This evening in the car my six-year-old daughter, Alice, commented out of the blue that she wished our car could drive itself. “I’d like that, too,” I said, and explained that scientists were, in fact, working on cars that could do exactly that, thinking of the Grand Challenges for driverless cars held by the Defense …
Category: Columns
Acoustics
Acoustics have been on my mind recently, and not just because of (as some might suggest) the echoing empty space between my ears. First came the CFL Western semi-final game at Mosaic Stadium, where noise, reflected and focused by the stands, played at least some role in the Riders’ victory—and utterly failed to carry from …
Roboethics
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. *** A couple of weeks ago I wrote about research aimed at making robot-human interactions more comfortable for humans. With more and more robots finding more and more uses in society, that kind of research is important. But there’s something else we’re going to …
What’s it like in Level 4?
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. *** It’s a staple of movies and TV shows: the Level 4 lab, where scientists in “space suits” race against the clock to find a cure for a mysterious ailment. But what’s it like to work in a Level 4 laboratory in real life? …
Rise of the (giggling, dancing, punning) robots
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. ***Robots were once science fiction: in fact, the word comes from the Czech word “robota,” meaning work, and originated in Karel Capek’s popular 1920 science-fiction play R.U.R. (for Rossum’s Universal Robots). These days, there are robot vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and dogs, and all …
Is today a good day to ask for a raise?
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. **** As a full-time freelancer, I’m in the enviable position of being on intimate terms with my employer. “I need a raise,” I tell myself. “Sure,” I always reply. Of course, then I get all heavy-handed and I’m-in-charge-here and say hurtful things like “So …
Beautiful singing starts with science
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. As I mentioned last column, I spent last week singing with the Canadian Chamber Choir in southern Ontario. In addition to concerts, we also took part in several workshops with musicians ranging in age from eight to 80. Our director, Dr. Julia Davids, who …
The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. Every fall the leaves fall from the trees, and the Ig Nobel Prizes fall from on high (well, from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research) upon the grateful—usually—heads of researchers whose achievements “make people laugh—then think.” My favorite this year (probably because I read …
Watch for falling rock
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. As a kid I was always disappointed when we drove past “Watch for Falling Rock” signs in the mountains and no rocks actually fell. (I had a similar reaction to deerless “Deer Crossing” signs.) Obviously we were just driving in the wrong places, because …
Nuclear summer
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. *** As a science writer, I’ve written about a lot of things I’ve never expected to see up close. The outer planets of the solar system, for example. The bottom of the ocean. Nuclear reactors. I still haven’t reached Neptune, and I’ve never been …
A needle today keeps disease away
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. **** Children, I have observed (and recall, for my own childhood has not yet faded into the misty depths of time) do not enjoy getting stuck with needles. And yet, getting stuck with needles is a part of growing up, because vaccinations, unpleasant as …
The political brain
Download the audio version.Get my science column weekly as a podcast. ***** I do hear tell that there may be an election or two in the offing in the next little while. There are those for whom such affairs are akin to blood sports. They identify so strongly with a particular party, or a particular …
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