There are sensors – known as seismometers – buried under the ground that serve as “listening” devices to what’s happening below the earth’s surface. Tolulope Olugboji explains how seismologists, like him, use the information gathered from networks of seismometers to reconstruct images of the earth’s interior and how this can help scientists prepare for natural disasters, or discover what resources there are underground.

Among the Maasai the circumcision of both boys and girls serves as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Efforts to discourage the practice haven’t always resulted in fewer Maasai girls being cut. But new research shows that they have had an impact on the cultural meaning of the ceremonial rite of passage, as well as its context. Hannelore van Bavel, Els Leye and Gily Coene explain.

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