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It’s easy to be fooled by errors and lies. Every day the line between fact and fantasy is blurred in public discussions. Social media amplifies all this and makes human follies more visible. Manfred Kets de Vries explains the psychology behind irrational opinions and behaviours, and how to handle them.
Artificial intelligence (AI) – when machines learn from experience and adjust to new data – is being used for a wide variety of tasks, including conservation. Biologist Daniele Silvestro is part of a team that has designed a new AI tool which can be trained to set conservation targets. She unpacks how it was used to identify Madagascar’s most important areas for biodiversity protection.
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Manfred Kets de Vries, INSEAD
Truly ignorant individuals lack introspection and stubbornly cling to their irrational opinions.
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Daniele Silvestro, University of Fribourg
Conservation of biodiversity is in the hands of humans but artificial intelligence can help guide decisions.
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Business & Economy
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Johann Kirsten, Stellenbosch University
Meat from sheep that graze in South Africa’s Karoo and France’s Mont Saint-Michel lamb is deemed special.
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Tim Weiss, Imperial College London
Identical informal businesses set up next to each other because they’ve created an informal welfare system.
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Louis de Koker, La Trobe University
Kenya must complete a national terrorist financing risk assessment and share it publicly.
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Pablo Ariel Martinez, Universidade Federal de Sergipe
New climate change modelling has found that as the earth heats up, venomous snake populations in Africa are likely to move across borders in search of places to live.
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Health & Medicine
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Grace Marie Jones, Touro University
A higher consumption of sugar leads to worse health outcomes, so we need to be mindful of the added sugar we eat.
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Yvette Naudé, University of Pretoria
Two out of five cases of TB remain undiagnosed. A test using a skin patch could help change that.
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Oluwadara Pelumi Omotayo, North-West University
Mycotoxins contamination causes health issues. Paying attention to storage of agricultural produce can save many lives.
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Hartmut Winkler, University of Johannesburg
As South Africa heads towards elections, there is no quick fix solution to the electricity crisis in the country. What exactly are the political parties promising voters?
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Politics
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Oluwole Ojewale, Institute for Security Studies
Governance failure and location of schools around large expanses of unprotected forest zones make school children easy targets for bandits in Nigeria’s north-west.
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Douglas Yates, American Graduate School in Paris (AGS)
With the conduct of the 24 March elections, Senegal’s President Macky Sall appears to have saved his legacy.
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Michelle Nel, Stellenbosch University
South Africa is among a few countries that completely prohibit the involvement of citizens in foreign armed conflict.
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Benta A. Abuya, African Population and Health Research Center
Studies show that teaching parents how to support their children can lead to improvements in literacy.
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