CovidPoops19 Dashboard: How sewage helps keep finger on pulse of coronavirus
Monday is sample-collection day in Cape Town, South Africa and Aqeelah Benjamin is halfway through her shift. At the Green Point wastewater-treatment plant, under the Atlantic coast promenade, she fills a 500-millilitre bottle from a tap of untreated water. She wipes the bottle’s exterior, cleans it with a spritz of...
Why giraffes and some long-necked animals don’t develop hypertension
To most people, giraffes are merely adorable, long-necked animals that rank near the top of a zoo visit or a photo-safari bucket list. But to a cardiovascular physiologist, there’s even more to love. Giraffes, it turns out, have solved a problem that kills millions of people every year: high blood...
Why giraffes and some long-necked animals don’t develop hypertension
To most people, giraffes are merely adorable, long-necked animals that rank near the top of a zoo visit or a photo-safari bucket list. But to a cardiovascular physiologist, there’s even more to love. Giraffes, it turns out, have solved a problem that kills millions of people every year: high blood...
DR Congo government struggles to rescue citizens in Goma as Mt Nyiragongo volcano erupts
The government in the Democratic Republic of Congo has launched an urgent evacuation plan for the eastern city of Goma after a large volcano erupted. Fountains of high lava burst from the Mount Nyiragongo into the night sky forming a thick orange cloud over Goma, which has a population of...
Mysterious microbes that might be key to understanding how life evolved on Earth
Evolutionary biologist David Baum was thrilled to flick through a preprint in August 2019 and come face-to-face – well, face-to-cell – with a distant cousin. Baum, who works at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was looking at an archaeon: a type of microorganism best known for living in extreme environments, such...
Report: Sexual exploitation and abuse are endemic in UN humanitarian division
In September last year, during investigations by The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Beni – 60 kilometres northeast of Butembo – the 51 women said dozens of men, mostly foreigners, had coerced them into having sex in exchange for jobs. The majority of those claims were also...
Cement: The polluter environmentalists hate, builders and building owners love
Cement is everywhere, but few people notice the impact it has on the environment. A standard building material used everywhere it is often confused with concrete. Cement is a key component in making concrete. By burning limestone at extremely high temperatures, this process turns the stone into a fine powder...
Cement-based batteries to turn concrete buildings into giant energy reserves
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have published unique research into the idea of rechargeable batteries made from cement. The team, led by Dr Emma Zhang and Prof Luping Tang at the institution’s Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, believes the development of this technology may yield a...
Bill Gates: Microsoft’s philanthropic serial philanderer hemmed in by a soft dress
When the news first broke that Bill and Melinda French Gates were getting divorced, it punctured the public image many of us had of the glossy magazine-cover power couple, seemingly as committed to each other as they were to saving the world. That revelation, however, probably barely registers in your...
Six orphaned Zimbabwean elephant calves on verge of being released into the wild
Six orphaned elephant calves moved 900 kilometres closer to freedom this week after they translocated from Harare to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, conservation non-governmental organisation, Wild is Life (WIL), has announced. Chief executive and founder of Wild is Life (WIL) Roxy Danckwerts said when he announced the imminent release of...
