CURIOS.TY 20: #Thrive
CURIOS.TY, December 2025: This is the 20th anniversary issue of Wits University's award-winning research magazine. It is time to look at what it takes to #Thrive.
The issue explores what it truly means to flourish – across a lifespan, within communities, and on and with our planet. It investigates why longer African lifespans demand stronger brain and gut health, and why menopause in the continent needs far more global attention.
Thriving also depends on systems: exercise as accessible “medicine”; cross-disciplinary health hubs, and pioneering liver-regeneration science all highlight the power of collaboration. African philanthropy is in the spotlight, exploring how problem-first, locally grounded approaches can help Africa flourish despite global pressures.
Zooming out, the issue examines how South Africa can convert natural resources into resilience, fix its water challenges, and value care work in an era of climate strain. Stories on biodiversity, smart cities, air-quality tech, protest, processing memory and emotion through film, and even ancient exercise traditions reinforce one message: thriving is intentional, collective, and urgent.
Highlights:
- Before we begin ... (page 8): What is missing and what is required for us to thrive at each stage throughout our lives?
- Teenagers to save the world (page 12): Adolescence lasts from just 10 - 24 years old but it is revolutionary and innovative.
- 50 is the new 60 (page 18): Africa's population is living longer but not necessarily healthier.
- The most powerful drug of all (page 20): It's a simple premise, movement is medicine.
- From resource to resilience (page 34): South Africa is rich in natural resources, from minerals to sun to wind. How to turn natural wealth into thriving wealth.
- Mapping the human story behind science (page 46): PhD student Caitlin Wheeler digs deep beyond the data to connect with patients, students and mentors.