“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be; but would a boy named Rose ever get a job as a professional wrestler? That (or something like that) was the question Ohio University psychologist James Bruning set out to answer with …
Category: Blog
Let’s free art from the shackles of gibberish!
Visual art and the text that explains it are uneasy bedfellows, I firmly believe. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but a visit to far too many art galleries today either leaves me in a state of suppressed fury or with a severe case of the giggles. It has nothing to do with the art …
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 …
The Eden Project
Right now, in an abandoned clay pit in England, 15-story-high geodesic domes large enough to swallow the Tower of London are rapidly taking shape. When these giant domes are finished next year, their interiors will recreate two of the world’s great climatic regions, the tropics and the warm temperate zone, and they’ll be filled with …
The Lost City of Hamoukar
These days, when the world is covered by cities, we can be forgiven for thinking that there’s nothing much special about them. You get a bunch of people together, you put them in houses, you add a few businesses, and presto! Instant city. But in fact cities are a relatively recent invention. Modern humans have …
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 …
Professor Cyborg
Have you ever felt like your computer knew what you wanted to accomplish—and was determined to stop you from doing so? Right now, that’s just anthropomorphic thinking—but in the not too distant future, a computer may know what you’re thinking. It might even be doing some thinking—or, at least, data processing—for you, without you having …
Potholes revisited
I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to anyone, but Regina has a seasonal problem with potholes. But there may be hope for our pothole problem, and similar problems all over the world, thanks to the work of two University of Washington State University civil engineering professors. Dr. Thomas Papgiannakis and Dr. Eyad Masad …
The science of pizza, beer and fries
It’s all very well scientists spending their time on cures for cancer, faster computers and a general Theory of Everything, but every once in a while, I firmly believe, they need to get their heads out of the clouds and concentrate on things that are really important to the average Joe: things like pizza, beer …
Write what you know?
“Write what you know” is one of those tiresome bits of advice that beginning writers are forever having thrown at them. As a science fiction writer, I’ve always rejected this particular maxim out of hand, because, after all, I’ve never been a homeless street musician who ends up sharing a cheap hotel room with an …
Sound
Sound is all around us, to the point where those of us blessed with good hearing take it for granted. But there is a thriving field of science for whose researchers sound is more than just background noise. They see sound as a potential tool for everything from new forms of transportation to new …
Do It With Class Young People’s Theatre Co.
There are a lot of talented young people in Regina. Some of the most talented will be on stage this week and next, as Do It With Class Young People’s Theatre Inc. presents two musicals, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Alice in Wonderland. Do It With Class, now in its seventh season, began with just …
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