Hawking Searching For Africa's Einsteins

nuke-alwin writes "Stephen Hawking has traveled to South Africa in search of Africa's Einsteins. The project will create Africa's first post-graduate center for math and physics. The British government has unfortunately decided not to back the project, which is hoping to fight poverty by identifying the kind of talent that can create wealth." Neil Turok is deeply involved as well; he was recently named to head the Perimeter Institute in Canada, whose server we brought to its knees this morning.

Re:no post-grad center on the whole continent?

[sayfawa]

If TFA (which I haven't read) suggested that there's no post-grad physics or math department in Africa, it's wrong. I have personally visited several physics departments in various African countries that had Ph.D programs. For example, here's a math program [uonbi.ac.ke] and here's a physics one. [uct.ac.za]

Re:Brain drain, ver 0.1

[the brown guy]

I'd hop on the first chance at a big corporate job in some other country.

In my village in Northern India, more and more people are moving back to the village, after going to universities in Canada, the USA and England, and having become (relatively) rich. My dad is a first generation immigrant to Canada from India, and we are a middle class family, my dad drives a taxi (I know, stereotypical,) and my mom works in a bank. My dad just went back to India last month to build 4 3 story houses in our village, one for him (when he goes back) and 3 for his brothers and their families. A little money goes a long way in these impoverished regions, and not only does this stimulate the local economy with all the construction, but when I went there my dad paid for a year of broadband internet for the local school, and I am saving up for a dozen or so cheap desktop computers to bring there next time I go.
The point is that when people go back to the poor areas where they or their ancestors grew up, the feel a duty to improve the quality of life for the residents there.
The lucky few that get out, generally will try and make it easier for others to get out, and as time goes on the quality of life can only get better.

Re:Black Holes Create Wealth? How?

[cobaltnova]

Care to cite some APS articles? Maybe something on the arXiv? No? I didn't think so. Because you're not reading physics, or science. Don't bother citing bullshit physics and/or math [rebelscience.org] that claims:

The assumption is that, since no Newtonian force is required to keep a body in inertial motion, nothing is required. It is a rather foolish assumption because it overlooks the fact that Newtonian force is, by definition, only associated with macroscopic acceleration as seen in the equation below:

Fn = ma
(where Fn = Newtonian force, m = the mass of a moving particle and a = acceleration.)

In other words, Newton posited a cause (force) for the observed accelerated movement of a massive body but failed to do the same for inertial movement.

I'm not sure what crap this site is spewing, but the "inertial movement" (which I could only believe is the MOTION) is related to the acceleration by ITS DEFINITION:

a:= dv/dt = d^2x/dt^

And I've got news for you, and it's called the uniqueness of solutions to linear systems of differential equations: stating a derivative and its initial conditions determines the motion (in many cases, see self-force in classical E&M for examples where other principles are used to determine motion).

Re:Small Pool of Healthy

[ppanon]

Brain development is extremely dependent on good nutrition in the first few years of life. Malnutrition is common in many parts of Africa with periodic famines in such areas as the horn.

On the other hand, in a continent where there is (relatively) little motorized transportation and walking is a primary mode of transportation. travelling on foot is a basic survival tool and the body naturally directs its energies to that purpose because it gets significant use. It therefore shouldn't be surprising to find a strong aptitude to the athletic competitions that you mention, The core skills for those sports are developed by everyday activities common there.

So sub-Saharan Africa is an environment which strengthens one set of aptitudes (for your "counterexample") and weakens another. And man is an animal which adapts to its environment.

Re:Einstein is over-rated

[McGiraf]

"If race is irrelevant how do you explain the obvious widespread advanced technological achievements of certain races vs others who, if left untouched, would most likely still be living as primitives for the next thousand centuries?"

Read Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, (or download the torrent of the movie the made from the book if reading is too hard for you) and you may become less ignorant.

Re:Brain drain, ver 0.1

[the brown guy]

One of the issues that I have with my dad building the houses etc is that there will still be people who are basically servants, who are of a lower caste. We are traditionally farmers, Jatts, and are normally pretty average on the caste hierarchy, but because so many Jatts moved to Canada/England and the US, they have become more affluent and returned with their newfound riches to try and better the lives of the people who can't leave. I would like to say that there is no classism, but classist undertones are felt throughout the community. The kids of all castes go to school together, there are affirmative action-like programs to try and get people of lower castes to get government jobs (where they will probably become corrupt/rich, the dream of way too many Indians.)
My close family is comparatively liberal and accepting, but far from perfect. My uncle married a white woman, I have some cousins who are half Filipino etc, but inter caste marriages are hard to come by, personally, I would try and avoid "shaming" my family, because I know that my extended family would be pissed, and being alienated is basically a guarantee.

South Africa needs help with maths?

[AHuxley]

"first post-graduate centre for maths and physics"
South Africa built a few air drop nukes and maybe tested one too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction [wikipedia.org]
They also built Secunda, a neat coal-to-liquids plant.