The idea that planets orbit most of the stars in the universe has such a firm hold on our imagination, thanks to Star Trek and Star Wars, that most people are surprised to hear we only found the first planet outside our solar system in 1995, and proof of other solar systems (stars with more than one planet …
The other night I dreamed I went into a Montreal restaurant with TV chef Emeril, where he annoyed the restaurant’s chef by taking over the cooking of a two-metre-long fish filet, which, when split open, contained a trilobite. “Monster darts!” exclaimed the restaurant’s chef, then demonstrated how to pull the legs off trilobites and throw …
Watch me explain the science of soccer on CBC Newsworld, July 22, 2007: Hundreds of millions of soccer fans are now tuning in to the World Cup, where they’ll see, not just exciting games, but a fascinating display of scientific principles. Let’s start with the ball. The basic physics haven’t changed: when a ball is …
Hello, my name is Ed, and I’m a science fiction writer. I’m the author of four young adult fantasy and science fiction titles, Soulworm, The Dark Unicorn, Andy Nebula: Interstellar Rock Star, and Spirit Singer (all available at Book & Brier Patch as paperbacks; Spirit Singer is also available as an e-book from Awe-Struck E-Books). …
It’s been more than 40 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, and, in the process, traveled faster than any human before. Today, we continue to send humans into orbit…where they travel at pretty much the same speed. Oh, sure, unmanned spacecraft have traveled much faster, and so did …
The season of the movie blockbuster is upon us, and that means it’s time once again to ask the question: what planet do the people in movies live on? Judging by the physics displayed, it’s not this one. In our world, for example, you cannot outrun the fireball of an exploding bomb down the …
Picture this: there’s been an earthquake and you’re trapped in the rubble. In the dark you hear a scrabbling sound…and feel the long, naked tail of a rat slither across your cheek… Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it? But if recent research bears fruit, it may be a dream come true–because that rat could …
On April 1, a spacecraft capable of carrying three people into orbit returned safely to Earth. That may not sound like news after 40 years of manned spaceflights, but this was a very special spacecraft: it was Chinese. Shenzhou (Heavenly Vessel) 3 carried instrumented mannequins instead of humans, but its success makes it more …
Someone recently sent me pictures of the campus of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas (my alma mater), showing it practically buried in beautiful spring flowers. Yes, spring is creeping northward, and soon multicolored flowers and rich green grass and leaves will replace our landscape’s current predominant shades of gray, white and brown. Exactly when …
On March 8 an asteroid between 40 and 80 meters in diameter passed with 480,200 kilometres of Earth. No one saw it until four days later. In 1908, something about the same size blasted into the atmosphere above the Tungaska forest in Siberia in 1908 and exploded with force of 15 million tons of TNT, …
There are millions of people for whom absolute silence does not exist. When the world grows silent, they still hear a ringing, hissing, roaring, whistling, chirping or clicking. They suffer from tinnitus. I’m one of them. Most of the time it doesn’t bother me, but if I listen, I can always hear a high-pitched …
You hear a lot about space technology being adapted for use on Earth–many of the high-tech marvels in fields as diverse as meteorology and medicine wouldn’t exist if not for the space program–but the Canadian Space Agency is doing the opposite: adapting Earth technology for use in space. The CSA has taken the first steps …
