Archives
The ebb and flow of curvy cars
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/04/Curvy-Cars.mp3[/podcast] In the 1940s and 1950s, cars had curves. From the 1960s through the 1980s, they tended to have sharp angles. But since then, they’ve tended more toward the curvy again...although I’m seeing signs of angularity one more. Have you ever wondered why? A German researcher at the University of Bamberg with the unlikely-yet-oddly-appropriate name of Claus-Christian Carbon did, and the results of his study were recently published in the journal Acta Psychologica under the title “The cycle of preference: Long-term dynamics of aesthetic appreciation.” Carbon suggests that two basic but somewhat conflicting human tendencies influence our reaction to automobile designs: a natural inclination to prefer curved objects, and a fascination with the new. Normally, humans avoid sharp objects, because sharp objects—fangs, claws, knives, ...A half-billion years of irritation
Just a couple of years ago, I wrote a column about the advent of tearless onions that included some background on why onions make us cry in the first place. Ordinarily I wouldn’t revisit a topic quite so soon, but you know how it is with science: things change fast, and just this week there was breaking news in the field of onion-induced tears. Well, as breaking as any news can be when it deals with something that’s been around for half a billion years. Onions have always made humans cry, or at least for as long as humans have been eating them, which seems to be a long time indeed—so far back in pre-history that we can’t even say for sure ...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 ...Arachnophobia
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/09/Arachnophobia.mp3[/podcast] “The itsy-bitsy spider went up the waterspout. Down came the rain, and washed the spider out...” At which point a large percentage of us screamed and ran the other way, because surveys show that one fifth of men and a third of women are frightened of arachnids. It makes sense, right? Spiders can be poisonous. But so are stinging insects such as bees and wasps, and yet we seem to hate spiders more. At the University of Wurzburg, Germany, psychologist Georg Alpers asked 76 students to rate photos of spiders, wasps, bees, beetles, butterflies and moths on how much fear and disgust they inspired and how dangerous they were. Spiders topped the list in all three categories—even though all bees can ...A universal theory of humour
[podcast]http://www.edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/A Universal Theory of Humour.mp3[/podcast] I am a very funny man. I have been told so, so it must be true. You can tell how funny I am by reading my very funny writing. Like this paragraph. This paragraph is very funny. It must be because I am a very funny man. I have been told so, so it must be true. Why we find things funny has long been a matter of contention in the scientific world, probably because humor itself is so subjective. I think the preceding paragraph is funny. You might disagree. But now I can trump your disagreement with science: that paragraph is funny because it’s based on the surprise repetition of patterns. Until recently, theories of humour have ...Male managers as animal show-offs
I’ve been a freelance writer for 15 years now, so the world of office politics is something I know about only through second-hand accounts and television shows.I say that just so you know I can’t personally vouch for the accuracy of the study that caught my eye this week.The study, authored by Jeffrey Braithewaite of the University of New South Wales in Australia, just appeared in the Journal of Health Organisation and Management under the catchy title of “Lekking displays in contemporary organizations: Ethologically oriented, evolutionary and cross-species accounts of male dominance.”The university’s press release was more succinct: “Why your boss is white, middle-class and a show-off.” A lek (the word is ...The early Earth may have been purple…
...not green.Chlorophyll, it seems, may have been a relative latecomer.Neanderthals revisited
If I were to call you a Neanderthal, you'd think I was calling you brutish, primitive, and stupid. Allow me to set the record straight: Neanderthals were none of the above. Neanderthals were a type of human that lived between 350,000 and 27,000 years ago, mostly in Europe. They get their name from the Neander Valley (in German, "thal") near Dusseldorf, where German workmen discovered a strange skeleton in 1856. Charles Darwin hadn't published his theory of evolution yet suggesting that humans might have evolved from a different ancestral form, so the prevailing opinion at the time was that the strange-looking bones were those of an ordinary human afflicted with rickets in childhood and arthritis ...Neanderthals
If I were to call you a Neanderthal, you'd think I was calling you brutish, primitive, incapable of nobility and the higher emotions, and stupid, to boot. Of course, if we said this about any existing group of humans--expatriate Texans, for instance--we would be accused of being racist. Neanderthals, alas, cannot seek redress for libel, being all dead, but allow me to put the record straight: they were none of the above. Neanderthals were a type of human that lived between 200,000 and 27,000 years ago, mostly in Europe. They get their name from the Neander Valley (in German, "thal") near Dusseldorf, where German workmen discovered a strange skeleton in 1856. Charles Darwin hadn't published ...Taxonomy
When people think of science, they think of physics or chemistry or astronomy, of particle accelerators, of racks of test tubes or giant telescopes. They don't think of taxonomy; yet this less-than-glamorous science is at the heart of modern biology. Taxonomy is not, as you might suppose, the scientific study of taxes. Instead it's the science of classifying living organisms into hierarchical groups that represent the relationships among them. It's been going on since the first humans started calling some living things "birds" and other living things "fish" to distinguish between them. The ancient Jews had quite an extensive taxonomic system to help decide which animals could and could not be eaten. Aristotle resolved the living world into 14 groups, ...
Edward Willett is a The Shards of Excalibur, Book 1: Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel, coming in October 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….
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
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.
