT is that it’s a massive, multinational endeavour. There are around 200 technicians, scientists and engineers working on the project. They come from all over the world and are collaborating with industry to build the technologies, hardware and software systems for MeerKAT telescope. </p>
<p>It’s not just about the construction, though. Scientists are also getting the chance to test their theories using MeerKAT’s infrastructure.</p>
<p>I am part of a team led by <a href="https://www.uwc.ac.za/Biography/Pages/Mario-Santos.aspx">Professor Mario Santos</a> of the University of the Western Cape involved in a large survey that will be conducted with MeerKAT. The team consists of scientists from South African and international institutions. Our goal is to do breakthrough cosmology and study the many new galaxies that will be detected.</p>
<p>Recently a new scientific technique called <a href="http://www.caastro.org/research/evolving/intensitymapping">HI Intensity Mapping</a> has emerged as a powerful and promising probe for cosmology with radio telescopes. It involves trying to map the universe’s neutral hydrogen content.</p>
<p>MeerKAT provides an exciting opportunity to put this science to the test. We’re seeking an extremely weak signal, much weaker than the galaxy and the contributions that the instrument adds to the data. My recent work has involved demonstrating that you can “clean” out all these other contributions to access the very weak hydrogen signal. Once we’re able to locate this crucial signal, we’ll be able to understand much more about the universe.</p>
<h2>Staring at the sky</h2>
<p>It’s not just those who are directly involved in the project who are excited about what MeerKAT has to offer. Just after Array Release 1, about 150 astronomers – two thirds of them from South Africa – <a href="http://meerkat2016.ska.ac.za/programme">met</a> to discuss and update the MeerKAT science programme in Stellenbosch. </p>
<p>Broadly, this programme will consist of two major elements. The first involves approved large surveys of the sky. These will peer into deep space; they’ll range from shallow and wide to deep and small, covering large volumes of space containing many, many galaxies. The images they’ll capture will deepen our understanding of what the universe contains, how it’s structured and how it works.</p>
<p>The second element is open time: time reserved for astronomers to propose new and interesting observations that can then be conducted using the MeerKAT. This encourages more research and could lead to even more of the universe’s secrets being revealed.</p>
<h2>Much more to come</h2>
<p>The “first light” images are just the beginning. Even at a quarter of its full strength MeerKAT – and ultimately the SKA project – seems set to prove that the sky really is the limit for what we can learn about our universe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prina Patel works for SKA South Africa. She receives funding from SKA South Africa. She is affiliated with SKA South Africa and The University of the Western Cape. </span></em></p>What’s particularly exciting about “first light” images from South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope is that they prove Africa is a rising star in the world of astronomy.Prina Patel, SKA Postdoc in Observational Cosmology, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652842016-09-20T18:13:30Z2016-09-20T18:13:30ZAfrica’s universities can shrug off history and stage science revolutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138073/original/image-20160916-6342-1c5hkqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The sky is the limit for African science when universities work together.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.uwc.ac.za/Pages/default.aspx">University of the Western Cape (UWC)</a> has been ranked <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2016/09/07/Sky-science-sees-University-of-the-Western-Cape-beat-big-names-in-Nature-ranking">number one</a> for Physical Science in Africa by top journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html">Nature</a>. Nico Orce, an associate professor with UWC’s nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics group, tells The Conversation Africa what lessons there are for other universities on the continent – and why there’s more work to be done.</em></p>
<p><strong>UWC still serves a historically disadvantaged community and is less well-funded than many previously white universities in South Africa. Against this backdrop, what did it take for you, your colleagues and your students to get this far?</strong></p>
<p>Being ranked number one on the continent is strongly linked to the <a href="https://www.ska.ac.za">Square Kilometre Array (SKA)</a> telescope being built in South Africa. A number of UWC’s scientists are very involved in this project. </p>
<p>Smart strategic planning and a real push for funding helped to stimulate the physical sciences at UWC. That energy attracted more and more talented researchers, including post-doctoral candidates. This is a crucial way to speed up transformation: bringing in highly skilled researchers from all over the country and the world to train a new generation of local scientists.</p>
<p><strong>The sciences have had a good year at UWC. Your group is also about to become the first from an African institution to <a href="http://www.netwerk24.com/ZA/Tygerburger/Nuus/uwc-students-on-the-way-to-cern-20160830-2">lead an experiment at CERN</a>, the <a href="https://home.cern/about">European Organisation for Nuclear Research</a>. How did that happen?</strong></p>
<p>When I was finishing my degree in Fundamental Physics back in Spain I convinced some of my friends to attend a summer school at CERN. We asked the professor in charge of international exchange programmes to sign our applications. He told us with malicious pleasure that, “Only the crème de la crème goes to CERN – students from Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge. You come from the University of Granada. I cannot believe you even thought of it.” He wouldn’t sign it, so there went our slight chance of working at CERN.</p>
<p>Since then, I promised myself that one day I would go to CERN through the big door and open it up to the ones behind me: young hopeful students.</p>
<p>That promise came to fruition in September 2013 when our group’s proposal to run an experiment at CERN was approved. Our work, which will finally be conducted in November 2016, involves measuring the nuclear shapes of very rare nuclei. Some of our postgraduates have already received training, and did so well that they were awarded a prestigious CERN fellowship.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UWC students (bottom from left to right) Kenzo Abrahams, Makabata Mokgolobotho and Craig Mehl. They are with CERN employees, including (back, second from left) Professor Maria Garcia Borge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This experiment will open the doors of CERN to all African institutions. We walked through first. Now others will be able to follow.</p>
<p><strong>Enrolling more women students, as well as those who are not white and those from poor backgrounds, is a huge imperative for South African universities. Are you getting that right in the Physics department?</strong></p>
<p>One of the Physics and Astronomy Department’s highest priorities is to attract and enthuse South African students. We have strong outreach programmes to achieve this. One that I like very much is when we give talks to high school students; those in Grades 10, 11 and 12 who are close to finishing school. Our staff members and postgraduates present examples of the work we do.</p>
<p>It’s especially amazing when one of our postgraduates returns to their own school. You should have heard the eruption when one postgraduate, Sivuyile Xabanisa, told kids at his Khayelitsha high school that he was studying the oldest stars in the universe – and going to Oxford University as part of his training.</p>
<p>We also invite high school groups to events organised at the university. In 2013 <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/haroche-facts.html">Serge Haroche</a> visited our Science Research Open Day. He was the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics. The auditorium practically shook with excitement when he handed over a new microscope to pupils from a high school in Wallacedene, a poor area quite close to UWC.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ipl6CLiLnc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nobel Laureate Serge Haroche visits the University of the Western Cape.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another really valuable initiative has been the MaNus/MatSci programme for Nuclear Science and Material Science. In the same way that the SKA is driving strong growth in astronomy, this Honours and Masters programme is attracting growing numbers of future nuclear physicists. It trains about 25 South African students each year, most of them black and from poor backgrounds. These students are drawn from historically disadvantaged institutions like the universities of Fort Hare, Venda, Limpopo and the North West – and from UWC’s undergraduate programmes.</p>
<p>All of this work and outreach has produced impressive results. Today there are more than 100 postgraduate students in the Physics and Astronomy Department. Most of them are black South Africans from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. </p>
<p><strong>What are the lessons other African institutions’ science faculties and individual departments can learn from UWC’s recent successes?</strong></p>
<p>We need to break history to change things dramatically. And we must do it the South African, or African way – using our own strengths and methods, not adopting European approaches.</p>
<p>Universities need to work harder to make sure women and all races are equally represented in their science classrooms. At UWC we’ve got a number of postgraduate women students who are doing great science, winning awards and raising the bar for everyone. Having women there makes other women realise the door is open for them. In the same way, having postgraduates like Sivuyile Xabanisa visiting schools in poorer communities makes pupils realise they also have a place in science labs. Role models are so important.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UWC’s Dr Nico Orce with pupils from Khayelitsha’s Zola High School.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ultimately, UWC wants to be number one for physical science not just in Africa but in the world. To do that, we cannot constantly fight among ourselves as individual researchers or with other institutions on the continent. The only competition we need is the healthy sort that improves everyone’s performance. </p>
<p>Collaboration is really crucial. UWC applied for about R30 million from country’s the National Research Foundation and its Department of Science and Technology to build a new detector system called <a href="https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/NuclearPhysics/Pages/Gamka.aspx">GAMKA</a>.</p>
<p>The construction will happen at iThemba LABS in Cape Town and involves a consortium of both wealthy and less well resourced universities. We’ll all have to work closely together, with the same aim, to be successful. That’s the key to making African science soar: knowing that if you try to do it alone, you won’t have all the skills or equipment. Together we can lead science worldwide through work done right here on the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65284/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nico Orce receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF), the South African-CERN Collaboration (Department of Science and Technology) and the University of the Western Cape.</span></em></p>Collaboration is one of the keys to making African science soar: when the continent’s universities work together, they can produce amazing results.Nico Orce, Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/529172016-02-01T10:47:52Z2016-02-01T10:47:52ZThe experiments trying to crack physics’ ‘biggest’ question: what is dark energy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109641/original/image-20160129-27342-9kj651.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist's impression of the Square Kilometre Array.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SKA Project Development Office and Swinburne Astronomy Productions/wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We live in interesting times. For thousands of years, we have thought we knew what the universe – and everything in it – was made of: normal matter, the kind that make up the elements of the periodic table. </p>
<p>However, the discovery in the 1990s of a completely unknown force dubbed <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-mysterious-dark-energy-that-speeds-the-universes-rate-of-expansion-40224">dark energy</a> that makes up 70% of the cosmos – causing it to expand at an accelerated rate – has taught us to be humble. Since then, astronomers have begun investing billions of pounds in experiments which aim to find out what this mysterious phenomenon is. What they discover is guaranteed to change physics forever. </p>
<h2>What’s happening now?</h2>
<p>From the mountaintops of Chile and Hawaii, several telescopes have so far been retro-fitted with new cameras that are beginning to make maps of large areas of the sky. The <a href="http://kids.strw.leidenuniv.nl/">Kilo Degree Survey</a>, the <a href="http://www.darkenergysurvey.org/">Dark Energy Survey</a>, and the <a href="http://www.naoj.org/Projects/HSC/">HyperSuprimeCam Survey</a> are all mapping about 10% of the sky in visible light.</p>
<p>The idea is to look at how galaxies and other structures are clustered across the sky. One way to do this is to measure “weak lensing”, an effect where the light from distant galaxies is distorted by matter on its way to us, which unveils the scaffolding of matter in the universe. Dark energy has an impact on this because it stops the matter clumping together, which pushes everything apart. This can also be measured by looking at <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-seeing-the-universe-through-spectroscopic-eyes-37759">spectra</a>, which separates starlight into its constituent wavelengths much like a prism does with sunlight, from galaxies.</p>
<p>Another measurement technique is based on tracking supernovae, bright flashes of light that we observe when massive stars die. Because the physics of stars is relatively well understood, the amount of light that is emitted can be determined very accurately. Therefore by measuring the brightness of supernovae their distances can be measured, helping us track how they move as a result of the expansion of the universe.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109643/original/image-20160129-27365-1npoet9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Composite image of the cluster of galaxies by the Dark Energy Survey. Bright points with horizontal white lines are stars in our own galaxy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclmaps/14771997570">UCL physical and mathematical sciences/FLICKR</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The experiments of the future</h2>
<p>Each of these experiments plans to make their first results known soon. However they are not purpose-built dark energy explorers. To get the most reliable results, astronomers have gone back to the drawing board and created more powerful – and much, much more expensive – experiments with bigger cameras that can map larger parts of the sky. </p>
<p>One of these is <a href="http://sci.esa.int/euclid/">Euclid</a>, a new satellite that is being built by the European Space Agency. Due to launch in 2020, over only five years it will fundamentally change our view of the sky by taking high-resolution images, much like the Hubble space telescope did for a small patch of sky. Euclid will use both the weak lensing and galaxy clustering approaches to map half the sky.</p>
<p>Over in Chile, the eight-metre <a href="http://www.lsst.org/about">Large Synoptic Survey Telescope</a>(LSST) is under construction. It too aims to map half the sky, but from the ground. Compared to Euclid, that will make a single very high-resolution image of the sky, LSST will make lower resolution pictures (blurred by the atmosphere). However its unique aspect is that it will create a movie of the sky by taking many hundreds of pictures over a decade, making it a powerful tool for detecting supernovae. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/">Square Kilometer Array</a>(SKA) will observe the sky in radio wavelengths through a network of radio dishes, which can be spread hundreds of kilometres apart. The SKA will network together radio dishes from the Sahara to South Africa, and across Australia, creating a single continent-sized telescope. </p>
<p>In 2010, a <a href="http://sites.nationalacademies.org/bpa/bpa_049810">decade-long US strategy for astronomy</a> proposed to combine a dark energy experiment and an exoplanet telescope into one. The concept that was born was called <a href="http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/">WFIRST</a> – a space telescope scanning for near-infrared waves. In 2012 the US National Reconnaissance Office offered to donate two unused “spy satellites”, the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope but with a wider field of view. One of these satellites now forms the core of the experiment, expected to launch in the mid-2020s. </p>
<p>While each of these telescopes will work in isolation, cosmologists are realising they’ll achieve more by combining the information <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1501.07897">from all of them</a>. Because they are very different, problematic effects such as those caused by instrument defects, can be removed by comparing the results. In fact, we are creating single super telescope for humanity. </p>
<h2>What could they find?</h2>
<p>While we don’t yet know what dark energy is, there are three main contenders for it: </p>
<p>• <strong>Energy of the vacuum</strong>. Some believe that dark energy is simply a constant sea of energy at some particular value that fills space. But if this is the case, why does it have the particular value we observe rather than something else? After all if it were just a little bit higher the universe would blow apart. Failing to find a “natural explanation” for why the universe is so fine-tuned for intelligent life, some cosmologists resort to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-science-and-philosophy-collide-in-a-fine-tuned-universe-25067">Anthropic Principle</a>, which states that the universe has this unlikely energy because if it didn’t, we wouldn’t be here to discuss it. But perhaps it is just part of a multiverse of parallel universes where the vacuum energy can be different in each?</p>
<p>• <strong>Dark energy is like an anti-gravity</strong>. This works to push the universe apart. By tweaking <a href="https://theconversation.com/einsteins-folly-how-the-search-for-a-unified-theory-stumped-him-to-his-dying-day-49646">Einstein’s theory of gravity</a>, or by creating <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.2476">brand new theories of gravity</a>, cosmologists have found that dark energy could indicate that our understanding of gravity is wrong. Gravity attracts, but maybe it’s repulsive on cosmic scales. </p>
<p>• <strong>A new Higgs-like field</strong>. Cosmologists were very happy when the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-higgs-boson-particle-280">Higgs boson</a> was discovered, partly because it’s a manifestation of a “Higgs field” – the first fundamental “scalar field” observed in nature. A scalar field is one that has a value at every point in space-time but no direction. An everyday example might be a pressure map on a weather forecast (values everywhere but no direction). A wind map, on the other hand, isn’t a scalar field as it has speed and overall direction. </p>
<p>Apart from Higgs, all particles in nature are associated with “quantum fields” that are like the analogy of wind maps. It <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988PhRvD..37.3406R">has been theorised</a> that, like Higgs, dark energy could be another example of a scalar field. </p>
<p>Of course all of these explanations may be wrong, dark energy could be something even stranger. But thanks to the efforts being put in over next decade, it seems we are close to finding out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Kitching receives funding from the Royal Society and the Science & Technology Facilities Council. </span></em></p>Dark energy is a completely unknown source making up 70% of the universe. Will any of the new projects designed to find out what it is succeed?Thomas Kitching, Lecturer in Astrophysics, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/465212016-01-10T19:15:06Z2016-01-10T19:15:06ZShooting the moon: the search for ultra high energy neutrinos<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100589/original/image-20151103-16519-1bboosy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The moon can be used to help in the hunt for high energy particles.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/byneilhall/9994710003/">Flickr/Neil Hall </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1991 physicists first detected a cosmic ray – a high-energy particle from space – with an energy beyond anything they’d dreamed of. They called it the <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150514-the-particle-that-broke-a-cosmic-speed-limit/">Oh-My-God particle</a>.</p>
<p>Probably the nucleus of an iron atom, it carried about 3x10<sup>20</sup> electron volts (eV), the energy of a well-bowled cricket ball, but this was contained in a single particle. This is also way beyond the energy that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can give a particle, which is about 10<sup>15</sup>eV.</p>
<p>More of these ultra-high-energy particles have been seen in the past 25 years but they are very rare, arriving at a rate of one per square kilometre per century. It’s hard to reach such high energies within our galaxy so the particles probably come from beyond it. </p>
<h2>From a place far, far away</h2>
<p>Being charged, cosmic-ray particles are deflected as they travel through our galaxy’s magnetic fields, making it difficult to tell where they come from. But we might learn that by studying one of their by-products, neutrinos, which were the focus of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-neutrinos-which-barely-exist-just-ran-off-with-another-nobel-prize-48726">this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics</a>.</p>
<p>Cosmic rays with energies beyond 5x10<sup>19</sup>eV should interact with the photons of the cosmic microwave background, producing high-energy neutrinos. Being uncharged, neutrinos travel in straight lines, and their direction of arrival points back towards their origin. </p>
<p>Neutrinos are interesting in their own right, too, and can be used to test some of the more exotic theories of particle formation in the early universe.</p>
<p>Neutrinos interact very little with other matter. That means they can bring us astronomical information from the most distant reaches of the universe. But it also means that to find them you need a really large detector. </p>
<h2>The moon’s a detector</h2>
<p>Fortunately, we can use our moon. In 1962 a Russian-Armenian physicist, Gurgen Askaryan, predicted that neutrinos interacting with rocks under the moon’s surface would generate a flash of radio waves lasting just a nanosecond – known as the Askaryan effect – and that this could be detected by a receiver on the moon.</p>
<p>In 1992 two Russians, R Dagkesamanskii and I M Zheleznykh, suggested that you wouldn’t need to put a receiver on the moon, you could just point a ground-based radio telescope at it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100586/original/image-20151103-16554-13sjghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lunar Askaryan effect: an ultra-high-energy neutrino interacts with the sub-surface rocks of the moon, generating a shower of radio photons that can be detected by a radio telescope on Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ron Ekers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I heard Zheleznykh talk about this in the early 1990s I realised that we could do the experiment – the first of its kind – with CSIRO’s <a href="http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/">Parkes telescope</a> in New South Wales. I put it together in 1995 with Tim Hankins, a US colleague, and John O'Sullivan, who had
led CSIRO’s development of Wi-Fi.</p>
<p>That first experiment gave us a limit rather than any detection, but it also triggered a new interest in using radio observations to study high-energy particles.</p>
<p>Two US researchers ran a second such experiment in the early 2000s, using NASA’s 70-metre antenna at <a href="http://www.gdscc.nasa.gov/">Goldstone</a> in California. This gained a lot of attention but we knew we could do a better one, at least ten times more sensitive. This time we used CSIRO’s <a href="https://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/">Compact Array</a>, a set of six 22-metre dishes in northwest NSW. </p>
<p>The array had a big advantage over Goldstone: it let us distinguish between radio pulses coming from the moon and those from terrestrial signals (radio-frequency interference). But some effort was needed to adapt it for detecting extremely short pulses. </p>
<p>So for our third experiment we decided to try again with Parkes, and use a different way to handle the radio-frequency interference.</p>
<p>Parkes has a radio receiver that lets it see 13 spots on the sky simultaneously. This, plus some technical wizardry from CSIRO engineer Paul Roberts, let us eliminate all the radio-frequency interference: a huge achievement. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100587/original/image-20151103-16542-491o3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The CSIRO Parkes telescope’s 13-beam receiver being lifted into the telescope’s focus cabin. Each of the instrument’s 13 holes ‘sees’ a separate spot on the sky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also used the timing signals from the GPS satellites, to measure the density of free electrons in the ionosphere, the upper part of the atmosphere, and even a piezoelectric barbecue lighter which made a radio impulse we used to calibrate signals.</p>
<p>In the past 15 years other research groups had entered the fray, but this second Parkes experiment was three times more sensitive than any previous one of its kind, and we pushed the limit on the flux of ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos down to its lowest level.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of wiggle room in the theories of how high-energy neutrinos are produced, but as observations tighten the limits the theorists have to gradually rule out some of their original ideas.</p>
<h2>Future observations</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://icecube.wisc.edu/">IceCube</a> experiment in Antarctica <a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-11-world-largest-particle-detector-icecube.html">recently detected</a> the first high-energy neutrinos from space, but these are still 10,000 times less energetic than the extremely rare ones we have been looking for.</p>
<p>There are other experiments proposed or in train that might find these elusive particles, including a satellite that uses the whole of the atmosphere as its detector.</p>
<p>The coming Square Kilometre Array (<a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/square-kilometre-array">SKA</a>) is the obvious instrument to try again to detect the neutrinos and there are discussions about how it could be used in an experiment.</p>
<p>With just a little bit more sensitivity than we had, which you could easily get with the SKA, the hope is that one day we could detect not only neutrinos but also the original cosmic rays interacting with the moon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ron Ekers receives funding from the ARC and CSIRO. </span></em></p>When looking for evidence of some of the universe’s mysterious high energy particles, why not enlist the help of our nearest neighbour: the moon.Ron Ekers, CSIRO Fellow, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/484372015-10-23T03:13:18Z2015-10-23T03:13:18ZAcademics must still ‘publish or perish’ under revamped research funding policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98844/original/image-20151019-23264-1gofhqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Academics are under enormous pressure to publish prolifically because this generates subsidies for their universities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The South African government’s research funding policy has long been <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3721321/">criticised</a> by academics. The policy has three major weaknesses:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>it offers incentives for output quantity and productivity rather than research quality;</p></li>
<li><p>it promotes the practice of dividing research outcomes between articles, thus diluting the impact of the research; and</p></li>
<li><p>it penalises work done in large collaborative projects.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Now South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training has approved a revised version of the contentious <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Policy%20and%20Development%20Support/Policy%20and%20procedures%20for%20measurement%20of%20Research%20output%20of%20Public%20Higher%20Education%20Institutions.pdf">2003 policy</a>. The <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Policy%20and%20Development%20Support/Research%20Outputs%20policy%20gazette%202015.pdf">Research Outputs Policy 2015</a> comes into effect from January 1, 2016. It has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/financial-reward-for-research-output-under-the-spotlight-in-south-africa-45567">welcomed</a> by some academics. They believe it has the potential to introduce considerable changes in how research output funds are awarded.</p>
<p>But will the apparently “new” policy actually just be more of the same?</p>
<h2>The status quo</h2>
<p>At the moment, a considerable portion of government funding to South African universities is allocated to an individual institution based on its academics’ annual research outputs. These outputs, collected under the umbrella of “publication units”, include peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters and conference proceedings. </p>
<p>Academics have complained that university management exploits the policy and uses it as a tool for accumulating funds. Some universities use the number of publication units as a <a href="http://www.saip.org.za/images/stories/documents/PhysicsComment/pcmarch2015.pdf">key indicator</a> when measuring academic staff members’ performance.</p>
<p>This drives a dangerous culture of “publish or perish” that makes the quantity of research output far more important to an individual academic’s career track than the quality of their work.</p>
<p>The existing policy also doesn’t encourage collaboration. That’s a big problem for scientists who participate in “big science” projects like the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (<a href="http://international-relations.web.cern.ch/International-Relations/nms/southafrica.html">SA-CERN</a>) or the Square Kilometre Array (<a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/">SKA</a>). Hundreds of authors feature on the publications that emerge from these collaborations. But these outputs earn zero subsidies under the government’s existing metric.</p>
<h2>Positive steps</h2>
<p>The updated research policy introduces some important improvements. For instance, it changes the way that scholarly books are subsidised. These books counted for five publication units under the 2003 policy; they are now worth ten units. The humanities and social sciences will mostly benefit from this.</p>
<p>A particularly positive aspect of the 2015 policy is that it highlights research integrity. This is a long overdue response to the “publish or perish” culture, not only in South Africa but elsewhere in the world. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/sep/05/publish-perish-peer-review-science">Academic dishonesty</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/sep/05/publish-perish-peer-review-science">plagiarism</a> increase when quantity is more profitable than quality.</p>
<p>In an important step, universities will be expected to take full ownership when it comes to protecting research integrity. Institutions must establish a Research Integrity Committee to ensure they become compliant with the integrity issues raised by the policy. The practice of dividing research outcomes between articles is also strongly discouraged, for the reason that it undermines the integrity of scholarship.</p>
<p>The policy, in its own words:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… aims to support and encourage scholarship. Institutions and academics must remember the importance of research integrity when submitting their claims and are urged to focus on quality research and not maximum accrual of subsidy funds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In all, the word “quality” features 12 times in the 2015 policy – a big jump from the 3 mentions it received in the 2003 version.</p>
<p>So, the policy talks the “quality” talk. But does it walk the walk? Sadly not.</p>
<h2>Big changes are absent</h2>
<p>In October 2013, a committee set up by the higher education and training minister released its list of <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/SiteAssets/Latest%20News/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20for%20the%20Review%20of%20the%20Funding%20of%20Universities.pdf">recommendations</a> about university funding. </p>
<p>How many of the committee’s major recommendations have been implemented in this new policy? Unfortunately almost none.</p>
<p>The committee suggested that a new formula ought to be introduced for calculating accredited publication units. This, it said, should take into account the scientific impact of a publication in terms of citation indexes, journal impact factors and publishers’ rankings. The new policy mentions this recommendation in passing – but as a throwaway line, something that should be discussed some time in the future. </p>
<p>There is also no mention of special rules aimed at incentivising academics’ involvement in international collaborations. For instance, if 15 South African authors are involved in a paper about a big science project, why not split the subsidy between these 15 and their institutions? That they are working with international academics shouldn’t stop local authors or their institutions from being rewarded by the South African government.</p>
<p>Most academics across a range of disciplines choose to disseminate their results through subsidised journal articles. The new policy has made no changes to the funding schemes for such articles, so it’s very likely that academics will feel forced to continue choosing quantity over quality.</p>
<h2>Aligning policies</h2>
<p>The Department of Higher Education and Training’s policy needs a far wider revision. This must be carried out in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.</p>
<p>The focus must be drifted away from the publication units metric. Instead, it must reward quality and encourage South African academics to get involved in more international collaborations, knowing that they will be subsidised for this sort of “big science”.</p>
<p>Finally, the government policy needs to be aligned with the country’s National Research Foundation <a href="http://www.nrf.ac.za/rating">metrics</a>. These are based entirely on the quality and impact of research. This will grant South African scholars the full and rounded support they need as they strive for quality, impactful research to support a knowledge-based economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emanuela Carleschi receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of Johannesburg. </span></em></p>A new policy on research outputs and funding will be introduced in South Africa in 2016. But it leaves too much unchanged from the old policy.Emanuela Carleschi, Senior Lecturer in Condensed Matter Physics, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.