What is Quest?
Quest: Science for South Africa is a full-colour, quarterly, popular science magazine aimed specifically at the youth and the general public who have an interest in the sciences.
It aims to present the country’s (South Africa’s) foremost scientific work in an accessible form and can be used to support curricula work at various levels and institutions.
Quest is distributed to public high schools with science departments, universities, libraries, science centres, government departments, parliamentary committees, embassies, NGOs, TVETs and resource centres.
Quest is also available at selected national science events, science Olympiads, DST events and Focus weeks and at various communal functions.
Inside our latest issue:
Message from our editor
My eyes were opened to the mind-boggling implications of
gene editing after I watched a
YouTube video seven years ago by Kurzgesagt, which was titled ‘Genetic engineering will change everything forever – CRISPR’. You can watch it here. CRISPR is of course a reference to the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique discovered by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, which allows for the easy, fast and cheap editing of an organism’s genetic material,
or DNA. That essentially means, for the first time in history, human beings have the theoretical ability to completely and permanently alter our entire biosphere – and ourselves.
Latest Editions
Quest Vol 20.1 – Opening AI
Quest Vol 19.4 – The Economy and You
Quest Vol 19 No. 3 – Generation SPACE
Winners of SA IYBSSD School Competition announced
Quest Vol 19 No 2 – Power and Nature
Raisethorpe Secondary pupils shine at science fair
From fire retardant paint to asset-tracking software, Raisethorpe Secondary School’s matric pupils showcased their innovations at the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, KwaZulu-Natal Central Regional Science Fair.
Why mpox is a global health emergency — again
The disease has spread rapidly in Africa, now affecting people in at least 13 countries, the Africa CDC says. Congo, which has had a steady rise in cases over the past decade, has seen big increases last year and this year. Across Africa this year alone, there have been more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths from mpox, including deaths of young children and people whose immune systems were weakened by HIV.
