It sounds like something out of science fiction: surgeons in North America removing the gall bladder of a 68-year-old woman in France using a remote-controlled robot. But that’s exactly what happened earlier this month, ushering in an exciting new era of telesurgery that holds promise of saving lives all over Earth–and even off of it. …
Tag: science
The Pentagon
In everyday usage, “The Pentagon” is shorthand for the U.S. military command, so we sometimes forget that it is an actual building. Last week’s terrorist attacks on the U.S. reminded us all too forcefully that it is, in fact, really just an office building–albeit one of the largest in the world, one in which 23,000 …
Sharks
It’s that time of the year again. The weather is turning cooler, the leaves are changing color, Canadians are leafing through travel brochures featuring sandy beaches, blue water, and warm sunshine. Except… …except, there’s been a lot of news about shark attacks coming from those very same sunny beaches. Some could be excused for wondering …
Volcanoes revisited
Last month, Sicily’s Mount Etna erupted for two weeks, providing television viewers with spectacular pictures but really doing very little damage. But that’s not always the case with volcanoes. After all, the most violent explosion on Earth in modern times wasn’t a nuclear blast–it was the eruption of Krakatoa, which blew apart in 1883. The …
Nanotechnology 2001
The recent announcement that the University of Alberta has landed a $120 million nanotechnology research facility was mostly reported as an example of how the federal Liberals are trying to woo Albertans. Surprisingly little was said about nanotechnology itself (one commentator, in fact, referred to it simply as “nanotechnology–whatever that is.”) Allow me to rectify …
Multitasking
Multitasking–doing several tasks simultaneously–sounds like a time management expert’s dream. What could be more efficient than, say, driving to work while talking to your secretary about the day’s meetings, or writing a report and dictating a letter while also catching the latest stock quotes on TV? There’s just one problem–new studies show multitasking doesn’t work. …
Con-Version XVIII
I spent the past weekend deeply involved in discussions ranging from whether the Harry Potter books teach witchcraft to children to whether technology can save the world. In between, I participated in the improvisational writing of a short story, sang songs by J. R. R. Tolkein, and photographed Dirk Benedict, former star of Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team. …
Lie detectors
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a machine that could tell you when someone is lying? Some people believe that there is. It’s called a “polygraph”–popularly known as a “lie detector”–and it’s been in the news lately, both in Washington and in Regina. Other people, however, will tell you that the polygraph is a fraud, no …
Bionics
“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man.” So began each episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, of which I was a big fan not all that many decades ago. At the time, of course, the idea of “rebuilding” a man with artificial parts was …
Keeping comfortable
Humans are creatures of comfort; and the story of civilization is, to a certain extent, the quest to keep from being either too hot or too cold. Considering the recent swings in temperature we’ve experienced, it could be considered the story of Saskatchewan, too. The earliest form of climate control was the fire. Room temperature …
Bicycles II
It’s summertime in Saskatchewan, and that means the roads are full of joggers, walkers–and bicyclists. The first bicycle was the “celerifere,” or wooden horse, invented in France in the 1790s. It had a fixed front wheel, so it couldn’t be steered, and the rider propelled it by pushing his feet along the ground, like Fred …
Laser eye surgery
I grew up in a glasses-wearing family. My parents wore glasses, my two older brothers wore glasses and I, by the age of five, also wore glasses. In more recent years, my brother Dwight and I switched to contacts, but while contacts may be invisible to others, they’re still glasses, albeit tiny ones stuck to …
My latest live walk and vlog
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