Dialing down the sun

Spraying reflective chemicals into Earth’s atmosphere could be an effective, if controversial, way to halt global warming. But few African scientists have studied how this technology could affect the continent until now, Esther Nakkazi reports. Imagine it’s the year 2039. For nearly a decade, governments have been spraying reflective aerosols into the Earth’s atmosphere in […]

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Fighting the fungus

Many African countries are working to curb the threat posed to human and animal health by mycotoxins. But climate change could set back their progress, Sharon Kantengwa reports. About 80% of East Africa’s population depend on farming for their livelihood. For them, an ever-present scourge is mycotoxins—harmful substances produced by mould growing on cereal crops […]

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On Science and Homecoming: A diaspora African’s view

Neither guilt nor sentimentalism should drive an African diaspora scientist’s choice to return home, writes Sara Suliman, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University in the United States. Africa’s global diaspora harbours a disproportionate share of the continent’s top scholars and thought leaders. In 2014, the United States Census Bureau reported that Africa-born immigrants had the […]

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Scientists fight drug-resistant fungal infections with light

A group of scientists hailing from India, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa are using light to fight drug-resistant infections. Their work, published this month in Scientific African, is part of a global dash to come up with new antimicrobial therapies. Antimicrobial resistance means that some of the relatively routine complaints that we successfully treat with […]

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Exposing radioactivity in the building blocks that make up Accra

African cities are growing rapidly, with buildings mushrooming in major centers around the continent. But scientists in Ghana are concerned that building materials could be radioactive and play havoc with occupants’ health. “Normally, when you mention radiation, people think about a bomb,” says Francis Otoo, a scientist with the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission based in Accra. […]

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Understanding how tsetse flies smell their prey could save lives

Scientists are examining how tsetse flies, which transmit deadly sleeping sickness in humans and nagana its animal counterpart in Africa, located their prey using their sense of smell, raising hope for better ways to control the deadly pest. Before the 18th century, sleeping sickness, or Human African trypanosomiasis was a manageable threat on the Africa […]

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Embedding traditional birth attendants in clinics and hospitals in Ghana could save mothers

Despite government efforts to boost access to maternal health services in Ghana, many women still choose to go to traditional birth attendants, rather than midwives, nurses, or doctors. The University for Development Studies’ Leander Allou tells Sarah Wild about his research into the birth practices of women in a remote district of Ghana and what […]

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