Africa

How Do You Keep Elephants From Eating Your Food? With Beehive Fences, Duh

I always thought elephants were afraid of mice. But scientists and farmers in Kenya have found that the best way fend off a herd of passing elephants is to erect a fence covered in bees. Talk about creative. Elephants have been enjoying a resurgence since they were nearly poached into extinction back in the 70s…

Tech News Kwame Opam Jul 13

The human genome contains a million years worth of population data

Our genes don’t just help determine who we are — they also preserve an incredibly ancient record of who our ancestors were. Our genomes can actually reveal human population sizes dating all the way back to before humans even existed. Richard Durbin of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Heng Li of the Broad Institute…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 13

Our most ancient hominoid ancestors first left Africa 17 million years ago

When modern humans left Africa roughly 100 thousand years ago, it was only the last of several waves of hominoid migration that had previously included the likes of Neanderthals and Homo Erectus. Now a tooth in Germany reveals the original hominoid migration. A molar tooth was discovered in the Alpine region of southwestern Germany. 17…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 22

Helping out strangers is hard-wired into human nature

Humans are the only animals who display loyalty to individuals we don’t personally know. Scientists had assumed this was a new development made possible by the rise of centralized governments. But it might actually be part of how we evolved. No country could exist – indeed, no group larger than a small village could exist…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 13

Quadrotor Drones Get Intimate with African Animals

Filming animal documentaries must be gratifying, but there’s always that risk of a giant rhino goring you and knocking over your truck. Instead, why not use some graceful little drones? This is a much more pleasant application than killing people. The nimble Microdrone MD4-1000 quadrotors helped film this pretty great footage in Kenya, where they’re…

Biology Sam Biddle Jun 2

Affordable, Self-Adjustable Glasses for the World’s Poorest Are in Sight

Two and a half years on, and the British atomic physicist who invented these optician-less adjustable glasses is now working with the World Bank and the Dow Corning Corporation to supply 200 million pairs to African and Asian schoolchildren. https://gizmodo.com/eyeglasses-with-fluid-filled-sac-for-worlds-poor-are-in-5116969 Professor Joshua Silver, the man who first dreamt the glasses up 20 years ago when…

Tech News Kat Hannaford May 23

We may have discovered humanity’s parent species

We can trace our evolutionary heritage back millions of years, but it’s surprisingly tricky to say with certainty which hominid species came directly before us. Now it looks like one of our evolutionary cousins is actually our parent species. When we say “parent species”, what we really mean is the most recent common ancestor of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 5

Why Casablanca is the future of the world

Just before the uprisings now known collectively as “Arab Spring,” I took a short trip to Casablanca, the wealthiest and largest city in North Africa. And there I had a vision of the future. It’s become a truism to say that cities like Tokyo and Shanghai represent the future of the world, but as scifi…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 4

Language may have developed for the first and only time 100,000 years ago

The origins of language are shrouded in mystery, with linguists unable to probe beyond about 10,000 years ago. But a radical new study reveals language sounds spread just like human genes, suggesting Africa was the sole birthplace of language. Historical linguistics has been able to pull off some absolutely incredible feats of language reconstruction –…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 14

How a human virus is killing endangered gorillas

There’s fewer than 800 Mountain Gorillas left in the entire world, and their survival depends in part on people willing to pay money to go see them. But all this human interaction is bringing gorillas into contact with dangerous diseases. Although humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, gorillas rank a very respectable second, sharing…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 28

A N00b’s Guide to Safer Regime Change

Tech-centric human rights group Access has published a handy primer for those looking to participate in a Middle Eastern or North African revolution (and keep their identities private while at it). You know—those secret police are assholes. The guide could be a huge boon for would-be dissidents who might otherwise be too scared for their…

Privacy & Security Sam Biddle Mar 25

A view of the exact region in Africa where humans emerged

There’s still a lot we don’t know about our evolutionary history, but one generally agreed upon point is that humans originated in eastern Africa, around what’s now Ethiopia. But a new genetic study suggests we came from somewhere else entirely. Stanford researchers examined the genetic diversity of modern hunter-gatherer populations. As co-author Brenna Henn explains,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 8

WikiLeaks Diplomatic Bombshell Reveals Strange Tech Snooping Schemes

Today’s not a good morning to wake up as an American diplomat. The weekend’s WikiLeaks disclosure of covert communications has revealed some strange tech plots surrounding world figures—Bluetooth bugs implanted in prisoners. DNA gathering. UN stalking. Weird stuff. https://gizmodo.com/how-a-burnt-lady-gaga-cd-helped-leak-thousands-of-intel-5701089 Bluetooth Human Tracking Implants First up—injecting released Guantanamo Bay prisoners with internal tracking devices, so that…

Tech News Sam Biddle Nov 29

Spreading Mobile Data Into Africa Is Getting Better

If wiring an advanced, fully-industrialized society like the US for wireless broadband data has been difficult, then just imagine trying to pull it off in Africa. But wireless innovation is becoming (gradually) cheaper and easier in the troubled continent. Bill Gates himself details the lengths to which his foundation is going to empower Africans through…

Tech News Sam Biddle Nov 15

These rats are the world’s cutest bomb squad

This is a baby rat in a minuscule harness somewhere in Tanzania. He’s got his nose in the air, but he’s not looking for cheese. He’s actually sniffing out deadly landmines. It takes a pair of trained humans a full day to clear a 2000 square foot minefield. But if they work with a pair…

Biology Kyle VanHemert Nov 9

The Most Popular Phone in the World

Nokia has problems. Smartphone problems. Software problems. American problems. But to fully understand what’s wrong, we’ve got to understand what’s been right, or to put in another way, what’s distracted Nokia. Meet the most popular phone in the world. https://gizmodo.com/why-were-not-reviewing-the-nokia-n8-5667723 It has been said that more of the world’s population has access to a cellphone…

Tech News John Herrman Oct 19

Meet the Kenyan Man Who Built an Airplane From Scratch

Gabriel Nderitu is not an aerospace engineer He’s an IT professional and self-proclaimed innovator, who built his own airplane from scratch. If the plane flies, he’ll be the first in his country to successfully build one. Nderitu will put the two-seater to the test sometime next week, and he’s clearly got some last-minute fixes to…

Tech News Brian Barrett Oct 13

Homemade African aircraft are salvagepunk cool (even if they’re not 100% airworthy)

In the last couple years, amateur engineers from Africa have built DIY planes and helicopters out of recycled parts. These rigs look undeniably bad-ass, even if it’s unclear whether they can get off the ground. In Kahawa West, Kenya, Gabriel Nderitu is building an 800-kilogram aircraft using a Toyota engine and other aluminum pieces over…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Oct 13

Taking On an African Dust Mega Storm With a Video Camera and a Headlamp

Click to viewNational Geographic cameraman Bob Poole was filming elephants in Mali when this massive, sun-swallowing dust cloud rolled up on him and his team. Instead of running for the hills, they kept the cameras recording and waited it out. Madness. [Neatorama]

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Sep 21

New stone tool discovery suggests humans left Africa much earlier than we thought

Current genetic evidence says the ancestors of modern humans left Africa 60,000 years ago. But recently discovered stone tools in the Arabian peninsula and India suggest humans actually started exploring the world as much as 120,000 years ago. Although earlier relatives – like Homo erectus and Neanderthals of modern humans – left Africa earlier, genetic…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 20

How Do You Keep Elephants From Eating Your Food? With Beehive Fences, Duh

The human genome contains a million years worth of population data

Our most ancient hominoid ancestors first left Africa 17 million years ago

Helping out strangers is hard-wired into human nature

Quadrotor Drones Get Intimate with African Animals

Affordable, Self-Adjustable Glasses for the World’s Poorest Are in Sight

We may have discovered humanity’s parent species

Why Casablanca is the future of the world

Language may have developed for the first and only time 100,000 years ago

How a human virus is killing endangered gorillas

A N00b’s Guide to Safer Regime Change

A view of the exact region in Africa where humans emerged

WikiLeaks Diplomatic Bombshell Reveals Strange Tech Snooping Schemes

Spreading Mobile Data Into Africa Is Getting Better

These rats are the world’s cutest bomb squad

The Most Popular Phone in the World

Meet the Kenyan Man Who Built an Airplane From Scratch

Homemade African aircraft are salvagepunk cool (even if they’re not 100% airworthy)

Taking On an African Dust Mega Storm With a Video Camera and a Headlamp

New stone tool discovery suggests humans left Africa much earlier than we thought

‘She-Hulk’ Was Apparently One of Marvel’s Most Successful Shows

The World’s First Eye-Tracking Smart Glasses Are Intriguing and Unpolished

Noah Hawley Is Remaking ‘Terrified,’ Which Shouldn’t Happen

Unprecedented Observation Reveals 2 Supermassive Black Holes Locked in a Tight Death Spiral

This Apple MacBook Pro Is Now Under $500 After 78% Off, Grade-A Refurb Deal (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Touch Bar)

Anthropic Launches ‘Project Glasswing’ to Stealthily Spot Cybersecurity Issues for Rivals

Tiny Robots Reveal Hidden Ocean Chemistry in Low-Oxygen Waters

Aunt Lydia Survived ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to Bring New Complexity to ‘The Testaments’

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

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