Taste is highly subjective. You may like rhubarb, which I regard as mutated celery. I, on the other hand, like haggis, whereas organ meats ground up with oatmeal and boiled in a sheep’s stomach may not appeal to you. And so on. And yet soon we may all be able to agree on what we …
Category: Science Columns
Are bananas doomed?
Canadians eat approximately three billion bananas a year; it’s our favorite fruit. But a recent news story suggests the bananas we enjoy so much could be extinct within 10 years. The villain is a fungus by the ominous name of Black Sigatoka that’s spreading out of control through the banana-growing countries of the world, threatening …
Ice
Ice is an inescapable fact of life in Canada every winter. It makes roads and sidewalks slippery, bursts pipes, cracks pavements, heaves ground. It can bring down trees and power lines and even airplanes. And yet, if ice didn’t have the special properties that make it sometimes destructive and almost always a nuisance, two vitally …
Synthespians: artificial actors
In the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, one of the best performances is turned in by an actor who isn’t entirely real. Gollum, the hobbit-like creature who once possessed the One Ring and would do anything to possess it again is the latest and most-impressive-to-date example of a “synthespian”–a computer-generated actor. …
Making miksates…um, mistakes
The holidays are supposed to be a time of rest and relaxation, but if you’re like me, after several nights of parties, you feel pretty much as sleep-deprived as you did before the holidays, if not more so. Also if you’re like me, when you get tired you begin to make more miksates–er, mistakes, ranging …
Robot dogs and the people who love them
Dogs have been man’s best friend in the animal kingdom for thousands of years. They’re loyal companions and can even perform useful tasks like herding sheep and fetching slippers. They are easily attainable, cheap, and come in a variety of colors, shapes, sizes and temperaments. But in the past few years, a new breed of …
Scientific stain removal
I like to write about the latest discoveries in cosmology and particle physics. But not all scientific research is focused on these frontiers. Some of it is aimed as close as–well, that spot of mustard on your pants. Textile experts at Cornell University have published a pamphlet with detailed, laboratory-tested instructions on how to remove …
Joint replacement: what’s a nice joint like you doing in a dame like this?
“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.” So began each episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. Twenty-some years after that TV series aired, we still don’t have bionic people capable of superhuman feats of strength and speed, but we do have lots of people walking around with artificial parts: especially, artificial joints. My …
Future energy sources
A lot of attention in Canada has been focused recently on the Kyoto Agreement to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. But scientifically, the goal for preventing possibly catastrophic global warming has been set far higher than Kyoto’s modest reductions. An article in the November 1 issue of Science sets out the challenges. Entitled “Advanced …
Reidel wine glasses
I had the pleasure of attending the International Festival of Wine and Food at the Banff Springs Hotel over the weekend. This event combines gourmet meals with tastings of some of the world’s best wines. But one tasting was very different: instead of tasting wine, those attending tasted glasses. They witnessed a demonstration by Georg …
Yet another column about tea
Tea is not only the most popular beverage in the world, it’s also good for you. Over the past 20 years, scientists have discovered potential benefits from tea against cancer, high blood pressure and infection. Now comes a report that tea may be an effective weapon in the fight against diabetes. First, some basic tea …
Trains
Trains have been on my mind lately, partly because I just completed a two-day trip from San Francisco by train, but also because trains have been in the news lately: Montreal’s Bombardier was in hot water over cracks in the suspensions of Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains, McLean’s magazine recently ran a front-page story on …
My latest live walk and vlog
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