November 29, 2023
Africa: COP28 - How Bad Is Climate Change Already and What Do We Need to Do Next to Tackle It?
As the latest UN climate change summit (COP28) gets underway in Dubai, conversations around limiting global warming to 1.5°C will confront a harsh reality. Global temperatures… Read more »
November 28, 2023
Africa: As Seas Get Warmer, Tropical Species Are Moving Further From the Equator
Climate change is causing tropical species in the ocean to move from the equator towards the poles, while temperate species recede. This mass movement of marine life, termed… Read more »
December 03, 2023
Africa: African Countries Lost Control to Foreign Mining Companies - the 3 Steps That Allowed This to Happen
Within a few years of independence, African governments asserted sovereignty over their metal and mineral resources. Prior to this, the resources were exploited by European mining… Read more »
November 29, 2023
Africa: Climate Action for Africa in 2023 - Three Big Developments
2023 is highly likely to be the hottest year ever recorded. And climate change is to blame for one-quarter of the global population being exposed to dangerous levels of extreme… Read more »
Africa: Low Emissions and Economic Survival - Countries in the Global South Aren't Getting a Fair Deal
In 2015, more than 140 countries signed up to the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. For countries in the global south this is a huge task. On the one hand they have… Read more »
November 28, 2023
Africa: As Disasters and Heat Intensify, Can the World Meet the Urgency of the Moment At the COP28 Climate Talks?
Eight years ago, the world agreed to an ambitious target in the Paris Agreement: hold warming to 1.5°C to limit further dangerous levels of climate change. Read more »
November 27, 2023
Africa: Stones Inside Fish Ears Mark Time Like Tree Rings - And Now They're Helping Us Learn About Climate Change
As a marine biologist, I've always found it fascinating to learn about how animals adapt to their habitat. But climate change has made it more important than ever - wild animals'… Read more »
November 29, 2023
Africa: COP28 - How 7 Policies Could Help Save a Billion Lives By 2100
In a recent review of more than 180 peer-reviewed articles -- which I conducted with fellow researcher Richard Parncutt -- we found that a scientific consensus has formed around… Read more »
November 28, 2023
Africa: Umaru Shehu - Nigerian Public Health Giant Who Played a Major Role in Polio Eradication
Professor Emeritus Umaru Shehu, who died on 2 October 2023, was born in Yerwa (Maiduguri), Nigeria, in 1930. Widely regarded as one of the country's early leaders in public health… Read more »
November 27, 2023
Africa: Earth's Magnetic Field Protects Life On Earth From Radiation, but It Can Move, and the Magnetic Poles Can Even Flip
The Earth's magnetic field plays a big role in protecting people from hazardous radiation and geomagnetic activity that could affect satellite communication and the operation of… Read more »
Africa: Stem Cell Therapy Shows Promise for Treating Multiple Sclerosis - New Study
Over 2 million people globally have multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects the nervous system and can lead to problems moving, seeing and thinking. Read more »
November 28, 2023
Africa: Faith Communities Are Rallying to Check Climate Change - Their Size and Influence Counts
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), more than 80% of the global population are motivated by a faith or spirituality. Faced with the triple planetary… Read more »
November 27, 2023
Africa: COP28 - Inside the United Arab Emirates, the Oil Giant Hosting 2023 Climate Change Summit
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the world's seventh largest oil producer, will host the 28th UN climate change summit (COP28) in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. Presiding… Read more »
Africa: Online Foreign Exchange System Aims to Enable Cross-Border Payments in Local Currencies - What You Need to Know
The high cost of making cross border payments on the African continent has driven governments on the continent to seek options of settling trade and other transactions in local… Read more »
November 26, 2023
Africa: How Worried Should We Be About the Pneumonia Outbreak in China?
Reports of a surge in pneumonia-like illness primarily affecting children in northern China have captured our attention. The last time we heard about a mysterious respiratory… Read more »
November 24, 2023
Africa: The Way a Sperm Tail Moves Can Be Explained By Mathematics Worked Out By Alan Turing
Alan Turing might be best known for his work helping to crack Germany's "Enigma" communications code during the second world war. But he also came up with a theory where patterns… Read more »
November 23, 2023
Africa: Drug Resistance May Make Common Infections Like Thrush Untreatable
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation's experts explore how we got here and the… Read more »
November 21, 2023
Africa: No Compelling Evidence That Air Purifiers Prevent Respiratory Infections - New Study
The COVID pandemic led to many calls for improved indoor air quality with claims that doing so would reduce the risk of the virus spreading. But the real-world evidence to support… Read more »
Africa: How Do Viruses Get Into Cells? Their Infection Tactics Determine Whether They Can Jump Species or Set Off a Pandemic
COVID-19, flu, mpox, noroviral diarrhea: How do the viruses that cause these diseases actually infect you? Read more »
November 14, 2023
Africa: Should the Media Tell You When They Use AI to Report the News? What Consumers Should Know
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the media landscape, both for news organisations and consumers. Applications such as ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing AI are creating new… Read more »
November 17, 2023
Africa: Physiological and Archaeological Evidence Rewrites Assumptions About Gendered Division of Labour in Prehistoric Times
Prehistoric men hunted; prehistoric women gathered. At least this is the standard narrative written by and about men to the exclusion of women. Read more »
November 21, 2023
Africa: Groundbreaking Malaria Vaccines Developed, but Challenges Remain
The approval of two malaria vaccines - the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine in 2021 and the R21/Matrix-MTM vaccine in 2023 - will help control, and eventually help eradicate, a disease that… Read more »
November 20, 2023
Africa: Early Births - Between 34 and 37 Weeks - for Moms With Pre-Eclampsia Can Reduce Baby and Mother Deaths
About half a million babies die each year as a result of pre-eclampsia, an aggressive and potentially life-threatening problem in pregnancy. Approximately 46,000 women also die… Read more »
Africa: Antibiotic Resistance Causes More Deaths Than Malaria and HIV/Aids Combined
Each year antimicrobial resistance - the ability of microbes to survive agents designed to kill them - claims more lives than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. Africa bears the brunt… Read more »
November 17, 2023
Africa: The Silent Killer That Leads to 5 Million Deaths a Year
Microbes such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi form part of our everyday lives - they live in us, on us and around us. Read more »