Editor's note

Senior politicians and scientists will gather near a small dusty town called Carnarvon in South Africa today to officially unveil the 64-dish MeerKAT array. This will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere until the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is completed. Vanessa McBride explains why big occasions like these - and smaller but equally important projects that harness the power of astronomy for improving the world - are so crucial.

Researchers want to understand what drives people to share fake news, and how endorsements can help spread false articles on a social network. But most models that try to mimic the spread miss the richness of human learning and interactions. Co-Pierre Georg, Christoph Aymanns and Jakob Foerster describe how they used artificial intelligence to study how support for - or opposition to - a piece of fake news can spread within a social network.

Natasha Joseph

Science & Technology Editor

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School children at the site of the KAT-7 radio telescope in Carnarvon, South Africa. Kevin Govender

A big moment for Africa: why the MeerKAT -- and astronomy -- matter

Vanessa McBride, International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for Development

Astronomy is accessible to anyone with a view of the sky.

Technology drives fake news. Could it also stop the problem in its tracks? Shutterstock

How the latest tech and some healthy activism can curb fake news

Co-Pierre Georg, University of Cape Town; Christoph Aymanns, University of St.Gallen; Jakob Foerster, University of Oxford

We used the latest techniques from artificial intelligence to study how support for or opposition to a piece of fake news can spread within a social network.

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Health + Medicine

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