First port of call
By Billy Kahora
 With 30-odd exhibitions, the
1820 Settler's Monument should be the first port of call for all science aficionados and fun-lovers at SciFest 2001. Other exhibition venues are the Albany History and Albany Science museums and Eden
Grove, Rhodes University.
Sasol showcases its fuel products next to the booking office
at the 1820 Settler's Monument and has a large screen-simulated Formula One interactive game complete with lap steering wheel. Dakawa Arts and Crafts Centre takes you back in time to show how a real loom looks and works, as Natal University blasts off from the basement Fountain Court launch pad with their bottled rocket to the top of the monument.
Experience the "world of play " at Experilab with educational electronics and solar and steam toys. See science and technology
eerily applied in creating robots, done by the National Association for Science & Technology for Youth, or chill out in the Cyberden and play computer games.
Science meets fitness as PE Technikon generates electricity while you provide pedal power for their bike. Engineer Mervin Knoesen assists as students try and lift a golf ball using a vacuum. Nearby chemical sets come in lunchbox size packages with HIV/AIDS simulation test kits available too.
This is only a small sample of what is at hand. See the
Scifest Programme at www.scifest.org.za.
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Delving into the light
By Scott Smith
Gone are the days when chemists were associated with the creation of evil smelling gasses and magical colour transformations in noxious liquids. Chemists of today are getting their hands dirty with more than experiments into the nature of liquids and solids - they are delving into the nature of light and how to use our new-found knowledge to cure diseases.
"Fantastic breakthroughs have been made in the treatment of cancer," says David Phillips, the head of chemistry at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.
Lasers have been used for some time in the treatment of certain types of cancers. Recent research conducted by scientists at Phillip's college has made this treatment more effective and has reduced the harmful side-effects of laser treatment.
Phillips, who is regular visitor to SciFest - having attended all the festivals - explained to his audience how researchers have manufactured light-sensitive dyes, which attach themselves selectively to cancerous cells. This means that lasers can be directed incredibly accurately at these tagged cells, targeting the cancerous cells exclusively and leaving the healthy tissue untouched. This type of treatment uses red lasers only, because this is the only wavelength of light that penetrates flesh, going through you and killing cancerous cells along the way.
There are some 50 000 people worldwide being treated with this technology making the removal of cancerous cells less defacing and safer. Further research is being concentrated on tackling difficult areas of cancer treatment such as pancreatic tumors.
But this technology is not only effective against cancer but may also be useful for targeting many harmful species of bacteria. One example that Phillips demonstrates with the use of rather graphic pictures of rotting teeth, is the relatively ease with which tooth decay can be arrested using selective dyes and laser treatments. They are even investigating the possibility of creating laser toothbrushes, which would work in conjunction with special tooth paste - a carrier for the appropriate light-sensitive dyes.
Perhaps Professor Phillips will keep us up to date on his sixth visit to the
Sasol Scifest?
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Forget the lotto (buy sweets instead)
By Momelezi Kula
You have probably heard of people turning into multi-millionaires overnight through the National Lottery, but have you ever really taken care to figure out what your chances are of actually winning?
Jeremy Baxter from Rhodes University Department of Statistics has calculated the chances sayings "the odds of winning are tiny, real tiny." Chances of a spear-fisherman seeing a great white shark are more than 1000 times greater than your chances of winning the lotto. Baxter has played the lotto and only ever succeeded in getting three
numbers.
He believes that taking your last R2.50 to buy a lottery ticket is not the best decision considering that the possibility of winning the lottery is 0.0000000715 percent. The lotto is a money making game. The game is tata 'machance but there are very little chances to take. There are about 13.9 million possible combinations and people only use about 60 percent of those.
Most people use birthdays, which have no numbers between 31 and 49, limiting their chances of winning. The advice Baxter gives is to choose
numbers randomly by letting the computers choose your combinations. "You might as well throw that money away or give it to the taxman because that's where it goes," says Baxter.
You don't need to worry about the lotto results, they can not be cooked. The numbers that come out of the machine are not pre-arranged. "The lotto is not biased. The results have passed statistics tests of randomness," says Baxter.
So the next time you're torn between a Magnum ice-cream and a lotto ticket, maybe its best to go with your sweet tooth.
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Tagging reveals overfishing in SA
by Kelly Gunnell
My dad is convinced that there are no fish in the sea. But then he's not a very good fisherman and a bit of a sucker for the conspiracy theory. However, according to Paul Cowley, of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, the conspiracy is more than just a theory.
"I give it another 10 years before anglers are forced to stop fishing because there are no fish," says Cowley. "The number of anglers is decreasing and it's because they are no longer catching enough fish for their supper to warrant all their fancy equipment and beach vehicles."
A long term monitoring and fish tagging project in the Tsitsikamma National Park has indicated that the fish population has remained constant in marine protected areas but is dwindling outside these areas.
"The South African fisheries industry has collapsed," says Cowley. He illustrates his point by revealing that you can find five times as many blacktail, ten times more bronzebream, several hundred more black steenbras and one thousand more red steenbras in a protected marine environment than in open areas. "Many anglers blame this on pollution or trawling but it is fishing that has the primary effect on decreasing fish numbers."
As part of his research Cowley has done comparative studies to see if decreasing bag limits would improve the situation. He compared reducing the bag limit from five to four to three and so on. His results found that, "for the fish population to increase - to swing the other way - we need to reduce the bag limit to one or none for certain species." He emphasises that this must include common fish like
galjoen.
"Fish numbers are decreasing but the number of people and improvements in fishing technology is increasing," says Cowley. He is adamant that the formation of more closed marine reserves is fundamental to solving this problem but that this can only be done, "through public support and participation."
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Born to be Wild
by Billy Kahora
The wild dog lopes, runs down its prey. Then it dispatches it by disembowelment. Cleans bones…rolls around…mates according to season…spends another winter of discontent in hibernation - such is life in the savannah…and then a rare wildebeest kill. Cycle after cycle, the most efficient hunter of all predators, including big cats (their natural enemy), effortlessly re-lives the same ritual. Have pack will have another three-day run.
And yet The African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) is the most endangered carnivore in the world, due to human
persecution, disease and loss of habitat. They are also the most social member of the dog family. The breeding and social structure of a pack is unique. Once a year, in each pack, only one pair breeds, with all the other pack
members assisting to feed, protect and rear the pups.
In contrast to other predators such as lions, the pups have priority to a kill for the first year of their life after which the privilege is passed onto the new litter. They are a very close community and are one of the few mammals that will care for their sick and injured by returning to regurgitate food with the whole pack assisting to lick the wounds clean.
Several of the South African wild dogs have found a saviour in veterinary biologist Marcus Hofmeyr and a
paradise at Madikwe game reserve, established in 1991 as a conservation project. After a rabies outbreak started by a jackal that almost killed a whole pack in 1997, the animals are now thriving with three packs currently under observation. Disease and ecological competitors notwithstanding, the wild dog is once again coming into its own after conservation efforts at the reserve, with a recorded survival rate of 25%.
The African wild dog is an extremely intelligent animal. Over the years the wild dogs of Madikwe have adapted to their new environment and have learnt to use the perimeter fence around the reserve. They chase their prey at high speed into the wire - an action that will often stun the object of their
pursuit !
Once they braved the icy snows of Kilimanjaro and the hot sands of the Sahara, but today painted hunting dogs struggle to survive the modern world - numbering less than the white rhino species.
Painted hunting dogs - also known as African wild dogs, African hunting dogs or Cape hunting dogs - are now an endangered species. After populating 34 African countries, they are only found in four, with their total African population standing at between 2 000 and 3 000. There are about 650 in Zimbabwe, the largest population. The rest are located in Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa.
Half a century ago, painted hunting dogs were labelled as "savage and cruel killers" and were culled and hunted to near extinction. Today humans continue to account for most of their deaths. Many dogs are caught in snares as they follow animal trails and are killed by ranchers. Dogs moving in packs also get killed on the roads, particularly when they move through game reserves.
The dogs seldom feed on livestock and most of their diet is composed of impala, kudu and duiker. They are tough hunters and can chase an antelope for up to three kilometres. Their prey is usually dispatched by disembowelment in seconds, before lions or hyenas get a chance to move in.
The African painted dog has its own unique evolutionary line stemming back about 15 million years. Inbreeding, because of their tiny population numbers, is another threat to their continued survival.
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Scientific wisdom
story by Momelezi Kula
Science is not only knowledge gained from reading tons of books and listening to learned folks. It is also indigenous knowledge, knowledge gained through one's different life experiences.
Many might consider indigenous knowledge to be inferior. As a result it is sidelined, disadvantaging learners, says Rob O'Donoghue, Senior Professional Officer of KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation.
Indigenous knowledge is rich in scientific wisdom and can be used to uncover and discover common sense science. There is a need to conserve this knowledge. This, believes O'Donoghue, can be achieved by making the connection between textbook and indigenous knowledge.
To illustrate the fact that indigenous knowledge is rich in science, O'Donoghue looked at traditional ways of drawing water. When people went to the river or spring they looked for running water because it has high levels of oxygen. They would remove the upper levels, which have high concentrations of germs opening a hole in the water to get clean water underneath. They used clay pots to carry water, covering the top with the scoop to allow cooling, preventing bacteria from reproducing.
People might not be aware of the scientific nature of their daily activities that's why it is important that educators integrate indigenous knowledge into their teaching and provide opportunities for the sharing of knowledge. It is through this sharing, that common sense science can be obtained because, says O'Donoghue "in sharing we can pass on knowledge that we don't even know we have".
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Zbig the laser man
story by Aamera Jiwaji
The name Zbig Sobiesierski is a mouthful and at a first glance, his topic "Lasers: unravelling the mystery" seems a tad bit too complicated for 10 in the morning. But on closer inspection maybe not…His was a lecture that epitomises the phrase: science is fun.
Sobiesierski succeeded in brilliantly captivating the largely young audience, by insuring that the lecture was both an interactive and fascinating one. Those attending were continually swivelling in their seats, trying to keep an eye on the moving laser beam, or moving to the edge of their seats in an attempt to get closer to the stage on which the hypnotically glowing luminous
equipment beckoned.
The highlight of the show was when Sobiesierski gave a student volunteer a pair of plastic fluorescent glasses that ringed her eyes. In the pitch-black auditorium, two lumo-yellow rings glowing in the dark looked like something like Harry Potter and his friends would have thought up. It was incredible, even quite eerie.
As she walked off the stage Sobiesierski joked, "There goes a really bright student." Sobiesierski is from the Centre for Lifelong Learning in Cardiff, he took over the laser show this year when his colleague Ilya Eigenbrot was unable to attend. His lecture, however covered the same territory that Eigenbrot did last year. So if you heard about how good it was last year, but didn't get a chance to go see it then, don't hesitate-go. You won't regret it.
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Alien Invasion
By Dave Surmon
If you thought that there was no tension in the world of green science, think again. The hills outside Grahamstown, once home to indigenous grassy fynbos and riverine forests, are today covered with piles of brushwood, felled aliens and new saplings that are being sprayed with the
herbicide Garlon.
Conflict exists because of the different approaches that the Working For Water (WFW) project and the Rhodes Botany Departments have taken. Both claim to share the same objectives, and both claim the success of the Featherstone Kloof rehabilitation as their own.
Featherstone Kloof's success is based upon the regeneration of fynbos, protea, plants from the daisy family and the restoration of the area to the heath lands of the 1800s. The process started almost 25 years ago when work began on the northern face.
The WFW project is on the cutting edge of science, as they seek out and destroy the "Ten Most Wanted Aliens", as displayed at their exhibit at the Albany Science Museum.
"Our mandate for the last three years has been to cut, burn and broadcast the area with
airgrass, which in theory should outcompete the longafolia and black wattle that has taken hold," said Jonathan Prior, rehabilitation coordinator at Albany WFW project.
The reasons they offer for the removal of these alien plants and trees, are that they "suck the soil dry, destroy river beds, grow where they are not planted and cause really hot fires that burn the soil and seedlings."
Prior, however, has his reservations. He advocates a scientific approach to the rehabilitation process and has strong feelings about the use of herbicide spraying to control
regrowth. "It is simply a quick fix, the Garlon that they spray goes into the rivers and other sensitive areas and that leads to further complications and is also a very expensive option that alleviates (but does not solve) the problem."
The local town council is also involved in the controlled burning required by the WFW project. Kevin Bate, director of Parks and Recreation Makana Municipality argues, "the fact that the Grey Dam is full and the wet land sponges are recovering is a sign of the projects success."
Professor Roy Lubke, a Rhodes botanist lecturing at SciFest on the environmental rehabilitation of the hills outside Grahamstown, agrees.
"The WFW project is based upon a horticultural alternative and needs to be more scientific," he said , praising the efforts of the project but adding, "We never expected to see the aliens removed to the extent they have been, but if WFW pulls out now the aliens will just return."
Regrowth after a burn is also a problem, as Prior explains, "we have found sites with 7 cm of growth in just ten days, the area looks like a green carpet."
Lubke, who was involved in the successful rehabilitation of the dunes at the controversial Richards Bay Minerals Project,
considers the alternatives available. "We have identified the restoration goals and the plants involved in the degrading process and are reversing this process, but we are still testing a number of different seed types."
According to Lubke, introducing broadcast seeding of indigenous plants should improve the biodiversity of the area. These plants are more able to compete against the aliens in their race to take hold as groundcover in the soil.
A quick fix does not seem to be the answer and the efforts of the WFW and Rhodes University will have to be more integrated for a lasting rehabilitation solution to be found.
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A new way to conserve the future
By Denise Williams
The increasing human population has had a phenomenal impact on the reduction and extinction of indigenous species. This, according to Prof Graham Kerley at the opening of the Cecily Niven Memorial lecture yesterday.
Kerley told the audience that the problem of conservation was a dangerously underestimated one, that it could only be improved through the increased responsibility of mankind.
"Every extinction recorded in the last 400 years has been caused by humans" said
Kerley. He said previous attempts to minimise mankind's "massive effects on the environment", were merely a form of large-scale behaviour modification. Conservation can no longer afford to be the "stamp collection" of species, he said.
Kerley's remedy for this increasing problem is the introduction of "mega-reserves". He says that at the moment the reserves are not adequate enough in terms of size to sustain all these species. Therefore more of a responsibility and attention must be given to the "science of combating extinction" known as conservation biology.
Kerley stressed the importance of not only efforts of conserving for the present, but the more important step of developing a process that would provide for a long term maintenance of the species. "There is no use conserving for your and my lifetimes only," and he added that, "the future of jumbo's is not secure into the next century."
By increasing the size of the Addo National Park for the greater sustenance of the elephants it had indirectly provided for the conservation space necessary for smaller species too. He praised this process and said it needed to be adopted into the "mega-reserves" as a successful attempt at conservation.
There are human processes such as exploitation and habitat loss that cause extinction he said, it is these processes that themselves must be done away with for good.
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Have you ordered your designer genes?
By Scott Smith
"I am who I am," has been the defiant war cry of self-assured people through the ages, "… and I can not change." But for how much longer is this going to be the case? New developments in gene technology have forced us to change the way we perceive ourselves.
From time immemorial we have been slaves to our genetic handouts. But now the possibility for dramatic change is on the horizon, whether the genes like it or not.
Genes are the blue print of life. The fact that we all look and act differently is because we all have different genes. This difference though is surprisingly small, with the major disparities being the presence of inherited diseases or susceptibility to disease.
But the recent mapping of the human genome is likely to reveal, amongst other things, sections of genes which code for hereditary diseases and with this valuable information scientists can start
teasing out the secrets of health and disease at a molecular level.
It is estimated that it could be as little as five years from now before we start seeing definite signs of gene tampering and designer genes surfacing in newborns. "But the most immediate uses will be medical ones, that is, to try and overcome hereditary diseases," says Valerie Corfield of the South African Medical Research Council in Stellenbosch.
Corfield and her colleagues are what she refers to as "gene hunters", their mission: to find the mutations in genes that cause dysfuctions. "The hereditary disease is a mistake in the gene code or makeup, meaning there is a fault in the blueprint." Thus Corfield and her colleagues are busy trying to find and correct these faults.
Corfield's work is concerned with germ-line modification, which means that people's hereditary diseases can be eliminated, so that they need not necessarily be passed on to their children. There is a lot of opposition to this from both the public and scientists. We have a 3.5 billion-year text that we are only now beginning to read and we already want to improve on it. This is equivalent to a 3-year-old just learning how to read and wanting to rewrite Shakespeare.
Hugh Watson, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford says that gene mapping is an effective way to discover disease-causing genes. But gene mapping or manipulation is not the best answer to all medical question, he says. A better approach is to try to find out what makes one person sick while others remain perfectly healthy. But now we can look into the genes and discover a whole new set of risk factors. We at least know where to start looking. Once the areas of susceptibility to various diseases are pinpointed we can start developing effective treatments.
This is the essence of biomedicine or tailor made drugs. A problem with many of the drugs on the market today is that they are too general and people react to them differently - drugs have a variable potency. If we can tailor-make specific drugs for the individual then we can eliminate many of the side-effects and of course be able to treat the patient far better.
Apart from the positive role that genetic manipulation has to play, this new technology raises a plethora of ethical questions. A new kind of discrimination - one based on our genes could become a very real possiblity for us. While we are still struggling to sort out surface discriminations, such as race and gender, a whole new array of possibilities for different types of discrimination awaits us. An example of such discrimination could be where insurance companies refuse to give someone life cover if a genetic test indicated they had some kind of hereditary disease - even if no symptoms were apparent.
But at this stage it is too soon to predict exactly what will happen. The question remains, are we on the edge of the era of designer children, or will public opinion against it be the final determining factor?
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A whole new design
By Billy Kahora
On display at the Albany historical museum - three decades of evolving design; a historical and sociological commentary of South Africa. This impressive showcase is drawn from an awards scheme put together by the design institute of the South African Bureau of Standards.
It shows '70s and '80s telephone, pool cleaner and multi-plug design, a wooden xylophone and the Dolos breakwater now common on the Eastern Cape coast.
South Africa's best '90s industrial design includes a sheathed accident-free syringe, a water tank called a Hippo Roll, an educational toy called the edu-peg, corrugated furniture used for mass functions, a wind up radio, and a sheep collar that protects the animals from jackals.
The 1970s, a "time of plenty", saw designers focus on agricultural appliances, high-tech medical and mining engineering products. International sanctions in the 1980s and a dropping Rand saw many designers hiding the origin of their products with most designs concentrating on armament spin-off products and low cost housing components.
Political change in the 1990s and the rise of other sociological issues have seen new designs in crime prevention, such as alarm systems and electrical doors.
The design institute, which seeks the economical and technological development of South Africa by promoting good design, followed its exhibition with invitational talks on the importance of product design in our daily lives and a career talk on graphic design.
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Kroto carbonates cliches
By Peter Cromberge
Professor Sir Harry Kroto's lecture: 'Science: A round peg in a square world', addressed the need for science and society to be more compatible with one another. The professor advocated the need for understanding and appreciation of science. Kroto cited a couple of practical examples where a lack of scientific understanding can be dangerous.
"There are some nurses in England who are incapable of doing simple maths. They put decimal points in the wrong place so patients might receive 10 times more or less medication."
Kroto also referred to a video clip of a Republican senator in America addressing a crowd of high school learners. The senator, who looked as if he conversed with roosters in his spare time, told the students that he did not see the need for physics. "I myself did physics and maths in school. But now that I'm finished, I don't see how they are useful." The politician paused after his statement to accommodate the chorus of applause that he knew would come.
"This kind of person is both stupid and dangerous," said Kroto. "We all need basics like electricity and food that is fit to eat. Without science, this would not be possible."
Kroto addressed the media clichés that characterise scientists and their field - particularly the image of scientists as bespectacled, mad recluses with an arsenal of pens, and hairstyles that testified to failed electrical experiments. To assist in his rejection of these stereotypes, Kroto produced exhibit A: a mug shot of a dashing Albert Einstein when he was 17.
"If they were going to make a film about Einstein, I would cast this man in the lead role." Exhibit B: a mug shot of the top gun himself - Tom Cruise.
The guest lecturer also burned (bunsen style) the attitude of politicians.
"When we first discovered Buckminsterfullerene, a new form of carbon,
one member of the House of Lords asked in what way the new find could be used in industry. Another politician asked whether Buckminsterfullerene was either animal, vegetable or mineral." Kroto said that this kind of reaction epitomised the mindset of certain people towards science.
"Our lives are so dependant on science going right that when science goes wrong everyone gets upset," said Kroto.
Kroto, along with colleagues Robert Curl and Richard Smalley received a joint Nobel prize in 1996 for his part in the discovery of a new form of carbon. "Although we did receive a lot of help from three students at the university, we got the Nobel prize while the students got a bloody good meal at McDonalds."
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Buckminsterfuller-what?
It is generally thought that carbon has two isotopes, graphite and diamond, however, this is wrong. Carbon actually has seven different crystaline forms. Two kinds of graphite, two kinds of diamond chaoit, carbon (VI), and fullerenes.
Fullerenes are spherical carbon molecules which contain predominantly 60 carbon atoms. The spherical shape of the molecule is reminiscent of domes designed by the engineer Richard Buckminster Fuller. Thus C60 became known as buckminsterfullerene, or bucky balls for short.
Since their discovery in 1985 there has been much excitement about the possible uses of bucky balls. A range of ideas has been put forward varying from molecular ball bearings, to footballs in a molecular match.
Bucky balls could be of great significance to the military.
Water-soluble C60 derivatives inhibit the maturation of the AIDS virus.
Some molecules derived from C60 are of industrial significance since they are superconductors, and others are insulators.
Nano-tubes (close relations to the fullerines) are stronger than diamonds, but exhibit some flexibility and are incredibly light. So they may find structural application in aeronautics for example.
They conduct electricity and have magnetic properties, so may be useful in
nano-technology.
Arthur C. Clark, a science fiction writer, in his futuristic best selling book Galaxy 2000, envisages a space elevator and the only substance strong enough, cheap enough and available in megaton quantities is
buckminsterfullerene.
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Is science hazardous to humanity?
By Nick Ferriera
Lewis Wolpert, recipient of the Michael Faraday Award for popularising science, doesn't place too much store in the ability of scientists to determine how their discoveries should best be used.
In a debate with another Faraday Award winner, David Phillips, Wolpert was equally scornful of the idea that scientific knowledge has moral content.
"Reliable scientific knowledge is value-free; it is what you do with it that makes it an ethical matter."
Wolpert argued that scientists could not be held responsible for the negative applications of scientific knowledge. Even in cases such as the atomic bomb, he said, accountability must lie with politicians and industrialists, the people with the power to use knowledge for good or evil purposes.
The common perception that science is dangerous stems from the earliest literature on the subject, Wolpert argued later at a lecture in the Settlers Monument.
"Scientists are always drawn as male, middle-aged, emotionally deprived and dangerous," he
said, quoting examples from John Milton's Paradise Lost to illustrate that knowledge is often depicted as threatening to mankind. Another cause of the public mistrust of science stems from the fact that its results are completely contrary to what common sense tells us.
"Any intuitive view of the way the world works is scientifically false. The world is not built on a common sense foundation." He said that people are loath to accept scientific facts because they do not comply with their beliefs.
He accepted that scientists were ethically responsible for their research methods, but was contemptuous of calls to make them responsible for the uses of their discoveries.
"The illusion that scientists have power is quite bizarre. It is politicians that do damage, not scientists." He maintained that the responsibility of scientists was to ensure that these issues were open to public debate.
He also criticized the media for misrepresenting scientific debates to increase sales through sensationalism. The public panics around cloning and genetically modified foods were two examples that he cited in this context.
"Genetic pornography will sell newspapers. The ethical hysteria raised by cloning is out of all proportion to its significance, especially when you consider the massive social problems we
face. "The issues surrounding cloning are primarily medical. Were it not for the high likelihood of
miscarriage and deformities, there would be no problem with cloning human beings." He described the doctors currently pushing human cloning forward as
"gynaecologists, technicians".
Wolpert argued that this was an example of scientific knowledge being misapplied, calling the media reaction to the debate "a way of taking a moral high-ground on issues that will affect almost no one in order to avoid the real issues."
Comparing the media hysteria that followed a single death in a clinical trial last year to the silence around the quarter of a million annual deaths in car
accidents in the UK, Wolpert said that the public was misinformed about the real risks that surround scientific discovery. Phillips agreed with him, saying: "The general population simply does not know what risk is."
In an entertaining and witty lecture that touched on English literature, the history of scientific enquiry and current ethical developments, Wolpert entertained and charmed the audience, filling precisely the role that he says should be played by scientists. "We should all be involved in making these decisions. No group of specialists, neither scientists nor bio-ethicists should make choices on the behalf of a whole community. It is our job merely to place our knowledge in the public
sphere."
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