As I have not exactly been shy about pointing out (Buy my book! Buy my book!), I write science fiction novels as well as science fact. As a science fiction writer, I have the luxury of equipping my characters with futuristic gadgets that don’t exist yet, but might some day. Now New Scientist magazine has …
Category: Science Columns
Let’s not rush into anything
In movies and TV shows, people fall in love and into bed (or the other way around) with amazing speed. In musicals, it’s even worse: all it takes is a single song. In real life, though, although one hears of whirlwind romances and sudden marriages (often followed by whirlwind separations and sudden divorces) courtship is …
The psychology of procrastination
Some people think I have good time management skills because I work at home and yet manage to crank out a lot of words of one sort or another. Some people don’t know what they’re talking about. The fact is, my usual working pattern is procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, panic panic panic!, rinse and repeat. I, …
Children’s tastes in food
When I was a kid, my mother will confirm, I was a picky eater, the sort of kid who ordered a hamburger and fries at a Chinese restaurant, hated to have different kinds of food touching each other on the plate, and wouldn’t touch spinach, broccoli or Brussels sprouts with a ten-foot fork. My own …
The fad cycle
Here’s a fearless prediction for 2009: sometime, somewhere, something is going to become a hot new fad. It’s a cycle as old as…well, as old as me, anyway, and I suspect a good deal older. Since I was a teenager in the 1970s, I think in terms of Rubik Cubes, platform shoes, bell-bottoms and mood …
I’m a Santa expert!
No, really, that’s what it says in the headline to this story, written by Vivian Song for Sun Media, in which I’m one of several theorists quoted in an in-depth examination of the latest scientific thinking regarding the amazing feats of Jolly Old Saint Nick. This appeared in the Winnipeg Sun, but it’ll probably be …
Myths of the season
If there’s one thing science has taught us, it’s that just because “everybody knows” something is true, that doesn’t mean it’s true. Just in time for Christmas, two doctors, Aaron Carroll and Rachel Vreeman, both associate professors of pediatrics at Indiana University and practicing pediatricians at Riley Hospital for Children, have published a study taking …
I have a dream…wanna see it?
“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,” singers warble this time of year. Up until now, we’ve had to take their word for it. But what if there were technology that could actually record imagery from a dream, and play it back for everyone to see? Hang onto your nightcaps, because it may be on its …
The epidemiology of happiness
‘Tis the season… Oh, no, wait, I can’t use THAT opening again. Um, how about…At this time of year, there’s a lot of talk about joy and happiness. There’s also a lot of talk about influenza. You might think them unrelated, but in fact they share one very interesting characteristic: they’re both contagious. If contagious …
Seizing appetite by the NAPE
’Tis the season to begin newspaper columns with the phrase “’Tis the season,” and who am I to resist? Failing to resist that particular temptation is of little moment, of course. Failing to resist another temptation endemic to this time of year is not: the temptation to eat…and eat…and eat. Why do we eat more …
I itch, therefore I scratch
Before you read any further, let me warn you: today’s column may cause itching. It’s got nothing to do with the ink it’s printed with, either, or mysterious radiation from your computer monitor. It’s simply because I’m going to write about the science of itching, and one of the peculiar things about itching is that …
The 1960s moon in high-def
Download larger version. A little over 40 years ago, to help it select potential landing sites for its Apollo lunar missions, NASA sent five unmanned spacecraft over two years to orbit the moon and photograph pretty much every inch of its surface. The images sent back were amazing, especially one of the Earth rising over …
My latest live walk and vlog
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