GhScientific

This will keep you thinking all day. 🧠

Your brain has NO pain receptors. Zero.

The organ that allows you to feel pain in every other part of your body — cannot feel pain itself. Brain surgeons can operate on a patient who is fully conscious and talking, cutting into brain tissue, and the brain feels absolutely nothing.

(What causes headaches? The blood vessels, meninges, and surrounding structures around the brain — not the brain itself.)

The more you learn about the nervous system, the more astonishing it becomes.

Which is exactly why on October 17th, we're hosting "Let Off Steam" — a hands-on nervous system activity day at the GheekCenter in Agbogba, designed for students, aged 5-15years

No textbooks. Just real, hands-on exploration of the most extraordinary system in the human body.

Details dropping soon! Comment below if you're interested and we'll make sure you're first to know 👇🧠

This week's Ghana STEM news round-up is out.

Highlights include KNUST opening the Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory, Ghana's accession to the Space4Ocean Alliance to bring satellite data to bear on coastal erosion and the Energy Commission laying Ghana's first EV charging and battery-swap regulations before Parliament.

Some other stories of particular interest is confirmation that Ghana's solar capacity has passed 276 MW, a small foundation's free-antivenom programme that has saved 99 lives in the Oti Region.

We always like to highlight some of the original research going on within the sciences. This week our four new peer-reviewed Ghanaian studies are
1. Lab-testing popular herbal malaria remedies
2. Tracking how radiation affects sorghum's nutrients
3. Mapping heavy metals leaching from Kumasi construction waste,
4. Pinpointing a critical early window for detecting pre-eclampsia in pregnancy.

What Ghanaian STEM story are you following this week? Drop it in the comments.

This is one of our favourite kinds of stories to tell. 💚

In July, Dr. Akyana Britwum sat with us at Gheeks by the Fireside. He told us that he was building a photonics lab at KNUST. One that could read what's inside a tablet of medicine without opening it. Find a parasite in a drop of blood. Carry telephone calls along strands of glass. Let Ghana answer its own scientific questions, right here at home.

We were captivated.

This week, He launched it. 🎉

The Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory (GPOL) officially opened at KNUST — with 38 young African scientists and 17 international experts in the room.

You heard it at Gheeks by the Fireside first. 🔥

We are so proud of Dr. Britwum, his co-investigator Dr. Michael Kweku Edem Donkor, and everyone who made GPOL real.

This is what Ghana's scientific community looks like when it dares to build. 🇬🇭

👉 Full story: ghscientific.com/ghana-photonics-lab/
👉 Our conversation with Dr. Britwum: ghscientific.com/photonics-by-akyana-britwum/

With all the scientific gatherings that are happening this week, it is a good time to revisit one of our recent articles highlighting the value in this new generation of Ghanaian scientists.
Link in comments

What a week for Ghana science. 🇬🇭💚

While many of us were going about our week, Ghana's academic and scientific community was gathering — in three different cities, for three very different reasons. And we think it deserves to be celebrated.

🏥 Accra — Medical Innovation Expo, Academic City University
Three days of locally-designed healthcare solutions, prototype showcases, and plenary discussions under the theme: "Beyond the No-Bed Syndrome: Locally Designed Systems That Deliver Care." Ghana's health innovators showing up and showing out.

🔬 Kumasi — Launch of the Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory, KNUST
The lab can read what's in your medicine without opening it, find a parasite in a drop of blood, and measure what's in your water and soil. Built by Ghanaians, for Ghana. Led by Dr. Akyana Britwum — who, by the way, told us about this lab at Gheeks by the Fireside back in July. 🔥

🐚 Cape Coast — Ghana Science Association Annual Conference
The GSA brought researchers, scientists, and academics to the coast for their annual conference, sharing research, building community, and deepening the roots of science in Ghana.

Three gatherings. Three cities. One week.

This is what a thriving scientific community looks like and Ghana has one. We just don't always stop to notice it.

We are proud to exist in this ecosystem and even prouder to help tell its story. 💚

Did you attend any of these? We'd love to hear what stood out to you 👇

Behind GHScientific is a community that refuses to accept that science is only for a privileged few.

We are scientists, science communicators, teachers, artists, journalists, and curious people. Many do not have what will be considered a "pure science" background but we share one conviction: when the public engages with science, everyone wins.

This is GHScientific.

If you believe in what we do, share this post, follow our page, or find out how to get involved. Whether as a partner, sponsor, volunteer, or member. There's a place for you in this community.

🔗 ghscientific.com
📩 [email protected]

We're pleased to announce on 9th October at 6:30pm, we'll be speaking with Lily Paemka live on Zoom! [Visit https://bit.ly/ghsc_gbfr-october to register] . She played a key role in establishing the University of Ghana’s first MPhil and PhD programmes in Medical Molecular Genetics and is a Professor committed to strengthening African scientific capacity

Science is only as powerful as its ability to reach people. 🔬

At GHScientific, we help scientists, institutions, and organisations communicate their work — and bring science into schools, communities, and newsrooms across Ghana.

We offer:
✅ Science communication training (for researchers, NGOs, corporates)
✅ Custom STEM workshops for schools and community groups
✅ Public engagement programme design and delivery
✅ STI journalism training for science and health reporters
✅ Science festival design and management (hello, SciFest!)

Whether you're a research institute looking to build community trust, a company wanting to run a science-themed CSR initiative, or a school looking to inspire students beyond the syllabus — we have the expertise and the track record.

📩 Message us or email [email protected] to talk about what we can do for you.
🔗 More at ghscientific.com

Happy National Volunteer Day & Founders' Day! 🇬🇭✨

Today, we honor the visionaries who paved our path and the volunteers who light the way forward. To every Ghanaian giving their time to serve others: you are the heartbeat of our nation.

Your weekly dose of Ghana STEM news is here! 🇬🇭🔬

This week: a veteran astronaut visits Accra to talk space cooperation, GHS reports over 53,000 teen pregnancies in 7 months, scientists redesign fish-smoking ovens for safety, a hybrid shea tree cuts maturation from 30 years to 3, a new study finds most African kids with severe asthma are never diagnosed, a University of Ghana study pins Ghana's cocoa yield swings on heavy rainfall, not heat, researchers examine how Ghanaian social media frames alcohol as self-care, and STEMAIDE Africa launches four new hands-on STEM kits.

12 stories. All explained in plain language. No science degree required.
👉 Read the full round-up here: check first comment