November 06, 2022
Africa: Climate Change Will Force Up to 113 Million People to Relocate Within Africa By 2050 - New Report
Adapting to a world that is warmer than today is a huge undertaking, even if the most ambitious temperature ceiling is met. Increasing climate risks mean that millions of Africans… Read more »
November 03, 2022
Africa: Go Slow and Accept Your Limitations - How to Exercise If You're Recovering From Long Covid
A significant proportion of people who contract COVID are left with ongoing symptoms, commonly termed "long COVID". The nature of these symptoms and the duration of the illness… Read more »
November 04, 2022
Africa: Malaria in Africa - Why Most Countries Haven't Beaten It Yet
Malaria remains one of the most devastating parasitic diseases affecting humans. In 2020 there were around 241 million cases and 672,000 malaria-related deaths. This is a sharp… Read more »
November 03, 2022
Africa: Understanding How News Works Can Short-Circuit the Connection Between Social Media Use and Vaccine Hesitancy
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. Read more »
Africa: Climate Change - the Effects of Extreme Heat On Health in Africa - 4 Essential Reads
Scientists are sounding the alarm about the extreme increases in the Earth's temperature. A new report by UNICEF warns that 2022 could be the "coldest year of the rest of our… Read more »
Africa: COP27 Explained By Experts - What Is It and Why Should I Care?
COP27 is the 27th Conference of the Parties (countries) that signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention was established at the Rio Earth… Read more »
Africa: COP27 Must Work Out How to Cut Carbon and Still Develop African Economies
Averting a climate disaster without compromising economic growth and development is a key issue for African countries. Energy production and use is the single biggest contributor… Read more »
November 02, 2022
Africa: 3 Things a Climate Scientist Wants World Leaders to Know Ahead of COP27
World leaders and climate experts are gathering for pivotal United Nations climate change talks in Egypt. Known as COP27, the conference will aim to put Earth on a path to net-zero… Read more »
Africa: Lockdowns Had a Huge Impact in the Mental Health of the Elderly
In Spain we suffered one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in response to the COVID pandemic. For a time, we were only allowed to go to the supermarket, the bank and the… Read more »
Africa: From Centaurus to Xbb - Your Handy Guide to the Latest Covid Subvariants (And Why Some Are More Worrying Than Others)
The Omicron variant of concern has splintered into multiple subvariants. So we've had to get our heads around these mutated forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,… Read more »
Africa: Astronomers Have Detected Another 'Planet Killer' Asteroid. Could We Miss One Coming Our Way?
If you surfed the web this morning, you may have seen news of the latest existential threat to humanity: a "planet killer" asteroid named 2022 AP7. Read more »
November 01, 2022
Africa: The Horn of Africa Has Had Years of Drought, Yet Groundwater Supplies Are Increasing - Why?
The Horn of Africa - which includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and some surrounding countries - has been hit by increasingly frequent and devastating droughts. Despite this, it seems… Read more »
November 02, 2022
Africa: South Africa's Dance Music Craze, Amapiano, Could Conquer the World - If Its Stars Step Up
There's a lot of hype around amapiano. The South African dance music genre has dominated dancefloors since 2019, spreading from South Africa to West Africa and now to the world.… Read more »
Africa: Loss and Damage - Who Is Responsible When Climate Change Harms the World's Poorest Countries, and What Does Compensation Look Like?
You may be hearing the phrase "loss and damage" in the coming weeks as government leaders meet in Egypt for the 2022 U.N. Climate Change Conference. Read more »
November 01, 2022
Africa: Pancreatic Cancer Could Be Diagnosed Up to Three Years Earlier - New Study
Every year, more than 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, for most of those people, the disease is diagnosed too late to be cured. Less… Read more »
October 31, 2022
Africa: Who Sees What You Flush? Wastewater Surveillance for Public Health Is On the Rise, but a New Survey Reveals People Are Still Unaware
Flush and forget? Not if you have a toilet that flushes to one of over 3,000 sites around the world where researchers are using wastewater to track SARS-CoV-2, the virus that… Read more »
Africa: How Debt-for-Climate Swaps Can Help Solve Low-Income Countries' Fiscal and Environmental Challenges At the Same Time
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley spoke passionately to the United Nations General Assembly in September about the mounting debt many developing countries are shouldering… Read more »
Africa: Omicron BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 - An Expert Answers Three Key Questions About These New Covid Variants
Two new omicron subvariants, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, are quickly gaining traction in the US, collectively accounting for 27% of infections as of October 29. Both are descendants of BA.5,… Read more »
October 27, 2022
Africa: Fermented Foods and Fibre May Lower Stress Levels - New Study
When it comes to dealing with stress, we're often told the best things we can do are exercise, make time for our favourite activities or try meditation or mindfulness. Read more »
October 28, 2022
Africa: Zombie Worlds - Five Spooky Planets Orbiting Dead Stars
All stars, including the Sun, have a finite lifetime. Stars shine by the process of nuclear fusion in which lighter atoms, such as hydrogen, fuse together to create heavier ones.… Read more »
October 30, 2022
Africa: How Covid-19 Damages Lungs - Virus Attacks Mitochondria, Continuing an Ancient Battle
Viruses and bacteria have a very long history. Because viruses can't reproduce without a host, they've been attacking bacteria for millions of years. Some of those bacteria… Read more »
October 27, 2022
Africa: Elon Musk Takes Twitter Private - Here's What That Means for the Company and Its Chances of Success
Elon Musk has finally completed his US$44 billion deal to acquire Twitter and take it private. Read more »
October 30, 2022
Africa: Vaccines Could Be a Game-Changer in the Fight Against Malaria in Africa
The development of an effective vaccine for malaria has proved to be far more challenging than developing a vaccine to protect people from COVID-19. Several different COVID-19… Read more »
October 27, 2022
Africa: Coffin? Casket? Cremation? How to Make Your Death More Environmentally Friendly #AfricaClimateCrisis
We can all agree humans need to reduce their impact on the environment. And while most of us think of this in terms of daily activities - such as eating less meat, or being… Read more »
Africa: Covid Vaccines Don't Just Benefit Physical Health - They Improve Mental Health Too
The considerable physical health benefits of COVID vaccines, in particular, the significantly reduced risk of serious illness, hospitalisation and death from the virus, are well… Read more »