Woman in a white coat looking into a microscope

Women in science – global study finds presence without power

Marie-Francoise Roy

Moroccan dinosaur’s fearsome tail spikes evolved much earlier than we thought – new discovery

Kawtar Ech-charay, Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah and Ahmed Oussou, Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah

Bird and tortoise fossil tracks on South Africa’s coast – latest findings are world firsts

Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University

Illustration of a taxi and bus rank with a mountain in the background

Electric minibus taxis: the challenges and gains facing Cape Town’s transition

MJ (Thinus) Booysen, Stellenbosch University and Joshua Sello, Stellenbosch University

Embryo fossil found in South Africa is world’s oldest proof that mammal ancestors laid eggs

Julien Benoit, University of the Witwatersrand; Jennifer Botha, University of the Witwatersrand, and Vincent Fernandez, University of the Witwatersrand

Illustration of an embryo curled up inside an egg

Magic mushrooms: new African species sheds light on the history of the famous fungus

Breyten Van der Merwe, Stellenbosch University and Alexander Bradshaw, Clark University

Planting trees to remove carbon can harm the environment – or protect it: study highlights trade-offs

Ruben Prütz, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Gaurav Ganti, Humboldt University of Berlin; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA); Joeri Rogelj, Imperial College London, and Sabine Fuss, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Ancient teeth reveal clues to the environment humans’ early ancestors evolved in millions of years ago

Zelalem Bedaso, University of Dayton

A jaw bone showing teeth from the bottom.

Sierra Leone’s digital ID push: how local brokers help citizens gain legal identity

Laura Lambert, Leuphana University

South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope is mapping previously invisible spaces between galaxies – and it’s found 60 new cosmic structures

Konstantinos Kolokythas, Rhodes University

How to eat an elephant: fossil find in Tanzania shows oldest signs of butchering these giant mammals

Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Rice University

Skin and bones on the ground under trees

Sea levels around Africa are rising faster than the global average: what’s behind this alarming trend

Franck Ghomsi, University of Cape Town

Biometric IDs are being rolled out in Africa. Study reveals the risks and pitfalls

Tony Roberts, Institute of Development Studies

Illustration of a man, head and shoulders, facing the viewer, with points of light connected over his face

Crocodiles can have extra growth cycles in a year – why this matters for estimating the age of dinosaurs

Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, University of Cape Town and Maria-Eugenia Pereyra, University of Cape Town

A new face for ‘Little Foot’, the most complete Australopithecus skeleton to date

Amélie Beaudet, Université de Poitiers and Dominic Stratford, University of the Witwatersrand

Morocco: ancient fossils shed light on a key period in human evolution

Mohib Abderrahim, Institut national des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine in Rabat

Can African penguins be brought back from the brink? Better designed no-fishing zones could help

Jacqui Glencross, University of St Andrews

Digital monitoring is growing in South Africa’s public service – regulation needs to catch up

Lesedi Senamele Matlala, University of Johannesburg

Coffee crops are dying from a fungus with species-jumping genes – researchers are ‘resurrecting’ their genomes to understand how and why

Lily Peck, University of California, Los Angeles

Close-up of person picking coffee berries

Curious Kids: What is the smallest thing in the universe?

Omololu Akin-Ojo, University of Ibadan

Tanzania is losing fertile land to soil erosion: what’s happening and what can be done

Maarten Wynants, Ghent University; Griffith University

Landscape with severe soil erosion, and houses in the background

Our ancient planet

Life in fossil bones: what we can learn from tiny traces of ancient blood chemicals

Timothy G. Bromage, New York University

Early humans relied on simple stone tools for 300,000 years in a changing east African landscape

Niguss Gitaw Baraki, George Washington University; Dan V. Palcu Rolier; David R. Braun, George Washington University; Emmanuel K. Ndiema, National Museums of Kenya, and Rahab N. Kinyanjui

Arrow tips found in South Africa are the oldest evidence of poison use in hunting

Marlize Lombard, University of Johannesburg

Ancient antelope teeth offer surprise insights into how early humans lived

Megan Malherbe, University of Zurich

Animals with horns, standing and lying in a savannah landscape

AI reveals which predators chewed ancient humans’ bones – challenging ideas on which Homo species was the first tool-using hunter

Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Rice University

AI-generated image of an ancient human lying on ground with leopard eating from its torso

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Creature features

A Namib desert beetle runs to stay cool: how scientists solved the puzzle of this unique and speedy species

Duncan Mitchell, University of the Witwatersrand and Joh R. Henschel, University of the Free State

Chimpanzees ingest more than the equivalent of one alcoholic drink a day – new research

Stefano Kaburu, Nottingham Trent University

Two chimpanzees sitting together with playful expressions

Whose turn is it? The question is at the heart of language and chimpanzees ask it too

Kayla Kolff, Osnabrück University and Simone Pika, Osnabrück University

Humans and animals can both think logically − but testing what kind of logic they’re using is tricky

Olga Lazareva, Drake University

Rodent climbing the rungs of a small, colorful abacus

We studied more than 500 giraffe skulls from all over Africa – and confirmed there are 4 distinct species

Nikolaos Kargopoulos, University of Cape Town and Julian Fennessy, University College Dublin

A lone giraffe in the wild looks off to one side

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Talking tech

Ransomware: what it is and why it’s your problem

Thembekile Olivia Mayayise, University of the Witwatersrand

Shadowy figure of a person using a computer, with computer screens in the background

A giant star is changing before our eyes and astronomers are watching in real time

Keiichi Ohnaka, Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile) and Jacco van Loon, Keele University

Illustration of large circular object alongside a smaller one

The great wildebeest migration, seen from space: satellites and AI are helping count Africa’s wildlife

Isla C. Duporge, Princeton University; Daniel Rubenstein, Princeton University; David Macdonald, University of Oxford, and Tiejun Wang, University of Twente

Genetic tests for cancer can give uncertain results: new science is making the picture clearer to guide treatment

Claudia Christowitz, Stellenbosch University

Scientist hand holding test tube with blood in laboratory

Science + Tech – Views & Research – The Conversation

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