Wednesday 8 September I had woken up reminding myself to chat to Anson for tips on having an MRI, as I was scheduled for one the next day. Anson was the ideal person to reach out to – not only had he experienced his fair share of MRIs over the past yea…
Warning: this blog post speaks about issues of mental health, depression and suicide I vividly recall the day my supervisor called me into his office and told me: your friend decided to take her life last night. It never made sense to me. I mean, she w…
Last week, I cycled past a bus reading ‘5G – don’t get left behind’ on its back. This very bus drives through Cape Town’s city centre and its more affluent suburbs, but also transports many workers who come in from low-income areas. The message b…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization(WMO) and the United Nations Environment…
I was recently invited by the South African Journal of Science to report on a webinar held on the 4th of August 2021 as part of their participation in science week. Science week is an annual event which aims at making more people aware of science, and …
Earlier this year I obtained my Master of Arts Degree and began making arrangements for my PhD registration. I had anticipated to register during the 2021 academic year. This was before I was offered three part-time jobs in three different universities…
I’m not generally into watching sports. In fact, most of the time, I cannot get myself follow what’s happening on the screen, even if I try. Somehow, this drastically changes when the football world cup (or, alternatively, the Euros) reaches its zenith…
Having completed high school with low marks and staying at home for 3 gap years, a lot of people ask how I eventually managed to obtain my degrees cum laude and obtain various accolades. I wish I could give a classic copy-paste solution to overcome som…
As a PhD student, my supervisors have become the most important people in my academic life. That said, it is unusual that I have only met with each of them once since my PhD began. I enrolled in the beginning of 2020 and shortly after our initial face …
Jennifer Fitchett, University of the Witwatersrand In September each year, South Africa’s Gauteng province turns purple. The cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria are well covered with trees – and jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), with their purple blo…
