China’s space industry made great strides recently, landing a lunar probe on the dark side of the moon in January. To match the scope of that ambition comes a new science-fiction blockbuster that has taken more than US$700m at the box office in just over a month. The Wandering Earth tells the story of a Chinese plan to save humanity from the threat of a dying sun by propelling Earth to a safer solar system. Hiu Man Chan traces the history of Chinese sci-fi and says the film is a confident vision of a new China-led world order.
The storms off Africa’s east coast are weaker than their northern hemisphere counterparts. Nevertheless they are becoming more intense and more frequent. Jennifer Fitchett explains why it’s difficult to manage the impact of storms that rage across political borders, and why countries in sub Saharan Africa must start putting strategies in place to manage an increasing and more vicious cycle of cyclones.
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Wandering Earth poster.
IMDB
Hiu Man Chan, Cardiff University
A Chinese sci-fi epic is breaking box office records and exporting a vision of a new world order as it does so.
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People leaving their homes in the flooded section of Praia Nova, Beira, Mozambique in the wake of tropical cyclone Idai.
Denis Onyodi/ IFRC handout
Jennifer Fitchett, University of the Witwatersrand
The recent storms provide a grim reminder of the prospect of future tropical cyclones in a region under continued threat from climate change.
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Health + Medicine
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Hermes Gadelha, University of York
Our new research has discovered what gives human sperm the strength to succeed in the race to fertilise the egg – and it's all to do with their tails.
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Tom Sanders, King's College London
Some of the advice on eggs should be taken with a pinch of salt.
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Politics + Society
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Holger Nehring, University of Stirling; Megan Dee, University of Stirling
Five years after Crimea returned to Russia, the east-west stalemate over Ukraine is far from stable.
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Art Jipson, University of Dayton; Paul J. Becker, University of Dayton
The recent massacre at a New Zealand mosque is a traceable, direct outgrowth of an American white nationalist movement that insists immigrants and people of color are a threat to 'white civilization.'
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