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...
Africa’s urban rot: ‘We treat human beings like waste by ignoring or brutalising them’
A report presented to South African Tswane city in June 2019 highlighted the need for economic growth and job creation. It specifically addressed “the problem of informal recyclers sorting waste in an uncoordinated manner across the City,” and made a commitment to “extend their waste management systems in order to...
Human ‘scavengers’ in Africa exist because cities, residents create ‘garbage economy’
For the “Bagerezi” – informal recyclable material reclaimers – Covid-19 was just one extra thing to worry about. They face many more immediate dangers every day and are subject to every kind of disadvantage: homelessness, hunger and exposure to the elements, ostracism, exploitation, harassment and threats of eviction. The Bagerezi...
Gender and race still determine salaries at American universities – women association
Women account for just 24 per cent of all top income earners at US universities, according to a study from the Eos Foundation. The study, conducted in association with the Washington DC-based American Association of University Women, found that highly compensated women are especially scarce at the tenured and tenure-track...
Like Yellow Fever certificate before it, it’ll soon be a must to get a Covid passport
Sometime soon, you might arrive at an airport or a stadium or a restaurant, open an app or flash a card, and be admitted to a place or experience that was denied you during the pandemic. You will have just deployed a vaccine passport, a certification of either vaccination status...
Most scientists believe Covid spread from animals, some say it’s lab-engineered
After the breakout of coronavirus in Wuhan city, Chinese researchers collected nearly 1,000 samples from the Huanan market in early 2020, swabbing doors, rubbish bins, toilets, stalls that sold vegetables and animals, stray cats and mice. The majority of the samples that tested positive were from stalls that sold seafood,...
WHO report into Covid pandemic origins zeroes in on animal markets, not lab
Markets that sold animals – some dead, some alive – in December 2019 have emerged as a probable source of the coronavirus pandemic in a major investigation organised by the World Health Organization (WHO). That investigation winnowed out alternative hypotheses on when and where the pandemic arose, concluding that the...
Kenya’s maritime, railway hubs now likely nodes and magnets for Chinese illicit trade
Kenya is the focal point in Africa for China’s New Silk Road project that is expected to create terrestrial and maritime trade and commerce networks that link African, European and Asian countries. And danger looms, experts warn. From sounding initially as grandiose and unachievable when it was mooted nearly a...
Gifted researchers worry about their outstanding work at UK universities
A university in the United Kingdom is facing criticism over the responsible use of research metrics after it used information about scientists’ research income and publication records to identify dozens of jobs that are ‘at risk’. Critics say that using metrics in such a decision is inappropriate because they tend...
How sex creates variation: Mix and match that results in the next generation
Some lizard species do without males altogether. Scientists are studying these all-female species to see what they might reveal about the pros and cons of sex. But asexual reproduction comes with its own problems, as evolutionary biologist Sonal Singhal of California State University, Dominguez Hills, and her colleagues describe in...
