What if there were people who were quietly working to make your life better, without you even knowing? Since its inception in 1945, the CSIR has put the best minds to work to help solve problems ranging from reducing the spread of TB to mapping out the future of climate change. Explore the site to find out about the CSIR’s ideas that work and meet some of the bright young minds behind them.

Congratulations to Stephanie Fanucchi, a CSIR cell biologist who was awarded the 2016 L'Ore'al-UNESCO Sub-Saharan Africa Award for her work involving the use of cutting-edge microscopes and synthetic biology tools to understand how immune genes are regulated. For the past 18 years, the L'Ore'al-UNESCO for Women in Science (http://www.ForWomenInScience.com) programme has encouraged, promoted and honoured female scientists all over the world.

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), has commissioned the CSIR to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for aquaculture development in South Africa.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) today launched a South African first: A new-generation fingerprinting sensing technology, using high-speed, large-volume optical coherence tomography (OCT). The CSIR's OCT device will contribute to law enforcement and forensics in general. Safety and security is a national imperative. Equally important is the industrialisation of South Africa's research and development into relevant solutions for local challenges.

Scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University of Cape Town (UCT), in collaboration with colleagues at the Institut Pasteur and University College London (UCL) have for the first time visualised a key regulatory protein in cells. This landmark finding appears in the Nature Communications Journal, published on 2 September 2016.

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