Author: Ecotechnics Staff

Michel Chauvet intro Some very basic truths are almost completely lost to urban, technocentric modern people. One such truth, quoting Barbara Kingsolver: “Eating is an agricultural act”. For our next speaker, investigating how both have evolved has been a passion which has made him a world-class expert in the evolution of food crops and agricultural biodiversity. Trained as an agronomist and ethnolinguist, Michel Chauvet’s research commenced with studies of the names of food crops in European languages. Working at the French centre for overseas trade, he advised French exporters of fruits and vegetables and thus gained an overview of...

Roger Malina  “The man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it” I recall our dear friend, the late geophysicist Keith Runcorn saying there was nothing to equal the excitement of a new observational tool, because it is totally unknown what it will reveal. Roger has had the excitement of being a pioneer not only of a new type of astronomical observatory, but one previously considered impossible because of the assumed opacity of the interstellar medium in the extreme ultraviolet spectra. Ha! Roger and his team proved the nay-sayers wrong.  It’s fitting given Roger’s...

Mediterranean Conference Summary This weekend we have gathered to investigate and celebrate the Mediterranean. Before I attempt to provide some reflection on the truly many-splendored journey we have shared , I wish to acknowledge and deeply thank the people who have made our collective experience so deeply satisfying on many levels. For overall conference management and making sure that the planning had groundtruth and logistical know-how, we thank Margaret Augustine and Marie Harding. John Allen for having the vision for this conference. John, Kathelin Gray and Deborah Snyder for helping find the right people. Bill Dempster brilliantly carried out...