By Thomas Timberlake, Senior Research Associate in Pollination Ecology, University of Bristol
Jane Memmott, Professor of Ecology, University of Bristol
In Nepal’s remote mountain district of Jumla, preparation for a family meal begins long before food reaches the cooking pot. It starts in terraced fields of beans, buckwheat, apples and pumpkins that must be ploughed, planted, tended and harvested before a family can eat.
But other workers often go unseen: the pollinating insects. By moving pollen between flowers, pollinators ensure that crops bear healthy, nutritious fruit to eat and sell.
Most people don’t think about insects when they eat. But in farming systems like this one, the link is direct and stark. If
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By Puleng Segalo, Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair, University of South Africa
Jacob Owusu Sarfo, Associate professor (Clinical Psychology and Health Promotion), University of Cape Coast
About 10% of births – that’s about 15 million babies – are born prematurely worldwide each year, making preterm births a major global health concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines preterm birth as delivery before 37 completed weeks of gestation.
Estimates suggest that the preterm figure is much higher in low-income countries. Preterm births are a danger…
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By Jabulani Sikhakhane, Editor, The Conversation
Over the past 11 years, The Conversation Africa has published 12,961 articles by 8,257 authors, making the expertise of academics and researchers in Africa and other parts of the world accessible to the public, national and global policymakers, and other stakeholders. These articles are also republished by other media, making our work an important pillar of the media ecosystem.
It’s sometimes tough to gauge the true impact of the articles we publish. Replication by other news outlets – and readership on our site – help put numbers on their reach, but not how they might influence policy…
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By Chloe Brimicombe, Postdoctoral Researcher, Climate Science, University of Oxford
Ben Garrod, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement, University of East Anglia
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, Head of Department, Science and Technology Studies, UCL
Saffron O'Neill, Professor of Geography, University of Exeter
Attenborough has influenced everything from conservation and documentary production to the communication of the biggest story of all – climate change.
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By Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University
From Nobel laureate Linus Pauling’s dismissed vitamin C crusade to modern trials, a once-ridiculed idea in cancer research is getting a cautious second look.
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By Giulia De Togni, Chancellor's Fellow, School of Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh
The robot pauses at the edge of the room as an engineer checks its sensors. Then, with a soft mechanical hum, this humanoid machine begins to move. It lifts a mannequin from a bed, slowly and carefully. The engineers hold their breath.
I am in a robotics lab in Tokyo, Japan, as part of my Wellcome research fellowship. The engineers have repeated this test hundreds of times…
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By Chris Rapley, Professor of Climate Science, UCL
Four humans recently looped around the Moon. Their vessel, an Artemis capsule, was a thin metal shell whose life-support system kept them alive: it provided a carefully balanced atmosphere, a closed water loop, a finite supply of food and a means for disposing human waste. The life support was not optional. It was a necessity.
Consider this: not once in the history of human spaceflight has an astronaut been known to tamper with their life support system. No one has ever decided to vent some oxygen for fun. No one has argued for a personal right to increase their CO₂…
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By Michael E. West, Director of the Alaska Earthquake Center and State Seismologist, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Ezgi Karasözen, Research Seismologist, Alaska Earthquake Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
On the evening of Aug. 9, 2025, passengers on the Hanse Explorer finished taking selfies and videos of the South Sawyer Glacier, and the ship headed back down the fjord. Twelve hours later, a landslide from the adjacent mountain unexpectedly collapsed into the fjord, initiating the second-highest tsunami in recorded history.
We conduct research on earthquakes and tsunamis at the Alaska Earthquake Center, and one of us serves…
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By Sukhun Kang, Assistant Professor of Technology Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
Some industry-funded clinical trials show signs of being designed to market drugs rather than to test them for their safety and effectiveness. Detecting these studies remains difficult.
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By Erika Yamazaki, PhD candidate in Neuroscience, Northwestern University
Ken A. Paller, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University
Annual medical checkups typically cover the basics: diet, exercise and mental state. Surprisingly, many primary care providers fail to ask about one of the fundamental contributors to well-being: sleep.
We are two neuroscientists who study sleep and memory. We have both experienced this omission with our own doctors, even though we represent different ages and genders.…
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