Reprogramming age: Soon, it’ll be normal to get prescription for medicine that reverses your age by 10 years
A little over 15 years ago, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan made a remarkable discovery. When they added just four proteins to a skin cell and waited about two weeks, some of the cells underwent an unexpected and astounding transformation: they became young again. They turned into stem cells...
Why are Black women not on the upper deck of the tech industry in the United Kingdom?
Up to 20,000 black women are “missing” from the tech industry in the UK, according to a joint report by campaigners and a representative body. The report says the proportion of black women in IT is two-and-a-half times smaller than that of the UK workforce as a whole. Campaigning group...
Opportunity gain: With a wiki you can get you can fix any problem in record time, at low cost
Seeing someone’s face while talking with them is nice, and all, but the best part about a video phone call is that I can see whether the person I’m talking with is checking their email during the call instead of paying attention to our conversation. Oh, admit it, we all...
Bringing a knife to a gunfight: How tech-inspired wikis created an ‘organic’ global village, plus satellites
In early December last year, I attended a conference called the Programme for the Future in honour of Doug Engelbart – best known as the inventor of the computer mouse, but more accurately described as a champion of technology and tools that increase our collective intelligence. Years in the corporate...
How after centuries of systemic imperialism British institutions are grappling with purging racism from science, research
In February, the nineteenth-century naturalist Thomas Henry Huxley, escaped – in the eyes of some – from ‘cancellation’ at one of London’s most prestigious academic institutions. Huxley, a prominent advocate of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, promoted the racist view that Black people had inferior capabilities compared with white people....
Nigerian youths look for a political messiah to end police crimes, but presidential candidates won’t discuss reforms
Two years ago, Nigerian youths were taking to the streets in huge demonstrations against police brutality, triggered by the repeated deaths of young men at the hands of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) – a notoriously brutal and lawless unit. What became known as #EndSARS was groundbreaking, reverberating throughout southern...
Food situation in South Sudan’s worsened by topography and government’s weak capacity to respond
Seasonal flooding is normal in South Sudan as its topography funnels in water from neighbouring countries, but the scale of the issue since 2019 has no recent precedent. Experts say it is linked to climate change and the government’s weak capacity to respond. The flooding has disrupted household production and...
8 million South Sudanese at extreme risk of dying of hunger as half the country of 12 million is fighting itself
It is just over four years since South Sudan’s main warring parties signed a peace agreement that was supposed to end a five-year civil war that killed at least 400,000 people and plunged parts of the country into famine. Yet some humanitarian indicators are now worse than they were even...
If you don’t already live in a ‘sponge city’, you will soon: Dealing with stormwater in mega urban settings
Like anything else, water is great in moderation – urbanites need it to survive, but downpours can flood streets and homes. And as you might have noticed, climate change isn’t good at moderation. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, supercharging storms to dump more water quicker, which can overwhelm municipal...
Experts aver they’ve failproof early warning mechanisms to detect imminent Russian nuclear attack in Ukraine
This Week, Nato is conducting its regular, long-planned nuclear strike exercise known as “Steadfast Noon” to practise deploying fighter jets used to carry nuclear weapons. And Russia is expected to conduct its own nuclear drills sometime this month – as it typically does – in reaction to Nato’s exercises. While...
