Polymer clay
Angela Schwer, uses polymer clay (which essentially is a polyvinyl chloride plastic that is malleable and can be molded to any desired shape, and cured to attain strength) as her tool to create stunning Flower Sculptures and Tiles. The clay had an entirely different story to tell. Which range from one piece wall sculptures to large sculptures which can span the entire surfaces of walls.
http://www.arch2o.com/polymer-flower-sculpture-and-tiles-angela-schwer/
EcoSphere
The EcoSphere is the world’s first totally enclosed ecosystem - a complete, self-contained and self-sustaining miniature world encased in glass. Easy to care for, an EcoSphere is an incredible learning tool that can provide powerful insights about life on our own planet... and provide a glimpse of technology that's shaping the future of space exploration.
The ecosystems demonstrate in a most simplistic way the interdependence of animal and plant life with Earth’s most precious element - water. They are in fact developments of space age technology initiated by NASA.
Cordyceps research
Cordyceps is a genus of ascomycete fungi that includes about 400 species. All Cordyceps species are endoparasitoids, parasitic mainly on insects.When a Cordyceps fungus attacks a host, the mycelium invades and eventually replaces the host tissue, while the elongated fruit body may be cylindrical, branched, or of complex shape. The ascocarp bears many small, flask-shaped perithecia containing asci. These, in turn, contain thread-like ascospores, which usually break into fragments and are presumably infective.
Some current and former Cordyceps species are able to affect the behaviour of their insect host: Ophiocordyceps unilateralis causes ants to climb a plant and attach there before they die. This ensures the parasite's environment is at an optimal temperature and humidity, and that maximal distribution of the spores from the fruit body that sprouts out of the dead insect is achieved. Marks have been found on fossilised leaves that suggest this ability to modify the host's behaviour evolved more than 48 million years ago.
The genus has a worldwide distribution and most of the approximately 400 species have been described from Asia Cordyceps species are particularly abundant and diverse in humid temperate and tropical forests.
Wild life in Mudchute Farm
In addition to our domestic livestock and pets corner animals, Mudchute is also home to a huge diversity of plants and wildlife. 32 acres represent a wide range of habitats, from wetlands and woodlands to open meadows and field margins.
Shirley Wheeler from the 1983 publication "The Wildlife of the Mudchute"