I specialise in stories about renewable energy, climate change, smart cities, sustainability, and urbanization. I'm also a novelist and publisher and write about, and teach, creative writing.
Go green, get rewarded
A new GreenTech startup, Greeneum, hopes to get more power from renewables by incentivizing both power providers and end users with rewards that can then be used to support more green initiatives…
Sharing is caring
Hundreds of thousands of people across Brazil have created their own circular economy through a social network that connects them with people locally to borrow things instead of buying new…
Scotland’s world-leading circular economy
Scotland is leading the way in moving towards a new circular-economy style of living, where consumption followed by disposal is out and recycling to re-using is in…
Britain’s reforestation project
Recently the U.K. government announced that it will be providing USD $4.31 million investment to help plant a new coast-to-coast forest in the north of England that will bring 50 million new trees to the country’s least-wooded areas…
Food security threats from climate change
Climate change will continue to affect every area of life. The food production industry is looking at how it can adapt in the face of rising temperatures, higher rainfall or drought, loss of viable growing land and ever increasing populations. The answer may be “climate-smart agriculture”…
What if climate change kills the coral reefs?
A new documentary just released on Netflix, Chasing Coral, documents the effects of climate change on coral reefs around the world. Unfortunately, the story is not currently a happy one, but the overarching message is one of hope if rising sea temperatures can be halted…
The vanishing islands of the Pacific
Climate change and rising sea levels are already making life in low-lying tropical islands in the Pacific difficult. Increases in global temperatures mean that many of these islands are likely to be completely submerged in the coming years. A report published by The Center for Climate and Security in June 2017 titled “Epicenters of Climate and Security: The New Geostrategic Landscape of the Anthropocene” highlights the plight of the small Pacific island nations ...
8 Robotics Trends for 2017 and Beyond
The robotics technology market is booming. In fact, according to the 2016 Worldwide Semiannual Commercial Robotics Spending Guide from the International Data Corporation, the market is predicted to more than double in value by 2020 — from $91.5 billion in 2016 to more than $188 billion in 2020.
Venus Project: future societies blueprint 20 years on
If you want to make the world a more sustainable place look no further than the Venus Project, a technology-based Utopia that for two decades has been proposing a radical overhaul to the way we think about the future. Does today’s technology take the dream any closer to reality?
Brainchild of engineer and futurist Jacque Fresco, the Venus Project has some radical ideas about how to make the world a better place. Its ideas are familiar: they should be, it’s been around for two decades now. Get...
Creating Complex Characters: Adam in The Imposter
This is the first in a new blog series looking at complex characters in novels, which is something I am very interested in and focus on in my teaching. When I first started writing my first novel all of the teachers I came across in various workshops talked about reading often and widely, which I already did. So I started to think more deeply about what I read. what resonated with me and why....
Brexit and Biomass | Biomassmagazine.com
There are real concerns about what Brexit means for the future of the U.K.’s renewable energy sector, which has grown significantly with the help of EU-funded investments and subsidies....
Scientists use computer modelling for drug discovery
AstraZeneca caused a storm last year when Pfizer attempted a takeover – the pharma-giant's motivation? Computer-aided modelling of drugs.
We now live in a 'Big Data' world and computational modelling of biological data, or computational biology, is seeing new approaches, developments and revelations in the way we discover, deliver and understand the effect of drugs. Although Pfizer has withdrawn its takeover bid for AstraZeneca, the progress that it has made in its cancer immunotherapy resear...
Smartening Up: Cities Embrace the Future with IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) – the concept that all devices that can be connected will be connected – is starting to take root in cities in various parts of the globe. IoT is being used to better manage energy, water, transportation and safety – but what exactly does this look like in first-adopter cities?
What nanomedicines will do for us - eventually
Pharmaceutical giants have promised consumers an army of nanorobots capable of curing' a whole host of diseases. As we await these medical breakthroughs, a different form of nano-sized health aid called nanomedicine is emerging. Last year saw the medical industry announce a flurry of exciting developments in the world of nanomedicine. These included banishing annoyances such as athlete's foot, treating advanced ovarian cancer and delivering HIV drugs at lower doses with the same effect.
How are the big cities approaching rapid urbanisation?
Cities all over the world are experiencing extremely fast rates of urbanisation as rural populations flock to them for work. Shanghai, New Delhi, Mexico City and Mumbai are growing the fastest, so how are they coping and what can they learn from established cities?
We are now living in the ‘Urban Millennium’ – a moniker coined by the United Nations in its State of the World 2007 report. What this means is that more than half of the global population now lives in cities and towns, a tipping po...