Supported by institutions including the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, among others, Biosphere Futures is a global database of place-based socio-ecological scenarios, case studies, references, key literature, and practical resources spread across geographic locations, ecosystems, and spatial scales worldwide. Users can search for content based on several criteria, including the Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030. 

With ample place-based socio-ecological scenarios, case studies, literature and other resources that have been made open-access, I have so-far contributed 3 scenarios and a first-in-kind case study [header above] and will be loading more works to the site as it grows. A beautifully conceived, designed, and curated collection, I have no doubt this new resource will prove helpful to many working in the futures space. 

Read more about the project, its aims, and resources below and at this link.

Extract from Biosphere Futures:

"The Earth is a living planet. As far as we know, the only living planet in the Universe. The “Biosphere” is the place on Earth's surface where life dwells, as defined in 1875 by geologist Eduard Suess. In 1968, the first intergovernmental Biosphere Conference was held in Paris. It was recognized that humans, including their social interactions, are an integrated part of the biosphere, and a key factor in modifying the biosphere. The Biosphere Conference declared firmly that the conservation and use of resources of the biosphere should go hand-in-hand rather than in opposition -- thus promoting what we now call sustainable development -- and that interdisciplinary scientific approaches should be promoted to achieve this aim. To that end, we created Biosphere Futures to promote the development and application of scenarios that explicitly incorporate interdependencies between humans and their supporting ecosystems. 

Our aim is to facilitate the use of social-ecological scenario planning for sustainable development of the Biosphere and help build a community of practice around social-ecological scenarios. We provide access to a rich collection of case studies from around that can be used to explore the various ways in which the future might unfold. Together, the case studies give insight into the diversity and plurality of people's expectations and aspirations for the future, and help understand interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals in different social-ecological contexts. Biosphere Futures is the product of a community effort. Case owners are encouraged to promote their work by contributing information about their study and share references to their products."

Last year, at the invitation of Professor Haifa Takruri-Rizk, fellow University of Salford alumnae and I gathered via Zoom to discuss our experiences of working in STEM through the pandemic. Speakers from both industry and academia, and from regions including UK/Europe, Middle East, and the Americas, among others, including Karima Es Sabar, CEO and Partner at Quark Venture; Dr. Sara Biscaya, Lecturer in Architecture at University of Salford; Helen Sheldon, Associate at RBA Acoustics; and myself, shared insights into how the unfolding events have impacted our research and practice. Our discussions expanded to issues facing women in STEM more generally, and to our suggestions as to possible means of remedy at the organisational, industry, and policy level. We hope to reconvene at a future date to explore how we can utilise our collective agency in addressing the issues raised. Those interested to read extracts from our discussions will find them in the QI 2021 edition of From Salford here.

​This week and next, the International Design Awards have handed the their Instagram account over to its jury to share their thoughts on design. Having taken the account's reigns today, an IDA judge since 2008, I shared the qualities that I look for when casting my votes, which are:

• Designs that seek to heal, not harm the natural world.
• Cathedral thinking [thinking beyond the needs of the current generation].
• Designs that seek to reconcile the fact that many beautiful materials, such as fluorite (pictured above) come from often ugly extraction processes.
• Designs that emulate the processes of nature, such as they that formed the Glass sponge (Hexactinellid) pictured below.
• Through the prism of geological time, great design, like the light patterns you see below, is ephemeral. ​

A signatory of the #SheChangesClimate letter to the UK government, urge all female peers working with climate issues to join me. Find out more, together with the link to add you name to the growing list, here.

Extract from SheChangesClimate.com

Leadership teams that are representative of the world we live in are better at their jobs. That's why She Changes Climate is campaigning for a 50:50 split of men and women in the top levels of the COP26 leadership team.

Our ethos is founded in the scientifically-proven fact that diverse boards and leadership teams are better at being leaders, better at governance, and more successful in the work they do. They're better at negotiation, get better results and can make more inclusive and balanced decisions because they are able to draw on wider knowledge bases and experiences. 

When it comes to climate change, being representative isn't about looking good, it's about setting a good example and doing the best job possible. Not just for the nations being represented, but for every single one of their citizens.

Our current focus is on getting COP26 to achieve a 50:50 split of men and women in its top-level leadership team in the UK, but our global missions is to ensure ALL delegations have at least a 50% representation of women at their top levels."

Joining over 250 signatories from 30 nations around the world, I am calling on policymakers to engage more with the growing risk of societal disruption and collapse due to damage to the climate and wider environment. Each specialists in subject areas that related to the various challenges, we commonly believe it is time to listen to the sum of the scholarship on humanity's predicament. Our letter is available in both English and French, and extracts are published in today's edition of The Guardian. Find an extract from our letter below, the version in full together with the list of signatories here, and follow the commentary on social media using the hashtags #scholarswarning and #breakdownwarning. 

"Subject: Only if we discuss collapse might we prepare

As scientists and scholars from around the world, we call on policymakers to engage openly with the risk of disruption and even collapse of our societies. After five years of failing to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Climate Accord (1), we must now face the consequences. 

While bold and fair efforts to cut emissions and naturally drawdown carbon are essential, researchers in many areas now consider societal collapse to be a credible scenario this century (2a & 2c). A range of views exist on the location, extent, timing, permanence and cause of such disruptions; but the way modern societies exploit people and nature is a common concern (3a & 3b).

Only if policymakers begin to discuss this threat of societal collapse might communities and nations begin to prepare and so reduce its likelihood, speed, severity, harm to the most vulnerable, and to nature." 

Cambridge University Library has announced a public appeal for help in locating two missing notebooks which document some of Charles Darwin's most seminal concepts, including his 1837 'Tree of Life' sketch (pictured above). Once thought misplaced, an exhaustive search of the library has led the curators to sadly conclude the notebooks have, most likely, been stolen. Now registered on the national Art Loss Register for missing cultural artefacts, these invaluable works have also been added to Pysche - Interpol's database for stolen artworks. The public appeal was launched today to coincide with 'Evolution Day', which recognises the anniversary of Darwin's publication of On Origin of Species in November 24th 1859.

In the words of Dr. Jessica Gardener, University Librarian and Director of Library Services, "Someone, somewhere, may have knowledge or insight that can help us return these notebooks to their proper place at the heart of the UK's cultural and scientific heritage". Anyone with any information that may help find Darwin's missing notebooks are urged to contact manuscript appeal (@) lib.cam.ac.uk or to contact www.cambs.police.uk/report reference number 35/71468/20 or www.crimestoppers-uk.org. Read more about the notebooks and the appeal here. 

In advance of the launch of a new SUEZ group sponsored insights report coauthored by Dr. David Greenfield and myself, join us for "The Ocean Pollutant You've Never Heard Of - the invisible pollutant" webinar.

Focussing on the invisible pollution that comes from tyre wear and road surface run-off, this webinar will explore the scale and nature of the problem, together with the recent and emerging innovations, inventions, and approaches that may help to mitigate it in the years ahead.

Joining Dr. Greenfield and I on the panel will be session chair, Dr. Adam Reed - External Affairs Director, SUEZ UK, together with Stuart Hayward-Higham - Technical Director, SUEZ UK, and award-winning young design innovator and Founder and CEO of Matter, Adam Root.

We'll be discussing issues including how tyre rubber reaches the oceans; the known scale and complexity of the problem; new and near-future tyre design, materials, and engineering; and how new approaches in transport infrastructure design and management, including smart devices and systems, together with changes in driving and consumer behaviour may impact on sectors including waste management and recycling, and manufacturing. Those that can't attend the webinar, but that would like to view a recording can do so on request.

About SUEZ group in their own words... 

"We’ve been experts in water and waste management for 160 years. We operate on 5 continents, on which SUEZ harnesses all its desire for innovation to achieve a smart and sustainable management of resources throughout the world. Our company works with its customers to restore and conserve the planet's fundamental elements that are water, air and soil."

​Register for a place here. 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of once-again joining Prof. Claudia Pasquero and Maria Kuptsova, leaders of the Synthetic Landscape Lab at the Faculty of Architecture at University of Innsbruck, as one of the jury assessing its final diploma defences. The unit, which is focused on the application of recent scientific findings in microbiology and biotechnology to problems impacting real-world landscapes worldwide, attracts an international cohort of students, and works with field-leaders from across both academia and industry. Joining Claudia, Maria, and I for the defensio were examiner, ecoLogicStudio cofounder Dr. Marco Poletto, and transnational urban research network Spin Unit cofounder and Terreform, New York principal researcher Damiano Cerrone, and architect and researcher Annarita Papeschi. Notable projects included 'Barranco: Topographical Morphologies' (pictured above and below) by Synthetic Landscape Lab student Patrik Kuhelmann. Presenting a novel solution to water pollution, the concept is reminiscent of historic Asian hydrological systems, harnessing the city's topography in the water treatment process.

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of discussing issues including nature in lockdown, Earth's firey future, solar storms, and more Earth meet Human systems issues past, present, and possible with Fakhar Raza in my second interview in the Scholars in the Spotlight podcast series, available to hear open access here.

A member of the society since its inauguration, last month I had the pleasure to share insights on my work and thoughts on the field with the Secretariat of the International Society of Bionic Engineering. Published in the Volume 9, Issue 2 of the society's member publication, those interested can read the interview here. 

Interview extract: 
ISBE. "How do you see Bionics influencing business and industry in the future?
MS. Market leaders in industries such as manufacturing, utilities, transport, healthcare, defence, and ICT are typically aware that bionics is one of the research disciplines most-likely to produce effective means of making a measurable difference to addressing the issues that really count. Both the rate of bionics-led innovation, and with that, the caliber of the innovation produced, is highly variable across business and industry as a whole. Hence, the outlook for bionics within business and industry is a mixed one. More generally, tomorrow, as today, current developments strongly suggest that bionics will continue to grow in influence and impact in the heavier and more technical industries – essentially all those under-pinned by expertise in the STEM fields."