NatureVolve digital magazine issue 2 by NatureVolve Magazine

NatureVolve Autumn 2018 Issue #2

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Cover image: 'Forest twilight' by jplenio

Science & Research

Conservation Scicomm

Art

Written Word

NatureVolve.com

Welcome to issue 2

Website: Naturevolve.com Twitter: @Naturevolve Facebook: www.facebook.com/ naturevolvemagazine/

Editor:

Clarissa Wright Clarissa@naturevolve.com

Thanks to our Guest writers: Christopher Long.

Contributors:

Aitor Ameztegui, Alexandra Nobre, Bernardo Cesare, Christine Marizzi, David Silvestre, Drew Mulholland, Elinor Rowlands, Jamie Nunez, Jonas Federman, K.T. Lee, Kevin McManus, Langley Anderson, Magnus Ivarsson, Marta Noone, Max Zotov, Natasha Parkinson, Rene Biasone, Rob Campellone, Ruben Ahumada Lazo, Ryan Renslow, Sara MacSorley, Susan Willemse, Travis Steffens, Yewande Okuleye, Yifu Wang.

Featured organizations: Innovation Forum, i4LCD -Institute for Landscape Conservation Design, Planet Madagascar. Copyright notice

Published by NatureVolve Copyright 2018. The copyrights of all published written and visual content are retained by the original contributors of the work. All copyrights are reserved by the content creators. Reproduction of any published material withowithout the written permission of the magazine’s publisher is prohibited.

Editor's profile

I am a part-time artist, having been inspired by the Scottish landscape during my BSc studies in Geology & Petroleum Geology at Unversity of Aberdeen and my MSc in Applied & Petroleum Micropalaeontology at University of Birmingham. My main interest is in nature, which is a passion I channel in my music, writing and art.

Note from the Editor Welcome to the 2nd issue of the NatureVolve digital magazine - our last issue for 2018. We are excited to share some inspiring projects across the breadth of science and art. A big thanks to those who showed support in the early stages of NatureVolve and the first issue of the magazine. Going forward, NatureVolve is keen to share more with you and expand our diverse science-art community. To achieve this, we are introducing exciting changes for next year. We thank you for your support so far in our common aim to share ideas in science and art with a wider audience, and in bridging the two worlds together. Thanks again to all those in the NatureVolve community who contributed to this issue. Best wishes and enjoy,

Clarissa Wright 2

NatureVolve Issue #2 Contents Science & Research p5-8 p9-10 p11-13 p14-17

Mysterious tunnels in garnet may be caused by munching microbes Rocks under the microscope Seeing the same picture in science with a new tool that accounts for color-vision deficiency Scientific start-up support with the IMAGINE IF! accelerator

Conservation p19-24 p25-28 p29-30 p31-33 p34-37

- Citizen science, Climate change, Company, Conservationists, Field-work

Volunteer program paves the path for conservation in Iceland Protecting the world's most endangered primates, in Madagascar Citizen science shows the black widow spider migrating northwards Perceptions on climate change in the Canadian Forest Sector Landscape conservation design: Designing a sustainable landscape for people and wildlife

Scicomm p39-43 p44-46 p47-49 p50-53

- Fiction, Poetry, Thought-notes

Secrets in the centrefold Calculated deception Impressions on my trip to the homeopathic side CBD Oil: what you need to know Blackstone

NatureVolve back pages p76 p77-78

- Art Gallery

Susan Willemse Alexandra Nobre Langley Anderson Jonas Federman Max Zotov Marta Noone

Written word p63-64 p65-66 p67-69 p70-71 p72-75

- Blogs, Book, Out-of-the-box, Presentation

Visualizing fluorescent bacteria through augmented reality Breaking down boundaries in academia through music inspired by psychogeography Schrodinger's Cat fights against false information Coloring book celebrates women and cultural diversity in science

Art p55-56 p57 p58 p59 p60 p61

- Company, Data & Tech, Geoscience

NatureVolve announcement How to be featured & advertising

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Science & Research

Geoscience

Mysterious tunnels in garnet may be caused by munching microbes

Minerals can feature unique structures inside them, as a

result of biological or physical processes that occured after their formation. Soft minerals can hold tunnel networks left over from microbes which ate away at the mineral. Uniquely, Magnus Ivarsson and his team found tunnel networks like these in garnet, which was unique and surprizing, since biological structures are seldom found in minerals as hard as garnet. Microbial creatures normally would tunnel through softer minerals, though Dr. Ivarsson has an idea on how this could have occured in garnet. Below: Three-dimensional reconstruction produced by synchrotron-based X-ray tomography. In this reconstruction the complexity of the tunnels are seen including frequent branches and anastomosis between branches forming a coherent network of tunnels. ÂŠ 2018 Magnus Ivarsson

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Science & Research

Geoscience

Q & A - Magnus Ivarsson How do the tunnels in your studied garnet samples appear to resemble biological structures. Why may certain microbes such as fungi have helped sculpt these? What first struck me was that the overall morphology and the complexity of the network of the tunnels was similar to fungal mycelia. The frequent branching and especially the anastomosis between branches, which connects the tunnels into a coherent network are features resembling fungal mycelia. However, other features of the tunnels, like the hexagonal cross

sections, looks more like abiotic (non-biological) structures. So, what we did was to test the tunnels against biogenecity criteria, and thus test it against all known abiotic processes that can form tunnels like this. We were able to exclude most abiotic explanations, and at the end the morphology and features of the tunnels were in favour of a biogenic interpretation rather than an abiotic interpretation. Usually, microbial tunnelling is due to trophic reasons or acquiring of habitable space. In the current garnets we`re not sure of the reason

Above: Microphotographs of tunnels in garnets forming complex networks. Note the tunnels are located to the margins of the garnet crystal. ÂŠ 2018 Magnus Ivarsson Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Science & Research

Geoscience

"In oxidized environments as the garnets are found in they represent a rare source of reduced iron that microbes can oxidize to gain energy from" Microphotographs of tunnels in garnets forming complex networks. Note the tunnels are located to the margins of the garnet crystal. ÂŠ 2018 Magnus Ivarsson

to bore but an educated guess would be that the microbes used the iron for their metabolism. In oxidized environments as the garnets are found in they represent a rare source of reduced iron that microbes can oxidize to gain energy from. Would microbial tunnel structures such as these be particularly surprizing to find in a resistant and hard mineral like garnet? Response: Yes. Most microbial borings are found in softer minerals or substrates that are easier to dissolve chemically or penetrate by mechanical force, like carbonates, bones, wood or volcanic glass. The harder a mineral is the more energy has to be used to break the chemical bonds when boring. Garnets are up to today, the hardest mineral on the so called Mohs scale of mineral hardness in which microbial borings have been shown. Garnets is seven out of ten on the scale. Diamond is a ten. But at the same time this is in favour of a biological interpretation because the most probable non-biological process would be so called ambient inclusion trails (AITs), which are produced by a

mineral grain of a greater hardness (higher on the Mohs scale) propelled through a mineral with a lower hardness. In the case of the garnets we would need a mineral grain of a ruby or sapphire to be propelled through the garnets, and they are just not common enough to produce these abundant features. What other gemstones and minerals can also feature microbially bored tunnels? Response: Many minerals like silicates, oxides carbonates are bored by various microorganisms like cyanobacteria, algae or fungi but gemstones have not been investigated with respect to microbial dissolution before. So, this is a question for the future. We have to look for it in other type of gemstones and see if the structures are there. Going forward, what are your next steps for investigating your theory, and these mysterious tunnel structures further? Response: Next step is to go back to Thailand and sample for DNA/RNA, and isolation of microorganisms living inside the garnets. By

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Science & Research

Geoscience

doing that we can first of all see what type of microbes living in the garnets, and if we manage to isolate a specific boring microorganism, do controlled laboratory experiments and document the actual production of such tunnel structures. I also would like to look in ancient geologic material for these type of structures. Garnets are relative stable over geologic time scales so this could be a useful trace fossil to be used in old rocks and paleo-soils. Above: Photo of cut semi-precious garnet gem. By 'johnno49'.

Final thoughts While the traces of microorganisms can be found in various soft minerals, the reason this could have been present in garnet is due to the consumption of a form of iron, which they may have used for their metabolism. At this stage, that is a guess, but an interesting thought. Hopefully, further investigation may shed some more light on what past physical, or biological processes caused these mysterious tunnels to form.

Bio

Magnus Ivarsson IÂ´m a geobiologist/paleobiologist and my main research interests are the deep biosphere (life in the subsurface realm), fossilized microorganisms, and microbe-mineral interactions. IÂ´m currently at the Department of Biology at the University of Southern Denmark, and at the Department of Paleobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Websites: www.nrm.se/en/ forskningochsamlingar/paleobiologi/ medarbetareochkontakt/ magnusivarsson.12659.html www.magnusivarsson6.wixsite.com/ magnusivarsson

Science & Research

Geoscience

Rocks under the microscope

written by Bernardo Cesare

If you’re not a geologist, you’ll hardly define a rock “beautiful”,

unless in some particular circumstances. However, any piece of rock, even the gravel beside the driveway, hides a microscopic universe of colours and shapes, so attracting and so mysterious that its depiction may turn into “Art”. But you need a microscope to see that, and a camera to capture it. The aesthetic power of rocks under the microscope comes from the optical properties of minerals. Yet, optical mineralogy may be a very difficult subject even for specialists. So let's skip the details of the use of polarized light. The other important thing is that minerals, and rocks accordingly, become transparent if they are reduced to thin slices. Only in this case we can observe the effects of light when it passes through them. Slicing rocks is not simple, especially if you want to make a very thin sheet of constant thickness (0.03 mm, about the average thickness of hair), such as commonly used for geological studies. This strange object (see right), recalling a sea snail, is actually an intricate aggregate of two minerals - quartz and plagioclase - called myrmekite. I studied myrmekite during my PhD, trying to understand its origin in some rocks from the Alps. But I never saw before an example like this, that comes from a dimension stone named "Coffee Brown" quarried in India. I was on assignment for a company selling marbles and granites, with the aim of disclosing the invisible beauty hidden in their stones. And I came across this curious creature: in the background a crystal of alkali feldspar with purple interference colors. In the middle the myrmekite, made of an orange central area of plagioclase, and worm-like blue to yellow crystals of quartz.

Above: Polarized light photomicrograph of a 30-micron thin section of rock. Crossed polarizers and lambda plate. Width c. 2 mm. Nikon D5500 camera on Zeiss Axioscop 40pol microscope. © 2018 Bernardo Cesare

Science & Research

Geoscience

Below: Polarized light photomicrograph of a 30-micron thin section of rock. Crossed polarizers and lambda plate. Width c. 3 mm. Nikon D5500 camera on Zeiss Axioscop 40pol microscope. ÂŠ 2018 Bernardo Cesare

I rarely work with sedimentary rocks and fossils, with few exceptions. One is this piece of dinosaur bone (above) coming from Utah and kindly provided by Denise Harrison. Denise has an incredible collection of semiprecious stones she uses to make beautiful cab(ochon)s. She sent me a few of them, and the piece of silicified dinosaur bone turned out the most beautiful under the microscope, recalling an abstract painting. You can see the contorted and porous structure of the bone, the remnants of the cells, and all the voids filled with fine-grained quartz called chalcedony. And you may also recognize tiny little monsters opening their jaws and spitting fire.

Bio

Bernardo Cesare Professor of Petrology at the Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Italy, Bernardo Cesare studies metamorphic rocks and the origin of granitic magmas, making extensive use of optical and electron microscopes for his research. In 2009 he started the photomicrographic Project "MicROCKScopica" and since then his photomicrographs of rocks have gained worldwide exposure. Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Website: www.microckscopica.org Twitter: @micROCKScopica Facebook: www.facebook.com/ Microckscopica/ Email: info@microckscopica.org

Science & Research

Data & Tech

Seeing the same picture in science with a new tool that accounts for color-vision deficiency

Only about 4% of the population may have color vision deficiency, yet,

this can be a major hinderence to researchers when viewing graphical representations of data - such as color maps. Since a misinterpretation of color due to color vision dificiency can cause confusion in scientific research, Ryan Renslow and Jamie Nunez created a tool named 'Cmaputil' to help.

Above: This Warhol-inspired mosaic of a 15N-enriched cyanobacterial consortia, taken on a nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometer (NanoSIMS) 50L, illustrates how different colormaps influence our perception of the metabolism within this system. ÂŠ 2018 Chris Anderton, Ryan Renslow, and Jamie Nunez.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Science & Research

Data & Tech

Q & A - Ryan Renslow & Jamie Nunez Can you tell us a bit about your background, and what brought you to develop your tool Cmaputil, as described in your recent PLOS ONE publication? [Ryan] I have been working at the Department of Energyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the past 6 years, after receiving a PhD in chemical engineering from Washington State University. PNNL is a truly unique place to do science because of the emphasis on large integrated teams, the availability of cutting edge world-class instruments, and a strong culture of free-thinking, passion, and creativity. For the past 4 years, I have had a side interest in understanding how the human visual system perceives light, color, and scientific data. There has been some effort in the science community to improve the ability of people to consistently perceive data, for example, by designing appropriate colormaps; however these efforts have yet to be widely accepted and have not taken advantage of mathematical optimization possible through modern computing. Thus to help disseminate best-approaches for colormap design, and to apply optimization so people with and without color-vision deficiencies can view data with near-identical perception, we developed Cmaputil and started sharing our new colormap, cividis. [Jamie] A couple years ago, soon after I had completed my bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree and joined the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Ryan and I wrote a review paper on the nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometer (link here: https://avs.scitation.org/doi/ abs/10.1116/1.4993628) with our collaborator, Dr. Christopher Anderton, who also works at the lab. While writing this paper, our team realized just how common the use of rainbow colormaps was in the field, and other fields as well!

We began experimenting with different colormaps, looking into different design concepts that were available, yet largely unknown, and the effect these colormaps can have on data interpretation by those with a color vision deficiency. This led to the development of our tool, Cmaputil, which automates creating colormaps and analyzing them, then eventually the colormap cividis. Our main goal with this work was to make it easy for anyone to create their own colormaps, as well as show the community why certain design concepts must be considered when plotting scientific data. Essentially, we wanted to ensure optimized colormaps are used by (or at least known and understood by) everyone working with data, not just the experts. Why do you think it is important to optimize for color vision deficiency in scientific data? Has this been an overlooked problem in the scientific community? [Ryan] Nearly 4% of humans have some form of color vision deficiency, and that number is estimated to be higher in the science community. If individuals are not able to consistently extract meaning from data because the colors used to represent that data are not uniformly perceived, it can lead to incorrect conclusions and, with medical data, real-world consequences due to improper diagnoses. Most software packages use rainbow colormaps or other non-optimized colormaps as their defaults, so most science figures fail to account for people with CVD. Furthermore, humans tend to think colormaps that cycle through many colors are more aesthetically pleasing, even if they make the underlying data less interpretable. We hope that our paper, and other similar projects from other groups, can continue to spread awareness of the challenges people with CVD face. Our cividis colormap is just one of many that can be used to display data in a way that is perceptually uniform and CVD-friendly.

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Science & Research

Data & Tech

Has your tool been utilized by scientists since its release? If so, what feedback are your receiving? [Jamie] For cividis, definitely! There have been scientists across a wide range of fields employing our optimized colormap in really interesting and fun ways. In fact, searching #cividis on Twitter will show some great examples of this, as well as referring to my Twitter account where I mainly focus on cividis: @ jamiernunez. Due to the well understood need for

such a colormap and community support, cividis is now easily available across many tools, such as COMSOL, Python via matplotlib and plotly, R’s viridis package, ImageJ/Fiji, CERN’s ROOT, and more. Cmaputil has been used by others as well, especially those who are most interested in colormap design and trying out their own methods.

Final thoughts How we present data is important, particularly for those with color vision deficiency, who may interpret data a different way than intended. A tool like 'Cmaputil' can help avoid misunderstandings in scientific research, by making sure that colors, and the information they represent, are observed as intended.

Bio

Links

Dr. Renslow is a chemical engineer and leader of a multidisciplinary research team focused on small molecule identification in complex biological samples. He is located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory within the Chemical Biology and Exposure Science group, and is also an assistant research professor at Washington State University.

Email: ryan.renslow@pnnl.gov

Jamie Nunez

Email: jamie.nunez@pnnl.gov

Mrs. Nunez works at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a data scientist, primarily focusing on chemical and biological data. She earned an undergraduate degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington and is close to finishing a master’s degree in computer science through Georgia’s Institute of Technology.

Twitter: @jamiernunez

Ryan Renslow

Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/ citations?user=r8qxoioAAAAJ

Google Scholar: scholar. google.com/citations?user=sviR1YAAAAJ

Science & Research

Company

Scientific start-up support with the IMAGINE IF! accelerator

Making the transition from a research idea to a scientific start-

up is a big step, and so is the transition from a scientific startup to a fully-fledged venture. While there are many business accelerators out there, few specialize in scientific start-ups. The Innovation Forum fills this gap by connecting entrepreneurs to valuable industry expertise and investment capital.

Home to the IMAGINE IF! accelerator, the Innovation Forum gives scientific start-up ventures a helping hand to get off the ground. In NatureVolve, Ruben Ahumada Lazo (Business Development Manager at Innovation Forum in Manchester) discusses the exciting opportunity offered by the IMAGINE IF! program for scientists from all over the world to take their ventures to the next level. Not only is this an accelerator which connects ventures with innovators, industry and investors, it is also a rewarding competition. Left: Flyer IMAGINE IF! 1. ÂŠ 2018 Innovation Forum Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Science & Research

Company

Q & A - Ruben Ahumada Lazo (Innovation Forum) Please tell us a bit about how the Innovation Forum started, and how it helps drive innovation? The Innovation Forum was founded at the University of Cambridge by a team of postgraduate students and young researchers passionate about the potential of crossdisciplinary innovation. It has rapidly evolved into a leading international network of innovators and entrepreneurs dedicated to identifying, sourcing and generating cuttingedge science ventures from leading academic institutions and linking them with industry and investment. The Innovation Forum accelerates the translation of scientific breakthroughs into innovative solutions. With branches in Barcelona, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Euskadi, Krakow, Above: Flyer IMAGINE IF! 2. © 2018 Innovation Forum Lausanne, Lodz, London, Manchester, Oslo, Oxford, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Kuala and we do not take any equity stake in your company. Lumpur, Okinawa, Boston, New York and San Furthermore we will introduce selected teams to Francisco, we are constantly expanding our horizons. venture capital firms, multinational companies and other key stakeholders to enable the rapid acceleration "We have a presence at 20 leading universities, over of their business. 20 global partners and sponsors, and have evaluated over 600 early stage companies. In addition, we In this program, how do you go about have over 150 associates on the ground, have held supporting scientific start-ups? over 200 events and have amassed a network of over 10,000 members. Our mission is to support science Thanks to the historical success of the IMAGINE IF!, entrepreneurs by mentoring and facilitating access to we are able to offer: industry expertise and investment capital. How is your IMAGINE IF! accelerator program for science ventures different to other start-up accelerator programs? IMAGINE IF! is the first truly global competition and pre-acceleration program for healthcare science ventures. All participants receive tailored mentoring and access to the Innovation Forum professional network. Participation in the IMAGINE IF! is free,

• • • •

Non–dilutive cash prize ($10k in cash) FREE 6 month laboratory space FREE crowdfunding campaign Mentoring by industry professionals from leading corporations including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and others • Access to an international network • FREE ticket to participate in the Innovation Forum Leaders Conference (for the Top 20 start-ups)

Science & Research

How long has your program been running, and what feedback has it been receiving? In 2018 we are organizing the 4th edition of IMAGINE IF!, some success stories from our past editions are: Healx, a spin off from one of the Innovation Forum early members in Cambridge recently raised £10 million for a deep learning platform to reposition approved drugs for rare diseases. BioMe, IMAGINE IF! 2017 winners from Oxford used the prize to fund the final stage of developing an alpha-prototype of the ingestible microbiome product: a ‘works-like-looks-like prototype’. In 2018, Participants from the previous edition of IMAGINE IF! in 2017, Lifebit, raised £3 million to build a cloud-based cognitive system that can read about DNA data like humans do.

Company

Here's what John Cassidy, Co-founder and CEO of NG:Safe said “We are absolutely thrilled to receive these funds from the IMAGINE IF! Accelerator. Along with the mentorship and advice offered by the Innovation Forum, these funds will enable us to develop a working prototype of the NG:Safe cassette. Ultimately IMAGINE IF! helped NG:Safe get into the clinic faster and helped us to realise our goal of avoiding accidental death by nasogastric tube misplacement sooner." Who can enter your IMAGINE IF! competition, and how? The competition is open to anyone from any country. Projects in any stage of development are welcome as long as you have raised less than £300,000 (GBP or equivalent in your local currency @current exchange rate). This edition will comprise two streams: 1) healthcare stream and 2) clean-tech

Above: Biome IMAGINE IF! 2017 winners. © 2018 Innovation Forum Copyright © 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Science & Research

and other non-healthcare categories. We therefore encourage applications from all R&D fields that can be related to these. We support ideas from start-ups based on a genuine, novel scientific idea which has a significant impact on improving human or animal well-being. This can be at the very early conceptual stages and

Company

we aim to give them the push they need to take risks and to really take things to the next level. Participation is free and all you need to do is complete our online application form. The global pool application deadline is midnight (BST) 16th of November 2018.

Final thoughts Above: IMAGINE IF! dates. ÂŠ 2018 Innovation Forum

The Innovation Forum provides a unique accelerator which can offer real support for scientific start-ups. If you read this before the deadline on the 16th of November 2018, there is still time to apply for IMAGINE IF! If you are a part of a start-up who applies, we at NatureVolve wish you the best of luck!

Bio

Ruben Ahumada Lazo (BD Manager at Innovation Forum, Manchester) Researcher with a broad academic background from a BSc in Chemical Engineering, MSc in Environmental Engineering and about to complete a PhD in Physics. My research focuses on materials science and nanotechnology for applications in renewable energy (solar), biosensing and optoelectronic devices. Interested in start-ups and entrepreneurship based on science, technology and sustainable development.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Websites: www.inno-forum.org/ www.inno-forum.org/accelerator/apply/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ innovation-forum/ Twitter: @Innovation_F Facebook: www.facebook.com/ InnovationForum/ www.facebook.com/ InnovationForumManchester/

Conservation

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation

Field-work

Volunteer program paves the path for conservation in Iceland Written by Christopher Long (guest writer)

2018 was the 40 year

anniversary of the Environment Agency of Iceland (Umhverfisstofnun) long term volunteer program. Every year volunteers from around the world have spent 9 weeks over the Icelandic summer (June-August) in the wilderness, building and maintaining hiking trails in every corner of the country. The trail teams consist of 4 volunteers with a leader, who has been on the project before. With a car full of people, tools, tents, food and other equipment they are sent off to assist park rangers at different sites each week. Each site has its own unique features and thus, its own problems. Rangers at each site brief the volunteers on the problems or current projects, but it is up to the experts (volunteers) to decide on a plan for the week and put their training into practice. The training provided by the environment agency, and their experiences at different worksites mean the rangers hold all trail builders in high regard.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Above: Stone steps at Dritvik, SnĂŚfellsnes peninsula. ÂŠ 2018 Christopher Long

Conservation

Field-work

Training Week

Stone steps

On arriving as individuals at Malariff, in the Snæfellsjökull National Park, the teams are greeted and introductions are made. Over the next week teams get to know each other and themselves as they learn the skills required for the coming months.

Paths on a slope can suffer from more wet conditions and increased footfall erosion. Plants that are trodden on struggle to survive along any path in Iceland and an angled slope increases the erosion from footfall. Surface water also uses the path to channel down and carries loosened soil away with it, deepening and steepening the slope. For the walker, muddy or rocky slopes can be dangerous and, at the least, dirty and wet. Renowned local stonemasons and father-son duo Gunnar Óli Guðjónsson and Guðjón Kristinsson have recently been brought in to impart their knowledge on each generation of conservation volunteers. They are held in such high regard that they are booked years in advance, and park rangers joke that, in fact, the duo would have made much of Iceland themselves had the environment agency been able to provide enough funding.

Whether it is knowing your spades from your shovels, when to mattock and when to use the rockbar, or spotting a good step rock and avoiding the moss; learning this begins in the training week, but volunteers develop an intimate knowledge of their work over the course of the project. Landscaping Required at every site, landscaping can entail careful blending of the path with the landscape itself, discouraging walkers from leaving the path and helping the plant life recover after being damaged. Where walkers have created their own “desire” paths, one must be chosen and the others restored to original condition. Loosening the compacted soil with various tools and the selective addition of plant material and rocks helps to speed the recovery while deterring walkers from using the unofficial path. The borders of paths are sometimes lined with rocks to deter walkers from leaving, or to give the path some support across a slope. These rocks are often chosen not only for their size but also shape and overall aesthetics. Moss and lichens on a rock give beauty and character.

Installing stone steps requires local stones which blend authentically with the landscape, so volunteers spend their first hours finding and carrying the nicest and largest rocks they can manage towards the worksite. They take care not to leave scars in the landscape and not to tread on the delicate moss. Each stone must be dug into the ground like an iceberg as it sits in the water: around a third of it above the ground level, for optimum stability when placed. Unlike icebergs, the most regular and rectangular are best, since a pointed base is more liable to tipping or coming loose. Walkers also prefer a flat surface for stepping on. But before a stone can be placed volunteers lay a bed of gravel, which is less

Above: After-work-hike up Snæfell, Vatnajökull national park. © 2018 Christopher Long Copyright © 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation likely to be carried away by water and is also easier to mould into the stone’s shape. Boardwalks The ultimate solution to keeping walkers off delicate flora is to use wood, but this is rarely used due to the scarcity of timber in Iceland. Boardwalks also tend to be less hard wearing than stone, but can be created quickly and with less effort. Volunteers usually jump at the chance to use something other than rocks to build with, and hammers and nails are exciting.

Field-work

Conservation Volunteers have been removing lupins at some sites every year, for over ten years. It can still be a welcome break from lifting heavy rocks, especially in the pleasant climate of Mývatn, where the only nuisance to contend with is the abundance of insects thriving near the lake. Drainage

Invasive species: lupinus Fabaceae

Iceland is wet. During the spring, snow melts and the landscape is even more abundant with waterfalls and pools than at any other time of year. During this period, the land is vulnerable to erosion and can also prevent walkers from using paths, in addition to getting their feet wet.

Lupins have been introduced and spread in Iceland to reduce soil erosion in recent decades, though this has been in conflict with the goals of the environment agency since they dominate the landscape and outcompete native species. They are also incredibly difficult to remove; Iceland

Where water pools across a path, drains can be dug to allow water to pass and head downhill away from the path. Drains consist of filling a usually saturated section of path with rocks, topped with gravel to allow water to flow freely through instead of pooling.

Above: View from the worksite at Fjallsárlón, south Vatnajökull national park. © 2018 Christopher Long Copyright © 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation Sometimes there is no solution other than to move the path. At Dyrhólaey the stonemasons Gunnar and Guðjón are already booked in to create a new path in a better place, but until that time (several years down the line) the volunteers are doing their best to maintain a coastal path along the south part of the island. Drainage ditches have been dug, and the path has been raised. Although it may never be completely dry, the drainage may limit the muddiness and the higher stone path may keep tourists’ feet drier than before; until it does eventually pour down with rain once again. Free time Icelandic summer gives you plenty of sunlight to explore the stunning scenery after the working day, which is just as well since there’s so much to see. Finding all the nearby hot pools to bathe in, hiking up mountains, volcanoes, across glaciers, spotting the local wildlife and being amazed at the multitude of waterfalls and geothermal spots - there’s so much

Field-work

to see and do. The volunteers are especially lucky having two months to see it all. Access to the wildest parts of Iceland and the knowledgeable rangers put volunteers in an excellent position to make the most of their time taking it all in. The increasing popularity of Iceland as a tourist destination is putting strain on the environment, more than can be coped with by those working in Iceland’s national parks today. Recent increases in tourist numbers requires improved access via new paths and the protection of adjacent delicate soils and plants. More care is also being taken to ensure that paths are accessible for the mobility impaired. The 40 year anniversary of Uhverfisstofnun Iceland Conservation Volunteers program puts its achievements into perspective. Since 1978 volunteers have been camping out over the summer to build, mark and maintain the hiking trails that have exploded in popularity since 2014. With this extra workforce the national parks in Iceland are now in a better position for the future. Below: Campsite at Malariff with a view of the glacier. © 2018 Christopher Long

Conservation

Field-work

Q & A - René Biasone (Environment Agency of Iceland) Interviewed by Christopher Long

How did you first get involved with the Environment Agency of Iceland (Umhverfisstofnun)? I began working for the Umhverfisstofnun in March 2012. This year has been my 7th season. I calculated approximatively that I have been working with no less then 1000 volunteers, long term (9-11 weeks), short term (2 weeks) foreign and Icelandic volunteer service groups (usually middle and high school students with their teachers for 1-3 days of volunteers). I had the support of at least 60 volunteer leaders, who really are the backbone of the programme, transferring the precious knowledge in nature conservation they have gotten and accumulated in the past decades.

What do you think has been the biggest change in the program you have seen? As Iceland has witnessed a huge increase of mass tourism, trails we use to repair and maintain in the low-land are now taken care by contractors. Our projects now are focussing on natural trails in more remote areas where there is a need of a specific type of knowledge only few people currently have in Iceland (like Gunnar Óli and his father).

When is the most exciting stage of the program for you? I take part in the planning for the coming year (usually beginning in October) the volunteers’ recruitment process (NovemberFebruary), the Leaders’ training (March), the projects’ definition (April), the tools, food and equipment preparation (May), the welcoming of the new volunteers and the introduction to the training week (June), the coordination of the logistics (JuneAugust), the final week’s barbecue evening (August) and the “wrapping up” phase when everyone is gone, writing reports, checking and storing the equipment (August-September). Well, the two very exciting moments are when I meet the volunteers in person on the first day of the programme. I know them all already but only because I have been interviewing them over Skype. It is always exciting to see their reactions when they are starting this adventure, excited, some of them worried a bit, but with a

lot of positiveness and willingness to give a good contribution to the Icelandic nature and have a successful summer. The second moment is when I see them leaving, see them hugging each other after being like a family for more than

Our programme also focuses more on very important actions such as protecting natural habitats by diminishing the impact of invasive plants (such as Lupina) and obliterating tracks made by illegal off-road driving, which is disfiguring the beauty of the Icelandic landscape.

Conservation

Field-work

2 months, having experienced so much, and travelled so long together around this island. It is when I see that what I have been organizing for the whole year is giving a positive impact, not only to the Icelandic nature, but also, hopefully, to dozens of people. This is my hope, at least, and when I see and I receive testimonies of this, I feel I am doing the most rewarding job I can ever imagine.

Are there any new challenges you think the future volunteers will encounter? Everything is a new challenge for a new volunteer. And for me as well as I feel every year like it is my first year.

Bio

René Biasone (Environment Agency of Iceland) René Biasone, is an Italian-Icelandic conservation expert, living in Reykjavík. He works at the Environment Agency of Iceland (since 2012) where he coordinates the Iceland Conservation Volunteer programme, and leads the team of experts of the Department of Nature Conservation for Northern Iceland.

Links Website: www.icv.is

About the guest writer Christopher Long I have just started a masters degree in Applied Ecology at the University of Gloucestershire, after having spent the summer working with Umhverfisstofnun on the Iceland Conservation Volunteers program! For me communicating science is the most important part of any involvement with scientific work, between scientists, to policymakers, the public or to businesses. Understanding our world and sharing experiences are what makes it so great!

Conservation

Conservationists

Protecting the world's most endangered primates, in Madagascar

Lemurs are endemic to the island of Madagascar, and many

of their species have become extinct in recent centuries. Unfortunately, nearly every species of these primates is under threat of extinction, as lemurs are now considered to be the most endangered primate in the world. This is due to habitat loss which is worsened by deforestation and hunting. Travis Steffens discovered a passion for monkeys and lemurs after realizing the direct impact that the loss of their habitat was having on them. As a result, Travis started the conservation organization named Planet Madagascar. Here, Travis shares this story further.

Above: Coquerelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sifaka leaping between trees. ÂŠ 2018 Planet Madagascar Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation

Conservationists

Q & A - Travis Steffens (Planet Madagascar) What inspired you to specialize in primate research and conservation, with a current focus on lemurs? It goes back to my eight year old self who wanted to “be a monkey.” Realizing the impossibility of this I decided to study monkeys instead. An extremely engaging course instructor, Brian Keating, got me in the door to primatology. Then I met Dr. Mary Pavelka who gave me an opportunity to study primates in the wild – seizing the opportunity I studied howler monkeys in Belize. The more I travelled and the more research I did the more I realized that primates were losing habitat rapidly. I became very interested habitat loss and fragmentation and decided to investigate questions on how those processes impacted primates. The best place to answer those questions is in Madagascar. So I did my PhD with Dr. Shawn Lehman at the University of Toronto studying habitat loss and fragmentation impacts

on lemurs. While doing my research I couldn’t help but notice how hard people in Madagascar lived and how their lives were intimately connected to forests and lemurs. I realized that primate conservation research was not enough so I started a small nonprofit, Planet Madagascar, that incorporates my research with a more holistic conservation program that includes the human element of conservation.

Conservation Why has your previous research been conducted in Belize (Central America) and Madagascar, are primates particularly endangered in these areas? The black howler monkeys that live in Belize are classified as endangered by the IUCN â&#x20AC;&#x201C; mainly due to habitat loss. However, I was interested in exploring how habitat loss and fragmentation impacted multiple primate species. There are a few places with high primate diversity, high habitat loss and fragmentation, and with a high possibility of primate extinction such as the Atlantic forests of Brazil and Madagascar. Therefore, I turned my sights to Madagascar where according to the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group 95% of the 111 taxa are currently considered threatened by extinction. This makes lemurs the most endangered group of large animals in the world.

Conservationists

How do you combine your research background with conservation practices to help protect lemurs and their habitat? My research background both informs my conservation projects and gives me the necessary experience to apply the projects on the ground. Since my research investigates how lemur species richness and occurrence are impacted by habitat loss and fragmentation I can give specific recommendations on how best to respond to those threats. For example, my work on metapopulation dynamics helps me determine which specific habitat fragments are more important to the greater success across a landscape of each lemur species. By spending a lot of time working with same communities for research and conservation for the last eight years I have developed a level of trust that has made engaging the communities in conservation much easier.

Below: Travis Steffens en route to his field site. ÂŠ 2018 Planet Madagascar

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Conservation

Conservationists

How important is the human aspect of conservation, in improving the livelihoods of those living in connection to lemurs? I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think of anything more important than the human aspect of conservation. The reality is that people live in connection to primates and that connection can have both negative and positive impacts on primates. We need to identify the causes of the negative impacts and work with local communities on solutions. The first conservation project Planet Madagascar did had nothing to do with lemurs or forests. We first did a household survey to gauge the communities interests in these types of projects, what were their needs individually

and as a community, and in what way did they want to proceed with conservation in the area. This information has helped drive all of our subsequent projects. Since that survey we have launched a fire management program, a forest restoration initiative, conservation education projects, and a sustainable agricultural project led by a local womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cooperative. All these projects have some component that works to improve the livelihoods of people in the community in the short-, medium-, and long-term.

Final thoughts Having had a passion for monkeys growing up, Travis went on to investigate how habitat loss impacts primate species. Sadly, many primates in Atlantic forests, like in Madagascar, are under threat of extinction. Based on the numbers shared, Travis comments that lemurs are the most endangered group of large animals in the world. Through Planet Madegascar, Travis recognizes the threats faced by lemurs, and advises on the best way of handling these situations. A human aspect seems to be necesary, which Travis fosters at the endangered sites. Human collaboration and improving human livelihoods of those who live in connection to threatened animals like lemurs, is necessary to help conserve them.

Bio

Travis Steffens Travis Steffens (PhD), Director of Planet Madagascar, is a primate conservation biogeographer who is interested in understanding how primates respond to habitat loss and fragmentation and finding real solutions that help build sustainable forest communities in Madagascar.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Website: www.planetmadagascar.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/ planetmadagascar

Conservation

Citizen science

Citizen science shows the black widow spider migrating northwards

Citizen science is a collaboration of non-professional scientists

across the world. Data collected by citizen scientists helps to show the distrubution of important species across the world. A recent study gathering data from citizen science has shown that the black widow spider has been spotted further north than previously reported in Quebec, possibly as a result of environmental changes.

Q & A - Yifu Wang How is collecting reliable species data a challenge, particularly for rare species? Rare species either mean they are rarely studied, thus less data available, or they have low population, thus hard to find. In either case, species data is not abundant. Conducting field survey to collect data often faces funding challenges. In our case, both study species (the Northern black widow (Latrodectus variolus) and the Black purse-web spider (Sphodros niger)) have wide distribution ranges and are difficult to detect making systematic field survey covering the whole habitats simply impossible.

Above: Black widow spider by 'skeeze'

Do you think that citizen science and the use of museum records can be combined to address some of the challenges in collecting reliable species data? Are there any obstacles in using this method? Yes, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what we did in our study. Museum records have a lot of problems. They are often regional, concentrating in one or a few time periods (lack of continuality), few in numbers, having few recent records etc. Citizen science can compensate for these problems. However, citizen science is not perfect either. We choose to study the Northern black widow

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Conservation (Latrodectus variolus) and the Black purse-web spider (Sphodros niger) because they have obvious body features so that we can accurately ID them based on just photos. This may not be the case for some other species. Thus, citizen science will not be very useful for those species. As you have made predictions for the two species - the Northern black widow (Latrodectus variolus) and the Black purse-web spider (Sphodros niger) in your recent publication, what can this information be used for? Since there are no previous accurate range maps available for these two species, our study provides references for future studies on their ecology. For Northern black widow specifically, although rarely

Citizen science

happen, their bite is venomous. Thus, knowing its distribution range is useful for local health agencies to get prepared. In the future, do you believe that the method of using both citizen science and online databases will become more widely used in scientific research? Yes, we believe citizen science will become an important part in scientific research and it is happening right now. More and more researches use data derived from citizen science or get help from volunteers to filter big datasets etc. Citizen science platforms are also growing in both size and number. We hope through our study to gather more scientific attention on to citizen science to speed up this process.

Final thoughts It is useful for local health agences to know the geographic distribution of the northern black widow spider since their bite is venemous. Yifu Wang and colleagues, among many others, believe that citizen science will become an important part of scientific reserach, as it allows us to see the distribution of important species across the globe. Yifu Wang shares even more on this topic in our online blog.

Bio

Yifu Wang Yifu Wang currently is a PhD student at University of Cambridge studying pangolin trade in China. The paper "Predicting the distribution of poorly documented species, Northern black widow (Latrodectus variolus) and Black purse-web spider (Sphodros niger), using museum specimens and citizen science data." was from her undergraduate project at McGill University with her co-authors.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Website: www.geog.cam.ac.uk/ people/wang/ Email: yifu.wang@mail.mcgill.ca

Conservation

Climate change

Perceptions on climate change in the Canadian Forest Sector

The impact of climate change can be readily seen in forest

environments, particularly when deforestation occurs. Since the sensitivity of forests to climate change can be easily seen, this may be part of the reason that the forest sector often shows a high awareness of climate change compared to the general public. This is the case for those in the Canadian forest sector, in which Aitor Ameztegui studies the varied perceptions of climate change among different stakeholders.

Above: Peyto lake, Canada by 'moju72'

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Conservation

Q & A - Aitor Ameztegui What are the key perceptions of climate change across the Canadian forest sector? We have observed that, in general, there is wide acceptance of the reality of climate change and the role humans have had on it across the Canadian forest sector, and this is good news, because acceptance of the reality and the impacts of climate change is known to be linked with the readiness to take adaptation measures. However, we found some differences between the different stakeholders, and certainly those who were

Climate change

the least convinced of the impacts of climate change were industry workers. We therefore suggest that plans to promote adaptation should be designed to take into account the specificities of forest industry workers. In your recent study, published in PLOS One, you mention that stakeholders across forestry provinces in Canada were more concerned about climate change than the general population. Why do you think this is? Yes. Even if there were some differences across provinces and across stakeholders, there was a high overall awareness about climate change and its observed causes and impacts. Almost 90% of our respondents agreed about the human origin of climate change, and some surveys conducted on the general public in Canada report much lower figures (~50%). This higher awareness of the forest sector as compared to the general public has also been observed in some European countries, and we think it is because some of the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems can already be perceived (mostly as changes in disturbance regimes), and most of the Canadian forest sector seems to be aware of that. How may we collectively address the issues caused by climate change in Canadian forests? Well, this is an enormously complex task and a major challenge, which will only be successful if the different sectors concerned are involved. It is clear that the forest sector (policy makers, forest managers, industry, environmental groups, all of us), will have to adapt to the new conditions.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation But of all the adaptation options we currently have available, we must choose those that are effective, but at the same time gain as much acceptance as possible by the different stakeholders. Only in this way can we ensure their success. Since your publication in Jan 2018, what have you been working on, and what will be your next focus?

Climate change

adaption to climate change in the forestry sector. In fact, we are currently working on the results of the second part of this survey, in which we presented the respondents with various adaptation options, and asked them which ones they would be willing to adopt. The results of this part will throw light on which adaptation practices should be prioritized. We also conducted a similar survey across the maple syrup producers in Canada and the US.

Since the publication of this work I have returned to Spain, my native country, where I am now a researcher and lecturer at the University of Lleida. However, I didn't lose contact with my Canadian collaborators, and I'm still interested in studying the

Final thoughts Aitor and colleagues have discovered how views about climate change vary in the Canadian forest sector as a result of their survey. Next, the team will be looking at possible approaches that can be taken to address the effects of climate change in future, to find out what the different members of the Canadian forest sector may be willing to take on. Understanding how individuals perceive environmental issues such as this, and the approaches they are willing to take is important for future collaboration to occur.

Bio

Aitor Ameztegui I am Aitor Ameztegui, research fellow and lecturer at the Universitat de Lleida. My main research aims at assessing how different forest management approaches may interact with climate change, and how this can affect the provision of ecosystem services.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Website: www.ameztegui.weebly.com Twitter: @multivac42

Conservation

Company

Landscape conservation design: Designing a sustainable landscape for people and wildlife

As climate change becomes

an increasing concern for our future, it is becoming more important to consider how we can develop increasingly sustainable environments, whether it be the incorporation of renewable energy via solar panels or finding ways of incorporating wildlife into our residential areas through green spaces. This is an over-arching goal of landscape conservation design - an approach that unites organizations to reach sustainable conservation goals in the design of our modern landscape. Rob Campellone (Institute for Landscape Conservation Design) is using nine key principles based on landscape conservation design to help create sustainable, flexible settings for both people and wildlife. Above: Landscape conservation design vs general planning characteristics organized by four cornerstones of innovation. (Campellone et al., 2018; Design: i4LCD) Copyright protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation

Company

Q & A - Rob Campellone (i4LCD) Can you tell us about your recent article published in the journal 'Landscape and Urban Planning', and how research such as that contributes to conservation? Sure, the iCASS Platform: Nine principles for landscape conservation design (https://doi. org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.04.008) is a framework that can be used by stakeholders to guide their design of sustainable, multifunctional landscapes. The paper was written by conservation specialists representing a variety of U.S. federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations, and the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC). The LCCs are a national network of regional convening bodies. They bring stakeholders together to identify and develop a response to conservation concerns occurring at broad geographic scales. The iCASS Platform is a flexible, systems-based approach to landscape conservation design (LCD). It consists of five attributes – innovation, convening stakeholders, assessing landscape conditions, spatial design, and strategy design – and nine principles. The Platform’s principles are organized around what we call the “four cornerstones of innovation”: people, purpose, process, and product; that’s to say, innovation occurs when stakeholders work together through deliberative processes to develop products that facilitate their efforts to build resilient and sustainable landscapes for current and future generations. In short, iCASS emphasizes a design process that is inclusive, interdisciplinary, interactive, and informative. The authors’ intention is to inspire a nationwide, if not global, pivot from single-institution planning to stakeholder-driven participatory design that leads to collaborative decision-making and extensive landscape conservation.

What led you to become the Founder of the Institute for Landscape Conservation Design (i4LCD)? I’m very concerned about the future of our world, including humanity’s existence in it. I’m also passionate about my field of expertise and the belief that people working together can solve almost any challenge. Landscape conservation design was a sensible place for me to devote my time and energy towards, particularly since it’s a fledgling movement in the United States that needs advocates. The authors of the iCASS paper did a great job articulating the attributes and principles of LCD in an effort to further the movement, but realistically, the Platform will only reach those in the academic community and maybe a small population of practitioners that read published work. For LCD to truly take hold it needs to be promoted to a broader audience. Society needs to understand what we’re up against, and set afoot on a common path forward. Recognizing that, and because I truly believe that the only way we will be able to combat the challenges of the Anthropocene is through broad stakeholder participation in design processes, I initiated a social media campaign in July 2017, then launched a website (www.lcdinstitute.org) and blog (www.lcdinstitute. org/blog) in 2018. What are i4LCD’s goals and intended impact? They’re three-fold really: 1) to provide stakeholder groups with the tools and information they need to be successful in their LCD processes; 2) to build a growing community of practice around LCD by giving practitioners and other interested parties multiple venues to engage in discussion and learn from each other; and, 3) to promote the iCASS Platform as a framework for stakeholder groups to use as a guide for their LCD projects. Like the iCASS paper, i4LCD’s trying to promote a nationwide pivot from single-institution planning to stakeholderdriven participatory design.

Conservation What challenges are faced when trying to find a balance between stakeholders’ needs and the preservation of the environment? We face many challenges when trying to design a multifunctional landscape that provides for people’s needs while conserving the environment we depend upon for survival. Most of those challenges are people-related problems. For instance, do stakeholders in any given landscape, regardless of scale, recognize that drivers of change, or change agents, are underway? If not, forget about having any discussion about LCD. If so, are stakeholders open and ready to work with other sectors and jurisdictions that have differing interests, missions and mandates from their own? Are they prepared to study and address those changes through deliberative processes and as a collaborative body as opposed to working solely within their own organizational structure? These are incredibly important questions that need to be answered.

Company

How do you think we can best prepare for the repercussions of the Anthropocene? First, we have to recognize there’s an extremely complex global issue underway that can’t be addressed by any single individual, institution or nation-state, though each can contribute to the overall solution. That might sound alarmist or overwhelming to some, but the international scientific community – the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – have conducted their assessments of the global condition and are sounding the alarm: the environment we depend upon for survival, and society as a whole, including economic and national security sectors, are under immense threat due to a rapidly changing climate, ongoing land degradation, and biodiversity loss; and these challenges are only going to get harder to address as time marches

Additionally, is there an impartial convening entity that has the skills needed to reach out to a diversity of stakeholders, and successfully coordinate and facilitate deliberative processes? In discussions I’ve had with practitioners, it seems like a lot of internal time and energy is spent churning on debates about appropriate scale and the availability of data. In my mind, those issues can be overcome if the right stakeholders are at the table and a productive conversation is taking place. Right: The iCASS Platform is an adaptive, innovative systems framework for landscape conservation design organized around four cornerstones of innovation: people, purpose, process, and product. It includes five attributes as demonstrated here: a) innovation, b) inclusiveness: convening stakeholders, c) interdisciplinary assessment of current and plausible future conditions, d) interactive spatial design (prioritization), and e) informative strategy design (strategic planning). (Campellone et al., 2018) Copyright protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Copyright © 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Conservation

Company

on. The good news is that they’ve also provided perspective on how the global community can best address this period of rapid change and uncertainty: multisector, regional-scale planning undertaken via stakeholder-driven, deliberative processes…or as we call it: landscape conservation design…designing sustainable, multifunctional landscapes for people and wildlife alike. On the ground, it’s an ecologically-connected network of wild and working lands/waters with urban, suburban, and rural communities interspersed. Designing and constructing a social-ecological system with intention is incredibly difficult given the diversity of stakeholders that need to be participating in the process, but countries and communities are increasingly taking on the challenge, including here in the U.S., and that’s the good news.

Above: Rob Campellone in Manhattan (New York City, NY). Manhattan island was once a diverse and functioning social-ecological system that supported a wide diversity of habitats and wildlife, and native people. Photo attribution: Liz Rosales. © 2018 Liz Rosales

Final thoughts Rob Campellone shares a concern many of us have about the future of our planet and the increasing need to promote sustainable practices and environments. Landscape conservation design is a collective approach which could help address this, though it requries the collaboration of organizations, stakeholders and a range of social groups to help achieve a sustainable environment which can retain some balance with nature.

Bio Rob Campellone

Links

Rob Campellone is the Founder of the Institute for Landscape Conservation Design (i4LCD). He has over 20 years of experience in conservation planning, and has worked for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy.

Website: www.lcdinstitute.org Twitter: www.twitter.com/Institute4LCD Facebook: www.facebook.com/i4lcd/ Email: info@lcdinstitute.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/i4lcd/

Scicomm (Science communication)

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Scicomm

Presentation

Visualizing fluorescent bacteria through augmented reality

How we present data is important across the breadth

of all topics in science. We can think of creative ways of presenting data, so that information is communicated with impact. Christine Marizzi is an award winning scientist who achieves this through artistic scicomm collaborations. Here, she discusses her projects further, emphasizing the effectiveness of interactive learning, while sharing some stunning visualisations of environmental toxins. Below: ÂŠ Augmented Architectures*

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Scicomm How have you found ways of combining biological systems and data visualisation with art, to share key ideas? As part of my work, I develop whole frameworks and curricula, including hands-on activities and games. More recently, I began exploring Art as a “soft” way of scientific storytelling, as I have found that pairing Art & Science can serve as entry point for those otherwise hesitant or intimidated by technical fields. For example, I developed a 3D artwork and fun hands-on activity around airborne pathogen transmission for the Vienna Science Festival that was especially popular among children and young adults. Kids will never

Presentation

show up at a booth and ask, “What can I see here?” They’ll always ask, “What can I do?” That’s one reason why hands-on activities are so successful. Another example is the NYC Biome MAP. As part of collaboration with Genspace, a community biotech lab in New York, citizen scientists produced an “Agar Art” map of New York City made with glowing bacteria as “paint”. Agar is a gelatin-like substance that serves as food for the applied microorganisms, allowing the genetically engineered bacteria to grow and produce colorful pigments that fluoresce under UV-light. The resulting artwork was presented at the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival and came in second in the American Society of Microbiology

Above: © Augmented Architectures*

Scicomm (ASM) International Agar Art contest. By employing the creative process as means of understanding and acquiring knowledge, I create accessible and inclusive platforms for the public to engage with science, including their scientific concerns (such as infectious disease and genetic engineering).

Presentation

What was it like collaborating with artists for various projects in Vienna, Tel Aviv, London and New York?

As a scientist, I’m constantly curious to explore the unknown and I’m therefore very excited to work with other creative minds. I have had the Can you tell us about how you got citizen pleasure to collaborate with highly professional scientists involved in DNA barcoding? and visionary artists and found it very beneficial as I think that science and art can complement each Let’s start with a definition of other to solve great challenges. As an educator, Below: © Augmented DNA barcoding first. Just as these collaborations with people outside of my Architectures* the unique pattern of bars in a universal product code (UPC) identifies each consumer product, short DNA sequences can serve as unique “DNA barcodes” which can be used to identify species. DNA barcoding is a wonderful platform for citizen, or community, scientist. For example, many science educators search for ways to scale student research from local, individual projects to distributed, classbased experiments that involve many students working simultaneously on aspects of the similar problems. The DNA Learning Center trains teachers to become gateways to student-directed, curiositydriven science by becoming eligible to mentor students who want to pursue their own research projects. To date, 130 high school teachers have enabled 1,664 students to become citizen scientists through our DNA barcoding programs. Students benefit greatly from this project, which allows them to be scientists – carrying out authentic research * - Excerpt from photo of the project exhibited at 'Data and Matter' exhibition, 'Space-Timeon topics of their choice, with Existence' GAA Foundation, European Cultural Center, Venice Italy, 26 May-26 November opportunities to produce important 2018. Diniz, N., Marizzi, C., Melendez F. (2018) 'Wearable Biosensor: Simulating Biotic Growth Patterns and Sensing Environmental Toxins’ in Projects Proceedings for ACADIA data and make discoveries. 2018, Recalibration on Imprecision and Infidelity, 18 – 20 October, 2018, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico. © Augmented Architectures.

Scicomm field significantly helped me to become a better educator. It really forced me to drop any science lingo and find new ways to communicate my message clearly. I also realized how much I wanted to “get the science right”, while the artists and designer wanted to “get the art right”, if that makes sense. Our discussions revealed what exactly is appealing for the other side, and this is where you need to listen carefully. It is this “gray area” that helps me to understand how to connect with new audiences. It’s not necessarily an easy process, but the outcome is always well worth it. The combination of architecture and biology in your collaborative project 'Artificial Lucidum' sounds unusual. How did you combine the two subjects? Was it possible to visualize environmental data through augmented reality? The architectural research project Artificial Lucidum explored the integration of bacterial biosensors within wearable body architectures as a means of detecting environmental toxins. Together with architects Nancy Diniz, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Frank Melendez, City College of New York, CUNY, it was Left: The NYC Biome MAP part of the Collective Urban Biome MAP project. Photo credits Project Leader: Nurit Bar-Shai Scientific Leader: Christine Marizzi Design and Production: Nurit Bar-Shai, Ali Schachtschneider, Marta Molina Gomez Support: The New Museum, IDEAS CITY 2015, Genspace NYC. Inc, The DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Thanks to Sylvia Saborio. © The Collective Urban Biome MAP

Presentation

hypothesized that the collected environmental data can be visually expressed through a sensor and augmented reality interface. The project built upon ongoing research that has been predicated on interdisciplinary collaborations within the fields of architecture and biology. At the beginning of the project stood a variety of growth experiments to explore the patterns, forms, and morphologies of two living model organisms - E.coli bacteria and P. polycephalum, also known as slime mold. This behavior was then further investigated using computational simulations to generate the design of the architectural devices. The devices house E.coli bacteria, which have very specific nutrient needs, rapid reproduction rate, and very short life cycle, making them an ideal source of pollution assessment as part of a wearable biosensor. Using DNA cloning technology, fluorescent proteins are used as reporter genes under the control of an inducible promoter resulting in a biofluorescent effect. For example, an elevated level of heavy metal would trigger the production of a purple light signal. Using augmented reality, the environmental toxins can be visualized as quantitative data through a mobile phone app interface. Through the use of these architectural devices, users can better understand the specified pollutants that are present in their surrounding environment (see image on next page).

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Presentation

Above: © Augmented Architectures*

Final thoughts Christine Marizzi approaches new audiences by presenting science in an interactive, creative and engaging way. This can be an effective way of triggering interest in science with the wider public, through activities such as hands-on projects in the classroom. In addition to educational curricula, Christine's focus expands onto the cuttingedge, like in the 'Artificial Lucidum' project, where environmental toxins are highlighted via fluorescence, and visualized using augmented reality through a mobile app (see above image).

Bio

Christine Marizzi Christine Marizzi is an award winning scientist and educator and directs the Urban Barcode Project at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s DNA Learning Center. With 12+ years in urban and international science communication, she helps students realize their greatest potential in STEM fields and provides traditionally under-represented minorities with multiple entry points to science.

Links Website: www.dnabarcoding101.org www.dnalc.org Twitter: @cmarizzi

Scicomm

Out-of-the-box

Breaking down boundaries in academia through music inspired by psychogeography

Drew Mulholland bridges the gaps between music, history and

science through his varied roles and projects at University of Glasgow where he promotes imagination and creativity in the academic setting. Drew's music is inspired by the concept of 'psychogeography' - a term describing the psychological connection we have with the environment, which can influence our personal emotions and behaviors. As part of a collaboration to celebrate the International Year of Light (2015), Drew composed a piece named “Lux Occulta” on the 'laser harp' (see right). For this music, Drew took inspiration from symbols of light found in historic texts of occult philosophy. Here, Drew shares the inspirations behind his creations and their relationship to psychogeography.

Scicomm

Out-of-the-box

Q & A - Drew Mulholland It is interesting to see how you have combined diverse subject areas, such as music, science and even history in your work. Do you think bridging the gaps between different disciplines is important, particularly in the academic world? Absolutely, simply because everything is connected. I once saw a drawing of a roman aquaduct on a blackboard in our children’s school, I asked if it was a history lesson…“No, it’s not just history it’s also geography, maths, and physics, all combined’’ and that’s all important. It is increasingly difficult to have any outside the box thinking in academia since they seem to have become merely business houses, top

heavy with administration, a singular lack of imagination, and hellbent on regarding students as “clients”. How did you go about creating your music, and the laser harp? For the last year I’ve gone back to working with sounds from nature and industry… looping and manipulating them until they become for the most part unrecognisable. This is where it started to get really interesting for me because even though the original recordings were in no way obvious the sounds were somehow deep in the soundscape and still had an emotional resonance with the listener. Researching this will be part of the next project. The inspiration for the laser harp piece “Lux Occulta” came from the alchemical symbols for Light as used by both Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) in his work “Three Books of Occult Philosophy of Magic”, and Elizabethan mathematician, alchemist, philosopher, and occultist, Dr. John Dee (1527-1609). I wanted to return to the first principles, and these strange, almost mystical glyphs were ideal for the composition, as they no more resemble a traditional score than the Halo Harp resembles a traditional instrument. In what way has the environment influenced your musical compositions, and how did you come to realize the impact of of it on your music?

I only realised the impact of it relatively recently, I was invited to give a talk at “the alchemical landscape” conference at Cambridge and the organisers asked if I could talk about my early influences and recording sound. I thought about it and realised that I 45

Scicomm had started recording nature and industry in the area behind our house. Making cassette tape loops, and being 12 years old at the time, I did not have a clue what I was doing or why I was doing it! The area contained WW2 air raid shelters, abandoned railway tunnels, wheat fields, a cemetery, an industrial sized scrap metal business that destroyed railway locomotives, and derelict carriages.

Out-of-the-box

Psychogeography doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to be a well known term these days, how do you think it can best be explained? Is this something we may often come across day to day? We are all psychogeographers thankfully. Old maps reinterpreted on modern streets become time machines. History, memory, geography, and cartography are entwined and recurring. Simply by drifting you are conducting a geographical rite that can bend time. Just wandering around the city gives you a sense of otherness, of invisibility, you become an observer.

Final thoughts As we walk through our day to day lives, perhaps we are all psychogeographers, as Drew Mulholland suggests. Every day we are influenced by our environment, and in a psychological sense are transported to historic events, whether we be looking at old maps, historic buildings or the remnants of ancient archaeological sites. For his musical creations, Drew not only takes inspiration from the environment, but also historic texts.

Bio

Drew Mulholland Working in various disciplines including geography, psychology, music, astronomy, physics, and archaeology. Creator of inter-disciplinary projects. Research Fellow PsychoSonic Geographies. Counter Culture Research Group; Cambridge. Visiting Academic Manchester Metropolitan University. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Society of Arts, Open Studies Tutor at University of Glasgow.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Links Twitter: @mulhollandrew

Scicomm

Blog

Schrodinger's Cat fights against false information

False information and

pseudoscience run rampant across the internet, being shared actively across social media, and spreading potentially misinterpreted scientific information. Some scientsists are counteracting this; such as Natasha Parkinson, who set up the blog Schrodinger's Cat which checks the scientific facts behind each story, and answers questions put forward from the public. Above: Schrodinger's Cat logo. © 2018 Natasha Parkinson (Schrodinger's Cat)

Q & A - Natasha Parkinson (Schrodinger's Cat) Can you share with us what inspired your blog Schrodinger’s Cat? What inspired me to start Schrodinger’s Cat was really two things. First, when I graduated with my Bachelor of Science, I found that there was a shortage of entrylevel science positions. So after extensively searching (I must have applied to hundreds of postings) and taking casual, shortterm positions, I decided that I needed to contribute to the science conversation, in any way that I could. And blogging turned out to be the best way to get my voice out Copyright © 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

there. Also, I found on social media that there was so much pseudoscience, much of which was spread unchecked and blindly shared. For a while, I spent a lot of my time researching my friends’ posts and straightening out the facts. For the most part, I found the waters got muddy surrounding articles put out there by self-proclaimed experts, that presented no 47

Scicomm credible, scientific sources. So I thought my blog could be a source of information and to answer readers’ questions.

Blog

Rather than hide behind my words, and say “Trust me I’m an expert,” I decided to provide links to my sources right in my articles. No infinite loops of page and after page of questionable sources. It’s right there.

the learning experience that the conversation can present, including the writer that misunderstood the science at the base of their article. As for those that are intentionally spreading false information, they need to be exposed and after a while, people will begin to question them, when every article they produce is counteracted with the truth from actual credible sources.

How do you think we can avoid or be aware of the surplus of ‘false information’ that can be experienced from science news on social media?

Do you have a background of being involved in a variety of scientific subjects, or are you inspired by a particular field?

I think we can avoid or be aware of the surplus of 'false information' in many ways, but we have a proactive approach. As a writer, we should be transparent with our readers. Showing where we get our information from, how we fact check. Become a trusted source for them because we can prove the truth in our information. As readers, I think it's important to point out the false information. Many people don't realise it's false, rather they take it at face value just because it's from a popular news source or the person saying it has millions of followers. Sometimes the misleading information is not intentional, rather a mistranslation.

Through my post-secondary education, I was fortunate enough to have a wide exposure to a variety of scientific subjects, I started my degree majoring in Biology, I then switched over to a major in Biology and Oceanography, from there I switched (I had issues enrolling in degree required courses due to shortage of seats) to a program called Combined Major in Science.

If we open up the conversation we can help prevent the mistranslation from being spread and misunderstood. Many can benefit from

In that program, I had to choose three "units" of study, for which I graduated with my Combined Major in Science in Earth and Environmental Science, Life Science, and Physics. Once I graduated, I worked briefly with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in their Salmonid Enhancement Program, working a fish hatchery helping to restore salmon population numbers. It is my hope as I move forward to continue my interdisciplinary path and cater to my insatiable interest in science as a whole.

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Blog

What are you envisioning next for your project? Do you have any upcoming plans, or goals?

travel articles. Highlight science museums, science attractions, and locations that are prominent in the science community.

I envision expanding the brand and scope of Schrodinger's Cat. I hope to get interviews and collaborations with leading scientists on their research, make their research more accessible to the general public.

Also, I am currently in talks with a production company about expanding mine and Schrodinger's Cat's science outreach to television. I think this would be a phenomenal opportunity to bring science back into people's homes, much like Bill Nye did when I was growing up. Broadcasting has been set to begin in the New Year (2019), and I look forward to furthering discussions with the production company.

Rather than swamping readers with a lot of scientific jargon, show them how it's relevant to their lives, why it's important. In addition, to interviews, I want to do more science-related

Final thoughts Natasha Parkinson speaks out about false information and how it has spread online, having seen it first-hand among her friends. Information can be easily misunderstood and mis-translated, leading to the sharing of inaccurate information from seemingly trustworthy sources. While this can be avoided by including references to scientific publications, scicomm blogs such as Schrodinger's Cat are a promising way of sharing science with the wider public, in a reliable trusted way. Above: Schrodinger's Cat. ÂŠ 2018 Natasha Parkinson (Schrodinger's Cat)

Bio

Natasha Parkinson (Schrodinger's Cat)

Links

Natasha Parkinson is the creator and blogger behind the science blog, Schrodinger's Cat, which focuses on making science more accessible to the general public. From debunking pseudoscience, the science behind TV and Movies, to science in the news and everyday science, we continue to look for the science in things.

Website: www.schrodingers-cat.net Facebook: www.facebook.com/ schrodingers.cat.net Twitter: @schrodicatsci Instagram: @schrodicatsci Email: natasha@schrodingers-cat.net

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Scicomm

Book

Coloring book celebrates women and cultural diversity in science

Sara MacSorley began the Super Cool Scientists project and

coloring book to not only celebrate women in science, but to show how STEM can be all encompassing for everyone, regardless of gender or cultural background. In collaboration with illustrator Yvonne Page, the duo enjoyed producing the first volume, and have since released a second volume in August earlier this year. Sara shares with us more behind the story and goals of this project.

Q & A - Sara MacSorley (Super Cool Scientists) What inspired you to create the book ‘Super Cool Scientists’? The project was inspired by two things happening in parallel for me. One, I was looking for a side project that brought more science outreach back into my life since I was missing that in my day job. And two, I was putting together a toolkit of strategies that helped me manage my anxiety issues at the time.

Searching for coloring books I was interested in led me to discover that something like Super Cool Scientists didn’t exist yet. My background is in science and I’ve always had a drive to do what I can to make STEM more inclusive for everyone. The idea for a story and coloring book celebrating women in STEM brought all those things together into one super cool project. The original book was so well

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Book

received (and so much fun for me) that we decided to continue with a second volume to celebrate even more women in science. What is the background of Yvonne Page, the illustrator, and how was your experience collaborating together? Yvonne is a freelance writer and illustrator. Her work has been featured in magazines and publications. She has several books including the Super Cool Scientists series and Stinky Poowhere she is the author and illustrator. From the very beginning, Yvonne and I have been a great team. She is an extremely talented artist and her style fit perfectly for what I imagined in Super Cool Scientists. I wanted illustrations of the people that weren’t totally realistic but not like a caricature either. With each feature, I come up with an idea for what they’ll be doing in their image and she hits exactly what I’m looking for nearly every time. Plus, she is hilarious which made collaborating on the books a whole lot of fun. Most of our meetings took place over lunch or donuts – who wouldn’t enjoy that type of partnership? How does this project impact science communication (scicomm)? Science communication is all about making science information exciting to learn about, easy to understand, and relatable. Super Cool Scientists is all about amazing people so I wanted to make sure all of them were relatable as humans, not just scientists. I think sometimes, the complex scientific issues we hear about in the news with their specific vocabulary can make scientists seem

a bit intimidating for people who don’t do that kind of work. Each story in the books talks about what the people do for work and also what got them interested in science in the first place, their childhoods, what they do for fun, and more. Using the story and coloring book format was a fun, totally non-intimidating way to bring science topics to kids, parents, and educators. People learn in all sorts of ways and by talking about science outside the traditional classroom, readers are able to explore their sparked curiosity more through their own research (starting with the stories and resource section in the books).

Scicomm

Book

What do you believe is the benefit of promoting inclusion and diversity in science and society? The goal from the beginning of this project was to have every person who picks up a copy of the book to feel a connection to at least one of the stories either through the narrative or illustration. We can find role models in many kinds of people but it makes it easier sometimes to see yourself in a career if you see people you can relate to already doing that type of work. That is why the representation of such a diverse group of jobs and individuals is so important to our project and inclusion in science. A diversity of experiences adds value to conversations and creative ideas that are critical to solving problems. You only get a diversity of input, if you have people with differing input to offer at the table. It is also important to remember that representation and recruitment are only parts of the issue. For true inclusion, we must also work for retention by creating environments where all people feel like they are seen, like they are heard, and like they are welcomed. One of my favorite ways I’ve heard diversity and inclusion described is – diversity is having everyone come to a party, inclusion is asking everyone to dance.

Can you tell us a bit about what to expect in the second volume of the book? The second volume of Super Cool Scientists features 22 dynamic women currently working in STEM jobs. The fields range from neuroscience to microbiology to biomechanics. Besides scientists and engineers, the women are also inventors, science communicators, parents, and mentors to countless young people.

Scicomm This volume also features several women who are equally creative in their science work as their artwork. Engineer, Alicia Morgan, uses her love of art and science in her work designing museum programs. Chemist, Amanda Preske, runs a jewelry company using materials from upcycled circuit boards. Astrophysicist, Jesse Shanahan, started her college career studying humanities and has a degree in linguistics.

Book

The core of both the sciences and arts is creativity and both can be used to solve problems. We hear the acronym STEAM more as it inserts the arts into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Each field individually has their value however challenges can benefit from using those values together. As with the original book, bulk orders of the second volume will be available at discounted rates for school groups, educational programs, and conferences.

Final thoughts This unique coloring book from Super Cool Scientists has promoted science in an inclusive way to everyone. We at NatureVolve congratulate Super Cool Scientists on the release of the second volume which shares even more stories behind leading women working in STEM across a broad range of fields. The second volume can be found on the Super Cool Scientists website here.

Bio

Sara MacSorley (Super Cool Scientists) Sara fell in love with science as a kid. She studied Marine Biology thinking she would become a researcher. Instead, she learned about more career options and started on a path of science communication and outreach. Super Cool Scientists is Sara’s way of supporting inclusion in science because representation matters.

Website: www.supercoolscientists.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/supercoolscientists/ Twitter: @SuperCoolSci LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/saramacsorley/ Instagram: @supercoolscientists

Art

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Art

Art Gallery

Susan Willemse Bio I was born in Africa but now live in Canberra, Australia where my husband and I photograph Australian birds, both native and introduced species. After 31 years as a cytology medical scientist, I am now a full-time artist using acrylics and airbrush on stretched canvas to create my artwork.

Artwork Below: 'Starling' © 2018 Susan Willemse (61cm x 61cmx 3.5cm, Acrylic on canvas). Starling was created after watching a single Starling drinking at the edge of a golden pool of water. The purples and greens of the feathers being spectacular. Starlings are one of Australia’s introduced birds. This artwork was created in a similar manner to my other artworks but gold was added prior to airbrushing.

Art

Art Gallery

Right: 'Yellow Robin' © 2018 Susan Willemse (30cm x 30cm x 3.5cm, Acrylic on canvas). This artwork shows a single Yellow Robin perched on a branch. The photograph was taken whilst on an excursion to photograph Wedgetailed eagles in the mist. The photograph was then printed and the background airbrushed onto the canvas, then the Robin was painted with fine paintbrushes and the final artwork was framed.

Right: 'Red-rumped Parakeet' © 2018 Susan Willemse (40cm x 30cm x 1.5cm, Acrylic on canvas). This little Red-rumped Parakeet is a grass Parakeet that is all green except for the rump, this bird was perched on a fence and with one backward glance flew off a few seconds later. After preparing the background, a sketch directly onto the canvas was done and then final finishing touches and color were added to complete the artwork. Links Websites: www.susanwillemse. wixsite.com/artaustralianbirds www.susanwillemse.wixsite.com/ artaustralianbirds/links

Art

Art Gallery

Alexandra Nobre Bio I am a biologist, PhD in Sciences and Professor at the Biology Department of University of Minho, Portugal, where I teach in the area of Microbiology. Over time I have been moving my interests and research from applied microbiology

Artwork Above: 'Life in Danger' ÂŠ 2018 Alexandra Nobre This project is an installation made up of different parts, which aims to recreate an underwater environment, without the concern of mimicking reality. It may either correspond to a sector of

to science communication. Presently I coordinate STOL- Science Through Our Lives, a Scicomm project that engages different publics with science and art. Nature is our main inspiration.

a coral reef (important source of biodiversity and in danger nowadays) or to a portion of an oceanic hydrothermal vent (where it is believed life has had its origin). It all depends on the eyes that are observing.

Links Website: www.stolscience.com/

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Art

Art Gallery

Langley Anderson Bio Langley Anderson is an artist and instructor working in Southwestern Virginia. Her current project "Mutualism" explores relationships between science and art. Using microscopes, she enlarges intricate structures of organic specimens, and, by manipulating their color and space, reveals a world of fascinating form. Artwork Right: 'Blossom' ÂŠ 2018 Langley Anderson "Blossom" is a 24" x 24" archival pigment print depicting the seedpod of a daylily (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) that I scanned multiple times with a stereomicroscope. Using Adobe Photoshop, I collaged the many focal stacks together and digitally painted the composition with vivid hues. My work illustrates a mutualism between science and art by displaying the inherent beauty of nature in a new way. Links Website: www.langleyanderson.com Twitter: @LangleyAnderso1 Instagram: @langleyandersonphotography Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Art

Art Gallery

Jonas Federman Bio Federman is currently a member of the faculty of UFRJ's (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) at School of Communication, teaching courses in graphic design. Artwork Below: ‘Bread, wine and candles. Fridays at night Jews celebrate Shabbat.' © 2018 Jonas Federman

Links Websites: www.artedigitalblogdotcom. wordpress.com www.jonasfederman.com.br

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Art Gallery

Max Zotov Bio I am a journalist, poet and creator of the patented Ukrainian technique of carving on natural leaves.

Links Website: www.etsy.com/shop/ CarvedLeaves

Art

Art Gallery

Marta Noone Bio Marta Noone is a musician and visual artist of Rome, now based in the northeast of Scotland, engaged in an aestheticphilosophical research that uses sounds and images to filter through her art the historical moment and the related distress, drawing from other possible etheric worlds. In this path she has organized unconventional events of electronic music and contemporary art, has collaborated with several artists of the Roman area in live and theatrical performances, and produced original soundtracks for independent short films.

She is now fully engaged with the electronic experimental duo Silent Chaos and she explores the huge creative possibilities given by both music and image. Artwork The Satellite Serie is a series of satellite images taken, cropped and then transformed and enhanced digitally. The concept explores the multiform folds of the human being with delicacy and sensitivity, digging deep into the relationships and their absence (Comprehension and Solitude), the fortress of Ego and the structure of Accomplishment.

Right: 'Solitude' © 2018 Marta Noone - a subtile no-cross line between you and the others, they are near, but you’re alone. Center-pivot irrigation in the desert taken from the satellite. Links Email: silentchaosproject@gmail.com

Written Word

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Written word

Poetry

Secrets in the centrefold

excerpt titled 'From the men of the village' by Elinor Rowlands The forest is Where she lays her Tiredness down beside me. The floor of joy Is marked with The beads of sweat That roll down her chest Between her breasts

Her heart beats And is awake to a journey The pearl slides Down the skin over my bones. Now folded over, folding. Where she cared for our baby Kept her safe Under the rolls of skin of warmth She is like a wildness That birthed her and She is still gifting her in ways I will never know I am locked out from And frazzled, too. As a voice speaks Through me every time she holds onto a tree, my lady. Branches like hands to hold A trunk Holding a heartbeat Lungs and breathing Deep breath She soars over the waves of grass High up Copyright © 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Trees And high up sky The lonely women who cry in their beds at night I see her hold our daughter close to her We are too far away, to be where we were meant to stay We are men at war, with tides of strife and mud and fed up We want the bust of family, nest and fire. Warmth. This world we brought her into I think of her bringing our daughter into the world alone. I don’t want her to die alone. In my arms, I want us to go together. I want it all to be different 63

Written word The tenderness in their beds as the women roll their tongues Roll out a new language Say new words I see her folding paper now. Writing secrets in the centrefold. The edges are not crisp instead They are soft and half bitten The jewels in the jewelled sea The blue in my eyes The pink in our daughter’s cheeks The green below my lover’s feet The red up high beating blood around our bodies about warm As warm as fire Lonely here, all the women Who birthed their babies who are growing older Like a strip of paper

Poetry

A note written on crumpled paper A strip of words Because they have got so much more left to say but are gagged and silenced and marginalised. A boat out on the water Her sails made from the women’s wedding dresses The curtains of our rooms pave out a story A map of love like sealed envelopes Old age, it centres us Walk over, rocks, and sea. In the darkest night, where we lay all of our dreams. In the darkest sky where all the women wonder why Where the men creep quietly, lie still in open graves, fenced off worlds In the lit up sky covered in stars In the starry night, women cry.

Poet's comments

This poem is based on a true story where an entire town in Norway was wiped away by an earthquake leaving behind very few people, unbeknownst to the men fighting in the war, who lost their lives too.

Bio

Elinor Rowlands Elinor Rowlands is a word painter who speaks as she writes, and writes as she speaks, to a rhythm her gut writes from her body instinctively. A synesthete and neurodiverse artist, words come to her based on energies she picks up in her surroundings. Nature, landscape and the histories of our ancestors who made their homes there are richly feasted and weaved into Elinor's stories and poems.

Links Website: www.elinorrowlands.com Instagram: @eirionedd

Written word

Fiction

Calculated deception

(an excerpt from the book Calculated Deception) Written by K.T. Lee

Dr. Ree Ryland’s practical black pumps clipped against the concrete sidewalk, breaking through the quiet of the early morning. She made a beeline to the civil engineering building to buy a coffee from the student-run lounge, filled her insulated mug exactly one inch from the top, added milk and sugar, and popped on a lid. After making small talk with the cashier and paying for her morning energy boost, she resumed her efficient pace until she reached her office. Ree dropped her purse on her desk, took a long pull of fortifying caffeine and pressed the power button on her computer at precisely 7:15 a.m.

Ree lowered herself into her chair, swiveled ninety degrees and plonked her heavy bag into the bottom drawer of her file cabinet. She locked the drawer and gave it a quick tug to make sure her things were secure, even though Indiana Polytechnic wasn’t exactly crawling with criminals. While Ree wasn’t worried about a student stealing her things, she didn’t want someone to come across her small handgun by accident. Ree quietly exploited the lack of a policy on concealed weapons on campus by carrying her secured Glock zipped into the front pocket of a purse designed for that purpose. Despite chiding herself for her paranoia in the busy daytime hours, she drew comfort from knowing she could defend herself when she worked in the building alone at night. Ree placed her earbuds in her ears and selected a playlist on her phone before retrieving the thick pad of graph paper from the corner of her desk. The cheerful, fast beat of her favorite song served as the perfect complement to the calculations that needed to be finished by the end of the week. Bobbing her head as she worked, she pulled

open her desk drawer to pluck out the pencil and ruler that were stored next to her “break in case of emergency” chocolate and high-powered calculator. Holding the ruler steady, Ree drew crisp lines and arrows on her diagram, making sure she’d made the right assumptions before plugging the problem into her 3D stress analysis software. She nodded in satisfaction and turned to the keyboard. Her fingers danced across it, tapping to the rhythm of the music that drowned out her surroundings. Ree looked up from her computer to check her diagram and realized, too late, that she wasn’t alone. Her focus was broken by the sound of her own shriek. When she realized that the cause of her alarm was waving a piece of paper and not trying to kill

Written word her, Ree slapped a hand to her mouth and felt her cheeks flush. Grinning, the man said, “Dr. Ryland? I’m sorry to sneak up on you...but do you have a moment?” Ree’s heart pounded as she rummaged through her mental file to work out who was standing in front of her. While students were most often the people that visited her office at odd hours, the man in front of her wore dress pants and a polo instead of the typical uniform of a sweatshirt and jeans. He was tall and youngish, with short, dark blond hair, but looked too old to be one of her students. His eyes darted around her office, which meant that either she had scared him or he was in a hurry. Ree tried to remember if there had been any gossip about new professors starting this week but came up empty. Powers of deduction at a loss, she gathered up her dignity, smiled pleasantly and confirmed, “That’s me. What can I help you with?” Parker returned a smile to Dr. Ryland with practiced ease. She wore simple but trendy clothes, had an athletic build, and her brown hair was pulled back into a neat twist. At 32, he couldn’t count on his looks to fool the professor into thinking he was an undergraduate student and had planned accordingly. Parker was playing the part of a college student interested starting a new career after spending several years working as an electrician. This alias was easier than most. Parker worked as an intern for an electrical contractor for a summer in college and had graduated with an engineering degree before getting recruited into the FBI. That the FBI recruited engineers wasn’t a secret, but it also wasn’t widely known, which would come in handy when he tried to convince the young professor that he was just another student. Parker placed the form on her meticulously organized desk and explained, “I’m Parker Landon, and I was wondering if it wouldn’t be too much trouble to transfer to your section. I’m completing most of my school work after my day job and your 6 p.m. section would really help me out. But, your class is already full and I have to get your permission to attend. Can you sign off on an extra

Fiction

student? I promise not to be too much trouble.” When the professor stared past him instead of answering the question, Parker tapped a finger on the paper, keeping his face even as he watched for signs that she had somehow seen through his façade. While unlikely, the possibility was everpresent in his line of work, and he forced himself to appear relaxed as he waited for her response.

About K.T. Lee

K.T. Lee is a writer, mom and engineer who grew up on a steady diet of books from a wide variety of genres. When K.T. began to write the kind of books she wanted to read, she mixed clever women and the sciences with elements from thrillers (and a dash of romance) to create The Calculated Series.

Links Website: www.ktleeauthor.com Twitter: @ktleewrites Facebook: www.facebook.com/ktleewrites Instagram: @ktleeauthor Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/ show/17410508.K_T_Lee

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Thought-notes

Impressions on my trip to Written by David Silvestre the homeopathic side (Revolutionary Oncology) Originally published on https://revolutionaryoncology.blogspot.com/

Above: By 'Gate74' on Pixabay.com Right: By 'Bekaschiller' on Pixabay.com

Not having much idea about what homeopathy is, by chance I was confronted with it. A cautionary tale. So there I was. Once again applying for jobs. It takes time, energy and a lot of positive thinking. You put your network to work, suscribe to job search engine sites, contact headhunters, go to talks, and so on. So there I find this job opening that looks appealing: Research leader in life sciences. Good start, let's have a look.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Written word The company stated its values pretty clearly:

"Our vocation is to innovate constantly differentiating ourselves by a global management of the patient and by actively contributing to the progress of Medicine" (Medicine with capital M).. The job sounded good, the company too. So I sent my application. A couple of weeks later, I got a phone call from the recruitment company for a Skype interview. As is the case in many job descriptions from a recruiting company, there weren't many details like the name of the company or the indications. But as is the case in most recruiting processes, there is this invitation to play cat and mouse. In this case the geographical localization was there, or at least the region. It wasn't a very populated area, no big cities around, so I supposed there weren't many big pharmas around.

Thought-notes

"nosodes" (from the Greek nosos, disease) made from diseased or pathological products such as fecal, urinary, and respiratory discharges, blood, and tissue. These eclectic substances are diluted to incredibly high dilutions, some times for a factor bigger than the Avogadro constant, which means that virtually there aren't any molecules left of the final solution. The explanation to affirm that these dilutions are not just water is the famous concept of water memory: water keeps the structure it had while in contact with the homeopathic substance. Not surprinsingly, short range order in water lasts no more than some femtoseconds. To conclude, Wikipedia stated that:

"The proposed mechanisms for homeopathy are precluded from having any effect by the laws of physics and physical chemistry".

After having a look on the internet on the pharma companies on the area, just one came out. It was a mid sized company, present in many countries around the world. It was a name I never heard before.

"Scientific tests run by both the BBC's Horizon and ABC's 20/20 programmes were unable to differentiate homeopathic dilutions from water, even when using tests suggested by homeopaths themselves".

Checking their website there appears this little word: homeopathy. I admit that at that time the only thing I knew about it was its bad reputation, so I had a look on Wikipedia.

Well, it didn't sound very attractive from a scientific point of view.

It is a discipline created by a german physician called Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann in 1796, based on his doctrine of like cures like (similia similibus curentur), i.e a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people would cure similar symptoms in sick people. Some version of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger avant l'heure.

I decided to go trough the Skype interview anyway. The consultant was a very nice person and the conversation went smoothly. As the protocol requires, I explained my background, future professional plans and the place of this position on all that, trying not to make any reference to the H word.

Homeopathy uses animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic substances and its preparations include arsenicum album (arsenic oxide), natrum muriaticum (sodium chloride or table salt), Lachesis muta (the venom of the bushmaster snake), opium, and thyroidinum (thyroid hormone). There are also Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

Written word After I finished the conversation went like: Consultant: Did you figure out what's the company? Me: I guess, is it XXX? Consultant: That's right, so I asume you know their expertise. Me: Homeopathy, right? Consultant: That's correct. Do you have any questions about that? Me: I do, indeed. I looked carefully at their website and I couldn't find their pipeline, any of their products on the market or their R&D strategy, I couldn't find any trace of clinical trials on their products, so I don't know what do they currently do regarding this position. Is that normal? Consultant: Well, I guess you know there's a lot of controversy around homeopathy, so they are discrete about that in order to preserve themselves from criticisms. Me: Honestly that sounds weird to me, but if that works for them...

Thought-notes

once at hand and some shortcuts would be of help to catalize our understanding. But the case of homeopathy is different, because it stands on the classical western science tradition, but changing the rules constantly. I felt like meeting the researchers from the company to know what they looked and sounded like. Indeed on Linkedin they looked pretty average, with professional backgrounds like everybody else. The second reason why I tried to keep my application alive was much more serious: I needed a job. At the time of this conversation I was unemployed for 3 months (the company where I was working just shut down), which was not a huge amount of time, but I was starting to get worried. The takehome message, I suppose, is that in hard situations like these you have to trust your guts and your brain. Your guts will tell you what's right or wrong, your brain how to profit of what's right. And keep calm.

Consultant: If you are still interested on this position, think about all this and contact me back. I waited a couple of days to think about it. Finally I sent the consultant an email saying I was still interested on the job for X and Y reasons. I never heard back from the consultant. Then I said to myself, what was your motivation to send that email? Why I wanted to work for a company that basically hides from the public and is reluctant to explain what they do? I guess there were two main reasons. One was curiosity, no kidding: I wanted to know more about an industry that stands on such a weak scientific basis.

About

David Silvestre (Revolutionary Oncology) I did my undergraduate studies and PhD in biochemistry in Argentina, followed by 10 years of translational research in oncology in France. I currently help in developing nanomedicines for cancer treatment in the Netherlands. Chemist by training, cancer cell biologist by profession, science writer and free thinker by dream.

Links Website: www.revolutionaryoncology. blogspot.com/

I try to stay open to alternative ways to explain reality, classical western science may not have all the cards at Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

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Thought-notes

CBD Oil: what you need to know

Written by Yewande Okuleye (University of Leicester)

Originally published by The Conversation https://theconversation.com/cbd-oil-what-you-need-to-know-99430

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that Cannabidiol (CBD) oil – a concentrated oily extract made from cannabis – can help treat a variety of ailments. It’s said to help with everything from epileptic seizures to opioid addiction, PTSD to arthritis. But despite CBD oil’s high profile status, there’s still a lot of confusion about what it actually is, and what it’s made from. Certain types of CBD oil are already legally available in the UK – such as those made from hemp – whereas other types are very much illegal in the UK – though are available to buy in other countries CBD oil extracted from hemp is often marketed as a food supplement to promote well-being – similar to other herbals like Echinacea – and boost the immune system. Although Hemp CBD oil is legal, it is not a medicine and should not be confused with the recent confiscation of 12-year-old Billy Caldwell’s CBD oil at Heathrow airport.

Billy had flown with his mother to Canada to buy the CBD oil – which helps to keep his daily epileptic seizures at bay. But his oil was confiscated because it was made from cannabis flowers and leaves, and so was classed as illegal in the UK, pushing childhood epilepsy and CBD oil into the spotlight. Cannabis law explained So far, so confusing, but part of the problem is that terms like cannabis and hemp are often used interchangeably – which masks the nuances and complexities of the cannabis plant. Cannabis sativa L, the scientific name of the cannabis plant, is cultivated to produce two distinctive products – industrial hemp, and cannabis. The main difference between hemp and cannabis is based on two criteria. First, the levels of cannabinoids – a family of chemical compounds, the cannabis plant naturally produces – and second, the end use. According to current UK drug laws, cannabis is classified as an illegal drug because of the

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Thought-notes

psychoactive properties of THC, the component in it that creates the “high”. And under UK law, cannabis is deemed to have a high potential for abuse – with no accepted medical properties.

medical evidence, about the therapeutic properties of cannabis-based products, also believes this. She recently said that “doctors should be able to prescribe” cannabis.

Hemp vs cannabis

Davies has recommended the removal of cannabis from schedule one classification – which covers a group of drugs considered to have no medical purpose, that cannot be legally possessed or prescribed.

But this is where it gets even more confusing because cannabis can be bred to create different strains. Cannabis consumed for recreational purposes is selectively bred to optimise high THC content strains – to maximise the “high” feeling. But cannabis also contains CBD, which is a nonpsychoactive component. Hemp, on the other hand, is harnessed as seed, oil and fibre to produce a wide range of products. It is cultivated to produce a low concentration of the psychoactive cannabinoid THC – as well as higher levels of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD. Cannabis is classified as hemp if it has a maximum level of 0.2% THC. Billy’s CBD oil, confiscated at Heathrow, was made from cannabis with a higher level than 0.2% of THC – so it was classed as cannabis, which is why it was confiscated. Medical marijuana A recent survey conducted by Sky News found that 82% of their poll subjects agreed that medical cannabis should be legalised. Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, who was appointed to investigate the current scientific and

In Billy Caldwell’s case, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, made the decision to grant Billy access to imported CBD oil. This fresh approach to reconsider the classification of cannabis has been seminal, and mirrors wider sentiment in other countries. In the US, for example, medical cannabis programmes have been initiated in 30 states. Hence, medical tourism to Canada – where cannabis is legal for medicinal purposes – and the US to gain access to CBD oil. In the UK, however, Sajid Javid will not reclassify cannabis until the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs provides recommendations about the public health implications – which will include the abuse potential of cannabis-based CBD. Though it seems very likely that the home secretary will continue to move towards a patient focused resolution. For patients like Billy then, what this means is that cannabis-based CBD oil could soon be prescribed in the UK under controlled conditions, by registered practitioners, and for medical benefit.

About

Yewande Okuleye Yewande Okuleye recently completed her PhD thesis 'Contested Knowledges: Tracing Patient and Scientific Expertise and the Emergence of Cannabis as a Medicine in the UK, was completed as the status of cannabis changed in the UK'. Insights from her thesis position her expertise at the interface of academia, policy and industry.

Links Website: www.flipboard.com/@ YewandeOkuleye

Written word

Blackstone

Peter Jordan opened the front door of his home and took a breath of morning air, smiled and looked around. The place was in a constant twilight with air that was thick with sea fog. Overhead the sky was grey with pockets of azure blue peeking out like a shy child in a crowded room of strangers. The brown rushes next to the house danced in the sea breeze as overhead curlews glided, their movements were free and easy, upwards and over towards a near perfect heaven that could not be grasped. They sang their shrill song of summers lost and wasted. Peter knew in time he too would sing that song. He would cry upon the air

Fiction

Written by Kevin McManus

like a bitter calling to days of yore when he was too young to care or realise the precious importance of time. The two storey house in which he lived was an old structure with no running water or modern convenience such as electricity. His only light, the open fire and a paraffin lamp that was hanging from a hook on the ceiling. It was a simple life but one that Peter had left his life in London for to move to an Atlantic island on where he could devote himself to his work and feel a sense of belonging to the earth and the trees that surrounded him.

Copyright ÂŠ 2018 NatureVolve, no content to be re-used without permission. All indiviudal content providers retain the rights to their original work.

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In a city of millions Peter had felt alone and isolated but here on the island he felt that he belonged. He felt that he was part of something. After putting some more timber on the fire he commenced his morning walk to the seafront that was only a short distance from his home. The soft brown earth sank under his heavy boots as he crossed the ground. His long, woollen coat swung gently as he moved. A tweed cap pulled snugly down on his forehead. Beside him his companion a loyal follower and protector, a border collie. The old dog’s steps were slower and stiffer now but he happily walks alongside. The sounds of the sea battering against the headland were intoxicating as the heavy swell spilled over the blackstone. He stood upon a rock on an outcrop that jutted out to sea like a signpost to a new land. Beside him the sea that buried a thousand tragedies deep within its cold and dark waters. Peter kept his own pain and loss covered within his own dark spaces. He avoided dredging the depths as this could drag to the surface unwanted relics. Best leave the past with the past. Peter was a man who enjoyed his own company living alone on the edge of the island. He had lived there for the last three years. He endured and enjoyed the isolation.

Fiction

His only human contact was with Sean Bannon who brought him supplies from the mainland twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. As Peter stood on the black stone shore he could see Sean’s boat approaching on the horizon. He looked at his watch it was 10.45. Sean was as predictable as the day turning to night. Ten minutes later Peter had helped Sean to pull his small boat up onto the shore. Sean handed him a box containing the supplies he would need for the next four days and the two men headed back towards Peter’s house where they sat and drank hot tea and talked. Peter looked forward to the visit. They talked of incidents and news from the mainland. Apart from his battery transistor radio this was Peter’s only window to the world beyond. “The weather is turning, that sky is getting black. I won’t stay long” Sean said as he drank his mug of tea and looked out the opened half door towards the bay. “Yes, the wind is picking up for sure, you can always stay here if you wish until the worst of it passes.” Peter said. “No, I cant Eileen is waiting for me, it’s the grandsons birthday party this afternoon. I have to get back for that.” “Oh I see, yes that’s an important day.” “Did you never think Peter of moving away from here, the winter is on its way

Written word

and by all accounts is going to be a rough one. It’s no place for a man on his own here. With Padraig and Josie gone you are all alone here. It’s not natural or safe either, what if you get sick or you had an accident. There will be nobody here to help you” “I’ll be fine, don’t I have the dog, and sure he will look after me. I have lived through three winters here. I will survive a few more, don’t worry Sean. Look you better get going or I will be worried about you getting home safely.” “Okay, I better go so.” Peter followed Sean down to the blackstone shore and helped him launch his motor boat onto the water. Black clouds were racing overhead and the wind was brewing. “I’ll see you on Wednesday morning Peter.” Sean had to shout over the howling wind as he got into his boat. “Oh Christ, I forgot to give you this, a letter for you it was delivered to the post office in Carraigdun.” Sean said as he reached into his inside pocket of his coat and then leaned forward to hand the letter to Peter “Okay thanks, Sean, I hope you get back safely, are you sure you wont stay?” “No, I’ll be fine.” Sean said as he blessed himself Peter waved at Sean and he watched him disappear into the horizon. He then turned back for home and looked at the envelope. He rarely received any post. He looked at the stamp it was English. The handwriting on the envelope looked familiar. When he

Fiction

completed the short walk to his home he put the letter to one side and unpacked the supplies that Sean had delivered. After cooking a meal for himself he decided that the roof of the timber shed outside needed to be repaired and was a priority with the threatening winds making landfall soon. Thankfully the storm was short lived and a clearance in the afternoon gave him the opportunity to complete his task. As dusk shadows fell upon the island at five in the evening he realised there was little more he could do but rest for the night inside. A welcoming and warm supper was devoured and sitting by the fire he looked again at the envelope on the table and after much procrastination he carefully opened it. Inside was a hand written letter. He carefully unfolded and discovered that it was from his wife Emily whom he had been separated from for the past five years. He slowly read through it contents and then his hand fell downwards in shock as he stared into the fire. His feelings were one of confusion, sadness and helplessness. He wanted to cry out and confide in someone but there was no one to give him solace not on the dark island. He opened the door and walked out into the all consuming black night.

********* 74

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Four days later Sean Bannon’s boat entered the bay of Blackstone beach, he was surprised not to see Peter waiting on the shore to welcome him. He could hear Peter’s dog barking. The noise was coming from beside the house. When he reached the dwelling he knocked twice at the door and after receiving no answer he entered. The kitchen was cold and dark, the fire was unlit and in the adjoining bedroom there was no trace of Peter. Sean went outside and called Peter’s name as he checked the outside shed. He then climbed on to a rocky mound at the rear of the house to get a better view of the island. He spotted the dog heading towards a line of ash trees and he decided to follow him. As he approached them he could see the figure of a man slumped next to a tree. Sean called Peter’s name again but there was no answer. He ran towards the human form and prayed to himself as he approached it. Underneath the centre ash tree he found Peter with his back resting against the trunk. His eyes were closed and his head was drooped forward. His body felt cold

Fiction

and wet as Sean shook him and shouted his name. There was no response. He shouted and shook him again. Peter’s head turned slowly upwards and his eyes opened. He reached out his arms and he grabbed Sean tightly hugging him while he sobbed bitterly. After a few minutes he released his grip on Sean and spoke “I’m ready to leave this place now, its time to leave.” *********** An hour later Peter had packed up the possessions he needed into a bag and with Sean’s help they lifted the old dog onto the boat and headed out into Blackstone bay. He turned his body backwards to look at the old grey house that had been his home for three years and he smiled as he looked at it disappearing into the foggy distance. He then turned forwards towards the faint heat of the winter sun and the opening expanse and promise of the mainland before him.

About

Kevin McManus Kevin McManus lives in Leitrim in Western Ireland. He graduated from university with an M.A. Degree in History in 1997. He has worked as a school teacher for the last twenty years. Kevin has published four novels so far with a fifth one due for publication later this year. In 2019 the author plans to publish a collection of his short stories. His writings are very much inspired by the wild and bleak beauty of the western Irish rural landscape and the isolation endured by some of the people that live there.

Links Facebook: www.facebook. com/Books-by-KevinMcManus-1075444599167606/ Website: www.kevinmcmanusbooks. wordpress.com/kevin mcmanus Twitter: @bassbreeze

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