Tuesday, May 6, 2025
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“A fascinating interpretation of Racine’s masterpiece”

Louisa Cotterhill
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“A fascinating interpretation of Racine’s masterpiece”

Full spoilers for Phèdre follow

Phèdre, Jean Racine’s carefully constructed and powerfully visual seventeenth century tragedy, is a text that is familiar to almost every first-year student of French at Oxford. Written entirely in Alexandrine verse, based on Euripides’s Hippolytus and incorporating elements of Seneca’s Phaedra, Racine’s poetry depicts a tale of dark human desires and motivations, in a way that brings the eponymous Phèdre’s fear and guilt to the forefront. The recent production of Ted Hughes’s English translation of Phèdre, directed by Sarah Houllion and Lily Begg, and performed in the New College cloisters, brings this tale of cursed fate, forbidden love, and dynastic crisis to life.

Phèdre is the wife of Theseus, King of Athens, but falls in love with her stepson, Hippolytus. Believing that Theseus had died while he had been away fighting monsters, Phèdre confesses her feelings to Hippolytus. After proclaiming her love, however, she learns that Theseus is in fact alive and on his way back to his family in their home town of Trozen. It also surfaces that Hippolytus is in love with Aricia, who comes from the family of his father’s political enemy. In a state of despair, Phèdre follows the advice of Oenone, her nurse and confidante, and lets her lead Theseus to believe a fabricated story that Hippolytus tried to rape Phèdre. In a rage, Theseus exiles Hippolytus and calls upon mighty Neptune to curse him. Hippolytus subsequently falls into the clutches of a vicious sea monster and perishes. Theramène, Hippolytus’s tutor and confidant, brings the news of the fatal encounter back to Trozen. Phèdre reveals the truth, proclaiming Hippolytus innocent and then dies on stage after taking a Medean poison, shortly after a remorseful Oenone has drowned herself. Theseus, horrified at his lack of judgement, vows to preserve the memory of his son and treat Aricia as his daughter.

From the minute one steps into the open-air theatre, ingeniously set up in the cloister of New College, an atmosphere of the supernatural is apparent. The slowly setting sun illuminated the beautifully intricate stonework with a hazy glow: the perfect backdrop to a play where the characters are descended from Gods, yet are subject to higher forces beyond their control. The mise-en-scene is minimalist, yet highly effective: a single pink chaise-lounge framed by two tables. The seat of many characters at the height of their emotional intensity, it also serves as the deathbed of Phèdre as the poison took its toll. The on-stage musicians, Claire Frampton and Patrick Hall, mark the transition between acts with skilful pieces, conjuring up an ominous sense of foreboding as the tragedy unfolds.

Jeevan Ravindran shines in the role of Phèdre. Capturing every aspect of a character that is ailing in body and mind, a presence that fills the entire stage, Jeevan’s gestures and varying tone of voice embody Phèdre’s overpowering fear, guilt and paranoia, as do the powerful wide-eyed gazes at the audience. Particularly impressive was the scene of Phèdre’s death at the end of the play—despite having spent the past three hours watching the drama unravel, I was on the edge of my seat, transfixed on Phèdre as she took her last breaths. Oenone’s part in the tragedy is portrayed with skill and subtlety by Hannah Rose Kessler, who seems particularly influential over Phèdre when coaxing her into following her wicked scheme, although her version of the character is less conniving than my initial reading of the text suggested.

The role of Hippolytus is skilfully played by Arthur Wotton, conjuring up both his disgust at his step-mother and love for Aricia, whose determination as the sole survivor of the family feud is beautifully captured by Julie Dequaire.

Other impressive performances include that of Jon Berry, who masterfully took on the role of Théramène, both as a friend to Hippolytus and the bearer of the news of his death. His lengthy monologue, which describes the fatal encounter with the sea monster, is delivered with considerable power, but at the same time with a quiet sense of grief. Similarly, Theseus, played by Thomas Rawlinson, commands the stage as a powerful presence, showing particular anger when passionately invoking Neptune to harm his son.

All in all, I was fascinated to watch this interpretation of Racine’s masterpiece: it was one that I felt softened Phèdre’s literary image as the self-hating figure of shame, instead portraying her as the victim of the gods who control her. On a beautiful evening, in a perfect setting, this play captured me from beginning to end, providing a slightly new take on the character who has one of the most famous epithets in all of French literature: ‘la fille de Minos et Pasiphaé’.

“Precisely the kind of theatre I would like to see more of in Oxford”

Charles Britton
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“Precisely the kind of theatre I would like to see more of in Oxford”

With Finals and Prelims lurking around the corner for some, there is no better antidote to stress than ignoring your studies entirely and escaping into the fantastical realm of comedy. Jack Bradfield’s Garden not only delivers on escapism, but provides laughs in spades. The play is an absurd hotchpotch of ideas, blasting bass at the audience while the characters enter their virtual stasis, and referencing everything from Don Quixote and Super Mario 64 to the time-honoured tradition of Wetherspoons pubs, all effortlessly synthesised.

Garden’s premise alone demands attention: in the not-too-distant future, scientists are convinced that humanity is living in a simulation, “like the world is scripted […] running on a programme”. The audience follows a group of workers at a research centre where the study of phytology has been deemed obsolete and is to be replaced with a supercomputer. Everyone in Garden is looking to make sense of the nonsensical world in their own unique way—Elizabeth works almost ascetically, preferring to talk to plants rather than humans, while Jessica cannot comprehend jokes, so forces people to repeat them so she may record them. These individual methods only alienate them from each other, however, as they are wrapped in self-interest.

The production’s defining feature is its dry sense of humour. Characters lack any kind of filter to their speech and their bluntness makes them some of the most socially incapable (but immensely likeable) misfits on the planet. The acting on show is phenomenal, everyone demonstrating an adept sense of timing, holding comic silences with ease. Some lines are just so quotable that they will never lose their charm, “Kids shit in the Eden Project”, “You’re not a veggie spider”, and “You’ve dismembered my fucking aloe vera” being some of my personal favourites. The sense of irony is strikingly clever: viewers will delight at noticing that the aloe vera Elizabeth works so hard to protect is eventually blended into cocktails at her own leaving party. This party scene, incidentally, is also the most intelligently composed scene in the play, dipping in and out of individual conversations seamlessly, almost in the manner of a sitcom.

Much of this effect is evoked by the narrator-figure, a mysterious entity exercising full control over her subjects and flaunting that omnipotence before the audience. Her distantly scientific idiolect reduces human behaviour to its constituent components, further satirising the characters’ follies. The narrator always manages to find the most opportune moment to release the worst character possible from stasis at the worst possible time, normally when another is spilling their darkest desires. She replays characters’ pasts at will, forcing them to re-enact painful moments from their childhood at symbolic moments in the present. The narrator’s role in the drama raises the most stimulating questions about the world being constructed onstage, making her the greatest asset to its meaning.

Were that not mind-boggling enough, Garden throws a convention-defying curveball towards the end, drastically changing the tone of the play. What is supposed to be cathartic comes across as disturbingly ambiguous. The aftermath allows for an incredibly touching scene, but whereas the false ending denotes a masterful playing with form, the real ending feels like it struggles to actually end in the looming shadow of what has passed. Unfortunately, this is also true of some of the gags, some of which are strained, some having three punchlines, and which overstay their welcome. A minor complaint, and one which did not impact my overall judgement of the play, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

All in all, Garden self-assuredly toes the stylistic line between sitcom and comic play. Its originality and vivacity are infectious, made even more affecting by its ability to hold a mirror up to our own antics and quests for purpose. This is precisely the kind of theatre I would like to see more of in Oxford, and I look forward to Bradfield’s future pursuits. For now, however, as I return to my study, I shall remember what Garden taught me, that “to waste time, it seems, is to be human”.

Oxford’s historic skyline will “absolutely not” be damaged, despite “high rise” plans

Theo Davies-Lewis
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Oxford’s historic skyline will “absolutely not” be damaged, despite “high rise” plans

Oxford’s historic college and university buildings will “absolutely not” be damaged despite new plans for “taller” and “continental-style” developments in Oxford, according to Councillor Alex Hollingsworth.

Councillor Hollingsworth, who is reponsible for Planning and Regulatory Services on the City Council, dimissed the “headline fantasy” of The Oxford Mail, who reported that “high-rise” buildings were set to be erected across the city.

New options from the Local Plan, viewed as the blueprint for new building developments, will be consulted upon during the summer.

Draft proposals by the City Council would “end blanket height restrictions” and “favour developments that use space most efficiently”, according to The Oxford Mail.

These changes are thought to be inspired by how other European cities such as Barcelona are planned and organised, and could help deliver 10,000 new homes over the next two decades.

Speaking to Cherwell, Councillor Hollingsworth said: “There’s no high-rise: that’s The Oxford Mail headline writer and not what the report has said.

“There’s a long standing rule in Oxford that buildings cannot be above a certain height limit. The issue with that is that there’s a lot of low buildings, and what we’re talking about is not tower blocks or twenty or thirty storey buildings—nothing absurd like that.”

Councillor Hollingsworth admitted that there would be “five, six, seven story buildings”, but these would be would be seen outside the city centre, in areas like Summertown, Headington, Cowley, Blackbird Leys and Littlemore, which are referred to as “district centres”.

He added: “What we’re doing is meeting a need for housing in Oxford which is huge, and one of the indicators of that is that it’s one of the most expensive cities to live in across the UK”.

Nevertheless, in the suburbs where the developments would be concentrated, there would be denser buildings—meaning that there could be flats or apartments above shops, while there would be community centres and transport hubs on the ground level. This form of structure is common in European cities such as Vienna and Berlin.

According to Councillor Hollingsworth, the response from the University has been “pretty positive” so far, with the University of Oxford “thoroughly engaged” in discussions about the future of the city’s building developments.

“Make space for us as we are”

Felix Pope
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“Make space for us as we are”

OUSU and JCRs across Oxford have voted to donate money to newly launched student campaign Common Ground, which aims to challenge institutional racism at the university and increase the numbers of BME and lower income candidates applying.

A motion passed last week by Pembroke JCR committed them to a donation of up to £150. It acknowledged that Oxford remains, “overwhelmingly middle class and white, both demographically and in terms of its curricula”, and that Common Ground will “examine Oxford’s colonial past in the context of its present-day inequalities and interrogate Oxford’s imperial legacy.”

Pembroke JCR President, Hope Oloye told Cherwell: “Common Ground sounds like a great campaign.

“Looking at the modern day manifestations of Oxford’s imperialist past is an incredibly worthy cause.”

She continued: “Pembroke JCR is committed to promoting the equality of all of our members and so providing funding for a platform from which we can discuss race that otherwise wouldn’t take place is the least we can do as a body to support our BME members.”

Further JCRs that have donated include Regent’s Park, Hertford, Balliol, Trinity, New, and St Peter’s.

There are also further motions due to be debated in coming weeks.The amounts donated range from £100 to £300.

Only Lincoln JCR voted against proving any money whatsoever.

Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) is giving £350 from its ‘project incubator’ scheme.

The money will come from a discretionary fund that totals £2,000 and that can be donated to any student run project at the University.

Common Ground plans to use the money raised to hold a symposium to debate issues such as the relationship between class, race and admissions, decolonising the curriculum, and what it means in 21st Century Britain to be “young, gifted and black”.

This will take place over the weekend of 10-11 June, alongside talks, poetry readings, film screenings, and art exhibitions.

The project has received national attention from Vogue UK.

In an interview as part of Vogue’s ‘Girl on a Mission’ series, Beth Davies-Kumadiro, one of the founders of the project, defined the project via four key words: decolonise, contest, engage, support. Speaking of decolonisation, she said: “When people from different backgrounds come here, Oxford should make space for us as we are, not just accept the “culturally acceptable to upper class and white” bits, and crush the rest.”

Expanding on the topic of “contest”, Davies-Kumadiro continued: “So much of the status quo is taken for granted as just “what Oxford is like” when freshers arrive.

“Honestly, a lot of elite networking still goes on at Oxford, and the gross over-representation of those from elite backgrounds makes for quite a bizarre social scene.

“You quickly get used to people calling anything they didn’t come across at school “edgy”; there’s some exoticisation of blackness and hair-grabbing; people who wear black-tie regularly also try to throw grime nights.

“At Common Ground we want to disrupt any idea that this kind of behaviour is “normal”. It isn’t. So, we’re calling out the stuff we don’t like, explaining why we don’t like it, and taking the piss out of it a bit.

“Basically, instead of giving up on Oxford, we’re contesting what it can mean to be here.”

A second year student at New College said: “I’m so glad that students are organising to accomplish what the University can’t, or won’t.

“At my college and across the University there’s still a distinct under-representation of students from black and minority ethnic, and more socio-economically deprived communities.

“Clearly something must be done to encourage more people from these backgrounds to apply, and to help ensure that they are valued members of the university when here.”

A spokesperson for Common Ground told Cherwell: “We have had amazing support from most colleges and college reps at every college are organising an event at their [college] for the weekend of the symposium.”

But some in Oxford did oppose the donations.

One Balliol student told Cherwell: “I understand that Oxford is still too white and dominated by the middle and upper classes, but the University is working hard on this and runs a lot of outreach work. Why do we need to donate money towards it as well?”

The campaign follows revelations reported by Cherwell in January that Oxford made an offer to just 45 black applicants at undergraduate level in its 2016 round of admissions, compared to 2,050 to white applicants.

This meant that while 26.3 per cent of white applicants received an offer, just 16.8 per cent of Asian and 16.7 per cent of black applicants did.

Pembroke condom cock-up

Theo Davies-Lewis
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Pembroke condom cock-up

Students at Pembroke College have been left embarrassed and confused after receiving condoms supplied to them by the JCR and OUSU that were much smaller than advertised.

Undergraduates who picked up the Manix Mates Conform condoms from the JCR contraceptive dispenser found them 20 milimetres shorter than the Durex Pleasure Max previously supplied, without warning from the JCR welfare team.

With a circumference twelve per cent smaller than their Durex counterparts, the Manix condoms have created some problems for members of the undergraduate body.

One Pembroke student, who did not want to be named, told Cherwell: “The condoms were hard to put on and felt quite uncomfortable. It was slightly embarrassing that it took me so long to put one on!

“This is not a problem I had had before, so it was a strange experience.”

Pembroke JCR Welfare rep, Immie Hobby, said she realised it was a “widespread problem” when she started to receive more and more messages complaining about the condoms’ size.

She later explained that changes on the OUSU welfare order form, seen by Cherwell, were to blame.

“We ordered as usual from OUSU, but they’ve got a different supplier.

“Messages start rolling in from people like: ‘have you tried the new condoms yet? Have you heard anything weird? Because they’re just a bit small. My girlfriend’s coming next weekend.’”

OUSU’s supplies have changed since Durex condoms stopped being sold to non-mainstream outlets, Cherwell learned.

“OUSU have ten different options— there are some thinner ones, bigger ones,” explained Hobby.

“But this is just the standard set that we usually get, and it’s the College welfare reps’ job across the University to fill in the supply form. OUSU decide what goes on the supply form.”

She added: “They were too small for […] a good number of people.

“They [OUSU] just put trust in the supplier, and this is what has happened. These are the direct consequences.”

Sandy Downs, OUSU Vice- President for Welfare and Equal Opportunities, told Cherwell that she was “concerned” about the issues at Pembroke College: “Good sexual health is very important and OUSU is proud of the work it’s done in supplying subsidised products to students.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this issue, but if you have any concerns please contact me or your welfare officer who can contact me on your behalf.

“OUSU did indeed change condom supplier this year, as the previous products ordered are no longer produced, but your welfare officers were notified of this change and all packets remain clearly labelled with their size and are of the same quality as before.”

The issue is yet to be resolved, with smaller condoms still on offer from the college’s vending machine.

“We’re going to go back to OUSU and say: there’s a problem here,” Hobby said.

“The larger men at Pembroke have been let down. For the time being, the welfare team are refunding members of the college who buy their own contraception, which is much more expensive for the JCR that using OUSU-supplied condoms.”

Oxford scientists to build world’s largest telescope

Calum Bradshaw
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Oxford scientists to build world’s largest telescope

Construction has begun on the world’s largest optical telescope, a crucial component of which is being built by scientists from Oxford University.

Situated in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will provide images of the universe in unprecedented detail thanks to the HARMONI spectrograph, an instrument designed and built by Oxford scientists.

HARMONI is a fine-tuned instrument designed to take 4000 images simultaneously, each in a slightly different colour. The combination of a large number of images taken in both the visible and near infra-red spectrum will allow the imaging of planets, stars, and galaxies in ground-breaking detail.

Niranjan Thatte, Principal Investigator for HARMONI and Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford’s Department of Physics, told Cherwell: “For me, the E-ELT represents a big leap forward in capability, and that means that we will use it to find many interesting things about the universe that we have no knowledge of today.

“It is the element of ‘exploring the unknown’ that most excites me about the E-ELT. Equally, the E-ELT will be an engineering feat, and its sheer size and light grasp will dwarf all other telescopes we have built to date.”

Don picks up Royal Society prize

Anoushka Kavanagh
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Don picks up Royal Society prize

Oxford University Research Professor Andrew Wiles has been awarded the Copley Medal, the Royal Society’s oldest and most prestigious award.

The prize is awarded annually for outstanding achievement in scientific research.

Wiles is one of the world’s most prolific mathematicians, known for his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem.

In 1993, after seven years of intense private study at Princeton University, Wiles announced he had found proof. In solving the puzzle of the Theorem, he created entirely new directions in mathematics.

Since then Wiles has won many prizes, including the Abel Prize in 2016—the Nobel Prize equivalent in mathematics.

Speaking about his latest award,Professor Wiles told Cherwell: “It is a great honour to receive the Copley medal and to join such a distinguished group of scientists and mathematicians.

“Although its history does not quite reach back to the age of Fermat it does include Gauss, Weierstrass, Klein and Cayley all of whose work I have used many times in my career as well as in the solution of Fermat’s problem.

“It is a particular pleasure to accept the award now that I am back researching in Oxford where I was a student.”

Martin Bridson, Head of the Oxford Mathematics Department—who got to know Wiles in Princeton in the early 1990s—said: “The award of the Copley Medal to Sir Andrew Wiles is a fitting recognition of the profound effect that his work has had on modern mathematics.

“He has received many other accolades following his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem in 1994, including the Abel Prize in 2016. But it is particularly pleasing to see his name added to the list of winners of the Royal Society’s oldest and most prestigious prize, alongside Benjamin Franklin, Dorothy Hodgkin, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin, as well as two of our illustrious emeriti, Sir Michael Atiyah and Sir Roger Penrose.”

Wiles studied at Oxford and Cambridge, before holding a professorship at Princeton University for nearly 30 years. In 2011, he moved back to Oxford as a Royal Society Research Professor.

The UK education system needs to evolve

Mark Roper
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The UK education system needs to evolve

“Nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” as Theodosius Dobzhansky once said. And it still rings as true as ever. Without an understanding of evolution, observations and experiments on organisms could never be satisfied with reason. We would be blind towards explanations of why organisms are what they are and behave the way they do. The intricate delicacy of a mammal’s circulatory system; the cooperation of eusocial insects; the artistic, profound nature of a peacock’s tail would all remain merely phenomena without purpose.

Evolution provides reason and explanation behind these phenomena and to all adaptation across the natural world. So why is it that this principle, upon which the rest of biology is built, is so deeply neglected by the UK education system? I have had to wait until the second year of my undergraduate degree course to thoroughly delve deeper into Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The teaching of evolution in schools does not fairly represent its keystone importance in biology.

Let us consider an example. In the OCR GCSE Biology B course, 48 topics are covered yet evolution is only explicitly taught in two of them. The vast majority of the topics are taught with a disregard to evolutionary thinking even though it underpins their logic. Consequently, it is hard to believe that students who choose not to pursue further education will possess even a basic understanding of evolution. Students are exposed to the fundamental principles of maths, chemistry and physics in a manner suitable to their importance, but this isn’t the case with biology. Why?

The human-centralised view of biology found throughout our society has perforated our schools, making it clear that the current teaching of biology is aimed at future medical students, rather than any sort of practicing scientist. The importance for schools to inspire new doctors can’t be stressed enough, but for some reason, this currently appears to be a trade-off, limiting the teaching of evolution. This is flawed: a greater understanding of evolution through a more fair representation in school teaching would be helpful to everyone, especially doctors. This is highlighted when we consider the problem of antibiotic resistance, now recognised as one of the major crises facing our species. A better, general understanding of how evolution works across society would help to combat antibiotic resistant pathogens, as the current misuse—stemming from ignorance of the consequences—would cease. People are much more likely to do something if they understand why they should do it. Doctors would be more inclined to stop over-prescribing and people would be more aware of the importance of finishing their prescriptions.

The other major point as to why evolution is not currently taught to a respectable level is probably the one you expected as you began reading this article. As a former Catholic school student, I speak from personal experience when I say the teaching of religion hindered by progression as a biologist. The hypocrisy from lesson to lesson and teachers who wouldn’t listen made my time at school both frustrating and alienating. Religion has long enjoyed manipulating facts which are detrimental to its stature and somehow shoe-horn them into aligning with religious teaching. The lifespan of the earth, the big bang and now evolution all have alternative explanations from a religious point of view. I don’t want to suggest removing the teaching of religion from our education system. Religion is deeply ingrained in the history of our species, something which students should be taught about. However, I propose that it is time to stop allowing religion to hitch-hike with facts that it contradicts. It makes no logical sense to counter argue something with evidence with an alternative with no evidence. Our education system needs to accept that evolution is fact and ensure that religious education here in the UK doesn’t interfere with its teachings.

A lack of evolutionary knowledge is not a fault of the individual in our society, but the fault of our education system. We are all undoubtedly ignorant to phenomena. It is guaranteed that our lists of ignorance would be longer if it weren’t for the principles which were introduced to us at school. Evolution must be one of these principles. Just as our first experience of learning about the solar system allowed us to answer the questions of where we are in the universe, let us make the why we are here more accessible. Understanding evolution is the path towards this goal.

Race to the Red Planet

Matthew Nicholson
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Race to the Red Planet

In 1898 H.G. Wells published ‘The War Of The Worlds’, a story of Martian invaders descending upon Earth to harness its resources and cure the crippling overpopulation on their home world. Decades after the story was concocted, we are close to it becoming reality, almost.

A manned mission to The Red Planet would be the single most important moment in human history, shadowing all that came before. Not buried under mounds of political motivations, religious beliefs or rampant ideology, it will be the point when our species escapes the shackles of our pale blue dot and become a multi-planetary civilisation. NASA say they will conduct such a mission in the mid-2030s and announced that their plan would consist formally of three steps.

The first, using the International Space Station to further research on the effects of space travel on the human body. If anyone is going to make it to our neighbouring planet, they will need to survive months in a weightless environment. Since the body has almost no resistance to movement in such an environment, the muscles atrophy and bone density diminishes. Even balance is affected,  as the sense is largely decided by gravity and orientation, rather than sight. I recall a story of a recently returned astronaut closing his eyes in the shower and falling over as a consequence. While the Earth’s magnetic field protects us from harmful cosmic rays, in open space no such protection is offered. Both the Sun and deep space would bombard any Mars crew with subatomic particles, increasing their risk of cancer later in life, or even causing acute radiation poisoning. The terrestrial way of blocking radiation is to use lead as shielding. But lead is heavy, and therefore incredibly expensive to fire into orbit, much less send to Mars. NASA is currently experimenting with lighter substitutes, such as Hydrogenated Boron-Nitride Nanotubes, but these are still a while away from practical use.

NASA have plans to expand their reach beyond the orbit of the Moon. Beginning in 2020 with the Asteroid Redirect Mission. This is the second step. When thinking of asteroid fields, science fiction dupes us into thinking of areas of space densely populated with large clumps of rock, only navigable with the help of a Wookie. In reality, asteroid fields are quite sparse, and mostly made of dust. ARM will attempt to move a large enough specimen into a stable orbit with the Moon. Once there, all the technology for a Mars mission can be tested in cis-lunar space.

The final step consists of being able to truly abandon the safety of Earth. It is an attempt to create a hospitable environment that is not reliant on the Earth replenishing supplies every few months. This entails generating all of life’s essentials; oxygen, food and water, on the seemingly barren wasteland of Mars. Details of this process remain vague, as although a manned mission will almost definitely take place in the 2030s, Earth ‘independence’ will presumably take decades, if not centuries.

One cannot talk about a manned mission to Mars without mentioning Elon Musk and his company SpaceX. Founded in 2002, SpaceX is the only viable contender with any chance of beating NASA. Winning a contract over competition like Boeing to supply the ISS has given SpaceX the funds to pursue rocket technologies that are both cost-effective and efficient. As the majority of the costs from space travel comes from the spacecraft, not the fuel, Musk and Co. have devised an ingenious system to combat the current wastefulness, where much of the spacecraft will break-up during the initial launch. The bottom section of the SpaceX rocket lands itself on a floating barge in the ocean, allowing it to be refuelled and reused. The first successful re-flight occurred last month, and it is the probably the first of many. Musk’s innovations have set in motion the necessary large scale colony on Mars within a few decades. The rocket of choice will be SpaceX’s soon-to-be-built Interplanetary Transport System and is a mammoth piece of design. It will be bigger than any rockets built today, including NASA’s Saturn V, and will have a cargo capacity of a Boeing 747. No, that doesn’t mean it could carry the same as a 747. It means the ITS will be able to carry 747s as cargo, giving a further insight into the rocket’s size. Musk is certainly a credible player in this modern space race and if he wins, economists predict the opening of a massive private market for space exploration, overtaking anything which has come before.

With all of this talk of Mars, one would well within their rights to ask: Why? Why are we spending so much money and time to get to a place with temperatures that can fall 70°C below zero, an atmosphere that would kill any human within a minute and pressures so feeble that one’s blood would boil? There are two answers to this question. The first, to ensure the survival of our species, history and culture, in the face of mass extinction events. A meteor has once eliminated 75 per cent of all plants and animals, if we wait long enough it will certainly happen again. Having a permanent settlement on Mars will significantly increase our survival chances. The second reason, less pragmatic than the first, is to say that we, as a species, are destined to explore and to push the frontier. Carl Sagan once said, “Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species’ might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds”. His words should echo in our minds as we travel further than ever before.

Summer VIIIs stories you may have missed

Matthew Roller
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Summer VIIIs stories you may have missed

Christ Church and Wadham won the headships at Summer VIIIs last week, and most of the attention was on those two feats and Keble JCR’s boat-burning motion. However, several other events took place that are just as worthy of coverage:

Balliol M4 bump Balliol M3

Photo: Ben Hubbert [Facebook]
At the bottom of Men’s Division VI, Balliol M4 managed to bump Balliol M3 on Saturday, with the two crews winning Blades and Spoons respectively.

After bumping St Catz’s M3, Merton M3, New M3 and St Hilda’s M2 on the first four days of the competition, the so-called ‘Beer Boat’ that Balliol had fielded was suspected to be filled with some of the College’s superior rowers. And after a disastrous first three days, in which they were bumped thrice, the Broad Street College’s third boat went into Saturday’s racing low on confidence. It was no surprise, then, that a bump occurred early on in the race.

“You love to see it,” Balliol Boat Club tweeted, clearly appreciating the comedy of the situation.

However, it was a successful week for Balliol’s rowers overall, as their M1 boat also won Blades. Indeed, some 4,000 people watched the YouTube footage of Balliol’s bump of Magdalen: cox David Horwich was launched into the Isis in dramatic fashion.

Christ Church-Keble Instagram war

Photo: Christ Church Boat Club [Instagram]
Keble and Christ Church engaged in an intense Instagram battle before this year’s competition, as the pair’s M1 boats prepared to compete for the headship. The account ‘Keble4Head’ posted a series of memes belittling Christ Church, Oriel, Wolfson and Pembroke, whilst proclaiming their own chances of the headship.

One such image featured a comparison between the crowds at Donald Trump and Barack Obama’s inaugurations, with the two labelled ‘Oriel 2016’ and ‘Keble 2017’ respectively. The account proclaimed that this was “irrefutable evidence that the people are behind Keble going [for] head.”

Meanwhile, the account ‘Keble4Bank’ hoped that the Parks Road College managed to crash—their bio read “New empacher: £40k. Blues rowers: £200k. Watching them plough into the bank: priceless.”

However, it was Christ Church Boat Club’s account that had the last laugh—their video of Saturday’s Division I race, which featured a middle finger being pointed in Keble’s direction, garnered over 250 views within a day.

Jesus M2 bow ejector crabs

Photo: Ben Tucker, Jenyth Harper Evans [Facebook]
After bumping on each of the first three days of Summer Eights, Jesus’ M2 boat entered Saturday’s racing with a chance to secure the boat’s highest finish since 1961. They were chasing Linacre M1, but they bumped out before the Turl Street College were able to catch them. That meant that on the final straight, there was a vast distance between them and Keble’s M2 boat.

However, with nothing to lose, Jesus rowed hard for the finish.

But bowman Ben Tucker pushed himself if anything too hard—“I’m still unsure how it happened,” he told Cherwell.

“I think my blade hit a big chunk of a wave when it was square and the oar rotated completely upside down,” he continued.

“I had very little time to get it back square in time for the catch and the blade must have been slightly off square to cause the crab.” The race was klaxoned, but not before an iconic photo was taken.

Keble win headship—for fines

Photo: Wikipedia

Whilst their Blues-heavy M1 boat eventually fell short of Christ Church in the battle for the Head of the River, Keble College Boat Club did secure one headship this Eights Week.

Indeed, they opened up a lead of £29 over Oriel in the fines leaderboard, which dates back to the 2005 Summer VIIIs competition.

Oxford University Rowing Clubs (OURCs) have an extensive list of reasons to fine College boat clubs, with Keble racking up a £215 bill this week alone.

The reasons for these fines included an extra bank rider wearing Keble stash, late umpires, dangerous circulation, cutting up other crews near the bungline, and absent marshals.

Keble have been fined £1040 in the past twelve years, with Oriel just behind on £1011. Pembroke sit third on £965, with Balliol, New and Exeter making up the remainder of the top six.

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