On Muzzling: Borrowing from Soviet Dissidents to Slam Harper Government
by Stephen Strauss If you didn’t know better you would think that our federal government had enrolled many of its employees in the Muzzling of Science Olympics. In that (imaginary) competition it hoped...
View ArticleOne Bicycle to Rule the World: Bixi takes Manhattan
by Barry Shell Before the 2013 CSWA Conference in Montreal this June I spent a week in New York in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. I’m a keen bike rider and I ALWAYS try to get a bike as soon as I get to...
View ArticleScientific Selling: How advertisers (should) use science
By Kristina Campbell In a perfect world, a company looking to create an ad campaign would start by digging deep into the scientific literature. If they wanted to say “our product prevents acne during...
View ArticleTiny Moving Cell Parts Matter: Genetic Research & PCD
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View ArticleMagnetism & Science Writing: It’s All About Spin
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View ArticleA film about what drives trainee scientists (and what often drives them away)
My thoughts on the film, Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist, by Richard Riftkind and Carole Riftkind by Meredith Hanel This is a documentary film that follows three scientist trainees, in...
View ArticleWhat you need to know about organoids
by Kasra Hassani Up until a month ago, a Google search with the keyword organoid would mostly lead to links to animé characters. Today, a recent publication about creating human brain organoids has...
View ArticleNews that isn’t new
By Stephen Strauss The media general designate the end of December and much of January to “top science stories of the year” time something that releases a deep sense of digestive discomfort in my mind....
View ArticleYou Ask, I Answer: A Day in a Life of Ask-A-Scientist
by Barry Shell For almost 20 years I’ve been handling science-related questions from people all over the world through the Ask-A-Scientist feature at science.ca. From how to get rid of warts to...
View ArticleDispatches from the Peanut Gallery
By Claire Eamer Do you remember the first science book you read? It probably wasn’t a heavy tome about a vital scientific issue of the day, or even a romp through the dusty corners and characters of...
View ArticleCan you truly write about science if you don’t comment back to commenters?
by Stephen Strauss I have been thinking about Darwin’s reflection on what might be termed the salesmanship of science as I try to understand something quite new arising in the world of science...
View ArticleThe 2014 CSWA Conference: Authentic and Fun
by Altaira Northe From June 5 to 8, I had the good fortune of attending the annual Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA) Conference in Toronto. It was my first CSWA event, and it will most...
View ArticleRewilding and You
by Sarah Boon ‘Rewilding’ is a popular buzzword these days. Ecology books from 2013 that discuss rewilding including Canadian JB MacKinnon’s Once and Future World, American Emma Marris’ Rambunctious...
View ArticleHarvesting Sunlight
by Kimberly Moynahan Well here we are, finally in the dog days of summer. We’ve earned this after a long record-breaking winter and a much delayed spring here in southern Ontario. The dog days are...
View ArticleData-driven Journalism 102
by Robert Aboukhalil It is often said that data science is 80 percent data preparation and 20 percent science. This was demonstrated in the previous installment of my Data-Driven Journalism series,...
View ArticleShark Week: Pop Science to Pseudoscience
by Lillianne Cadieux-Shaw A giant shadow slices through the water, effortlessly, gracefully almost, as if in a ballet’s glissade. An eye glints in the darkness. A row of carnassial teeth appears and...
View ArticleJust Peachy: Finding nature’s genetic modification that turned peaches into...
by Meredith Hanel Peaches and nectarines are the same fruit minus a small genetic variation that makes nectarines hairless. When I first learned this little trivia tidbit I wondered about the...
View ArticleConfessions of a Former Climate Change Denialist
by Kasra Hassani I, a scientist with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, was a climate change denialist. Wait, let me add, I was an effective climate change denialist: I would throw on a cloak of...
View ArticleA Science Writer Puts Away the Non-fiction: NaNoWriMo
by Barry Shell After 30 years writing non-fiction for a living, on November 1, 2014, I started a novel. On November 30th, if I win the challenge, I’ll have a 50,000-word book. Short by some standards,...
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