Science espionage: China in a corner as US ‘varsities tighten rules on research
The US government is converging on a long-awaited set of rules designed to protect American science from theft by foreign spies. A series of announcements this year describe steps that US universities and researchers must take when reporting foreign financing and collaborations to US science funders. But university groups say...
English is big and baggy, a good language of science, but precision is tough
English is the international language of science, for better or for worse, but most of the world’s scientists speak it as a second language. We shoulder an extra career challenge: not only must we gain command of our science, but we must also be able to write to professional standards...
World journalists’ body wants Kenya to hasten probe into murder of editor
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) wants the Kenya government to hasten investigations into the brutal murder of a senior video editor and television producer with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Betty Mutekhele Barasa. Ms Batty Barasa was assaulted and shot dead at her home on the outskirts of the...
Kenyan filmmakers, artistes pile pressure on president to relax rigid Covid protocols
Rendered helpless and idle by the recent rigid Covid-19 containment measures, stakeholders in Kenya’s entertainment and hospitality industries want the government through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth to bail out artistes and film-makers who depend on them for a living. In a statement, Kisima Music and Film Awards,...
Africa’s ‘Blue Economy’ remains untapped, set to be in hands of foreign powers
African governments have the ability to significantly impact the investment environment and investors will look to the way they are planning, regulating, owning and operating their ports. They will also take the country’s stability, security and perceived corruption levels into account. Experienced investors will certainly consider how individual governments have...
Too many regional economic communities, are they really helpful to African trade?
Africa is a complex continent. She is an eclectic mix of authoritarian regimes – where leaders have been in power for many decades; countries that are attempting to make their way towards democracy – even if progress is incremental and slow. There are others that have had a stronger semblance...
Angola nears Africa oil giant status with 57 billion barrels and 27 trillion cubic feet of gas
Italian oil and gas mining giant ENI has announced discovery of new deposits in Angola, elevating the southwestern African nation to one of the leading producers on the continent south of the Sahara Desert. ENI announced the discovery on April 6 in its Block 15/06 concession offshore Angola, to underline...
AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots but cases are few and far between: regulators
The European Medicines Agency has concluded there is a link between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and “very rare” but dangerous clotting events reported in a number of countries where the vaccine has been used, events which in some cases have been fatal. A safety committee, the agency said on Wednesday (April...
Sorry state of reforestation: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few’
After collecting seeds, they are usually sent to nurseries, where they are grown into seedlings for planting. The number and size of nurseries around the world are becoming fewer and smaller, raising the concerns about the future vegetation cover and some tree species. A study in which we interviewed over...
In race to raise forest cover, scientists discover the world’s running out of seeds
Dean Swift has gotten really good at spotting where squirrels hide their seeds. In the forests of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota, he looks for a moist shaded area with a small grove of trees, sometimes near a ravine. Here, he will find a cache of chewed cones...
