A leap into hellish Mogadishu, then I realise Daadab camp in Kenya may be heaven on earth
‘I’ve been caught three times in explosions and gun battles already, and I worry that one day my luck might run out.’ I can’t take this city anymore – I need to get out. I’ve spent 10 months trying to build a better future for myself, and now I admit...
Vaccine boosters are contentious because they’re framed as shock additions to regimens tested in clinical trials
The US is by no means alone in its pursuit of boosters. France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates have all opened booster shot campaigns to large numbers of their residents, or announced plans to do so. However, campaigns intended to protect the most vulnerable...
Vaccine apartheid: When US says ‘Boosters for All’ it sets tone for rich countries to ignore poor world
I the next few days, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to debate who should receive booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, a follow-up to last week’s Food and Drug Administration committee meeting. By the end of this week,...
Covid hybrid immunity studies show vaccination after infection offers stronger virus resistance
Many studies of hybrid immunity haven’t followed naive vaccine recipients for as long as those who recovered from Covid-19, and it’s possible their B cells will make antibodies that gain potency and breadth with more time, additional vaccine doses or both, researchers say. It can take months for a stable...
Turning adversity into opportunity: How female refugee scientists cope in foreign lands
Unsurprisingly, female refugee scientists can face extra challenges – including gendered, cultural and socio-political barriers to academia. At the Council for At Risk Academics (CARA), a London-based charity that helps academics to continue their work at one of 124 partner universities and institutions in the United Kingdom or in other...
Keeping the faith in face of adversity: Trials and triumphs of refugee scientists
The Institute of International Education (IIE), a non-profit organisation based in New York City that supports international researchers, estimates that thousands of displaced scientists from nations such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen are now living as refugees elsewhere. Its figures are based on refugee counts, pre-war higher-education data from the...
How splits in one of South Sudan’s ruling SPLA factions may refuel war in Malakal oilfields
Malakal’s conflict in South Sudan has been frozen in place for years: a consequence of the Padang Dinka’s influence in Juba, which is partly due to their success in keeping Upper Nile’s oil fields – one of the government’s few foreign exchange earners – running. But a split within First...
In a flashpoint South Sudanese town of Malakal, women peacemakers try to bridge the divide
More than 18 months into a power-sharing government between South Sudan’s rival leaders, local conflicts still simmer, undermining a fragile peace accord. But in the northern flashpoint town of Malakal, a group of women peacemakers is trying to reverse that narrative by healing ethnic divisions to head off another bout...
Diminished fish biomass may have altered ocean chemistry, nutrient fluxes and carbon cycling – report
Tickled by sunlight, life teems at the ocean surface. Yet the influence of any given microbe, plankton or fish there extends far beyond this upper layer. In the form of dead organisms or poop, organic matter rains thousands of feet down onto the seafloor, nourishing ecosystems, influencing delicate ocean chemistry,...
Tale of 31 Mexican scientists facing charges of ‘organised crime’ and money laundering
When the son of astrophysicist José Franco answered the door at their home in Mexico City in June, he didn’t know why an agent from Mexico’s federal prosecutor’s office was asking for verification that his father lived at that address. When he confirmed it, the agent left without explanation. Franco,...
