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...
Biologists’ sex puzzle: You have to find a mate and it takes resources to get one
Many organisms dedicate their entire adult lives to finding a mate and producing offspring. The rhythms of sex govern the actions and choices of so many animals that it seems to be a rule of biology: Sex is important. But life’s multifariousness yields some exceptions. A small percentage of animals...
New report accuses Tanzania police, courts of complicity in wildlife crimes
In late November 2020, a judgment was made in an appeal case in the High Court of Tanzania at Mtwara, a small port city near the Mozambique border. The appeal was filed by Tanzania’s Director of Public Prosecutions against Mateso Kasian (also known as ‘Chupi’ which means ‘underwear’ in Kiswahili),...
Work in progress: Psychologists grapple with how to detect a ‘true lie’
Police thought that 17-year-old Marty Tankleff seemed too calm after finding his mother stabbed to death and his father mortally bludgeoned in the family’s sprawling Long Island home. Authorities didn’t believe his claims of innocence and he spent 17 years in prison for the murders. Yet in another case, detectives...
How major wildlife crimes in Tanzania are covered up and convictions quashed
When a Tanzanian court overturned the conviction of a notorious wildlife poacher and ivory trafficker Boniface Matthew Malyango mid-last year, conservationists held their breath. Years of tracking down and assembling the evidence and the resources that were committed to the protection of wildlife and the environment had been dealt a...
‘Fake news is the currency with which opinion shapers peddle their influence’
The growth of fact checking in Africa has established one cardinal fact: sources and spreaders of fake news are routinely opinion shapers. At government level, they are in the executive, the judiciary, the legislature or security formations. Beyond the government, the business community, keen to have advantage over rivals, spreads...
Journals forced to change editorial review processes to combat organised fraud
Journal editors know that if they reject manuscripts they suspect to be fabricated, that might not kill the paper forever. Fraudulent manuscripts can be submitted to multiple journals at the same time: so even if an editor rejects it during peer review, they might see it published elsewhere. This has...
