SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION - The African Mirror

May

2021

African countries must embrace the concept of good food as good medicine

FRESH impetus is being directed into identifying and advocating for scientific priorities in the area of food security and nutrition across Africa, with a particular focus on health implications. CHARLES WAMBEBE, Professor Extraordinaire, Tshwane University of Technology At the centre of these efforts is a five-year project initiated by the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Africa, a partnership between the African Academy of Sciences and the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD. This project aims to identify the continent’s most urgent research and development questions, and to advocate for investments in these areas. This will go a long way in helping the…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

We live in our smartphones, anthropologists say

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

Umberto Bacchi ACCORDING to the saying, there's no place like home. But a group of anthropologists argue that smartphones have become so fundamental to human life, they are like places people live rather than mere tools of communication. The researchers at University College London (UCL) say smartphone users are like "human snails carrying our homes in our pocket" in a study analysing use of the devices across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. "You have one room for watching entertainment, another one for socializing with your friends, another one for organizing your life," Daniel Miller, the study's lead author, told the Thomson Reuters…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Italian hospital uses CT scan to unveil secrets of Egyptian mummy

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

ANCIENT Egypt met modern medical technology when a mummy underwent a CT scan at an Italian hospital as part of a research project to discover its secrets. The mummy of Ankhekhonsu, an ancient Egyptian priest, was transferred from Bergamo's Civic Archaeological Museum to Milan's Policlinico hospital, where experts will shed light on his life and the burial customs of almost 3,000 years ago. "The mummies are practically a biological museum, they are like a time capsule," said Sabina Malgora, the director of the Mummy Project Research. Malgora said information on the mummy's name comes from the sarcophagus dated between 900…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Songs, stories, pottery: Refugees preserve their heritage in digital archives

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

RINA CHANDRAN SOLIMA Khatun has been a refugee six times in her long life. She first left her home in Myanmar during the Second World War, and most recently in 2017 - when relatives had to carry her as they fled to Bangladesh with nearly one million other Rohingyas. Khatun - who is believed to be aged over 100 - lives along with some 700,000 Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong, the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Most fled religious and ethnic persecution in neighbouring Myanmar with few possessions. Khatun took a locket and a loda, a spouted brass…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Fish once labeled a ‘living fossil’ surprises scientists again

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

WIL DUNHAM THE coelacanth - a wondrous fish that was thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago before unexpectedly being found alive and well in 1938 off South Africa's east coast - is offering up even more surprises. Scientists said a new study of these large and nocturnal deep-sea denizens shows that they boast a lifespan about five times longer than previously believed - roughly a century - and that females carry their young for five years, the longest-known gestation period of any animal. Focusing on one of the two living species of coelacanth…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Medical oxygen should not be a luxury – we’re trying to develop a cheaper way to produce it

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

PEOPLE might once have considered oxygen a human right. But the pandemic has revealed that access to oxygen – in a pure form, for medical use – is a luxury in most low and middle-income countries. DAVID FAIREN-JIMENEZ, Reader in Molecular Engineering, University of Cambridge Getting access to pure oxygen for medical treatments is a complicated, expensive and often very dangerous business. The current situation in India is a harsh reminder of this issue. The second wave of COVID-19 has hit the country hard, the total number of deaths has just passed the 200,000 mark. Oxygen is in short supply.…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Denmark sees surge in ‘heart runners’ after Eriksen’s cardiac arrest

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

PHILLIP O’CONNOR THE cardiac arrest suffered by Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen during a Euro 2020 match has seen a seven-fold increase in sign-ups for the "heart runner" app, which allows emergency services to quickly direct citizen responders to assist heart attack victims. Eriksen's life was saved when CPR was administered to him on the pitch and his heart was re-started with a defibrillator before he was taken to hospital, where he is recovering. The incident shocked millions of TV viewers around the world and prompted hundreds of Danes to sign up for the app as volunteers who will make themselves…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

From vroom to Zoom, F1 sees virtual hospitality taking off

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

ALAN BALDWIN Formula One's 'Paddock Club' hospitality has gone from vroom to Zoom in the age of COVID-19 and it looks like the virtual version is here to stay with the sport excited by the revenue potential. The regular Paddock Club is an exclusive and expensive world of champagne, fine dining and corporate networking along with star speakers and some of the best seats in the house for the track action. The next two races, Portugal this weekend and then Spain, will have none of that. Circuits are closed to spectators, sponsors and guests due to restrictions on mass gatherings…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Why southern Africa’s interior is an ideal place to generate solar energy

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

SOUTHERN Africa is popularly associated with sunshine. Does that make the region exceptionally suited to solar energy generation? HARTMUT WINKLER, Professor of Physics, University of Johannesburg With electricity shortages plaguing all parts of the sub-continent, a plentiful energy source that is becoming increasingly affordable to tap into seems like an ideal solution. Yet the rollout of solar power generating facilities has been very slow in the region. Most solar power developments in the sub-continent have been in South Africa. But even in the country, solar farms account for only 2.5% of the total electricity generated. Compare that to some European…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

AI is taking over job hiring, but can it be racist?

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

AVI ASHER-SCHAPIRO SINCE graduating from a U.S. university four years ago, Kevin Carballo has lost count of the number of times he has applied for a job only to receive a swift, automated rejection email - sometimes just hours after applying. Like many job seekers around the world, Carballo's applications are increasingly being screened by algorithms built to automatically flag attractive applicants to hiring managers. "There's no way to apply for a job these days without being analyzed by some sort of automated system," said Carballo, 27, who is Latino and the first member of his family to go to…