How mental ‘fooling around’ won scientists the Nobel Prize

In 2010, two Russian émigré scientists, Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who were working at the University of Manchester, in the UK, were awarded the Nobel Prize for working with graphite.

Prophecies of doom that never came to pass

A US-based gentleman by the name of John Dendahl emails me from time to time. He is the retired president of the First National Bank of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he and his wife, Jackie, now live in retirement near Denver, Colorado. Dendahl...

DA statement on nuclear energy way off the mark

The Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Shadow Minister of Energy, Lance Greyling, issued statement in which he said that the DA is shocked at government government averring that South Africa’s nuclear programme is now non-negotiable.

Earth Hour much ado about nothing

This very silly concept of Earth Hour has come and gone. During Earth Hour, people are asked to switch off as many electrical devices as possible, particularly lights, to try to show solidarity with something. That ‘something’ is very confused.

Pulling troops out of CAR a big mistake

It has been announced that South African troops deployed in the Central African Republic (CAR) are going to be withdrawn. From my layman’s position, looking in, I think that this move is a mistake. The South African military force should stay...

Police forensic work must be farmed out to private companies

There is a Bill scheduled to come up in Parliament concerning the creation of a national DNA database that will bank the DNA profiles of all convicted criminals and of those arrested on Schedule 1 offences. The plan is that this information will...

Nuclear Africa 2013 a resounding success

The Nuclear Africa 2013 conference, held during March, was most successful. We had delegates from a number of countries, including the UK, the US, France, Russia, Japan, Belgium and Korea.

Nuclear power is the future

Near the end of the ninetenth century, scientists were becoming aware of the existence of atoms. The philosophical concept of atoms had been mentioned hundreds of years earlier, but early scientists had no means of finding out if they existed....

Strategy development essential for the success of companies

I develop business strategies for companies. It is really important to have some sort of strategy in place. There is universal agreement on that point.

Nuclear power has much to recommend it

Electricity is one of the greatest liberators of mankind, much like the discovery of fire and the wheel changed the course of history. Prior to the discovery of electricity, virtually all motive power was directly linked to the muscle power of...