It’s the biggest news in public health for years. Researchers at GlaxoSmithKline are on the verge of producing a vaccine against malaria which could halve the risk of contracting the disease. They reportedly wept when they saw the results – a sign of the investment in this project. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Laura Pollán Toledo, one of Cuba’s most active dissidents, has died in hospital aged 63. Pollán was the founder of Cuba’s “Ladies in White” activist group, a thorn in the side of Castro’s government for the past eight years. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Until now, it had been widely assumed that 19th century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh had killed himself, owing to psychological problems. A new biography blows that theory out of the water, and suggests someone else may have fired the fatal shot. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Not one to sit on its hands while others slaughter its market dominance, Research in Motion has brought out a replacement to the Blackberry Bold 2: the thinner, wider and altogether prettier Blackberry Bold 9900. Are we charmed? Well, yes. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

In 2003 writer Robert Kirkman created a comic book series about a small-town lawman called Rick Grimes who leads a rag tag bunch of survivors through an apocalyptic zombie-infested hell. The comic book was a winner, and six years later it spawned a TV series that was a global hit as well. For all The Walking Dead fans season two is mere days away from airing locally. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Stories of the yeti, an ape-like beast said to stalk the snowy mountains of Asia, have been around for centuries. A yeti conference held in Siberia last weekend now claims they have found “irrefutable evidence” of its existence. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Jeans, skinny. T-shirt, ironic or obscure. Glasses, preferably oversized Wayfarers. Cigarettes, hand rolled. Music, indie. Attitude, distinctive by its abhorrence of the mainstream and celebration of the fringe. South Africa, these are your hipsters. By MANDY DE WAAL.

In 1936 Robert Broom discovered a Australopithecus fossil cranium in the Sterkfontein caves. Sixty years later, Ronald Clarke of Wits University found an entire skeleton – one that Broom had hoped would be there. On the 75th anniversary of the first discovery at Sterkfontein, Clarke delivered a public lecture on the rich fossil history of the caves, and explained why he classifies Little Foot as Australopithecus prometheus. By THERESA MALLINSON.

The charming Kwame Dawes didn’t go to Jamaica and Haiti to write poems about HIV, but it’s hard to stop the author of over 30 books. By GREG NICOLSON

After decades of hardship in war-torn Gaza, Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish experienced the most terrible horror – the violent death of three of his daughters following an Israeli strike on his house. Determined to use this tragedy as a force for good, the author of the best-selling book “I shall not hate” is coming to South Africa to talk peace, understanding and connection. By MANDY DE WAAL.

It’s been three years since the last Johannesburg International Motor Show – an unfortunate moniker, given that this is the only significant automotive exhibition in Africa, let alone South Africa. But let’s not let a name get in the way of what has become a truly world-class motor show. DEON SCHOEMAN toured the Expo Centre to highlight the best the 2011 JIMS has on offer.

SAA's Mango should be flying six planes with on-board internet access via Wi-Fi by early next year, and other airlines won't be far behind. That's more inevitable than surprising. Five years from now you'll be hard pressed to find a plane without it. BY PHILLIP DE WET.

Earlier this year Kenya became Africa’s first country to digitise its information as part of a wide-scale open data initiative. Not only is the initiative enabling government accountability and transparency, but it’s yielding a secondary economy with a range of apps that are being created to help people access, manage and comment on government information. By MANDY DE WAAL.

It has come to light that despite EE Publishers and The Daily Maverick drawing attention to the problem of dangerous and non-compliant multi-plug units several months ago, the same problems have arisen again. With the initial non-compliance identified, the problem has in fact widened to include a further dangerous operating mode. By CHRIS YELLAND.

From Arab Springs to Slutwalks, 2011 seems destined to be the year history will remember for major social upheavals, pop-up protests and cellphone-fuelled riots and revolution. Yes, blood has been spilt. Yes, lives and livelihoods have been lost. But governments have also toppled and the very assumptions on which our world had come to rely have been irreparably shaken. In the words of a score of pop songs: Where do we go from here? By WALTER PIKE.

After two successive days of either broken or sluggish BlackBerry Internet Service across three continents, have Research In Motion finally made the blunder that will cost them their last remaining powerful asset: user loyalty? By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Local author Lauren Beukes is slowly but surely reaching global audiences. US publisher Mulholland Books has just acquired the North American rights for “The Shining Girls +1”, providing a platform for her work to cross over into the mainstream – while still retaining her signature “element of the strange”. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims are the newest and final 2011 Nobel Prize laureates for their work in studying the “cause and effect” of macroeconomic events. Sargent is a professor at New York University in Manhattan, while Sims teaches at Princeton University in New Jersey. Both men are 68 years old. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

If ever you needed proof that Paul McCartney is a true romantic, look no further. Despite the disastrous end to his last marriage to Heather Mills, the old Beatle has married for a third time in London yesterday. By REBECCA DAVIS.

When Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband announced his intention for the Hungarian actress to bear his child earlier this year, the public response was one of horror: Gabor is 94. But the sight of older parents with young children is something we should all get used to. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Why are some memories etched in our brains in vivid, exacting detail while others are a fleeting part of our biology before they are lost? How is it that some flashbacks are benign while others are fraught with fear evoking terror? Daily Maverick speaks to top global neuroscientist Cristina Alberini about her study of the biological mechanisms of long-term memory. By MANDY DE WAAL.

A new film tells a story about the Holocaust that deserves a wider hearing. “Les Hommes Libres” (Free Men) dramatises the true history of how Muslims in Nazi-occupied France gave protection to Jews. By REBECCA DAVIS.

What sort of person chooses to spend her life on a cruise ship, entertaining guests and having a home that’s permanently on the move? A person who has no real life on shore, perhaps, and who would rather be “Sailing Somewhere” to save her facing sad reality. By LESLEY STONES.

You might not have heard of Tomas Tranströmer before he won the Nobel prize for literature on Thursday, but he wasn't a complete dark horse, with bookies placing him as fourth-favourite. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Not three years after trashing the term “cloud computing”, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced a public cloud service by Oracle. The new service has almost immediately courted controversy, but mainly because Ellison spent a great deal of his cloud unveiling trashing other cloud service providers. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Earlier this year, a former Nazi prison guard was convicted of being an accessory to murder. As a result of this precedent, German prosecutors are reopening hundreds investigations into hundreds of other cases. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Millions of tributes to Steve Jobs have poured in from around the world, following the news of his death. Some of his fiercest critics and rivals gave glowing tributes to the inventor and innovator. The general sentiment was that the humanity has lost a man who cannot be replaced. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Never mind the Amazon Kindle Fire. Could this ridiculously cheap tablet made in India gain enough popular traction to bury the iPad in a heap of electronic dust? The idea suggests that it could – but there’s one problem. It’s very cheap. Which means it’s probably crap. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.