Viewed from space, our blue planet seems as familiar as a long -time friend – so familiar that we forget how extraordinary it really is.

A miraculous mantle envelops the entire planet – a thin skin of gasses called ‘air’. Without it, there would be no life or weather, no habitable conditions, or protection from lethal ultraviolet radiation or meteorites from outer space.

It's the solid crust of our planet, the perfect element in which to record the stories of deep time and of lifetimes. Change and progression are the way of earth. Air and water turn solid rock into soil. Animals walk upon that soil and are supported by it, but plants turn soil into life.

Land

Water is the essential element. It is everywhere, in the air; the earth; and in the oceans. Water has the power to shape life, yet every day the ocean surrenders to a much greater force; the gravitational pull of our moon.