Download the audio version.Get my column as a podcast. *** When I was a kid, I was a picky eater. I knew what I liked, I knew what I didn’t like, and I knew what I was sure I wouldn’t like if I ever tried it, which I had no intention of doing, because why …
Tag: science
Driving under the influence…of fatigue
Download the audio version.Get my column as a podcast.*** Going on a long car trip this summer? Planning to make good time? Going to drive all night, maybe? Well, don’t. Statistics are somewhat unreliable, because there’s no good way to test for it, but it’s estimated that about 16 percent of all vehicle accidents are …
Time travel just got (theoretically) easier…
…thanks to work by “noted time-travel theorist” Professor Amos Ori: Ori’s theory is actually a set of mathematical equations describing hypothetical conditions that, if established, could lead to the formation of a time machine, technically known as “closed time-like curves.”Alas, his theories don’t allow us to go back and visit, say, the Battle of Waterloo: …
A sound that’s out of this world
Download the audio version of this column. Get my science column weekly as a podcast. **** Summer is the season for outdoor music festivals. Here in Regina, for example, the Folk Festival will fill Victoria Park with music this weekend. But as you sit on the grass at your favorite festival listening to your favorite …
If this were a science fiction thriller…
…this would be bad news: An 8-million-year-old bacterium that was extracted from the oldest known ice on Earth is now growing in a laboratory, claim researchers. If confirmed, this means ancient bacteria and viruses will come back to life as ice melts due to global warming. This is nothing to worry about, say experts, because …
Scientists achieve levitation
And, no, they’re not members of Canada’s old Natural Law Party (the one that advocated research into something called “yogic flying”). They say they can reverse the Casimir force: The Casimir force is a consequence of quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the world of atoms and subatomic particles that is not only the most …
Source of fever identified
Humans have been dealing with fevers for millennia. Now scientists have, for the first time, identified the precise location in the brain that generates fever in the body: During periods of inflammation, such as when the body is fighting an infection or illness, the body produces hormones known as cytokines. The cytokines, in turn, act …
Audio version of my science column
I’m hoping to start podcasting my science columns weekly, though it may take me a while to get myself organized enough to do it that regularly. Still, here’s my first attempt. Audio quality isn’t outstanding, but it’s probably OK for now. Enjoy!
Prosthetics
Humans are amazing creatures, but we aren’t invulnerable, and every so often, we lose a piece of ourselves to accident, attack or disease: a finger, a toe, a hand, a foot, or even an entire limb. And sometimes, of course, due to a genetic problem, we’re even born without a particular appendage. This is hardly …
Sing out, Louise!
Opera seems to be making a comeback. The Metropolitan Opera’s simulcast of productions to movie theatres around North America has been selling out. If you see an opera in the movie theatre or on television, you probably take it for granted that you can hear the singers over the orchestra, because everything on television is …
Hey, that’s me on Newsworld!
My interview on Newsworld regarding the science of soccer did indeed air today at 11:15 a.m. I captured it and YouTubed it for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
Me on Newsworld
Yesterday CBC Newsworld contacted me about doing a short segment on the science of soccer, in honour of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup now being played in Canada. (If you google “The Science of Soccer,” the column I wrote in 2002 is the first hit.) I did the interview this morning on the lawn outside …
My latest live walk and vlog
Buy Autographed Books
