insert_link Africa Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer, but it has an illegal mining issue: 5 essential reads By Godfred Boafo, The Conversation Ghana is one of the world’s gold hotspots. It is Africa’s largest producer of gold and it ranks sixth globally. In 2023, 4 million ounces were produced. It is essential to Ghana’s economy, contributing around 7% of gross domestic product. Ghana’s gold mines are found in most parts of the country, and the mining history can be traced back hundreds of years. However, […] todaySeptember 11, 2024 15
insert_link Health / Medical No-sleep challenge: the dangers of sleep deprivation Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock By Adam Taylor, Lancaster University Most of us will be all too familiar with that dopey, groggy feeling of being tired after a restless night. Some social media users have taken tiredness to the extreme, however, by taking part in what they call a “no-sleep challenge.” One 19-year-old Youtuber, Norme, live streamed his attempt to break a world record for consecutive days without sleep. At the […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 8
insert_link Science & Technology ‘We’re the ultimate creators, not AI’: Will.i.am on why we’re worrying too much about machine-made tunes By Alex Connock, University of Oxford Generative artificial intelligence is poison for human creativity, according to conventional media wisdom. “Plagiarism machines” is how Breaking Bad author Vince Gilligan has described the large language models (LLMs) used to train the likes of ChatGPT and Claude. Hundreds of copyright claims have been filed against AI companies – from Stable Diffusion (sued by Getty Images) to Midjourney (sued by a group […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 8
insert_link Business / Economics Apple’s iPhone 16 launch shows AI is shaking up the tech giant’s core market Xeniia X / Shutterstock By Lewis Endlar, Keele University As someone who helped set up one of the first iPhones back in late 2007 on live TV, I found the launch of the first iteration of Apple’s smartphone an exciting time. At the launch in June of that year, a grinning Steve Jobs proudly held up that early device to the obvious delight of Apple fans. Did the […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 20
insert_link Health / Medical What causes food cravings? And what can we do about them? Fascinadora/Shutterstock By Gabrielle Weidemann, Western Sydney University and Justin Mahlberg, Monash University Many of us try to eat more fruits and vegetables and less ultra-processed food. But why is sticking to your goals so hard? High-fat, sugar-rich and salty foods are simply so enjoyable to eat. And it’s not just you – we’ve evolved that way. These foods activate the brain’s reward system because in the past they […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 14
insert_link Health / Medical How patterns of conversation could help identify early signs of autism in children fizkes/Shutterstock By Vittorio Tantucci, Lancaster University Autistic children – and adults – often communicate differently to neurotypical people. Key characteristics of autistic speech can include less eye contact, focusing on the details rather than the overall gist of a conversation, and favouring literal meaning: autistic people may find it more challenging to guess if something is being implied rather than said directly. These differences may make some communication […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 10
Environment The fascinating secrets of plant reproduction that scientists are still uncovering The anthers are where pollen is produced. The Camera Dad By John Doonan, Aberystwyth University and Maurice Bosch, Aberystwyth University You might think flowers don’t have much choice about who they mate with, given they are rooted to the ground and can’t move. But when scientists from Nagoya, Japan used powerful microscopes to study the fertilisation process, they were surprised to find the female part of a flowering […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 11
insert_link Africa Steve Biko, the South African liberation struggle hero who considered dishonour worse than death By Jacob Dlamini, Princeton University What happens when death becomes the ultimate marker of one’s commitment to one’s freedom? Jacob Dlamini explores this and other questions in his new book, Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa. This edited extract, from the chapter Dead and Proud, focuses on Steve Biko’s attitude to martyrdom and to the political uses of death (30). Steve Biko’s death on 12 September […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 5
insert_link Africa Looting of the Sudan National Museum – more is at stake than priceless ancient treasures By Mohamed Albdri Sliman Bashir, University of Khartoum Reports continue to emerge of the alleged looting of tens of thousands of artefacts from the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. The museum, near the confluence of the White and the Blue Niles, holds a history of the region, home to ancient civilisations, temples and pyramids. But it has been caught in the crossfire in a war between the […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 11
