Creator
Matthew Du Plessis
Matthew du Plessis is the Mail & Guardian's former managing editor and chair of the Adamela Trust. He writes on the environment, dinosaurs, particle accelerators, evolutionary anthropology, genomics and super-continental fields of molten lava.
Inside Facebook’s big bet on Africa
New undersea cables will massively increase bandwidth to the continent
Easter eggs from the most South African dinosaur
After years of data processing at the Wits laboratory, one evolutionary scientist has constructed a 3D model of a baby Massospondylus
The vax revolution will be filmed
New tech is poised to help vaccines last longer and reach many more people with far less fuss
Grass roots of Ice-Age extinctions
Mammoths and sabre-tooth cats once roamed the continent, but were our ancient ancestors responsible for their disappearance?
Jurassic parkour in SA lava fields
After stumbling on mention of tracks in a dissertation from the 1960s, scientists are shedding new light on the dinosaurs that hotfooted it through SA’s prehistoric past
Bionic mushrooms are a thing now
Scientists have the technology (and apparently the inclination) to make fungus better, stronger, faster
New light on old civilisations
Scientists are remapping the stories of ancient civilisations by shooting them with lasers
Bug evolution thrown into Chaos
Super-strains of bacteria need a new nemesis, and scientists reckon they’ve found one
Laziness: Lifeline or death knell?
Sluggish snails prevailed, but Homo erectus may have died out because, honestly, why bother?
Set course for the heart of the Sun
They promise the earth and never deliver, but sometimes the world’s leaders give us the sun, the moon and the stars
Uh oh, there’s a disorderly Deadpool in the gene pool
CRISPR-Cas9’s responsible use has been welcomed as an important stride in medical research and molecular biology
Oh great, even more water on Mars
We used to laugh at the idea that Mars had canals — now it turns out there’s a whole fricking lake
Apple a day keeps Grim Squeaker away*
There have been many success stories in efforts to extend the human lifespan in the past 200 years
Mind control for little monsters
We’ve just learned that brain-hijacking parasites can bend even uninfected bystanders to their will
Is maths any of their beeswax?
The humble honeybee is catching up to humans in the arithmetic game, but there is quite literally nothing to worry about