Back to Nature

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Imperial Lates Online: Back to Nature 

 
Our adult celebrations of science returned in digital form with a week-long online exploration of our connection to the natural world.  
 
Catch up with all the events from Imperial Lates Online: Back to Nature and join an artist and plant scientist at a plant drawing workshop, see who triumphed in our great outdoors-inspired poetry slam, and watch a debate on lockdown’s impact on the environment.
 
Plus there's a host of nature-themed talks, podcast interviews and music playlists for you to enjoy at your leisure. 
 

Imperial Lates Online are most suitable for over 18s.

Back to Nature events

Dr Samraat Pawar in forest

A day in the life of… a theoretical ecologist

Dr Samraat Pawar talked about his work predicting the future of some of the most important and yet complex ecosystems on Earth.

Watch now

Wildlife conservationist Rikki Gumbs

I am a Wildlife Conservationist: Ask Me Anything!

Wildlife conservationists Rikki Gumbs and James Rosindell discussed the huge amounts of evolutionary history that are under threat from human activity during this Reddit Ask Me Anything.

Find out more

sketch of plant's leaves

Plant life drawing workshop

Put pen to paper and recreate the intricacies of your favourite plants in this video of our plant drawing workshop. Led by a professional artist and plant science researcher.

Watch now

View of people walking through park

Does the response to COVID-19 provide hope for the natural world

A climate researcher, a behavioural scientist and an environmental campaigner discuss if people's reactions to COVID-19 has given them hope.

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Dan Simpson performing at poetry event

Nature Slam

Some of the most exciting spoken word artists and poets battled it out for Imperial Lates Online fame and glory, all under the watchful eye of Dan Simpson, our ever-lively Poet in Residence.

Watch now

Spider monkey Play video
Relax and take a meditative trip into the rainforest with a one-hour audio-visual soundtrack. Explore the history of the forests of Costa Rica and hear Jenna explain how these tropical soundscapes are being used to aid conservation work.

biodiverse/earth

Explore the human impact on the forests of Costa Rica with this audio-visual soundtrack. Jenna Lawson is working to save the endangered spider monkey. Taking her real-life forest recordings, art collective super/collider have created an immersive journey from untouched biodiverse forests, to the haunting silence of disturbed plantations. biodiverse/earth conveys the beauty in the diversity of life and what we lose when we destroy these incredible ecosystems.

Read more about Jenna’s work using soundscapes and the range of animals living in the Osa Peninsula rainforest

Lates TV and games

Illustration of planet Earth

Climate cares

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by climate change? This short animation from our new research group Climate Cares explains the anxieties we feel about the environment and how we can help to ease them.

Watch now

Illustration of krill

Antarctic Krill: Carbon Conveyor Belt of the Southern Ocean

Find out how tiny krill are making a gigantic difference in this animation! The Southern Ocean is one of the largest regional ocean sinks for atmospheric CO2, partly due to Antarctic krill, small crustaceans at the centre of the region’s food web.

Watch now

Person playing ecobuilder game on their mobile phone

EcoBuilder game

Build your own ecosystem of plants and animals in this mobile game created by Imperial postgraduate Jonathan Zheng. Your high scores will help real researchers to understand ecosystems better!

Play now

Photograph of forest Play video
This piece was crowdsourced as part of poet Dan Simpson's residency at Imperial College London. After setting prompts with Imperial researcher Dr Ans Vercammen, Dan collected words from the public on the theme of our relationship to nature.

Back to Nature: A crowdsourced poem by Dan Simpson

This piece was crowdsourced as part of poet Dan Simpson's residency at Imperial College London. After setting prompts with Imperial researcher Dr Ans Vercammen, Dan collected words from the public on the theme of our relationship to nature. Using these, he edited these contributions together to create this poem.

Podcast playback

Take a coffee break and tune in to some of our favourite nature-themed excerpts from the Imperial Podcast. From sounds of the rainforest to green economies, these 5-minute morsels are perfect for tea and biscuit time. 

Green economic recovery

Tune into the rainforest

How the climate crisis affects mental wellbeing