Louis Moholo-Moholo, a lion of South African jazz who used his drums to find freedom: Louis Moholo-Moholo's influence on international free jazz is immense. Ramon Moratalla/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA Louis Tebugo Moholo-Moholo was born in St Monica’s Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa on 10 March 1940. He’d not have appreciated that introduction, once chastising an interviewer: …
Tiny technology that can find pollution in South Africa’s water and trap it: Nanotechnology is the use of materials that are one-billionth of a metre (a nanometre) in size. One of its potential uses is to clean up whatever is contaminating water supplies. Analytical chemist Philiswa Nomngongo, a leading researcher in nanotechnology for water in …
Barbara Steveni: I Find Myself – a pioneering artist who influenced the civil service: Barbara Steveni (1928-2020) was a pioneering artist who broke boundaries with new concepts such as “the artist as a living archive” and “art as social strategy”. The legacy of her 70-year career is explored in a new exhibition, Barbara Steveni: I …
Museum of the Bamoun Kings: ancient treasures from Cameroon find a spectacular new home: One of the most significant African museum openings of 2024 was the Musée des Rois Bamoun, or Museum of the Bamoun Kings, in Foumban, Cameroon. Housing over 10,000 objects, it offers more than 600 years of history in its display of …
Zimbabwe’s new dinosaur discovery: inside the find: Visitors to Lake Kariba – the world’s largest man-made lake, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe – come to enjoy the abundant wildlife, fine fishing or spectacular scenery. However, in 2017, our crew of palaeontologists came to Zimbabwe to hunt game of a different kind: dinosaurs. Many …
In 2024, we’ll truly find out how robust our democracies are to online disinformation campaigns: I'm Friday / Shutterstock Disinformation, sharing false information to deceive and mislead others, can take many forms. From edited “deepfake” videos made on smartphones to vast foreign-led information operations, politics and elections show how varied disinformation can be. Hailed as …
Can HIV be cured using gene editing? We will soon find out: Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock HIV, the virus that causes Aids, was first identified in 1983. To catch this virus was initially a death sentence, but today, thanks to antiretroviral drugs, it can be kept in check. However, there is still no cure. A small biotech …
How to know if your employer is serious about helping you find purpose in your work: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Paychecks are important, of course, but many people also want their work to “matter”. Whether this means helping people in your local area, or contributing to a global cause like reducing waste and fighting the climate crisis, 70% …
Fossil snake traces: another world-first find on South Africa’s Cape south coast: Puff adders leave linear, sometimes slightly undulating traces. EcoPrint/Shutterstock Snakes are familiar, distinctive – and often feared – reptiles. And they’ve been around for a long time: body fossils found in the UK, Portugal and the US stretch all the way back to …
Women used to be more likely to vote Conservative than men but that all changed in 2017 – we wanted to find out why: Shutterstock/AJP In many nations in the immediate post-war period, women were more often supporters of rightwing parties than men. This “traditional” gender gap was supposedly underpinned by women’s greater religiosity and …
How did plants first evolve into all different shapes and sizes? We mapped a billion years of plant history to find out: From minuscule moss to colourful flowers and tall trees. Philip Donoghue / James Clark Plants range from simple seaweeds and single-celled pond scum, through to mosses, ferns and huge trees. Palaeontologists like us …
Wearing a well-fitting sports bra can improve your performance – an expert advises how to find one: Joseph Wright/Shutterstock One of the lasting memories of the 2022 Uefa Women’s Euro is England’s Chloe Kelly celebrating her match-winning goal by taking her shirt off and running towards her teammates in sheer joy. It was seen as …
Dinosaur tracksite in Lesotho: how a wrong turn led to an exciting find: An artistic impression of the various dinosaur species that once roamed the Roma Valley. Akhil Rampersadh I am a poor navigator. This is not an easy thing for a field geologist to admit. We need to be able to find our planned …
We’ve discovered how diamonds make their way to the surface and it may tell us where to find them: Bjoern Wylezich / Shutterstock “A diamond is forever.” That iconic slogan, coined for a highly successful advertising campaign in the 1940s, sold the gemstones as a symbol of eternal commitment and unity. But our new research, …
The UK’s water pipe upgrade has made it harder to detect leaks – now the race is on to discover new ways to find them: Enough water is lost in the UK each day to fill around 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools. AlanMorris/Shutterstock The UK is losing a staggering 3 billion litres of water each day …
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Boris Johnson has triggered a bumper byelection bonanza – I studied 148 past contests to find out what we can expect: The UK is facing three byelections in constituencies all vacated within 24 hours of one another. Former prime minister Boris Johnson announced he was leaving parliament with immediate effect on June 9, leaving his …
Why we’re ‘interviewing’ captive birds to find the best to release into the wild: A Bali myna at the Waddesdon Aviary in England. National Trust Not all animals are the same. Even within a species, some are bolder and better at solving problems than others. We have found this to be true in the case …