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Each spring, colourful wildflowers erupt across South Africa’s Namaqualand region, drawing people from all over the world to admire the scenery. Those visitors may not realise it, but there’s another marvel occupying the same landscape: a huge network of termite mounds. Michele Francis explains what makes these little hills so ecologically special - and how her team discovered that some of the mounds are as much as 34,000 years old.
Floating solar panel systems could meet some of the energy needs of countries with large lakes and dams. Environmental scientists R. Iestyn Woolway and Alona Armstrong mapped one million water bodies globally and came up with the first ever calculation of how much power floating solar panels could produce.
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Michele Francis, Stellenbosch University
There is growing evidence that termites have a substantial, but still poorly understood, role in the carbon cycle.
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Iestyn Woolway, Bangor University; Alona Armstrong, Lancaster University
Floating solar panel systems on lakes and dams could generate much of Africa’s energy, decrease greehouse gas emissions, and stop freshwater evaporating, new research has found.
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Pritish Behuria, University of Manchester
There is a danger that if offshore sector revenues dry up, the Mauritian economy will soon face economic turmoil.
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Science + Technology
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Pauline Costes, Sorbonne Université
New research has found that the two ‘fingers’ on the tip of an elephant’s trunk exert different forces. The finding will be used to improve the abilities of bio-inspired robots.
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Thembekile Olivia Mayayise, University of the Witwatersrand
The question has shifted from whether cyberattacks will occur to when and how they will happen.
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Rico Devara Chapman, Jackson State University
There has been a long history of resistance to white hegemony in the United States and South Africa.
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Joleen Steyn Kotze, University of the Free State
Elite political culture matters, especially in the context of a unity government. To succeed, party leaders must embrace the politics of collaboration built on trust.
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Paul D. Williams, George Washington University
Without the AU Transition Mission, the Somali army should prepare to face several hundred additional attacks each year.
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Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, University of South Africa
The hope is for pragmatism to drive a transition process. Obsessive adherence to ideological preferences will not build national unity or a sound foreign policy.
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Emmanuel O. Akindele, Obafemi Awolowo University
Freshwater biodiversity receives less conservation attention, especially in Nigeria.
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Uzziah Mutumbi, Rhodes University; Gladman Thondhlana, Rhodes University; Sheunesu Ruwanza, Rhodes University
Only 5% of South Africa’s energy comes from solar power while 85% is generated from coal. Loans, more subsidies and security for rooftop solar panels need to be put in place.
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