News

  • Astronomers capture first image of a black hole

    Posted on April 10, 2019

    The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of a black hole. Today (10 April), in coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers reveal that...

  • UP’s Tshwane Insulin Project brings quality diabetes treatment to underserved communities

    Posted on November 28, 2018

    Tshwane Insulin Project (TIP), a collaborative project between various University of Pretoria (UP) departments, will lead an exciting five-year research programme that will explore the use of remote prescribing to help primary care physicians and/or nurses better serve the needs of people living...

  • Revolutionary times: How MeerKAT and Earth-sized telescopes are expanding our thinking

    Posted on October 11, 2018

    There was global excitement when MeerKAT, the biggest radio telescope in the world, was launched in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape in July. But few people could have been as excited as Professor Roger Deane, who heads up the University of Pretoria’s radio astronomy research team in the...

  • UP project leads to world's first lion cubs born through artificial insemination

    Posted on September 03, 2018

    A lioness at the Ukutula Conservation Center (UCC) and Biobank, in South Africa North’s West province has given birth to two cubs conceived via non-surgical artificial insemination (AI), using fresh semen collected from an adult male lion at the same facility.

  • Black men have a higher risk of prostate cancer than white men in South Africa

    Posted on August 16, 2018

    Prof Riana Bornman and Prof Vanessa Hayes, a genomicist focused their research on prostate cancer in black Southern African men of Bantu and Khoisan descent, to better understand the possible links between prostate cancer and African ancestry.

  • Advancing the frontiers of science

    Posted on August 12, 2018

    Dr Vinet Coetzee’s main research objective is to create workable health solutions for Africa that can be used in both hospitals and rural areas.

  • Big data for big discoveries

    Posted on July 31, 2018

    The University of Pretoria (UP) is one of three South African universities taking a novel approach to analysing big data, building capacity and research expertise ahead of the deluge of data expected to come streaming in through new telescopes like the South African Radio Astronomy...

  • Elephants migrate despite protected area boundaries and international borders

    Posted on July 30, 2018

    A new study from the Conservation Ecology Research Unit (CERU) at the University of Pretoria set out to unravel migration in the world’s largest terrestrial mammal – the savanna elephant.

  • New breast cancer research shows promise for the future

    Posted on July 27, 2018

    A major challenge in cancer research is to find agents that target cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells alone and unharmed. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments can have many undesirable side effects because they damage healthy cells as well.

  • Communication is costly in Heaviside's Dolphins

    Posted on July 20, 2018

    Research led by scientists at the University of Pretoria (UP) has shed light on an evolutionary arms race with a twist.

  • White rhinos communicate through their ablution habits

    Posted on July 19, 2018

    A study by a University of Pretoria researcher into the ablution habits of white rhinos in the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, has revealed that these animals use their place of defecation to communicate with each other and take decisions that can affect their ecology.

  • Department of Physics represents UP at MeerKAT inauguration

    Posted on July 17, 2018

    Prof Roger Deane from the Department of Physics represented UP at the launch of the MeerKAT radio telescope, inaugurated by Deputy President David Mabuza in the Northern Cape.

  • Cling film may have cancer risks

    Posted on July 09, 2018

    A study by researchers into the presence of potentially dangerous chemicals in eight brands of cling wrap, which is used to package food has revealed that one brand had a high concentration, which may result in adverse health effects and cancer risks.

  • Leopards get stressed. Here's how we know and why it matters

    Posted on June 27, 2018

    Leopards are versatile predators. These elusive cats can successfully occupy any habitat that supports sufficient numbers of prey species and which provides adequate cover for their ambush-style of hunting.

  • How safe is the food on your plate?

    Posted on June 26, 2018

    In an ideal world, a farmer might sell a harvest of fresh produce to families nearby, who would eat that produce within the week.

  • The power of lightning

    Posted on June 25, 2018

    Lightning is a natural phenomenon that most people do not fully understand. Its magnitude and force is so great that it has the potential to cause devastating destruction, bringing damage to infrastructure, livelihoods and even life.

  • If you want to get rid of drugs in Tshwane stop trying to get rid of drugs

    Posted on May 29, 2018

    Over the past few years there has been a steady increase in harmful drug use in the city of Tshwane. Doctors, clinical associates and social workers from the University of Pretoria (UP) realised that there is a major shortage of services in the city to help people who use drugs.

  • Woody plants are changing Africa’s savannas — and this may have an impact on all of us

    Posted on May 09, 2018

    An increase in indigenous plant life does not sound like a bad thing, but when woody plants threaten to change savanna ecosystems (that cover approximately 13.5 million square kilometres of Africa alone), there is cause for concern.

  • Beware of malaria – even in the winter

    Posted on May 08, 2018

    Malaria transmission in South Africa is seasonal and the months of September to May are malaria- or high season months.

  • Using technology to create SMART foods for a healthier you

    Posted on May 02, 2018

    Healthy foods are often expensive and time consuming to prepare. While the diets of lower-income earners are often energy dense, they tend to be low in other nutritional components such as protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and health-promoting phytochemicals.

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