Tag Archives: Environment

Do mushrooms really use language to talk to each other? A fungi expert investigates

Katie Field is Professor in Plant-Soil Processes, University of Sheffield.
“I have two key research interests. The first is plant-fungal symbioses and their applications in sustainable agriculture. Today, it is estimated that more than 80% of land plants, representing over 90% of plant families, form nutritional symbioses with soil-dwelling fungi. My research aims to expand our understanding of these symbioses with important applications in sustainable agriculture.
I’m also interested in the evolution of plant-fungal symbioses, and in particular how the biotic and abiotic environments interact to drive plant evolution and the development of the terrestrial biosphere. This key question underpins my research into the interactions between ancient land plant lineages and symbiotic soil fungi. Plant-fungal symbioses date back to when plants first colonized Earth’s landmasses more than 475 million years ago, and we are only just starting to understand the diversity, structure and physiological function of the relationships between early branching lineages of land plants and their symbiotic fungi. My research aims to shed new light on the role fungal symbionts may have played in the development of Earth’s ecosystems”.

The Encounters Trilogy

Garry Kennard is a painter, writer and founding director of Art and Mind (www.artandmind.org). A fascination with how the brain reacts to works of art has lead Kennard to research, write and lecture on these topics. With Rita Carter and Annabel Huxley he devised and directed the unique Art and Mind Festivals which attracted leading artists and scientists to explore what light the brain sciences can throw on contemporary culture.

Vital Signs: another world is possible

‘Vital Signs: another world is possible’ is Science Gallery London’s new, free exhibition and events programme. It brings together artists, designers and researchers to explore how the health of the natural world is intimately connected to our own health and wellbeing from the waterways and atmosphere to the ocean floor. Revealing unique perspectives on our surrounding environments through multimedia installations, research collaborations and A Living Library, Vital Signs reinforces that humans are fundamentally a part of nature rather than apart from it.

Talking to animals

Tom Mustill is a biologist turned filmmaker and writer.

His work with David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, Stephen Fry and conservation and science heroes across the globe have won over 30 international awards, including two Webbys, a Wildscreen Panda, two Jackson Wild Awards and been nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

His book “How to Speak Whale: a Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication” is out now

The silent conversations of plants

Sven Batke is Associate Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange – Reader in Plant Science, Edge Hill University. He completed his PhD at Trinity College Dublin in Plant Biology. He currently holds the position of Associate Head of Research and Knowledge in Biology and is a Reader in Plant Sciences. His research interests are in crop science, tropical ecology and taxonomy.

Structures of Communication

Through drawing and printmaking Ian Chamberlain reinterprets man-made structures as monuments in the landscape. These structures are architectural metaphors of past and current technological achievements. He has had a long-standing fascination with technology and architectural forms especially the structures within industry, agriculture, science and the military. These have included Goonhilly Earth station, The Lovell Telescope, Cheshire Maunsell Sea Forts in the Thames estuary and the Acoustic Sound Mirrors on the South Kent Coast.

The Jellyfish Who Lost Hope

Nicholas P. Money (Nik Money) is a gentleman of letters, mycologist, and professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of popular science books that celebrate the diversity of the microbial world. His latest book, ‘Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicines’, reveals our dependence on the fungi from the billions of yeasts in the gut microbiome, or mycobiome, to the mushroom colonies that support plants and spin the carbon cycle.

The Wash

Jane Scobie is sculptor working on environmental issues, her research areas include biodiversity, extraction and ocean literacy. Her MA work explores the Strandline, a ‘living system’ as material, model and metaphor to understand our relationship with the ocean in the context of climate breakdown. Jane uses materials and processes with a low environmental impact and has a circular creative approach to design – remaking and re-using work.

Hiroshima is fading

Florian Coulmas is Professor of Japanese Society and Sociolinguistics at the IN-EAST Institute of East Asian Studies at Duisburg-Essen University. His book, ‘Identity: A Very Short Introduction’, was published in February 2019.

Harry Whitaker is a renowned psychologist and neurolinguist, researching in Cognitive Science, Differential Psychology and Neuropsychology.

In this feature they discuss their experience of Hiroshima.

Humans weren’t the first engineers, doctors and farmers – bacteria, plants and animals have lots to teach us

Predrag Slijepcevic is a Senior Lecturer in Biology, Brunel University London

“I am a bio-scientist interested in the philosophy of biology. In particular, I investigate how biological systems, from bacteria to animals and beyond, perceive and process environmental stimuli (biological information) and how this processing, which is a form of natural learning, affects the organism-environment interactions. I aim to identify those elements in the organization of biological systems that lead to forms of natural epistemology, or biological intelligence, that may qualify them as cognitive agents.
In particular, I specialise in analysis of chromosomes and study of structures at chromosome ends called telomeres. My other interest is animal behavior developed while studying veterinary medicine. I have lately developed interest in insects and their propensity to develop technologies.”