Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. When I was seven years old, I received a microscope for Christmas. It was my favorite gift ever, a window to a whole new world, especially when I turned it on pond water teeming with protozoa. Last week, scientists got their own belated Christmas …
Category: Columns
Analyzing Oscar
As I write this, the announcement of nominations for the 80th Academy Awards still lies in the future. Nevertheless, I can make a make a few bold predictions: the actors nominated most likely appeared in dramas from major film distributors, and have either been nominated in the past or appeared in a film starring or …
Nature Number 1 revisited
Just over 138 years ago, on Thursday, November 4, 1869, the prestigious science journal Nature published its first issue. Now Nature’s entire archives have been digitized and made available online. (Not for free, alas: although you can browse the contents, you have to pay for complete articles.) Back in 1991, when I was communications officer …
The end of tooth decay?
We’ve all had the importance of tooth-brushing drilled (sorry) into us from an early age, and it’s not hard to understand why: humans have been plagued by tooth decay for as long as we’ve been human, and had teeth. Cro-Magnon skulls 25,000 years old show evidence of tooth decay, for instance, and as long ago …
Sleep in a bottle
I love a good night’s sleep. I just rarely get one that’s quite as long as I’d like. I’m not alone in that, either. Although exactly how much sleep any individual needs varies according to that individual’s age, sex, genetic makeup and other factors, studies indicate that the “normal” sleep need for most adults is …
Sleep in a bottle
I love a good night’s sleep. I just rarely get one that’s quite as long as I’d like. I’m not alone in that, either. Although exactly how much sleep any individual needs varies according to that individual’s age, sex, genetic makeup and other factors, studies indicate that the “normal” sleep need for most adults is …
Happy New Year!
I’m still busy being in Beauty and the Beast at Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, so in the same spirit as last week’s recycled Christmas column, this week I’m recycling (and refurbishing with fresh material!) a New Year’s column from 1995, because, hey, isn’t doing more reusing and recycling one of those things we all resolve …
Happy New Year!
I’m still busy being in Beauty and the Beast at Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, so in the same spirit as last week’s recycled Christmas column, this week I’m recycling (and refurbishing with fresh material!) a New Year’s column from 1995, because, hey, isn’t doing more reusing and recycling one of those things we all resolve …
An old chestnut, re-roasted
Time for the traditional Christmas column, and just as we haul out the same old ornaments year after year, this year I’m hauling out an old column (from 1994) because, well, it’s timeless. Also, it’s almost Christmas, and I’m lazy. (Something to do with the conservation of mass and energy: at Christmas, your mass increases …
An old chestnut, re-roasted
Time for the traditional Christmas column, and just as we haul out the same old ornaments year after year, this year I’m hauling out an old column (from 1994) because, well, it’s timeless. Also, it’s almost Christmas, and I’m lazy. (Something to do with the conservation of mass and energy: at Christmas, your mass increases …
Sweet science
’Tis the season for peace and love and carols by the fire and decorated fir trees and all that sort of thing. ’Tis also the season for candy: candy canes, fudge, toffee, peanut brittle, bon-bons of all kinds. A lot of it is store-bought, but a lot of it is made from scratch. As Grandma …
Sweet science
’Tis the season for peace and love and carols by the fire and decorated fir trees and all that sort of thing. ’Tis also the season for candy: candy canes, fudge, toffee, peanut brittle, bon-bons of all kinds. A lot of it is store-bought, but a lot of it is made from scratch. As Grandma …
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