[podcast]http://www.edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/A Universal Theory of Humour.mp3[/podcast] I am a very funny man. I have been told so, so it must be true. You can tell how funny I am by reading my very funny writing. Like this paragraph. This paragraph is very funny. It must be because I am a very funny man. I have been …
Category: Science Columns
The artificial scientist
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-artificial-scientist.mp3[/podcast] As I’ve noted before, the very first science column I wrote, ca. 1991, was entitled, “What is a scientist?” Last year I re-ran that column with minor editing: the answer to the question hadn’t changed in 17 years. But it may have changed now. That’s because researchers at Cornell University have created a computer …
Programming matter
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/programmable-matter.mp3[/podcast] Remember the shape-changing T-1000 robot in the 1991 movie Terminator 2? It could disguise itself as anything—a policeman, the floor, whatever—and sprout tools and weapons as required. It turns out it may very well have given us a glimpse of a very real future (though hopefully without the whole Armageddon-like-conflict-between-robots-and-humans thing). Researchers right now …
An instantaneous, universal, programmable vaccine?
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/a-universal-instant-vaccine.mp3[/podcast] Efforts to immunize people against disease go back to at least 600 B.C., when the Chinese attempted to immunize people against smallpox by putting smallpox material in their nostrils (the permitting of which, I would think, would require a great deal of faith in your doctor). Modern immunization began in 1796 when a British …
Science shows musicians really ARE more sensitive
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sensitive-musicians.mp3[/podcast] Musicians have a reputation for being sensitive types, finely tuned to the emotions of those around them. In fact, it’s become a bit of a cliché in movies (with the possible exception of the many late drummers of Spinal Tap). Normally, after a beginning like that, I’d go on to write that science has …
A Canadian satellite proves small is beautiful
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/canx-2.mp3[/podcast] Space satellites, typically, are big, expensive beasts, which is one reason we all cringe when one fails to achieve orbit, as happened on February 24 with NASA’s $280 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO). Complex satellites like the OCO, which was intended to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide, are of course absolutely necessary for some tasks. …
The end of an era: my science column leaves the newspaper
Roughly two decades of writing a science column that appeared in print in Regina came to an end today when I received a letter from the Regina LeaderPost that said: It is with regret that I inform you today that effective March 11, 2009, we will no longer be in a position to publish your Science …
Dare to doodle!
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/doodling.mp3[/podcast] Hi! My name is Ed, and I am a doodler. I have doodled my way through countless classes, mounds of monotonous meetings, scads of sonorous sermons. My teachers and others have looked at me askance over the years. But no more! I, and all who doodle with me, have at last been vindicated by …
The old gray hair, she ain’t what she used to be
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gray-hair.mp3[/podcast] Look, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re growing older. Every second. Even worse, so am I. There are many manifestations of the aging process, most of which are far too depressing to go into, especially on a morning in late February. Still, we must all face facts …
The hazards of bad jokes
How often have you heard someone say, “I just can’t tell a joke?” How often have you then heard the person who made that self-deprecating claim attempt to do just that? According to recent research, if you truly believe the former, you should stick to your guns, because telling a bad joke in a social …
Kissing
With Valentine’s Day looming at the end of this week (well, looming for those who have not yet given sufficient thought to cards, flowers and chocolates–I’m looking at you, fellow members of my gender), it seems a good time to revisit the science of kissing. And just in time for Valentine’s, new research on the …
Five more sci-fi gadgets that may soon be real
This week, I pick up where I left off on the list of ten science-fictiony gadgets New Scientist magazine thinks may soon become real, with number six: “you power.” This is not, alas, a method of giving you yourself more energy, but rather of using your energy to power gadgets. Last year, a researcher in …
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