Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – Meet @fikiswa
We gots to represent the young tweeples in South Africa that go out of their way to inspire and uplift our super talented youth… or we wouldn’t be doing our job right. Our next edition of Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple is representing all the boffins out there. Meet @fikiswa Majola, she’ crazy about stars (not the trashy ones), she knows how to strip (wires), she does it at night (she’s an astronomist) and she has birthday cakes with little astronauts on them. This star-shaker she can tell you the morning star is in fact the planet Venus and not a star… and … and… Well anyway, we love a super brainy scientist, and now you can too:
Name: Fikiswa Majola
Bio: Slightly insane, love astronomy, love science and education outreach. Yeah and music feeds my soul!!
Who’s Katrina and why is your brother hating on her?
••••Hahahaha! It’s quite a story, well not really. I was listening to some Louis Armstrong and then my little brother moaned and said “Gosh, I feel like I’m in New Orleans!” Eventually he sent me a text message (he was right next to me, mind!) telling me to turn off the Katrina (New Orleans -> hurricaine Katrina) noise! He isn’t into jazz music at all so you can imagine his pain. :-)••••
Tell us about your love of stars
••Stars!! Now you’re talking!! 🙂
What can I say- I’m just fascinated with astronomy. It is something that all of us have experienced one way or another and there are some many questions that we probably ask in our everyday life, the answers to which have something to do with astronomy. The moon, the stars, the sun, the seasons… I just find all that fascinating- and that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg!
I can’t say how long I’ve been bitten by the bug for- but in the past 3 years the itch has gotten worse. It’s one of those bites that one feels they have to share, otherwise other people won’t know how good it feels- which is what I try and do as often as I can. The only not so good thing about my love for stars is that it’s a night-time typa habit and so it gets difficult sharing but I try 🙂
What are Canis major and canis minor and where do we find them?
••••Ah! Canis major and canis minor are “dog” constellations. In Greek mythology, canis major is represented as one of the dogs following Orion. The brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, is in this constellation and it is known as the dog star. Anyone that has watched the 3rd Harry Potter movie will know that Sirius Black changes into a dog… Sirius = Dog. 🙂
Canis minor is also a dog constellation, and the term means “smaller dog.” One of the stars in Canis major is Procyon, which means “before the dog.” Guess which star it rises before…? It rises before The Dog- Sirius! :-)••••
What telescope are you waiting on and..why?
••••A friend of mine from the observatory is organising a telescope for me! I think it’ll be a reflector telescope, and it’ll be big enough for me to put up on the side of the street and do some star gazing with anybody that’s keen. It’ll probably damage my already “coolness,” but I would advise people to look through and see the rings of Saturn before they judge! One of the first things I want to do after I get it is taking to town one party night and see how the “cool crowd” like it! Star gazing that is! :-)••••
What do the skies hold in Cape Town?
••••This is a difficult one for me since the night sky I’m most familiar with is the Southern Sky. What I can say about Cape Town though it that because it is quite low (latitude) we see certain stars for longer than people higher up. One of these is the sun, which can give us some lovely sunsets over Lion’s Head. Oh and it’s always nice seeing the evening star, (which actually ISN’T a star but the planet Venus, shining bright!••••
Holographic Diffraction Grating Glasses – WTF? Can we see some more pictures please?
••••Hahahaha! These are probably the second coolest glasses out there- second to solar viewing glasses during an eclipse. They are “rainbow” glasses that when you look through everything that gives off light has rainbows next to it. I saw them for the first time on Saturday, and unfortunately couldn’t keep the pair I was looking through. I still don’t quite know how they work but I know they’re mostly used as a tool to teach about light and optics. ••••
Besides Sir Isaac Newton, who else is one of your favourite scientists?
Ben Franklin was cool, and kinda crazy! I think his most famous experiment was his lightening experiment when he took a kite and flew it during a thunder storm! He was lucky not to get struck because I don’t think anyone else that tried it after he had survived!! Hahahaha!! ••••
Apart from the gamma rays telescope in Windhoek, what other 3 things would you love to see in South Africa
••••I’d still haven’t see Cape Point, I’d love to see the cradle of human kind and to see the inside of my office at any observatory building! I haven’t got one, and I’d love to work at an astronomical observatory!! Oh and SALT- the Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland. I’ll be going there this month some time though 🙂 ••••
Tell us about your brothers and sausage factories
••••I have two brothers- one is 16 and the other 23. I have a sister that turned 21 last week and she had some people over our place last week. She only had two female guest and hence the sausage-fest…. ••••
Tell us about your job at the MTNScienceCentre
••••First thing I can tell you about my job is that I love it! I am the senior facilitator at the mentioned science museum. We get a host of school kids coming through, and they get to have a hand-on science experience. By hands-on I mean they get to play while learning: we have various exhibits that are fun to play around and still have some or other science principle behind they. We also do curriculum based hands-on workshops, which are very helpful especially for schools with limited resources- where the kids only learn about things but never get to see or use them. My favourite thing that we do at the sciencentre is the science outreach. We go out to schools all over the western cape, and sometimes outside to bring science awareness through some of or interactive exhibits and displays as well as science shows. We go to major science festival, and basically anywhere where there are kids (young and old) that can benefit from us.
I’ve been here for 3 years, and have enjoyed it very much. My science communication skills have grown and I believe I’ve empowered quite a few kids to continue with their science studies. It’s a great chilled working environment, but it’s still a bit of work. It’s the kind of work that one needs to have a heart for- like nursing. I’m not here just because I’m desperate for a job- I actually came here to volunteer but fortunately there was an opening and they employed me.
There’s a lot more about the sciencentre at www.mtnsciencentre.org.za 🙂 •••• (Ed: Please note, we have never and will never plug somewhere pretending like it’s really hip but actually get like free minutes from them in return… this is not a plug. We’ve never been a subscriber and never been to the science centre 😉 (but you got our email if you know.. well…)
Why should women know how to strip wires and where did you learn
••••Women should know to strip wires because you might have to help you brother or child with their electricity project one day, or even have to change a plug- both of which you cannot do without stripping a wire. It’s just one of those handy things to know how to do, you won’t necessarily do it on a daily basis, but damn useful when you need to. I learnt to strip wires when I was still a kid- I needed to change a plug (ok, I didn’t NEED to but I wanted to) and because I’d seen it being done before I tried it and managed to! ••••
Please share three crazy physics facts with us
••••1. The planet Jupiter (largest in our solar system) is like the earth’s safety net. It’s gravity is so great that anything that’s flying around in space (asteroids, etc.) get drawn to its gravitational pull instead of flying into our planet!
••••2. It is IMPOSSIBLE to do a frog jump/leap it you cover/hold your toes. Try it!! This is because in order for you to move forward, you need to “unbalance” your centre of mass- meaning first leaning your body forward and you cannot do this if you’re in that position holding your toes- they get in the way! :-)••••
•••3. SALT (mentioned earlier) is such a powerful optical telescope that can detect very far faint stars- even as feint as a candle light on the moon! (this can’t be tested though because it would be impossible to light a candle on the moon- there’s no oxygen!)••••
