Living cities: Nature, design and a changing planet

Our planet’s resources are finite, and the construction of buildings, bridges, vehicles, and other functional objects across all scales places a significant burden on the environment. We can reduce the impact of the built environment by developing innovative design solutions that respond to functional needs, promote efficient construction methods, and minimize the use of material resources.

Imagine a future medicine like in Star Trek, where you get a painless shot in the arm, and somehow it can permanently fix any organ in your body. That science fiction is becoming reality with nanotechnology, as microscopic vehicles can shuttle to a chosen part of your body, and deliver DNA. This DNA can be programmed to treat many different diseases for years from just one dose.

Caught in the liminal space between life and death, cemeteries are an often overlooked and understudied space. Despite this, cemeteries play an important role in urban green space - both in how people utilize them beyond burials and providing opportunities for biodiversity. In this talk by Heather Kostick, you'll learn about how cemeteries touch all of our lives as urban green space, and how you can help by paying attention to them.

The Greenland Ice Sheet has a “living skin” of microscopic, single-celled organisms. In summer, blooms of ice algae darken the surface, reducing reflectivity (albedo) and accelerating melt. These processes may play a key role in future ice loss. I’ll discuss these remarkable organisms, what recent research reveals about their expanding growth, and the factors that could shape their impact in a warming climate.