Project management: How NASA overcame the odds to build the biggest telescope ever history
It was a big-science project plagued with so many problems that it seemed destined to fail. For years, the James Webb Space Telescope – an ambitious observatory planned and funded by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency – was the target of astronomy’s most scathing jokes....
Webb telescope arrives near gravitationally special Langrange Two spot for premier view of Universe
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has just reached its final destination — around a gravitationally special spot in space known as the second Lagrange point, or L2. The $10-billion observatory could spend 20 or more years there, gathering unprecedented insights about the Universe as it stares into deep space. Webb,...
Uganda’s newly commissioned helicopter maintenance facility to serve eastern Africa, UN
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has commissioned a helicopter maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility, which is refurbishing Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) Mi-24 helicopters. The facility was formally opened by Museveni at Nakosongola Air Base on January 22. It is a joint venture by the UPDF’s commercial arm, the National...
Education: Investing in cell phones is helpful in refugee camps where large families share a smartphone
According to Education Cannot Wait, only 2.6 per cent of global humanitarian funding was earmarked for education in 2019, a number Yasmine Sherif estimates should be at least 10 per cent to ensure access to safe, free, and quality education. Sherif is director of Education Cannot Wait, an organisation that...
How Covid made education a humanitarian issue: Girls often lost out to boys when accessing technology
A dirt road is the only way to reach the remote Peruvian village of Tarucani, located high in the vast arid plains of the Andes, where pink flamingos paddle shallow brooks along the Bolivian border and herds of alpacas forage the dry and sparse vegetation for the few edible morsels....
Ousted Burkina Faso President Kabore detained, blamed for Islamist insurgency and economic slide
Burkina Faso’s army said on Monday it had ousted President Roch Kabore, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly, and closed the country’s borders. The announcement cited the deterioration of the security situation and what the army described as Kabore’s inability to unite the West African nation...
New report raises alarm over rising antibiotic resistance as dangerous fungi evolve stronger defences
As rates of antibiotic resistance grow alarmingly among disease-causing bacteria, dangerous fungi also are evolving stronger defences, with a lot less fanfare. Every year, infections of moulds and yeasts such as Aspergillus and Candida kill more than 1.5 million people globally, more than malaria and on a par with rates...
Opinion: Syrian refugees in Lebanon need help and protection, not more pressure to leave
As a Syrian in Lebanon who has been involved with the refugee response from day one, I have seen first-hand how the desperation in this community has grown. Many families are struggling to survive, let alone support themselves and thrive. And more and more Syrians want to get out, even...
Fears of deadly ‘super variant’ that combines Delta and Omicron cleared after researchers say it never existed
On January 7, virologist Leondios Kostrikis announced on local television that his research group at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia had identified several SARS-CoV-2 genomes that featured elements of both the Delta and Omicron variants. Named by them as ‘Deltacron,’ Kostrikis and his team uploaded 25 of the sequences...
UN Day of the Dead: By November 1 Covid’s true death toll was millions more than official counts
Last year’s Day of the Dead marked a grim milestone. On November 1, the global death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic passed five million, official data suggested. It has now reached 5.5 million. But that figure is a significant underestimate. Records of excess mortality, a metric that involves comparing all...
