The 3D lab

Taking the stage

Posted on September 21, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

This thursday we have the Biology Research Day at our university, an event that for the first time brings together all students and PhD-students in Biology from the whole university, to learn from each other and see what is happening all over the department.

I will take the stage for a 5 minutes ‘pitch presentation’, as it is called beautifully.

I fear the stage will not be as impressive as the one in this theatre in Hierapolis in Turkey…

I have to admit I have had bigger opportunities to present my research, but this particular event does have a little bit extra. I like the idea to present ‘close to home’ for once, to people I know.

It will also provide an opportunity to get students enthusiastic about my topic, and a challenge to summarise my whole PhD in 5 short minutes to briefly show why we should care about what I am doing.

Exciting! I do not need the 15.000 admirers that fit in Hierapolis’ amphitheatre, but some interested students would already make it worth the effort.

Posted in Turkey | Tagged Amphitheatre, Ancient history, Archeology, Architecture, History, Photography, Travel, Travel photography, Traveling, Turkey | Leave a comment

The land of the setting sun…

Posted on September 20, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

… at least, so it felt after a week of beautiful summer weather.

The western coast of Turkey boarders the Mediterranean Sea, and every night the sun drops from the sky into the water, painting the world with the warmest colours.

Sun setting behind the isle of Samos, Greece

Turkey definitely holds on to the summer a bit longer than I am used to from higher north, and it was a blessing to feel the warmth of the sun for a while again.

The true holiday feel on Kusadasi beach

Recharging the batteries like this gives plenty of energy to dive into new projects.

The Mediterranean sun plunges much faster into the sea than I am used to from higher latitudes. Sunsets are surprisingly short, only in a few minutes skies and clous change colour, the sun grows bigger, kisses the sea and disappears under the horizon.

In Belgium, he lingers much longer on the edge, only slowly approaching the sea and the inevitable end of the day on a slightly less vertical path. In Sweden off course, the sunset-balance has even shifted completely in the other direction. On a nice summer day, the sunset easily lasts the whole night, avoiding the collision with the horizon for hours in a row.

Setting sun in the mountains in the Turkish inlands

Mountains disrupt these sunsets with their shadows, (the undisrupted seasons providing one reason to prefer the oceans). Mountains shorten the days as their long shadows loom over the valleys. But if you climb high enough, slopes on the horizons can add a beautiful extra dimension to the daily sunset routines.

Umbrella sedge

Traveling from oceans to mountains, and from mountains to oceans, it will never grow old.

Posted in Turkey | Tagged Light, Mountains, Nature, Nature photography, Ocean, Photography, Plants, Sea, Summer, Sunset, Travel, Traveling, Turkey | Leave a comment

Feels like cold

Posted on September 12, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

The atmosphere of autumn in the Swedish mountains is totally different from the feeling of summer. The mountains seem to be a lot less hospitable, with their stubborn clouds and rainy weather.

But for those who manage to look through the curtains of mist, there is a beautiful world hidden up there, with amazing views appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

I am safely home from fieldwork in the north, where winter is rapidly approaching, and I will turn my back to the cold and fly off to Turkey now. I’ll take one extra week of summer to relax in the sun, before plunging head first in the large and interesting data pile that I have been collecting the last few months.

Posted in General | Tagged Autumn, Hike, Hiking, Landscape photography, Mist, Mountains, Nature, Nature photography, Outdoors, Scandinavia, Sweden, Travel, Travel photography, Travelling, Weather | 1 Comment

New post on the MRI-blog!

Posted on September 9, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

Read my new post here!

Posted in Sweden | Tagged Ecology, Mountain ecology, Mountains, Nature, Photography, Science | 1 Comment

Cloudberry

Posted on September 8, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

One of my all-time favourite plants in the high north: the cloudberry. The fruits look like solidified clouds and they can grow where almost no other plants survive, from nutrient-poor marches to wet and acidic heathlands. They can withstand temperatures as low as -40 °C and there they still stand, beautiful as ever.

And they are tasty! I often imagine them tasting like clouds as well, but not the boring white fluffy clouds, but tasty, dark, thunderclouds, rolling over the mountains late in the evening, with red edges from the setting sun.

I love them in yoghurt as well, but they are best as the occasional tiny snack on a strenuous hike to the alpine area.

Posted in Sweden | Tagged Berries, Flowers, Food, Mountain ecology, Mountains, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Plants, Scandinavia, Travel, Traveling | 3 Comments

Subarchitecture

Posted on September 5, 2015 by lembrechtsjonas

The subarctic might be more famous for its natural wonders than its architecture, but I realised it still has some beautiful human constructions to show, albeit often hidden in the vast wilderness. Now I am back home from another amazing trip to the high north, I thought it interesting to show some of the most beautiful subarctic architecture I have seen on my travels.

I especially love the typical Swedish style of building, with nice, small wooden houses in the brightest red. Scattered through the birch forest, you can see them looking cosy, warm and hospitable.

The Abisko Research Station hosts a beautiful example of one of these typical Swedish buildings represented in their oldest building. If I could believe the proud metal flag on its top, it has been build in 1912 and heralded the start of already more than hundred years of continuous scientific research in the high north. As a scientist, that makes you feel humble.

The train station of the little village of Torneträsk

Another set worth mentioning is the serie of beautiful old train stations scattered along the old ore train line between Kiruna – the mining city – and Narvik, one of the northernmost year-round ice free ports in the world. They are the same in many of the little villages all along the railroad, and they breath an old robustness. I fear they are not in use anymore, but their towers are landmarks visible from far.

And then off course there are the tiny little pieces of architecture in the mountains, made by hiker after hiker and maybe the most impressive example of architecture I could find. The stone men of the mountains, officially called ‘cairns’.

It asks for some pretty interesting balancing to get these pieces of art erected, and they mark trails and the most impressive spots in the mountains. This example was the proud top of mountain Nuolja, more than 1200 meter height of proud rocks overlooking the valley of Abisko’s national park.

I imagine generations of hikers adding their own little stone to the construction, improving its architecture little by little, and keeping the stone men of the mountains alive.