Over the past few decades there has been a growing worldwide interest in examining the relationship between weather and various types of crime. Most research in this area has however produced inconsistent and often paradoxical results. For example, some studies have found no seasonal fluctuations in crime. Others have however…
University of Pretoria
Alternative currencies are the future
When I began to teach in 2012, I decided to start my course with an analysis of how money affects social order. What my students found particularly fascinating was the then-nascent world of cryptocurrencies, which I described at length as a crucial feature in the future of money. Some colleagues…
Creating jobs in the age of robots and low economic growth
The growth economy suffers from a productivity paradox. Corporations compete to reduce the time and effort that goes into production processes, which is generally seen as a sign of efficiency, but in reality has a troubling outcome. Unless more stuff is produced and consumed, people lose their jobs as the…
A look at what led to world’s worst listeriosis outbreak in South Africa
South Africa has had the biggest listeriosis outbreak in the world that resulted in more than 180 deaths to date. The Conversation Africa’s health editor Candice Bailey spoke to Prof Lise Korsten about the challenges around food safety in the country. What’s challenging about the pathogen that causes…
Mathematics is beautiful
It wasn’t always this way. Many fields of mathematics germinated from the study of real world problems, before the underlying rules and concepts were identified. These rules and concepts were then defined as abstract structures. For instance, algebra, the part of mathematics in which letters and other general symbols…