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posted by martyb on Monday April 09 2018, @01:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the knowledge-is-power dept.

A Next Einstein Forum (NEF) conference was held at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda in late March:

[A malaria-diagnosing scanner] prototype was among the research projects highlighted at the Next Einstein Forum conference last month in Rwanda to encourage the development of young scientists across Africa. Organizers called it the largest-ever gathering of scientists on the continent. "We can go from a dark continent to a bright continent," said Nigerian chemistry professor Peter Ngene, who described how he plans to use nanotechnology to store solar energy efficiently in hydrogen batteries.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the current chair of the African Union, opened the gathering by linking scientific progress to Africa's development at large. "Knowledge economies are prosperous economies," he said. "Today, more than ever before, adequate math and science proficiency is a prerequisite for a nation to attain high-income status and the gains in health and well-being that go along with it." The president added: "For too long, Africa has allowed itself to be left behind." As the continent catches up it cannot afford to leave out women and girls, Kagame said, urging Africans not to accept the global gender gap in science as inevitable.

"The movie 'Black Panther' gives positive role models of African women in science," said Eliane Ubalijoro, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, who pointed out the large number of women at the conference. "We are creating Wakanda right here!"

At the beginning of the conference, NEF, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and Elsevier announced the launch of Scientific African, "a pan-African, peer reviewed, open access publishing journal, dedicated to boosting the global reach and impact of research by Africans."


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  • (Score: 2) by Bobs on Monday April 09 2018, @08:38PM (2 children)

    by Bobs (1462) on Monday April 09 2018, @08:38PM (#664660)

    Genetics plays a major role in IQ.

    And lack of access to a good, consistent educational system plays an even bigger role in pushing down the average score on IQ tests across a region.

    The way IQ tests work, they assume a certain base of knowledge/understanding to test against. If the majority of kids haven't been to good schools, had consistent access to books and teachers then they won't score we'll on the standardized tests.

    On a related note, when you take people from those areas and run them thru good, Westernized schools from an early age they do just fine on the IQ tests. So, an environmental factor rather than a genetic one.

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  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday April 09 2018, @09:44PM (1 child)

    On a related note, when you take people from those areas and run them thru good, Westernized schools from an early age they do just fine on the IQ tests. So, an environmental factor rather than a genetic one.

    Oh? And you know this, how? Nobody has had the balls to do a proper study on your claim because the results might conflict with RightThink and get them ostracized from society. Even admitting that geographic differences in IQ exist is verboten in today's society, as you can plainly see by the responses here.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by Bobs on Wednesday April 11 2018, @03:30PM

      by Bobs (1462) on Wednesday April 11 2018, @03:30PM (#665392)

      I posted a link and details about a study on this topic here on Soylent a few months back.

      Don't have time to dredge it up now, but there actually is data.

      Might have time to find and share the link again this weekend.

      Cheers!