☣️ Contagion fact of the week: Plague doctors wore those funny looking beak masks to hold strong smelling herbs. At the time, it was believed that 'bad air' or miasma caused the spread of disease. While the herbs wouldn't actually prevent anything, the masks themselves did help, and the doctors' waxed robes kept fleas away too.

Giant redwoods are thriving in the UK

The world's largest trees, giant redwoods, have been flourishing in the UK and have started to outnumber those found in their native Californian range. While not a native species to the UK, the species was brought here around 160 years ago and is quite adept at locking up carbon dioxide due to its size. Trees at Wakehurst have around 10-15 tonnes of carbon stored in them!

At the other end of the spectrum and a bit further north, Sweden's valuable 'old-growth' forests are being rapidly cleared at a rate faster than the Amazon rainforest with no direct monitoring, environmental impact assessments, or public knowledge to help put an end to it. Old-growth forests are important due to their climate resilience, carbon storage, and biodiversity.

100 new ocean species are believed to have been discovered off the coast of New Zealand. The discovery including new fish, shrimp, and corals followed a three-week exploration of the Bounty Trough. After collecting close to 1,800 samples within the deep Pacific waters, the team predict that the samples will hold somewhere north of 100 new species.

A wildlife centre in Virginia have started wearing nightmarish fox masks to prevent abandoned newborn animals from imprinting on humans. To the wildlife centre, it's incredibly important for the newborns to see other foxes if they are going to be released in the wild.

‘Design is hope made visible’

Brian Collins from Collins has released a collection of 'musings, ramblings, and principles' that the Creative Director has previously shared with his team and on Twitter. These 101 design rules should hopefully include a few principles you can follow in your day-to-day.

How&How Studio have shaken up the carbon capture industry with its new rebrand of Pachama, a Californian company that uses satellite images and LiDAR tech to create readings of real-time carbon removal; making it easier for investors to identify and invest in high-quality projects. The new palette is derived from LiDAR tech scans, where colour is used to indicate the height of a tree.

Last issue we featured an article by Elizabeth Goodspeed on 'designing with taste', and this month has seen her release a new piece about the delicate art of using nostalgia in branding, exploring the benefits heritage branding can bring and why some businesses don't always succeed in capitalising on it.

Women buy more cars, so why are car designs always so macho? This is a question being asked in a new Wired article exploring car design and why it leans towards the preferences of men, despite women buying more than 60% of the new cars sold in the United States.

Give yourself a digital detox

Are you a business leader? Have you ever thought about taking a digital detox? In a world where we're always connected via different means, the lines between work and 'not-work' can easily and quickly become quite blurred. In this Forbes article, take a look at the three reasons why you should consider regular digital detox breaks.

The United States House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would require TikTok's owner to sell the platform or have the platform banned in the country. While the bill needs to be passed by the Senate, the prospect of the platform going away for the 150 million Americans that use it could have immense worldwide effects on culture, advertising, and marketing in the future.

Who says you need expensive camera equipment to make some magic? Apple's ongoing 'Shot on iPhone 15 Pro' campaign recently had its newest entry; a 20-minute short film 'Midnight' by famous Japanese director Takashi Miike, which sends it home that it's not about the tech you have on hand, it’s about the talent and effort you put into a project that matters most.

It’s B Corp Month!

We're now in B Corp Month! With us being halfway through the month already, the team are still putting out great content each week about our progress and what we're up to. Check out the A&B LinkedIn and the team's personal pages if you haven't already.

Russ & Tim just got back from COM1 (Conference of Marketers) yesterday which, in Russ' own words, was a 'total knockout' flagship event. You can read about his event highlights in his new post. Will we see you at COM2? 

We'll be hosting our first ever People, Planet, Pastry event at the end of this month at our usual People, Planet, Pint spot in Farnham, the Castle pub. The idea is simple, come meet us and other sustainability-minded people for a morning of sustainability talk over a pastry. Tickets are free as always.

Each issue of nineteen eighty four, we feature a different Certified B Corporation, to celebrate the brands which are working hard to create a better business world. To learn more about B Corps, click here.

Our featured B Corp this week is…

Regrow

Regrow is a global team of scientists, agronomists, software developers, and business leaders dedicated to building the world’s leading solution to unite the agriculture value chain and advance regenerative practices.

Regrow combines industry leading science and enterprise technology to help companies across the value chain measure, report, and take action to reduce on-farm emissions.