Every art gallery has its own personality, its own “feel,” which gallery goers construct inside their own heads through their reaction to the gallery’s physical spaces, the exhibits and how they are arranged, the text that accompanies those exhibits, and the gallery’s various programs. To me, the gallery with the most interesting personality in Regina …
Category: Blog
Diamonds (2002)
Few things say “Be My Valentine” more effectively than diamonds–reason enough to devote this week’s science column to these sparkling rocks. Diamonds aren’t anything fancy, chemically: they’re just carbon, like coal. But their molecules close-packed in rigid geometric fashion, and that gives them special characteristics. To begin with, diamond is the hardest substance known: the …
Extremophiles
We humans like to think we’re pretty tough, able, thanks to our technology, to live in the most severe habitats on Earth. But the fact is, there are other forms of life on Earth that have us beat hands down. They not only live all the places we live, they live in searingly hot water …
Insomnia
There’s a song in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta Iolanthe that begins, “When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache and repose is taboo’d by anxiety….” and goes on to describe a horrendous night that begins with sleeplessness and ends with a horrible dream. W. S. Gilbert, it seems, was no stranger to insomnia. Nor are roughly …
The common cold
It’s January: if you don’t have a cold yourself, you know someone who does. The common cold is caused by a virus infection in the nose, although colds can also involve the sinuses, ears and bronchial tubes. Symptoms include sneezing, a runny and/or stuffed-up nose, a sore or scratchy throat, cough, hoarseness, and sometimes headaches, …
What J.R.R. Tolkien means to me
I went to see The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings last week. That’s hardly news; it’s been the number-one movie for three weeks now, so lots of people have been going to see it. But I did want to set down my impressions of the film–and some thoughts on what J.R.R. …
The science of stink
We all have our favorite smells, which remind us of our favorite things. The smell of baking bread may make you think of Grandma’s house. The scent of lilacs may remind you of warm summer evenings. Then there our are less-favorite smells, like the smell of an outhouse on a hot day, or the smell …
The 2001 Discover Awards
Each year, Discover Magazine honors a number of scientists with Innovation Awards, which spotlight inventions and discoveries with the potential to change our lives. A look at the 2001 winners provides a snapshot of how science and technology are advancing, and just maybe gives us a look at what the future holds. (OK, OK, the awards were …
New Year’s resolutions for 2002
I’ve written weekly columns on a variety of topics almost constantly for more than 20 years now, which means I’ve probably written at least 20 New Year’s columns devoted to the topic of resolutions–and guess what? This is one of them. This being a column on the arts, of course, the resolutions have to relate …
The physics of fiddling
Isaac Stern, master of the complex physics of waveform generation, vibrating wood, and acoustical analysis, died last month. Stern, of course, didn’t think of himself in those terms: he thought of himself as a violinist. But violins are remarkably complex devices. On the surface, they look pretty simple: the bow vibrates the strings, which vibrate …
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 …
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, …
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