Valentine’s Day, just past, might just as well be called Rose Day, so popular is that particular flower that day. But few people reflect, as they give or receive these beautiful blooms, on the science associated with them. Allow me to rectify that oversight. The term “rose” is applied to flowering plants that are members …
They lurk in the water. They look harmless. But sometimes–not always, but sometimes–they can cause sickness: even death. “They” are blue-green algae, and it’s a bit startling to think that algae, something we think of, when we think of them at all, as an unsightly but harmless scum, can be toxic–because most algae, most of …
Nobody (nobody human, anyway) likes getting up on a cold winter’s day when it’s still dark and the wind is howling, but for some people it’s more than just unpleasant: it’s almost impossible. They suffer from a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder (also known, appropriately, as SAD). Seasonal depression has probably been around …
Considering how cold it’s been around here recently, global warming sounds not so much like an environmental problem as it does something devoutly to be wished for–but as someone once said, “Be careful what you wish for–you may get it.” While it’s true that science has yet to come flat out and say that global …
It happens to all of us sooner or later. We’re in a hurry, we head off in our car–and discover we have a flat tire. This happened to me twice in December, and got me thinking about tires, which is unusual, because usually we don’t think much about tires at all. After all, they’re pretty …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//1995/12/The-Science-of-Flying-Reindeer.mp3[/podcast] At this festive season, aerotarandusdynamics, one of the least-known branches of the vast tree of science, finally comes into its own. “Aerotarandusdynamics” comes from “aero,” air, “tarandus,” the latter part of the scientific name for reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, and “dynamics,” moving. Hence, aerotarandusdynamics is the study of reindeer moving through the air: flying reindeer. …
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 …
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 …
