News – Page 6 – Next Einstein Forum

December 12, 2017

Scientists build hydrogen sensor readable with the naked eye

According to many scientists, the proposed ‘hydrogen economy’, in which hydrogen is to become the most important carrier of sustainably generated energy, is an inevitable development. Unfortunately, the use of hydrogen entails certain risks, because it is flammable and difficult to detect. The research that the scientists described in their publication in Nature Communications focuses on […]

December 5, 2017

West Africa’s biggest solar farm launched in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is now home to West Africa’s biggest solar farm, a 33-megawatt plant located in the town of Zatubi, outside the capital Ouagadougou. Records indicate that only about 20% of Burkina Faso’s 17 million population have access to the national power system. The majority depend on other unsustainable power generation options. Built at a cost […]

December 5, 2017

Hopes for HIV vaccine buoyed by start of second big trial

Scientists announced the launch of another large HIV vaccine efficacy study, fueling hopes for a protective shot against the virus that causes AIDS, despite past disappointments. The start of the new trial involving 2,600 women in southern Africa means that for the first time in more than a decade there are now two big HIV […]

December 5, 2017

Open access publishing platform launched for African scientists

African scientists are getting their own open access publication platform, which will use a system of transparent, post-publication peer review. The African Academy of Sciences, in partnership with F1000, is launching AAS Open Research, which will offer immediate online publication to AAS-funded and affiliated researchers. Peer review reports will be published alongside the articles, together […]

December 5, 2017

Nairobi Scientists discover technology to manage maize pest

Scientists at the Nairobi-based International Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) announced Thursday they have discovered a technology that will manage ravaging pest that has worsened food insecurity in Africa. In a statement released in Nairobi last week, the scientists said the technology, Push-Pull, is effective in controlling the Fall Armyworm, which mainly prefer maize plants […]

December 5, 2017

How a West African lab made a 3D printer from toxic e-waste

An innovative lab in Lomé, the capital city of Togo in West Africa created the first “Made in Africa” 3D printer using e-waste. WoeLab, a community tech hub established by architect Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou, 37, made the machine using little more than scrap printers, computers and scanners. The idea was born after Agbodjinou purchased a 3D […]

December 1, 2017

Pruitt’s RFS Decision Defies Science, Undercuts Development of New Fuels

According to a Statement by Jeremy Martin, Union of Concerned Scientists, Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has finalized a change to biofuels policy, lowering the amount of cellulosic biofuel required under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). While political pressure from agricultural interests partly checked Pruitt’s effort to roll back the RFS […]

November 30, 2017

Ethiopia’s waste-to-energy plant is a first in Africa

For half a century, the Koshe dump site has been the only landfill in Addis Ababa. As the city has expanded, the landfill – which used to lie on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital – has become part of the urban landscape, sprawling over an area the size of 36 football pitches and attracting […]

November 24, 2017

Call For Papers; Beyond the Debate: Climate Change as an Economic Opportunity for Africa

This workshop will be co-located with the second edition of the EAI International Conference on Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Underserved Areas (InterSol2018) (http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/) to be held as a pre-event of the Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering (NEF GG) on March 24-25, 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda. All Authors of accepted papers (one author per paper) […]

November 24, 2017

Africa must keep its rich, valuable data safe from exploitation

Data is being driven by major international research collaborations like the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. This and similar initiatives are producing volumes of data the continent has never witnessed before. All of that data then needs to be carefully managed throughout every stage of the research project. That’s why data stewardship – a job that didn’t exist in academia […]