Archives
Why sunlight in your eyes can make you sneeze
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/04/photic-sneezing.mp3[/podcast] “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy,” the late John Denver sang. “Sunlight in my eyes can make me cry.” Lovely lyrics. But as a kid, I thought it would have made more sense for Denver to sing, “Sunlight in my eyes can make me sneeze.” Because for somewhere between one in 10 and one in three people, sunlight has exactly that effect. It’s called “photic sneezing,” and it’s nothing new: Aristotle wondered about it in the 4th century BC (although he thought it was brought on by heat, not light). But millennia later, we still don’t know exactly why it happens, as New Scientist writer Richard Webb recently discovered. The usual explanation for regular sneezing is that it serves to ...Science shows musicians really ARE more sensitive
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sensitive-musicians.mp3[/podcast] Musicians have a reputation for being sensitive types, finely tuned to the emotions of those around them. In fact, it’s become a bit of a cliché in movies (with the possible exception of the many late drummers of Spinal Tap). Normally, after a beginning like that, I’d go on to write that science has now proven the cliché wrong--but in this case, quite the opposite is true. Researchers at Northwestern University have found that the more years of musical experience musicians possess, and the earlier the age at which they began studying music, the better their nervous systems are at interpreting the emotional content of sound. The study was led by doctoral student Dana Strait, who conducts her research in the Auditory Neuroscience ...The fad cycle
Here’s a fearless prediction for 2009: sometime, somewhere, something is going to become a hot new fad.It’s a cycle as old as...well, as old as me, anyway, and I suspect a good deal older. Since I was a teenager in the 1970s, I think in terms of Rubik Cubes, platform shoes, bell-bottoms and mood rings.Today I’m so far out of it, pop-culture wise, I’d hesitate to even mention a 2008 fad for fear it’s already last-year’s thing. (Although, since this column appears on New Year’s Eve, I guess you could say any 2008 fad is last-year’s thing.)Perhaps you have fallen for a fad yourself, once in a while. I would say that I never ...I have a dream…wanna see it?
“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,” singers warble this time of year. Up until now, we’ve had to take their word for it.But what if there were technology that could actually record imagery from a dream, and play it back for everyone to see?Hang onto your nightcaps, because it may be on its way.A team at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, led by Yukiyasu Kamitani, reported last week that it has successfully scanned the brains of human subjects and recreated, from scratch, images they were observing at the time.They weren’t very exciting images: crude, black-and-white shapes, numbers, and the word “neuron,” but the fact they were able to pluck them ...Books, movies, reality are all equally disgusting–and that’s a good thing!
I write nonfiction (obviously), but I also write science fiction and fantasy.We who write such stuff are occasionally asked (and occasionally wonder) if our works can continue to compete in a media universe in which “science fiction” and “fantasy” conjure up for most people Hollywood special-effects extravaganzas first, and the written word second (if at all).I was therefore heartened to read of a recent scientific study that indicates that books are every bit as good at stirring emotions as movies.(Alas, the particular emotion being studied was disgust, which is one most writers--Stephen King perhaps being the exception--only occasionally wish to invoke for fear the disgust will spill over from specific scenes to the entire ...Good news for live musicians
Neuroscientists have found that a piano sonata played by a human being elicits stronger emotional responses than the same piece played by a computer:Senior research fellow in psychology [at the University of Susses] Dr Stefan Koelsch, who carried out the study with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, played excerpts from classical piano sonatas to twenty non-musicians and recorded electric brain responses and skin conductance responses (which vary with sweat production as a result of an emotional response). Although the participants did not play instruments and considered themselves unmusical, their brains showed clear electric activity in response to musical changes (unexpected chords and changes in tonal key), ...Monday, Monday
From the Mamas and the Papas’ “Monday, Monday” to the Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays” to the Boomtown Rats’ supremely creepy “I Don’t Like Mondays,” the first day of the work and school week has been vilified as a day of depression.But new research shows that people’s moods don’t really change that much over the course of a week: people are not, in fact, noticeably happier on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings than they are on Mondays.Yet they both expect to be, and believe they were, and so the myth persists.That’s according to Charles Areni, a marketing professor at the University of Sidney in Australia, in a paper published in the Journal of ...This is your brain on Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock, James Vermiere wrote in the Boston Herald on the occasion of the centenary of Hitchcock’s birth in 1999, “delighted in terrifying audiences by manipulating them...More than any other filmmaker, he was a master at messing with our minds.”“Wait a minute!” I hear you cry (if I happen to be sitting behind you as you read this, creeping up on you, breathing down your neck, about to...Ha! Made you look!). “What does all this stuff about Hitchcock, and your rather lame attempt to capture some of the Hitchcockian spirit in the first half of this paragraph, have to do with science? Have I stumbled upon a new film criticism column by mistake?”Nay, dear reader. I ...Try to remember
Ever try to list a series of interesting things you've heard or own or read about for someone else, only to end up saying something like, "and...and...and I forget the other thing."There's a good reason why we often "forget the other thing"--because our conscious mind, or what is sometimes called our "working memory," has a limited capacity.Just how limited has become clearer with new research published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described in a story by Clara Moskowitz at LiveScience.com.How many things can you hold in your working memory? According to this new research, probably no more than three or four.That's lower than the previous estimate of ...Sleep in a bottle
I love a good night’s sleep. I just rarely get one that’s quite as long as I’d like.I’m not alone in that, either. Although exactly how much sleep any individual needs varies according to that individual’s age, sex, genetic makeup and other factors, studies indicate that the “normal” sleep need for most adults is between seven and eight hours a night (teenagers need more like nine, and preschoolers 11 to 13, and schoolchildren up to age 12 need 10 to 11).According to Statistics Canada, in 1998, men averaged 8 hours of sleep a night and women 8.2, which sounds pretty good: however, 17 percent of men and 13 percent of women reported sleeping less than 6.5 ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
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…
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.
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
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
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).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
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.
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