August 24, 2023
Africa: 'Worthless' Forest Carbon Offsets Risk Exacerbating Climate Change
In early 2023, the Guardian published an article suggesting that more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets are worthless. These credits are essentially a promise to protect… Read more »
Africa: World's Beaches Are Changing Because of Climate Change - Green Thinking Is Needed to Save Them
Coastlines - the interface between land and sea - lie at the frontline in the battle against climate change impacts. Read more »
Africa: For Minorities, Biased AI Algorithms Can Damage Almost Every Part of Life
Bad data does not only produce bad outcomes. It can also help to suppress sections of society, for instance vulnerable women and minorities. Read more »
August 21, 2023
Africa: Beginning of the End - How Elon Musk's Removal of the Block Function On X Could Trigger Its Hellish Demise
On Saturday, X (formerly Twitter) chairman Elon Musk tweeted he would be removing the microblogging platform's block function. It would remain intact for direct messages, but would… Read more »
August 24, 2023
Africa: China's Africa Strategy Is Shifting From Extraction to Investment - Driven From the Industry-Rich Hunan Region
China experienced a massive economic boom in the 1990s and 2000s which increased its demand for resource imports, like oil, from Africa. This led to a model of development finance… Read more »
August 22, 2023
Africa: 'Dirty Red' - How Periods Have Been Stigmatised Through History to the Modern Day
About a year ago, at a friend's wedding, a fellow guest asked whether I knew that modern sanitary towels owe their origins to resourceful World War I field nurses who discovered… Read more »
August 15, 2023
Africa: The Orgasm Gap and Why Women Climax Less Than Men
Imagine a steamy sex scene involving a woman and a man from your favourite television show or movie. It's likely that both parties orgasm. But this doesn't reflect reality. Read more »
August 17, 2023
Africa: Can Coffee or a Nap Make Up for Sleep Deprivation? A Psychologist Explains Why There's No Substitute for Shut-Eye
There is no denying the importance of sleep. Everyone feels better after a good night of sleep, and lack of sleep can have profoundly negative effects on both the body and the… Read more »
August 14, 2023
Africa: 3 Ways AI Is Transforming Music
Each fall, I begin my course on the intersection of music and artificial intelligence by asking my students if they're concerned about AI's role in composing or producing music. Read more »
August 21, 2023
Africa: Africa Is Being Courted By China, Russia and the U.S. Why the Continent Shouldn't Pick Sides
Some three decades since the end of the Cold War, the world order is undergoing a structural transformation. At the heart of it is the challenge posed to the hegemony of the US.… Read more »
August 20, 2023
Africa: Civilian Support for Military Coups Is Rising in Parts of Africa - Why the Reasons Matter
On the night of 13 January 1963, Togo's President Sylvanus Olympio was shot dead by rebels in the first military coup staged in Africa. A long list, as shown below, was to come.… Read more »
August 18, 2023
Africa: How Genetically Modifying Mosquitoes Could Strengthen the World's War On Malaria
It's been 126 years since British medical doctor Sir Ronald Ross discovered that mosquitoes in the Anopheles family are primarily responsible for transmitting malaria parasites… Read more »
August 14, 2023
Africa: Florida's Academic Standards Distort the Contributions That Enslaved Africans Made to American Society
The state of Florida ignited a controversy when it released a set of 2023 academic standards that require fifth graders to be taught that enslaved Black people in the U.S.… Read more »
Africa: The Science of Why You Can Remember Song Lyrics From Years Ago
Why is it that many people can't remember where they put their car keys most mornings, but can sing along to every lyric of a song they haven't heard in years when it comes on the… Read more »
August 11, 2023
Africa: Military Coups in Africa - Here's What Determines a Return to Civilian Rule
Slightly more than two years after Niger's first peaceful handover of power from one civilian president to another, the military seized power in July 2023. The coup - the fourth in… Read more »
August 13, 2023
Africa: How to Grow Rhinos in a Lab - the Science That Could Save an Endangered Species
There are several parallel projects running across the world to save the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum), one of Africa's captivating and iconic wildlife… Read more »
August 09, 2023
Africa: Depression Isn't Just Sadness - It's Often a Loss of Pleasure
It's often thought that if someone is depressed, they will feel sad or low most of the time. But what many don't realise is that these aren't the only symptoms of depression.… Read more »
August 10, 2023
Africa: Heritage Algorithms Combine the Rigours of Science With the Infinite Possibilities of Art and Design
The model of democracy in the 1920s is sometimes called "the melting pot" - the dissolution of different cultures into an American soup. An update for the 2020s might be "open… Read more »
Africa: The WHO Has Declared Eris a 'Variant of Interest'. How Is It Different From Other Omicron Variants?
EG.5 is a family of Omicron variants (descended from XBB.1.9.2) that first appeared back in February 2023. Read more »
August 09, 2023
Africa: Through Space and Rhyme - How Hip-Hop Uses Afrofuturism to Take Listeners On Journeys of Empowerment
It is perhaps only natural, as hip-hop celebrates its 50th anniversary, that people look to the genre's future. But for some rappers, the future has always been part of the story. Read more »
August 07, 2023
Africa: Computer Science Can Help Farmers Explore Alternative Crops and Sustainable Farming Methods
Humans have physically reconfigured half of the world's land to grow just eight staple crops: maize (corn), soy, wheat, rice, cassava, sorghum, sweet potato and potato. They… Read more »
August 04, 2023
Africa: Women's World Cup - What Still Needs to Be Done to Improve the Lot of Elite Female Footballers
The Fifa Women's World Cup is just 32 years old and on its eighth official edition, while the men's competition began 93 years ago and has enjoyed 22 tournaments. Read more »
August 03, 2023
Africa: Direct Costs of Climate Policies Aren't a Major Barrier to Public Support, Research Reveals #AfricaClimateHope
Amid headlines of wildfires raging across Europe and Africa and flooding in China, the UK government took the bewildering choice to expand fossil fuel extraction. Read more »
August 06, 2023
Africa: An Expanded Brics Could Reset World Politics but Picking New Members Isn't Straightforward
Eager to escape perceived western domination, several countries - mostly in the global south - are looking to join the Brics bloc. The five-country bloc (Brazil, Russia, India,… Read more »
August 03, 2023
Africa: Immune Cells That Fight Cancer Become Exhausted Within Hours of First Encountering Tumors - New Research
A key function of our immune system is to detect and eliminate foreign pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Immune cells like T cells do this by distinguishing between different… Read more »