Men have always suspected it, but now there’s scientific evidence: chocolate makes females more interested in sex. OK, so maybe that’s oversimplifying. What the study announced just before Valentine’s Day (appropriately enough) really said was that a “messenger protein” called DARPP-32 makes female rodents more interested in sex. But even the study’s lead author, Dr. …
Tag: chemistry
Sunscreens
Considering our winters, it’s not surprising we love the summer sun. Unfortunately, too much sun isn’t good for us: the thinning ozone layer is letting in more ultraviolet radiation than it used to, and as a result, skin cancer is on the increase. That unhappy fact has made sunscreens, concoctions that keep ultraviolet radiation …
Skunks
There are lots of good things to smell in the summertime: flowers, steaks on the barbecue, fresh-cut grass. But there are also other, less fortunate smells: hot wet dog, five-day-old roadkill–and skunk. My personal experience of the smell of skunk has been limited to a whiff of that inimitable scent wafted on the breeze, …
Food coloring
Today is the day when all across our land, people gather to celebrate food coloring. In kitchens, in restaurants, in bars, they partake of special holiday foods, each given “a touch of the green”–green beer, green milkshakes, green pasta. It’s a touching and important reminder of the importance of color additives to our diet. What’s …
Garlic
There are few foods that can’t be improved with a little garlic. (Ice cream and pecan pie, maybe, but that’s about it.) Its distinctive taste has made it a favorite flavoring for thousands of years…although no doubt the ancient Egyptians and Romans, both of whom used it, also made the first jokes about “garlic breath.” …
Winemaking
The process of making wine begins, of course, with growing grapes and extracting their juice. But then what happens? I’m here to elucidate (which is not a word you want to try saying after you’ve drunk a little too much wine, by the way). Once the juice is in the vat, it’s left to ferment. …
Paint
It happens every spring. The air warms, the birds sing, the trees bud, the flowers bloom, and people look around at all this natural beauty and say to themselves, “Man, does that fence need painting.” Yes, there’s something about the spring and summer that brings out the handyman–er, handyperson–in all of us. And topping the …
The science of tires
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 …
Wax
We wax floors, cars and skis; make wax paper and wax candles; use wax in the creation of batik wall-hangings, lost-wax bronze sculptures and wax-crayon masterpieces; use mustache wax and at Hallowe’en have even been known to wear wax lips. Which, naturally, brings up the question, “What is this thing called wax?” “Wax,” says the …
Insect repellants
An anthropologist who knew nothing about our culture might well be fascinated by our traditional summer folk dance. You know the one: it’s where we jump about from foot to foot, waving our hands in the air and occasionally slapping parts of our body. It’s called the “Mosquito Mazurka.” Our hypothetical anthropologist might also note …
Water
It’s colourless, odourless and ubiquitous, covering 74 percent of the Earth’s surface. But even though water is one of the most common substances on the planet (although it doesn’t seem that way some years in Saskatchewan), in terms of its special properties, it’s also one of the most uncommon. It’s a good thing, too, because …
My latest live walk and vlog
Buy Autographed Books
