If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, why are scientists from Earth?
I was lucky. When I was looking for an academic job in the early to mid-eighties, I looked to the success of the people who had graduated a few years before me to get some idea of my chances, naturally enough. To first order, it was pretty easy to calculate my chances. All the scientists [...]
Why isn’t it hard to rip a piece of paper in half?
Interesting scientific questions come in at least two categories. The first category comprises those big questions that everyone knows. Things like the origin of the universe, how consciousness works, ways to ensure that our brother and sister species – and we – survive and prosper, how to build better computers with better algorithms, build better [...]
Reflections on WISEMS, the first annual Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium
by Katharine Yagi On Saturday October 13th, I attended the first annual Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium (WISEMS). I am a graduate student, studying in the field of ecology and conservation biology. I’ve had a passion for biology since I was three years old, and I haven’t wavered in my choice to follow [...]
Questions that people ask the Dean, and the answers that I give
I was interviewed for the job of Dean of Science some years ago in December of 2004, shortly before Christmas. I was asked a number of questions, which I admit now to having largely forgotten. Even at the time, I remember being preoccupied by the coming Holiday season. But, with hindsight, I see this was [...]
Expo 67: the world is made of ideas
When I was ten years old, my family went to Expo 67, the Man and his World Fair in Montréal. I remember this as an astonishing event: the passports, the pavilions, the monorail, the people. Canada was 100 years old, and Montréal’s sights were toward the future, not the past. It was an exciting time. [...]
Don’t send that email; pick up the phone!
By Victor Chisholm Travel takes us out of our daily routines and usual places, so with an open mind, a traveller can easily find himself or herself bombarded with new ideas. I was a little surprised –but not that surprised – that it was two recent vacations by bicycle that pointed me to the perils [...]