21 Jan 2025

This lecture will explore the secret world of frogs, toads, salamanders and axolotls. We investigate their origin and evolution, how they are adapted to aquatic and semi-aquatic environments, why there are no frogs in the sea, how they breed, feed and defend themselves, and why their loss would be a tragedy. We also discuss why amphibians survived major extinction events in the past better than most animals, yet they will probably be the first group of backboned animals to become extinct due to the impact of humans.

Many developing countries that had widespread corruption, poorly performing SOEs and poor education outcomes have managed to industrialise, grow and significantly reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality. This lecture will show that current attempts at economic and industrial development must be analysed and understood within the shift to the new, financialised phase of capitalism and the imposition of neoliberal practices, interests and ideologies within countries and the effect it will have on their international economic and financial relations.

This lecture begins with a brief history of the significant events which occurred in medicine leading up to the beginning of the Anglo-Boer War, including a brief history of anaesthesia, and more particularly the introduction of anaesthesia into South Africa. The focus of the lecture will be on the clinical practice of anaesthesia in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War, on both the British and Boer sides. It explores the anaesthetic agents available at the time, their advantages and disadvantages, and the anaesthetic delivery devices used during the war.

How should South Africa respond to recent political changes in the US, UK, France, Germany, India and Iran? This lecture will assess the impact of the multiple elections in 2024, then attempt to develop a unifying approach to a more coherent South African foreign policy.

A nuanced understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our former allegiances is required, so that we can preserve the West’s positive influence on our constitutional freedoms and democratic tradition, while taking an independent view of its foreign policies.

Are we endowed with the capacity to make our own choices? Do we have free will? This is a the big questions challenging biologists today. How can there be free will in a determined Universe? This is based on a contradictory notion of ‘compatibilism’: The world is deterministic and there is free will. The current literature provides much evidence of the integration of biology and psychology. This course will focus mainly (but not entirely) on the ideas of two major thinkers representing diametrically opposing views for and against free will.

Proton therapy, a form of radiation treatment, utilises a beam of energetic protons from a cyclotron. By using very advanced treatment planning and extremely precise beam delivery, it is possible to effectively ‘paint’ a radiation dose layer by layer in three dimensions over a cancerous tumour. This lecture will introduce the science and technologies of proton beam therapy, provide an update on the UCT Proton Therapy Initiative and discuss the impact that the centre will have for health care in the region.