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A Hundred Years Ago Life Changed for Diabetics

22 Nov 2023

November 26th marks the 100th anniversary of a splendid dinner held at the University of Toronto to recognize perhaps the greatest Canadian achievement in science. A few weeks earlier, the Nobel...

DMSO Is Not a Cure-All. But the FDA’s Panic Over It Birthed a Myth.

17 Nov 2023

Imagine a drug so powerful, your government didn’t want you to have it. Now, add the claim that this drug is all natural (it’s not) and that people report it cured them of any ailment you can think...

A Houdini Low Point

27 Oct 2023

National Magic Day is celebrated annually on October 31st in memory of Harry Houdini who passed away on that day in 1926.

Not A Laughing Matter

25 Oct 2023

When I was growing up, “looning” meant one thing. You would fill a balloon with water and throw it at a target that usually did not welcome such activity. Today, “looning” has taken on another...

We Used to Look Older

20 Oct 2023

It apparently started with a tweet.

Can the Problems of the Future be Solved with Technology from the Past?

6 Oct 2023

Electric cars are often portrayed as an invention created to solve the issue of pollution generated from the exhaust emission of gasoline cars, but the electric car has been around the block before...

The First Canadian Nobel Prize

29 Sep 2023

As we approach the week during which the 2023 Nobel Prizes will be announced (October 2-9, 2023), it is perhaps timely to consider the events that surrounded the first Nobel Prize awarded to a...

Fighting Fire with Fire: how a Nobel Prize Winning Scientists Used Malaria to ‘Cure’ Syphilis

22 Sep 2023

The history of science is full of disproved experiments, revised textbooks, and rewritten hypotheses. Even Nobel prize-winning research, which is often viewed as the best work science has to offer,...

A Farmer, Epsom Salt, Moses, and some Sweet Chemistry

6 Sep 2023

In 1618 a farmer in England noticed that he could lead his cows to water but could not make them drink. He tasted the well water himself and realized right away that there was some wisdom to the...

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