Vaccines and vino at the Orbit
JOBURG - The Orbit is bringing you some of the most tasty and thought-provoking lectures in their Science and Cocktails sessions.
Science and Cocktails is a registered non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the communication of scientific research to the general public – an initiative which was started last year.
The idea came to South Africa after a very successful run of lectures were held in 2010 in Copenhagen.
The aim of the sessions is to entice the public to get involved with serious issues by bringing science and entertainment closer together, in addition to creating a relaxed platform where researchers and audiences are on equal footings and conversations can be easily followed while sipping a famous Penicillin Cocktail, which is made with honey, lemon, ginger and whisky, side by side with your favorite scientist.
A bright idea, Science and Cocktails was awarded the 2014 Genius Prize for science communication by the Danish Association of Science Journalists.
The next Science and Cocktails lecture to be hosted by The Orbit on 25 August, The ultimate challenge: An Aids vaccine, will feature a high-profile science professor with some smooth jazz musicians accompanying her.
Lynn Morris, head of the HIV Virology section at the Centre for HIV and STIs at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and research professor at the School of Pathology at the University of the Witwatersrand, will host the session and communicate her research to attendees.
More than 30 years after the first documented case, Aids continues to ravage many parts of the world, with sub-Saharan Africa particularly badly affected.
In South Africa alone, almost six million people are living with HIV.
Although the development and availability of anti-retroviral drugs has helped to improve the quality of life for those afflicted with the disease, the world’s best hope to stop the epidemic rests on developing a safe and effective Aids vaccine.
Morris will be joined by Peter Sklair, freelance bassist and composer based in Johannesburg; Louis Mhlanga, who is considered one of the best guitarists in South Africa; and Paul Hanmer, composer, pianist and one of the foremost jazz musicians in South Africa.
Details: www.scienceandcocktails.org/jozi
