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Stories

  • Article

The big freeze

In recent years we’ve come to realise that global heating is our biggest threat. But it’s hard to shake off the fear of a return to ice-age conditions, the predominant narrative since the late 17th century.

  • Article

Air of threat

Novelist Chloe Aridjis vividly describes the suffocating atmosphere of Mexico City, as a combination of topography, crowded neighbourhoods, and reckless political diktats create a downward spiral.

  • Article

How nature is defending itself in court

The idea that nature has legal rights is increasingly being taken seriously, but who gets to speak for it? Isabella Kaminski asks how the non-human can be represented within a human-made system.

  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

All stories (7)

Images

  • A volcano (Mount Etna?) erupting at night. Gouache painting.
  • Mount Erebus, Antarctica: the volcano in eruption. Chromolithograph, 1868.
  • A volcano (Mount Etna?) erupting at night. Coloured aquatint.
  • A volcano (Mount Etna?) erupting at night. Coloured aquatint.
  • The volcano of Awatcha (Avacha) in Kamchatka, Siberia. Etching with engraving.
  • The Jorullo volcano, Mexico. Coloured aquatint by P. Fumagalli, ca. 1820.
  • The Jorullo volcano, Mexico. Coloured aquatint by P. Fumagalli, ca. 1820.
  • Geography: a volcano in eruption. Coloured wood engraving by C. Whymper.
  • Tangkubanperahu volcano, Java: Kawa Ratu, the active crater. Colour lithograph after Hochstetter.
  • Mount Vesuvius erupting in 1755, seen from the west, with two small views of the volcano in 1631, and of the volcano's crater in section. Coloured etching by N. D'Oraty.
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Catalogue

All works (263)