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One of my favourite memories of my dad is an extremely early morning spent searching for shells on a beach in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. We were there before sunrise, seeking what my young mind thought for sure was treasure. We left footprints in the damp sand, much like our ancient ancestors did tens of thousands years ago on the country’s southern Cape coast. They weren’t the only track-makers: plants growing along the dunes, blown by the wind, left their marks too, in the form of what are known today as scratch circles. Charles Helm and Jan Carlo De Vynck studied the cemented remains of those circles - and, they explain, some may have been
made by our ancestors mimicking plants’ motions.
And, speaking of days out with my dad, Tawanda Makusha delves into the important role that fathers can play in their children’s lives, whether in the form of beach explorations, reading, conversations about love and life, and much more.
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Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University; Jan Carlo De Vynck, University of the Witwatersrand
There appear to be two possible explanations for circular patterns with central depressions in Pleistocene deposits on the Cape coast.
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Tawanda Makusha, Human Sciences Research Council
The fear of becoming a father is not a sign of weakness. Rather, it shows you understand that it’s a big role.
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Ricardo Amansure, Stellenbosch University
South Africa’s roadmap to renewable energy has to make sure that electricity will be durable and equitable for all its residents.
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Pineteh Angu, University of Pretoria
Academic literacy is a mode of reasoning that aims to develop university students into deep thinkers, critical readers and writers.
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Martin H. Trauth, University of Potsdam; Asfawossen Asrat, Addis Ababa University; Mark Maslin, UCL
The climate ‘flickered’ between wet and dry, before finally drying out for good.
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From our international editions
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Gregory F. Treverton, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The US put a pause on an arms shipment to Israel as it launched a Rafah offensive. This is not the first time the US and Israel have publicly disagreed, despite their strong diplomatic relationship.
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Rory Hills, University of Oxford
A new type of vaccine using nanotechnology protects against a range of coronaviruses – in mice.
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Samuel Scanlon, University College Dublin
Israel’s tourism industry has taken a hit since the start of the war, and it may never fully recover.
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Rebecca Shepherd, University of Bristol
Viewers were concerned that the reality TV star struggled to breathe in her ultra-tight corset while posing on the red carpet
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Amalendu Misra, Lancaster University
Governments across Latin America are resorting to draconian measures in an attempt to rein in surging gang violence.
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