I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…it’s winter. As I write this it’s -28 outside, huge piles of snow line the streets, and tow-truck operators are gainfully employed all over the city. Winter is on everyone’s minds, which must be why I was recently asked several winter-related questions by Colin Grewar, host …
Tag: science
Dr. Tom Wenaus and the Superconducting Super Collider
A couple of years ago I wrote a column about one of the biggest scientific projects of our time, the Superconducting Super Collider, currently under construction in Texas. I didn’t know at the time that a Regina man is one of the scientists working on it. Dr. Torre Wenaus is a staff physicist at …
The Superconducting Super Collider
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Human Genome Initiative, “biologists’ equivalent of the Apollo program.” But there’s an even bigger and more expensive initiative happening down in Texas that you might call physicists’ equivalent of Apollo. This gigantic (in every sense of the word) project is called the Superconducting Super Collider, or …
Glass
There’s a window above my desk through I’m watching a cold wind blowing leaves down the street. It’s not blowing in my face, however, thanks to a very special material: glass. Glass is an “amorphous solid”– its molecules don’t form a strict pattern, like the molecules of steel or granite, but are jumbled together like …
Big ideas
At this time of year it’s traditional to make resolutions concerning the new year, review the old year or preview the coming year. Well, I don’t normally make resolutions; reviewing the old year is done far better by others; and previewing the coming year would involve precognition–which I don’t believe in. There is, however, one …
Clausotechnolometry: the study of the technology of Santa
A couple of Christmases ago I wrote about aerotarandusdynamics: the study of flying reindeer. In passing, I mentioned their mysterious master, one “Santa Claus.” Now scientists are studying him, too, trying to understand the advanced technology this “jolly old elf” (as one authority describes him) uses yearly in his Christmas crusade. These scientists are “clausotechnolometrists.” …
Christmas trees
It’s that jolly time of a year again when we celebrate new life by murdering 40 million trees. Which, I hasten to add, is simply a dramatic opening and not the beginning of a manifesto for the Evergreen Liberation Front. Fact is, I’m a big fan of the custom of having a Christmas tree. For …
December 1993 science anniversaries
‘Tis the season for December’s science anniversaries, and there’s a biggy this month: the 90th anniversary of the first successful flight in a self-propelled heavier-than-air craft. But first, two other flight-related anniversaries. Twenty-five years ago, on December 21, 1968, NASA launched Apollo 8. The crew of Col. Frank Borman, Lt. Col. William A. Anders and …
Static electricity
I’m a little nervous as I word-process this column about static electricity, because every computer owner knows (and usually learned the hard way), that static electricity is a Bad Thing. Static electricity, however, has been around longer than computers: like, forever. The first time anybody noticed, though, was around 600 B.C., when the Greeks …
Potato chips, popcorn and pretzels
The Grey Cup just ended, but the Rose, Cotton, Orange and Super Bowl are still to come. It therefore seems apt to delve into a subject with which I have a great-deal of hands-on experience: the Three Ps of snack food, potato chips, popcorn and pretzels. Potato chips were invented in a Saratoga, New …
Headaches
Few afflictions are more common than headaches. Statistics (themselves the cause of many headaches) show that in the U.S., up to 50 million people go to the doctor for headaches annually. They’re continuing an ancient tradition. Around 5000 B.C. in China, acupuncture was the treatment of choice. About 160 B.C., the Greek physician Galen recommended …
Bones
Our bones, being hidden away inside our skins, are not something that we normally think about much. But once you break one, it’s hard to think about anything else. I had an early introduction to the subject when I was seven years old and my big brother broke my arm. Not deliberately: we were rolling …
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