Science news
April 2020The importance of digitising museum collections became even more apparent during the closure of museums due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitisation experts Jonathan Brecko and Aurore Mathys (RMCA/RBINS) published a best practice handbook for 2D+ and 3D digitisation of natural history collections.
April 2020The RMCA archives containing data on geology and mining in Rwanda have been digitized and transferred to the latter. This transfer is part of a two-year collaboration between the RMCA and the national geological service of Rwanda to strengthen geological research in the country.
March 2020Scientists from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and the Royal Museum for Central Africa have published factsheets for dozens of invasive species that are of concern to Europe. These factsheets more specifically evaluate the relevance of genetic techniques to identify such species. The factsheets aim to inform policy makers and provide authorities with an identification tool.
March 2020The ability of the world’s tropical forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere is decreasing, according to a study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years, published in Nature. The global scientific collaboration, led by the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the University of Leeds, reveals that a feared switch of the world’s undisturbed tropical forests from a carbon sink to a carbon source has begun.
January 2020Patricia Van Schuylenbergh, historian at the museum, has published the book Faune sauvage et colonisation. Une histoire de destruction et de protection de la nature congolaise (1885-1960).
January 2020Researchers at Harvard University have reconstructed the genomes of four skeletons. Two of them are about 8,000 years old and the other two, about 3,000 years old. The study provides insight into the diversity of distribution and differentiation in sub-Saharan Africa.
January 2020Adalbert Muhindo, a researcher at the Observatoire volcanologique de Goma, successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Université libre de Bruxelles. His work will help improve risk management of an eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in Goma, eastern DR Congo.
November 2019On 14 October 2019, the RMCA published the 12th volume of the series of monographs featuring the new provinces of the DRC. Entitled Mai-Ndombe. Mosaïque de peuples établie sur un patrimoine naturel, the book paints a picture of the many facets of Mai-Ndombe province: physical, human, historical, administrative, and socio-economic.
October 2019With the help of eight stories, the book Citizen Science. Hoe burgers de wetenschap uitdagen shows different facets of community science. One of its three authors is Tine Huyse, a biologist at the Royal Museum for Central Africa.
October 2019The fifth edition of Uganda’s Nyege Nyege festival took place from 5 to 8 September 2019. Organized each year in Jinja, the festival features East African traditional and electronic music. RMCA musicologist Rémy Jadinon was there to study the ‘festivalization’ and ‘electronisation’ of traditional music.