Author: The Conversation

In 2016, a team of engineers and adventurers will travel to the South African desert and attempt to become the first people to drive a car at a thousand miles an hour (1 609km/h). The British-made vehicle, Bloodhound SSC, is designed to smash the current world land-speed record

The dust has now settled on the latest product launch from Apple, which for many trumped headlines about refugees and poverty. We have new iPads, iPhones and more. But how new are they really

The war on wildlife crime is taking a new technology-driven direction. Rhinos are being fitted with GPS trackers, heart-rate monitors and spy cameras – all embedded within their horns. These small but high-tech devices could be a game changer for anti-poaching efforts in Africa

The one thing everyone knows about quantum mechanics is its legendary weirdness, in which the basic tenets of the world it describes seem alien to the world we live in. Superposition, where things

“Ban sex robots!” scream the tech headlines, as if they’re heralding the arrival of the latest artificial intelligence threat to humankind since autonomous killer robots. The campaign, led by academics

This year’s Man Booker shortlist, just announced, features two Britons, two Americans, one Jamaican and a Nigerian (four men and two women) and has been applauded for its diversity. Some of those considered frontrunners – such as Pulitzer winner Marilynne Robinson and

The OECD has just given the world an F when it comes to using computers to improve educational outcomes in schools and to give teenagers the digital skills they will increasingly need in life. In a report released this week entitled “Students, Computers and Learning”, Andreas

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company is finally working on a much-desired feature: a “dislike” button. According to Zuckerberg, this feature has long been one of those most requested by the Facebook audience. Although his comments suggest

South Africa, the leading carbon emitter in Africa, has geothermal resources that can be used to generate electricity and reduce its carbon emissions. But a recent study suggests that the potential cost is prohibitive, unless strong incentives are provided. South Africa is heavily dependent

Smart wearable technologies, such as the Apple Watch, are this year’s “must have” item — their makers are banking on it. Apparently, there is a model for everyone. As always, professional high-tech-trend watchers (a pun now worn on their wrists) are not just selling the commodity