The new Pope, we now learn, once worked as a chemist. It is interesting then to note that his selection was signaled through some nifty chemistry. The smoke signals used during the conclave are...
You use cathodic protection to prevent iron from rusting. The rusting of iron is an expensive process. It is estimated that the deterioration of iron due to corrosion costs billions of dollars a...
In October 2000, while walking along the shores of the "Great Salt Lake" near Salt Lake City, two hunters made a gruesome discovery. In a plastic bag, they found a white sock, a shirt, a few bones...
We are having some major issues here in the Office for Science & Society. The issue? Ants. That’s right. Those itsy bitsy teeny weeny insects that somehow make their way through every nook,...
Everything in the world, except perhaps a vampire, has a mirror image. But mirror images are curious things. Imagine that you place a ping-pong ball in front of a mirror. If you could somehow pick...
16th century Italians looked on black cats with a wary eye. Especially if one snuggled up to a bedridden patient. The cat’s affection, they thought, signaled that death was approaching. Oscar the...
If it isn’t illegal, it must be legal. That’s why benzylpiperazine pills, under names such as Purepillz, Peaq, The Good Stuff, Frenzy and Pure Rush can be sold in Canada. And what are these pills? ...
A time-honoured medical maxim states, “primum non nocere.” That’s the way, “first do no harm” used to be taught in medical school when Latin was still part of the curriculum. Basically it means...
Pineapple, kiwi and papaya all contain proteolytic enzymes, in other words enzymes capable of breaking down protein molecules. And gelatin, the substance that makes Jell-O gel, is a protein....
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