Stories from and

Malawian Film Helps Farmers Cope With Climate Change

  24 April 2015

“Mbeu Yosintha” was made to help farmers and rural communities cope with the effects of climate change, in particular the ever changing rain patterns in South East Africa. The film is a drama using local actors and was devised with Malawian writer Jonathan Mbuna following extensive research with various agricultural...

Astrophysicist Shares the History of the Rosetta-Philae Mission

  11 December 2014

The comet Churymov-Gerasimenko was discovered on 1969, the same year a mission landed on the Moon. Back then, no one would have imagined that 45 years later a small spacecraft called Rosetta transporting a landing module and the hopes of thousands would touch down on surface of a comet known as...

New Spider Species in Borneo Named After Missing Activist

  2 September 2014

A new spider species in Borneo discovered by Swiss scientists was named after Bruno Manser, an environmentalist who went missing in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia in 2000. Bruno Manser has been campaigning for the protection of the nomadic Penan people and against the destruction of Sarawak rainforest when...

Locusts Invade Madagascar's Capital City

  28 August 2014

#valala pic.twitter.com/YHzOx5Q8QU — Vaintche Rahouli (@vincraholi) August 28, 2014 Twitter and Facebook users from Madagascar's capital city, Antananarivo, have posted several photos of locusts invading the city. Locust invasions are not unusual in Madagascar, especially after tropical storms, but they are very uncommon in larger cities. Locusts can have a...

Biofortified Bananas for Beta Carotene Deficiency

  16 July 2014

Félix Moronta Barrios is a Venezuelan biologist who spreads scientific culture among Spanih speaking community. He recently explained the researches and biotechnologic findongs about transgenic bananas in Uganda and the United States. The banane cultivated in Uganda has no A vitamin. That's why its modification is necessary. Moronta Barrios warns...

Mapping the 567 Ebola Cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone

  24 June 2014

On June 16, 49 new Ebola cases, 12 of them deadly, were reported by the WHO. Bart Janssens, director of operations of The international NGO Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF)) released a statement saying that:   The epidemic is out of control, with the appearance of new sites in...

Kazakhstan Has an Antelope That Can Predict the World Cup Winner (or Does It?)

  12 June 2014

Kazakhstan's most mischievous satirical blog, Kazaxia, is up to its old tricks again, reporting on the saiga antelope that has potentially ruined bookmakers worldwide by predicting the winner of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil with its timeless steppe wisdom. As Kazaxia writes: A shaman contacted kazaxia about the psychic saiga – it...

Jamaica: Girls In Science

  6 June 2014

Cucumber Juice explains why it's important for her to raise money to upgrade her old high school's science lab – because it's the place where she learned to be confident, because real learning is interconnected, and because “girls need to know that we can be scientists too.”

Legislating on Open Access in Mexico

  31 May 2014

Saul Equihua writes [es] on Infotecarios about open access in México: On Tuesday, May 20, 2014, Mexico moved ahead by adding and reforming the Legislation of Science and Technology, the General Legislation of Education and the Organic Law of National Council of Science and Technology, to promote open access. After...

Reference Services in Library and the Web

  29 May 2014

Samuel Castro Ponce writes [es] on Infotecarios about reference services [es] or librarian consultaton, history, features and evolution: Evidently, synchronized referece services are evolving. Now there is a trend of using 2.0 websites for taking advantages of social networks that make possible sending and receiving information instantly. The same goes...

A Low-cost Solution to Heal Cataract in Sub Saharan Countries

  22 May 2014

One of the main causes of blindness in sub saharan countries are cataracts. A group of french physicians has developed a surgical kit called “Phacokit” to treat at low-cost individuals suffering from cataract  and help them recover their eyesight [fr]:  Pour vaincre la cataracte, principale cause de cécité, notamment dans les pays pauvres,...