SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION - The African Mirror

Jun

24

2020

Ugandans melt plastic waste into coronavirus face shields

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

JOHN OKOT WHEN the Ugandan government ordered all non-essential workplaces shut to contain the coronavirus pandemic in late March, Peter Okwoko and his colleague Paige Balcom kept working. But the pair - who had been turning collected plastic waste into building materials since last year - shifted gear and instead began manufacturing makeshift plastic face shields from discarded plastic bottles. When they posted pictures of their prototypes on social media, they got a surprise phone call from the local public hospital. "The doctor from Gulu regional referral hospital requested we make 10 face shield masks urgently because they didn't have…

Jun

22

2020

By The African Mirror

MALARIA BREAKTHROUGH

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

JEREMY HERREN MALARIA has been a terrible human disease from before the neolithic period up to present day. It has likely caused more human deaths than any other infectious agent. If realised, malaria eradication could be amongst humankind’s most significant achievements. Jeremy Herren, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology Malaria is caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium, of which there are five different species that infect humans. These parasites enter the female Anopheles mosquitoes (males don’t bite humans) when they feed on the blood of an infected human. Plasmodium must then cross the Anopheles mosquito’s gut and become established in their salivary glands, at…

Jul

16

2022

By The African Mirror

James Webb telescope: a scientist explains what its first, amazing images show – and how it will change astronomy

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

AFTER decades of development and many trials and frustrations along the way, the James Webb telescope has finally started to deliver what it came for. On July 12, Nasa released the first scientific observations made by the suite of instruments carried on board the mission, marking what we eagerly anticipate will be the beginning of a new era in astronomy. Author MARTIN BARSTOW, Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science, University of Leicester After the nail-biting launch on Christmas Day, a series of critical deployments followed to open up the telescope and its sun-shade. If any of these operations had failed,…

Mar

04

2022

By The African Mirror

Flies, maggots and methamphetamine: how insects can reveal drugs and poisons at crime scenes

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

THE oldest book of zoology was published on clay tablets more than 3,600 years ago and reported the names of 396 types of wild animals known at the time. Ten of them were different kinds of fly. Author PAOLA MAGNI, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science, Murdoch University Flies have lived alongside humans since the dawn of history, feeding on our bodily fluids and other organic waste such as meat and vegetable scraps. When an adult female blowfly finds some juicy decaying material – typically a carcass – she may lay hundreds of eggs or tiny maggots in it. So flies…

Mar

02

2022

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s Cellulant targets 50,000 new merchants, boosts war chest

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYAN digital payments company Cellulant plans to shift its focus to small and medium enterprises with the aim of turbo-charging its merchant acquisition growth to 50,000 this year from the current rate of about 1,000, its chief executive told Reuters. Investors have been flocking into African financial technology firms due to rapid growth in services like cash transfers between bank accounts and mobile phone wallets. read more Cellulant, which has previously raised funds from investors like Velocity Capital and TPG's Rise Fund, is in the middle of a $100 million Series D fundraising round, partly to finance the shift…

Mar

02

2022

By The African Mirror

Africa’s programmers are hot property

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY FOUR out of every ten African software developers now work for at least one company based outside of the continent, while five work for local start-ups, according to recent research, highlighting the dynamic and growing market for the continent's technical talent over the last two years. A 22 percent rise in the use of the internet by small and medium-sized businesses in Africa, a record fundraising streak by local startups in 2021 and demand for remote tech workers in more mature markets are all factors attributed to the rising awareness of Africa's software development talent.…

Mar

08

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukraine crisis highlights Big Tech’s potential to disrupt daily life

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

DAVID SHERFINSKI AS Russians lose access to some popular Big Tech products, the Ukraine crisis has highlighted the companies' mushrooming role in everyday life worldwide - and their potential to disrupt it. The availability of some Google and Apple products and services in Russia has been cut in recent days as international sanctions imposed on Moscow over last week's invasion have added to political pressure for the companies to act. Highlighting the potential for disruption when Big Tech services are shut down, a viral image this week showed commuters packed into a Moscow metro station foyer as the city's transport department warned…

Aug

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Twitter launches competition to find biases in its image-cropping algorithm

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

TWITTER Inc said it will launch a competition for computer researchers and hackers to identify biases in its image-cropping algorithm after a group of researchers previously found the algorithm tended to exclude Black people and men. The competition is part of a wider effort across the tech industry to ensure artificial intelligence technologies act ethically. The social networking company said in a blog post that the bounty competition was aimed at identifying "potential harms of this algorithm beyond what we identified ourselves." Following criticism last year about image previews in posts excluding Black people's faces, the company said in May…

Apr

01

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Frugal design’ brings medical innovations to communities that lack resources during the pandemic

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

DR. Msandeni Chiume Kayuni found herself in the middle of a supply crisis as COVID-19 spread to Africa in April 2020. As head of Pediatrics at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, her team faced a critical shortage of N95 and regular surgical face masks. Nurses and doctors were striking. REBECCA RICHARDS-KORTUM, Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University THERESA MKANDAWIRE, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Malawi “We had members of hospital staff put their tools down because they did not feel it was safe to practice,” she told us in an interview. Ingenuity kicked in. The Malawi team purchased…

Jan

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Satellite alerts seen helping fight deforestation in Africa

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

SONIA ELKS A system using satellite data to send free alerts when trees are destroyed has been linked to a significant drop in forest losses in Africa, researchers and academics said on Monday. Deforestation dropped by an average of 18% across nine central African countries after the alerts were introduced, found a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. "This is really a small revolution," said study lead Fanny Moffette, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Now that we know subscribers of alerts can have an effect on deforestation, there's potential ways in which our work can…