Africa

BioNTech, the pioneering mRNA company responsible for one of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccines, is now looking to develop an mRNA malaria vaccine. Working with the World Health Organization the company hopes to begin human trials sometime next year.

An affordable housing venture in Africa named 14Trees has leveraged 3D printing technology to produce the world's first 3D-printed school in Malawi, where students started taking their first lessons late last month.

Results from a trial testing a new malaria vaccine have revealed an impressive 77 percent efficacy, higher than any prior vaccine trialled. The vaccine is the first to reach a WHO goal of at least 75 percent efficacy and a larger trial is now underway.

The World Health Organization is rapidly responding to a pair of new Ebola outbreaks in Africa. The two unrelated outbreaks, in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have both appeared in locations previously connected to Ebola flare-ups.

Scientists working in the West African country of Guinea have discovered a new orange-furred species of bat. The rare discovery came while conducting field surveys in the isolated Nimba Mountain range.

A long-lost species has been rediscovered alive and well. The Somali sengi, an insect-eating mammal that hasn’t been seen in over 40 years, has turned up in East Africa, with researchers snapping the first-ever photos and video of them in the wild.

Longtime readers may remember NLÉ’s floating school from 2013. The firm, led by architect Kunlé Adeyemi, is now working on another floating architecture project with a very similar design that will serve as a music and cultural venue.

After a long series of test runs and stints serving disaster-struck populations in Puerto Rico and Peru, Alphabet’s internet-beaming Project Loon balloons have taken on their first commercial task, providing thousands with connections in Kenya.

The human family tree is being shuffled around again. A new study suggests that Homo erectus existed 100,000 to 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, meaning they lived alongside species they were once thought to have descended from.

The Mount Sinai Kyabirwa Surgical Facility is a superb project in Uganda that provides locals with access to much-needed surgical treatment. The facility makes good use of off-grid technology, including solar panels and rainwater collection systems.

Combining studies of genetics, geology and climate history, scientists from Australia and South Africa say they’ve identified what could be called the “homeland” of modern humans – a vast, ancient wetland system in southern Africa.

​Rather than retiring from a day of elephant spotting to a four-walled hotel room with a window or two, safari guests of the South Africa’s Cheetah Plains Game Lodge will have plenty of opportunities for extracurricular connections with nature.