In celebration of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, the newly-initiated Science with Jazz Seminar Series presents a stimulating May programme:
DATE: Thursday 22 May 2025
VENUE: Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, Shepstone Building
Level 2, Howard College Campus
TIME: From 17h00
The evening features biologist Professor Hans Michael Lattorff, musician Thobekile Mbanda, storyteller Dr Gcina Mhlophe, and author and poet Deborah Ewing.
TOPIC: Bees: A Model for Society and More
SYNOPSIS: Bees have fascinated people since ages with the oldest records on scientific reports about bees going back to Aristotle (384-322 BC), often called the founder of scientific beekeeping. Charles Darwin realized that bees could falsify his theory of natural selection as he could not imagine how sterile workers can inherit their sterility to the next generation. This problem was solved almost 100 years later by Bill Hamilton through his theory of inclusive fitness and kin selection. Besides their fascinating social organization, which is often seen as the perfect social harmony with a queen being the mother of all other members of the hive, it is actually a battlefield of different individual interests driven by relatedness asymmetries, extreme levels of multiple mating, anarchy and police, and clonal South African Cape honeybees. Additionally, bees contribute through foraging for nectar and pollen to pollination of plants. Roughly 75% of the crop plants used for human food are dependent on insect-mediated pollination. The foraging behaviour and the navigation of bees in space and time are one of the mysteries that were resolved partially by Karl von Frisch, who received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1973, the only one ever awarded for research on bees. Central to the foraging and recruitment of other nestmates is the waggle dance of the returning bees, which encodes the direction and distance of the food source, which allows honeybees to exploit resources rapidly.
About Hans Michael
Larttorff: Professor Hans Michael
Lattorff received a PhD in Biology (2005) and a Habilitation in Zoology (2013)
from the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Before joining
UKZN in 2024, he worked for several years in Kenya at the International Centre
of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) and the University of Nairobi. His
research focuses on various aspects of the biology of social insects,
especially honeybees. He is interested in host-pathogen interactions,
context-dependent activation of the immune system, and self-medication as a
complementary tool to combat infections, amongst other topics. He utilizes
various methods, including observational field studies, manipulative laboratory
experiments, experimental evolution, and genetic/genomic techniques. His
research has been published widely in peer reviewed international journals. He
regularly reviews manuscripts for international journals. He serves on the
editorial boards of Arthropod-Plant Interactions, International Journal of
Tropical Insect Science, Frontiers in Insect Science, and PCI Zoology. He has
supervised and mentored several PhD and MSc students.
About Thobekile
Mbanda: Thobekile Mbanda, passionately known as Ntomb’Yelanga, is an
indigenous instrument maker, player of these instruments and researcher. She is
a passionate author of isiZulu children’s books and founder of Abancane Art
Academy. Through her company, Mmaletstatsi Productions, she creates cultural
learning tools, crafts traditional instruments, and leads workshops that revive
African heritage. Dedicated to empowering youth and preserving indigenous
knowledge systems, she blends storytelling, music, and education to inspire
pride, identity, and creativity in the next generation.
She explains: “My work with bees began with The Humming and Hiving Project in Cape Town looking at bees - sonic sound their hums, their purpose, their resonance - then came water, its deep flowing tones mirroring that same life-giving energy. I hear the elements of bees water and trees in rhythmic conversation that dialogue shaped my instruments I created, The Aqua Harp, The Water Table and The One String Bass.
About Gcina Mhlophe:
Dr Gcina Mhlophe is a celebrated author, storyteller, and the founding director
of the Gcinamasiko Arts & Heritage Trust. Her works have been translated
into numerous languages, including all official South African languages,
Kiswahili, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and even Braille. She
has directed her theatrical plays in the USA, UK, and Greenland, with her most
renowned and studied work being Have You
Seen Zandile? In addition, her poetry has been transformed into dance and
classical music. Recently, she edited and self-published Our Storytelling Tree: A South African Storytellers Directory under
GAHT, marking the first effort to archive 38 storytellers currently active in
South Africa. She has received honorary doctorates from seven universities,
both nationally and internationally, in recognition of her literary
contributions and her impact on intangible heritage through storytelling.
About Deborah Ewing: Deborah Ewing is a Durban-based writer whose
main focus is social justice, children’s participation and inclusivity. Deborah
has authored 13 books, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, some with translations
into French, Swahili, Amharic and isiZulu. She has edited international
newspapers and magazines, and contributed chapters and articles to a wide range
of books and journals. Her poetry has featured in several journals and
anthologies, and festivals, including the Unesco Cities of Literature Poetry on
the Move festival in Germany in 2024. Deborah has just published Fragments, a collection of poems and
photographs with an audio-described edition to make it accessible to blind
audiences. Deborah is the Chairperson of the Alliance Française of Durban and
of the Mdukatshani Rural Development Trust.
Much of Deborah’s work with children focuses on the connections between
human, animal and environmental health. She uses participatory research and poetic
inquiry to explore how we interact with other living beings, especially
insects. Deborah will present a short selection of poems on this topic –
including bees.
About The Science
With Jazz Seminar Series:
2025 is the UNESCO year of Quantum Science and Quantum
Technology. In this context the initiated Centre for Quantum Computing and
Technology at UKZN presents a series of science seminars combined with Jazz
concerts, that informs about relevant concepts in science and technology and
their societal impacts. This monthly series intends to inspire
inter-disciplinary discussions and synergies, in particular between the
sciences and the arts.
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