Good Nature

Good Nature is a groundbreaking exploration that reveals how, if we bring nature more into our lives, it can help improve our health and well-being in so many unexpected ways. Oxford professor Kathy Willis has spent her career researching fossilised plants and plant matter - but when she stumbled across a study that showed that patients recovering from surgery improved faster just by being able to see trees from their hospital bed , it radically changed the way she viewed the natural world. Professor Willis has since embarked on a process of discovery to find the research that has shown, time and time again, that there is a causal link between plants in our lives, both indoors and outside, and better physical and mental health. Consulting plant scientists and biologists, medical practitioners and psychiatrists, city planners and government health authorities, she encourages us to transform how we design and inhabit our environments. There are simple changes we can all make in our homes: for example, the scent of rosemary will make you more awake; green-and-yellow-leaved houseplants are the best at reducing stress; and touching and stroking untreated wooden surfaces can lower our blood pressure. But we can also think on a much grander scale: prescribing more nature in streets, offices and our homes will not only save money but improve the health of us all. Focusing on how we interact with nature through the senses of sight, smell, hearing and touch, Good Nature explains how we can organise our homes, our time outdoors and the world around us to reap the health benefits of nature that science is only now just discovering.

Préface
Good Nature is a groundbreaking exploration from Dr Kathy Willis exposing the causal relationship between nature and our health - making you experience the world in a new light.

Auteur

Katherine Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government's Natural Capital Committee. She has extensive broadcast experience and, in 2015, Kathy was awarded the Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science from the Royal Society.

Résumé
'This lucid and entertaining book presents compelling scientific evidence that proves what many of us have perhaps long suspected: nature is really good for us. I found it revelatory' Richard Deverell, Director of Kew A revolutionary, science-based look at the ways nature can help make us healthier. Fifteen years ago, University of Oxford Professor Kathy Willis read a study that radically changed her view of our relationship to the natural world. The study revealed that hospital patients recovering from surgery improved three times faster when they looked out of their windows at trees rather than seeing walls. Since then, she has dedicated her research to proving this link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity. For the first time ever, Good Nature brings together these recent scientific findings and shares the simple changes we can all make in our lives. The book is full of surprising and practical ways that nature can improve our lives, such as: did you know that cedar enhances cancer-fighting cells in our immune system? Or that touching wood makes us feel calmer (the woodier, the knot-ier, the better)? Or that the scent of roses helps people drive more calmly and safely? Even having a pot plant by your desk can make a difference. A book with applications to everything from which way we walk to work to choosing where our kids should go to school, Good Nature brings the latest scientific research into our homes and workplaces. It shows how nature can help reduce the costs of healthcare and how, by bringing nature into our towns and cities, we can create a better, happier and healthier environment for all.