Stories

Story

Limit children’s exposure to microplastics as a precaution – UP researcher

Until we know more about the risks, we should try to limit our exposure to microplastics found in products and in the environment, and the toxic chemicals associated with them. This is according to Professor Halina Röllin of UP’s School of Health Systems and Public Health, who was part of a team of researchers who gathered the most up-to-date research on the effects of nano- and...

Story

Sustainable small fisheries can help the planet – UP expert

More than three billion people, most of whom are in developing countries, rely on the ocean to make a living. Fisheries and aquaculture provide the main source of animal protein for some 17% of the world’s population. In the least-developed countries, fish contributes about 29% of animal protein intake.

Story

Making light work: UP chemists pave the way towards an ultra-sensitive analytical instrument that can detect water pollutants

A UP-led team is using the momentum of light to trap particles. This optical trap has been used with collaborators to demonstrate a hidden property in light that remains unchanged even when it passes through turbulence.

Story

UP-led Hot Birds Project homes in on how extreme heat affects bird species

Rising temperatures as a result of climate change will affect bird species differently, and their abilities to withstand extremely hot conditions depend on the part of the world that they find themselves in and the climatic region to which their physiology has become adapted over the course of millennia.

Story

Beetles use mimicry to fool bees into feeding them

A breakthrough study from the University of Pretoria has found that small hive beetles trapped inside a honeybee nest sneakily entice the very bees that keep them prisoner into providing them with the best of what there is to feed on in the hive – even some of the queen’s portion.

Stories

UP part of global research team to present the first image of Sagittarius A*

Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. The announcement was made at simultaneous press conferences around the world. Professor Roger Deane, an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria and Director for the Centre of Astrophysics at the University of Witwatersrand and Wits Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Iniyan...