Africa: Asteroid or Comet? Meteor or Meteorite? How to Identify and Classify the Rocks You See Streaking Through the Sky

Have you ever been out at night and seen a streak of light blast across the sky and disappear? Ever wonder where that shooting star came from, or how it got to be in your sky? Read more »

Africa: South African Scientists Make Breakthrough in Decoding Cancer's Most Effective Survival Strategy

In the intricate biology of the human body, organs such as the breast, the colon and the lungs are lined with a defensive barrier known as the epithelium. At the heart of this… Read more »

Africa: The Giant Viruses That Orchestrate Life in the Polar Regions

Viruses play a major role in the functioning of ecosystems. They profoundly influence the dynamics of microbial communities, flow of matter and global biogeochemical cycles. Yet… Read more »

Africa: Fungal Highways Are Vast, Yet Hidden Underground - New Study

Beneath our feet lie some of the largest living organisms on Earth. Fungi are mostly invisible and largely overlooked, but they help sustain the ecosystems and food systems that we… Read more »

South Africa: South African Telescope Detects Record-Breaking Signal From the Early Universe

Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa have discovered the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected, opening a new radio astronomy frontier. A hydroxyl… Read more »

Africa: Poor Pay Is Holding Back Africa's Biodiversity Research and Reducing Its Contribution to Global Science

Africa is one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. But much of its biodiversity remains poorly studied. Research from the continent contributes to less than 1% to global… Read more »

Africa: Ancient Tooth Proteins Suggest Homo Erectus May Have Left a Genetic Legacy in People Today

For most of the 20th century, the model of human origins was a tree: with the trunk dividing into branches, and then twigs. Each species of human relative (hominin) was a neat,… Read more »

Africa: Africa Has the World's Greatest Genetic Diversity, Yet It's Missing From Research - We're Filling the Gap

Throughout history, most of the world's genomic research has relied on DNA data from people of European ancestry. Read more »

Africa: Women in Science - Global Study Finds Presence Without Power

Academia isn't strong on gender equality. Women are under-represented throughout, in the research workforce and even more so as leaders in scientific organisations. This is true… Read more »

Africa: New Plastic Film Covered in Thousands of Tiny Pillars Can Tear Apart Viruses On Contact

Think of how many surfaces you touch every day, from your kitchen bench to the hand rail on the bus or train, your work desk and your phone screen. Read more »

Africa: Artemis II's Long Countdown - a Space Historian Explains Why It Has Taken Over 50 Years to Return to the Moon

While I was leading a tour of the National Air and Space Museum in January 2026, a visitor posed this insightful question: "Why has it taken so long to return to the Moon?" Read more »

South Africa: South Africa's Meerkat Telescope Is Mapping Previously Invisible Spaces Between Galaxies - and It's Found 60 New Cosmic Structures

Astronomers are uncovering previously hidden structures within some of the universe's largest objects, known as galaxy clusters. Using the powerful MeerKAT radio telescope in South… Read more »

South Africa: A New Face for 'Little Foot', the Most Complete Australopithecus Skeleton to Date

What did the face of our ancestors look like 3 million years ago? Meet the reconstructed face of "Little Foot" - the most complete biological Australopithecus specimen that ever… Read more »

Africa: Colonialism in Africa - Archaeology Offers a Deeper View

Colonialism has been a central part of history around the world, differing only in form over time and space. After all, whenever people have moved from one place to another, they… Read more »

Africa: Economists and Environmental Scientists See the World Differently - Here's Why That Matters

Imagine someone has chronic pain. One doctor focuses on the body part that hurts and keeps trying to fix that single symptom. Another uses a more comprehensive brain-body approach… Read more »

South Africa: Fossil Hunters Find a New Dinosaur Track Site On South Africa's Coast - the Youngest So Far

Southern Africa is world renowned for its fossil record of creatures that lived in the very distant past, including dinosaurs. But, about 182 million years ago, a huge eruption of… Read more »

Africa: Life in Fossil Bones - What We Can Learn From Tiny Traces of Ancient Blood Chemicals

Blood tests are useful tools for doctors and scientific researchers: they can reveal a lot about a body's health. Usually, a blood sample is taken to get a picture of the large… Read more »

South Africa: Arrow Tips Found in South Africa Are the Oldest Evidence of Poison Use in Hunting

The oldest evidence for the use of arrow poison globally was long thought to come from Egypt, dating to 4,000 years ago. It was a black, toxic residue on bone arrowheads from a… Read more »

Africa: Risks Young Chimps Take As They Swing Through the Trees Underscore Role of Protective Parenting in Humans

Adolescents are known for risky behavior, with teenagers in the U.S. more likely than younger children to die from injury. But what's responsible for this uptick in risk-taking… Read more »

Africa: Who Speaks for the Dead? Rethinking Consent in Ancient DNA Research

Would you choose to have a part of your body live on after you died? How might your choice affect your relatives - or even your entire community? Read more »

Africa: Climate Tipping Points Are Close - Scientists Urge Radical Action Before It's Too Late

New research has found that the world has reached the first of many Earth system tipping points. These will cause catastrophic harm unless humanity takes urgent action. Read more »

Africa: Where Did the First People Come From? the Case for a Coastal Migration From Southern Africa

The origins and migrations of modern humans around the world are a hot topic of debate. Genetic analyses have pointed to Africa as the continent from which our ancestors dispersed… Read more »

Africa: Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others - the Dark Side of Researching Popular Species

Biologists often form deep bonds with the species they study. For some, that relationship begins early in their careers and shapes decades of research. The connection can be… Read more »

Africa: AI Reveals Which Predators Chewed Ancient Humans' Bones - Challenging Ideas On Which Homo Species Was the First Tool-Using Hunter

Almost 2 million years ago, a young ancient human died beside a spring near a lake in what is now Tanzania, in eastern Africa. After archaeologists uncovered his fossilized bones… Read more »

Africa: Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines Could Unlock the Next Revolution in Cancer Treatment - New Research

The COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccines that saved 2.5 million lives globally during the pandemic could help spark the immune system to fight cancer. This is the surprising takeaway of a… Read more »