NatureVolve issue 13: Earth and Space

Issue 13

Exploring Earth and Space

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Cover image: Northern lights. Thanks to the photography of andersgaard on pixabay.

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Features SCIENCE What Will It Be Like to Live on the Moon? An Anthropologist and Astronomer Answer Our Questions AI solves problems in Biotech and Space Exploration Sci Snapshot showcase

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Editor’s note

Welcome to issue 13 of NatureVolve magazine, welcoming the new year 2023

Issue 13 brings together diverse thinkers across science

and art with a special focus on exploring Earth and Space.

Themes will range from an artistic appreciation of natural organisms on Earth, through to technologies being developed, all the way to space exploration and the pursuit of discovery.

At NatureVolve we believe there is an important connection between science and art, and we thank our community who help us to broadcast ideas in both subjects. If you have friends who may enjoy this issue, please feel free to share naturevolve.com with others.

To support us and stay tuned with our journey, on our website naturevolve.com you can subscribe, or register interest if interested to be featured in an upcoming issue.

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We hope you enjoy issue 13!

Scicomm illustrator showcase - Aaisha Muhammad

Best wishes,

Exploring the artistic beauty of fungi

Clarissa Wright Editor-in-Chief

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Written Word A boat ride to Howth

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© NatureVolve digital magazine - all original content providers retain the copyright to their work. No materials may be reused without permission.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Bio Clarissa Wright is Editor of NatureVolve and a freelance science journalist. She has contributed to Big Think, Eos and journal news sites. After completing MSc Applied & Petroleum Micropalaeontology from University of Birmingham and BSc Geology from University of Aberdeen, Clarissa entered the academic publishing industry in London at Springer Nature. She later went on to be a Chief Editor at Meteored and later held a role at Frontiers. If you need help writing about complex science or environmental subjects feel free to email her.

Having created geology inspired paintings and joining environmental science expeditions to Oman, she went on to lead editorial content for NatureVolve, from Scotland in the United Kingdom.

Links Researchgate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Clarissa_Wright Academia.edu: bham.academia.edu/ClariWh Email: Clarissa@naturevolve.com p2

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What Will It Be Like to Live on the Moon?

An Anthropologist and Astronomer Answer Our Questions For centuries, the concept of lunar habitation has remained a matter of great

speculation for humans. Scientific efforts in this area began in the 1950s, and recently, NASA and other space agencies have been reviving their mission programs, which focus more on advancing long-term research facilities on the Moon and its orbit.

So, we ask: Will scientists and others be able to settle humans on the Moon? In short, yes! The success of the ambitious programs such as NASA-led Artemis I, II, III may lead to the construction of moon bases suitable for a long-term human settlement.

Amid growing hopes, scientists anticipate the physical, social, and behavioral challenges that lunar inhabitants may have to face. Anthropologist Margaret Boone Rappaport and Astronomer Christopher Corbally suggest that the Moon’s low gravity may have physical and psychological effects on inhabitants, such as in their gait, musculature, and emotions. Inhabitants will probably require more exercise to adapt.

Dr. Rappaport and Dr. Corbally met for an informal conversation based on some questions posed by NatureVolve’s community about how humans may adapt to life on the Moon;

Q

1. The need for even more innovation on the Earth’s &A - than on Moon Mars.

2. The technologies and infrastructure anticipated for early lunar inhabitants.

3. The activities of a usual day, all in the Moon’s lower gravity.

4. The importance of sustainability and its integration into everyone’s life.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Above: Christopher Corbally and Margaret Boone Rappaport imagine what life would be like on the Moon. Credit: Christopher Corbally and Margaret Boone Rappaport.

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Credit: Moon image. Credit: NASA.

Margaret Boone Rappaport and Christopher Corbally discuss...

Margaret Boone Rappaport (Anthropologist): Good morning. We first should say that this dialogue derives in part from a chapter on “Projections for Lunar Culture, Living, and Working: How Will We Be Different?” It is Chapter 20, the last chapter, in a recent book titled The Human Factor in the Settlement of the Moon. [1] The activities we describe will come after “base phase” on the Moon, which will occur at the South Pole, and after the “wiring up” of the earliest transportation and communications lines. Therefore, it attempts to anticipate a lunar lifestyle after a number of habitations are built and after they form a small village.

Christopher Corbally (Astronomer): Even in that early phase, life on the Moon will take more innovation than on Mars.

Why? Well, Mars has one-third of Earth’s gravity, but the Earth’s Moon has only one-sixth! That will make a big difference, in everything from the human gait, to work and leisure. Remember the Apollo astronauts back in the 1970s? They skipped rather than walked or ran on the Moon!

Margaret: I remember! Now, fifty years later, we still don’t know what that lower gravity does to the human mind and body! We can guess some of it from the experience of crews on the International Space Station, but there is much we don’t understand about changes in human musculature and brain in gravity as low as the Moon’s. What we are almost certain of is that lunar inhabitants will need to exercise to keep their hearts strong.

Christopher: Indeed. Exercise will help to maintain health of body and mind, and to keep stress down.

Some people may not be able to cope with the isolation they experience on the Moon. However, as we have discussed before, there will be communications during work and in recreation time.

We don’t expect that a lunar crew will be as isolated as feared. They’ll be in communication all the time with someone on the Moon or on Earth.

There’s a time delay between Earth and Moon, but not much. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Margaret: Agreed. The time delay between Earth and Mars will completely prevent normal conversation. People will have to send recordings between the Earth and Mars… But Mars has a dayand-night cycle that is very close to Earth’s— Christopher: --It does! The diurnal cycle will seem more familiar on Mars. On the Moon, as you move away from the poles to more equatorial areas, each day and each night will be about 14 Earth days.

Margaret: That’s an enormous difference! Days and nights two weeks long! We’ve talked about this before… I think the lunar crew will simply adopt an Earthside daily schedule. The Moon is physically so much closer than Mars! Keeping in touch with people on the Earth will be relatively easy.

Christopher: Lunar inhabitants may well adopt Earth’s clock. Still, even in the dark two weeks, we’re going to get substantial Earthshine—the Sun’s light reflected off the Earth. During the Moon’s bright two weeks, the light comes directly from the Sun. Margaret: But things are different at the poles, aren’t they? Our first Artemis base camp will be at the Moon’s South Pole…

Christopher: For the initial settlements, day and night will be extraordinarily long. It will be dark for 173 Earth days at the lunar poles, and light for 173 days. They will have 18-day transition periods at the Moon’s poles. In fact, there has been talk of using the mountains near the poles for solar power. The idea is to set the solar panels high enough to get continuous light from the Sun. Margaret: I’ve read about that, and in the chapter on power options on the Moon in the same book that has our chapter. [2] There are designs for giant solar collectors in orbit around the Moon.

Christopher: You’re right, but that’s for future settlers, not the earliest ones.

Margaret: What about power for the early greenhouses on the Moon? You say there will be generators? They can’t haul fossil fuel up from Earth to the Moon to run generators! p5

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Christopher: No, but they might use the Moon’s own “fossil fuel”. They could split the Moon’s water into hydrogen and oxygen, and those are two very handy rocket propellants. They would generate power. But remember, plants also need darkness. They have to rest.

Margaret: I thought water on the Moon mainly came ultimately from meteorites. That’s one theory.

The meteorites crash into the Moon, and the water migrates gradually to the poles.

Christopher: That’s the theory.

Margaret: So rocket fuel to provide electricity for extra Margaret: Let’s get back to what makes lifestyle light in the lunar greenhouses? That sounds strange! unique on the Moon. The diurnal cycle and gravity both do. Crew will probably become Christopher: Well, there is also the option of nuclear “deconditioned” fast if they don’t work their hearts generators. and muscles in the Moon’s low gravity. But... we’re not yet sure how much human deconditioning will Margaret: You don’t hear much about nuclear occur. generators.

Christopher: Again, the theory is that humans will Christopher: If you’re going to split water on the react at one-sixth gravity much like they do on the Moon into hydrogen and oxygen, it’s going to take International Space Station. But, that may not be some power. Other than solar, you have nuclear. true, over time.

Margaret: Interesting. That may be controversial.

Margaret: I know they can reverse some of that physical and neurological deconditioning in Christopher: Remember, we have to find out exactly rodents by having them run around a centrifugation how much water is on the Moon. Satellites and probes apparatus on the ISS. The rodents are back to are looking for water. We are not sure about the water normal with a little artificial gravity! proposed to be in dark spaces on the Moon.

“Remember, we have to find out exactly how much water is on the Moon. Satellites and probes are looking for water.”

Above: Liftoff! NASA’s Artemis I Mega Rocket Launches Orion to Moon. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Christopher: The question remains: Will humans seriously decondition on the Moon?

Margaret: It’s a possibility. I have thought to myself that we are about to engage in this expedition to conquer space and settle on other worlds, without knowing exactly what it’s going to do humans! You don’t hear much about the absence of knowledge of what space and lower gravities will do to humans.

Christopher: They don’t know.

Margaret: They don’t know.

Christopher: Typical for exploration.

Margaret: That’s true. But here, let’s turn to the questions about daily life on the Moon. We began by saying we are envisioning a small village of domed habitations. Everyone lives in a dome. Everyone works somewhere – another dome, a greenhouse, a launch pad. How do they get from one dome to another? If they work with interplanetary rockets, how do they get to work at the launch pad?

Margaret: That’s right! There’s no organic material on the Moon, and there is probably little or none on Mars, too. We’ll need to conserve, or compost, as much organic material as possible.

Christopher: Mess hall activities will be centralized for efficiency and for environmental protection. Less waste – less trash. A cleaner Moon!

Margaret: So, there is a cluster of domes to form a moon village. Everyone works. Everyone lives in a dome. Light rail connects them, along with electronic communications. They move from dome to dome on walkways or leapways. They skip instead of walking or running. They eat in a communal mess hall, where the serving, eating, cleaning, recycling, and composting all occur. It doesn’t sound too bad to me!

Something like living on a western military base in a foreign country.

Christopher: They get their stores of food from Earth, or from lunar greenhouses. They prepare their meals efficiently. As little as possible goes to waste, and ALL water is re-cycled.

Christopher: Walkways. Leapways!

Margaret: Well, what about a replicator?

Margaret: Covered leapways! If they don’t have weighted boots or slip-on magnetic soles, they’ll be skipping and leaping! …What about a light rail?

Christopher: Maybe. The technology is improving.

Christopher: Perfect. That would get you to the cafeteria, canteen–-whatever they call it. As for getting to work at a launch pad or landing site for interplanetary spaceships, they’ll probably either live nearby, sleep on site for tours of duty, or catch a bus-like rover to work. You’ve seen the rovers they use on Mars – these will just be bigger.

Margaret: An important aspect of human life anywhere is the need for both solitude and communal life. Humans need both. The sleeping quarters will probably be private space, but communal space? Will there be a central dome that includes a cafeteria, space for games and movies, even a bar?

Christopher: The functions inherent to a cafeteria will need to be communal to conserve time, energy, and to recycle and compost as much waste as they can. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Margaret: Maybe they’ll have chocolate bars from the replicator! Hershey’s chocolate!

Christopher: Well, Cadbury chocolate for the Brits, of course.

Margaret: As we’ve noted before, there mustn’t be any open flames, so cooking is done in a microwave or a convection oven. On the Moon, all open flames will be dangerous indoors, and besides, they use up the oxygen! Precious oxygen.

Christopher: They will perhaps have glowing logs from LEDs. Margaret: And fake bear skin rugs… vegan bear skin rugs.

Christopher: A gym in one of the domes. Hiking in the mountains of the Moon. Jet packs to travel farther distances.

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Margaret: That’s an important difference compared to Mars! They’ll have ultralight planes on Mars. In fact, they already have one: Ingenuity! It’s a very thin atmosphere on Mars, but enough to carry an ultralight aloft.

Christopher: The Moon has no atmosphere, so they’ll have to use jetpacks on their suits. There’s no air resistance, so they’ll zoom!

Margaret: I’ve thought of one common area they’ll need – a library, or an office, a place to work with one or two others. Group privacy.

Christopher: The domes will all be round. They’ll use the Moon’s own regolith to construct Add-Man domes. They’ll bring the mastic from Earth. It works like a printer, as you know. Layer by layer of regolith and mastic will be laid down over an inflatable dome from Earth.

Margaret: Indeed, Add-Man, or additive manufacturing. Layer by layer, they will “print” the domes. But these are the features of the landscape and cultural hardscape. What will a day be like for a lunar resident?

Christopher: Someone will get up, have something to eat in the mess hall, go to work, then eat dinner back at the mess hall, then enjoy rest or recreation.

They’ll have fun with their friends.

Margaret: It’s going to be expensive to get a human to the moon and support him – or her -- there. I think people are going to work 12-hour days, maybe with blocks of time off. With all that work, they’ll need to communicate with family and friends on Earth. They’ll need private space.

Christopher: A person will have small sleeping quarters for privacy, a small desk, maybe a little larger for couples. A place for private communication.

Margaret: Isolation. People have worried about this, but I am not so sure they will be all that isolated. If you can call grandma on Earth at will— how isolated will they be? Besides, people often group for meditation.

Christopher: I hope there’s a theologian at the table along with all the planning engineers! © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Margaret: I think what we’re getting at is privacy for groups – not just individuals. People may want to meditate, pray, or do aerobic exercises together.

Aerobics. There needs to be a space for groups.

Christopher: How big a group?

Margaret: Who knows? The number will grow with time. At first people will probably group by occupation. They do that on Earth. Engineers with engineers. Techies to refuel rockets, with other techies. Groups and layers of people. It’s the way people form communities. They come together.

Christopher: I think that the early Artemis group at the South Pole is going to be like crew on ISS, or like a group at the South Pole of Earth. One captain, period. One head. And early on, they’ll still be taking directions from Earth. They won’t be completely independent. They can’t be. They need supplies— and directions--from Earth.

Margaret: I think the initial lingua franca will be English, don’t you?

Christopher: Yes, it’s already the language of air transportation and communication. But tell me, you’re an anthropologist, when does it change from “crew” to “community”? When does a lunar culture begin?

Margaret: The roots are in the people first there.

They will create the first birthday rituals, the first observances of Christmas, the first gift-giving and festival occasions. They will make it up as they go.

Christopher: Remember, we wrote in our chapter about the first meal on the Moon at the Sea of Tranquility, long ago: bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, pineapple grapefruit drink and coffee. [1] Not bad!

Margaret: Perhaps they will immortalize that meal, or versions of it, in a Moon-wide lunar festival.

Christopher: We were asked about sustainability.

We mentioned conserving waste and compost in meal preparation. What about the conservation of larger resources, management of waste, and recycling.

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Margaret: This is going to take a great deal of learning. Conservation principles will have to be taught again and again to each new crew member on the Moon, until it’s integrated fully into their culture. I think that more than anything, we need crew who can learn, we need flexible learners and people who can care about the lunar environment.

Managing construction mess is going to be important.

Christopher: Well, that introduces a whole new topic – robots! They will play an important part in helping to keep the Moon clean! We simply don’t know now how much of a role.

Margaret: I guess we’ll find out!

Christopher: We will find out, that’s for sure.

References: [1] Rappaport, M.B.; Szocik, K. 2021. The Human Factor in the Settlement of the Moon. Cham: Springer Publishing.

[2] S. Lumbreras, S.; Pérez Grande, D. Power System Concepts for a Lunar Base. 2021. In: Rappaport, M.B., Szocik, K. Cham: Springer Publishing. Pp. 55-74.

About Christopher Corbally

About Margaret Boone Rappaport

Dr. Christopher Corbally is a research astronomer of the Vatican Observatory, having held the position of Vice Director for the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Arizona until 2012.

Dr. Margaret Boone Rappaport is a cultural anthropologist and biologist who works in the area of human cognitive evolution. She specializes on offworld settlement and neuroplasticity in space.

Based in Tucson, he is an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona. He earned his doctorate at the University of Toronto, in 1983.

Previously, she lectured in Sociology and Anthropology at Georgetown and George Washington Universities, having completed a doctorate at the Ohio State University in 1977.

The above discussion between Corbally and Rappaport is based on The Human Factor in the Settlement of the Moon,

Chapter 20: Projections for Lunar Culture, Living, and Working: How Will We Be Different?

Find out more: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-81388-8_20

Above: Portrait of Astronomer Christopher Corbally and Anthropologist Margaret Boone Rappaport. Credit: Christopher Corbally and Margaret Boone Rappaport. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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AI solves problems in biotech and space exploration Artificial intelligence (AI) has become part of our everyday lives, assisting us

with tasks such as car navigation, translation, and the operation of household appliances. But behind the scenes, AI has been managing a huge deal of repetive tasks such as in planning and scheduling in corporations and healthcare institutions.

The potential of AI tools to help humans with such tasks is clear to many companies within biotechnology. Applications can be far reaching, even extending to outer space through space exploration.

One such AI-based tool is ROMIE, developed by computer engineer Dr. Michael Saint-Guillain and his team.

It can help managers in operations make better decisions and also provides investment simulations.

The team also designed their off-shoot tool ROMBIO to help biotech companies such as Zentech in their manufacturing processes and even saving working time.

With ROMIE, the research team has recently contributed to NASA’s space programs by helping NASA to make better decisions.

What can the use of ROMIE mean for operations management, and ROMBIO for space exploration?

We find out as we speak to Michael Saint-Guillain today.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Q & A - Michael Saint-Guillain Through the tool ROMIE, how can AI be used to make better project management decisions?

Probability theory enables us to cope with uncertainty, computing schedules that are robust to temporal deviations. Depending on your objectives, the resulting schedules optimize the probability of satisfying the operational constraints, the expected return, and even the operators’ wellness. This provides a generic tool for operations management, but also investment simulations, which are critical management decisions as well.

Maybe the most important technological innovation, even more important than uncertainty, is the graphical modelling framework. The user is able to model by him/herself the scheduling problem at stake, including operational constraints, human and physical resource limitations and availabilities, performance indicators, etc. Without the graphical modelling formalism we propose, tools existing so far had to be tailored (specific operational constraints being hardcoded!) to each manufacturing process.

However, no company can pay for a tailored software for each and every of its manufactured products. On the contrary, ROMIE can be easily adapted, by the end user, to any operational context without specific development.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

What was it like for your team to work with NASA to develop ROMIE for space exploration?

This is definitely cool! I believe this is a key motivation for my team. It shows that our technology has something really special. And by extension, we are special as well! I think my developers are amazing, they create a tool that is not only able to significantly improve operations in a wide range of biotech and pharma companies, but which is also able to solve problems at NASA. ROMIE was recently revealed to be really useful to astronaut crews, during a Mars analogue simulation in the desert of Utah. The astronauts used our tool to plan and manage their operations, before and during their mission on “Mars”.

They also used it prior to the scheduling phase, at the design stage of the scientific research projects to be carried on during the mission. ROMIE helped us to foresee the different possibilities offered by the operational context, and helped at making important scientific choices.

“ROMIE was recently revealed to be really useful to astronaut crews, during a Mars analogue simulation in the desert of Utah.”

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Why is it important to optimize robust and reliable computing schedules for other industries and applications beyond space exploration?

I believe what we do here on Earth is more important than anything. Space exploration is a powerful engine to drive research, yet the scientific returns always contributed at improving our way of living.

Of course, we are thrilled to contribute to space exploration, yet such collaborations are actually only proofs of concepts to show that things can be done better, more efficiently, with less stress and less wastes, here down on Earth.

How does your spin-off tool ROMBIO advance planning and scheduling for biotech? Please give some real-world manufacturing examples.

I believe the way people do operations management nowadays is becoming completely deprecated. A lab manager in a major biopharma (Takeda), says: “What I think is great is that ROMIE proposes to transform the job of planners... Instead of spending their time making schedules by filling in cells in spreadsheets, they will leave this more tedious part to the AI which will do it more efficiently. Their job will be to model the tasks and maintain the models, they will be able to focus on a high value-added job that AI is currently unable to do.

They will no longer be planners, but modelers!”

Rombio turns the classical paradigm, based on “what if analysis”, “sensitivity analysis”, “critical paths” and so on, deprecated. Such techniques have been relevant for a while, helping at a time algorithms were not developed enough to efficiently tackle operations management.

Taking uncertainty into account while modelling your scheduling problem provides benefits in terms of expected output. At Zentech, a biotech company which produces diagnostics kits, robust schedules exhibit that by sacrificing only 12% of the maximal theoretical efficiency, one gets schedules that are 30+ times more reliable. In a big pharma company (Takeda), ROMBIO allows to consider alternative, more efficient, manufacturing processes and eventually accurately predict resource investments.

More important, ROMBIO is the first scheduling technology able to maximize the operators’ wellness: we showed that extra-hours can be decreased by 50 to 70% on average, by taking uncertainty into account at schedule generation and optimization.

Final thoughts AI developments can offer powerful improvements to systems. Tools like ROMIE are able to solve crucial issues within industries, especially in operational challenges and resource management.

The developments introduced by Dr. Saint-Gullians’ team helped to succesfully solve problems at NASA. This provides an example of novel innovation that helps AI technology progress, so that we can see these tools as valuable ways of assisting human society in planning and decision making, whether it be in our everyday lives, healthcare or even space exploration.

Bio

Links

Michael Saint-Guillain received in 2019 a PhD in engineering science (UCLouvain, Belgium) and computer science (INSA-Lyon, France).

At that time, his research interests included logistics, operations management and decision under uncertainty, initially applied to space exploration. He is currently leading ROMBIO, a university spin-off project, helping biopharmaceutical companies at optimizing their decisions and assets. Side research interests include scheduling in space and mathematical optimization for medical particle physics.

Website:

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

www.rombio.be Email: Michael.Saint@uclouvain.be

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Monitoring the temperature every corner in the live cell The cell is labeled with nuclear probe (blue), ER probe (red) and ER thermometer (green). The green color intensity changes upon temperature change of cell. (right) © Young-Tae. All rights reserved.

Cells are composed of many compartmentalized rooms, so called organelles. The temperature change of cell is important to understand the cellular processes, but it has not been possible to monitor the temperature for each organelle. We developed a full set of organelle specific thermometers (TG: Thermo Greens) as a unified palette, covering plasma membrane, ER, Golgi body, lysosome, mitochondria, nucleus, and lipid droplet.

For specific delivery of the thermometer to each organelle, a temperature sensitive fluorescent molecule is conjugated with various organelletargeting motifs structure. Through fluorescence lifetime-based cell imaging, TGs were demonstrated to monitor the organelle-specific temperature gradients created by external heating. The fluorescence lifetime-based thermometry shows that each organelle experiences a distinct temperature increment which depends on the distance away from the heat source.

TGs are further demonstrated in the quantitative imaging of heat production at different organelles in brown adipocytes. Brown adipocytes are thermogenic cells by utilizing the proton gradient of mitochondria through UCP1 (uncoupler protein) rather than ATP production. Therefore, mitochondria are the hot spots in the cell through the heat generation. From the study with TG, it was found that the temperature change was the highest, followed by ER, and then other remote organelles, such as lipid droplets. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

About Young-Tae Chang is a chemical biologist, trained at POSTECH, Korea for PhD and UC Berkeley for postdoc research.

I have been a professor at NYU, NUS and now at POSTECH, my Alma Mater. I created a Diversity Oriented Fluorescence Library and have developed more than 20 sensors and 30 live cell probes, so far.

Contact Website: http://ytchang.postech.ac.kr/

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The origin of the most diverse animals on Earth The Burgess Shale is known worldwide for its pristine fossil preservation; two bivalved arthropods of the genus Balhuticaris were buried together more than 500 million years ago, and still have their eyes, carapace, legs and segments clearly preserved. (below)

© Royal Ontario Museum/Jean-Bernard Caron. All rights reserved.

Around 500 million years ago, most animal groups appear in the fossil record in an event termed the Cambrian Explosion, which causes are still under debate. One of these animal groups were arthropods, which include animals like spiders or shrimps and whose diversity represents more than 80% of all living animal species on Earth today. The Cambrian fossil record shows their first evolutionary steps, still in the marine realm, including the ancestors of groups that have survived until the present, like the chelicerates (horseshoe crabs, spiders…) and groups that went extinct, like the carapace-bearing bivalved arthropods. These shrimplike animals had diverse ecologies and are the first animals reported to take care of their eggs but much is left to be known about their anatomy and evolutionary importance.

About Alejandro Izquierdo Lopez is an evolutionary biologist in the final year of a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, working with 506-millionyear-old fossils from the Canadian Burgess Shale site. Alejandro reconstructs the anatomy and ecology of a group of shrimp-like animals that shows us the early evolution of arthropods like shrimps or centipedes, and is also an avid science communicator that focuses on biodiversity and evolutionary topics.

Contact Website: https://onelephantsandbacteria.net/about-us-trichodes/

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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A Deep Dive in Bioinformatics About

Diving into ribosomal proteins using free sources and resources at the Japanese Protein Data Bank. (above) © Barry Robson. All rights reserved.

Comparing the difference between the structures of proteins in mammalian ribosomes and bacterial ribosomes (protein-synthesizing machinery of the cell) helps develop antibiotics lethal to bacteria, harmless to humans. This is my deep dive into a ribosome based on the atomic coordinates obtained by electron microscopy by A. Pulk et al. (2022) at https://pdbj.org/mine/summary/7qgg. I used Molmil2 (Molmil: a molecular viewer for the PDB and beyond, G-J. Bekker et al., J. Cheminformatics 8:42, 2016). The above are free sources for all but may get boring for artists: three shapes (α-helices, ꞵ-ribbons, “wires”) recur, although in different places in different proteins. I developed methods for predicting them, and along with other bioinformatics and AI techniques, use them to help design vaccines, diagnostics, and drugs.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

For eleven years, Barry Robson was Strategic Advisor IBM Research and Chief Scientific Officer IBM Global Healthcare Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences, and a professor in biomolecular sciences and epidemiology, having published 335 papers, patents, reports, and textbooks.

Barry applies AI, data mining, and the mathematics of quantum mechanics to healthcare, protein science, drug discovery, and the impact of climate change.

Contact Websites: www.ingine.com

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Diving into the microscopic world Microscope image of patient-derived cells stained to label intracellular structures. (below)

© Image by: Henriette Aksnes (left). Photo by: Monica Hellesvik (right).

All rights reserved.

Henriette Aksnes compares the experience of looking at subcellular structures through the microscope, to the feeling of scuba diving. “It’s like peeking into a totally different world! Except it’s not a different world – these processes take place inside our bodies.” The microscope Henriette is using here, exploits a super-resolution technology called stimulated emission depletion (STED). This application improves resolution and has been particularly useful for studying the thin fibres of the cell cytoskeleton. This advanced equipment is available through the local instrument park, the Molecular Imaging Center (MIC), where Henriette is co-lead for the UiB-node in a national advanced light microscopy imaging network. Here, she investigates the molecular underpinnings of a specific neurodegenerative condition in a collaboration with neurologists at University college London.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

About Henriette Aksnes works as a researcher in an ERC project at the Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen in Norway. She is passionate about using microscopy to decipher molecular details of biological processes. She holds a PhD in molecular biology, specializing in the cytoskeleton and organelle compartments found in our cells and the functions of proteins therein. In a project recently awarded a prestigious interdisciplinary grant by the Norwegian Research Council, she investigates how tumorigenic loss of protein modification may lead to increased cell locomotion and cancer metastasis.

Contact Website:

https://www.uib.no/en/persons/Henriette.Aksnes

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Open scientific data repositories Molecular markers to track osseointegration (below) © Nishant Chakravorty. All rights reserved.

Open scientific data repositories are data goldmines that can be tapped to develop novel therapeutic strategies for a wide range of clinical applications. Application of bioinformatics-based analytical pipelines on such datasets can help us eliminate redundant and superfluous experimental exercises. Our research group has been utilizing such datasets to find answers to complex research queries in Regenerative Medicine. We’ve used supervised machine learning algorithms to reduce redundancy in microarray data series and have identified robust molecular markers to track osseointegration.

Using similar approaches, we have discovered new drug repurposing candidates for fetal hemoglobin induction in β-hemoglobinopathies. We’ve also explored the role of SNPs in genes and miRNAs on clinical severity of diseases, using freely available bioinformatics tools. As a part of our activities, we’ve developed simple user-friendly webtools and databases, like miRnalyze (for miRNA regulation of cell signaling pathways) and miRwayDB (provides comprehensive information of experimentally validated miRNA-pathway associations in various diseases).

About Dr. Nishant Chakravorty, (Associate Professor, IIT Kharagpur), leads the Regenerative Medicine lab at School of Medical Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur. Dr. Chakravorty is a physician-scientist by training (MBBS, Masters in Med. Sci. & Tech.) with a PhD from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. His research interests involve utilization of the concepts of cellular and molecular biology, biomaterials and tissue engineering to study human pathophysiological conditions.

Contact Email: nishant@smst.iitkgp.ac.in

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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snapshot

Sedimentary archives of past climate and human evolution The Magadi Basin hosts the saline pan of Lake Magadi and a sediment archive that spans the last one million years. (below) © Rachel Lupien. All rights reserved.

The East African Rift System was the home to our hominin ancestors.

Tectonic forces gave way to lake basins, like Magadi in southern Kenya, that provided space for the build-up of huge amounts of geologic sediment.

Through scientific drilling, our team recovered kilometres of sediment from these hot spots of human evolution. Many researchers worked together to apply a variety of techniques to reconstruct the past climate and environment in which our ancestors lived and migrated over millions of years.

Our integrated results suggest that a key driving force in the morphological evolution, and perhaps behavioural adaptations, of early humans was initiated by highamplitude climate variability controlled by the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

About Rachel Lupien is a Paleoclimatologist and Organic Geochemistry at Aarhus University. Rachel uses biomarkers preserved in lake and marine sediment to reconstruct terrestrial climate and environmental change over hundreds to thousands to millions of years, applying time series analyses to disentangle the effects of climate variability on human evolution and to better understand climate responses to external forcings.

Contact Website: https://rachellupien.com/ © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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snapshot

Green Metallurgy by Convergence of Microbial Activity with Chemical Technology About

Schematic of the potential convergence of microorganism-driven recycling process with the chemical technology for critical metals’ recovery. The concept is supported

by NRF-Korea under BrainPool Program (2021H1D3A2A01100016) and Basic Science Research Program (2020R1I1A1A01074249). (above)

© Sadia Ilyas, Hyunjung Kim. All rights reserved.

The world is facing a significant shortage of critical metals as the raw materials to clean and green energy deployment. In contrast, the naturally occurring primary minerals are fast depleting that creates a large gap between supply and demands. The processing of urban mined waste materials is a potential alternative; however, their chemical processing alone is highly energy-intensive and generates large volume of secondary wastes. As a substitute the microbial-driven techniques alone be a green solution but slow kinetics and prolonged process with relatively less efficiency is challenging. Henceforth, the process integration of microbial activity with (electro/mechano-) chemical technology can leads towards sustainable metallurgy of critical metals. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Sadia Ilyas (BrainPool Scientist―NRF Korea and Research Professor―Dept. of Earth Resources & Environment Engg., Hanyang University) and Hyunjung Kim (Professor― Dept. of Earth Resources & Environment Engg., Hanyang University) are leading researchers in the field of process integration of microbial and chemical technology. Their researches are focused on metals-to-microbes interactions in the geo-environment and application to sustainable exploitation of valuable metals from lean-grade minerals and the burgeoning legacy of the digital world. Their researches address a broad range of issues related to the sustainability of the Earth and environment, dealing mainly with the precursor preparation for green energy applications, bio-geomineralization, bio-chemical-remediation of industrial effluents and mine tailings, treatment of geo-hazards, solid-waste management, and urban mining, resource recycling of valuable metals including spent Li-ion batteries and autocatalytic converters, and circular economy that ultimately contributes to reducing the carbon footprints.

Contact ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sadia-Ilyas https://www.researchgate.net/profile/HyunjungKim-17 p19

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snapshot

On the edge of extinction A juvenile guitarfish (Glaucostegus granulatus) caught in an artisanal net in India. (left) © Trisha Gupta. All rights reserved.

Guitarfish, named for their uniquely shaped bodies, are closely related to sharks. These species are often unfortunate by-products of smallscale fisheries in countries like India, which has contributed to their decline.

Guitarfish are now one of the most threatened species groups globally.

This image shows a juvenile guitarfish (Glaucostegus granulatus) caught in an artisanal net in India. Conservation of guitarfish requires science-based solutions developed with participation of local fishing communities.

About Trisha Gupta is a marine biologist and conservationist studying shark and ray fisheries along the Indian coastline.

She is currently doing her PhD at the University of Oxford. Her work uses interdisciplinary approaches for the conservation of marine life and ecosystems while considering the livelihood needs of coastal communities.

Contact Twitter: @Trisha_0405

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Conservation

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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conservation

in focus

Spiders conservation policies Among European species, the aquatic spiders Dolomedes plantarius and Argyroneta aquatica are the most frequently mentioned in European conservation measures (below) © Marco Isaia. All rights reserved

Despite their ecological importance and diversity, spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) are underrepresented in conservation policies in comparison to other animal groups. In order to stimulate research and conservation actions in this direction, Marco Isaia and his research team at the University of Torino (Italy) reviewed all extant conservation tools focusing on spiders in Europe. According to their work, out of the more than 4000 species found in Europe, only 178 are formally mentioned in legislation acts of 19 European countries, and for only 164 species the Extinction risk has been evaluated by International Union of Conservation of Nature. Among European species, the aquatic spiders Dolomedes plantarius and Argyroneta aquatica are the most frequently mentioned in European conservation measures, possibly due to their ecological traits and their strict association with declining habitats. The current threats to spiders in Europe indicate the need to expand existing protected areas and to designate new ones in order to include more spider species that need protection. With the limited resources available for the protection of biodiversity, areas hosting high concentrations of endemic and threatened spider species should be considered clear priorities for conservation.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

About Marco Isaia is a Professor of Ecology at the University of Torino (Italy) and Expert Member of Araneae - Spiders of Europe, a joint achievement of the European arachnological scientific community.

His research focuses on the ecology and biodiversity of spiders, with major focus on alpine and cave-dwelling species in the Mediterranean area.

Contact Twitter: @Italian_Spiders

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conservation

in focus

Local Community Support of a Marine Protected Area in Nusa Penida Island, Bali The images below show how a local community conservation project is restoring degraded coral reefs using coral planting (below), and spider-web steel structures (right) © Tyas Trialfhianty. All rights reserved

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an important tool to support conservation efforts in sustaining marine biodiversity. Surrounding local communities also play an important role in helping MPAs reach their goals. For this reason, Tyas Trialfhianty, with her supervisors Dr Maria Beger and Professor Claire Quinn, is conducting research in Indonesia to understand the impacts of MPAs, and what contributes to MPA success in protecting marine biodiversity. Findings from the research so far show that there is a significant difference in fish abundance between protected and non-protected areas, with more fish found in protected areas. Research evidence also suggests that there is close connection between a local community’s support for an MPA and its conservation outcomes.

About Tyas Trialfhianty is a PhD student at University of Leeds and junior lecturer at Universitas Pelita Bangsa Indonesia. Her research interest focused on the fisheries sector in coastal and marine areas. She is interested in transdisciplinary studies using various approaches such as economic valuation, community engagement, spatial analysis and ecological survey to improve conservation and management programs.

Contact Twitter: @tyasismi

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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conservation

in focus

Canid Companions Canid Companions (below)

About

At Ha Nkau village in the Eastern Cape, cattle are peacefully grazing in pasture overlooking the Maloti-Drakensburg mountains.

This region is prone to salient sources of risk, like extreme weather conditions and stock theft — the latter demands constant vigilance from herders to deter thieves. Guard dogs may alleviate the pressure of having to carry the burden of vigilance alone. This research can provide further insight to our species’ coevolutionary history.

Ming Fei Li is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology and the School of the Environmental at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation research focuses on how social and environmental risks affect sleep in agropastoralists. Ming Fei has explored multiple dimensions of human-animal interactions, ranging from human-big cat coexistence, conservation of charismatic species, effect of climate change on small-scale farmers and herders, and anthropogenic influence on canid activity.

© Ming Fei Li. All rights reserved

Contact Twitter: @mfli18

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Scicomm (Science communication)

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Science illustrator showcase Aaisha Muhammad

Being a bioinformatician, data scientist and scientific illustrator, Aaisha

Muhammad has a highly diverse skillset that also spans photography, digital art, web development and writing. How is it possible to pursue so many of these avenues?

Perhaps being homeschooled allowed Aaisha to be more selective in what she spent her time pursuing, allowing her to follow her curiosity. This has in part led her to become an accomplished science communicator with a diversity of skills and projects. In our interview, we will soon find out more about what lies behind Aaisha’s motivations and aeclectic interests.

Above: Illustration of Sunlit Coccolithophores – a species of phytoplankton float in the open ocean. © Aaisha Muhammad. All rights reserved.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Q & A - Aaisha Muhammad What it was like being home-schooled and self-taught?

Being homeschooled and afterwards self-studying has allowed me to pursue my various interests as I want to, as opposed to a school system where I’d be hard-pressed for time as well as having to study the given curriculums. Homeschooling means I can skip around and study what I like and what is most likely to benefit me. Also I would not function well in the structure of schooling systems, so self-studying allows me to work in whatever way works for me, even if it is unconventional.

“One of the most consistent challenges I’ve faced with selfstudying is a diffficulty in finding help... the advantages are you get good at finding help and googling.

Aside from that, homeschooling gives a lot of freedom and generally is just so much more flexible. But I wouldn’t say it is vastly different, at least not to me as someone who is homeschooled from the beginning.

Do you think your background has presented you unique challenges or advantages?

One of the most consistent challenges I’ve faced with self-studying is a difficulty in finding help. Most of what I’ve learnt has been through courses and resources that aren’t that popular, and all of them online – this means a generally smaller pool of active participants to ask for help if you get stuck anywhere, and often little to no support from the providers of the content.

This can make studying a bit more challenging because you have to figure out a lot more on your own.

The advantages are you get good at finding help and googling. This might not even be specific to selfstudying, but generally working on solo-projects and the like improves research skills a lot.

How do you balance being a bioinformatician, data scientist, scientific illustrator, photographer and digital artist, in addition to a hobbyist web developer and writer?

With a lot of chaos and fumbling around! Seriously though, I work in a bit of a chaotic manner. I don’t function very well with rigid timetables so I just give myself deadlines that I try my best to fulfil, and then © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Above: A slide from Aaisha’s mini-course on radiation.

It depicts the presence of alpha radiation in cigarette smoke. © Aaisha Muhammad. All rights reserved. p27

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Right: A slide from Aaisha’s mini-course on introductory genetics, explaining what genes actually are. © Aaisha Muhammad. All rights reserved.

Left: A slide from Aaisha’s mini-course on Prion proteins. The illustration is figuratively depicting the toll of Fatal Familial Insomnia. © Aaisha Muhammad. All rights reserved.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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sciart

work on whatever project/topic is the most inviting at the time. So long as I have time before my deadlines, I shuffle between the different things I do.

This method is maybe not the most efficient but it works for me, and when I inevitably run short of predeadline time then I just grit my teeth and do whatever I am running out of time on. Mostly the pressure of ‘oh goodness - deadline’s here’ grants enough motivation and focus to get the work done in time!

Tell us about your latest scientific illustration project and please discuss a few visual examples that you’d like to share with us.

One of my latest projects was an illustration of a species of phytoplankton. I picked this subject because they had a curious – to me, at least! – appearance, and very intriguing they are, for they armour themselves in shells of calcium carbonate.

I painted them in an unrealistic scale, floating in the open ocean with the dazzling sun shining above.

I like painting scientific art in this style – like a

Final thoughts

“I like painting scientific art in this style – like a “normal” work of art.

I think it drastically increases the appeal of scientific content. “normal” work of art. I think it drastically increases the appeal of scientific content.

This is a main goal of mine – to make science approachable and easy. It’s with this goal also that I started a series of mini-courses, where I present interesting scientific concepts in a social media story format, with engaging illustrations to go with simplified explanations.

Previously I painted also a species of pine tree that needs fire to release its seeds from the cones in a very dramatic, story-telling fashion that I felt worked with the piece but was maybe a bit bold for a ‘scientific illustration’, but it’s the style I like working in best.

We can see from Aaisha’s painted illustration of a species of phytoplankton that she is not only a talnted artist. Like many of the science artists at NatureVolve, Aaisha sees art as a means to make science more appealing, approachable and engaging. Arguably, she works in an unconventional way, having followed her interests outside of constraints imposed by school systems while allowing her to work in her own way according to deadlines as opposed to rigid “one-size-fits-sall” timetables. This sense of freedom allows a student such as Aaisha to develop unique skills and lesser-known avenues of knowledge, so that she may communicate science in diverse ways for all.

Bio

Links

Aaisha Muhammad is a 17-year-old Muslim, who self-studied bioinformatics, data science, scientific illustration, and is currently studying machine learning.

She loves presenting science in an approachable way and making appealing art for science communication. In her free time Aaisha does photography, makes digital art, writes, and reads.

Web: https://aaishamuhammad.co.za

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ ZealousMushroom/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZealousMushroom

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author

Exploring the artistic beauty of fungi Most of us enjoy gazing at colourful

sunsets, mountain vistas, and fields of wildflowers. Professor Nicholas Money (Nik) sees beauty in the fungi which he has studied for 40 years.

His use of high-speed video cameras has revealed the incredible movements of fungal spores that occur in microseconds and he has become obsessed with understanding how these mechanisms work.

Nik’s research in mycology requires a deep appreciation of the physics of microscopic objects, but there is another side to this work which intersects with artistic representations of the fungi.

Our interview on the next page explores many facets of Nik’s passion for the science and the art of mycology, his journey to Oxford in Ohio, and his admiration for the pioneers of fungal research.

Above: Details of Upside Down Mushroom Room, part of the project Synchro System (2000) by Carsten Höller at Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy Credit: Naeblys / Alamy Stock Photo. Permissions required for re-use.

Left: Pilot fungal dot painting on black acrylic glass. Reproduced from Ofer Grunwald Ofer, Ety Harish, and Nir Osherov. 2021. Development of Novel Forms of Fungal Art Using Aspergillus nidulans. Journal of Fungi 7, no. 12: 1018.

Source: https://doi.org/10.3390/jof7121018

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Q & A - Nicholas Money Please tell us about your academic background How are you exploring artistic responses in biology and what particularly interests you to fungi and other microorganisms in your about fungal biology. writing?

I attended comprehensive schools as a teenager in Oxfordshire, invested a lot of time in delinquency, and surprised my peers by receiving an offer to study at Bristol University. The Bristol faculty were inspiring professors who transformed my interests in natural history into a lifelong passion for scientific exploration.

One of the great lessons of my undergraduate experience was that I had so much to learn. I remember noticing the books that fellow students in the classics and humanities were carrying to their classes and began to read these along with the great works of biology.

At Bristol I became fascinated with mycology and specialized in this subject for my PhD. I suppose it was the strangeness of the fungi that attracted me, from the mysteries of their growth mechanisms and byzantine life cycles, to the limitless ponderability of mushrooms. I felt a desperate need to know how they worked. A postdoc at Yale followed, and after a series of research positions I settled at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. From Oxford to Oxford. When I accepted the postdoc, I had every intention of staying in America, not as an escape from my Englishness, but rather as a simpler conviction that this was where I wanted to live. Watching the televised Moon Landings as a child convinced me that the United States was the best place for a scientist.

I am intrigued by contemporary artistic responses to the fungi (see the Upside Down Mushroom Room shown on the previous page). Mushrooms have been embraced as emblems of nonhuman beauty and inspiration in film and fashion, music, bestselling books, and inspirational lectures.

Art installations with mycological themes have included giant mushrooms made from woven willow branches, living sculptures grown from mycelia (fungal colonies) on wood chips that bristle with fruit bodies, elaborate carvings and metalworks, jewelry, and fine couture cut from mushroom leather.

Inspired by Aboriginal dot paintings, Israeli artist, Ofer Grunwald, and colleagues have used mould spores as invisible seeds in tiny drops of agar jelly (also shown on the previous page).

“The strangeness of the fungi attracted me... I felt a desperate need to know how they worked.”

Above: Diagram showing splash discharge of spore capsule of a bird’s nest fungus and its mechanism of attachment to vegetation. The process is completed in less than one second and is studied using high-speed video. Reproduced from Maribeth O. Hassett, Mark W.F. Fischer, Zachary T. Sugawara, Jessica Stolze-Rybczynski, and Nicholas P. Money. 2013. Splash and Grab: Biomechanics of Peridiole Ejection and Function of the Funicular Cord in Bird’s Nest Fungi. Fungal Biology 117, no. 10: 708-714. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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author

Applied to sheets of glass, the drops form visible patterns when the spores germinate into tiny colonies or mycelia that color each dot as they develop.

The participation of the fungi in this pointillism adds an extra dimension of individuality to each dot in the painting. Although there is a high degree of predictability in the overall form of the microscopic fungus, its detailed geometry is a onetime creation, like a snowflake, whose precise details arise at one place and time in the universe and will never occur again. Deeper appreciation of Grunwald’s work comes from studies on the cellular behavior of fungi, which is one of my research interests.

We often see artists influenced by science, particularly here at NatureVolve, but do you have any initial thoughts on how art may influence science?

My research on the fungi has often encouraged some of the spirit of artistic exploration. It takes a mycologist, perhaps, to appreciate the beautiful structure of microscopic spores, but the growth of spidery colonies and emergence of mushrooms accelerated with timelapse photography produce an emotional response in viewers. The launch of spores into the air captured with high-speed cameras is beautiful too (see bird’s nest fungus illustration on the previous page.) These movements are critical features of fungal biology, which is the scientific justification for studying them, but they can be appreciated without any knowledge of the underlying biomechanics and genetics. This has been my enduring experience of art in science.

microscopic world through film. Indeed, with some imagination we can learn about the origins of hunger, suffering, gender, sex, and death by studying singlecelled organisms.

Which historical naturalists or modern-day biologists inspire you and why?

Foremost among the historical figures in mycology is Reginald Buller (1874-1944), a British born scientist who was a founding member of the science faculty at the University of Manitoba. He lived in hotels in Winnipeg for 40 years and crossed the Atlantic each summer to work at Kew. A lifelong bachelor, with singular dedication to mycology, Buller walked to his lab wearing horse blinders strapped to his head to preserve his light sensitivity for experiments on bioluminescent mushrooms, was attacked by an eagle while collecting mushrooms, and wrote dreadful poems about fungi in his leisure hours. Through his work, we learned that mushrooms were far stranger and much more interesting than anything imagined in fairy tales.

Other mycologists were satisfied with identifying fungal species, but Buller revealed the beauty of the microscopic activity beneath mushroom caps that allow single fruit bodies to release billions of spores.

Multiplied by the immense numbers of fruit bodies in the world’s forests, this astonishing fecundity mists the atmosphere with millions of tons of spores, causing misery for asthmatics, affecting atmospheric chemistry, and even influencing rainfall patterns.

Buller’s influence on the study of fungi is so important that he has been called ‘the Einstein of mycology’.

His book series titled, ‘Researches on Fungi’, is the Bible of mycology, the foundational document of this field of study.

Besides the fungi, I am fascinated by the iconic cell, the amoeba, which has played an outsized role in popular culture as the star of movies, cartoons, and video games. A giant alien amoeba launched the career of Steve McQueen in “The Blob” (1958) and returned to the big screen in one of the worst movies ever made, the cult classic “Beware! The Blob” (1972).

There is nothing of scientific significance in these cinematic monstrosities, but there may be some virtue in contemplating the violence of the © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Below: Author Nicholas Money witih students learning about fungal biology. Image rights reserved.

Final thoughts Our interview with Professor Money has touched on several important considerations, including the power of science to reveal the beauty of microscopic organisms.

With growing interest in mycology and its presence in popular culture there are many sources of inspiration for artists in the hidden wonders of the fungi.

The beauty of the fungi revealed through Nik’s research can be appreciated as a creative endeavour. This is another example of way that the lines between art and science blurred, and shows how both pursuits can influence each other.

Bio

Links

Nicholas Money is an Anglo-American biologist, author, and Professor of Biology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Author website: www.themycologist.com

He is an expert on fungal biology and has authored a dozen popular science books including, ‘Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard’ (2002), ‘The Rise of Yeast’ (2018), and ‘The Selfish Ape’ (2019). His writing is noted for blending first-rate science with stories of human interest.

Video clips showing the launch of spore capsules from bird’s nest fungi: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1878614613001165

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Author email address: moneynp@miamioh.edu

About Ofer Grunwald p33

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Phosphorene Nanoribbon on a Perovskite Solar Cell About Martina Pepiciello is a scientific illustrator and graphic designer with a theoretical physics background.

Martina strives to make science more memorable and inspiring, as well as to visualize rather abstract concepts, helping scientists make their research stand out and communicate their findings in a graphical way.

Martina also helps science communicators make this discipline more accessible and less intimidating.

Contact Website: https://www.martinapepiciello.com/

Phosphorene Nanoribbon on a Perovskite Solar Cell (above) © 2021-2022 Martina Pepiciello. All rights reserved.

This digital illustration shows a flexible solar cell made of perovskite, surrounded by a phosphorene nanoribbon (a single-atom layer of the phosphorene material).

This dramatically improves the solar cell’s efficiency.

The nanoribbon would be invisible to the naked eye, but I made it the center of the piece as a “real” ribbon with the pattern of phosphorene’s chemical structure.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Art

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Art

art gallery

Ammy the Artist Ammy the Artist is a crafty, artsy creative based in Overland Park, United States, with the pronouns She/They. She most often posts her art on Instagram but her work can also be found on Redbubble for others to enjoy.

Artwork

Barn Owl and Irises (below)

© Ammy the Artist. All rights reserved.

This piece is a digital painting created in adobe photoshop with a wacom tablet. Both my mom and I have a passion for owls and I made this piece for her. It’s part of a series of raptors and other birds that I’ve been woking on for the past year. I even took a field trip to the World Bird Sanctuary in St Louis for inspiration. I’ve been working both in traditional and digital media seriously for the past 15 years.

I am constantly inspired by the natural world - both flora and fauna local and exotic. I love a trip to the zoo.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Links Instagram: @ammytheartist

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Art

art gallery

Rain Jordan Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

– Emily Dickinson Through not quite literal expression, both the subject of the art and the viewer are honored. Rain Jordan’s work is an invitation to the viewer to come to their own interpretation while considering the possibilities of the subject’s world as well. A slant approach to art opens access to more fluid, dialogical forms of communication than other forms of conversation.

Rain Jordan’s first sculptures were original bronze made through the lost wax method, but she enjoys the immediacy and flexibility that other media offer. Rain’s work is held in private collections in New York, California, Australia, and elsewhere.

She holds an MFA from California State University - San Jose and resides on the north Oregon coast.

Artwork

Radical Cyanea Capillata

(left)

© Rain Jordan. All rights reserved.

Original jellyfish sculpture composed of clay, quartz, and vintage glass, about 24 inches tall.

Links Website: https://www.SculptedSea.com

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

The essence of sea anemones, jellyfish, and other ocean life seems to me an always-evolving marriage of toughness and delicacy. Although anemones & jellies seem fragile, handling one can induce a powerful sting. Whether of self-defense, as when humans or marine predators touch them, or of offense, as that required for them to access sustenance, both smaller and larger creatures soon learn that not all as it seems. The captivating beauty of sea life is undeniable, and it’s no surprise that people sometimes wish to keep that beauty close.

Sculpture offers an artistic way to do so.

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Written Word

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Written Word poetry

A boat ride to Howth

By Ronan Quinn I see many a slippery black head popping Up from the depths, the fish are violently Disappearing and the green ripples going As far as the eye can see. The salt slowly Gets between my fingertips as I dip them, There is an icy tinge to the day, there is a Green, polluted hue to the sea today, some Seagulls swoop to the stern of the ship. A Flock of cormorants swarms on a deserted Inlet to the right, the craggy edges soak Up white foam, a spray comes to a head And the view of the mountains rolls, cloaks Almost, the sea shore. The boat lunges, Chugs to its goal, the depth ever plunges.

Bio Ronan is an editor, writer, poet and literary translator who has been based in Dublin.

He studied for an undergraduate degree in Russian and European History in Bangor University and a Masters in Russian Literary Translation in Trinity College Dublin.

Originally a journalist for various publications in Ireland, including The Irish Times, Ronan went on to translate many books from Russian to English.

© NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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Final thoughts

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We’d also like to thank all who are featured and involved in the creation of this issue.

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connecting science & society About us We are an incubator that provides mentorship, community, and funding to accelerate building the next generation of STEM programming that strengthens the networks of access between science and society.

To learn more & apply for our fellowship program >> www.stemadvocacy.org © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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