africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area.[2] With 1.0 billion people (as of 2009, see table), it accounts for about 15% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagoes. It has 54 fully recognized sovereign states ("countries"), 9 territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition.[3]

For more information about africa check the Wikipedia article here

ZME Science posts about africa

Albinos hunted in Tanzania for body parts

Wed, Jan 30, 2013

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Most of the time, the so-called civilized world would just rather turn a blind eye towards what is happening in Africa; right now, I’d like to shed some light on what it’s like to be an albino in Africa, and more specific, Tanzania. According to Wikipedia, albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete [...]

Artifacts hint that modern human culture may have emerged in Africa 20,000 years earlier

Tue, Jul 31, 2012

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New, more precise carbon dating of artifacts found in South Africa, such as poison-tipped arrows or ostrich eggs, have been found to be 44,000-year-old. The technology and social behavior at play suggest that modern human culture in the area may have emerged some 20,000 years earlier than previously thought and supports the theory that all modern [...]

New hominid species that lived alongside the famous Lucy was mostly a climber, not a walker

Wed, Mar 28, 2012

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Africa proves yet again that it’s the cradle of the hominid family, and in consequence the human species. Scientists have found foot fossils in Ethiopia that don’t match those of any kind of hominid discovered thus far, dating from 3.4 million years ago, making the specimen contemporary with Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis specimen, of vast [...]

Why do zebras have stripes? To ward off blood-sucking insects

Fri, Feb 10, 2012

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The leading theory that explains why zebras are striped (remember the age old riddle? black stripes on white or white stripes on black?) is because it offers them protection against predators, by providing camouflage, as colour blind animals confuse the strips with tall grass in the savanna. A team of researchers from Hungary, however, offer a different, [...]

The oldest crocodile so far found was 30 feet long had a shield for a head

Wed, Feb 1, 2012

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Casey Holliday, a University of Missouri researcher, was looking through some of the hundreds of unlabeled items kept in a storage facility when he come about a remarkable find –  a skull fragment from an ancient croccodile, dating back from the late Cretaceous, around 95 million years ago. What’s really interesting about the find is [...]

The PeePoo bag: don’t poop where you eat

Fri, Dec 10, 2010

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Nairobi, Kenya is home to one of the world’s biggest slums, more than one million people living in subhuman conditions in the African state capital. I’ve seen and read a lot of reports from there, and other African states alike, and the situation is indeed dire. Imagine having nothing to eat – now imagine having [...]

Telegraph’s picture of the day shows why you should never teach a lion stuff

Mon, Nov 16, 2009

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Yeah, that’s a lion trying to open a car door with it’s teeth; picture taken in Johannesburg, South Africa via The Telegraph

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