Author: The Conversation

Free education in South Africa is a goal worth pursuing, especially for students who are poor and want access to tertiary institutions and those who correctly see it as a right and developmental imperative for the country. Germany has attained it. The huge challenge is to

Apple has removed 250 apps from the App Store because they were secretly stealing users’ account and device identifiers to Chinese advertiser Youmi. The developers of the apps were unaware that this was happening as they were simply using Youmi’s service to display ads

The art of futurology — predicting what future society might look like — is plagued with difficulties. Books, films, TV shows and plays that feature such efforts are all judged through the prism of hindsight. The 1989 film Back To The Future Part II saw its

In mid-July 2009, in a twist of irony, online retailer Amazon unilaterally removed digital copies of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 from a number of Kindle e-readers. Customers were outraged. If it wasn’t for the fact that it really happened, it would surely

A new device, a biological sensor inside a nanochip that can detect bacterial infections in 10 to 15 minutes, will become available in 2016. Devised by a team of scientists from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, the device is being patented and the Technology Innovation

The argument for the use of police body cameras is gaining momentum in South Africa, amid growing demand for greater police accountability, especially in the wake of the Marikana massacre. The cameras are typically worn on the chests of police officers. Their use is becoming

The relationship between Russia and the West is becoming increasingly dangerous with potential flashpoints developing in both eastern Europe and Syria. After repeated incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes on bombing raids over Syria, Nato’s secretary general Jens

From satellites, to autonomous solar-powered drones, or balloons, there have been plenty of ideas recently on how to connect up the world. Facebook, Google, large international organisations, national governments, even Bono, have laid out ideas of a near future in which we are all hooked into the network

The release of yet more of Edward Snowden’s leaked files reveals the still-astonishing scale and breadth of government surveillance after more than a year of revelations. These recent papers revealed to The Intercept website discuss a programme within Britain’s GCHQ known as Karma Police