APNewsBreak: Sushi alert: Grim outlook for bluefin tuna

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2015, file photo, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., poses a bluefin tuna at his Sushi Zanmai restaurant near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. The latest assessment by scientists paints a likely bleak future for the Pacific bluefin tuna, the favorite of sushi-lovers whose population has dropped by more than 97 percent from its historic levels. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

The latest scientific assessment paints a likely bleak future for the Pacific bluefin tuna, a sushi lovers' favorite whose population has dropped by more than 97 percent from its historic levels.
A draft summary of a report by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean seen by The Associated Press shows the current population of bluefin tuna is estimated at 2.6 percent of its "unfished" size. A previous assessment put the population at an already dire 4.2 percent.
Overfishing has continued despite calls to reduce catches to allow the species to recover. In some areas, bluefin tuna is harvested at triple the levels considered to be sustainable.
"The situation is really as bad as it appears," said Amanda Nickson, director for Global Tuna Conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Limits imposed after the previous estimates actually allowed some countries to up their catches, she said.
"If those managers again fail to act in a conservation-minded way this time, it may be time for other actions, such as an international trade ban or complete fishing moratorium," Nickson said.
The independent scientists who compiled the report said improved data make them more confident in their latest estimates than in previous ones. The report is due to be reviewed by the committee in July.
The report estimated that in 2014, the total recruitment level of the fish, or the percentage of new fish that survive each year, was below 3.7 million fish, the second lowest level ever.
Under current levels of reproduction and management of the fisheries in the Pacific, the likelihood of rebuilding stocks to healthy levels is only 0.1 percent, the report says.
Cutting catches by a fifth would improve those odds to only 3 percent.
Japanese eat about 80 percent of all bluefin tuna caught worldwide, and stocks of all three bluefin species — the Pacific, Southern and Atlantic — have fallen over the past 15 years as demand for the luscious, buttery pink-to-red fleshed fish has soared globally.
Organizations charged with helping to manage bluefin fisheries have set a goal of rebuilding the species' population to 6.4 percent, or 42,592 metric tons, of unfished levels by 2024.
But 6.4 percent levels for a species like the Pacific bluefin, which can live for up to 40 years, are no guarantee of a recovery. Many experts believe 20 percent of historic levels is the minimum size for a sustainable fishery.
The international body that monitors fisheries in most of the Pacific Ocean, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, was unable to reach consensus last year on either short-term or long-term measures to help restore the bluefin population.
In Europe, officials have agreed last month on implementing a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
A next step by conservationists could include efforts to get Pacific bluefin tuna banned from international trading.
Pacific bluefin tuna are spawned in the western parts of the northern Pacific but migrate throughout the ocean, complicating management of catches. The population of the species is estimated to have peaked in 1960.
An earlier estimate put the 2014 population of the bluefin at 26,000 tons. The most recent reduced that estimate by 9,000 tons, to 17,000 tons.
If the population of Pacific bluefins drops much further, it may no longer be economically feasible to fish for them.
At that point, "Pacific bluefin would be considered commercially extinct," Nickson said.

Source by : http://www.heraldstandard.com/science_ap/apnewsbreak-sushi-alert-grim-outlook-for-bluefin-tuna/article_e881381e-1568-578f-8ea7-c70f7e1b0b30.html

Australian cybersecurity to take 'big science' approach

Jackie Craig, chief of the Cyber and Electronic Warfare division of Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), told a recent conference that blue sky scientific projects with "audacious" goals often lead to practical inventions "along the way", ZDNet has reported.
"There's a tremendous opportunity within a big-science approach to have what we would call 'off-ramps' to produce technology that could be exploited within Australia, and also go out for export," Craig said.
Cybersecurity needs a profound, multi-disciplinary approach so the whole science and technology community will have to work together to tackle the problems, she said.
Scientific researchers also tend to have good outreach programmes that cybersecurity experts can learn from, Craig said.
"The more we outreach and educate people about cybersecurity, the better our overall cybersecurity will be, because they will begin to take on the behaviours that make us more secure in the cyber domain," she said.
The Australian government is due to release a new version of its Cyber Security Strategy this week. Its release was originally planned to coincide with the Australian Cyber Security Centre conference where Craig spoke, but was delayed, according to ZDNet.
Gary Blair, chief executive officer of the Australian Cyber Security Research Institute told ZDNet that the strategy will help Australia to gain "a lot of new intellectual property in cyber" that it can commercialise.
"That will have some major effects for Australia. One is that it will improve the national cyber resilience, and two, it'll have an economic effect, because we'll be able to displace some of our reliance on imported technologies, and indeed build up an industry that has export potential," he told the news site.
In November 2015 the Australian government identified cyber security as one of the country's nine strategic research priorities and issued a cyber security capability statement that identified four practical needs that had to be solved: highly-secure and resilient communications and data acquisition, storage, retention and analysis for government services; secure technologies for software applications, mobile services, cloud computing and critical infrastructure; new technologies and approaches to support the nation’s cyber security; and an understanding of the scale of the cyber security challenge for Australia.

Source by : http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2016/april/australian-cybersecurity-to-take-big-science-approach/

Undersea sensors open new frontier for marine science. Can they save fisheries, too?

You can’t manage what you can’t measure – true in business and true in environmental protection.

Fortunately, what can and can’t be measured is changing fast, thanks to a new generation of sophisticated sensors combined with powerful data analytics. They’re giving people the power to see and track the invisible like never before.

Nowhere is this trend advancing more rapidly than in the oceans, which cover 71 percent of our planet.

Next-generation sensors – including robots and drones in a wide variety of shapes and sizes that sail through the seas – are collecting information on everything from salinity, oxygen levels and temperature to seismic tremors, undersea volcanic eruptions and even the abundance of schooling fish.

This sophisticated technology can help us make smarter decisions as we work to improve ocean health and the communities, large and small, that depend on oceans – while we’re also learning to better use the data that already exists.

Ocean observatories transmit real-time data

My organization, Environmental Defense Fund, is guided by science and technological innovation. Twice a year, we select a cutting-edge topic and convene experts to brief us on the latest advances, with a recent “science day” being devoted to advances in sensor technology.

John Delaney, a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington and one of the presenters that day, is a world authority on how to collect ocean data. He has spearheaded the development of an impressive network of sensors linked by fiber-optic cable that stretches for 300 miles across the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate in the Northeast Pacific.

Once built out to cover the global ocean and complemented with mobile robots mapping habitats and counting fish, this sensor network will create a virtual underwater observatory. It can track what happens below the seafloor, on the seafloor, in the ocean and where the ocean intersects with the air.

This observatory will advance our scientific understanding of a resource on which an estimated 3 billion people depend for protein, and maybe one day help transform struggling fisheries worldwide.

Fishermen worldwide can benefit

An international web of 38 million fishermen and women in communities big and small make up the wild fishing sector today, contributing more than $270 billion to global gross domestic product.

Because they produce relatively small revenues individually, however, governments won’t typically invest in expensive data collection programs to track their business. As a result, many of these fisheries are poorly known and mostly unmanaged, depleting fish populations and leading to low yields and profits.

Fishermen making the best use of low-cost information creates the potential for tremendous improvements in ocean health.

EDF and our partners are overcoming this data limitation by promoting the use of analytical and interpretation methods that make the most of whatever data exists, or can be readily collected by fishermen themselves. Creating a stake in improved future fisheries also helps to repay their investment in such data.

Taken together, cutting-edge technology and new partnerships with fishermen making the best use of low-cost information creates the potential for tremendous improvements in ocean health. By harvesting smarter, not harder, we can increase yields, incomes and fish populations all at the same time.

From the moon to the bottom of the sea

More and better data is an important piece of the puzzle, and the emergence of a new generation of ocean sensor technologies that are inexpensive and easy to operate could be a key to unlocking the full potential of the world’s fisheries.

Let’s put ocean sensor pioneers in the same room as the practitioners who are trying to save the ocean and improve human welfare, but need more data to do their jobs. Working arm-in-arm with fishermen, we can steer the technology to making a real contribution in meeting these needs.

We have put 12 people on the moon, four times as many as have visited the deepest reaches of the Marianas Trench. Realizing the promise of the ocean frontier is also within our grasp.

Source by : https://www.edf.org/blog/2016/04/19/undersea-sensors-open-new-frontier-marine-science-can-they-save-fisheries-too

Meet Jiajia, China's New Interactive Robot

Engineers in China have created a highly realistic female robot specially designed to interact with humans in a submissive manner.

The robot companion, nicknamed "Jiajia", was conceptualized and developed by a team of researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

Technologically, Jiajia doesn't introduce any new breakthroughs when it comes to robotics. The developers instead focused on making the robot act submissively to her owner. She's even programmed to talk to humans using words that are sexist in tone.

During Jiajia's presentation to the local Chinese media on Friday, she introduced her male creators as her "lords". She also shied away when journalists tried to take pictures of her, stating that it would make her look fat if they pointed their cameras too close to her face.

Chen Xiaoping, director of the USTC that created Jiajia, explained that it took them three years of research and development in order to make her act very realistically, from the movement of her lips and body to showing micro-expressions on her face.

He said that compared to other interactive robots previously developed, Jiajia is capable of rolling her eyeballs naturally and move her lips in tune with her speech. She was also designed to have a body that highly resembles that of humans.

Chen added that so far, Jiajia is still not able to show emotions such as laughing or crying, but they are already working on giving these features to her.

"We hope to develop the robot so it has deep learning abilities," Chen said. "We will add facial expression recognition and make it interact more deeply with people."



The researchers hope that Jiajia would turn out to be a "robot goddess". They said that she is priceless and that they currently have no plans to make more ultrarealistic robots like her.

Source by : http://www.techtimes.com/articles/150827/20160416/meet-jiajia-chinas-new-interactive-robot.htm

Economic development linked to research, technology

LAHORE: Economic development is directly linked to research and technology; therefore, special attention is being given to strengthen research institutions.

The budget for research and development in PCSIR is being increased from Rs65 million to Rs250 million.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanveer Hussain, while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

The minister said that all resources are being utilised to promote research culture so that dream to join the club of technologically advanced nations could come true.

He regretted that the low allocations for the vital sectors such as science and technology had kept the country dependent on the developed world, despite the fact that the country has no dearth of resources.

He said special concentration is focused on the need-based and result-oriented research, which would save valuable time and money.

The minister said that innovation is a key to economic competitiveness and research institutions and researchers would have to come forward to address the gaps in the current scenario by developing world-class technologies.

There is a close link between science and technology and industry; therefore, interaction is being enhanced with the chambers of commerce and industry of the countries.

He said that a Common Facility Center has been established at Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which would provide one-window facility to the businessmen.

He said that 16 organisations are working under the ministry. The system is being made efficient and result-oriented, while all appointments are being made on merit to achieve the growth target.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Senior Vice President Almas Hyder said the Ministry of Science and Technology holds key importance, as it is responsible for maintaining the much-needed culture of applied and academic research and development in the country.

Technology commercialisation, development of standards for quality control, accreditation, education and effective linkages between industry and academia, etc, are some of the key functions of this ministry, he said.

However, the performance indicators of all the organisations working under the Ministry of Science and Technology need to match with the requirements of the modern era.


Source by : http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/113152-Economic-development-linked-to-research-technology

Your iPhone will expire in three years, says Apple

New York, April 17 (IANS) US electronic giant Apple has said the iPhones have a life expectancy of three years and so does the Apple watch, while AppleTV devices expire in four years.

In a recent update to its environmental policy, Apple addressed the question of how long an Apple device is expected to remain in use.

According to a report on Forbes.com, iPhone's productive life cycle will be up at the three-year mark, as will the Apple Watch, while your OS X -- a series of operating systems developed and marketed by Apple Inc. -- and AppleTV devices will get an extra twelve months to reach the four-year mark.

"To model customer use, we measure the power consumed by a product while it is running in a simulated scenario," Apple was quoted as saying.

"Daily usage patterns are specific to each product and are a mixture of actual and modelled customer-use data. Years of use, which are based on first owners, are assumed to be four years for OS X and tvOS devices and three years for iOS and watchOS devices," the company added.

These numbers are in harmony with Apple's strategy of rolling out operating system updates to older devices and the hardware offered to replace older units.

For example, the recently launched iPhone SE, which is designed similar to iPhone 5S, can be upgraded from new iOS 9 to the next three years of iOS updates -- something the iPhone 5S would be unable to do.

The time-scale between the release of the 5S and the SE is just inside that three-year window.

However, Apple does provide compatibility of its operating systems to older hardw

Source by : http://ianslive.in/index.php?param=news/Your_iPhone_will_expire_in_three_years_says_Apple-507021/SCIENCE%20and%20TECHNOLOGY/36

Frederick County reentering negotiations with Comcast

Frederick County residents in rural areas say they are frustrated that county officials have not intervened more to help them secure internet services with Comcast, especially with the perceived necessity of internet service in this day and age.

Their push for internet comes at a time when the county has started renegotiations on an agreement with Comcast that’s nearly a decade old.

County Executive Jan Gardner said that at the time the franchise agreement was signed — when she was president of the Board of County Commissioners — the county wanted to avoid becoming a cable customer service arm that would directly assist county residents with complaints about cable services. As the county prepares to enter into negotiations with Comcast, Gardner said, she’s not interested in the county taking on that role.

Franchise agreements

The previous board of commissioners signed the franchise agreement with Comcast in 2007 after the broadcast company purchased the now defunct Adelphia.

The agreement provides Comcast access to county rights-of-way for cable installation. In return, the county can broadcast on three cable channels.

Under the agreement, the county could choose to collect fees for residents in the county’s unincorporated areas. But Gardner said the commissioners chose not to, because it would create an expectation that the county would assist in customer service complaints, such as getting service.

Some county municipalities collect franchise fees from Comcast under their own franchise agreements, Gardner said. These franchise fees are levied on Comcast, but rolled back and charged to the subscribers. Should the county charge franchise fees, the agreement doesn’t specify if they would need to be directed to the general fund or a particular purpose.

“Collecting money would mean a greater ownership,” Gardner said.

County residents who live within areas where Comcast has built out its cable lines can get Comcast internet. This is because Frederick County’s franchise agreement mandates that Comcast provide cable service — which allows access to internet, television and phone — to those residents only.

But if potential subscribers in an area with fewer than 25 homes per cable mile from the nearest active cable plant request services, then the costs to add the necessary cable lines are split between Comcast and the prospective customers.

The current franchise agreement doesn’t require Comcast to pay for those cable extensions. And it’s not yet negotiated if Comcast will be required to expand its footprint under a new agreement.

Frederick County’s agreement doesn’t prevent other companies, such as Verizon’s Fios network, from taking root in the county, Gardner said — they just haven’t so far.

Verizon does not plan to expand Fios to Frederick County, spokesman John O’Malley wrote in an email to The Frederick News-Post. The company wants instead to focus on areas with existing franchise agreements with Verizon.

Montgomery County has signed franchise agreements with not only Comcast, but also Verizon and RCN Corporation for cable services.

All three corporations may build on Montgomery County rights-of-way. The county has opened the Office of Cable and Broadband Services, which specifically assists in resolving problems related to cable services. The office employs more than a dozen staff members whose duties vary from oversight of the franchise agreements to investigating and mitigating subscriber complaints, and maintaining channels for use by Montgomery County government and subsidiaries.

The office handles approximately 1,000 complaints a year, which are split evenly among the providers, said Marjorie Williams, the office’s franchise manager.

Montgomery County collects franchise fees which amount to 5 percent of the overall gross revenues from all three providers, Williams said. The county also charges an additional 3 percent of the providers’ overall gross revenue to pay for channels used by the county for local broadcasts. Both of these fees are tacked on to subscribers’ bills.

“We have residents that aren’t thrilled about the fees,” Williams said.

The office expanded about eight years ago, when Verizon began building out in Montgomery County, Williams said.

Typically, when Gardner receives a complaint for service — usually once a month — she forwards it to Josh Bokee, a Frederick city alderman and a director of government affairs for Comcast. Gardner said a complaint might not just be the quality of the service, but a county resident seeking an option other than Comcast, such as Verizon Fios.

Bokee directed questions to Comcast’s public relations department.

Gardner said that even with the impending negotiations — which consultant CBG Communications is helping with — she does not want to launch an office like Montgomery County’s, which would entail hiring additional staff members. The revised agreement, under the new form of charter government, would be routed through the Frederick County Council.

Council President Bud Otis said he had not heard anything about the agreement.

“Generally, our staff has been happy with the arrangement we’ve had in place,” Gardner said. “I would not say every consumer is happy with it. I think we got what we intended to get from the contact.”

County residents

press forward

Linda Schilling has campaigned Comcast and Frederick County elected officials for more than a year to extend cable and internet service to her rural home outside Thurmont. But she was told that her home is three-tenths of a mile outside Comcast’s current range. She can walk less than a minute down her wooded road to where a Comcast line is located. Some of her nearby neighbors take advantage of Comcast.

She and her family use HughesNet satellite service, which imposes a data cap, and is not ideal, Schilling said.

In an interview, Schilling expressed frustration with the franchise agreement. Schilling’s home falls in an area where she, and her neighbors, under the terms of the franchise agreement, would be required to pay for a cable extension. Comcast has quoted her different numbers for the extension, but always thousands of dollars. She said she never received a quote in writing from Comcast.

Schilling is angry about the situation, especially because her two children, who both attend Frederick County Public Schools, are often assigned work that requires a computer and internet connection. The school district is slowly advancing to a “one to one” system, in which students are assigned a personal device, like a laptop or tablet, just for their use for lessons throughout the day.

Schilling said her children could burn through in a single day the amount of data the family is allotted by HughesNet.

“We’re talking about technology. Technology advances all the time,” Schilling said. “Something that worked back in 2007 no longer works in 2016.”

Tami Hardesty, Schilling’s neighbor, said she was surprised when she moved from outside the city of Frederick last year and was only allowed the single option for Comcast. She too signed up for HughesNet, which she said did not meet her expectations.

She finds HughesNet slow, Hardesty said.

“I kind of felt like I was in a corner,” she said. “I didn’t have anything else to go with.”

HughesNet representatives did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

Over the years, other areas of the county have made the same plea to Comcast and county government.

In 2008, for example, Gambrill Park residents signed a petition requesting that Comcast offer internet access to the area.

Comcast spokeswoman Jamie Debole emailed a statement in response to a request for comment:

“Nationally, Comcast has built out broadband to over 99.5 percent of the homes we pass, and that number continues to grow. We want to serve as many customers as is geographically and economically feasible, and continuously evaluate opportunities to deliver our innovative technology to new and existing customers. However, there are some low-density areas where it is not economically feasible to build out.”

Internet access

Maryland jurisdictions, both rural and suburban, have prioritized expanding broadband internet access for a while, said Michael Sanderson, executive director of the Maryland Association of Counties.

“I think there’s a move toward, and not just in county governments, seeing reliable internet access,” Sanderson said. “It’s increasingly a fundamental service for a fully functional family and community — for education and emergency and a variety of things like that. This is not a conversation that’s unique to Frederick County.”

A bill from Delegate Mark Fisher, a Calvert County Republican, would have required that all franchise agreements signed across the state include mandated wired broadband service. The bill didn’t make it out of the House of Delegates Economic Matters Committee.

“There’s one thing that we all know: Everything needs a wired broadband connection, whatever that might be,” Fisher said at the committee hearing in February.

In 2014, a contingent of federal lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Bernie Sanders, wrote to the FCC, requesting that the commission reclassify broadband internet as a utility, which it eventually did. This was a measure to ensure “net neutrality,” the principle that service providers should provide open access to the web, without discriminating against certain applications or digital content.

“Broadband is a more advanced technology than phone service, but in the 21st century it performs the same essential function,” the lawmakers wrote. “Consumers and businesses cannot live without this vital connection to each other and to the world around them

Source by : http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/science_and_technology/frederick-county-reentering-negotiations-with-comcast/article_06b9aa80-c385-5ef9-9bc5-099bc869bf03.html

Young engineer encourages kids to create robots

 

Chandigarh, April 17 (IANS) He is all of 23 years but that has not stopped Akshay Ahuja from guiding and training even nine-year-olds with his engineering skills and helping them create robots. He's even planning a mega-event where 20,000 children will be part of the country's largest robotics show to create technology marvels.

Ahuja, an engineer himself, through his 'Robotics Education World' start-up, wants to make science fun for children and help them with robotics.

Having started his company in 2013 to train engineering students, Akshay soon figured out that with a bit of tweaking to suit the interests of young minds, even school children could be imparted engineering and technology skills.

"The idea was to make things more practical than theoretical. On doing research, I realised that the education system doesn't encourage students to explore how the theories are derived. As a test of my observation, I trained one student who happened to be cited in India Book of Records for creating his own robot," Ahuja, who hails from the industrial city of Ludhiana, told IANS here.

"Our company had only 29 engineering students who joined the workshops. It was during these workshops that I realised that the workshops, which were crafted for engineering-level students, if modified a bit, can also interest a school kid," Ahuja pointed out.

Having obtained his engineering degree in 2015, Ahuja, who started working on this project when he was in his second year, now heads a team of around 40 to fulfil the vision of 'RoboChamps' - to revolutionise the education system.

"While working with college students in 2013, I asked a nine-year-old kid to join the same training that college students are undergoing. At the end of the training, which was of six months, I found that the kid had learnt more than engineers. I trained some more nine-year-old kids and they went to IIT-Delhi and competed with engineers. Out of 32 teams they stood third over there," Akshay excitedly pointed out.

"It was one of these youngsters who, at nine years of age, figured in the India Book of Records as the youngest boy in the country who created a line-following robot using an Atmega 16 chip," he said.

Ahuja does not want to stop at that.

He is working to hold the biggest robotics event, Build Your Bot (BYB), in July in which over 20,000 school children will participate in the national capital New Delhi.

"There is also a social cause attached to it as several hundred underprivileged children from slums are being trained free of cost by the 'RoboChamps' team and would be a part of the record-breaking event," Ahuja said.

'RoboChamps' is engaged in providing robotics and technology-based education to young minds through the school education system.

"Over 500 children from other countries, including Bhutan, China, Nepal, Pakistan and the US, are also expected to be a part of the event to compete with students from across India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to be the chief guest," he said.

"Students will start from scratch and make their own line-following robot. While making the robot, they will come to know many concepts practically rather than theoretically. The idea is to enhance the science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills of the children," Ahuja, who is passionately working for the mega-event, concluded.

Source by : http://ianslive.in/index.php?param=news/Young_engineer_encourages_kids_to_create_robots-507007/SCIENCE%20and%20TECHNOLOGY/36

The science of true growth

Support for research is laying the foundation for a thriving knowledge economy, writes Phil Mjwara.

A stagnant economy and persistently high unemployment are uncomfortable reminders that there cannot be a business-as-usual approach to economic development.

The National Development Plan (NDP) is intended to transform the economy, putting it on a growth trajectory.

The Nine-Point Plan, setting out immediate steps or priorities, has been introduced to help achieve the aims of the NDP.

These steps include beneficiation, which could facilitate the diversification of our resource-based economy.

A radically transformed economy encompasses new knowledge, new industries, and an army of knowledge workers.

In the Department of Science and Technology, our vision of “increased well-being and prosperity through science, technology and innovation” is becoming a reality.

With commodity prices and the demand for natural resources declining, the department is focusing on shaping a knowledge economy.

It has identified research and development-driven industries that are new to South Africa.

The department has flagged areas in which South Africa could take advantage of what it has and combine it with knowledge to diversify its industries.

The Fluorochemical Expansion Initiative is among the projects the department is driving in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry. The aim is to expand the fluorochemical industry through greater beneficiation of the country’s reserves.

South Africa has the world’s largest reserves of fluorspar, an estimated 41 million tons.

It supplies about 10 percent of the requirements of the world’s $16 billion-a-year fluorochemicals industry, but because of its low beneficiation levels, it earns less than 0.5 percent of the revenue.

About 10 years ago, the Department of Science and Technology worked with Pelchem, a subsidiary of the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation, providing research and development funding and infrastructure. A multipurpose fluorination pilot plant was established in 2010.

Two research chairs in fluorine chemistry and chemical engineering were established, one at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the other at the University of Pretoria.

We have strengthened our research and development competencies and are looking for partners to ensure investment in this area is translated into industrial activity.

The fluorochemical initiative seeks to attract investment from multinational corporations to build a larger hydrogen fluoride plant. A German company has expressed interest and plans are under way to visit it.

Successful technology development would increase Pelchem’s turnover from R200 million to almost R400m a year in 2019 and to R1 billion by 2025.

The department is also enthusiastic about the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology Programme. Launched in 2008, it is yielding exciting results, with the launch of prototypes for use in such sectors as mining.

Three centres of competence were established through the cabinet-approved HySA Strategy, to drive research and development in this field.

The first was established at the University of Cape Town and Mintek, in Randburg, to carry out research in catalysis, and the second at the University of the Western Cape, focusing on hydrogen and fuel cell system integration and technology validation.

The third, hosted by the CSIR and North-West University, focuses on infrastructure for hydrogen production, distribution and storage. This is a three-phase programme, with the first phase establishing research and development capabilities. The department provided the infrastructure as well as funding for postgraduate students to do the research.

The second phase, from 2014 to 2019, focuses on technology demonstration and testing, as well as delivering products to the market. Creating jobs and establishing spin-off companies are by-products of phase two.

Two weeks ago, Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor unveiled a hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklift and a 200-bar refuelling station.

Impala Platinum in Springs is to use the hydrogen fuel cell components for its underground utility vehicles.

The fuel cell-powered forklift and the refuelling station - which comprises a compressor and a metal hydride extension tank developed by HySA Systems - have been in use at the Impala Platinum Refinery since October.

The metal hydride compressor and direct hydrogen feed make this a unique system, which could be replicated in other materials-handling industries

The above-mentioned developments are exciting and bode well for the future, particularly since the third phase will focus on sales, the number of jobs created, export revenue and the market share created.

Research suggests the platinum catalyst market could bring in $139m (R2bn) for the country.

The ultimate aim is to achieve socio-economic impact.

These kinds of new industries have the potential to create jobs by producing thousands of knowledge workers with postgraduate qualifications.

This would not only have a socio-economic impact, but begin to transform South Africa’s resource economy into a knowledge economy.

* Mjwara is director-general of the Department of Science and Technology.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Source by : http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/the-science-of-true-growth-2010620