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. …
Tag: science
Synchrotrons
Saskatchewan could soon be home to Canada’s first synchrotron, and if your first reaction is, “So what?” then, dear reader, you must read on. Physicists are a lot like small boys: they like to see what makes things tick by smashing them up. In the case of small boys, those things may be clocks …
Weeds
When I was a kid, I thought dandelions were cool, from their delightful yellow flowers that broke up the monotony of green lawns to their puffballs of parachute-wearing seeds which were so much fun to blow into the neighbor’s grass. Now that I’m grown up, however…well, actually, I still think dandelions are cool, but those …
Nanotechnology 1996
One of the first science-fiction movies I can remember seeing was Fantastic Voyage, the tale of a group of scientists in a submarine who were shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the body of an injured man. Their mission: to vaporize a life-threatening but inaccessible blood clot in his brain. Among other things, the …
Car care
I like my car a lot. But I have to admit, it doesn’t look as good as it used to. And probably yours doesn’t either. That’s because the moment your car rolls out the factory door, its finish starts to deteriorate. It’s not too surprising, since a car’s surface is attacked by ultraviolet light, ozone, …
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 …
Spring
One hesitates to make a premature pronouncement, but it does appear–at least for the moment–that maybe–and this is only a suggestion, not a prediction, don’t hold me to it–that it could be–although I could be wrong–finally–dare I say it?…spring. Whew! No blizzard blew in as I typed that, so I think we’re okay for the …
Rabbits
This is the time of year when the Easter bunny hops throughout the land, distributing eggs to children (he silliest bit of folklore-cum-advertising gimmick I’ve ever heard, but we seem to be stuck with it). What better topic for a column, then, than rabbits?–which, as anyone who has read Watership Down can tell you, are …
Mathematics
I’m going to say something which, alas, will probably immediately alienate me from a large number of readers: I’ve always enjoyed math. Times tables held no terrors for me, fractions I found fascinating, and algebra–ah, algebra! When I first started taking algebra, I enjoyed it so much I’d make up equations out of thin air …
Candles
There’s something about the flickering flame of a candle that we seem to find irresistible. When we want to create a special mood, or a feeling of warmth and hominess when the weather and the world are cold and frightful, we light a candle–but we seldom meditate on its history and science. As usual, I’d …
ENIAC
Fifty years ago this month, a machine in the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering solved in 20 seconds an equation that would have required a human mathematician using a desk calculator 40 hours. The feat astounded the world, and launched the age of computers. The machine was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and …
Roses
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 …
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