How austerity made the UK more vulnerable to COVID: SB Arts Media/Shutterstock The concept of austerity featured prominently in the first round of hearings of the UK’s COVID inquiry, which has recently come to a close. Notably, former chancellor George Osborne claimed that austerity had a “positive” effect on the UK’s ability to withstand the …
South Africa is failing to live up to its constitution. Gains made since democracy are being squandered – report: Extreme poverty has seen shack settlements mushroom in South Africa. Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images The end of apartheid in 1994 and advent of constitutional democracy resulted in major societal changes in South Africa. The …
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 …
Côte d’Ivoire is launching its first satellite for Earth observation – and it’s locally made: Illustration of a view of Africa from space. Getty Images Côte d’Ivoire has announced plans to launch its first satellite within the next two years. A team of scientists in the fields of astrophysics and geology tell The Conversation Africa …
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest threats to global health – and the pandemic has made it worse: stockpexel/Shutterstock The COVID pandemic has disrupted many areas of routine healthcare including, importantly, childhood vaccination. The pandemic saw levels of essential childhood immunisations decline in more than 100 countries around the world, leading to outbreaks of …
ChatGPT took people by surprise – here are four technologies that could made a difference next: NicoElNino / Shutterstock In the evolving relationship between technology and society, humans have shown themselves to be incredibly adaptable. What once left us breathless, soon becomes integrated into our everyday lives. The astonishing functionalities of large language models (LLM) …
The Johnson/Truss debacle of 2022 made people more afraid of starting businesses – new findings: The UK picked a bad year to have a political crisis in 2022. The markets were already jittery because the global economy was struggling to recover from COVID. The war in Ukraine drove up energy costs, leading to high inflation and …
The Windrush generation: how a resilient Caribbean community made a lasting contribution to British society: As a young boy in 1962, I remember arriving in England from Jamaica on a BOAC jet plane. It seemed to me like I was going to the moon – the air hostess who accompanied me was the first white …
Did South Africa sell arms to Russia? Only a series of unlikely scenarios could have made it possible: Aerial view of the Simonstown harbour. Shutterstock On 11 May 2023 the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, claimed that South Africa had secretly exported arms to Russia in December 2022. The announcement rapidly fed into …
We need to discuss what jobs robots should do, before the decision is made for us: Shutterstock / Frame Stock Footage The social separation imposed by the pandemic led us to rely on technology to an extent we might never have imagined – from Teams and Zoom to online banking and vaccine status apps. Now, …
Nigeria has Africa’s highest malaria death rate – progress is being made, but it’s not enough: Lagos residents use art to draw attention to the gaps in the prevention and treatment of malaria. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images Malaria is a major public health problem and can be life-threatening. The disease, mostly found in …
Good Friday Agreement: the early 1990s back-channel between the IRA and British government that made peace possible: In February 1990, in the midst of the Troubles, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness publicly invited the British government to reopen a back-channel used during previous phases of contact with the IRA in the 1970s and during the 1981 …
The man in the monkey nut coat: how a 1940s scientist made ‘vegan wool’ from peanuts: Woollen clothing has been around for as long as humans have been wearing clothes and sheep have been domesticated. Indeed, our distant ancestors used sheep for three things: food, clothing and shelter – wool makes good insulation and helps …
How Black children in England’s schools are made to feel like the way they speak is wrong: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Whiteness is an invention of the modern, colonial age. It refers to the racialisation of white people and the disproportionate privilege – social, linguistic, economic, political – that comes with this. Crucially, as an invention, …
How an African church choir made a difference to care home life in Greater Manchester: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Care homes are rarely a source of good news. The system is underfunded, understaffed and overextended, and homes are routinely found to be inadequate. Of the 2,934 homes the Care Quality Commission inspected in the year to …
Nigeria’s central bank made critical mistakes that doomed the country’s currency redesign: People queue outside a bank in Lagos on February 22, 2023. Nigeria was hit with a scarcity of cash after the central bank began to swap old Naira notes for new bills. Patrick Meinhardt / AFP Nigeria has successfully introduced new banknotes on …
A trivia vending machine made with a Raspberry Pi: A trivia vending machine made with a Raspberry Pi pshapiro Fri, 03/03/2023 – 03:00 As an educator working at a public library, I keep my eyes peeled for interesting uses of the Raspberry Pi. From where I sit, the Trivia Vending Machine project out of Dallas, …
Roman dildo could have been made by shoemakers – an expert in ancient prosthetics explains: In 1992, archaeologists excavating at the site of the Roman fort of Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland discovered what they thought was a darning tool. The artefact was subsequently ignored and as a result remained unresearched. Until now. Recently, …