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*2003 World Summit Award recognition
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Winner of the NSTF Award for Science
Winner of the Highway Africa New Media award
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Science in Africa: for the latest in science
from across the continent. Subscribe
for free monthly newsletters to keep up to date on science from
Africa. Guidelines for authors here.
This Month's Features
Termites - biotech pioneers
 With
energy security at stake we may have much to learn from termites -
who use a suite of enzymes to access cellulose from wood as a
primary energy source.
DDT - killer or lifesaver?
 While
DDT performs a life saving role in curbing deaths from malaria we
may have underestimated the impact of its chromosomal damage on
future generations.
Gone in the blink of an eye
 Study
links lizard extinctions to rising temperatures. If current trends
continue, 20 percent of all lizard species could go extinct by 2080.
How not to be cuckolded
 In
southern Africa the Cuckoo Finch and Prinia have been locked
together in an evolutionary arms race for up to 20 million years.
How the Prinia has wised up to the Cuckoo.
New tools for TB diagnosis
 Aptamers
could potentially fill the current gap in the availability of TB
diagnostic kits by providing more specific recognition of biomarkers
of TB infection.
Insight & Opinion
How do we define a famine?
 Aid
agencies and donors have warned of the possibility of a famine in
Niger, evoking images of the last food crisis in the Sahelian
country.
Ghana's hidden forestry industry
Small businesses that depend on forests employ more than a million
people and produce many valuable products. These are left out of
national statistics, with big social and environmental consequences.
Land grab or development opportunity?
Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa are
resulting in large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa. News
reports constitute just the tip of the iceberg.
Grandmothers - caring for AIDS orphans
Grandmothers from all over Africa have joined hands with
grandmothers in Canada to call for greater support and recognition
of their role in caring for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS.
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In this Issue
Science comes to the world cup soccer rescue as a fungal product helps
prepare the pitches in South Africa's brand new soccer stadiums for the most
important soccer event in the world.
The red dye made from pokeberries makes an efficient and inexpensive coating
for fiber-based solar cells trapping more sunlight to convert into power.
Wildlife
Watch that toad - Scientists believe that unusual behaviour by toads
before earthquakes suggest that they can sense the seismic activity days
before.
Spitting cobras always hit their target - the eyes - by tracking their
victim's movement and predicting where the victim is going to be 200ms in
the future.
Sequencing of the Neandertal genome reveals that modern humans and
Neandertals most likely interbred after leaving Africa.
Environment
Fears that volcanic eruptions in Iceland may contribute to climate change
may be unfounded, as conservation-ists ponder a world with fewer flights.
Following an eruption earlier this year aid workers call for funds to
monitor the looming threat posed by two active volcanoes in Goma.
Headaches for HIV positive
travellers with 51 countries, territories and areas still imposing
restrictions on the entry, stay and residence of HIV-positive people.
Science Education
Scientists who have engaged over 1000 volunteers in a study aimed at
monitoring the spread of TB have commissioned a new play covering scientific
and social aspects of the disease.
From asteroid to hero - the makings of a scientist. A South African
scholar who sighted a new asteroid has become somewhat of a hero for young
science boffins in the country.
In parts of Africa where traditional classroom education is inaccessible,
people have taken education into their own hands by utilizing mobile phones
and laptops.
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