Articles, Environment, Heritage
Hibaku: The Witness Trees of Hiroshima
Almost 200 trees survived the direct effects of the Hiroshima atomic blast on August 6, 1945, and are now called hibaku jumoku – the survivor trees.
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Environment, Science
Uncharted Territories
Asia’s rainforests contain a treasure trove of medical treatments waiting to be discovered. But who knows where the next life-giving discovery will be made?
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Science
A Habitat for Humanity
The planet is undergoing unexpected and complicated – but understandable – changes. Sunlight penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere is being trapped, and the world is storing heat energy more than it used to. Why is this change occurring?
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Environment
Ancient Pillars to the Sky
The ancient Yakusugi trees of Yakushima are amongst the very oldest and largest of Asia’s living things. These evergreen cedars can be found on the circular island of Yakushima, lying near the southern tip of the Japanese archipelago with a mountainous interior that is mostly forested wilderness. These World Heritage-listed groves, called Cryptomeria japonica, are the national tree of Japan and are nestled within the valleys of these hills.
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Environment
The Tree of Life
This is a story about our little branch on the tree of life. Let us journey out on a figurative limb, balancing our way along the branch we share with the primates, and then onto the smaller branch we call Homo. Thanks to advances in genetic technology, working in tandem with fragments of fossil evidence, we are starting to get a sense of where, geographically, this strand began.
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Environment
Prominence
Prominence, while not a gauge of the difficulty of the climb, is another good measurement of the height of a mountain.
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Environment
Pangaea, Dance of the Moving Continents
Today, we look at the familiar map and see the seemingly stable shapes of the land, but we are just catching a moment in a much more complex dance.
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Environment
Comets as Arks
In every society there are those who do not play by the rules, and who dream of taking long journeys of pilgrimage. In our Solar System, these maverick renegades are also the most mysterious; they are the comets that bring magic and wonder to our night skies. Unexpectedly, and beyond our wildest imaginings, they are the source of all true magic – they hold the key to the origins of life on Earth.
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