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Tiny dinosaur with big eyes and ‘ears’ hunted in the dark

Sci-tech Boitumelo Kgobotlo -

A tiny theropod, Shuvuuia, the name of which derives from the Mongolian word for bird, is part of a group known as the alvarezsaurus, had both extraordinary hearing and night vision.

Let’s race with, not against, the machine

Opinion Daniel le Roux -

SA’s economy will need a growing supply of tech experts such as programmers and roboticists

Your smartphone is probably spying on you

Sci-tech Boitumelo Kgobotlo -

The spy in your pocket: Granting microphone and camera permission to certain apps does not mean they are only active during use

The war on women in video game culture

Sci-tech Eyaaz Matwadia -

Women and girls make up almost half of the gaming community but are hardly represented and face abuse in the industry

Facebook users can use phone numbers to check if their data was breached

Sci-tech Eunice Stoltz -

Private data from more than 530-million Facebook accounts was placed onto an unsecured public database. This tool allows users to use their phone number to see if they were among the victims.

Why handwriting is still important in the age of tech

Sci-tech Boitumelo Kgobotlo -

Your brain remembers differently when using tech or simply pen and paper

Anteosaurus: Savage pre-mammalian hunter was no slowcoach

Sci-tech Boitumelo Kgobotlo -

Evolutionary studies find that the Anteosaurus, previously assumed to be a sluggish animal, was actually a savage hunter

Electric vehicle battery manufacturing: Why SADC needs to act now

Africa Edem Foli -

All the minerals are here, so a golden opportunity exists if our governments provide incentives

Sounding the alarm on shack fire losses

National Sarah Smit -

A tech solution to fires in informal settlements comes with insurance that pays out the victims of these blazes

Wikipedia wants you to join the good side of the internet

Sci-tech Sarah Smit -

The collaborative online encyclopedia, which has become a reliable source amid a flood of misinformation, turns 20 today

Who is that face behind the mask?

Coronavirus Tshegofatso Mathe -

A local scientist has devised a method to identify people even when their faces are partly obscured

Africa has a new Fifa king

Coronavirus Eyaaz Matwadia -

This week’s Gaming Corner looks at how the VS Gaming final played out and what it took for Abubakar Akhalwaya to walk away as Africa’s best

Nokia and Nasa to install 4G on the Moon

Sci-tech Agence France Presse -

Installing a wireless network on the Moon is just one step toward establishing a long-term human presence there

Epic fail: Africa’s Fortnite battle

National Eyaaz Matwadia -

Forced onto the backfoot by poor ping and overseas servers, African gamers are getting creative in an attempt to play one of the biggest competitive games. In the second instalment of our gaming corner, we chat to some of the innovators

Why AI needs a physical body to reach its full potential

Opinion Mark Lee -

Robots will have to learn from scratch, like babies, if they are to have a sense of self and proper social interactions

No ‘I’ in team – but there is an ‘EA’

National Eyaaz Matwadia -

With internet lag keeping them from global competition, local gamers have settled on a format for EA’s FIFA 2020 allows 11 people to play as a team. And the prize money in local leagues is growing. Eyaaz Matwadia boots up for the first instalment of Gaming Corner

TikTok chief Kevin Mayer quits company

Sci-tech Agency -

Mayer's resignation comes days after TikTok filed a lawsuit challenging a crackdown by the US government over claims the wildly popular social media app can be used to spy on Americans.

Beyond batteries: Beetle bots

Sci-tech Issam Ahmed -

A tiny robot is vaping methanol to power up its artificial muscles and punch above its weight

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