Blockchain has the potential to topple business models and transform global supply chains, and thus disrupt industrial practices, especially crooked ones. Take the issue of forced labor, for instance. According to the International Labour Organization, “At any given time in 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people [were] in modern slavery, including 24.9 in forced labour. … Out of the 24.9 […]

Did you know? Although it may not seem like it from all we hear in the news, taken altogether, humanity has never been better off, based on GDP and other measures of well-being. Here are some facts: 1) The number of people living in absolute poverty has been reduced by 60% since 1980. 2) The world is safer […]

Formula E? Is that some kind of milk with vitamin E? Or an energy bar? No, the E stands for Electric. And the Formula is racing, just as in Formula One racing. In its second season, a new car racing series is turning heads. So far, the 10-race series has taken place in such cities as Beijing, Berlin, Buenos […]

Everyone knows how dangerous nuclear energy can be. No so long ago, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 caused three meltdowns and the release of radioactive material the next day.  Time will tell whether cancer cases and deaths from radiation exposure following the […]

KickStart image Have you heard of the social enterprise KickStart? It develops affordable technologies for small African businesses. It states its accomplishments in this way: “Since 1991, 160,000 successful new businesses have been started in Africa using our tools. Today more than 800 new businesses are being created each month. Since each of these enterprises supports […]

Read all about it! Amazing good news about a “drinkable book”. The 20 pages of the book provide tips on filtering water and how to keep drinking water safe, and at the same time each page is a filter. When torn out of the book, each orange filter paper removes over 99% of bacteria and each […]

“Believe it or not, the electric storage battery — a technology that has been around since the eighteenth century — could change the economic course of the twenty-first century. Thanks to breakthroughs on the horizon, batteries qualify as one of 12 disruptive technologies that the McKinsey Global Institute has identified.” That paragraph is how a […]

Africa is a contender, along with Australia and New Zealand, in a project to build a really huge telescope – the Square Kilometer Array. Although the decision on where to build it won’t be known until late March or early April at the earliest, the project is already in full swing. Made up of 3,000 […]