Editor's note

Many African democracies have been pressing on with new election technologies that leave other countries’ traditional paper-based methods in the dust. As a new generation of technocratic young leaders prepares to take the helm, Stephen Chan charts a course for better, smarter ways of monitoring elections across the continent.

Ever wondered why your sleep patterns and body clock are so unique? Turns out it’s all in your genes, a discovery that earned a trio of scientists the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Sally Ferguson explains how the laureates unlocked the secrets of the molecular cogs and wheels that keep our biological clocks turning. Meanwhile, the Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to another trio who detected gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space itself. Ed Daw shares his thoughts on what lies behind the success of one of the laureates – his friend Rainer Weiss.

Andrew Naughtie

International Editor

Top story

An election observer from the British High Commission in Nairobi. EPA/Dai Kurokawa

Africa leads the way in election technology, but there's a long way to go

Stephen Chan, SOAS, University of London

African democracies are embracing electronic voting far more confidently than the West.

Nobel Prize 2017

Michael Rosbash, Jeffrey C. Hall and Michael W. Young have been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. EPA/Chinese University of Hong Kong

Circadian rhythm Nobel: what they discovered and why it matters

Sally Ferguson, CQUniversity Australia

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine discovered how our internal body clock works.

This year’s winners. Illustration by N. Elmehed. NobelPrize.org

Scientists behind the discovery of gravitational waves win the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics

Ed Daw, University of Sheffield

Razor-sharp, unconventional and fun on the dance floor. A colleague paints a colourful portrait of one of this year's Nobel Laureates in physics.

Politics + Society

  • How dangerous people get their weapons in America

    Philip Cook, Duke University

    While mass shooting tragedies in Las Vegas and elsewhere make headlines, the reality is gun violence is becoming almost routine in many American neighborhoods. Where do the guns come from?

Arts + Culture

Business + Economy

Environment + Energy

  • How to work out which coral reefs will bleach, and which might be spared

    Clothilde Emilie Langlais, CSIRO; Andrew Lenton, CSIRO; Scott Heron, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Regional variations in sea temperature can make all the difference between a coral reef suffering major bleaching or surviving as a refuge for corals, new research shows.