But will he be good for science?

South African scientists are greatly concerned about Jacob Zuma becoming President of our country. Is the fear justified? Zuma’s comments about disposing of a viral infection by taking a shower indicated breathtaking ignorance and a stunning lack of judgment: he then used his lack of education as a defense in a rape trial!

South Africa is Africa’s technologically most advanced nation. We deserve a leadership that can take us forward in science and technology, not backwards. Our endowment of universities, research laboratories, biotechnology companies and government’s science council sector must be able to grow, flourish and advance.

The people deserve a leadership that must think about all the ways and means of using science and technology to combat poverty, build houses, lay sanitation pipes, supply clean water, deal with disease, grow food, promote nutrition, dispose of environmental waste, promote the use of recyclable materials and find alternative sources of energy.

Water, water everywhere...

To live all we really need to drink is water. We evolved on a planet covered, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge once put it, with ‘water, water, everywhere.’ We cannot though stomach salt water and had, in pre-modern times, to wait for the cycle that brings rain. As Coleridge also writes, there may be water everywhere, ‘nor any drop to drink.’

You may well imagine how it all went. We physiologically require water to hydrate our bodies and, like food, we were always in search of it. We competed with other animals to find reliable sources of water. We lived along rivers and mountain streams. We learnt how to trap and, in time, dam and channel water.

What is water? As you know from experience, water exists principally in three states: gas, liquid and solid. Biochemists long ago determined that it involves a hydrogen (two of those) and oxygen (one of those) molecules. Physicists say that the structure, density and temperature of the H2O molecules determine whether it comes in gas, water or ice.

Man's best friend...

The species name is Canis familiaris. It refers to our oldest companion and friend, the dog. Like us, it is classified as a eukaryote, having its genetic material stored in the nucleus of the cell. The genomes (full collection of genetic material) of two dogs, a Poodle named Shadow and a Boxer named Tasha, were sequenced in 2003 and 2004.

For genome scientists the dog is interesting because they get the same diseases we do, including cancer, heart disease and epilepsy. Dogs are also striking in their remarkable diversity in appearance and temperament. There are very small and very large ones, gentle and exceptionally vicious ones. We have of course bred them to be like that.