Innovation

Africa considers a continent-wide space agency

Monday, 23 August 2010 13:33

Africa is a step closer to setting up its own space agency, with the approval of a planned feasibility study by the 53 member states of the African Union earlier this month.

(6 Votes)

Tags: African Union - African Space Agency - African Union Conference for Ministers in charge of Communications and Information Technologies - International Telecommunications Union - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa - pan-African satellite - Regional African Satellite Communications Organization - Jonathan Mahlangu - Africa

Nano 'tea bag' purifies water

Friday, 13 August 2010 14:00

Scientists have reversed the action of the humble herbal tea bag to purify water on a small scale. Instead of infusing water with flavour, a sachet sucks up toxic contamination when fitted into the neck of a water bottle.

(5 Votes)

Tags: Water purification - tea bag - nanoscale fibres - water filter - activated carbon - antimicrobial nanofibres - point-of-use water filter - Stellenbosch University - Marelize Botha - South Africa's Water Research Commission - Jo Burgess - Eugene Cloete - South Africa

GM bananas could cut blindness, anaemia in East Africa

Monday, 02 August 2010 11:54

Bio-fortified bananas that could reduce blindness, diarrhoea and anaemia are a step closer, according to the preliminary results of a joint research project between Ugandan and Australian scientists.

(3 Votes)

Tags: bio - bananas - blindness - anemia - genetic - modified - research - Australia - Uganda

Nutrient-rich algae can boost Chadian women's incomes and tackle malnutrition

Friday, 30 July 2010 14:37

A local variety of the nutrient-rich, blue-green algae known as spirulina could boost incomes for women in Chad who harvest the product as well as help fight nutrition, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported today.

(2 Votes)

Tags: algae - green - UN - FOA - nutrition - income - poverty - Chad

Biofuels could increase food production, says report

Thursday, 29 July 2010 14:20

Planting biofuel crops in Africa need not damage capacity to grow food and could even enhance food security, according to a controversial review prepared for the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa.

(1 Vote)

Tags: biofuel - Africa - crops - agriculture - food - security - Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

Fund aims to turn African science ideas into business

Tuesday, 29 June 2010 17:37

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has launched a fund that it hopes will help turn scientific ideas into successful enterprises.

(1 Vote)

Tags: UN Economic Commission for Africa - African Science Technology and Innovation Endowment Fund - African Science Business Challenge - Ethiopia - Africa

Sweet genes arm banana crops

Monday, 21 June 2010 15:05

Scientists in Uganda have developed GM bananas that show promising resistance to the deadly banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Bananas - banana Xanthomonas wilt - sweet peppers - Leena Tripathi - International Institute of Tropical Agriculture - ferredoxin-like amphipathic protein - hypersensitive response-assisting protein - Feng Teng Yung - Academia Sinica - Uganda

Jamiix: from Cape Flats to the world

Friday, 04 June 2010 13:03

New social media aggregator Jamiix, which was developed in the Western Cape's impoverished Cape Flats, is set for a global launch in June 2010.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Jamiix - Cape Flats - social media - global - Marlon Parker - community - IT - South Africa

Bamboo project to expand rural housing in Kenya

Wednesday, 02 June 2010 12:04

Kenya should encourage the use of bamboo in building affordable shelters, especially for 60 percent of the population who live in poorly constructed dwellings in rural areas, says a specialist.

Tags: housing - poverty - bamboo - shelter - rural - tobacco - Kenya

South Africa to host astronomy office

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 15:29

South Africa has been selected by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to host the prestigious IAU Office for Astronomy Development (OAD).

Tags: International Astronomical Union - IAU Office for Astronomy Development - National Research Foundation - Albert van Jaarsveld - SA Astronomical Observatory - George Miley - Phil Charles - SALT - South Africa

Uganda: students map out cities on Google

Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:30

Over 100 students of the Makerere University of Uganda took part in a digital mapping process of their city in a Google competition.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Google maps - Google - mapping - students - competition - growth - Uganda

Cattle disease vaccine launched 30 years after invention

Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:07

An effective vaccine that languished, underused, for 30 years after its invention has finally been released commercially as a result of a new scheme for getting innovation into practice.

Tags: East Coast Fever - cattle disease - vaccine - East African Veterinary Research Organization - International Livestock Research Institute - GALVmed - Steve Sloan - Phil Toye - UK Department for International Development - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Uganda - Malawi - Tanzania - Kenya

Egypt begins using Arab domain names on internet

Friday, 07 May 2010 12:22

Egypt's communication and information technology minister says his country has begun registering domain names in Arabic on the Internet.

(1 Vote)

Tags: communications - internet - Arabic - domain names - companies - Egypt

Kenya could implement face recognition technology for ATMs

Thursday, 06 May 2010 13:42

Kenyans might draw money from ATMs without using a credit or debit card in the near future.

Tags: ATM - Waweru Mwangi - Basic Intellegent Automated Teller Machine - Jomo Kenyatta University - Face Recognition Technology - Kenya

Lightweight kit for small farmers in Kenya

Monday, 19 April 2010 12:27

A new piece of kit in the form of a backpack could help small farmers in Kenya increase yields, profits and agricultural know-how in a sustainable way.

(2 Votes)

Tags: farming - kit - small - Mau - IRIN - Kenya

New centre to document bioethics in the Arab world

Monday, 12 April 2010 12:27

Bioethics and the ethics of science and technology are set to receive more prominence in the Arab world following the launch of a regional centre in Egypt to highlight activities in these fields.

(1 Vote)

Tags: bioethics - science - ethics - technology - Arab - Regional Documentation and Information Centre for Bioethics and Ethics of Science and Technology - Egypt

Ethiopia gets long-awaited science academy

Thursday, 08 April 2010 14:53

Ethiopian science is taking a big step forward with the launch of a national academy this week that will accommodate both natural and social sciences. The aims of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences include promoting the national science agenda.

(2 Votes)

Tags: science - development - Ethiopian Academy of Sciences - Ethiopia

Uganda sugar body plans $100m ethanol investment

Wednesday, 07 April 2010 13:28

Uganda's sugar industry plans to invest $100-million in ethanol production within two years if the government puts policy in place on fuel blending, an industry executive said on Tuesday.

(2 Votes)

Tags: sugar - ethanol - biofuel - Uganda

China to cement grand African research plans

Tuesday, 06 April 2010 12:50

China will flesh out the details of its joint research programme with Africa at a meeting in Beijing this week. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation plans to implement several large-scale science and technology projects across Africa.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Forum on China-Africa Cooperation - science - development - research - China - Africa

Africa bids to host mega radio telescope

Wednesday, 31 March 2010 13:34

Africa stands a good chance of beating Australia in a race to host the world's most powerful radio telescope able to peer back billions of years in time, a South African minister said on Tuesday.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Square Kilometre Array - Naledi Pandor - Deborah Shepherd - Namibia - Botswana - Mozambique - Ghana - Mauritius - Madagascar - Kenya - Zambia - South Africa

Peace Corps organization launches 'Africa Rural Connect' to help farmers

Friday, 26 March 2010 11:43

The U.S. National Peace Corps Association has launched a unique Internet-based program that could revolutionize development planning by emphasizing the bottom-up approach.