Browsing: Science

The first antennae for the MeerKAT radio telescope – the precursor to the large-scale Square Kilometre Array project – will be ready for service at the end of June, science & technology minister Naledi Pandor said on Friday. “Twenty-one antennae will be mounted and

The development surrounding the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is a sign to the world of Africa’s capability of producing excellence, science & technology minister Naledi Pandor said on Friday. The SKA project is an effort to build the largest and most

It takes a bold person to declare that interstellar travel is now within our grasp. Physicist Stephen Hawking has shown that he is just that, taking part in the Breakthrough Starshot initiative. The project has announced a US$100m research programme to investigate the technology

It’s an ambitious plan to launch a series of micro-spaceships to our stellar neighbours, but that’s what Russian billionaire Yuri Miller has announced this week. The US$100m Breakthrough Starshot project aims to send the probes out at speeds up to about one fifth the speed of

South African and Italian researchers published a research paper on Tuesday demonstrating a new type of laser that is able to produce laser beams “with a twist” as its output, opening the way for novel new lasers for use in optical communication, laser machining and

You don’t have to be a scientist to get excited about breakthroughs in theoretical physics. Discoveries such as gravitational waves and the Higgs boson can inspire wonder at the complex beauty of the universe no matter how little you really understand them

One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein, in his general theory of relativity, predicted the existence of a dark side to the cosmos. He thought there were invisible “gravitational waves”, ripples in space-time produced by some of the most violent events in the

Scientists working at the LIGO experiment in the US have for the first time detected elusive ripples in the fabric of space and time known as gravitational waves. There is no doubt that the finding is one of the most ground-breaking

An exhibition on mankind’s voyage into space, developed in collaboration with Nasa, is coming to South Africa this winter. After wowing crowds in Europe, Gateway to Space: The Exhibition will be hosted at the Sandton Convention Centre from 1 June to 31 July. Gateway