Yocheved Wilson

27/08/2022

Hundreds of miles up-river, near the city of Gliwice, Ewa Sternal looks out over the boats bobbing in a small marina and says she saw it coming.

Ewa runs the marina, which lies within a working port. Cranes shift large metal containers near piles of coal on the opposite bank as she explains that the water here flows, via the Gliwice canal, into the Oder.

People here first reported fish dying, and the water changing, back in March.

Ewa describes how the fish appeared to try to get out of the port, gathering near its entrance, "to gasp for air, for oxygen". When it happened again in June, she began to investigate for herself.

19/08/2022

Seals at this age may make poor decisions, he said, like going out swimming in bad weather and then retreating inland to rest.

While it is common to find New Zealand fur seals on beaches and perhaps venturing up to paths and roads in this area, it is unusual to hear of them entering homes, Mr Ross added.

The seal was discovered around 07:00 local time on Wednesday (19:00GMT on Tuesday), as Ms Ross returned home from an early morning fitness class.

15/08/2022

World leaders will meet at the UN in New York later for more talks to save the world's oceans from overexploitation.

The UN High Seas Treaty has been through 10 years of negotiations but has yet to be signed.

If agreed, it would put 30% of the world's oceans into conservation areas by 2030.

Campaigners hope it will protect marine life from overfishing and other human activities.

Two-thirds of the world's oceans are currently considered international waters, which mean all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research there. But only 1.2% of these high seas, as they are referred to, are protected.

28/07/2022

We have been sending seeds into space since before Nasa was founded," says Emma Doughty, host of the Gardeners of the Galaxy podcast. "When America was firing captured German V2 rockets in the 1940s, they were sending seeds into space alongside other sorts of organisms, such as insects, to test how the space environment and radiation affected lifeforms.

"We knew nothing about what would happen to life when it left the atmosphere or what happened in microgravity," she says. "We needed to know if life could survive up there before we started sending anything that anybody was going to care about."

On 31 January 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 – Shepard, Roosa and lunar lander pilot Ed Mitchell ­– blasted-off from Cape Canaveral on their giant Saturn V rocket towards the Moon. After the near disaster of Apollo 13, Nasa was under enormous political pressure to ensure this mission went without a hitch. But three hours into the flight, they were already in trouble.

21/07/2022

“We live in a part of the world which gets storms and we’ll always have them. But we’re trying to understand whether these storms are becoming more or less frequent, are they becoming more severe, are we getting more rain out of these storms, are they changing direction?” Hawkins says. “Going back in time and looking at the storms of that period enables us to compare with the storms of today, and look at the potential changes which have resulted from human-driven warming of the atmosphere over the past century.”

But these goals met a slight setback. Feeding the original Ben Nevis weather data into a computer model requires all the observations to be digitised. While the thousands of pages of observations were published in scientific journals in the early 20th Century and have been subsequently scanned, typing all 1.5 million into an online database would take years.

And so thousands of volunteers across Europe have helped digitise the observations over a period of just 10 weeks in autumn 2017.

13/07/2022

Mud buildings are remarkably good at keeping us cool in summer and warm in winter, and withstanding extreme weather. In the search for more sustainable buildings, architects are returning to this overlooked, age-old construction material.
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In Yemen's ancient walled city of Sana'a mud skyscrapers soar high into the sky. The towering structures are built entirely out of rammed earth and decorated with striking geometric patterns. The earthen buildings blend into the nearby ochre-coloured mountains.

Sana'a's mud architecture is so unique that the city has been recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site.

"As an outstanding example of a homogeneous architectural ensemble reflecting the spatial characteristics of the early years of Islam, the city in its landscape has an extraordinary artistic and pictorial quality," Unesco writes in its description of Sana'a. "The buildings demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship in the use of local materials and techniques."

06/07/2022

According to historian Charles al Hayek, who runs a YouTube channel and Instagram account dedicated to Middle Eastern culture, the tradition of handing out sweets for Eid al Fitr began during the Fatimid Caliphate in the 10th to 12th Centuries, when the Caliph, or state, would gift them to everyone including servants following Eid morning prayers. As Sawsan (no surname) from the Chef in Disguise website wrote, the sweets were decorated with phrases like kol o oshkor (eat and be thankful) and bel shukr tadoom al neam (with gratitude blessings are preserved). However, when the Ottoman Empire ended in 1922 and there was no longer an Islamic caliph, the tradition shifted from being a royal custom to one among private households

Many, including Kattan, say that the patterns on the different maamoul moulds – such as the date mould's burning sun, or star, depending on your interpretation – were originally affiliated with ancient religions that worshipped nature. However, in Christian tradition, the date-stuffed maamoul (which has a circular shape) came to represent the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head, while the pistachio maamoul is said to resemble the temple where Jesus was laid to rest.

There isn't any particular symbolism in Islam relating to the design but the shape of the maamoul is still very special to those like Bazbazat. "When I finish one of the pieces of maamoul and I look at it, I think 'wow, I'm an artist'," she said.

30/06/2022

Underground infrastructure has also been found to be less at risk from earthquakes. A powerful earthquake in Chile in 2010 caused devastation at the surface in Santiago but hardly any damage to the metro system, says Broere. "The tunnel and the soil are moving together. So there's limited impact of the earthquake on the structure of the tunnel."

But in other contexts, underground roads are more hazardous. Flooding – which is becoming much more common and intense as the climate crisis bites – poses a serious risk. Portals for pedestrians to enter or leave the road system would need to be a few metres above the surface level to lessen the risk of water pouring in, says Broere. In Bangkok, for instance, the entrances to the metro system are metres above the surface to protect it during monsoon season. During the Gotthard tunnel disaster in Switzerland in 2001, meanwhile, an underground fire reached such high temperatures that cars fused together.

The lack of surface roads could also put drivers in vulnerable situations after they leave their cars. The underground road network would require lifts or stairs to transport people to surface portals. And if cars remain privately owned, people would need to park them – either in garages underground or potentially in multi-storey high-rises built above the portals – and then get home by other means. For lone drivers late at night, this could be intimidating and scary. "From a social safety perspective, it doesn't feel safe because you're alone," says Broere.

23/06/2022

One of the UK's only privately owned villages, picturesque, pedestrian-only Clovelly has inspired numerous artists and writers, from JMW Turner to Charles Dickens.

There are two immediate signs that Clovelly, located on the coast of Devon in South West England, isn't your usual seaside village. The first is that the only access is through the visitor centre, which charges £8.50 per adult for entrance (£4.95 for children). The second is the sledges. They stand at attention at the top of the cobbled walk that runs through the town's steep lanes of cottages and down to Clovelly's harbour, 120m below, ready for the next time a resident comes back from the shops and needs to lug their purchases home.

They might seem out of place to a first-time visitor. But both the visitor centre, opened in 1988, and the sledges, which largely replaced donkeys by the 1970s, are ways in which this 1,000-year-old community has adapted to modern times – while still preserving the rhythms of the past.

Even today, there are no cars in Clovelly. (It would be too steep for them to get access even if the town wanted them.) There are no chain stores, no traffic noises, no light pollution. Instead, there are cobbled lanes, whitewashed cottages, small boats bobbing in the 14th-Century stone quay, fat bees and butterflies feeding on flowers, and, almost everywhere, the sound, smells and sight of the Atlantic.

"Moving to a teeny tiny cottage on the edge of a cliff was something I never imagined," said Ellie Jarvis, who came from London to Clovelly for six months in 2007 to help run her family's silk workshop and never left. "But what is so beautiful and unique about Clovelly is not only the cobbles and all the obvious things that you see as a tourist. It's the fact that you're living with the past."

16/06/2022

They can make our lives easier and more convenient, but can devices such as smart light bulbs and voice-controlled assistants also be used against someone as a form of domestic abuse?

For billions of people around the world, life at home has taken on a new significance this year. Flats and houses have become workplaces, gyms, schools and living spaces all rolled into one by national lockdowns.

It has also meant that many of us are spending more time than ever with the gadgets we have welcomed into our homes – so-called “smart” devices connected to the internet that can be controlled with our voices or via apps on our phones.

From virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Home, to smart light bulbs, kettles, security cameras and thermostats, they are collectively known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Many of our household appliances now come embedded with sensors and the ability to connect to wireless networks, allowing them to gather data about how we use them, and communicate with other devices in our homes.

09/06/2022

As tourism has impacted parts of Seychelles' environment, the island nation now aims to protect its 72 low-lying coralline "Outer Islands" from development before it's too late.
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Made up of 115 islands dotting the Indian Ocean off East Africa, Seychelles is known as a global hotspot for biodiversity. With as much as 85% of its animals and 45% of its plant species considered endemic, the archipelago is sometimes called the "Galapagos of the Indian Ocean". And both on land and in the ocean, different groups are working to preserve this ecological paradise.

This year, after creating a sophisticated zoning plan and completing extensive conversations with representatives from the country's tourism, fishing, petroleum and conservation efforts, the island nation is prepared to fully implement the landmark Marine Spatial Planning Initiative it announced several years ago: to protect 30% of its ocean territory. Tourism, climate change and other factors have already greatly impacted the environment of the Seychelles' more populated "Inner Islands", so this agreement – part of a deal to write off its national debt in exchange for conservation measures – is now aimed at protecting its 72 low-lying coralline "Outer Islands" from development before it's too late.

07/06/2022

What do these intriguing interiors tell us about their creative occupants? Andrea Marechal Watson finds some answers in a new book, Life Meets Art.

If our homes reflect our characters, then the home of an artist is likely to be particularly intriguing. A new book, Life Meets Art: Inside the Homes of the World’s Most Creative People, opens the doors to a collection of interiors that have all at some point belonged to famous artists, sculptors, musicians or writers.

04/06/2022

They're not as well-known as flower leis – but feather leis are part of a Hawaiian tradition dating back 250 years, one that a local family is working hard to bring back.

We know the Hawaiian lei as a celebratory tradition in the islands, the fragrance from the floral garland uplifting a room long after its flowers have wilted.

A feather lei, on the other hand, may be void of scent – but it is filled with the mana (energy) of past generations. For Mele Kahalepuna Chun, a third-generation featherwork artist, of Oahu, exploring this sacred Hawaiian art started at the age of five, when her tutu (grandmother) began sharing the family's featherwork legacy.

"To me, featherwork is what I'm here to do," Chun said. "I felt an obligation to my grandmother to do this and it has been a blessing."

01/06/2022

Five years before Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Theory of Colours, the English artist Mary Gartside published her own challenge to the ideas of Isaac Newton – but, writes Kelly Grovier, she has disappeared from history.
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In 1805, a little-known English artist and amateur painting instructor did what no woman before her ever had: publish a book on the subject of colour theory. Though frustratingly few details of the life and career of Mary Gartside have survived, her unprecedented volume An Essay on Light and Shade, on Colours, and on Composition in General reveals evidence of extraordinary creative genius. Modestly introduced by its obscure author as little more than a guidebook to "the ladies I have been called upon to instruct in painting", Gartside's study is accompanied by a series of strikingly abstract images unlike any produced previously by a writer or artist of any gender.

30/05/2022

The movement towards rural living in the western world seems to be a sign of the times, with an exodus from urban life, and people seeking a rustic idyll, a simpler existence – and in some cases embracing the idea of "slow living", an antidote to fast hustle culture. And the lure of rural life is inevitably even more acute in spring and summer, when there is a sense of renewal and expectation in the air, and as, the poet Philip Larkin famously put it: "The trees are coming into leaf/ Like something almost being said".

It's no surprise, then, that the theme for the US's Mental Health Month this year is "back to basics". In fact, increasing numbers of people are responding to burnout and the stresses of modern life by moving completely off-grid, in what has been described as "extreme wilding". In an attempt to reset their lives and their expectations of life, they are going beyond the cottage-core notion of a cosy, tidy garden and a cute, nostalgic rural aesthetic, and are placing themselves in truly remote and rugged landscapes.

30/05/2022