Meet the three main SuperScientist characters for our animation! We can’t wait to share some of the story and behind the scenes images of how an animation comes together. Until then, here are animation versions of Rocktor, Bones and GeoTime. We are making the project with The Hidden Hand Studios out of Joburg. If you know Primal, Blood of a Fellow, Naledi, Kizazi Moto - You Give Me Heart, then you’ve seen some of their stunning work. Thanks very much to the National Film and Video Foundation for funding this project.

Our exhibit launched at Maropeng on the 20th of January, it was brilliant. Four of the scientists visited - Bones, GeoTime, Insight and Cosimc Dawn,, Clyde Beech, our artist was there, the funders from The Canadian High Commission and GENUS were there and at one point a visiting class of learners mobbed the scientists and Clyde for their autographs. That was almost two months ago and we’ll soon pass the 10,000 visitor mark! The feedback from leaners has been wonderful, almost half of them have filled out coloured cards with their superpower dreams, drawings, and real world concerns. The exhibit runs at Maropeng until June and will travel from there.

We’re launching our museum exhibit on January 20th, 2023 at Maropeng The Cradle of Humankind! We’ve been working on the exhibit for the past five months with Clyde Beech and Totem Media after receiving funding from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives. The exhibit will feature these awesome 7 scientists and explore how they became the scientists they are today. The funding paid for the exhibit as well as the printing of 3,000 copies of our comic which will be distributed at the exhibit and are already reaching young people in South Africa and beyond. We can’t wait to see the pictures of young people with our life size characters and learn about these impressive scientists who were once kids like them.

We received funding form the the National Film and Video Foundation to create an animation pilot and met with Lesego Vorster (top left) who leads The Hidden Hand Studios and Clyde Beech our art director to make a plan for 2023. It’s very exciting and we hope it will lead to a full series that will show hundreds of thousands of young people how important and cool science is.

With funding from GENUS and the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives, we have printed our comic! 3,000 copies of the comic will be distributed for free through out upcoming museum exhibit. If you’re in Durban, you can pick up a copy at the KZNSA or Ike’s Books and Collectables. We hope to find other stores or distributors in 2023.

Four SuperScientists will be featured on science outreach vehicles travelling throughout South Africa! Through a collaboration with CASME and funding from MAHLE Behr, the Science2Go vehicles will feature Dr Keneiloe Molopyane (Bones - NatGeo explorer and archaeologist), Mpho Kgoadi (Cosmic Dawn - astrophyicist), Dr Francois Naude (Synaptic - teacher and teacher trainer) and Sanera Maharaj (Insight - engineer at MAHLE). We have also provided 2,000 cards of these characters for the Science2Go programme.

We’re excited to see the vehicle when it launches March 4th and can’t wait to see kids posing along with these characters as the vehicles travel rural and underserved schools.

Launched on #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience Faith February is a PhD student at the University of Cape Town who studies marine aerosols. These are tiny particles created by wind and waves, that float through the air and impact the global climate - how much they do is a big part of her research.

Marine aerosols can start as sea spray, when you go to the beach you know it, that misty wetness that covers EVERYTHING. Those droplets contain salt, organic molecules, sulphur compounds even and water. Those misty drops you feel are huge in comparison to the aerosols they become as the water in them evaporates. If you think about how much ocean there is and how many waves are crashing out at sea or against the coasts, then the amount of marine aerosols is mind boggling.

So how are they involved in climate change? These aerosols absorb and scatter light and heat and they can drift high into the atmosphere and even be involved in forming clouds which also have a role in how climate is regulated. Given how many marine aerosols there are, it would be good to know a lot about them but with a lot of things, particularly in hard to reach places, we don't know enough about marine aerosols. Faith's work is hoping to change that and provide better information that can be used in climate change models.

Thanks to a group of translation students in France we will soon have almost 20 SuperScientists - their cards and profiles - translated into French! We’re busy trying to connect with organisations that can help get them out to French speaking learners. If you have connections please be in touch. You can download all 8 that are complete so far at bit.ly/3JzjV3b