The zombies are coming—and 13-year old Kendra and her grandpa Joe are in the woods fighting for survival in the midst of an apocalypse. Husband-and-wife team writers and producers: Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes are creators of the horror film, Danger Word. The short is based on the original story The Living Dead 2 written by John Joseph Adams and has snagged veteran actor Frankie Faison and young thespian, Saoirse Scott.
The creative pair raises the question: when is a horror movie more than a horror movie? Is it when a community pulls together to escape, a teenage girl learns her strength, or when the heroes and heroines are black? The aim of the film is to highlight African-Americans in science fiction and fantasy, and to serve as a road map for children and adults who are ready to fulfill their artistic dreams.
Featured Posts (3478)
Sort by
Dark matter...dark energy...dark lightning...dark flow: I feel somewhat like a Sith Lord...
 |
| Credit: Nature |
National Geographic: New Proof Unknown "Structures" Tug at Our Universe
New Scientist: Blow for 'dark flow' in Planck's new view of the cosmos
Black Speculative Fiction Contest
RAGAZINE.CC
“Speculative Fiction by People of Color”
COMPETITION
$1000.00 First Prize.
Entry Fee just $15.00 per story.
Final judge Sheree Renée Thomas will provide a critique of the 2nd and 3rd place
entries. Honorable mentions will be made to the 4th and 5th place entries.
First prize $1,000.00 for the best piece
of speculative fiction completed
by a person of color in 2013.
Read More: http://ragazine.cc/2013/04/contest/
 |
| This artist's concept shows the huge, scorching-hot "Einstein's planet," formally known as Kepler-76b, orbiting its host star, which has been tidally distorted into a slight football shape (exaggerated here for effect). The planet was detected when astronomers spotted brightness changes in the star induced by the planet due to relativistic effects. CREDIT: David A. Aguilar (CfA) |
Einstein's special relativity has proven more useful than ever, as scientists have now used it to discover an alien planet around another star.
The newfound world — nicknamed "Einstein's planet" by the astronomers who discovered it — is the latest of more than 800 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, and the first to be found through this method.
The planet, officially known as Kepler-76b, is 25 percent larger than Jupiter and weighs about twice as much, putting it in a class known as "hot Jupiters." The world orbits a star located about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
Note: I reproduced the text verbatim, but I think that General Theory - i.e., gravitational lensing - is probably how the planet was discovered, and it is not a new or unique method. RG
Space.com: 'Einstein's Planet': New Alien World Revealed by Relativity
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor
That I am thankful for, really.
Christopher Emdin, professor of science and education writes "5 Ways to Stop a Black Scientist - Kiera Wilmot's Arrest" and I have to say something not just for clarity, but for sanity. The five ways are thus:
Criminalize curiosity - needed for scientific research.
Sending student to "expulsion schools" - see my comments below.
Stifling innovation.
Putting outdated rules over education.
Prison-type policies.
We keep observing like the proverbial deer in headlights an oncoming global train wreck with the smug arrogance that "America" is somehow a magical chant; an incantation that inoculates us from slipping from preeminence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our global competitors do NOT have tax-funded "creation museums"; our global competitors do NOT make political litmus tests involving a litany of science denial (The Big Bang, Climate Change, Evolution, Relativity - the MOON landing!); our global competitors do NOT have draconian standardized tests converting their students into the equivalent of Pavlov's canines: their teachers TEACH, and the profession is rightly revered. Finland, for example has not resorted to for-profit charter schools that will enrich a few and serve no one, and they are whipping our intellectual assets in an academic smackdown across Terra Firma!
We're not a "post-racial" society: if anything, 2008 and 2012 showed the rising political power of so-called minorities and much maligned millennials; their ability to make themselves known at the ballet box. We're still sectioning ourselves into "proper" career pursuits, and societal positions - note the diversity in AP classes at any high school campus; note the celebration of athletic or musical prowess and which groups are targeted in advertising it.
Blocking their wishes, rigging the system, changing "times and laws," making it harder to vote only will encourage them to wait - 5, 10 15 hours or more - to make their desires heard, as they do not have unlimited amounts of monies to pour and and purchase a politician. They/We naively believe democracy was based on Jefferson's trinity of three greatest men, and is worth participating in and preserving. Lessening access to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and knowledge is the opposite of John Donne's wisdom: it lessens America from chant to sad historical footnote.
This is far beyond Kiera and race: it is what we want to eventually be as a nation going forward, or in the words of the Bard: "not to be!"
The charges have been dropped, thankfully. Kiera is currently at an "expulsion school," waiting to see if she can return to her campus in the fall, hopefully with her scientific curiosity safely intact.
Orlando Sentinel:
Kiera Wilmot, student who caused small explosion won't face charges
George Clinton, musician, actor, sci-fi funk evangelist is known and loved the world over as the front man for Fuck Super Group Parliament - Funkadelic.
Originally a "doo-wap" group founded in the late 50's, Parliament would later be converted by George Clinton to atmospheric funk super-stardom
Around the same time that Parliment was being retrofitted for the glories of the 70's, Clinton also started the band "Funkadelic."
In reality, the two groups were always related. Funkadelic was mainly a vehicle for showcasing artists of Parliament. At the time, Clinton was involved in a contractual dispute that left him without the use of the name Parliament." Over time, both groups were marketed as displaying variations on the theme of Funk, even though the same musicians were rotating between the two.
Eventually, Clinton combined the groups into the Afro-futurist super group Parliament-Funkadelic, or as it is more commonly known, "P-Funk."
What follows is the solid gold awesome which are some Parliament / Funkadelic Album covers.
See more at The Moorsgate Media Blog
 |
| View of the main solenoid of the CMS detector at CERN: is new physics lurking in the vast amounts of data acquired by the experiment? (Courtesy: CERN/Samuel Morier-Genoud) |
After discovering the Higgs boson last year, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider are now trawling through the data as the collider undergoes an 18-month shutdown for repairs and upgrades. The goal is to discover hints of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics – but tantalizing glimpses of new physics have been harder to spot than many physicists had expected.
But while the public has largely taken the discovery of the Higgs boson as mission accomplished for the €3.8bn collider, many particle physicists have been shaking their heads in disappointment. Since it started collecting data, the LHC has exposed few – if any – traces of physics beyond the Standard Model, a framework that is now some 40 years old. There has been no solid evidence for dark matter, supersymmetry, miniature black holes, extra dimensions or any of the other exotic phenomena that theorists excitedly talked about prior to the machine's switch-on. If there is new physics still waiting to be found, the question is: where? And will it turn up in the current shutdown period from an analysis of existing data or in the next, higher energy run?
Physics World: Higgs hunters look beyond the Standard Model
 |
| Structure of superionic ice in (left) the bcc phase and (right) the newly discovered and more stable fcc phase. Credit: Hugh F. Wilson, et al. ©2013 American Physical Society bcc = body-centered cubic; fcc = face-centered cubic |
(Phys.org) —While everyone is familiar with water in the liquid, ice, and gas phases, water can also exist in many other phases over a vast range of temperature and pressure conditions. One lesser known phase of water is the superionic phase, which is considered an "ice" but exists somewhere between a solid and a liquid: while the oxygen atoms occupy fixed lattice positions as in a solid, the hydrogen atoms migrate through the lattice as in a fluid. Until now, scientists have thought that there was only one phase of superionic ice, but scientists in a new study have discovered a second phase that is more stable than the original. The new phase of superionic ice could make up a large component of the interiors of giant icy planets such as Uranus and Neptune.
The scientists, Hugh F. Wilson (now at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO] in Australia), Michael L. Wong, and Burkhard Militzer at the University of California, Berkeley, have published a paper on the new phase of superionic ice in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.
Phys.org:
New phase of water could dominate the interiors of Uranus and Neptune
 |
New NIST Reference Materials for MEMS devices are micromachined and further processed to contain miniature cantilevers, beams, stair-like step heights, microscale rulers and test structures for measuring surface-layer thickness. On the left is RM 8096, which was manufactured with an integrated circuit process; on the left is RM 8097, made with a MEMS process. Credit: NIST |
As markets for miniature, hybrid machines known as MEMS grow and diversify, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has introduced a long-awaited measurement tool that will help growing numbers of device designers, manufacturers and customers to see eye to eye on eight dimensional and material property measurements that are key to device performance.
The NIST-developed test chips (Reference Materials 8096 and 8097) are quality assurance tools that enable accurate, reliable comparisons of measurements on MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) devices made with different equipment and by different labs or companies. These capabilities will make it easier to characterize and troubleshoot processes, calibrate instruments and communicate among partners.
MEMS were once considered a stepchild of the semiconductor industry and largely confined to automotive uses—primarily as accelerometers in airbag systems. But the devices have branched out into an array of applications, especially in consumer electronics markets. A high-end smart phone, for example, contains about 10 such devices, including microphones, accelerometers and gyroscopes. MEMS devices also are important components of tablet computers, game consoles, lab-on-a-chip diagnostic systems, displays and implantable medical devices.
NIST: New NIST Measurement Tool Is On Target for the Fast-Growing MEMS Industry
"Somewhere within the fractional confines of the Multiverse, Agents for the Office of Theoretical Cognition are optimizing your hypothetical self. The problem has been, as it always will be, 'what happens to you, when you are better then you'?
You, you're gonna be in for a world of hurt; that's what. The theoretical you...man...the optimal potential you made corporeal... Sucker, he is better than you on your best day. Theoretical You is about to kick Actual You's ass."
-The Ballad of Brolic Jones
www.moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com
twitter: Moorsgate
Well, Readers, I'm from South Carolina. What is South Carolina, you ask? It's a state in the U.S.A. in the region commonly known as "The South". It was the state that sparked our nation's civil war. It's a state that clings to this rebellious heritage. One of its senators, Strom Thurmond, was the guy who spoke loudest against civil rights for Black Americans. With all this being said, South Carolina is well-known for racism. Everyone can agree on this. What disturbs me today is that it is now about to be known for political stupidity. Not idealistic stupidity, where I ramble on about values and the principles of the Founding Fathers. South Carolina will now be known as the capital of just plain stupid in America.
Why? Because they just elected Mark Sanford to Congress. Mark Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina, but he's more well-known for his illicit extra-marital affair with an Argentinian national. Am I saying that cheaters shouldn't be elected to office? No. Politicians cheat. I'm a cynic. I am a firm believer in cheating politicians. They'll cheat on their taxes, their constituents, and their wives. None of that is any surprise to me. Former president Bill Clinton was a cheater, so was former California governor Arnold Scharzenegger. Eliot Spitzer liked high-class hookers. Their infidelities are well-known and I, personally, do not judge their politics by their family affairs. Sex is sex. Politics is politics.
What makes electing Mark Sanford such a stupid move is the WAY that he cheated on his wife. For those of you who don't know, Mark Sanford went missing for six days back in 2009. Now you might be in another country reading this, so I want to explain that a state governor turning up missing for six days is not a good thing. No one knew where he was, including the state law division which is supposed to provide security for him. Of course, his wife didn't know where he was either. Before his disappearance, he told his staff that he would be hiking in the mountains for a few days. That's okay. South Carolina has mountains that you can hike. Lots of them. Unfortunately, no one knew which mountain he was supposed to be hiking on. For six days, the entire state of South Carolina, a place roughly the size of Portugal, did not know where its leader was. For six days, 4.7 million people were leaderless.
Where was governor Mark Sanford? In a word: Argentina. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of South Carolina, I will let you know that Argentina is not in the mountains of South Carolina. In fact, it's not in South Carolina at all. The governor left the state without telling anyone. Oh, but it gets worse. Argentina is not only not in South Carolina, it's not in the U.S. It's a country in South America. For six days, the governor wasn't even on the same CONTINENT as South Carolina, and he told NO ONE, not even the people who are supposed to protect him.
Yes, he was cheating on his wife. Whoop-dee-doo! That's not an excuse to abandon your post and leave the country. Had he been a member of our military he would have been imprisoned without question. If he'd been a member of another country's military, he would've been branded a deserter and killed. In case of an emergency, like a natural disaster, an American governor has to be be there to declare a state-of-emergency so that evacuations can be planned, federal money can be freed up to help the needy; and to mobilize the state militia. Being a state governor is actually a pretty important job to have in this country. However, you need to be IN THE STATE or at the very least, IN THE COUNTRY, to do it.
Yes, Bill Clinton cheated on his wife too...with a White House intern. How is that better? Simple.
"Aliens are attacking! Where's the President?"
"In his office."
That's where the President's supposed to be. In his office. Arnold Scharzenegger cheated on his wife with the maid while he was governor of California. How is that better?
"Zombies are attacking Los Angeles. Where's the governor?
"At home."
That's okay. His house is guarded and they have his home phone on record. Eliot Spitzer was an attorney general (very important lawyer) for the state of New York. He was cheating on his wife with a hooker. Where was he? A hotel down the street from his office with his staff's FULL knowledge. Let's try this with Mark Sanford:
"A category 5 hurricane is heading for South Carolina. Where's the governor?"
"Uh, the mountains..."
"Which mountain?"
"He didn't say."
"Did you call him?"
"He's not answering his phone."
He wouldn't be able to answer his cell phone since Argentina is WELL outside the calling plans of most cell phone companies in the U.S. This is bad. Very bad. I understand that South Carolinians respect his political views and hope that he will express them in Congress. However, a congressman's power comes from voting on issues, and, yes, that requires that he actually be in the room, in the country, and on the continent to do it. Of course, when he turns up missing next time, he won't be in Argentina because he's imported his booty-call to the U.S. She's here now. The next time he comes up missing (because cheating is an addiction), he'll more than likely be in Siberia with some Russian heifer. He'll still have his conservative views though, but what good are conservative ideals when you're not IN THE COUNTRY to express them? Thus, congratulations, South Carolina! You are now the center of stupid.
My new book "Squirrels & Puppies" is out now!
MCOR Technologies White Paper: How 3D printing works.
Entertainment:
Last year’s blockbuster sci-fi thriller, Prometheus, owes some of its success to the visionary work of FBFX Ltd, a film industry model company, and to the 3D printers that brought their creations to life.
Set on a, shall we say, unhospitable planet, the characters in Prometheus are constantly wearing spacesuits. While the fabric portions of these spacesuits can be mocked up by costume designers, the high-tech, LED-filled helmets had to be created using 3D models. That job fell to Grant Pearmain, FBFX’s managing director, and his team.
Engineering:
One of the most difficult parts of integrating electronics with biological tissue is getting the numerous tissues and materials to meld. At a lab in Princeton, New Jersey scientists are making progress on this effort using 3D printing.
According to Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, “In general, there are mechanical and thermal challenges with interfacing electronic materials with biological materials.” In the past, researchers have attempted to overcome this hurdle by binding a piece of “seed” tissue to an electronic component.
But at McAlpine’s lab, that un-artful solution is being challenged with new state of the art techniques. “[O]ur work suggests a new approach -- to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format."
To do this, the Princeton team used 3D printing to create the complex topography of the human ear with a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells. Silver nano particles, which made up the structure of the antenna, were added to the ear's form to create a new audio receiver.
Anarchy:
Nearly a year ago the founder of Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson, announced his plans to create the world’s first 3D printed gun. In the coming days, Wilson plans to release his 3D Printed gun. Its name: “The Liberator”.
Over the course of the last year, Wilson and his team at Defense Distributed have made remarkable strides in creating 3D printed components like a magazine and lower receiver for the much maligned AR-15 assault rifle.
However, Wilson’s newest design is a complete departure from their previous work in that The Liberator is a standalone, fully functional 3D printed handgun. In fact, according to Wilson the only functional component in the gun that isn’t 3D printed is the weapon’s firing pin. To comply with the US Undetectable Firearms Act, The Liberator also contains a 6 oz. piece of steel to make it detectable by metal detectors, however, anyone who prints the weapon could simply decide not to add this component to their model.
Ironically: conservative icon near-demigod Ronald Reagan banned plastic weapons, so I expect the introduction of a single nail or cube of metal into the fuselage will be challenged in courts, as no such modification can be regulated, hence anarchy (both the domestic and international terrorist kind). Mike Weisser drops the science in an open letter to Wayne LaPierre. And, the gun industry will soon realize that 3D printing can be as detrimental to bottom-line capitalism as gun sales without selling paranoia that the government is going to take them: why walk in a gun store when you ARE the gun store?
 |
| Kiera Wilmot |
Thomas Edison was known for explosions.
Throughout his childhood, Thomas Edison was full of curiosity about how things worked and always asked a lot of questions. He didn't do very well in a traditional school setting, and often got punished for annoying the teacher with too many questions. As a result, after the age of twelve, he was home-schooled by his mother. His interest in science was first sparked when his mother bought him his first scientific book, The School of Natural Philosophy. He thoroughly studied the book and performed all the experiments described in it at home. He soon set up his own laboratory in his room and began performing original experiments. After a few disasters, he was asked by his parents to move his laboratory to the basement. The explosions from the basement constantly shook the house, often upsetting his father.
But...the experiments did NOT stop.
A motivational speaker once used Edison as an example of perseverance.
Lab Assistant (exasperated after an explosion):
When are you going to give up this STUPID idea? That was the 9,999th time you have NOT invented this light bulb! You could have gotten us killed!
Edison:
That's right. This is the 9,999th trial. But, please make note of the explosive application that might prove useful later...
I've referenced my own 1st experiment as a spectacular explosion. It was my parents' support that carried me through some rough times in science, one of which my middle school science teacher called me "a big dummy" in front of class. I LAUGHED in his face! Did he want me to kowtow to his lowered expectations? Did he not know Lewis Latimer aided Edison in his "stupid idea"? Who DID he think he was? When you have confidence and support from loved ones, you automatically have chutzpah. As I did, this young queen should do so as well: hold your head high.
Sometimes, science can be dramatic, dangerous, and if you survive the adventure: thrilling and invigorating. Not de-emphasizing safety here, just access...to knowledge, and ultimately power and self-determination.
News of Kiera Wilmot’s arrest has seriously unnerved me. She is the Florida high school student who was experimenting with common household chemicals in science class that resulted in a minor explosion. There were no injuries and no damage to school property; however, she was taken away in handcuffs, formally arrested and expelled from school.1
A 16 year old Florida student with good grades, who is described by her principal as a “good kid”, is now facing felony charges for a science experiment gone wrong.2
Really?
A few probing questions...
Where was the teacher? Answered: this was done before classes began.
Who was harmed? Answered: no one.
What do we do with white collar computer hacks? Answered: we tend to hire them to IT firms.
What are we doing to give the next generation enthusiasm towards STEM careers in a globe increasingly complex, defined by science advancing at light speed, needing this kind of adventurous wonder, when life-and-death decisions are going to be predicated on how deep their critical thinking skills are, their sense of wonder is developed?
...Nothing!
And lastly: which side of the criminal justice system would you rather see Kiera on?
Answer: I'd prefer her in a research lab, or working at an engineering firm, personally.
1. SciAm The Urban Scientist: Florida teen charged with felony for trying science
2. Your Black World: 16 Year Old Charged With Felony After Science Project Goes Wrong
Change.org:
Bartow Police Chief, Tammy Glofelty - State PA: Drop Felony Charges and Release Kiera Wilmot
 |
| Perched on the International Space Station around 400 km above the Earth, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) collects data from primary cosmic rays before they can interact with the atmosphere. Image credit: NASA. |
The international team running the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) has announced the first results in its search for dark matter. They indicate the observation of an excess of positrons in the cosmic-ray flux. The results were presented by Samuel Ting, the spokesperson of AMS, in a seminar at CERN on 3 April, the date of publication in Physical Review Letters.
The AMS results are based on an analysis of some 2.5 × 1010 events, recorded over a year and a half. Cuts to reject protons, as well as electrons and positrons produced in the interactions of cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere, reduce this to around 6.8 × 106 positron and electron events, including 400,000 positrons with energies between 0.5 GeV and 350 GeV. This represents the largest collection of antimatter particles detected in space.
CERN Courier: AMS measures antimatter excess in space
Peace BSFS family, I had the chance to create some artwork for this campaign. Its aim is to create beautiful images of families you dont get to see at Cvs or Walgreens. These cards celebrate women of color, queer families, and the one I worked on celebrates fathers of color. These are easily shareable online, and customizable and they're free. Spread the word, another world is possible.
Feel free to use these images if you feel them. And check out this video
There is a difference when science uses the word theory -- and the ubiquitous phrase "in theory" in conversation. A theory is a well-researched explanation of a hypothesis or group of hypotheses, corroborated by experimentation following the Scientific Method, peer review and repeated - often thousands of times - with reliable results. Thus, you have flu vaccines, AZT, GPS, nanotechnology, your cell phone; the Internet.
When someone ask me "do you believe in the Theory of Relativity and/or Theory of Evolution," my retort is always "do you believe in the Theory of Pythagoras (Pythagorean Theorem)?" I always get strange looks. Again: a2 + b2 = c2 fits the previous paragraph's description.
A fitting comparison for the genius that opened our understanding to the geometry of spacetime...
About 7,000 light-years from Earth, an exceptionally massive neutron star that spins around 25 times a second is orbited by a compact, white dwarf star. The gravity of this system is so intense that it offers an unprecedented testing ground for theories of gravity.
Scientists know general relativity, proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, isn't the complete story. While it does very well describing large, massive systems, it's incompatible with quantum mechanics, which governs the physics of the very small. For something extremely small, yet extremely massive — such as a black hole — the two theories contradict each other, and scientists are left without a physical description.
Rare systems like this binary star pair offer a chance to probe the boundary between the two theories, and search for possible openings toward new physics that could reconcile them.
"We thought this system might be extreme enough to show a breakdown in general relativity, but instead, Einstein's predictions held up quite well," Paulo Freire, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, said in a statement.
Space.com: Einstein's Gravity Theory Passes Toughest Test Yet, Clara Moskowitz
The two observed events from August 2011 (left panel) and January 2012 (right panel). Each sphere represents a DOM (digital optical module). Colors represent the arrival times of the photons where red indicates early and blue late times. The size of the spheres is a measure for the recorded number of photoelectrons. Credit: arXiv:1304.5356 [astro-ph.HE]
(Phys.org) —Researchers at the Antarctic research station IceCube are reporting that they've detected the highest ever energy neutrinos ever observed. In their paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, the team describes how in analyzing sensor data over the period 2010 to 2012 they found evidence of two neutrino induced events that were on an order of ten times the energy of any previous event.
Neutrinos are of particular importance to researchers because they have no charge and very little mass. This means they are free to travel through space without having their paths changed due to gravitational or magnetic forces, a trait that makes them very valuable for one day locating their source. The two neutrinos recorded at IceCube (dubbed Bert and Ernie) are of particular relevance because the odds are very good that they came from the far reaches of space, rather than as a by-product of a collision between cosmic rays and Earth's atmosphere—the researchers give it a confidence level of 2.8 sigma—meaning that the two neutrinos are very likely the first detected from outside the solar system since 1987, when detectors recorded neutrinos believed to have come from a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Phys.org: Researchers at IceCube detect record energy neutrinos
Meet Francisca Okeke, Professor of Physics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She recently received the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award for her significant contributions to the understanding of daily variations of the ion currents in the upper atmosphere which may further our understanding of climate change. She was also the Dean in the faculty of Physical Sciences at her University, from 2008 to 2010.
Professor Okeke spoke with us about her background and inspiration, the cultural challenges she overcame in achieving success and how she uses her position to encourage and inspire young women scientists in Nigeria.
What challenges did you face, in particular, with regards to the stereotypes of women and the culture in your country, Nigeria, when you decided to get involved in science?
In the past, the core sciences such as physics were regarded as male domains where women were expected not to be seen but to be heard. People used to think that when you get into these core science subjects, like physics, the characteristics that are most worthily accepted for women in our society, including passivity, emotionality, intuition and receptivity would no longer be possessed by that woman. Therefore they fought against women trying to embark on studying these core subjects.
But, my own case was a little different; my father was an old graduate of mathematics who was my mentor, so I did not face that in my family because he was supportive of everything about science. Not only did he encourage me, he was my mentor. He planted and watered the seed of my academic excellence which we are celebrating today. He laboured and inspired my love for science in general, and mathematics in particular. That love for mathematics later metamorphosed into a special love for physics.
"To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter." Euripides
Professor Edmund Zingu served on the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) Council from 1999 to 2006, and was President of the SAIP from 2003 to 2004. He was in fact the first black President in the history of the SAIP[1].
He played crucial leadership roles in many projects, particularly in physics related development issues. He was Vice President of the IUPAP, and Chair of the C13 Commission on Physics for Development. He was primarily responsible for bringing to South Africa the iconic ‘Physics for Sustainable Development’ conference in 2005[2] as a part of the International Year of Physics. This conference cast a distinct spotlight on physics as an instrument for development in Africa.
We would like to specifically mention his tremendous contribution to two extremely important projects of the Institute. The first was the highly successful Shaping the Future of Physics, where he contributed to the design of the project and also served as chair of the Management and Policy Committee that oversaw the international review in 2003.
Professor Zingu began his physics career at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He was a materials physicist, and with his collaborators at Cornell University invented a new method to study atomic diffusion by transmission electron microscopy[4]. Later he studied diffusion phase transitions in thin films due to induced thermal stress[5]. He had a period of employment at Turfloop, QwaQwa Campus, then as Head of the Physics Department and later Dean of Basic Sciences (1990-1993) at MEDUNSA. He later returned to UWC and served as Head of the Physics Department (1994-1998), and finally Vice Rector of Mangosuthu University of Technology in Umlazi, Durban until the time of his retirement.
Edmund was a pioneer for physics in post-apartheid South Africa, a visionary, a tireless campaigner for strengthening the discipline of physics* and, above all, a true gentleman. His leadership and contributions were characterized by sensitivity, perceptiveness, vision, ethics, wisdom, global standards and great industry. He will be sorely missed.
NSBP Multi Briefs: Professor Edmund Zingu
NSBP Vector: Professor Edmund Zingu
SAIP: Professor Edmund Zingu Passes On
