April 15
Africa: 5 Questions Schools and Universities Should Ask Before They Purchase AI Tech Products
Every few years, an emerging technology shows up at the doorstep of schools and universities promising to transform education. The most recent? Technologies and apps that include… Read more »
April 24
Africa: Sugar in Baby Food - Why Nestlé Needs to Be Held to Account in Africa
Nestlé has been criticised for adding sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries. The Swiss food giant controls 20% of the baby-food… Read more »
April 23
Africa: Africa's Megacities Threatened By Heat, Floods and Disease
Cities cover just 3% of the planet. But they emit 78% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, absorb 80% of final global energy (what consumers use) and consume 60% of clean… Read more »
April 18
Africa: Understanding AI Outputs - Study Shows Pro-Western Cultural Bias in the Way AI Decisions Are Explained
Humans are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to inform decisions about our lives. AI is, for instance, helping to make hiring choices and offer medical diagnoses. Read more »
April 22
Africa: Planting Trees in Grasslands Won't Save the Planet - Rather Protect and Restore Forests
Tree planting is one of the nature-based solutions being used to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Trees absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Many of these tree planting projects… Read more »
Africa: Two New Malaria Vaccines Are Being Rolled Out Across Africa - How They Work and What They Promise
Malaria incidents are on the rise. There were 249 million cases of this parasitic disease in 2022, five million more than in 2021. Africa suffers more than any other region from… Read more »
April 09
Africa: Flowers May Be More Ancient Than Dinosaurs - but Scientists Can't Agree On When They Evolved
Flowers may look delicate - but flowering plants, what scientists call angiosperms, are one of the most successful evolutionary organisms on the planet. Including more than 350,000… Read more »
April 10
Africa: Young People Are Getting Unhappier - a Lack of Childhood Freedom and Independence May Be Partly to Blame
Experts often highlight social media and harsh economic times as key reasons why young people are getting unhappier. And while those factors are important, I would like to… Read more »
April 17
Africa: Africa Is Full of Bats, but Their Fossils Are Scarce - Why These Rare Records Matter
Africa is home to more than 20% of the world's bat population. There are over 200 species to be found on the continent. South Africa is particularly diverse, with 72 bat species. Read more »
Africa: Hearing Aid Apps Offer Hope to Millions in Africa with Hearing Loss
In rural Kenya, 64-year-old John Kamau's world of silence is about to change. For decades, isolated by hearing loss from the community's vibrant life and his grandchildren's… Read more »
Africa: How to End Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa - Fight Inequality, Gender Imbalances and Climate Change
A greater part of Africa's population can't afford a healthy diet than any other regional population. Food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa is caused by climate change, high levels… Read more »
April 16
Africa: Development Finance - How It Works, Where It Goes, Why It's Needed
Development finance is the invisible glue that connects public and private financing for projects that have social, economic and environmental outcomes. These include improved… Read more »
April 09
Africa: Fossilized Dinosaur Eggshells Can Preserve Amino Acids, the Building Blocks of Proteins, Over Millions of Years
As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., I heard a gleeful exclamation… Read more »
April 14
Africa: Rogue Waves in the Ocean Are Much More Common Than Anyone Suspected, Says New Study
We used three-dimensional imaging of ocean waves to capture freakish seas that produce a notorious phenomenon known as rogue waves. Our results are now published in Physical Review… Read more »
April 12
Africa: Young, Black Woman Scientist Discovered Pivotal Leprosy Treatment in 1920s But Someone Took the Credit
Hansen's disease, also called leprosy, is treatable today - and that's partly thanks to a curious tree and the work of a pioneering young scientist in the 1920s. Centuries prior to… Read more »
April 15
Africa: Reptiles in South Africa Are Under Threat - but There's Good News Too
Media reports about the biodiversity crisis and what researchers have argued qualifies as a mass extinction event tend to focus on the big ecological effects. Melting ice sheets,… Read more »
April 12
Africa: Russ Cook - What Running Across Africa Does to the Human Body
A 27-year-old British man has recently accomplished the astonishing feat of running the length of Africa. Russ Cook, from Worthing, West Sussex, set out on his 16,000km (9,940… Read more »
Africa: Africa's Wildebeest - Those That Can't Migrate Are Becoming Genetically Weaker - New Study
Wildebeest - large African antelopes with distinctively curved horns - are famous for their great migrations on the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa. One hundred and fifty… Read more »
April 02
Africa: Affordable Stroke-Risk Screening Could Save the Lives of Many Children in Sub-Saharan Africa With Sickle Cell Disease
Most of the estimated 300,000 babies born every year with sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder, live in sub-Saharan Africa in nations where there are few… Read more »
April 10
Africa: African Wild Dogs Will Soon Have Their Own Sperm Bank - How Artificial Breeding Will Help Them Survive
Scientists from the Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals have been working in southern Africa for over 15 years to protect endangered African wild dogs… Read more »
April 09
Africa: West Africa's Falling Fish Stocks - Illegal Chinese Trawlers, Climate Change and Artisanal Fishing Fleets to Blame
Average fish catches by traditional fishing communities along the west African coast have declined significantly over the past three decades. Read more »
Africa: Nine Out of 10 Kids Are Not Developmentally On Track in Literacy and Numeracy - Study of 8 African Countries
Children develop an enormous amount during their early years - socially, physically, emotionally and cognitively. What happens between the ages of 0 and 8 years can predict… Read more »
April 08
Africa: US Media Coverage of New Science Less Likely to Mention Researchers With African and East Asian Names
When one Chinese national recently petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a permanent resident, he thought his chances were pretty good. As an… Read more »
April 05
Africa: South Africa's Crucial Water Supplies From Lesotho - What the Six-Month Shutdown Means for Industry, Farming and Residents
The main water supply to South Africa's economic hub, greater Johannesburg in the Gauteng province, and to the country's breadbasket in the Free State, is scheduled to be cut off… Read more »
April 01
Africa: After 10 Years of Work, Landmark Study Reveals New 'Tree of Life' for All Birds Living Today
The largest-ever study of bird genomes has produced a remarkably clear picture of the bird family tree. Published in the journal Nature today, our study shows that most of the… Read more »