Coming to America: The shattered dreams of Afghan refugees running away from despotic Taliban regime at home
As the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan late last summer, Qassim Rahimi packed the odds and ends of his life into bags and joined the crowds forming at the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital, Kabul. Forty-eight hours later, the 33-year-old left his lifelong home behind in...
Voices from Africa: Sall says ‘Black Panther’ inspired integration of culture and indigenous knowledge in science
In this article of this eight-part series about the career experiences of African women scientists, Khady Sall explains how seeing the 2018 superhero film Black Panther contributed to her decision to return to her native Senegal and develop her career there. The film depicts an African nation, posing as a...
Voices from Africa: Moruping tells fellow women to ask mentors specific questions, not use them as sounding boards
Pontsho Maruping, deputy managing director of operations and business processes at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) in Cape Town, describes a career transition from mining to space, and how she juggles the expectations of male and female colleagues. I call myself a career nomad. I started out in...
Voices from Africa: Policy committees of Kenyan universities are typically dominated by men, young female researchers are excluded
Some Kenyans have a tendency to equate quietness with being nice, says analytical environmental chemist Veronica Okello at Machakos University in Kenya. She urges young researchers to be less timid, air their views and approach their professors for professional opportunities. In this seventh article of eight describing the career experiences...
Dying in Haiti: A gangland where UN and International aid agencies hire armed criminal escorts to ferry food to the needy
United Nations relief organisations occasionally in Haiti employ armed escorts to cross gang-blocked roads, such as in Martissant. But getting commercial security companies to help train aid groups in hostile environments and driver safety in Haiti has been a challenge. Many firms have refused to work here, or charge exorbitant...
In Haiti, when nature is not violent it’s armed criminal gangs that dish out violence, render government irrelevant
Haiti’s surge in gang violence and kidnappings is forcing aid organisations to rethink shipment routes, staff risks, and security costs – and to consider the ethical and safety implications of trusting leaders of armed gangs who say they can help. This phenomenon isn’t unique to Haiti, and is notably prevalent...
35 years after nuclear leak, some animal and plant species in Russia seem to be faring well after adapting to the radiation
The debate n Chernobyl radiation accident in Russia is largely in the gray area in between: At what radiation levels does significant harm kick in, and for which species? Since different species may respond very differently to radiation, “it’s not black and white,” says radioecologist Christelle Adam-Guillermin of France’s Radioprotection...
Russian nuclear disaster: No matter the consequences of lingering radiation, there are massive benefits to people leaving
Some other research teams have not found significant radiation effects on the genetic diversity or abundance of certain animals around Chernobyl nuclear disaster scene. In one widely publicised 2015 survey of a Belarus area near the power plant, a team of scientists determined that the numbers of elk, roe deer...
Radiation at Chernobyl in Russia have fallen since initial accident, but scientists disagree on its impact on wildlife
Is Chernobyl a radioactive wasteland reeling from chronic radiation, or a post-nuclear paradise with thriving populations of animals and other life forms? Studies don’t always agree about levels of mutations and other ill effects. Thirty-five years after the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, reports often...
Kenyan scholar: Right working culture pays dividends when juggling between academia and parenting in Africa
In the fifth instalment of an eight-part series about African women in science, Elizabeth Kimani-Murage, head of maternal and child well-being at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, describes the importance of quiet hours to write as an early-career public-health researcher. After I earned my master’s...
