Despite the ban on lead in gasoline, blood lead levels in African nations have remained stubbornly high. Now, researchers from Ashland University think they might know why. According to their tests, cookware made in Africa from recycled metals is leaching lead into food in quantities nearly 200 times the levels permissible in the United States. […]
Working with the Hadza tribe in Africa, researchers have found that human hunter-gatherers follow the same mathematical pattern in their movements as sharks, honeybees, and many other animals. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study used GPS trackers to show that human hunters follow the classic exploration pattern defined by […]
Somewhat counter-intuitively, protected areas of Africa where numbers of humans are limited appear to also be hotspots for the exchange of fecal matter between animals and humans. “The research identifies the coupled nature of humans, animals, and the natural environment across landscapes, even those designated as protected,” said Kathleen Alexander, an associate professor of wildlife […]
HIV may have affected humans for much longer than is currently believed, according to a scientist who says that the genomes of an isolated West African human population provide important clues about how the disease has evolved. HIV-1 Type M, which accounts for 90 percent of human infections, is thought to have crossed the species […]
An increase in high risk behaviors and a false belief in HIV immunity are just two of the issues that health agencies are facing in the wake of preventative male circumcisions in Africa, according to a new report from the Women’s HIV Prevention Tracking Project (WHiPT). WhiPT highlights women’s perspectives, advocacy priorities and recommendations on […]
Crop production occurring under a full canopy of trees sounds counter-intuitive, but a unique acacia known as a “fertilizer tree” is allowing African farmers to triple maize yields. Attendees at The Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change were told yesterday that evergreen agriculture – the integration of fertilizer trees into crop and […]
A type of acacia tree with an unusual growth habit – unlike virtually all other trees – holds particular promise for farmers in Africa as a free source of nitrogen for their soils that could last generations. With its nitrogen-fixing qualities, the long-lived acacia tree, Faidherbia albida, could minimize the use of fertilizers; provide fodder […]
Reporting their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, American and Ugandan scientists working in Africa describe how adult male circumcision can significantly decrease infection rates for the two most common sexually transmitted infections – herpes and the human papillomavirus (HPV – the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts). The findings build […]
Ohio State University molecular biologist Richard Sayre says that the genetically modified cassava plants he has developed could help solve food shortages in Africa and other nations. His study, appearing in Plant Biotechnology Journal, reports that his genetically modified cassava plants produced roots that were an average of 2.6 times larger than those produced by […]
Researchers from Cornell University, ecologists and conservationists have jointly authored a paper inNature suggesting that cheetahs, lions, elephants, camels and other large wild animals should be roaming large tracts of North America. “If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we’re nuts,” said Harry Greene, professor of evolutionary biology at Cornell. […]
