Tag Archives: Nature

Coronavirus: “Confusing Hydroxychloroquine Studies” (Nature Podcast)

Audio May 29, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

President Trump’s preferred coronavirus treatment is the focus of a new study suggesting it could cause more harm than good, but not everybody agrees. We discuss the fallout as trials around the world are paused and countries diverge over policy advice.

12:12 Are we rushing science?

Coronavirus papers are being published extremely quickly, while normally healthy scientific debate is being blown up in the world’s press. Is there a balancing act between timely research and accurate messaging?

18:49 One good thing

Our hosts pick out things that have made them smile in the last week, including hedgerow brews and a trip into the past using AI.

Recipe: Elderflower ‘Champagne’

Video: Denis Shiryaev restores historic footage with AI

22:30 The latest coronavirus research papers

Noah Baker takes a look through some of the key coronavirus papers of the last few weeks.

News: Coronavirus research updates

medRxiv: Full genome viral sequences inform patterns of SARS-CoV-2 spread into and within Israel

Harvard Library: Reductions in commuting mobility predict geographic differences in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in New York City

Science: DNA vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques

Architecture, Design, Home Design, Homes, Landscape, Nature

Homes In Nature Design: “From Roots To Crowns” – Visionary “Lifting House” From Italian Studio NOA*

May 28, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

“from roots to crowns” describes the vertical metamorphosis of a hybrid building, moving from below ground through fields and trunks up to the crowns. It is a living shell on the move, able to take on 3 main positions “under the earth”(-1), “on the fields” (0) and “in the tree crowns” (+1+2). The lifting house is a visionary way of adapting the concept of “living and working in nature” to the varying requirements of its inhabitants.

noa* (Network of Architecture) is the essential expression of a collaborative work-ethos: the young team of architects & designers, led by founders Lukas Rungger and Stefan Rier and based in Bolzano (Italy) and Berlin (Germany), explores and examines interdisciplinary methods of design, continuously evolving depending on both nature and requirements of each project.

By following the concept of „emergence“, where the whole is perceived as being far greater than the sum of its parts, a holistic approach and strategy is central to noa*s way of conceiving design.

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Gardens, Nature, Videos

Gardens & Nature Videos: “Proserpina Returns Home” By Jonathan Gelez

Video May 27, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Filmed and Produced by: Jonathan Gelez (The World Is Art)

Music: “Spenta Mainyu” by Jesse Gallagher

Here is a simple and relaxing film about the beginning of the spring season as it happened in my garden. Since going outside wasn’t an option due to the confinement measures in place, I tried to capture the beauty of nature at home.

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News, Podcasts, Science

Top New Science Podcasts: Splitting Water With Light, Missing Matter And Working Memory (Nature)

Audio May 27, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

This week, perfecting catalysts that split water using light, the mystery of missing matter in the Universe and how working memory ‘works’ in children.

In this episode:

00:44 Water splitting

After decades of research scientists have managed to achieve near perfect efficiency using a light-activated catalyst to separate hydrogen from water for fuel. Research Article: Takata et al.; News and Views: An almost perfectly efficient light-activated catalyst for producing hydrogen from water

05:37 Research Highlights

The hidden water inside the earth’s core, and how working memory ‘works’ in children. Research Highlight: Our planet’s heart is watery; Research Highlight: A child’s memory prowess is revealed by brain patterns

07:53 Measuring matter

Estimations of baryonic matter in the Universe have conflicted with observations, but now researchers have reconciled these differences. Research Article: Macquart et al.

13:42 Pick of the Briefing

We pick our highlights from the Nature Briefing, including the possibility of a black hole in our solar system, and the biting bees that force plants to bloom. Physics World: If ‘Planet Nine’ is a primordial black hole, could we detect it with a fleet of tiny spacecraft?; Scientific American: Bumblebees Bite Plants to Force Them to Flower (Seriously)

News, Podcasts, Science

New Science Podcast: New Artificial Eyes, Elephant Seals And Disk-Galaxies

Audio May 20, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

This week, crafting an artificial eye with the benefits of a human’s, and understanding how disk-galaxies formed by peering back in time.

In this episode:

00:45 Biomimetic eye

Researchers fabricate an artificial eye complete with a human-like retina. Research Article: Gu et al.; News and Views: Artificial eye boosted by hemispherical retina

09:27 Research Highlights

Dazzling elephant seals to avoid predation, and helping blind people ‘see’ through brain stimulation. Research Highlight: Mighty seals humbled by prey that flickers and flashes; Research Highlight: Blind people ‘read’ letters traced on their brains with electricity

11:36 Early disk-galaxy

There’s an open question about how disk-galaxies form, but now new observations are pointing to an answer, from the very early Universe. Research Article: Neeleman et al.; News and Views: Galaxy disk observed to have formed shortly after the Big Bang

17:47 Pick of the Briefing

We pick our highlights from the Nature Briefing, including a HIV ‘vaccine’, and incredibly hardy bacteria. Science: Long-acting injectable drug prevents HIV infections; Quanta Magazine: Inside Deep Undersea Rocks, Life Thrives Without the Sun

Health, Medicine, Podcasts, Reviews

Top Health Podcasts: Dubious Coronavirus Content, Funding Fears

Audio May 15, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

With questionable coronavirus content flooding airwaves and online channels, what’s being done to limit its impact?

In this episode:

00:57 The epidemiology of misinformation

As the pandemic spreads, so does a tidal wave of misinformation and conspiracy theories. We discuss how researchers’ are tracking the spread of questionable content, and ways to limit its impact.

News: Anti-vaccine movement could undermine efforts to end coronavirus pandemic, researchers warn

Nature Video: Infodemic: Coronavirus and the fake news pandemic

17:55 One good thing

Our hosts pick out things that have made them smile in the last week, including walks in new places, an update on the Isolation Choir, and a very long music playlist.

Video: The Isolation Choir sing What a Wonderful World

Spotify: Beastie Boys Book Complete Songs

22:30 Funding fears for researchers

Scientists around the world are concerned about the impacts that the pandemic will have on their funding and research projects. We hear from two who face uncertainty, and get an update on the plans put in place by funding organisations to support their researchers.

Art, Books, Landscape, Nature, Photography

Top Photographers: 65-Year Old William Neill “Light On The Landscape”

May 11, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Drawing from the tradition of behind-the-scenes books like Ansel Adams’ Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs and Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape, Light on the Landscape covers in detail the core photographic fundamentals such as light, composition, camera angle, and exposure choices, but it also deftly considers those subjects that are less frequently examined: portfolio development, marketing, printmaking, nature stewardship, inspiration, preparation, self-improvement, and more. The result is a profound and wide-ranging exploration of that magical convergence of light, land, and camera.

For more than two decades, William Neill has been offering his thoughts and insights about photography and the beauty of nature in essays that cover the techniques, business, and spirit of his photographic life. Curated and collected here for the first time, and accompanying 128 beautiful reproductions of Neill’s photographs, these essays are both pragmatic and profound, offering readers an intimate look behind the scenes at Neill’s creative process behind individual photographs as well as a discussion of the larger and more foundational topics that are key to his philosophy and approach to work.

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Filled with beautiful and inspiring photographs, Light on the Landscape is also full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from a deeply thoughtful photographer who has spent a lifetime communicating with a camera. Incorporating the lessons within the book, you too can learn to achieve not only technically excellent and beautiful images, but photographs that truly rise above your best and reveal your deeply personal and creative perspective―your vision, your voice.

Travel & Nature Videos: “Mountain Dreams” By Wildglimpses (2020)

Video April 27, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Filmed and Edited by: Raul Tomas Granizo (Wildglimpses)

In these uncertain days, locked up in our houses watching the world from the window, we can only dream. Dream about the wild places we once visited, its pristine mountains, deep valleys and forests full of wildlife.

But now (more than ever), we should keep dreaming with our eyes wide open with all those corners that we have left to visit and that will remain there when all this finally ends…

Dedicated to all the victims of Covid-19 and their families/friends

Locations:
-Patagonia, Central Andes, Rocky Mountains, Alaska Range, Pyrenees, Lyngen Alps, Tien Shan, Caucasus, Himalaya

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Art, Arts & Literature, Reviews

Natural World Art: “Ten Artists Who Celebrated Nature” (Christie’s)

April 25, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From Christie’s article (April 22, 2020):

Ivan Shishkin Siverskaya 1896 Christie's — Ivan Shishkin “Siverskaya” (1896)

From Switzerland to South America, from the South of England to the coast of Maine, they have been moved by mountains, oceans, deserts, plains, lakes and forests — we hope you will find their art every bit as stirring as we do

Russia’s pine forests

Siverskaya, located 70km south of St Petersburg, was a popular summer retreat for Russian city-dwellers in the 19th century. It was in Siverskaya and its neighbouring woods that Ivan Shishkin — one of Russia’s most famous landscape painters, dubbed ‘the patriarch of forests’ — created some of his best-known works.

Peak of Mount Emei (1958) - Huang Junbi - Christie's — Peak of Mount Emei (1958) – Huang Junbi

Mount Emei, China

Mount Emei in Sichuan, southwest China, is the highest of China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains, reaching to 3,099 metres. The mountain is a place of pilgrimage, where dozens of temples and monasteries have been erected, and has been an inspiration for artists for centuries.

Wednesday 22 April, 2020 marks 50 years since the declaration of the first Earth Day in 1970 — an occasion on which to reflect on our natural world, and perhaps take action to help sustain it. In celebration of this anniversary, we look back on a selection of artists for whom nature — and our planet — has been an inspiration and guide.