South African geneticist Vinet Coetzee held up a malaria-diagnosing
scanner that she said can be developed for use in Africa's rural areas
without the need for blood samples or lab tests.
"This can be rapid, affordable
and non-invasive," she said. "It can reduce health inequality and bring
us one step closer to a world free of malaria."
The prototype was among the
research projects highlighted at the Next Einstein Forum conference last
month in Rwanda to encourage the development of young scientists across
Africa. Organizers called it the largest-ever gathering of scientists
on the continent.
"We can go from a dark continent
to a bright continent," said Nigerian chemistry professor Peter Ngene,
who described how he plans to use nanotechnology to store solar energy
efficiently in hydrogen batteries.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the current chair of the African
Union, opened the gathering by linking scientific progress to Africa's
development at large.
"Knowledge economies are
prosperous economies," he said. "Today, more than ever before, adequate
math and science proficiency is a prerequisite for a nation to attain
high-income status and the gains in health and well-being that go along
with it."
The president added: "For too
long, Africa has allowed itself to be left behind." As the continent
catches up it cannot afford to leave out women and girls, Kagame said,
urging Africans not to accept the global gender gap in science as
inevitable.
"The movie 'Black Panther' gives
positive role models of African women in science," said Eliane
Ubalijoro, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, who pointed out
the large number of women at the conference. "We are creating Wakanda
right here!"
Africa lags behind the rest of
the world in scientific output, but research on the continent is growing
rapidly and a few countries like Ethiopia, Kenya and Mali have
increased their research and development spending efforts "to the level
of a middle-income economy," according to the UNESCO Science Report .
The Next Einstein Forum began in
2013 to help the continent move forward and now sponsors 19 African
science fellows, along with an Africa Science Week at schools in 30
countries. At the conference the forum launched Scientific African, a
quarterly, peer-reviewed journal to publicize new research.
The forum is an offshoot of the
African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, which provides full
scholarships for students to earn masters' degrees in mathematics at
centers in Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania...
"We can draw strength from hardship," said Turok, who said he believes
the world's next Einstein can be an African. "When Africans enter
science in large numbers, with their diversity, backgrounds and
motivation, they will make massive, transformative discoveries. Those
discoveries are just waiting there to be made."
Read more...
Source: The News Tribune