Lesley : Cowling Material
While the country is warming up to the Year of Science and Technology, the science councils are still in the dark about their funding from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. Representatives of the councils, charged with organising certain “thrust” areas, say the funding allocations for their projects have only been verbally confirmed. Some also complain that they have still not received feedback for proposals they presented last year. Some councils are going ahead and will fund programmes from their own coffers. Others are reluctant to begin planning without the assurance that their expenses will be covered. So these repositories of science sit on the sidelines as advertising and events kick off all over the country, especially the Western Cape.Afterdeath experience
The late Eugene Shoemaker headed for the moon last week, posthumously fulfilling his dream of being an astronaut. The astronomer and inventor of the science of astrogeology said before he died in a car crash last year: “Not going to the moon and banging on it with my own hammer has been the biggest disappointment in my life.” But colleagues at the University of Arizona have seen to it he will get there by slipping a capsule containing his ashes on board the spacecraft Lunar Prospector, which is to make the first formal Nasa exploration of the moon for 25 years.Like mother, like child
If you crave curries, love pickles or adore fish, blame your mother. According to new research, we develop food preferences in the womb. A study by the Institute of Food Research shows that we remember flavours introduced in the womb and tend to veer towards them after birth. Babies whose mothers ate hot curries and chillies while pregnant exhibit preferences for these foods early in life. The report cites new research indicating that foetuses can distinguish distinctive flavours, partly through their sense of smell. Foetal tastes may be reinforced during breast-feeding. Related research shows breast-fed infants eat far more vegetables than formula-fed babies.
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