To launch this first issue of Scientific African Magazine this month. When we launched Scientific African, peer-reviewed, open access, inter-and a multidisciplinary scientific journal that is dedicated to expanding access to African research, we got a lot of questions about how we would make sure policymakers and the public more broadly would know about the […]
Nigella sativa goes by many names: black cumin, black caraway, Roman coriander. But one name in particular caught the interest of Aminu Imam, a neuroscientist at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is claimed to have dubbed it “Habbatus sauda” and “a cure for all disease except death.” Purveyors of […]
The use of baobab pulp in pastry is an innovation.” The iconic African baobab could soon be used to fight malnutrition on the continent in the form of rice cookies. New research, published this month in Scientific African, has found that pulp from the baobab, also known as Adansonia digitata, when added to rice cookies […]
In 2016, during the World Economic Forum, world and business leaders agreed that the Fourth Industrial Revolution had arrived, and that it would fundamentally change the world as we know it. Africa has been missing in action in the previous three industrial revolutions. The Fourth Industrial Revolution provides Africa the opportunity to jumpstart out of […]
Will be among the worst affected by human-induced climate change. But what exactly is going to happen? And what can we do to prepare for the flooding, droughts, biodiversity loss, and human migration coming our way? These urgent questions need evidence-based answers. In this issue of Scientific African Magazine, two of the feature stories explore […]
This new method will encourage customers to patronage fufu outside home especially when prepared by commercial food vendors. If you’re from West Africa, chances are you have strong opinions about how your fufu should look and taste. The much-loved springy porridge made by pounding starchy foods like cassava and plantain together is a regional mainstay, […]
In Nigeria, once thriving ecosystems have been devastated by decades of oil exploitation including oil spills caused by sabotage or illegal refining. But Chioma Chikere, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State, is working on a solution. She speaks to Linda Nordling about her work using oil consuming microbes found […]
A frica is a continent with a growing consumer base, entrepreneurial ambitions and homegrown innovation. With more than 300 technology hubs spread across 93 of the continent’s cities, entrepreneurs are innovating in every sector from education and health to agriculture and energy. Africa is becoming a generator of knowledge, innovation, creativity and technology, rather than […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing society as profoundly as the steam engine and electricity have done. But unlike past technological revolutions, the AI revolution offers a unique chance to improve lives without opening up and exacerbating global inequalities. That will require widening of the locations where AI is done. The vast majority of experts are […]
With its verdant mountainous slopes, Kabale in western Uganda is well-suited to potato cultivation. But simply because potatoes will grow there does not mean that it is possible to thrive as a farmer. This is a problem. The root vegetable features prominently in the Ugandan government’s agricultural ambitions. Its Development Strategy and Investment Plan for […]