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28 January 2021 | Story Igno van Niekerk | Photo Supplied
Pictured from the left: Lucas Erasmus from the Department of Physics, Piet le Roux from the Astronomical Society of SA – Bloemfontein, Quinton Kaplan from the Department of Physics, Thinus van der Merwe from the Astronomical Society of SA – Bloemfontein. Front: Prof Matie Hoffman

In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman mentions how at first countries, then companies, and eventually communities went global. In true flat-world fashion, a combined team of the University of the Free State (UFS) and the Astronomical Society of South Africa – led by Prof Matie Hoffman, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics – participated in a once-in-a-lifetime event with their counterparts from the Ellinogermaniki Agogi School and the Skinakas Observatory in Greece.

On 21 December 2020, Earth was treated to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, when the two planets were only 0.1 degrees apart in the sky. Although conjunctions are regular phenomena, NASA mentions that the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 was the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! A pinkie finger at arm’s length could cover both planets – although they were still millions of kilometres apart in space.

Planning started months ahead of the event, with the Ellinogermaniki Agogi Observatory in Greece and the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein chosen as the two selected vantage points. From both the Southern and Northern Hemisphere, the conjunction would be broadcast live on YouTube. As with any other technical project on an international scale, challenges arose. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, it was already dark at 17:45 while the South African astronomers were still basking in sunlight until after 19:00. The conjunction would only be visible from South Africa after 19:30, almost two hours after it would be visible in Athens. The time was well used, with the event including a word of welcome by the Consul General of Greece in South Africa, Ioannis Chatzantonakis, presentations on Saturn and Jupiter, as well as a virtual tour of the Boyden Observatory, emphasising its connection with Greece through its first Director, Stefanos Paraskevopoulos. 

On Saturday, 19 December, the teams ‘gathered’ on opposite sides of planet Earth to do a dry run. One could sense the urgency and tension as both teams realised that they would have a huge captive audience on YouTube, and plans had to be made in case of connectivity challenges and if the weather did not allow the conjunction. As preparations progressed, Prof Hoffman was talking to his Greek counterparts and was simultaneously walking around with his laptop to share the landscape and activities via his webcam with colleagues in Greece. 

Monday 21 December 2020 – the weather prediction was correct. Clouds covered the Free State sky and scattered raindrops started to fall. Revert to Plan B. A recording made on Saturday evening was shared via the YouTube link, while a live feed of the conjunction from elsewhere in South Africa was arranged. From both sides of the world, information was shared about the history of the venues, as well as the marvel of what was happening in space. Fortunately, expert planetary photographer Clyde Foster was able to share a live feed just after 19:30 from the observatory at his home in Centurion, Gauteng. Those attending the event where visuals and speakers were together on one screen – yet thousands of kilometres apart – watching an event in outer space, will indeed agree with Thomas Friedman: the world is flat. The live-stream event of the conjunction was a catalyst that will result in continued collaboration between the UFS and colleagues in Greece in the field of astronomy. 

By the time of this writing, the livestream has reached more than 50 000 people.


News Archive

Research contributes to improving quality of life for cancer patients
2016-11-21

Description: Inorganic Chemistry supervisors  Tags: Inorganic Chemistry supervisors

Inorganic Chemistry supervisors in the Radiopharmacy
Laboratory during the preparation of a typical complex
mixture to see how fast it reacts. Here are, from the left,
front: Dr Marietjie Schutte-Smith, Dr Alice Brink
(both scholars from the UFS Prestige
Scholar Programme), and Dr Truidie Venter (all three
are Thuthuka-funded researchers).
Back: Prof André Roodt and Dr Johan Venter.
Photo: Supplied

Imagine that you have been diagnosed with bone cancer and only have six months to live. You are in a wheelchair because the pain in your legs is so immense that you can’t walk anymore – similar to a mechanism eating your bones from the inside.

You are lucky though, since you could be injected with a drug to control the pain so effective that you will be able to get out of the wheelchair within a day-and-a-half and be able to walk again. Real-life incidents like these provide intense job satisfaction to Prof André Roodt, Head of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS). The research, which is conducted by the Inorganic Group at the UFS, contributes greatly to the availability of pain therapy that does not involve drugs, but improves the quality of life for cancer patients.

The research conducted by the Inorganic Group under the leadership of Prof Roodt, plays a major role in the clever design of model medicines to better detect and treat cancer.

The Department of Chemistry is one of approximately 10 institutions worldwide that conducts research on chemical mechanisms to identify and control cancer. “The fact that we are able to cooperate with the Departments of Nuclear Medicine and Medical Physics at the UFS, the Animal Research Centre, and other collaborators in South Africa and abroad, but especially the methodology we utilise to conduct research (studying the chemical manner in which drugs are absorbed in cancer as well as the time involved), enhances the possibility of making a contribution to cancer research,” says Prof Roodt.

Technique to detect cancer spots on bone
According to the professor, there are various ways of detecting cancer in the body. Cancer can, inter alia, be identified by analysing blood, X-rays (external) or through an internal technique where the patient is injected with a radioactive isotope.

Prof Roodt explains: “The doctor suspects that the patient has bone cancer and injects the person with a drug consisting of an isotope (only emits X-rays and does no damage to tissue) that is connected to a phosphonate (similar to those used for osteoporosis). Once the drug is injected, the isotope (Technetium-99m) moves to the spot on the bone where the cancer is located. The gamma rays in the isotope illuminate the area and the doctor can see exactly where treatment should be applied. The Technetium-99m has the same intensity gamma rays as normal X-rays and therefore operates the same as an internal X-ray supply.” With this technique, the doctor can see where the cancer spots are within a few hours.

The same technique can be used to identify inactive parts of the brain in Alzheimer patients, as well as areas of the heart where there is no blood supply or where the heart muscle is dead.

Therapeutic irradiation of cancer
For the treatment of pain connected with cancer, the isotope Rhenium-186 is injected. Similar to the manner in which the Technetium-99m phosphonate compound is ingested into the body, the Rhenium-186 phosphonate travels to the cancer spots. Patients thus receive therapeutic irradiation – a technique known as palliative therapy, which is excellent for treating pain. A dosage of this therapy usually lasts for about two months.

The therapy is, however, patient specific. The dosages should correspond with the occurrence and size of cancer spots in the patient’s body. First, the location of the cancer will be determined by means of a technetium scan. After that, the size of the area where the cancer occurs has to be determined. The dosage for addressing total pain distribution will be calculated according to these results.

Technique to detect cancer spots on soft tissue
Another technique to detect cancer as spots on bone or in soft tissue and organs throughout the body is by utilising a different type of irradiation, a so-called PET isotope. The Fluor-18 isotope is currently used widely, and in Pretoria a machine called a cyclotron was produced by Dr Gerdus Kemp, who is a former PhD graduate from the Inorganic Research Group. The F-18 is then hidden within a glucose molecule and a patient will be injected with the drug after being tranquillised and after the metabolism has been lowered considerably. The glucose, which is the ‘food' that cancer needs to grow, will then travel directly to the cancer area and the specific area where the cancer is located will thus be traced and ‘illuminated’ by the Fluor-18, which emits its own 'X-rays'.

In the late 80s, Prof Roodt did his own postdoctoral study on this research in the US. He started collaborating with the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the UFS in the early 90s, when he initiated testing for this research.

Through their research of more than 15 years, the Inorganic Group in the Department of Chemistry has made a major contribution to cancer research. Research on mechanisms for the detection of cancer, by designing new clever chemical agents, and the chemical ways in which these agents are taken up in the body, especially contributes to the development in terms of cancer therapy and imaging, and has been used by a number of hospitals in South Africa.

The future holds great promise
Prof Roodt and his team are already working on a bilateral study between the UFS and Kenya. It involves the linking of radio isotopes, as mentioned above, to known natural products (such as rooibos tea), which possess anti-cancer qualities.

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