In August 2012, terrorist group, Boko Haram, reportedly hacked into Nigeria’s secret service and acquired private data on current and former personnel. In April 2016, a group calling itself “Anonymous” was able to hack into the database of the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and steal sensitive data. More recently, a number of South African […] … learn more→
Monthly Archives: February 2017
Is cyberspace the latest conflict frontier on the African continent?
Be the mouse
While in the early stages of writing up my PhD I had a baby and now I find myself simultaneously immersed in academic journals and picture books, lab work and bum-wiping, searching for references and for tiny sun hats. Independently PhDs and babies can take over one’s life. When combined, everything from both of these […] … learn more→
Scientists create electric circuits inside plants
Plants power life on Earth. They are the original food source supplying energy to almost all living organisms and the basis of the fossil fuels that feed the power demands of the modern world. But burning the remnants of long-dead forests is changing the world in dangerous ways. Can we better harness the power of […] … learn more→
Africa has a long history of fake news after years of living with non-truth
US President Donald Trump’s election and his disdain for the mainstream media has been seen by some as the triumph of post-truth politics. Post-truth politics is a culture in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. Not only is Trump deliberately picking wars with America’s […] … learn more→
Younger is not always better when it comes to learning a second language
It’s often thought that it is better to start learning a second language at a young age. But research shows that this is not necessarily true. In fact, the best age to start learning a second language can vary significantly, depending on how the language is being learned. The belief that younger children are better […] … learn more→
New series -#wakeupreader
When my son was about ten years old we went on holiday to Perth. We didn’t fly, as many people do. We drove from Adelaide where we lived. That’s a distance of 2691.44 km, about twenty-four hours driving time. It takes around three days, even more if you stop along the way. A lot of the […] … learn more→
Two more States remove tenure…retroactively
The mainstream media’s narrative really seems to be that tenure, and not the takeover by administrators (and social justice warriors), is a big part of the collapse of higher education. Hey, I realize that “job for life” does sound like it has immense potential for abuse but compared to the abuse administrators already deliver to […] … learn more→
Why both teens and teachers could benefit from later school start times
A typical school day in the UK starts around 8.30am. This is often even earlier elsewhere in the world, with students sitting down to their first lesson at 7.30am in the US. But these early start times can play havoc with teenager’s natural sleeping patterns – with research showing that waking a teenager at seven […] … learn more→
Robots and AI could soon have feelings, hopes and rights … we must prepare for the reckoning
Get used to hearing a lot more about artificial intelligence. Even if you discount the utopian and dystopian hyperbole, the 21st century will broadly be defined not just by advancements in artificial intelligence, robotics, computing and cognitive neuroscience, but how we manage them. For some, the question of whether or not the human race will […] … learn more→
Women aren’t failing at science — science is failing women
Female research scientists are more productive than their male colleagues, though they are widely perceived as being less so. Women are also rewarded less for their scientific achievements. That’s according to my team’s recent study for United Nations University – Merit on gender inequality in scientific research in Mexico, published as a working paper in […] … learn more→