The single phrase that’s probably heard more this time of the year than any other, aside from “Cold enough for ya?”, is “the flu.” “Jimmy’s come down with the flu.” “I won’t be in today, I’ve got a touch of the flu.” “Hey, have you caught the flu that’s going around?” Although we tend to …
Acoustics
In 1982 I toured Europe with the Harding University A Cappella Chorus. Among the many interesting places we sang was the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus. Carved out of the side of a hill in the fourth century A.D., it seats 14,000 and boasts such perfect acoustics that any one of those 14,000 can hear …
Calendars
It’s 1996, which means it’s time to take down your old Star Trek calendar and put up your new one. Okay, so maybe you don’t have a Star Trek calendar. Maybe you have a World’s Fastest Cars calendar, or even (gag) a Friends calendar. The point is, for us, a calendar is a much an aesthetic and/or advertising medium as it …
The science of New Year’s
The end of one year and the beginning of another has been a time of celebration from time immemorial. But celebrating the new year on January 1 is a relatively new innovation. In the Middle Ages most European countries used the Julian calendar (still used by Orthodox churches), and each New Year began, not on …
Cold
We haven’t been setting any records, but all the same, it’s been pretty darn cold recently. Not that there’s anything new about that. Saskatchewan is a wonderful province and I’m very fond of it, but (I trust I’m not revealing any state secrets here) it’s cold. In winter in Canada, the cold can begin to …
Science gifts for Christmas: 1995
When I was a kid, nothing made me happier at Christmas than a present that had something to do with science. 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 …
Fatigue
The Grey Cup in Regina is over. You could tell the day after the game by the number of people wandering around with dazed expressions and bags under their eyes…which inspired me to write this week about two souvenirs of the festivities almost everyone picked up: fatigue and/or a hangover. Fatigue is characterized by an …
Christmas questions I
Christmas is a time of reflection, a time to think deeply about some of the important questions the Yuletide brings to mind. For example: Q. How come Christmas trees keep sucking up water even after they’ve been cut down? A. A tree slurps up six or seven litres when you first put it up, and …
Footballs in flight
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a little football game being played over at Taylor Field next Sunday between a team from Calgary and a team from Baltimore. Canadian football is known as a pass-happy game, so I thought I’d delve into the aerodynamics of a flying football. Football aerodynamics, however, isn’t something you just …
Secret codes
Like most kids, I was fascinated by secret messages. No, I didn’t have a secret decoder ring–I guess my parents bought the wrong kind of cereal–but I spent hours writing things out in code and trying to write with lemon juice (the original invisible ink). The trouble was, I never had anybody to send a …
Blood
Vampires are popular right now. There have been more vampire books, movies and TV series than you could shake a cross at in the past few years. Vampires, of course, have a number of unfortunate personality quirks–invisible in mirrors, can’t abide crosses, don’t like the sun–but we’d be willing to overlook all that if not …