Pint of Science Belville 15 May Planet Earth

ABOUT

Prof. Jill Farrant - Food security in a hotter, drier future? 

Drought is one of the greatest threats to world agriculture and it has been predicted that, due to effects of global warming, there will be considerable aridification in current food producing areas of the world. To safeguard food production, it is essential to improve drought tolerance in crops, particularly cereals, which provide 95% of all plant food supplies. Cereals die upon loss of between 30 and 50% of cellular water and while efforts have been made to improve resistance to water loss, these mechanisms inevitably fail under severe drought conditions. Resurrection plants possess vegetative desiccation tolerance (DT), surviving drying to 5% of cellular water for extended periods without loss of viability. Angiosperm resurrection species occurring in Southern Africa also survive extreme heat; conditions which severely limit current agricultural practices. 

Prof. Farrant’s research has involved investigating the mechanisms whereby several different resurrection plants tolerate these extreme conditions, with the view of introducing such characteristics into crops for true drought tolerance and ultimately food security in the face of climate change.

Jill Farrant is a full Professor and holds a South African Research Chair in “Systems Biology Studies on Plant Desiccation Tolerance for Food Security” in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town. She is an acknowledged world leader in the field of plant desiccation tolerance (holding a rarely given A rated status by the South African National Research Foundation), working on both seeds and resurrection plants. Her fundamental research involves use of a systems biology approach (using techniques in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology and physiology) to understand the protection mechanisms (and regulation thereof) laid down in orthodox seeds and vegetative tissue of resurrection plants, with the ultimate aim of using key protectants identified to make extremely drought tolerant crops. Jills PhD involved investigating developmental aspects of the recalcitrant seeds of Avicennia marina to identify reasons for their desiccation sensitivity and she has recently re-entered this field of investigation.

She has received considerable recognition for her research, having achieved 10 national and international awards, the most recent being the L’Oreal-UNESCO award in life sciences (2012) that ‘recognizes women whose exceptional careers in science have opened up new and sometimes revolutionary ways of improving human well-being’ and the EPFL WISH Foundation Erma Hamburger award for ‘ground breaking work in phytology and being a exceptional role model to plant biologists world wide’. Jill has 136 peer reviewed publications and over 200 conference proceediing and has graduated 34 MSc students and 19 PhD students during the 25 years she has been an academic.

Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan? - Dinosaurs- How we know what we know ?

Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan is a palaeobiologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town. She is a global expert on the microscopic structure of the bones of extinct and extant vertebrates. Her work has been recognized by several highly acclaimed awards: For example, in 1995 she received an NRF President Award, in 2005 she won the South African Woman of the Year Award, which acknowledges her contribution to science both in terms of research and science communication to the wider public. In 2005 she also won the "Distinguished Women Scientist Award" from the South African Department of Science and Technology, and in 2012 she was awarded the NRF Transformation Award.

In 2013 she was awarded The World Academy of Science’s (TWAS), sub-saharan prize for the Popularisation of Science. Professor Chinsamy-Turan has published extensively - both in international scientific journals (including 4 publications in Nature and 1 in Nature Communications) as well as in the popular press. She is former President of the Association of South African Women in Science and Engineering (SA WISE), former Deputy President of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and she has also served as Director of Iziko Museums Natural History Collections (which includes the SA Museum).

Prof. Chinsamy-Turan currently Chairs the Advisory Boards of Scifest Africa, the biggest science festival in Africa and she is a member of the Advisory Board the Cape Town Science Centre, and in addition she is Chair of the Romer-Simpson Prize Committee of the US-based Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, and serves as a board member for the Jurassic Foundation (US). She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South African, the University of Cape Town and The Word Academy of Sciences. Her academic book, The Microstructure of Dinosaur Bone - Deciphering Biology Through Fine Scale Techniques was published by Johns Hopkins University Press, USA in 2005) and her popular level book for children entitled, "Famous Dinosaurs of Africa" was published by Struik, SA in 2008). Her latest academic book is entitled, "The Forerunners of Mammals: Radiation. Histology. Biology" (2012, Indiana University Press, USA), and her recent popular level book is “Fossils for Africa”, published in 2014 by Cambridge University Press.

Dr. Haley Cawthra - The ocean floor of South Africa sheds light on past climates, environments and early human pathways

Sea level changes constantly, in accordance with glacial-interglacial cycles every ~100,000 years. A certain consequence is that during the glacials, what is now seafloor becomes exposed subaerially as a coastal plain. This presentation shows a submerged terrestrial landscape on the continental shelf of the South African South Coast near Mossel Bay, which was mapped from marine vessels using sophisticated technology. This region has one of the richest Middle Stone Age archaeological records in the world, holding rich archives of early modern humans. During the time of our early ancestors’’ occupation, sea level has been significantly lower than it is at present for about 90% of this time, so understanding this shelf is critically important. We have mapped the seabed using four marine geophysical instruments, sampled with cores and on scuba dives, and are linking palaeoclimates, palaeoenvironments and human evolution. The South Coast is situated at the juncture of winter- and summer rainfall zones as well as the Benguela and Agulhas Currents, contains rich archives, and is ideally located to study past global change.?

Hayley Cawthra is a Senior Scientist in the Marine Geoscience Unit of the Council for Geoscience, and a Research Associate at the Nelson Mandela University in the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience. She has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cape Town and has research interests in marine geophysics, Quaternary sea-level change, human use of ancient coastlines, and emergence of palaeoenvironments through changing climate regimes on continental shelves.

DIRECTIONS