Inherited neurodegenerative diseases, characterised by progressive symptoms and a lengthy disease course, present a significant economic and psychological burden to affected families. The Department (now Division) of Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has a long history of research into these conditions, beginning under the leadership of Prof. Peter Beighton in 1972. This resea...

My interest in inherited eye disease was initiated at the genetic outreach clinics conducted by the University of Cape Town (UCT) Department of Human Genetics at schools for visually and hearing-impaired children in the Western Cape. As a clinical registrar from 1992 to 1998, I accom panied Prof. Peter Beighton on numerous clinics, where I developed a fascination for understanding the genetic m...

Perhaps no recent event has given so much credence to the social constructivist point of view as the decision, agreed by billions throughout the world, that the new millennium began on 1 January 2000. Our forebears a century ago knew that 1900 was the last year of the nineteenth century, 1901, the first year of the twentieth. Against all the facts, and the consequences of a little rational refl...