Exploring and Preserving

WE ALL HAVE HANG-UPS, perhaps we’re cautious about making decisions, or bite our nails or daydream when we should be listening – we all do it, right? According to the psychiatrists, psychologists and other experts we interviewed for this month’s cover feature, ‘Normal or Nuts?’ (page 38), these quirky behaviours and idiosyncrasies make us alarmingly average. It’s understandable, though, to wonder what is normal and what is a sign of serious mental decline. The advice in this article will set your worries at ease.

The way we study grand cities and monuments of ancient history is being transformed by photogrammetry – a technique that codes photographs into ultra-precise 3D digital models. In ‘Back to the Future’ (page 88), we meet French architect Yves Ubelmann who, for the past decade, has travelled to some of the most dangerous places on Earth to capture these monuments using drones. His images and models of the city of Palmyra in Syria, which dates back to the third millennium BC and was looted and destroyed by ISIS militia during the occupation of Syria, now represent the final glimpses into this ancient world. His work and journey make for compelling reading.