Which is the best African country for citizens to live in? A recently developed barometer has measured just that. The Good African Society Index, published in 2015, measures the quality of society in African states, exploring how
Author: The Conversation
Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan research network, recently released a report highlighting Africa’s electricity challenges. Power shortages can hamper socioeconomic development, but they also have implications for health and education
Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page will soon face a jury trial in order to determine whether they copied the opening chords for their 1971 classic Stairway to Heaven from the song Taurus, recorded by the little-known band Spirit in 1968. At a hearing in California last week
As season six of HBO’s Game of Thrones looms, speculation is rife. Is Jon Snow really dead? What do the clips featuring a blind Arya mean? And what are the implications of the return of the Dothraki? This last question is the one that has got me
On Friday, 8 April 2016, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a mission to deliver a spacecraft called Dragon with its payload of supplies and experiments into a trajectory towards the International Space Station (ISS). Most remarkably, the first-stage booster then landed
It takes a bold person to declare that interstellar travel is now within our grasp. Physicist Stephen Hawking has shown that he is just that, taking part in the Breakthrough Starshot initiative. The project has announced a US$100m research programme to investigate the technology
It’s an ambitious plan to launch a series of micro-spaceships to our stellar neighbours, but that’s what Russian billionaire Yuri Miller has announced this week. The US$100m Breakthrough Starshot project aims to send the probes out at speeds up to about one fifth the speed of
Tesla Motors has already established its electric cars as fast, well-sized and capable of competing with petrol cars in how far they can go without needing a recharge. Now, the US firm run by South African-born billionaire Elon Musk appears to have countered
The world is fighting a hidden war thanks to a massive shift in the technologies countries can use to attack each other. Much like the Cold War, the conflict is being fought indirectly rather than through open declarations of hostility. It has so far been fought without casualties
The ANC has gone through episodic crises in its century of existence. Right now, the media and commentators are seized with debate about whether or not it is in a crisis and whether it is as serious as any other. The party has survived tumultuous times, including