The fungus that spoils bread does not work alone. It has guests hidden deep within its cells – bacteria – with whom it has a mutually beneficial relationship that can be positive or negative for humans. Understanding and modifying this relationship can have a profound impact on the food, medical and agricultural industries.

This is the focus of a four-year international collaboration between the North-West University (NWU) and two universities in the United States.

Chuku Taole, North-West University (NWU) Information Technology (IT) lecturer and Vanderbijl

“Indigenous fruits have long been collected from the wild for human consumption and other purposes.

The good rains that have fallen over the last month in many areas of South Africa have caused ideal conditions for an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF).

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus is proud to welcome Prof Don Kurtz as an extraordinary professor.

Many people rely on traditional plant remedies to treat skin disorders, and now a North-West University (NWU) researcher has investigated why these plants are effective, paving the way for further research by the pharmaceutical industry.

“The use of indigenous knowledge in providing primary healthcare, especially in most indigenous African communities, is as old as human history,” says Dr John Awungnjia Asong, researcher and recent PhD graduate.

A new study has lifted the veil on some of the mysteries of the Milky Way. It has found that the Earth is moving faster than it used to and is nearly 2 000 light-years closer to the black hole in the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This is according to new data, documented over a period of 15 years, by the Japanese radio astronomy project, VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA.)

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Centre has partnered with the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) on a public awareness campaign on the Indigenous Knowledge Act and the Bio-cultural Protocol*.

This Indigenous Knowledge Act focuses on the protection, promotion, management and development of indigenous knowledge in the country, and the Bio-cultural Protocol (BCP) was developed by the DSI as a tool to enforce the act.  

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Astronomy Observatory now boasts a new, bigger and better telescope – the New Mahikeng Astronomy Telescope.

The new telescope, manufactured by Planewave Instruments in the USA, has a 50 cm diameter which is significantly bigger than the older 41 cm Meade LX200 GPS telescope that was unveiled in 2018.