Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Sarah Wild

Creator

Sarah Wild

Sarah Wild is a multiaward-winning science journalist. She studied physics, electronics and English literature at Rhodes University in an effort to make herself unemployable. It didnt work and she now writes about particle physics, cosmology and everything in between.In 2012, she published her first full-length non-fiction book Searching African Skies: The Square Kilometre Array and South Africas Quest to Hear the Songs of the Stars, and in 2013 she was named the best science journalist in Africa by Siemens in their 2013 Pan-African Profiles Awards.

Human history: Sterkfontein Cave at the Cradle of Humankind outside Joburg. (Mark Harris/Getty Images)
HUMAN ORIGINS

Making no bones of science

This is an edited extract from Sarah Wild’s new book ‘Human Origins’

  • Sarah Wild
7 min read
The Net1 subsidiary’s director, Nunthakumarin Pillay, says in his affidavit that hundreds of thousands of social grant beneficiaries had opted to receive their social assistance in EPE accounts. (Gallo)
MEERKAT RADIO TELESCOPE

For tech to be funded, it must improve lives

Whether it was in the use of satellites to monitor the continent’s resources or precision medicine, we need technology to accelerate development.

  • Sarah Wild
6 min read
In June 2015, Molefe wrote to Optimum stating that Eskom had terminated the settlement process. (Samantha Reinders)
CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

MPs to get science classes

Political buy-in is vital to science and research, particularly in a constrained economic environment.

  • Sarah Wild
3 min read
Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are regarded as front-runners to take over from Zuma as ANC president next year

Ramaphosa and the science of the spotlight

This year’s Science Forum South Africa had an additional enticement: deputy president and ANC presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa.

  • Sarah Wild
3 min read
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering his opening address at the Third Science Forum South Africa held at CSIR International Convention Centre
CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

​Promoting science for youth ‘a smart choice’

The annual Science Forum is the government’s showcase of continental science and technology.

  • Sarah Wild
2 min read
But youth unemployment in South Africa is a major crisis
ACADEMIC FUNDING

Science and technology: The key to addressing youth unemployment

Cyril Ramaphosa and Naledi Pandor have a particularly pro-intellectual stance, pushing science and technology as a way to drive economic growth.

  • Sarah Wild
3 min read
CSIR

We want to promote Africa as a science-intent continent— Naledi Pandor

Science Forum South Africa continues to be the only science forum of its kind for the country and the continent

  • Sarah Wild
5 min read
Students protest outside Parliament last year against a proposed hike in tuition fees.
ANDREW WAKEFIELD

Only dishonest mental gymnastics can hold up the hypothesis of race ‘science’

Although it is totally discredited, its pervasive influence still colours perceptions because of its long association with empirical validity

  • Sarah Wild
7 min read
If US scientists get the go-ahead to edit the genes of viable embryos
DNA

Gene editing: Panel approval ushers in new era

We have the technology to edit the human genome, cut out parts of it and insert preprogrammed bits of replacement genome.

  • Sarah Wild
5 min read
“Gene editing, which is being done in groups all over the world including in South Africa, involves tweaking adult human cells.”(Photo: David Paul Morris, Bloomberg)
GENETIC ENGINEERING

Gene-editing: Panel approval ushers in new era

Science is advancing faster than our legislation

  • Sarah Wild
6 min read
Mnangagwa
GAUTENG

Long quest to understand these bodies without identities

Thousands of unidentified bodies pass through South Africa’s mortuaries every year. Who are they? How did they end up there?

  • Sarah Wild
13 min read
Change the direction of your thesis if things have changed in the world – don’t stick with something that isn’t working

Science Forum South Africa puts the spotlight on overlooked social sciences

‘We should not succumb to the temptations of a post-truth society. Evidence, facts, must remain the yardsticks for progress’

  • Sarah Wild
2 min read
The MeerKAT radio telescope, to become part of the international Square Kilometre Array project, is one of South Africa’s most high profile science projects, but there is a lot more to be proud of. (Photo: SKA)

Why have a science forum?

Science Forum South Africa

  • Sarah Wild
5 min read
“What made us poor and poverty stricken was the dispossession of land. When you get it
ESKOM

At the heart of Eskom’s vast network is a strategic hub that keeps things running

A small group of experts constantly monitors the workings of the system and stays abreast of new developments.

  • Sarah Wild
8 min read
MEERKAT RADIO TELESCOPE

MeerKAT’s astounding hearing is already eavesdropping on the universe

The still infant telescope, which will be a major part of the Square Kilometre Array, is proving to be much more effective than anticipated.

  • Sarah Wild
6 min read