The Reenchantment of the the Tree concentrates on images of trees found predominantly in the arid zone of far western NSW. Louise Fowler Smith layers or glazes light onto specially chosen trees, that may otherwise have been disregarded and ignored; concentrating on its individual qualities or personality. This process draws out the tree, making it special, individualistic, even sacred.
Biological information is not only instructional but also has to do with ‘valued’ and ‘significant’ information, which puts the receiver in the centre of interest. Bernd-Olaf Küppers, Professor of Natural Sciences, offers a distinct naturalistic view about how crucial semantic levels of information might emerge via evolutionary processes.
Does nature process quantum information whenever a physical system evolves? In this article, Seth Lloyd uses the concept of quantum information science as the basis for an entire world view, declaring that the universe as a whole is a gigantic quantum computer.
Janine Benyus is a biologist who works on the border between biology and design. Following her ground-breaking book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, she has become an award-winning innovation consultant, helping to create a more sustainable world by learning from the designs of nature. In this exclusive interview she discusses the ideas and work of Biomimicry, “the conscious emulation of life’s genius”. An idea that could change the way we think about sustainable design forever.
The exotic forms and colours of the plant world and the way in which they migrate into every aspect of our lives has been a source of inspiration throughout Rob Kesseler’s artistic career. Here he discusses the possible convergent territories of art and science, and a definition of art for scientists.
The word ‘sacred’ is not a word that has been used within modern science. In this exclusive interview, Stuart Kauffman discusses how our scientific understanding of complexity and emergence has “Reinvented the Sacred”.
Richard Feynman (1918 – 1988) was an American theoretical physicist who became one of the best-known scientists in the world. In 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. In his poem ‘Wonder’ he muses on the emergence of complexity and consciousness from the blind play of atoms.
By studying how ant colonies work without any one leader, Deborah Gordon has identified striking similarities in how ant colonies, brains, cells and computer networks regulate themselves.
Enrico Coen suggests that there are only seven organising principles sufficient to explain much, if not all, of biology – whether we are dealing with genetics, development, evolution, learning and brain function, populations or culture.
If the imagination is to transcend and transform experience it has to question, to challenge, to conceive of alternatives. Eco-poet, Helen Moore, provides a glimpse of a change of thinking that points to us visioning a new ecological age… to be continued in a future issue.