Title: Searching African Skies: The Square Kilometre Array and South Africa’s quest to hear the songs of the stars
Author: Sarah Wild
Publisher: Jacana (July 2012)
Title: Searching African Skies: The Square Kilometre Array and South Africa’s quest to hear the songs of the stars
Author: Sarah Wild
Publisher: Jacana (July 2012)
Searching African Skies is a successful book by Sarah Wild that explains to readers how come South Africa was chosen to host the larger part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. The tone of the book is entertaining, yet at the same time informative, as it traces the history of radio astronomy in South Africa and illustrates how wonderful it was to have this country snatch an improbable victory from our old Australian rivals – traditionally been world leaders in this field.
Wild has clearly done the required research to be able to write such a book. She has interviewed just about everyone in South African astronomy and made visits to the South African Large Telescope (SALT) in Sutherland, as well as the SKA site near Carnarvon.
The book had evidently set out to make the SKA story accessible to the general public and avoids getting bogged down in the somewhat arcane aspects of radio astronomy and how Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) works.
If you did science for matric you should not have too much difficulty understanding Wild’s explanation of the relationship between wavelength and frequency – after all it was part of the syllabus. But even if you did not do science, her explanation and diagram are clear enough to help the reader understand what radio astronomy is.
Her lively description of her visit to the MeerKAT site is entertaining and provides the reader with a vivid impression of the dry desolation of the area. She writes that “you can drive 100 kilometres without seeing another car, person or animal, let alone a homestead” to make it absolutely clear that this place is far from everywhere and that no one is around.
She takes care, however, to share with readers some of the history of the area and how it came to be selected as the site for the world’s biggest science project.
In the weeks before the announcement about which countries would host the SKA, most newspaper articles focused heavily on the amount of funding required for the project and how such a massive investment would boost development in an impoverished corner of our country.
Searching African Skies also considers this aspect of the project, discussing how the SALT telescope has changed the economy of its host town Sutherland and speculating on how it will change business models in Carnarvon.
Wild tells the reader a story in a chatty, easy-going style that helps spread the wonder of the SKA project. Sometimes, however, her sharp witticisms can be distracting and even detract from the story line.
For example, she compares the Big Bang Theory to an overstuffed bag of clothing exploding across your room: while the metaphor is undoubtedly colourful, it does not really help explain the beginnings of the universe.
