Attack on the Defender - Car Magazine, December 2011

Once Upon a Falling Star - Published in the Mail & Guardian (November 18, 2011)

Once Upon a Falling Star - by Nick van der Leek

A very long time ago, something earth shattering happened on a landmass we know today as the Free State.

In fact, as far as we know, it is probably the most earth shattering event subsequent to the creation of the moon that has ever taken place on Earth. If the big sky plains of the Free State seems a strange place for an earth shaking event, the event itself could not be more bizarre, spectacular and indeed, bone rattling.

For background, remember that the earth is estimated to be 4 500 million years old, and the moon 4 450 million year old (created when a planet destroying 3000km wide rogue rock collided -- a glancing blow to the present north pole -- into our molten planet). Then, 2 023 million years ago, some people believe that a UFO 10 kilometres wide, or about the size of Table Mountain and traveling at 200 000km/h through space, made a bullseye for the present-day northwestern Free State.

The collision caused a magnitude 14 earthquake on the Richter scale, 100 000 times more powerful than the 1979 Tangshan earthquake (the largest 20th century earthquake by deathtoll). A portion of the earth's atmosphere incinerated, molten rock and acid rain fell over a large area, and tsunamis several hundred metres high swept the Earth's oceans.

The entire planet cooled down over the next few years as a huge dust cloud enveloped the planet. An event that changed the fate of all life on earth lasted just 4 minutes. It is hard to believe the whispering veld between Welkom in the south, and Johannesburg in the north, is the setting of a cataclysm that changed the fortunes of all living creatures today.

But while the furious impact near Vredefort is the largest and oldest that we know of, impact craters on the moon are up to six times larger. And while a majority of scientists agree that either a comet or a large asteroid pummeled the gentle Free State plains, a vital piece of evidence remains at large.

Some skeptics have noted that an extra-terrestrial body would have deposited one of the heaviest elements at the site, a substance known as iridium. (Because of its exceptional hardness, iridium is used, for example in the iridium alloy nib of the Parker 51 fountain pen).

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Supplement published in the Mail & Guardian, commissioned by the Free State Provincial Government [November 2011]

Photo Published in SARIE magazine

Supplement published in the Mail & Guardian, commissioned by the Free State Provincial Government [November 2011]

Latest Photojournalism: The World's Most Advanced Bicycle

The ultimate answer to our fuel efficiency needs?

BY  Nick van der Leek , 27 September 20110 comments

In March 2011, Formula One’s McLaren and bicycle manufacturer Specialized released the Specialized McLaren Venge.

Right now, the global bicycle market is a $61 billion industry: 130 million bicycles are sold annually around the world; two thirds are made in China.

As recently as 1965, the production of bicycles and cars was the same, at 20 million each. Today, there are around one billion bicycles in the world, or twice as many cyclists as drivers.

Curiously, early bicycles tended to be adopted by the fashionable elite, a form of conspicuous consumption. The introduction of accessories (often more expensive than the original product) also first appeared in the bicycle industry.

The invention of the bicycle predates both the automobile and the aeroplane, and advances in bicycle tech – including ball bearings, spoke-tensioned wheels, chain-driven sprockets, gears and pneumatic tyres – eventually played a key role in the development of both. The birth of the bicycle says much about not just the accelerating pace of human innovation, but also where the mother of invention, necessity, can ultimately lead us.

The year without summer

The invention of the bicycle can be traced back to a string of likely and unlikely events. In 1550, Germany was utilising wagonways, roads comprised of wooden rails and the precursor to today’s railroads. Horses pulling wagons over wooden rails was a more efficient process than over dirt. By 1776, iron had replaced both the wooden rails and the wheels.

In 1804, the first steam-powered engine appeared in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The technology behind the steam locomotive was intended to gradually replace horsedrawn carts. But at the same time, starting from 1790, solar activity suddenly decreased and global volcanism increased, culminating in the most powerful volcanic eruption in human history: in 1815, Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, ejected 160 cubic kilometres of debris into the atmosphere.

The world experienced severe climate aberrations the following year, which unleashed crop failures and concomitant food shortages across the northern hemisphere. That year, 1816, which is infamously remembered as ‘the year without summer’ and the ‘poverty year’, also ushered in the end of subsistence agriculture – a methodology that had sustained human beings for millennia. But beyond the 71 000 dead, 1816 saw another vital population decimated due to starvation – horses.

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Freshford Photography Exhibition (October 2011)

 I won a "Highly Commended" for the above photograph of the National Afrikaans Language Museum.