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Department of Earth Sciences

 

Wed 22 May 14:00: Whole Earth oscillations: Thé key to imaging Earth’s deep interior

Earth Sciences talks - Fri, 17/05/2024 - 21:33
Whole Earth oscillations: Thé key to imaging Earth’s deep interior

Tectonic processes at Earth’s surface, are driven by convection deep in Earth’s mantle. Seismic tomography using earthquakes is the main tool to directly image the lower mantle. Such images show two large continental size regions just above the core mantle boundary, one located under the Pacific and the other one under Africa. These two regions have low shear wave velocity, but their role in mantle convection as either a thermal plume or a stable compositional pile is still heavily debated. Here, I will show that the key to unravelling the nature of these two regions are whole Earth oscillations. These normal modes do not only provide shear wave velocity, but also additional information such as their density and attenuation. We find that the low velocity regions are partially dense at their base and have weak attenuation, requiring puzzling new interpretations in terms of mantle dynamics.

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Tue 21 May 12:00: Mapping the core-mantle boundary

Earth Sciences talks - Fri, 17/05/2024 - 16:13
Mapping the core-mantle boundary

Abstract not available

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Nine Cambridge scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2024

The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering and medicine.

The Society’s fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

This year, over 90 researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science. Nine of these are from the University of Cambridge.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry.

“From visualising the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, their diverse range of expertise is furthering human understanding and helping to address some of our greatest challenges. It is an honour to have them join the Fellowship.”

The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

The new Cambridge fellows are: 
 

Professor Sir John Aston Kt FRS

Aston is the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life at the Statistical Laboratory, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, where he develops techniques for public policy and improves the use of quantitative methods in public policy debates.

From 2017 to 2020 he was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office, providing statistical and scientific advice to ministers and officials, and was involved in the UK’s response to the Covid pandemic. He was knighted in 2021 for services to statistics and public policymaking, and is a Fellow of Churchill College.
 

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci FRS

Blakemore is the Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. 

Blakemore has been awarded several national and international prizes for her research, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the American Association of Psychological Science and the Academy of Medical Sciences. 
 

Professor Patrick Chinnery FMedSci FRS

Chinnery is Professor of Neurology and head of the University’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. He was appointed Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council last year, having previously been MRC Clinical Director since 2019.

His principal research is the role of mitochondria in human disease and developing new treatments for mitochondrial disorders. Chinnery is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow with a lab based in the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit and jointly chairs the NIHR BioResource for Translational Research in Common and Rare Diseases. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.


Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald FMedSci FRS

Fitzgerald is Professor of Cancer Prevention in the Department of Oncology and the inaugural Director of the University’s new Early Cancer Institute, which launched in 2022. She is a Fellow of Trinity College.

Her pioneering work to devise a first-in-class, non-endoscopic capsule sponge test for identifying individuals at high risk for oesophageal cancer has won numerous prizes, including the Westminster Medal, and this test is now being rolled out in the NHS and beyond by her spin-out Cyted Ltd.


Professor David Hodell FRS

Hodell is the Woodwardian Professor of Geology and Director of the Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research in the Department of Earth Sciences, and a Fellow of Clare College.

A marine geologist and paleoclimatologist, his research focuses on high-resolution paleoclimate records from marine and lake sediments, as well as mineral deposits, to better understand past climate dynamics. Hodell is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Milutin Milankovic Medal.


Professor Eric Lauga FRS

Lauga is Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where his research is in fluid mechanics, biophysics and soft matter. Lauga is the author, or co-author, of over 180 publications and currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Physical Review Fluids.

He is a recipient of three awards from the American Physical Society: the Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics, the François Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics and the Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Trinity College.


Professor George Malliaras FRS

Malliaras is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the Department of Engineering, where he leads a group that works on the development and translation of implantable and wearable devices that interface with electrically active tissues, with applications in neurological disorders and brain cancer.

Research conducted by Malliaras has received awards from the European Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the US National Science Foundation among others. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.


Professor Oscar Randal-Williams FRS

Randal-Williams is the Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

He has received the Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society, a Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Oberwolfach Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and was jointly awarded the Clay Research Award.

Randal-Williams is one of two managing editors of the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, and an editor of the Journal of Topology.


Professor Mihaela van der Schaar FRS

Van der Schaar is the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Engineering and Medicine.

She is the founder and director of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine, and a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. Her work has received numerous awards, including the Oon Prize on Preventative Medicine, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the IEEE Darlington Award.

Van der Schaar is credited as inventor on 35 US patents, and has made over 45 contributions to international standards for which she received three ISO Awards. In 2019, a Nesta report declared her the most-cited female AI researcher in the UK.


 

Nine outstanding Cambridge researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.

Royal SocietyThe Royal Society in central London


The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Categories: News

Nine Cambridge scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2024

Research News - Thu, 16/05/2024 - 09:51

The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering and medicine.

The Society’s fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

This year, over 90 researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science. Nine of these are from the University of Cambridge.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry.

“From visualising the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, their diverse range of expertise is furthering human understanding and helping to address some of our greatest challenges. It is an honour to have them join the Fellowship.”

The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

The new Cambridge fellows are: 
 

Professor Sir John Aston Kt FRS

Aston is the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life at the Statistical Laboratory, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, where he develops techniques for public policy and improves the use of quantitative methods in public policy debates.

From 2017 to 2020 he was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office, providing statistical and scientific advice to ministers and officials, and was involved in the UK’s response to the Covid pandemic. He was knighted in 2021 for services to statistics and public policymaking, and is a Fellow of Churchill College.
 

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci FRS

Blakemore is the Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. 

Blakemore has been awarded several national and international prizes for her research, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the American Association of Psychological Science and the Academy of Medical Sciences. 
 

Professor Patrick Chinnery FMedSci FRS

Chinnery is Professor of Neurology and head of the University’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. He was appointed Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council last year, having previously been MRC Clinical Director since 2019.

His principal research is the role of mitochondria in human disease and developing new treatments for mitochondrial disorders. Chinnery is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow with a lab based in the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit and jointly chairs the NIHR BioResource for Translational Research in Common and Rare Diseases. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.


Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald FMedSci FRS

Fitzgerald is Professor of Cancer Prevention in the Department of Oncology and the inaugural Director of the University’s new Early Cancer Institute, which launched in 2022. She is a Fellow of Trinity College.

Her pioneering work to devise a first-in-class, non-endoscopic capsule sponge test for identifying individuals at high risk for oesophageal cancer has won numerous prizes, including the Westminster Medal, and this test is now being rolled out in the NHS and beyond by her spin-out Cyted Ltd.


Professor David Hodell FRS

Hodell is the Woodwardian Professor of Geology and Director of the Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research in the Department of Earth Sciences, and a Fellow of Clare College.

A marine geologist and paleoclimatologist, his research focuses on high-resolution paleoclimate records from marine and lake sediments, as well as mineral deposits, to better understand past climate dynamics. Hodell is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Milutin Milankovic Medal.


Professor Eric Lauga FRS

Lauga is Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where his research is in fluid mechanics, biophysics and soft matter. Lauga is the author, or co-author, of over 180 publications and currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Physical Review Fluids.

He is a recipient of three awards from the American Physical Society: the Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics, the François Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics and the Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Trinity College.


Professor George Malliaras FRS

Malliaras is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the Department of Engineering, where he leads a group that works on the development and translation of implantable and wearable devices that interface with electrically active tissues, with applications in neurological disorders and brain cancer.

Research conducted by Malliaras has received awards from the European Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the US National Science Foundation among others. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.


Professor Oscar Randal-Williams FRS

Randal-Williams is the Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

He has received the Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society, a Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Oberwolfach Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and was jointly awarded the Clay Research Award.

Randal-Williams is one of two managing editors of the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, and an editor of the Journal of Topology.


Professor Mihaela van der Schaar FRS

Van der Schaar is the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Engineering and Medicine.

She is the founder and director of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine, and a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. Her work has received numerous awards, including the Oon Prize on Preventative Medicine, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the IEEE Darlington Award.

Van der Schaar is credited as inventor on 35 US patents, and has made over 45 contributions to international standards for which she received three ISO Awards. In 2019, a Nesta report declared her the most-cited female AI researcher in the UK.


 

Nine outstanding Cambridge researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.

Royal SocietyThe Royal Society in central London


The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Thu 23 May 11:30: Some aspects of contact line dynamics with applications to flow in porous materials

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 16/05/2024 - 09:20
Some aspects of contact line dynamics with applications to flow in porous materials

Among the most difficult issues in CFD is the very wide range of scales involved in some problems. Attempts at investigating the dynamics contact line have been made coming from various theoretical and numerical frameworks, the closest to first principles being molecular dynamics, while diffuse interface methods and sharp interface methods with several variants have also been put forward. Experiments are obviously difficult. Efforts made on a number of typical cases, including plunging and withdrawing plates, a sheared droplet, sessile droplets on oscillating or accelerating substrates, menisci in nanopores and the hydrodynamics assist problem. The issues involved in nucleate boiling and accelerated sessile droplets will be addressed both from the point of view of experiments (performed by various colleagues from MIT and Tokyo University) and from the point of view of simulations.

I will also show recent developments in the Basilisk code allowing to simulate contact lines on complex curved boundaries, using the immersed boundary method and an appropriate contact angle boundary condition, and inside porous media.

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Tue 28 May 12:00: Towards a 500 Million-Year History of Earth’s Atmospheric CO2

Earth Sciences talks - Wed, 15/05/2024 - 13:10
Towards a 500 Million-Year History of Earth’s Atmospheric CO2

Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentration for the Phanerozoic Eon (the last 540 million years) has been estimated from proxies and models with varying degrees of success, resulting in considerable discrepancies between estimates. Recent advances in applying boron isotopes to foraminifera have revolutionised our understanding of Cenozoic CO2 levels (the last 66 million years) leading to a growing consensus for Earth’s more recent history. However, questions remain about the limitations of the boron isotope proxy as dependent on the extent of preservation of marine sediments and, consequently, deep-time boron-based reconstructions from Earth’s rock record have been regarded as controversial. In this talk, I will make the case that the boron isotope composition of well-preserved brachiopod shells provides a robust tool for extending our knowledge of CO2 throughout the Phanerozoic, and by showcasing new Mesozoic and Palaeozoic records I will review the role of CO2 in Earth’s major climate transitions and mass extinction events.

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Tue 28 May 12:00: Towards Robust Reconstruction of Phanerozoic Atmospheric CO2 Levels

Earth Sciences talks - Wed, 15/05/2024 - 09:57
Towards Robust Reconstruction of Phanerozoic Atmospheric CO2 Levels

Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentration for the Phanerozoic Eon (the last 540 million years) has been estimated from proxies and models with varying degrees of success, often resulting in considerable discrepancies between estimates. Recent advances in the applying boron isotopes to foraminifera have revolutionised understanding of Cenozoic CO2 levels (the last 66 million years), although gaps still exist. However, questions remain about the limitations of the boron isotope proxy as dependent on the extent of preservation of marine sediments and, consequently, deep time boron-based reconstructions from Earth’s rock record have been regarded as controversial. In this talk, I will make the case that the boron isotope composition of well-preserved brachiopod shells provides a robust tool for extending our knowledge of CO2 throughout the Phanerozoic, and by showcasing new Mesozoic and Palaeozoic records I will review the role of CO2 in Earth’s major climate transitions and mass extinction events.

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Cambridge researchers take a deep dive into Iceland plume’s enigmatic workings

Earth Sciences news - Tue, 14/05/2024 - 14:21

What do the rumblings of Iceland’s volcanoes have in common with the now peaceful volcanic islands off Scotland’s western coast and the spectacular basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland? Iceland sits over a mantle plume — a fountain of hot rock that rises from Earth’s core-mantle boundary — explaining...

Categories: Recent news and blogs

Wed 15 May 14:00: The Turkana Rift Arrays Investigating Lithospheric Structure (TRAILS) Experiment

Earth Sciences talks - Tue, 14/05/2024 - 11:34
The Turkana Rift Arrays Investigating Lithospheric Structure (TRAILS) Experiment

The Turkana Depression is a broad, topographically-subdued, region between the elevated Ethiopian and East African Plateaus. The Depression is unique in East Africa for being host to a NW-SE-trending failed Mesozoic (Anza) rift system through which the near-orthogonal, N-S-trending East African Rift subsequently developed. Whether the Depression’s low-lying nature is a result of a significantly thinned crust instigated by its multiple rifting phases, or instead due to a lack of dynamic mantle support is debated. Also poorly understood is the extent to which Cenozoic rifting and magmatism have developed across the Depression during the linkage of other comparatively narrow East African Rift zones to the north and south. Utilising data from the 2019-2021 Turkana Rift Arrays Investigating Lithospheric Structure project and surrounding networks, receiver function analysis and its joint inversion with surface-waves, are used to probe Moho architecture and the lithosphere-asthenosphere system.

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Thu 09 May 11:30: Engineering solutions for heart valve disease using computational modelling and simulation

Earth Sciences talks - Wed, 08/05/2024 - 09:01
Engineering solutions for heart valve disease using computational modelling and simulation

Transcatheter valve replacement is a revolutionary, minimally invasive alternative to surgery for patients with heart valve disease. With over 1.5 million procedures performed worldwide and expectations of a sharp increase in the coming years, there is growing concerns about the rise in adverse events such as coronary obstruction and valve thrombosis. It is anticipated that the interaction between the implanted transcatheter heart valve with patient-specific anatomy may give rise to unfavourable hemodynamics, contributing to these adverse events. In this seminar, we will explore the role of computational modelling and simulation in improving our mechanistic understanding of these events, and as a tool to assist clinicians in patient selection and pre-procedural planning, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

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Wed 05 Jun 17:30: Extreme glacial implies discontinuity of early human occupation of Europe Building doors are card operated, so latecomers may not be able to access the venue.

Earth Sciences talks - Wed, 01/05/2024 - 21:50
Extreme glacial implies discontinuity of early human occupation of Europe

The oldest known hominin remains in Europe [ca. 1.5 to 1.1 million years ago (Ma)] have been recovered from Iberia, where paleoenvironmental reconstructions have indicated warm and wet interglacials and mild glacials, supporting the view that once established, hominin populations persisted continuously. We report analyses of marine and terrestrial proxies from a deep-sea core on the Portugese margin that show the presence of pronounced millennial-scale climate variability during a glacial period ca. 1.154 to 1.123 Ma, culminating in a terminal stadial cooling comparable to the most extreme events of the last 400,000 years. Climate envelope–model simulations reveal a drastic decrease in early hominin habitat suitability around the Mediterranean during the terminal stadial. We suggest that these extreme conditions led to the depopulation of Europe, perhaps lasting for several successive glacial-interglacial cycles.

Building doors are card operated, so latecomers may not be able to access the venue.

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Wed 08 May 14:00: Searching for habitability on Venus and exoplanets

Earth Sciences talks - Tue, 30/04/2024 - 11:59
Searching for habitability on Venus and exoplanets

Venus today presents a type example of how habitability can fail to persist on a planet: rocky and to a first order overwhelmingly Earth-like, but with a climate profoundly hostile to life’s complex molecular machinery. But, was it always like this and will we know a Venus from an Earth when we see one elsewhere in the galaxy? This talk investigates what evidence there may be to constrain Venus’s past climate state, and relates this to the frontier of our search for habitable conditions on exoplanets.

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Wed 16 Oct 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Tue, 30/04/2024 - 11:50
Title to be confirmed

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Wed 01 May 14:00: New Insights from the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP)

Earth Sciences talks - Sun, 28/04/2024 - 11:23
New Insights from the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP)

As seismology enters the era of statistical aftershock forecasting and continuous real-time seismic hazard estimation, the community needs independent model evaluation methodology to provide the best available science and to understand its current limitations. CSEP is a global community with a mission to improve earthquake forecasting by comparative model testing in a truly prospective manner (i.e., against data not yet available during model development). In this talk, I will provide an overview of new insights into earthquake predictability gained by CSEP experiments around the globe and over nearly two decades. I will illustrate how these insights are informing national seismic hazard models and real-time forecasting.

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Wed 29 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 15:12
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Wed 29 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 14:22
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Wed 12 Jun 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 14:20
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Wed 05 Jun 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 14:19
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Wed 08 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 14:17
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Wed 01 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed

Earth Sciences talks - Thu, 25/04/2024 - 14:16
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