Linda Nordling

A woefully low proportion of members of the world's learned bodies and science academies are women. A report published by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) in collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and launched on 29 February 2016 puts the figure at 12 per cent, measured across

In December 2015, scientists, policymakers and journalists from across Africa gathered to attend the inaugural Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) in Pretoria, South Africa. The Science Forum event was touted as Africa’s first open science event and it welcomed over 1,500 delegates to the Council for Scientific and

During October 2015, African science and education ministers adopted a continental space policy and strategy at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Work on an African space policy dates back to 2010, and it has taken it five years to reach this point. The 14-page policy will act as a

Inspiration comes in many forms. To Professor Berhanu Abegaz, executive director of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), it comes as a bone ten centimetres in length with tiny notches carved into its sides. The Ishango bone was found in 1960 in Central Africa by a Belgian explorer and is

Nigeria’s new government needs to strengthen and unify the country’s trouble-ridden university sector and harness its potential for development. When Nigeria’s outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to his opponent, Muhammadu Buhari on 31 March 2015, many in the country drew a sigh of relief regardless of

South Africa’s knowledge economy hinges on foreign students and staff from the rest of the African continent. When the waves of xenophobic violence erupted again against African foreigners living in South Africa in April 2015, the country’s academic community took a united stand against the barbarity. Report Xenophobia