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For nearly 48 hours fires raged across Table Mountain on the southern tip of Africa, sweeping through the campus of the University of Cape Town as well as surrounding suburbs. One of the buildings engulfed by flames was the Jagger Library, which is home to the African Studies Collection. Shannon Morreira, an academic at the University of Cape Town, explains the significance of the archives held within the library, and recounts her
personal experience of the role they have played in her academic work.
Nasa’s Ingenuity robot has become the first helicopter to fly on another planet, reaching an altitude of three metres for about 40 seconds before landing again. This may not sound all that impressive, but consider that the first successful powered flight on Earth completely changed the world as we knew it, despite lasting only about 12 seconds. Monica Grady sets out the significance.
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Firefighters trying to extinguish a fire in the Jagger Library, at the University of Cape Town.
RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images
Shannon Morreira, University of Cape Town
Losing archives has significant implications in a country like South Africa with a fraught and contested history because voices from the past, which may carry alternative histories, are lost.
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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter hovers over the Martian surface.
NASA
Monica Grady, The Open University
The maiden flight of Mars helicopter was a significant advance in propulsion technology.
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Health + Medicine
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Gordon Dent, Keele University
The antiparasitic drug was thought to be a potential treatment for COVID-19, but there isn't sufficient evidence to recommend its use, despite widespread support online.
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Agnes Binagwaho, University of Global Health Equity
Due to early logistical planning, Rwanda had the capacity to store 5 million doses before the vaccines arrived.
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Politics + Society
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Joseph J. Gonzalez, Appalachian State University
Just as Fidel Castro's 2016 death did not transform US-Cuba ties, his brother Raul’s exit from politics is unlikely to do so. But Cuba itself is changing. Eventually, Havana and Washington will, too.
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Elisabeth King, New York University; Cyrus D Samii, New York University
On average, countries that adopt ethnic recognition experience less violence, more economic vitality, and more democratic politics.
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En Français
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Guillemette Gauquelin-Koch, Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES)
Dans l’espace, l’absence de gravité a de fortes conséquences sur l’organisme des astronautes, mais ce n’est pas le seul effet dont il faut protéger les êtres vivants dans l’espace.
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Hervé Caps, Université de Liège
Si la gravité disparaissait, la mousse de votre bière ne s’effondrerait pas et les bougies de votre gâteau d’anniversaire ne brûleraient pas. Quels autres phénomènes nous cache donc la pesanteur ?
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