Africa: Climate-Smart Farming Gets Funding Boost at COP28, But Small Farmers Still Struggle

[ad_1] Despite not securing a phase-out of fossil fuels, COP28 witnessed a historic focus on food. The summit saw over $7 billion in funding commitments, as well as a pledge by 152 countries to include food and agriculture in their climate plans. There is no doubt that commercial agriculture is a major contributor to the climate crisis, responsible for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Greenpeace. This includes emissions from land use change, on-farm production, processing, transport, packaging, and retail. […]

January 30, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: Humans Are Going Back to the Moon to Stay, but When That Will Be Is Becoming Less Clear

[ad_1] A 2019 Time magazine cover portrayed four astronauts running towards the Moon. Pictured alongside the headline "The Next Space Race", one of the astronauts carried an American flag, one carried a Chinese flag and the other two belonged to space companies owned by billionaires: Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Until recently, it seemed as if the US and SpaceX were set to win this race to return to the Moon with Nasa's Artemis programme. But a […]

January 30, 2024 3

Africa

Africa: The Emergence of Jn.1 Is an Evolutionary ‘Step Change’ in the Covid Pandemic. Why Is This Significant?

[ad_1] Since it was detected in August 2023, the JN.1 variant of COVID has spread widely. It has become dominant in Australia and around the world, driving the biggest COVID wave seen in many jurisdictions for at least the past year. The World Health Organization (WHO) classified JN.1 as a "variant of interest" in December 2023 and in January strongly stated COVID was a continuing global health threat causing "far too much" preventable disease with worrying potential for long-term health […]

January 26, 2024 1

Africa

Africa: Tracing Family Roots Beyond the DNA

[ad_1] Three genealogists describe the brick walls and breakthroughs in researching African American ancestry As an adoptee, Dena M. Chasten often felt disconnected from her family. That feeling correlated to her experience of being an African American in the United States. She always wondered where she came from and where she belonged. "The difference is when you are adopted, for the most part, you are wanted. I was very fortunate that a nice family raised me," said the Philadelphia native. […]

January 25, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: Tiny Water-Walking Bugs Provide Scientists With Insights On How Microplastics Are Pushed Underwater

[ad_1] Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that can cause big problems when they enter the water supply. One way my fluid dynamics lab explores microplastic movement is by studying how tiny water-walking insects are pushed underwater by raindrops. Exposure to microplastic pollution can pose health risks, such as respiratory and digestive problems, increased risk of diabetes and disrupted sleep. But physicists like me can study how they move through water to learn how to clean them up. Water striders are […]

January 25, 2024 1

Africa

Africa: Vaccinating Africa – Expanding Vaccine Manufacturing for Health Security

[ad_1] It is time for Africa to focus on producing vaccines for its population. In February 2021, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres highlighted vaccine equity as "the biggest moral test before the global community." This statement was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic which exposed the vulnerability of Africa's health systems and amplified the urgency for the continent to become self-reliant in addressing public health challenges. The pandemic served as a reminder of the critical importance of equitable access to medical countermeasures, […]

January 11, 2024

Africa

Africa: Some Believe the 1889 Russian Flu Pandemic Was Actually Caused By a Coronavirus – Here’s Why That’s Unlikely

[ad_1] COVID-19 was the first coronavirus pandemic. The original Sars virus from 2003 and the Mers virus that created a health emergency in South Korea in 2015 were both coronaviruses, but fortunately failed to turn into pandemics in the way that COVID did. Four years on from its appearance, Sars-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) now seems to be making the transition to an endemic virus: one that circulates in humans all the time, at least somewhere in the world. […]

January 11, 2024 3

Africa

Africa: Viruses Aren’t Always Harmful. 6 Ways They’re Used in Health Care and Pest Control

[ad_1] We tend to just think of viruses in terms of their damaging impacts on human health and lives. The 1918 flu pandemic killed around 50 million people. Smallpox claimed 30% of those who caught it, and survivors were often scarred and blinded. More recently, we're all too familiar with the health and economic impacts of COVID. But viruses can also be used to benefit human health, agriculture and the environment. Viruses are comparatively simple in structure, consisting of a […]

January 10, 2024 1

Africa

Africans Discovered Dinosaur Fossils Long Before the Term ‘Palaeontology’ Existed

[ad_1] Credit for discovering the first dinosaur bones usually goes to British gentlemen for their finds between the 17th and 19th centuries in England. Robert Plot, an English natural history scholar, was the first of these to describe a dinosaur bone, in his 1676 book The Natural History of Oxfordshire. Over the next two centuries dinosaur palaeontology would be dominated by numerous British natural scientists. But our study shows that the history of palaeontology can be traced back much further […]

January 5, 2024 2

Science and Biotechnology