A new technology developed by the Canadian Space Agency to help control the new robot arm on the International Space Station may soon be finding its way into your car, your couch, and even your clothes. It’s called smart fabric, because it turns fabric into a sensitive computer interface. The underlying technology, called Kinotex, was …
The current exhibit at the Dunlop Art Gallery in the main branch of the Regina Public Library may confuse you at first glance. It doesn’t look like it belongs in an art gallery; it looks like it belongs in a museum. There are stuffed animals; artifacts in glass boxes; yellowing photographs and excerpts from scientific …
There may be, as Paul Simon wrote, 50 ways to leave your lover, recent research has discovered there are even more ways to attract one–52, to be exact. That’s according to Dr. Monica Moore, an associate professor at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, who recently undertook the first serious study of the science of …
The first time I saw a Teflon-covered pan, when I was four or five, I thought it was magic. Now that I cook, I’m even more impressed by non-stick surfaces. Teflon was discovered by accident by Roy J. Plunkett, 27, a DuPont scientist who was trying to develop a new chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) for use as …
Are kids today smarter than kids 30 or 40 years ago? (In other words, their parents?) The kids would say so, but then, every generation thinks it’s smarter (not to mention way cooler) than its parents. However, today’s kids just might have a leg to stand on: there’s been a steady increase in scores on …
With Ken Burns’s epic documentary Jazz airing on PBS, millions of people who never really gave much thought to this musical form before are suddenly learning all about its fascinating history—and more than once, they’ve heard that for music to be jazz, it’s got to swing. Or, as Duke Ellington put it, “It don’t mean …
Ever since 2001: A Space Odyssey appeared in 1968, 2001 has been one of those years, like 1984, that somehow represented “the future.” Well, guess what? 1984 came and went, and now 2001 has arrived–and with it, a spate of news stories comparing the “predictions” in the film with the reality. I think that’s a …
It’s almost 2001, which means it’s time to take down your old Star Trek: Voyager calendar and put up your new one. Okay, so maybe you have a Teddy Bears calendar instead, or an Everybody Loves Raymond calendar. The point is, for us, a calendar is a much an aesthetic and/or advertising medium as it is a way to see what …
The Physics of Christmas is a very good book by Roger Highland. But there’s more science to Christmas than just physics; there’s chemistry, too. Consider those popular Christmas spices, ginger and cinnamon. Ginger has been used for thousands of years. Greek bakers were making gingerbread more than four thousand years ago (though probably not in the …
It’s Christmas, a time many people claim to dread because of what they might call “sappy” music, or “sickly-sweet” sentiment, or “corny” expressions of goodwill and happiness. For some reason, there are critics–a majority of them, I sometimes think–who believe art is only worthwhile if it’s “edgy” or “dark” or “explores the seamy underbelly of …
Of all my Christmases as a small boy in Texas, the one I remember best is the one when I was seven, which is when my parents gave me my first microscope. Asked what I would recommend in the way of holiday gifts for children, then, a microscope–or something similarly scientific–is always at the top …
Are you feeling sleepy? If you are, you might think it’s the busy time of the year, but sleepiness isn’t limited to the holidays. According to scientists, around two thirds of North Americans are sleep-deprived all the time. Over the past century the average amount of sleep people get has shrunk by more than 20 …
