A University of Cape Town professor has become the first Africa-based researcher to win the prestigious World Lung Health Award. Heather Zar, who heads UCT’s department of paediatrics, accepted the award at a ceremony in San Diego in the US on 21 May. The American Thoracic Society gives the award for outstanding contributions to the field of […]
Read More… from World Lung Award comes to Africa for the First Time.
New evidence shows that arguments against GM crops are unfounded, says Margaret Karembu. The year 2013 marked the 18th consecutive year of commercial cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or now commonly referred to as biotech crops. And in just under two decades, the volume of land on which biotech crops are grown has increased from 1.7 million […]
Read More… from The problems with the arguments against GM crops
A sensor which can be used to screen for diabetes in resource-poor settings have been developed by researchers and tested in diabetic patients, and will soon be field tested in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more A low-cost, reusable sensor which uses nanotechnology to screen for and monitor diabetes and other conditions, has been developed by an interdisciplinary […]
Africa has achieved exceptional economic growth over the past decade, averaging 4.5% a year and underpinned by prudent macroeconomic management. Now we must achieve economic growth that is accompanied by poverty reduction and greater value addition on the continent. Read more […]
Read More… from Bold education action to drive economic transformation
John Kibet’s home in rural Kenya is not linked to the country’s electricity grid. The only way he could generate power was by using a kerosene-powered generator. This was dirty, smelly and dangerous. But now things are different. Read more […]
Read More… from Mobile offers brighter future for Africa’s rural homes
Alex Pentland, 62, heads the Human Dynamics Lab at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is considered one of the world’s leading data scientists. In his new book, “Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread — The Lessons from a New Science,” he argues that human communication behaviors follow the rules of […]
Read More… from Interview with Alex Pentland: Can We Use Big Data to Make Society Better?
Smallholder farmers must be more involved in the research process to meet farmers’ needs and maximise its development impact, a meeting has heard. Individual subsistence farmers and farm organisations that represent their interests are a vital but underused link in the research and development(R&D) chain, experts said earlier this month (5-8 May) at the first meeting of Agrinatura, […]
Read More… from Smallholder farmers ‘remain left out of most R&D’
This week, more than 3000 delegates are at the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Kigali discussing new strategies to tackle poverty, underdevelopment, and put their weight behind global schemes that ensure Africa’s progress. To mark the occasion, UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, published an OpEd today titled Women’s Role in the Next 50 Years – the […]
Read More… from Africa in 50 years: what African women want for the future of their continent
An injectable product made from bone growth proteins for treating bone injuries has won the 2014 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA). South African scientists Nicolaas Duneas and Nuno Peres — who created the Altis Osteogenic Bone Matrix (OBM) — say the product is “the world’s first injectable regenerating bone graft substitute” derived from pig. Read more […]
Read More… from Health and agriculture innovations win top prizes
Africa’s fastest growing economies could offer a radical alternative to the West’s current reliance on national capitalism according to an academic who helped coin the term “informal economy”. Read more […]