In February and March this year, importers of solar panels suddenly discovered a new anomaly; the Nigerian Customs Services (NCS) was forcing them to pay between 5% and 10% import duty on solar panels. This was a new development contravening a federal government law that put zero percent import duties on solar panels to encourage the use of renewable energy and diversification of power sources. With an estimated population of over 180 million, Nigeria still generates a reported 7,000 megawatts of electricity and transmits about 5,222 MW of this volume. According to a Power Generation Report by the Ministry of…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Alabama, Birmingham offered insights into why some people’s hair may turn gray in response to a serious illness or chronic stress. A new study on mice, published in the open access journal PLOS Biology discovered a connection between the genes that contribute to hair color and the genes that notify our bodies of a pathogenic infection. According to the researchers, when a body is under attack from a virus or bacteria, the innate immune system detects them and responds by producing signaling molecules called interferons. Interferons signal to other cells to take…
Plant scientists at UK’s John Innes Centre unraveled the complex chemistry of Madagascar periwinkle that opens up the potential for rapid synthesis of cancer-fighting compounds. In a study in the journal Science, the researchers led by Sarah O’Connor, identified the last missing genes in the genome of the periwinkle that are devoted to building the chemical vinblastine after 15 years of research. This valuable natural product has been used as an anti-cancer drug since it was discovered in the 1950s. Found in the leaves of Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), it proved to be a potent inhibitor of cell division and used against…
The Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Sani Aliyu has said the agency would conduct the largest national AIDS survey in june. Announcing this at a news conference on “Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey’’ on Thursday in Abuja, the DG said the survey would be in collaboration with the United States Government, Global Funds, UNAIDS, Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organisation (WHO), among others. Aliyu noted that the survey which would last for six months, would be conducted across the 36 states and the FCT. According to him,the survey will determine…
New technology developed by an interdisciplinary team of scientists at Iowa State University could allow anyone with a smartphone to see crops much the same way trained plant breeders and scientists do. The researchers’ findings, published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate how artificial intelligence can identify a range of common stresses in soybeans. The technology can improve efficiency for plant breeders and farmers, and it demonstrates the growing value of automation in agriculture. ISU agronomists and engineers started by collecting a large dataset of around 25,000 images of soybean stresses taken in…
By Diana Kwon President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a proposal to prohibit Chinese students and scientists from working on sensitive research at US universities, The New York Times reported this week (April 30). The proposal stems from fears that researchers from China may steal intellectual secrets. According to the Times, US universities are particularly vulnerable to espionage. Defense Department statistics suggest that, in 2014, academic institutions were the target of almost a quarter of the efforts from foreign countries to access sensitive information. The restrictions may include certain projects with “military or intelligence value,” such as those involving advanced materials…
The Industrial Development Manager of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Alhassane Haidara on Wednesday said the bank would support fertilizer production in Nigeria with 100 million dollars. He disclosed this at a media briefing on the key industrial initiatives and projects of the bank in Abidjan. “We are going to finance a huge fertilizer plant for the production of Uriah, Ammonia, among others and we are partnering with many companies to get it done. The plant will be one of the largest fertilizer plants not only in Africa but in the world,’’ Haidara said. Explaining that the production would be leveraging…
A dietician, Dr Emeka Obi has said that the high level of “B vitamins’’ in energy drinks can be very toxic to the human liver. Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, he advised Nigerians to be cautious with the consumption of such drinks. “Energy drinks like `Monster’, `Red bull’ and `Lucozade Sports’ can be extremely helpful when the body is low on sugar level and energy. That is why we see so many athletes drinking them; it gives a boost in energy when you want to exercise, especially when you want to partake in cardiovascular activities. “The problem is that we see…
Chinese researchers have identified two new risk gene variants that are responsible for leprosy. The findings have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The research, led by Yao Yonggang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming institute of zoology, was based on a study involving 1,433 patients with leprosy and 1,625 healthy individuals from southwest China’s Yunnan Province. More than 30 risk genes affecting susceptibility to leprosy have been identified. The research team has identified and validated two new rare damaging variants in HIF1A and LACC1 genes that can increase risk of developing the disease. Leprosy is a chronic infectious…
The WHO on Wednesday said seven million people die every year from exposure to polluted air. According to a WHO report, ambient, or outdoor air pollution alone caused some 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period. Those figures are on a par with the number of deaths recorded in an earlier study published two years ago. WHO said air pollution levels remain dangerously high in many parts of the world. New data showed that nine out of 10 people breathe air containing high…