African space science advanced this week with the launch of a new Nigerian satellite and the announcement of South Africa’s plans to launch a second low-Earth-orbiting satellite next month. Nigeria launched its communications satellite at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province, south-west China.
An Indian chemist and a Mexican biologist were each awarded the Trieste Science Prize 2007, according to a report on the Science and Development Network website. Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella, professor of plant genetic engineering, was one of the winners. The other was Goverdhan Mehta, honorary professor of organic chemistry in India.
A large, green moving truck is parked at the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk shopping centre in Cape Town. The movers’ mission: science on the move. Their destination: the yearly Sasol SciFest in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. An ancient glider, a chariot, and superbly crafted astronomical instruments are on the payload.
Residents and businesses in the Amathole district in the Eastern Cape will enjoy high-speed internet access as well as free voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone calls within the network by the middle of this year. This is thanks to a new project to roll out WiMAX broadband services in the district.
More than half of all healthcare workers in the developing world, including Africa, are unknowingly infected with deadly tuberculosis (TB), according to a report on the Science and Development Network’s website. The report also contains worrying findings about the emergence of extensively drug-resistant TB in countries such as South Africa.
Why do some South Africans beat the odds to escape poverty, and others not? Starting in 2007, a massive research project will get under way in which tens of thousands of citizens will be surveyed, year after year. The study will be the continent’s biggest review yet of social mobility.
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/ 2 December 2006
The cheerful Super Silly Science Game is ideal for cash-strapped classrooms. For a start, teachers can get it free. It’s also fun. So much fun that students playing it may not realise they’re refreshing their knowledge and skills at the same time.
A gathering of Africa’s top media owners this week called on the continent’s leaders to give priority to development of a professional and ethical media, and boost the role of the media in support of development. The meeting called on African governments to view a vibrant and plural media as a vital cog in the development of Africa.
A new JavaScript worm has been identified that exploits an unpatched vulnerability in Yahoo! web mail. The worm, JS.Yamanner@m, spreads from person to person when the user opens an e-mail that is originally sent by the worm. The worm then sends itself to the user’s contacts that also use Yahoo! Mail.
Okay, so abstinence hasn’t worked very well, featuring more in conversations than in bedrooms. Male condoms mean trusting men both to display foresight and to eat the proverbial "banana with its peel on", while female condoms are scarce, awkward and apparently noisy. A vaccine against that quick-change-artist, the Aids virus, is science fiction — and likely to remain that way for a long time.