Author: Sarah
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Helping African forensic specialists to read the bones
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It could have been a conflict that killed an entire village; a building collapse that suffocated hundreds of lives in falling concrete; or a multi-car pile up. Authorities rush to help the living and save those who can be saved, but the dead are often forgotten. Each of these events…
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SA versus Australia: Rugby, cricket and astronomy
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South Africa and Australia have more in common than clear blue skies, rugby and a penchant for burning meat on an open fire. The two countries – whose economies were founded on the mineral resources under the soil and which are separated from European, Asian and North American markets by…
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Innovation agency CEO works on bringing stability
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THE room has not changed in four years: frosted glass walls enclosing an oval table. A Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) CEO is laying out his plans for the future. Again. “When I arrived, I was the sixth CEO in five years; now I’m the sixth CEO in six years,” says…
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Telescope not an easy sell amid SA’s poverty scars
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IT IS a difficult sales pitch: a multibillion-dollar giant telescope used to investigate phenomena so esoteric years of study are required to understand them. Countries planning to build large scientific infrastructure have to sell the project and its objectives to their citizens. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a good…
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Ethical issues dog genetic testing and biobanks
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IT COULD change the way disease is diagnosed and treated: millions of human tissue samples, their information stored in vast databases, allowing health researchers to trawl for patterns. The patterns could point to disease risk among population groups, and could one day lead to the possibility of personalised medicine. This…
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Abalobi app gives SA fishers data they need
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A smartphone app that logs data on fish catches is giving small-scale fishers in South Africa hope they can persuade the government to allocate them more of what they regard as their traditional fishing rights. Abalobi, the app which is named for the isiXhosa phrase abalobi bentlanzi,meaning “someone who fishes”,…
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South Africa’s university system at a “tipping point”
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More than 1,200 South African academics are warning that the country’s university system is at a tipping point as a result of chronic underfunding. The researchers from 18 South African universities have signed an open letter to the president Jacob Zuma, higher education and training minister Blade Nzimande and finance…
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Break-ups, body clocks and the mad mob: ESOF16 Day 3
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It’s going to be a long time before I sit through another closing ceremony like that of ESOF2016. Usually, in a post chronicling of the day, I’d offer you some form of chronological structure, but this was just too good: tinged with entertainment, nostalgia and a serving a discomfort. We…
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Awkwardness, the bugs in your body and Twinkling satellites: ESOF16 Day 2
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The second day of a conference is when things start to get awkward. On the first day, with your misguided sense of exuberance and nervous energy, you try to meet everyone. You insert your ready-to-be-shaken hand into circles of people like a knife in a birthday cake. (This is also…