Contributors

‘My Russian cosmonaut friends told me about the well they drink from before they launch into space – the same well that Yuri Gagarin drank from when he was a boy. Since I heard that story, Gagarin’s legend has always fascinated me,’ says author and photographer Christoph Otto. Three trips to Russia and Kazakhstan took him to all the places that left their mark on the Russian hero ( page 36).

Boštjan Videmšek, author of Plan B: How Not to Lose Hope in the Times of Climate Crisis was a war reporter for many years before turning his attention to what he calls ‘the most important frontline of humanity’ – the climate crisis. His story about nuclear fusion and the ITER programme ( page 28) is the continuation of an ongoing global project to identify the most promising solutions.

‘It’s hard to overstate the challenge that emerged from Wuhan in December 2019,’ says Jacob Dykes, who wrote our cover story ( page 18). ‘Now, with a remarkable vaccination effort starting to bear fruit, the public have greater knowledge of how science works; how research and knowledge is layered brick-by-brick. The consequences for the scientific enterprise are massive.’