For shallow ponds to be contenders for the venue of the emergence of life on Earth, they would have had to provide sufficient protection from ultraviolet (UV) radiation to allow for the preservation of organic molecules. Shallow ponds of a variety of compositions are proposed for early Earth, many of which may have provided ample shielding effects by attenuating UV light via absorption by (in)organic ions. Here, we present an experimental setup designed to simulate an irradiated water column to investigate the preservation/degradation of organic molecules and by proxy the attenuation of UV radiation in ponds of diverse compositions. In this setup, we dissolved glycine in ultrapure water, ferrocyanide and carbonate pond simulants and irradiated for several days. Our findings indicate that glycine’s photochemical degradation under UV irradiation is minimal in the carbonate pond, though significant in the ferrocyanide pond and in ultrapure water, where it breaks down into diverse products including formamide, glycinamide, glycinmethylester and acetaldehyde. Though ferrocyanide is a potent UV absorber, our experiments show ferrocyanide ponds to be transiently UV-shielding environments due to the removal of ferrocyanide by UV-induced precipitation of goethite and pyrite mineral assemblages and subsequent photodegradation of glycine in the cleared water column. Our results further suggest that hypersaline, carbonate ponds may present stable environments for prebiotic chemistry while providing ample UV attenuation, ultimately protecting the integrity of organic molecules. This work contributes to understanding the interplay between UV irradiation and (in)organic compounds in ponds and the suitability of those ponds for the onset of prebiotic chemistry on Earth, Mars and other celestial bodies.

This list of fellowship opportunities was originally compiled by Professor Rhodes to accompany the May issue of thisBulletin, which was devoted to African arts and humanities. It was not published at that time due to pressures of space. It may be noted that many of the fellowships listed are available to Africanists in other disciplines. Also, not all of these are tenable in Africa; many awards are for work in African studies in the United States or Europe.

The Africa Collections at Stanford University are divided between the University Libraries, including the Food Research Institute's department library, and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. The Hoover Institution maintains a major part of the Stanford Africa Collection, but its holdings are complemented by those of the University Libraries. During the past year, the Curator of the Africa Collection at the Hoover Institution has attempted to stimulate University interest in Africa and to coordinate acquisitions. This program has been successful, and a reasonably full coverage of African materials is now assured. The University Library has accepted responsibility for the fields of art, ethnography, geography, linguistics, philosophy, religion, sociology, statistics, and technical documents, as well as all African material before 1870.

Since the first Africa grants were made in 1958 ($ 300,000 distributed amongst Nigeria, Uganda, and what was then Tanganyika), The Ford Foundation has invested more than $ 56 million in African development, including nearly $ 34 million in African education. In recent years, educational support grants have been made in seventeen African countries, although major commitments have been concentrated in a half dozen of these: the Federation of Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. In each of these, the Foundation has been concerned in an important way with university development and frequently with the educational system as a whole.

Of the total Ford Foundation investment in African education, approximately $ 14 million has gone into West Africa, $ 3 million into Central Africa, and $ 8 million into East Africa. An additional $ 9 million has supported educational projects of a Pan-African or regional nature. In a majority of instances, these grants have been accompanied by technical assistance projects and the provision of advisory personnel.

All of this represents a very considerable private effort, but it is small when measured against needs. Indeed, to face the massive educational problems of the new African states, even from the outside, is a somewhat harrowing experience. For all practical purposes, requirements in terms of both money and manpower are infinite. Nowhere in the world is the gap between aspirations and the means to realize them so great; and where so much has been left undone for so long there is a credible impatience with delay. This situation--and the political pressures to which it gives rise--confronts Ministries of Education with a whole series of Hobsonesque choices. It also raises problems of priorities in a particularly acute form for external assistance agencies, including foundations.

After more than two years of preliminary planning, the First International Congress of Africanists convened at the University of Ghana, Legon, on December 11, 1962. More than 600 scholars and observers attended the sessions, and both the size of the Congress and its organizational problems make an adequate report difficult. This brief summary by the editor of theBulletin has been compiled with the assistance of other ASA members present in Accra; it attempts to convey a sense of the conference atmosphere as well as record its formal sessions. The proceedings of the Conference will be published by UNESCO.

The conference opened with an address by President Nkrumah in which he stressed the importance of African studies in revitalizing Africa's cultural heritage, and in developing a sense of nationality and Africanness. He considered in detail the development of African studies as a serious academic study, the coming of age of African intellectuals, and the necessity of utilizing a subject such as sociology in planning for an African future, contrasting this with anthropology which he felt had little to offer modern Africa. His speech helped to establish a tone for the conference; in addition to academic matters strictly defined the conference participants found themselves concerned with such questions as the role of African and non-African Africanists, differing viewpoints of English and French speakers, and geographic and disciplinary boundary lines. Perhaps naturally at a first international conference, there were many preliminary problems to sort out before serious scholarly discussion could take place.

Why do some politicians face greater backlash for using insensitive language against identity groups while others do not? Existing explanations focus either on the content of speech or the context in which it occurs. In this article, we propose an integrated framework that considers both and test it using a preregistered conjoint survey on a national U.S. sample. Our findings provide partial support for our expectations. Subjects react most negatively to insensitive speech when the target belongs to their own identity group, when aggravating circumstances exist, and when politicians are of an opposing political party. Our article extends growing scholarship on speech scandals, which has largely explained the fates of politicians as a function of a small number of causative variables in isolation.

A revised derivation of the discharge coefficient for flows over thin weirs and sills in the limits of wall overflow to a free overfall is given. Using dimensional analysis, we show that the discharge coefficient, $C_{d}$, in the classical weir-discharge equation is best understood as a weir Froude number, ${Fr}_{h}$, which accounts for the combined effects of inertia, contraction and viscous energy losses within the flow field. A comprehensive set of experimental data from historical studies is complimented by new data from the authors, featuring both laboratory flume experiments and three-dimensional numerical simulations of weir flows. Synthesis of these data elucidates the interaction between the coupled pressure and velocity fields, and the balance between inertial and contraction effects as ${Fr}_{h}$ varies. Analysis of the vertical pressure gradient reveals that the thickness of the nappe initially widens with increasing inertia, but then contracts again towards the free overfall limit due to diminishing flow separation at the base of the weir. These insights allow for a physical explanation of the transition between weir and sill flows using the channel Froude number. Practical limitations on predicting weir discharge and a description of characteristic flow regimes are also set forward.

Le Centre d'Analyse Documentaire pour l'Afrique Noire was created in 1961 as part of the VI section (Division des Aires Culturelles, Centre d'Etudes Africaines) of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. In 1965 it was joined with the Service d'Echange d'Informations Scientifiques of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, while retaining its organizational affiliations with the Centre d'Etudes Africaines.

We propose to present here the work accomplished at CARDAN since its founding, to define the tasks which it is proposed to accomplish in the years to come, and to inform researchers of the services which the Center can offer. We shall present successively the balance sheet of past years and the future program of CARDAN.