The numbers came from her mother. From her father, Lord Byron – poetry and passion. The future Ada Lovelace was born in a year of European conflict, 1815 – the year Napoleon’s dreams were shattered at Waterloo. That same military...
Frontiers 2023
OISF
The poet’s song and the fish in the sea
It was the perfect name for a poet, and it was his own. The surname Singer came from his father, a...
Sinking carbon in the spring
The bluetits are busy popping in and out of the nest box. They took residence on 15th March. Then...
Sea and Land
The wonder that is Slime Mould
We watched a television programme about Slime Mould titled The Blob: A Genius...
Scotland’s lost branch lines
Climate change is adding to road congestion and vehicle pollution in bringing to the fore the case...
A lesson from the dandelions
Nature could well be our anchor over the next few months. Such a special time of year… it...
The darkness of the winter solstice
Winter stayed well into April, and as I dug holes for apple trees T. S. Eliot swirled in my head:...
Haar
Low cloud is quite frequent in Orkney, especially in the winter. Coming from the West, it rolls in...
Deploy the drones
We are now all familiar with how the ROV, the remotely operated vehicle as it is called, is...
The Ram on the Rock
Like a Nordic port of old, the Faroese capital of Torshavn smells evocatively of salt and tar. As...
Riches from the sea
A mile or so up the coast from the farm, a whale corpse is decomposing in a ‘geo’ (the Orcadian...
Der Mond
I’ve been getting text messages from the moon. A note pops up on my phone asking if the moon can...
Following the Festival
Ada Lovelace, Enchantress of Numbers
The numbers came from her mother. From her father, Lord Byron – poetry and passion. The future Ada...
Harmonise with Nature
What’s the cause of the damage that humans are doing to the world – and how do we reverse the...
Last of the Summer Snow
In December 2015, at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the measured concentration of atmospheric...
Facing up to climate change
Climate change – with its causes and consequences, and particularly how to tackle it – was one of...
Take out the carbon
There is both urgency and resignation in the voice of world-renowned oceanographer, polar ice...
Oh, starboard your helm!
This time it could be the big one. Fire on the Amazon, fire in Siberia, a dome of heat above the...