6
South African
Inventions
South Africans have a reputation for being incredibly creative in order to help other people
and make their lives better. Here’s a list of some of the most innovative South African
inventions – and many of their inventors are from pretty unassuming places too…
CAT Scan
Heart Transplant
Retinal Cryoprobe
The Computed Axial Tomography
Scan or CAT was developed
by Cape Town physicist Allan
Cormack and his associate
Godfrey Hounsfield. He provided
the mathematical technique for the
CAT scan, in which an X-ray source
and electronic detectors are rotated
about the body and the resulting
data is analysed by a computer to
produce a sharp map of the tissues
within a cross-section of the body.
This resulted in a Nobel Prize in
Physiology and Medicine.
The world’s first heart transplant
was performed by Dr Chris
Barnard in Cape Town on 3rd
December 1967. The patient
Louis Washkansky was suffering
heart failure at the time and
Dr Barnard took the chance to
operate him. After that, Barnard
became an international celebrity.
He went on to perform more
than 10 other heart tran 7