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The Scientific Breakthroughs You Will Want To Know About

Keeping up with current scientific research isn’t only for those of us involved in it. Unfortunately, many scientists don’t have the resources and time to translate their research into easily understood and engaging content for a non-scientific audience. The popularity of such websites as New Scientist and IFLS, and shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy demonstrate the existence of an audience interested in what scientists do and produce. And indeed over the past two years there have been some exciting breakthroughs that you need to know about.

Here are just a few, in no particular order:

The ‘silver bullet’ in the fight against cancer

A study found that breast cancer deaths are higher in black women than in white women in the US. It’s really important for communities of colour to realise that contrary to old myths, we do get affected by cancer. And now a chance discovery at the University of Johannesburg may significantly impact cancer treatment. Prof. Marianne Cronjé and Prof. Reinout Meijboom combined their expertise in cancer research and chemical compounds respectively, and stumbled across a ‘silver bullet’ which actually kills cancer cells whilst leaving normal cells unharmed. Watch this video for more details on the discovery.