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Joint replacement: what’s a nice joint like you doing in a dame like this?
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology." So began each episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Twenty-some years after that TV series aired, we still don't have bionic people capable of superhuman feats of strength and speed, but we do have lots of people walking around with artificial parts: especially, artificial joints. My own "bionic Mom" is among them; she has two artificial knees and, as of last week, an artificial shoulder. A joint is formed by the ends of two or more bones connected by thick tissues. Some are basically hinges, like the knee; others have a ball-and-socket construction, like the hip. In a normal joint, the bone ends are covered with a smooth ...Yet another column about tea
Tea is not only the most popular beverage in the world, it's also good for you. Over the past 20 years, scientists have discovered potential benefits from tea against cancer, high blood pressure and infection. Now comes a report that tea may be an effective weapon in the fight against diabetes. First, some basic tea facts: Tea is what you get when you pour boiling water over the leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to Southeast Asia. According to legend, the Chinese emperor Shen-Nung learned how to brew tea in 2737 BC when a few leaves from the plant accidentally fell into water he was boiling. Tea eventually spread from ...Ebola
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is in the news again, due to an outbreak in Gabon. Ebola is always news because, unlike most rare tropical diseases, it's part of pop culture, thanks to Richard Preston's 1994 best-seller The Hot Zone and Dustin Hoffman's 1995 movie Outbreak. As a result, many people follow news of Ebola outbreaks with bated breath, wondering if the disease will break out of Africa and spread unstoppably across the world. After all, didn't Preston write that Ebola can be seen as Earth's attempt "to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite"? Well, if that's what Ebola is, it's a pretty pitiful attempt. Ebola hemorrhagic fever has killed fewer than 1,000 people since 1976. Pneumonia ...Sneezing and coughing
If you've been to a concert or play recently, you know 'tis the season for coughing and sneezing--usually during the quietest moments. Both coughing and sneezing are reflex actions (sneezing more so than coughing--you can cough deliberately, but it's almost impossible to fake a sneeze.) And as the proud father of a five-and-a-half-month-old baby girl, I can tell you we know how to cough and sneeze from infancy--in fact, Alice sneezed as I typed this sentence. Both sneezing and coughing are intended to expel unwanted material from the airway. Sneezes begin with an irritation in your nose. This excites the trigeminal nerve, which sends impulses to the "sneezing center," a set of neurons in the ...Laser eye surgery
I grew up in a glasses-wearing family. My parents wore glasses, my two older brothers wore glasses and I, by the age of five, also wore glasses. In more recent years, my brother Dwight and I switched to contacts, but while contacts may be invisible to others, they're still glasses, albeit tiny ones stuck to your eyeballs. But within the last couple of years, Dwight got rid of glasses forever (hopefully). He underwent laser eye surgery to correct his vision. No more glasses --and bragging rights over the rest of us, which in a family of three boys are important rights indeed. The eye works essentially the same as a camera. Light strikes the cornea, ...A shortage of sleep
Are you feeling sleepy? If you are, you might think it's the busy time of the year, but sleepiness isn't limited to the holidays. According to scientists, around two thirds of North Americans are sleep-deprived all the time. Over the past century the average amount of sleep people get has shrunk by more than 20 percent. Today, one out of three of us gets by on six or fewer hours of sleep a night. This is not good. To name just one effect of the shortage of sleep, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S. estimates that drowsy drivers cause at least 100,000 car accidents a year in ...Alzheimer’s Disease
There are few diseases as frightening as Alzheimer's. Most diseases, even if they ravage your body, leave your mind intact. Alzheimer's leaves the body intact but robs victims of their memories and personality. No wonder it is sometimes called "dying by inches." There is neither a cure nor an effective treatment --but there is hope. Breakthroughs are coming fast and furious, and within a few years, there may be treatments that allow us to, if not cure the disease, at least slow or even halt its progression. Alzheimer's Disease was identified in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German neuropathologist, in the brain of a 55-year-old patient who had spent the last year of her life ...Migraines
Few afflictions are more common than headaches. Statistics (themselves the cause of many headaches) show that in the U.S., up to 50 million people go to the doctor for headaches annually. Among headaches, however, migraines hold a special place. The pounding pain can last for hours or even days. Movement makes it worse. Nausea and sensitivity to light and sound heighten the misery. The word "migraine" comes from the Greek, and means "half a skull": migraines almost always occur on only one side of the head. About one-third of migraine sufferers report zig-zag flashing lights, blind spots, numbness and distorted visual images before the onset of a migraine. These early warning signs are called an "aura." Migraine sufferers have included Thomas ...The Hygiene Hypothesis
Here in North America we’re obsessed by cleanliness. We shower daily, sluice down our kitchens with anti-bacterial soap, try to keep our children from playing in the mud. Through good hygiene, we’ve eradicated or reduced the incidence of many diseases—but some scientists are now beginning to think we may have gone too far. Nearly 700 new antibacterial products, from soaps and lotions to toys, mattresses and even computer touch screens, hit the market between 1992 and 1998. But some of us are sicker than ever. The number of people complaining of allergies doubled in the 1990s. The number of people with asthma has increased by at least half in the last 20 years. Other disorders of ...Longevity
Centuries ago, Ponce de Leon sought the Fountain of Youth in Florida. Today, his quest lives on in laboratories around the world. The discoveries are coming thick and fast, too. Just last week Leonard Guarente and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced they have figured out how a gene found in yeast controls longevity. The gene, Silent Information Regulator, or SIR2, is present in mice and humans, too. It apparently controls lifespan in yeast by deactivating whole sections of the yeast genome. This has the effect of slowing the yeast's metabolic rate, and other studies have shown there's a strong correlation between a slower metabolic rate and longevity: ...
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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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