“Like something out of Star Trek” has become a catch-phrase for all things high-tech. But as Erik Baard points out in articles recently posted to Wired Online, we live in such a high-tech age that the Star Trek future is beginning to look more like last Thursday. As Baard notes, fans have wondered for decades …
Category: Blog
P-books and e-books
The Saskatchewan Book Awards, honoring the best books by Saskatchewan writers, is coming up on November 30. The short-listed nominees are all worthy, but they’re also all a little old-fashioned, in that they’re all printed on paper. “Paper?” I hear you say. “What else would they be printed on?” To which I reply, who says …
The Dead Sea SCrolls
Two thousand years ago mass-produced books did not exist. Knowledge was handed down from generation to generation either orally, or in fragile, handwritten documents. Because of that only fragments of the knowledge of that time survives today: inscriptions on stone, a few papyrus and parchment fragments. Creating an image of the distant past is like …
Leonardo’s Bridge
Last week a pedestrian bridge opened in Norway. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be of much interest anywhere else, but this bridge drew media attention from all over the world, because of its designer: Leonardo da Vinci. The artist behind the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper was a true Renaissance man (in fact, the original Renaissance …
Challenge Bibendum
Will we be driving gasoline-powered cars 10 or 20 years from now? Judging by the 2001 Michelin Challenge Bibendum, some of us will, but many won’t. The Challenge Bibendum (Bibendum is the real name of the made-of-tires Michelin Man) offers manufacturers an opportunity to demonstrate alternative-fuel vehicles in real-world conditions. This year’s challenge drew 27 …
E-books
Here’s a conversation starter for you. “So, do you think e-books will replace p-books?” Of course, you may have to first define your terms. An e-book is an “electronic book,” a book in a computer file format so it can be read on an electronic device, while a p-book is, of course, what you call …
The Ig Nobel Prizes of 2001
Each year, the Nobel Prize Committee in Sweden honors outstanding scientific research from around the world. And each year, just before the Nobel Prizes are awarded, the IgNobel Prize Committee in Cambridge, Massachusetts, awards the IgNobel Prizes to honor people whose achievements “cannot or should not be reproduced.” The IgNobels, sponsored by the scientific humor …
The arts and September 11, 2001
How should the arts respond to the events of September 11? This question is being asked from Broadway to Hollywood, from the studios of artists to the rehearsal halls of theatres to the offices of authors. It’s even being asked by practitioners of my own art form, written science fiction. After all, in many ways, …
Telesurgery
It sounds like something out of science fiction: surgeons in North America removing the gall bladder of a 68-year-old woman in France using a remote-controlled robot. But that’s exactly what happened earlier this month, ushering in an exciting new era of telesurgery that holds promise of saving lives all over Earth–and even off of it. …
The Pentagon
In everyday usage, “The Pentagon” is shorthand for the U.S. military command, so we sometimes forget that it is an actual building. Last week’s terrorist attacks on the U.S. reminded us all too forcefully that it is, in fact, really just an office building–albeit one of the largest in the world, one in which 23,000 …
Sharks
It’s that time of the year again. The weather is turning cooler, the leaves are changing color, Canadians are leafing through travel brochures featuring sandy beaches, blue water, and warm sunshine. Except… …except, there’s been a lot of news about shark attacks coming from those very same sunny beaches. Some could be excused for wondering …
Volcanoes revisited
Last month, Sicily’s Mount Etna erupted for two weeks, providing television viewers with spectacular pictures but really doing very little damage. But that’s not always the case with volcanoes. After all, the most violent explosion on Earth in modern times wasn’t a nuclear blast–it was the eruption of Krakatoa, which blew apart in 1883. The …
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