Cape Town uses about 300 million cubic metres of water annually, most of which comes from the six major reservoirs. But every year four times as much as that falls on the city as rain. Now civil engineer and PhD researcher John Okedi is studying ways in which this... Read more
Ebola Virus Study Generates PhD in Health Sciences
ArchivesResearchUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal September 21, 2017
A novel study on the Ebola virus that produced four publications in just one academic year earned Dr Marissa Balmith a PhD in Health Sciences. Titled: Potential Ebola Virus (EboV) Drug Targets: A Computational Insight into Drug Discovery, the study examined the EboV, an incapacitating virus eventually resulting in the... Read more
Early diagnosis of hearing loss is important
ArchivesResearchUniversity of the Free State September 20, 2017
One of the most common, misunderstood and neglected birth defects in developing countries is hearing loss, which can most severely impair and have a dramatic impact of the quality of life the of the person with hearing loss. This is according to Dr Magteld Smith, lecturer in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology... Read more
A new study shows that while the risk of dying of rheumatic heart disease has fallen over the past 25 years, the disease stubbornly persists in the world’s poor regions, where penicillin is either unavailable or too costly. The study appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine and was co-authored... Read more
Birds and damage in grain breeding trials are synonymous, and each breeder will have his or her unique way to tackle it. Some will go on the offense and others on the defence. The first usually leads to the culling of birds. It’s a last resort action that only... Read more
Professor Albert Thembinkosi Modi, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science (CAES) has been elected Deputy Chairperson of the National Agricultural Research Forum (NARF). As Deputy Chairperson for his two-year term, Modi will provide leadership to the NARF and its Secretariat, and monitor the implementation... Read more
The females from this species of oil-collecting bees in South Africa (Rediviva longimanus) have disproportionately long legs with dense hairs on the feet. Photo: Anton Pauw New research from Stellenbosch University (SU) in South Africa shows that, in an extraordinary case of adaptation, the disproportionately long front legs of... Read more
Chemistry students develop water saving measures for labs
ArchivesMust-ReadResearchStellenbosch University September 15, 2017
Three chemistry students at Stellenbosch University (SU) have reduced their laboratory’s water consumption by at least 3 000 litres per week by coming up with innovative and relatively inexpensive ways of saving water. Four months ago PhD students Monica Clements, Jonathan Hay and Anton Hamann started to conduct trials in... Read more
AB InBev and Stellenbosch University: Partnership will increase research into beer ingredients
ArchivesLatest newsResearchStellenbosch University September 14, 2017
Agronomists and food scientists of Stellenbosch University have partnered with the multinational beverage and brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev). The R6 million funding that is being received allows them to tackle specific issues over the next three years related to the production of barley. It will also... Read more
Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel is a member of that rare breed of scientists who does research to help others do their own investigative work more thoroughly. This PhD student and lecturer at Stellenbosch University uses her skills in statistics, applied mathematics and computer programming to write appropriate software with which to... Read more
