3. Gold: the glorious and accursed element

Author(s):  
Philip Ball

‘Gold: the glorious and accursed element’ explores the allure of gold. Gold has dominated men's hearts throughout the ages. It is not a very useful metal, but it is prized for its beauty and unreactivity. It can be mined from lodes or riverbeds, and most modern gold is from South Africa. Gold was traditionally purified via cupellation, but newer techniques such as cyanidation exist, and bacterial or plant based extraction is now possible. Alchemists sought to create gold from other metals, but this was chemically impossible. Gold was extremely useful in establishing trade and money, and was the bedrock of early global financial systems.

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.


Author(s):  
Alex Johnson ◽  
Amanda Hitchins

Abstract This article summarizes a series of trips sponsored by People to People, a professional exchange program. The trips described in this report were led by the first author of this article and include trips to South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Israel. Each of these trips included delegations of 25 to 50 speech-language pathologists and audiologists who participated in professional visits to learn of the health, education, and social conditions in each country. Additionally, opportunities to meet with communication disorders professionals, students, and persons with speech, language, or hearing disabilities were included. People to People, partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), provides a meaningful and interesting way to learn and travel with colleagues.


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