World recorded 15 million Covid deaths, but working out size of health burden is challenging – report
How do you count the cost of a pandemic? Covid-19 has killed an estimated 15 million people since it emerged at the end of 2019, but its impact on health reaches much further. For hundreds of millions of people around the world, infection with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has brought a...
US ticks spread: Tick viruses cause neurological damage, one in ten 10 people die of brain inflammation
A disease that is so rare in the United States that it is recognised in only about 40 people each year has taken the life of a person living in Maine. The cause, Powassan virus, is transmitted by ticks, which can pass it on within 15 minutes of biting. The...
‘Selecting’ Somalia president: Gun prices soar in a country where your only protection is the number of weapons you own
The price of an AK-47, the standard weapon of Somali militias, has soared on gun markets ahead of a fraught ballot this weekend, when lawmakers will select the country’s next president. Parliamentarians from Somalia’s lower and upper houses will decide on May 15 from a list of 39 candidates that...
Relationship science: No set of traits guarantees romantic happiness or preclude romantic happiness
The fascinating, if sometimes disturbing, data from online dating sites tells us that single people predictably are drawn to certain qualities. But should they be drawn to these qualities? If you are like the average single dater – predictably clicking on people with the traits the scientists found are most...
Worry not, there’s a remedy to menopausal symptoms: hormone replacement is effective for women – experts
What can academic and private-sector scientific workplaces do to help staff navigate the psycholotical and physical changes brought about by the onset of menopause? Jo Brewis, a management- and organisation-studies researcher at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and an expert on menopause and the workplace, says the most...
Wrong dating: Computers’ ability to predict romantic success is worse than we might have guessed
People rarely turn to science for help with this all-important decision on relationships. Truth be told, science has had little help to offer. Scholars of relationship science have been trying to find answers, but it has proven difficult and expensive to recruit large samples of couples. The studies in this...
When menopause strikes, workplace support is key to continued productivity, overcome brain fog and crankiness
“No one ever talks to you about menopause,” says Carlotta Berry, an electrical and computer engineer at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. But a few years ago, it hit Berry “like a steam truck”. She got brain fog, she grew irritable and cranky, and her hair fell...
Report calls for new diagnosis of Africa’s instability that’s not shaped by specific interests or ideology
Africa faces widespread instability. In the past year, there have been coups in Mali, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Guinea, and attempts to overthrow governments in the Central African Republic (CAR), Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau. Violent extremism has also spread due to the political and economic marginalisation of some communities, the...
Rebuttal: Forget the mantra that you ‘eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper’
Breakfast earned its title as the most important meal of the day back in the 1960s after American nutritionist Adelle Davis suggested that to keep fit and avoid obesity, one should “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” Breakfast literally means “to break...
Climate change: A growing number of Africa countries turn to mangrove restoration to tackle carbon emissions
In a bid to protect coastal communities from climate change and encourage investment, African nations are increasingly turning to mangrove restoration projects, with Mozambique becoming the latest addition to the growing list of countries with large-scale mangrove initiatives. Mozambique follows efforts across the continent – including in Kenya, Madagascar, Gambia...
