Editor's note

When literary icon Toni Morrison died last week in New York, tributes and memories poured in from all over the world. This reflected the incredible reach and power of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner’s writing. Aretha Phiri explains how her legacy resonates across the Atlantic and into literature classes in South Africa.

We know that chimpanzees, humans’ closest living relatives, have excellent short and long-term memory abilities. But until now, it hasn’t been clear whether chimps’ working memory – being able to keep something in mind for a few seconds as well as to manipulate and update available information – was as good as that of humans. Christoph Völter sets out research that shows chimpanzees are able to perform at a level comparable to seven-year-old children in a task that requires them to constantly update their memory.

Natasha Joseph

Assistant Editor: News and Research and Science & Technology Editor

Top Stories

Toni Morrison’s legacy echoes across the world. EPA-EFE/Arturo Peña-Romano

How Toni Morrison’s legacy plays out in South Africa’s universities

Aretha Phiri, Rhodes University

In some ways, perhaps Morrison is even more relevant in South African universities today than she's ever been.

Science + Technology

Chimpanzees’ working memory is remarkably similar to our own

Christoph Völter, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna

Chimpanzees, like humans, possess working memory abilities. They're able to perform similar to seven-year-old children.

Margaret Burbidge at 100: the trailblazing astronomer who wouldn’t take ‘no women’ for an answer

Andreea Font, Liverpool John Moores University

In an age when women were rarely allowed in observatories, Margaret Burbidge changed how we saw the stars.

Politics + Society

The roots of America’s white nationalism reach back to this island’s brutal history

J.M. Opal, McGill University

The vicious ideology that allegedly drove a gunman to kill 22 people in El Paso, Texas last week could be traced back to a tiny island on the eastern fringe of the Caribbean Sea

Khmer Rouge genocide: Nuon Chea’s death has major implications for justice in Cambodia

Rachel Killean, Queen's University Belfast; Peter Manning, University of Bath

Does there need to be a conviction for a genocide to be recognised by the law?

Business + Economy

Why we can’t just blame rising inequality for the growth of populism around the world

Brian Nolan, University of Oxford

Populism is on the rise in countries where inequality has been fairly stable over time, as well as countries where inequality has grown.

How young educated Ghanaians view corruption

Justice Tankebe, University of Cambridge

Corruption includes both what people do and what they fail to do. The critical issue is a person’s motive.

En français

Au Cachemire, une jeunesse brisée en quête d’avenir(s)

Charlotte Thomas, Sciences Po – USPC

Les jeunes Cachemiris peuvent-ils encore rêver le futur alors que l'autonomie même de la région a été révoquée lors d'une décision historique et polémique?

Technologies digitales : qu'en pensent vraiment les jeunes ?

Dr Mike Cooray, Hult International Business School; Dr Rikke Duus, UCL

De nouvelles recherches révèlent que de nombreux jeunes de 19 à 24 ans sont préoccupés par la façon dont les organisations utilisent leurs données. Ce pourrait être le début d'un retour en arrière.