wild nature against artificial nature

Artificial Nature: Immersive World Making

Artificial Nature is a trans-disciplinary research project drawing upon bio-inspired system theories in the production of engaging immersive worlds as art installations. Embodied world making and immersion are identified as key components in an exploration of creative ecosystems toward art-as-it-could-be. A detailed account of the design of a successfully exhibited creative ecosystem is given i...

Does Nature Prefer Heterocycles?

Wild Child: Guiding theYoung Back to Nature

Economic reasons for conserving wild nature.

On the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it is timely to assess progress over the 10 years since its predecessor in Rio de Janeiro. Loss and degradation of remaining natural habitats has continued largely unabated. However, evidence has been accumulating that such systems generate marked economic benefits, which the available data suggest exceed those obtained from continued h...

Farming and the fate of wild nature.

World food demand is expected to more than double by 2050. Decisions about how to meet this challenge will have profound effects on wild species and habitats. We show that farming is already the greatest extinction threat to birds (the best known taxon), and its adverse impacts look set to increase, especially in developing countries. Two competing solutions have been proposed: wildlife-friendl...

Artificial photosynthesis: understanding water splitting in nature.

In the context of a global artificial photosynthesis (GAP) project, we review our current work on nature's water splitting catalyst. In a recent report (Cox et al. 2014 Science 345, 804-808 (doi:10.1126/science.1254910)), we showed that the catalyst-a Mn4O5Ca cofactor-converts into an 'activated' form immediately prior to the O-O bond formation step. This activated state, which represents an al...