‘Deepfake’ maps that will show you’re in London, not Nairobi, coming soon
Satellite images showing the expansion of large detention camps in Xinjiang, China, between 2016 and 2018 provided some of the strongest evidence of a government crackdown on more than a million Muslims, triggering international condemnation and sanctions. Other aerial images – of nuclear installations in Iran and missile sites in...
Sexism? Why biomedical research focuses on male rats, mice hormones only
Picture a person having a heart attack – what do you see? Mostly likely a man, looking sweaty and short of breath, clutching his arm or chest in pain. This canonical image has been so deeply impressed into our minds that it may be hard to believe heart attacks could...
Facemask: How condom, car seatbelts and tuberculosis experience eased the stigma
Early in the HIV-Aids epidemic in the 1980s, public-health officials faced a major challenge in trying to slow the spread of the virus. The problem wasn’t necessarily convincing people that a physical barrier – in this case, a condom – could prevent infection. “I don’t think the issue was so...
When cool old-school computers prove too good to die, in-demand and impractical to retire
Sometimes cool old-school IT refuses to die, in demand and impractical to retire Some 22,000 miles above Earth’s surface, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory – a solar-monitoring satellite launched in 2010 – bristles with high-tech sensors. Yet one of the Earth-bound systems that supports those sensors was, until 2015, decidedly old-school....
Digital blackout: Internet access determines access to Covid vaccine in India
India’s deadly coronavirus second wave has underscored a stark digital divide determining who has better access to vaccines and healthcare, as surging caseloads expose shortfalls and overwhelm hospitals. Onerous online procedures have turned vaccine access into an exclusionary, often lottery-like process in a country where about half the population lacks...
Illicit reptile trade: Currently, only 21 species available in private sanctuaries
Netherlands-based herpetologist Jordi Janssen says that rediscovered species are highly prized, which is why traffickers always on the lookout for new research reports where they can extract information and useful to leads to newly profiled reptiles. “Last year there was a paper on a lizard from Sumatra, which had not...
How reptile traffickers scour wildlife reports for ‘new’ species, rake in profits
The descriptions and locations of new reptile species featured in scientific literature are frequently being used by traders to quickly hunt down, capture and sell these animals, allowing them to be monetised for handsome profits and threatening biodiversity. New reptile species are highly valued by collectors due to their novelty,...
Can grit, ambition that Francis Kadenge epitomised inspire tottering AFC Leopards Sports Club?
After AFC Leopards SC, one of Kenya’ most successful football clubs, was humiliated by a nondescript Bidco FC on May 30, the team’s supporters have expressed strong reservations about its current players and management’s commitment to success. “They fear success” is the refrain in every conversation. Given its history as...
‘They’re killing all Black people’, 107-year-old granny remembers Tulsa massacre
Seven-year-old Viola Fletcher was awakened by her parents 100 years ago today and told they had to leave home. Angry, gun-toting white mobs had set out under the cover of nightfall in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to kill Black people and destroy Black America’s economic mecca. Now 107, Fletcher...
Gigo: Science grapples with tonnes of gibberish ‘research’ literature
Nonsensical research papers generated by a computer programme are still popping up in the scientific literature many years after the problem was first seen, a study has revealed. Some publishers have told Nature they will take down the papers, which could result in more than 200 retractions. The issue began...
