Archives
Boredom
Everyone is bored sometimes. You find yourself at loose ends, with nothing to read, nobody to talk to, and maybe not even anything interesting to look at...driving alone from Regina to Saskatoon, for example. Yet science has carried out relatively little research on boredom. About four years ago, Richard Ralley, a lecturer in psychology at Edge Hill University in England, set out to change that. Ralley believes that boredom must serve a useful purpose, or it wouldn’t have evolved. He suspects it may be a matter of energy conservation: boredom is the brain’s way of telling the body it’s time to rest, that the task it’s engaged in isn’t worth the expenditure of energy. Some positive aspects of boredom have been identified ...It’s on the tip of my tongue…
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/03/Tip-of-the-Tongue.mp3[/podcast] How often has this happened to you? “So I was talking to...to...oh, you know, that guy, the one in the head office, big hair, bad teeth, only listens to Perry Como records...geez, why can’t I remember his name? It’s on the tip of my tongue!” It’s a common phenomenon, and it’s not just people's names. Sometimes you can’t think of the name of a place, or a food, or a car, or...just about anything. You can feel that the information is in your head, but you can’t shape it into a word. It may be a well-known phenomenon, but it isn’t well-understood. However, new research may have shed a little light on the mechanism involved. One leading explanation for tip-of-the-tongue torment is that when ...Fred Morrison’s wonderful invention, the Frisbee
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/02/Frisbee.mp3[/podcast] Fred Morrison died on Tuesday at the age of 90, one of those people you may never have heard of, but really should have. Morrison invented the Frisbee. Since millions of these and other flying discs have been sold since the 1950s, it’s perhaps a bit humbling to discover, though, that even though throwing a Frisbee well is a skill that can be acquired, nobody has pinned down all the details of the science involved. Morrison, born in Richfield, Utah, said the inspiration for the Frisbee went back to a Thanksgiving Day picnic in 1937 when he and his girlfriend (and future wife), Lu Nay, began throwing the lid of a popcorn tin back and forth. They soon found that a tin cake pan ...Spray-on liquid glass
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/02/Spray-on-Liquid-Glass.mp3[/podcast] “Spray-on liquid glass” sounds like a product you’d see advertised at two o’clock in the morning in an infomercial. It sounds even more like a 2 a.m. infomercial product when you see headlines about it that claim it is “about to revolutionize everything.” Maybe it’d sound more impressive if I used its more formal name, which is “SiO2 ultra-thin layering,” but that’s hard to type, so I’m going to stick with “spray-on liquid glass.” Besides, that’s exactly what it is: an extremely thin layer of glass that can be sprayed onto...well, just about anything. Though it was invented in Turkey, the patent for spray-on liquid glass is held by the German company Nanopool. It consists of almost pure silicon dioxide, a.k.a. silica, extracted ...Fuel from germs
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/01/Fuel-from-Germs.mp3[/podcast] For years, we’ve been turning crops such as corn, wheat and sugar beets into fuel, using yeast to convert sugar into alcohol. But there’s an obvious problem with this. That stuff we’re turning into fuel is also food for humans and feed for animals. (And as an aside, how come we always call it “animal feed” as opposed to “animal food”? And why don’t we ever refer to “human feed”? Hmm?) A lot of the plant is wasted when you grow crops for fuel or food. The leaves and stems, with their tough cell walls made of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, are more of a nuisance than anything else. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a use for what is now plowed ...Social contagions
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/01/Social-Contagions.mp3[/podcast] Parents (I don’t think I’m giving away any parental secrets here) worry about peer pressure--not least because parents remember how much their behavior was influenced by peers when they were young. The fact is, we’re all influenced by the people around us...and we often think of that influence as a bad thing. As the Bible puts it, “Evil companions corrupt good morals.” And other kinds of companions can have other effects. For instance, an analysis of 12,067 people that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 revealed that you are more likely to be obese if your best friend is obese. (Overstuffed siblings or spouses also makes a difference, but the greatest negative effect comes from fat friends.) To a certain ...Why I’m not Stephenie Meyer
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/01/Why-Im-Not-Stephanie-Meyer.mp3[/podcast] I’m a full-time writer, but not, alas, a fabulously wealthy and/or successful one. James Cameron isn’t bugging me about film rights; Oprah isn’t plugging me on TV; fans aren’t lugging great stacks of my books around, chasing me for autographs. It’s easy, when you’re one of the little guys in any creative field, be it fashion, books, movies or music, to envy the runaway successes and wonder what, for example, Stephenie Meyer’s got that you ain’t got. Are her books, objectively, truly so much better than everyone else’s? Or, more to the point, than mine? Probably not, suggests recent research: in fact, runaway successes are runaway successes in part because they’re runaway successes...and efforts to figure out what “the next big thing” ...Blame your brain for overeating
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/12/Why-We-Overeat.mp3[/podcast] Put on a few extra pounds over Christmas? Wonder why you feel compelled to eat half a box of chocolates half an hour after finishing your second plate of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy? Feel a little guilty? Well, new research offers clues to one of the most baffling aspects of the eternal battle of the bulge: why we keep eating even when we’re full. Short version: blame your brain. When you’re hungry, food looks more appealing than when you’re not: hence the old adage about never shopping on an empty stomach. Previous research has suggested that ghrelin, a hormone the body produces when it’s short of calories, may act on the brain to trigger this behavior. Now new research suggests that this ...‘Twas the Nocturnal Time of the Preceding Day to the Day We Call Christmas
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/12/Twas-the-Nocturnal-Time.mp3[/podcast] With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore ’Twas the nocturnal time of the preceding day To the day we call Christmas (which is, by the way, Just a modern twist on the eons-old fight To use feast and fire to end winter’s night). And all through our dwelling (a.k.a. the house), Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. (Mus musculus—really a terrible pest, But even a pest needs a bit of a rest.) The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there (Though that old-fashioned chimney’s so energy-poor That next year I’m making him use the front door!). Our genetic descendants lay snug in their beds, While sucrose-based snack foods danced jigs in their heads, And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap, Had ...The mathematics of pizza slicing
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/12/Pizza-Slicing.mp3[/podcast] It’s almost Christmas, and Christmas means food: turkey, dressing, candy canes, oranges, cranberries, chocolate, and, of course, pizza. (OK, maybe pizza is not the most traditional of foods, but it’s still a popular holiday choice, so humor me.) Pizzas normally come pre-sliced. The question is, and I’m sure you’ve asked yourself this a lot, “How do we eat this pre-sliced pizza in a way that ensures nobody gets an unfair share?” That’s the question, as New Scientist reported on December 11, that Rick Mabry and Paul Deiermann kept asking themselves when they used to share pizza for lunch at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. They kept getting into discussions about the mathematics of slicing it up while ...
Edward Willett is a Subscribe to my weekly science column
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
