A coalition of officials met in Zimbabwe this month to discuss a little pest that has become a big problem. The fall armyworm has spread through Africa over the course of the last year and it has had devastating effects on crops. Experts fear that globalization and climate change are setting the caterpillar up to…
After declaring DC superhero Wonder Woman an honorary ambassador, the United Nations has decided to revoke the fictional character’s title. Her selection in October had been met with some controversy, both inside and out of the U.N., but it’s hard to see this as anything other than a shame.
Not Gal Gadot, or Lynda Carter, or the multitude of voice actors, writers, and artists that have lent their talents to DC’s premier female hero over the last 75 years. The actual fictional character is becoming an honorary leader in the UN’s efforts to bring gender equality to the world.
Hurricane Matthew ravaged Haiti on Tuesday, completely decimating the southeastern region of the country and killing 842 people, according to local authorities. Information has been slow to make its way to the rest of the world, because areas hit hardest by the hurricane were remote coastal villages, completely…
Hurricane Matthew is one of the most powerful storms to barrel through the Caribbean in over a decade. The violent windstorm has already claimed the lives of more than 108 people in Haiti and at least 4 people in the Dominican Republic. The hurricane has displaced tens of thousands more across the Caribbean including…
The United Nations just announced a date for its first ever mission to space—and it’s pretty soon.
People may joke that others spend too much time on the internet, but this intricate series of tubes has become an important part of everyday life—so much so that it’s become a human rights violation to take it away.
Vultures make me think of that dopey guy from Loony Tunes or crooked-bill predators circling a poor desert rat on the brink of death. But in Peru, the carcass-eating birds will soon be outfitted with cameras so they can help map Lima’s awful trash problem.
We’re making progress in the fight against HIV around the world, but it’s still very unevenly distributed. And the United Nations’ brand new report on HIV infections among teenagers in Asia is pretty upsetting. Some 50,000 Asian teens (aged 15-19) became HIV-positive in 2014 alone, and a total of 220,000 adolescents…
Congenital heart disease is one of several ailments, including pneumonia and sepsis, that kill eight babies every minute, every day. But a decades-old technology, combined with a smartphone app, can tell doctors in less than 60 seconds if a baby is at risk for any of these asymptomatic, hard-to-detect killers. And in…
In late 2010, a stunning series of events across the globe showed how fed up millions are with political corruption, inequality, and social injustice. Technology played a key role in rallying support during the Arab Spring, and in Morocco, an open online platform that allowed citizens to help revamp their country’s…
In developing countries, an unbelievable 45% of food goes bad because of a lack of cold storage. It’s an especially big problem during transportation from farms to outdoor markets, where food sits in the scorching sun for hours on end. But one startup has a solution: solar-powered refrigeration stations that could…
Ever hear of whiteflies? They’re the color of snowflakes and practically as tiny, but they’re global plant-killers. One of their favorite snacks is the cassava, a root that’s a crucial staple food for 700 million people worldwide. But one computational biologist and her team are on a mission to save the cassava from…
With over 1.2 billion citizens, India is the second-most populated nation on Earth. Sixty-eight percent of Indians live in rural areas that might not have clean drinking water. Since the world population will hit 9 billion by 2050, with many of those people living in developing countries, increased access to clean…
Data. It’s a powerful tool that helps us battle climate change or keep companies sustainable. But there’s so much data, and it’s hard to corral, index, and understand. However, one company wants to give Earth a “planetary nervous system” to help out companies and policy makers make faster, more informed decisions…
An international NGO trains rodents to find buried bombs and a deadly respiratory disease. Meanwhile, I’ve taught my dog how to carry three tennis balls in his mouth at once.
Billed as a “world-wide wakeup call,” the UN’s “Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls” report was quickly pulled down, after criticism about its sourcing and conclusions. It does the impossible: Gamergaters and Zoe Quinn think it sucks. What went wrong? The problem started with bad sourcing.
Many people living in Africa need electricity, but don’t have it. Luckily, something of a solar power revolution is afoot in Africa, triggering a wave of innovation from solar energy entrepreneurs. One of them is a princess descended from an ancient Mossi warrior, who stresses that the best way to combat this problem…
Deforestation downs 10 billion trees around the globe annually. Replanting trees by hand is slow, expensive, and barely puts a dent in reversing the damage. But one startup wants to use drones that can reforest our increasingly tree-strapped Earth, on a big enough scale to replace slow and expensive hired humans.
When you think of the United Nations, you probably don’t think of emerging tech like drones or floating fabrication labs. But those are exactly what the staid international organization, which turned 70 this year, wants to use to address issues humans face across the globe.
