Author: The Conversation
by Badri Zolfaghari The COVID-19 crisis has forced a massive shift towards remote work. What are the implications of this shift for trust in the workplace? Such trust plays a crucial role in how we coordinate, cooperate, reciprocate, and respond to risk and uncertainty. So, just as the need for trust in the workplace is heightened by the severe uncertainty wrought by COVID-19, the massive shift towards remote work may undermine this trust. This concern is shared by many. A simple search on the social media platform LinkedIn results in over 70,000 posts about trust and remote work. Numerous companies…
by Dr Marietjie Botes The most effective way to stop the spread of a virus is to prevent contact with everyone who is infected. Those who are infected can be isolated and treated if necessary. To determine who they are, it’s necessary to actively look for and manage cases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging technologies are being repurposed to help trace whoever has been in contact with an infected person. Some of these technologies, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), wi-fi and Bluetooth, are not new. GPS has been used to find accident victims at precise geographic locations. Some…
By Matthew Kofi Ocran Over the past two decades various African National Congress (ANC) administrations in South Africa have sought to redistribute income to the poor and the vulnerable. They have also sought to stimulate rapid economic growth. The administrations have made progress in the redistribution effort, but on economic growth the performance has been dismal. For example, the National Development Plan, the first draft of which was released in August 2012, was intended to move the country to a higher annual growth trajectory of 5%. This hasn’t happened. Over the past decade, growth has averaged less than 2% annually.…
By Scott C. Ratzan, Agnes Binagwaho, Heidi Larson, Jeffrey Lazarus, Kenneth Rabin, and Lawrence O. Gostin It has been nine months since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a “public health emergency of international concern”. Since then, more than 44 million cases have been recorded and over one million lives lost. Economic costs measure in trillions of dollars. Global recovery will take years. A safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be developed in record time and may be approved for production, distribution and acceptance some time in 2021. Public health experts say that at…
by Jory Denny The world of computing is full of buzzwords: AI, supercomputers, machine learning, the cloud, quantum computing and more. One word in particular is used throughout computing – algorithm. In the most general sense, an algorithm is a series of instructions telling a computer how to transform a set of facts about the world into useful information. The facts are data, and the useful information is knowledge for people, instructions for machines or input for yet another algorithm. There are many common examples of algorithms, from sorting sets of numbers to finding routes through maps to displaying information…
by Antony K Cooper, Samy Katumba, and Serena Coetzee, Addresses provide people with a social status: a sense of identity and being recognised as a proper citizen. They are needed for the provision of postal and utility services; billing; disaster relief; emergency response; opening bank accounts – or just visiting friends. During a pandemic like COVID-19, addresses are also vital for mapping cases. Through addresses, authorities can find out where the infected and potentially affected live. They can identify emerging infection clusters, target responses and trace contacts. Many non-pharmaceutical interventions can only be successfully implemented if health authorities know where…
by Clare Corbould If you’re not a comics fan, you may have been surprised at the extent of the heartfelt grief expressed following the death of actor Chadwick Boseman. One explanation lies in the extraordinary power of the 2018 movie Black Panther, in which Boseman starred as T’Challa/Black Panther, to address racist stereotypes about Africa and Africans. Boseman’s character was heir to the hidden kingdom of Wakanda, a mythical African nation free of European colonisation. The film’s subtext explores African Americans’ varying identifications, past and present, with Africa and a global Black diaspora. Dark continent Westerners’ ideas about Africa are…
by Walter Matli Most young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa continue to be denied access to information and communications technology because of poor infrastructure and the digital divide. The cost of mobile data is part of the problem. For example, compared with its fellow members of the BRICS group of nations, South Africa has the highest average price for 1GB of mobile data. One gigabyte of mobile data costs an average of US$1.01 in Brazil, $0.61 in China, $0.52 in Russia and $0.09 in India. It costs an average of $4.30 in South Africa. As a result, many…
by Bryan Maritz and Robin Maritz Snakes are a diverse lineage of reptiles that are found on every continent except Antarctica. Despite differences in appearance, habitat preference, defence tactics and underlying biology, one thing is common to all 3,800 species of snakes — every last one is a predator. As predators, snakes are likely to fulfil important roles in ecosystems. Knowing what snakes eat can help scientists better understand ecological connections among snakes and other species. This will lead to a better understanding of how ecosystems function and how ecological communities might be affected by changes in habitat or climate.…
by Alysson R. Muotri Gravity can be a real downer when you are trying to grow organs. That’s why experiments in space are so valuable. They have revealed a new perspective into biological sciences, including insights into making human tissues. Gravity influences cellular behavior by impacting how protein and genes interact inside the cells, creating tissue that is polarized, a fundamental step for natural organ development. Unfortunately, gravity is against us when we try to reproduce complex three dimensional tissues in the lab for medical transplantation. This is difficult because of the intrinsic limitations of bio-reactors used on Earth. I…