Issuu

Issue 10

Read.. Visualising vision in zebrafish Digital

SciArt New colours

created from plants

Fresh water:

a scarce, threatened resource

& much more Like this image? Read more about the illustrator Marzia Munafò in our Scicomm section. Front cover image: “Pharmacologic modulation of RNA splicing enhances anti-tumor immunity” A study published in Cell shows that splicing modulation in cancer cells results in the production of neoantigens and thus elicits anti-tumour immunity. The illustration represents the process of neoantigen (the flowers) generation on the surface of cancer cells (the tree) upon treatment with a drug the modulates splicing (the roots). © Marzia Munafo. All rights reserved.

Science

Conservation

Scicomm

Art

Written Word

NatureVolve.com Communicating science Combining art

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Thank you to the following contributors to this issue: Aaron Slepkov Brass Rabbit Caron Ang Dana Simmons Dmitry Shevela Elisabeth Kugler Erin Jackson Gary Roberts Gerardo La Porta Helene Skjeie Thorstensen Jan van Ijken Jesús Muñoz Morcillo Julia A Licholai Katrina Vera Wong Lorenzo Li Greci Lucas Vimpere Marzia Munafò Monique Boodram Olina Søyland Bru Ryan MacDonald Sandy McLachlan Trevor Cox Uli Ap A special thanks to STEM Advocacy Institute (SAi), EarthWatch, EarthWild and OTT Hydromet.

Editorial note Welcome to NatureVolve issue 10 At NatureVolve, we are an international community uniting to share our ideas in science and art with the world, through the common appreciation of nature’s wondrous workings. While sharing diverse fields within science to conservation and art, we especially emphasise the wonder of water and the oceans in this edition. Meanwhile, this does not leave out interesting discoveries and illustrations in the life sciences. We begin the Science section by looking at what is behind chevron geological structures, and then on the much smaller scale, peer upon a microfossil, and the eye of a zebrafish. In Conservation, we are introduced to some species needing further protection, and the true value of fresh water to our society. Some extremely diverse science communication projects are presented in the Scicomm section, from a very inventive podcast that interviews engineers, to a professor’s quest to widen an appreciation for the fantastic colours produced from polarization effects. In the Art section we have a mixture of styles beyond paintings, to photography projects that cross boundaries with science and sociology. In Written Word, we finish off with an indepth account of a devastating brush fire called the Getty Fire, in the context of climate change. Our digital magazine continually shares the ideas of both scientists and creatives with worldwide communities as we all unite to celebrate nature. Being open and inclusive, contributions in many forms are welcome. If interested to join us and contribute to an upcoming issue, please go to naturevolve.com/submission-form If you enjoy this issue please feel free to share the subscription link for free issues with others: naturevolve.com/subscribe

Thank you for your support and enjoy the issue!

Contents SCIENCE 5 Unravelling the origins of chevrons 8 Magnicifent Microfossils

Art

9 Visualising Vision in Zebrafish

43 Creating new colours from plant material

14 Power Pylon Monitoring to Predict Ice Formation in the Scottish Highlands

47 Projecting the beauty of bacteria

conservation

54 Uli Ap

17 Fresh water – a scarce, threatened resource

55 Frankenflora

51 Brass Rabbit gives a voice to society’s hidden workers

56 Gerardo La Porta

20 Bright lights and migrating birds 21 Gulls can’t fly free of pollution

scicomm 23 Inventive Podcast shines the spotlight on the true creativity of engineers

Written Word 58 How the Aesthetics of Disaster Engulfs Climate Discourse

27 Our Favourite Social Networks Bring Us Closer to Science Communication 29 Painting with Polarization 33 Jan van IJken 34 Dana Simmons 35 Science illustrations by SciGrafik 36 Digital art reveals cellular secrets

extra 63 NatureVolve note and invite for entries 64 STEM Advocacy Institute (SAi)

Science

SCIENCE

earth science

Unravelling the origins of chevrons Chevrons are a type of wedge-shaped sediment deposit, that can be seen

on coastlines and continental interiors. They were originally reported by scholars as large, V-shaped, sub-linear to parabolic landforms seen in south west Egypt and islands of the Bahamas. These bed forms are most commonly described to be parabolic generated dunes, with most being sculpted by the wind. Yet, the origins of these structures have been widely debated among researchers. We speak with sedimentologist Lucas Vimpere about his team’s investigation of how chevrons form, armed with his geological and outdoor skills.

Above: The Tamala Limestone exposed along the Zuytdorp Cliffs in the Shark Bay region, Wester Australia. The cliffs are composed of aeolian dunes deposited during the successive glacial periods of the Pleistocene. Here scientists rappelled down to describe and sample the different units in order to understand their formation and their age. Photo by N. Del Piero. All rights reserved. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

SCIENCE

earth science

Q & A - Lucas Vimpere Please tell us about your background and current PhD studies I started my studies at the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Geneva in 2010. After my Bachelor graduation, I began a master program focused on sedimentology and reservoir geology. During this course, I specialised in carbonate sedimentology with a particular focus on the Quaternary period. I did my master thesis on the costal sediments and units buried within the Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island in the Bahamas. The goal was to dive in the blue hole (the deepest in the world at the time, being a depth of 202m), collect samples with a jackhammer, and use it as a natural exposure of the stratigraphy of the island, constrain its dimensions for the first time, and finally, try to explain its odd depth (lower than the lowest sea level at -120m). I pursued my studies with a PhD focusing on the relationship between aeolian sedimentation, both in coastal and continental settings, with climate and global atmospheric circulation. We first compared the dunes (chevrons) of the Bahamian isolated carbonate platforms with the dunes of the carbonate ramp of Shark Bay in Western Australia. We then looked globally with inland parabolic dunes and the specific climate factors triggering their formation/migration. The overall goal was to assess the desertification hazards and identify the regions most at risk with respect to global climate change.

What are chevrons and when were they first identified? The term “chevron” has first been used to describe structural folds (see Ramsay, 1974) or laminae in oscillatory ripples (see Allen, 1982). In 1989, Maxwell & Haynes applied this term to describe the morphology of low-lying V-shape aeolian ridges in the Selima Sand Sheet (the Egyptian Sahara). This definition has then been reused by other geoscientists to describe similar landforms in the Bahamas, South Madagascar, and Western Australia.

Are they reasonably common or are they particularly well presented in specific locations, like in the Bahamas, South Madagascar and Australia? If we look at the morphology, these ridges are very common along the world coastlines but their dimensions in the Bahamas, South Madagascar and Australia make them particularly extensive deposits. The difference is that the term “chevron” has been applied in these three locations whereas elsewhere they are called parabolic dunes.

Why has there been controversy and debate about the origin of these structures? Since different groups of research have worked in these three places, different interpretations on their depositional process were made. In Western Australia and South Madagascar, the explanation of tsunamis generated by a meteorite impact in the Indian Ocean is based on: • their large size and the fact that they develop on top of high cliffs where sediment supply is rather limited • the fact that (according to the authors) they are not aligned with the prevailing winds • their association with big boulders • oral traditions and mythologies of indigenous people mentioning giant waves and/or flood In the Bahamas, the giant waves generated by giant storms is based on: • a “trilogy” of deposits observed on one location on Eleuthera: boulders - chevrons - run up deposits • the presence of fenestrae (type of porosity usually found in beach settings) within chevrons • the fact that they date from the Last Interglacial when the global temperature was higher by about 2°C than today. Specific climate conditions during this period (e.g., changes in north Atlantic circulation, collapse of Antarctic ice sheet) would have triggered giant storms. • the fact that these features cannot be observed during other periods of the Quaternary

SCIENCE

earth science

It is hard to differentiate between beach-to-intertidal and aeolian deposits because the latter is very often composed of reworked sediment that formed in a beach-to-intertidal environment. This is even truer for carbonates since they mainly precipitate and form underwater.

In your study published in Sedimentology in 2020, why do you advocate for a windblown (aeolian) origin of the chevrons in the Bahamas? We started our study by assuming that both wind and waves could have been valid depositional processes for chevrons formation. The idea was to carry out a comparative study on chevrons, parabolic dunes (wind), and storm deposits (waves) and proceed by exclusion to provide a final explanation for their formation.

Final thoughts

We introduced new quantitative data on their morphology, sedimentology, stratigraphic position, and grain size composition that we compared with the other types of deposits. Overall, all elements pointed towards an aeolian origin. We then explained why they were only deposited during the Last Interglacial by explaining their relationship with global atmospheric circulation, climate, and sea level variations.

“...these ridges are very common along the world’s coastlines, but their dimensions in the Bahamas, South Madagascar and Australia make them particularly extensive deposits.”

After stuying a PhD, Lucas Vimpere furthered his interest in geoscience, combining it with his outdoor passions while studying the formation of chevrons. Investigating the true origins of these geological structures, Lucas and the research team kept an open mind about the potential origin of chevron structures in the Bahamas, in response to an existing debate about whether they were shaped by water or wind. Considering a broad spectrum of data, their synthesis supported the wind (aeolian) hypothesis. This helps geoscientists to better understand the origins of chevrons across the world, such as in the Bahamas and Australia where they are especially large in size.

Bio

Links

Lucas Vimpere is a French/Algerian scientist who has been based in Switzerland for the last decade. As far as he can remember, he has always been interested in geosciences.

Email: lucasvimpere@gmail.com

Geology allowed him to mix his other passions, scuba diving and climbing, in the field to be able to reach remote places and difficult-to-access geological outcrops.

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/ lucas-vimpere-489077146 Google Scholar profile

Conservation

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conservation

non-profit

Fresh water – a scarce, threatened resource By Gary Roberts (with support from Neil Bailey, Isabel Bishop and Charlotte Henderson of Earthwatch Europe.)

Water is life, without it we are nothing. Worryingly, it’s an increasingly

scarce and threatened natural resource with global freshwater biodiversity declining at twice the rate of oceans or forests. Whilst Earth is often described as the ‘blue planet’, perhaps surprisingly, only 2.5% is fresh water. Of this, no more than 1% of the world’s fresh water is available for human use. Alarmingly, this 1% is in rapidly declining health. Abstraction, urbanisation, climate-change and pollution have all caused dramatic declines in freshwater biodiversity and habitats within the past 50 years.

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conservation

non-profit

‘Chemical cocktails’

To our shame, this issue is especially acute within the UK. England’s rivers, in particular, are again the focus of media coverage (January 2022), as MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee warn of a ‘chemical cocktail’ of raw sewage, agricultural fertilizers run-off, slurry and microplastics entering freshwater systems. In England, only 14% of rivers meet ‘good ecological status’ criteria. This rises to 33% for rivers in Northern Ireland, 40% in Wales and for Scotland’s rivers it’s 66%. Improvements to freshwater ecology are urgently required throughout all four UK nations and are increasingly critical for rivers in England. 14% is a shocking, embarrassing statistic. Equally shocking, is how many people are unaware to the extent of this global problem. However, this urgency is becoming increasingly apparent, reported on and exposed, as evidenced: • House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Water Quality In Rivers Fourth Report – January 2022. • A recent RSPB report found 43% of people believe that the UK’s fresh water systems are in good ecological condition. • WWF (February 2021) warned that UK is “no exception” when it comes to the loss of freshwater fish species, as a report exposes the dire outlook for populations across the world. • Within UK waters, burbot and sturgeon are extinct, salmon have suffered significant declines and the eel is critically endangered (WWF, February 2021 press release re: World’s Forgotten Fishes Report). • In 2020, The Guardian reported water companies in England discharged untreated sewage into rivers more than 200,000 times during 2019. • Environment Agency (2020) reported that all rivers, lakes and streams in England are polluted. This comes as their budgets have been cut by two-thirds since 2010, making it impossible to effectively monitor the situation. • 38% of waterbodies in the European Union are affected by diffuse pollution (UN Water, 2015). • According to UN World Water Development Report (2017), it is likely that globally over 80% of waste water is released to the environment without adequate treatment. Public Anger continues to grow. People do care about their water – its health and quality. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

As we increasingly use ‘blue spaces’ to enjoy wild-swimming, paddleboarding, rowing, canoeing, fishing, walking – it’s surely not unreasonable to expect our waterbodies to be safe to do so. However, people often feel powerless to do anything. This is why, environmental charity, Earthwatch Europe is developing a blueprint to build its global Freshwater Watch Programme.

Making the invisible, visible

Earthwatch provides vital support to safeguard freshwater ecosystems and improve the health of these habitats by empowering citizen scientists and communities to collate and use water quality data to protect waterbodies. To improve this situation, Earthwatch seeks to understand where and why problems are occurring through the development of scientific datasets. Water quality is managed by governments and agencies but there are often gaps in their data, so changes can go unnoticed. Many people don’t understand what they personally can do to help. There is a lack of connection. Those who are engaged want to do more, but rarely have access to the data and evidence they need to demand change. For Earthwatch, the starting point is to monitor water quality. To make the invisible visible. This provides evidence from which pollution is identified so decisions can be made to help improve the management of our precious freshwater.

Protecting our fresh waters

Since 2012, Earthwatch has developed and managed its highly-respected, successful FreshWater Watch Programme. Throughout these ten years, FreshWater Watch has grown to support 14,000 citizen scientists in the global collection of 30,000+ datasets. Through engagement, empowerment and mobilisation of community citizens Earthwatch has helped protect 1,200 waterbodies worldwide from UK chalk streams to Lake Tanganyika in Africa. Earthwatch’s extensive database has enabled them to research global trends, explore local issues, engage communities and share data with governments to support water conservation.

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conservation

non-profit

WaterBlitz

The value of robust citizen-science is demonstrated through Earthwatch’s Spring 2021 WaterBlitz project, which collected 1,568 water quality measurements across the UK’s Thames Valley, in Dublin, Luxembourg and Paris. Collated data provides alarming results: • 52% of waterbodies measured had high nitrate levels and 23% high phosphate concentrations. • Thames Valley: 70% samples showed high nitrate levels. • Luxembourg: c.28% of sampled waterbodies had highest phosphate levels. • Dublin: 26% showed highest records of litter in or near water. • Paris: 37% of waterbodies measured showed high concentrations of nitrates and 19% high phosphate levels, with only 1% of waterbodies measured in Paris located near agricultural land.

Importantly it will create connections with and between communities. FreshWater Watch provides stewardship to dedicated groups who want to monitor the health of a specific water body and take action to restore and protect it. Groups have access to: • Water testing kits. • Online platform. • Mobile app to collect data. • Training resources including video tutorials on how to take samples. • Use of recognised methodology to influence authorities and/or polluters.

Strategic goal

With conservation science at its heart, Earthwatch has set a series of ambitious targets to deliver by December 2023. These are to connect 2,500 citizens and 50 community groups with their local A new global freshwater watch movement freshwater environments, collate data from 500 For Earthwatch to fulfil its vision of achieving clean, waterbodies to proactively support change and healthy freshwater it has to generate more data and initiate actions at 30 waterbodies that improves connect more people with their local waterbodies. their water quality. To achieve these, Earthwatch By 2030 Earthwatch aims to engage 100,000 people to safeguard 10,000 water bodies across Europe and Africa, seeks funding support, partnerships and people to engage with Freshwater Watch to conserve our to ensure the FreshWater Watch movement protects freshwater ecosystems everywhere and for everyone. To scarce fresh waters. achieve this, it must engage with a greater number and Watching George Monbiot’s Rivercide documentary diversity of communities and create a true FreshWater provides a shocking, disgusting insight into the Watch movement. extent our rivers are being polluted, by whom and what we all need to do to ensure our water Building momentum through citizen science resources are clean, healthy, pure and ecologically Armed with this data, communities have, since 2012, diverse. Protecting our freshwater ecosystem successfully worked together with decision-makers to services makes good financial sense. protect and better manage our precious freshwater. Earthwatch now plans to build on this foundation to deliver its 2030 strategic goal and gather momentum by In 2012, the Office for National Statistics estimated raising awareness, engage new communities and deliver that UK freshwaters had a value of £37 billion to our economy. solutions that value our freshwater. Through robust citizen science, Earthwatch aim to build and support a These ecosystem services are provided for free by global network of local communities so people become more actively aware and care about their local freshwater nature. Why do we continue to poison them? bodies across the UK, Europe and Africa.

About the Author

With a passionate interest in our natural world, Gary has enjoyed a 36year career connected with nature, biodiversity conservation, rewilding, environmental and international issues. Gary is Director/Founder of Earthwild Partnership Ltd – an innovative communications, sustainability, management company. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

Links Earthwild website: earthwildpartnership.com Earthwatch website: earthwatch.org.uk p19

Scicomm (Science communication)

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scicomm

PODCAST

Inventive Podcast shines the spotlight on the true creativity of engineers Professor Trevor Cox founded Inventive Podcast from the University of Salford where he specialises in acoustic engineering. Through the podcast, he interviews engineers from diverse backgrounds, emphasising the impact of engineers on the world. By bringing talented writers into the podcast, fact and fiction are intertwined so that engineering can be made more accessible to the public. Trevor shares with us some of the amazing guests that have been interviewed so far, and discusses the importance of engaging the public in engineering, to make this fascinating field more accessible and to demonstrate its hidden value to the world.

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scicomm

PODCAST

Q & A - Trevor Cox Please introduce your background and expertise in acoustic engineering.

“Engineering often fails to tell its story well, and this is one reason that many people don’t understand what an engineer is, and what an engineer does.”

Why did you want to unite writers and I’m Professor of Acoustics Engineering at the University engineers through Inventive Podcast? of Salford and head of the Acoustics Research Centre. Some of my research is about improving speech communication, for example I currently work on the Clarity project, which is running machine learning challenges to improve hearing aids; a project improving the acoustic design of transparent facemasks has just finished, and previously I’ve researched the problems of poor acoustics within schools. I started off in physics, but my work now spans physical acoustics, machine learning and psychology. I can now include archaeoacoustics in the list, having investigated the acoustic properties of Stonehenge through a 1:12 scale model. I have been active in public engagement for 25 years. I’m an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Engineering Engagement Champion and a past EPSRC Senior Media Fellow. I have presented science shows at the Royal Albert Hall, Purcell Rooms, and Royal Institution. I have also presented >25 documentaries for BBC radio including: “The Physicist’s Guide to the Orchestra.” For my popular science book Sonic Wonderland (in USA: The Sound Book), I won an Acoustical Society of America Science Writing Award in 2015. I have also written for National Geographical, The Guardian and New Scientist.

Engineering is full of stories. It’s about people facing challenges and digging deep to overcome them. Unlike conventional action heroes, however, it is not how far they can jump or climb that saves the day. It’s how engineers apply complex scientific knowledge and practical expertise. Unfortunately, the technical depth that lets engineers achieve what they do, is also a barrier to public appreciation and understanding. Sadly, engineering often fails to tell its story well, and this is one reason that many people don’t understand what an engineer is, and what an engineer does. The media portrayal of engineering is also very disappointing, full of programmes obsessed with heavy engineering, history or engineering going wrong. By bringing in writers I hoped to explore different ways of telling the story of engineering that would be more accessible to the public. The Inventive podcast mixes fact and fiction to explore new ways of telling the story of engineering. We’ve encouraged the writers to experiment, so we’ve seen lots of different approaches, including rap, poetry and short stories. These have explored dystopian futures, the surprising consequences of engineering and unusual personal stories of people in engineering.

How have different people and the University of Salford collaborated to make Inventive Podcast a reality? The presenter (Trevor Cox), sound engineer (Adam Fowler) and animator (Annabeth Robinson) are all academics from the University. But we’re also working with experts at Overtone Productions to research, record, create and publicise the podcasts (especially Gill Davies and Anna Scott-Brown). Alongside the podcast, there are linked curriculum and career materials being created by NUSTEM at Northumbria University (Carol Davenport, Antonio Portas and Jonathan Sanderson). Above: Shrouk El-Attar. © Shrouk El-Attar. All rights reserved. © NatureVolve digital magazine. All rights reserved.

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scicomm

PODCAST

How has the podcast been going so far? We’ve finished two series with 11 podcasts in total. Alongside meeting some amazing engineers and working with wonderful writers, a highlight was getting the podcast featured in the New Scientist. We started series one with Electronics Engineer Shrouk El-Attar. She’s an inspirational refugee and campaigner for LGBT rights, who was awarded the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize for her work in femtech, smart tech that improves the lives of cis women and trans men. Award-winning writer and poet Tania Hershman created a hybrid work drawing on Shrouk’s story: Human Being As Circuit Board, Human Being as Dictionary. This combines fiction, poetry and non-fiction. There is beautiful and poetic imagery, “human being as circuit board”, and exploration of language, “human being as dictionary,” building to a climax like nothing you’d get in a straight interview podcast. In series two I interviewed Larissa Suzuki, who is Head of Data and AI/Machine Learning at Google and who has won numerous awards. The interview delves deep into the ethics of collecting data on citizens for smart cities, which inspired Author Tim Maughan’s short story, My City is Not a Problem.

This wittily explores a fictional AI system built to solve London’s problems, which seems to think it knows better than the politicians that commissioned the algorithm!

What are your next plans for 2022? Is there a particular kind of an impact are you hoping to make, from academia out to wider society? The current focus is on the rolling out of the curriculum and career materials to schools through NUSTEM and evaluating the work. Another key target for 2022 is building the audience, with so many podcasts on offer, it is difficult to get yourself heard. We’d hope to use live events to get the word out, but COVID has made that difficult. We’re currently working on some animations with students at University of Salford to help with the marketing. I’m also starting to look for ways to fund series 3, as the EPSRC funding is ending soon. Ultimately, we’re looking to foster inventive ways of telling Engineering stories that connect to a broader audience; inspire public understanding of who engineers are and what they do; inspire diversity in engineering through diverse role-models and encourage future generations of engineers.

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scicomm

PODCAST

Final thoughts Out of a background in physics, Professor Trevor Cox delved into the world of acoustic engineering, but didn’t stop there. Beyond academia, Trevor is an avid, experienced science communicator, being the host of Inventive Podcast, on a mission to share the personal stories of engineers, while making engineering more accessible to everyone. Follow the links below to have a listen to the podcast! Below: Trevor Cox at work. © Trevor Cox. All rights reserved.

Bio Professor Trevor Cox is a Professor of acoustics engineering at the University of Salford, having founded the Inventive Podcast. He is also head of the Acoustics Research Centre.

Links Podcast: www.inventivepodcast.com Twitter: @PodInventive Facebook: www.facebook.comInventivePodcast Instagram: @inventivepodcast

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scicomm

outreach

Our Favourite Social Networks Bring Us Closer to Science Communication By Monique Boodram guest writer

It might have been a dead end, had I not responded to #AcademicTwitter posts here

and there. I was relatively new to the field of science communication, and I knew no one personally who pursued this area. Rewinding, life was either STEM or not STEM. However, with a passion to share, I ended up communicating science without even knowing I was doing something called “science communication.” Looking for ways to attract an audience, I found hashtags on Twitter useful when I posted my new scicomm YouTube video. Particularly, the #AcademicTwitter and #sciencecommunication tags were most relevant, and that sent me down the rabbit hole of this endeavor...

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