• Part 3: AI for Ecosystem Balance – Tracking Nature’s Intricate Web

    Part 3: AI for Ecosystem Balance – Tracking Nature’s Intricate Web

    In this third part of our series, we delve into the dual-edged sword of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ecosystem management. AI’s application in this field is akin to assembling a complex ecological jigsaw, a task Maxwell Knight, a pioneer in nature conservation, might have found captivating. Let me tell you why… AI: The Modern Nature…

  • Echoes of the Past: Learning Conservation from Maxwell Knight

    Echoes of the Past: Learning Conservation from Maxwell Knight

    What can a spy teach us about nature? In the echoes of history, we often find timeless wisdom. This is particularly true when we revisit the legacy of Maxwell Knight OBE, the legendary ‘Nature Detective’ and MI5 spymaster. Knight, a figure who intriguingly straddled the worlds of espionage and natural history, left behind a legacy…

  • A more optimistic long view of our place in nature

    A more optimistic long view of our place in nature

    By Dr Valerie Jeffries. Walking along briskly for my lockdown exercise I was watching the starlings congregate for their evening swarm on the TV aerials, and listening to quarrelling sparrows and the raucous yells of the seagulls way inland. Many birds have adapted to live alongside humans in our urban landscapes, some like the house…

  • M’s (Maxwell Knight) Spectre: The Frightened Face of Nature

    M’s (Maxwell Knight) Spectre: The Frightened Face of Nature

    During the 1960s Maxwell Knight – the real-life “M” – was working on a manuscript entitled The Frightened Face of Nature, snatching brief moments to record his thoughts on how man had treated nature so unfairly for the first fifty years of the twentieth century. The manuscript documented Knight’s greatest fears that, time was running…