by Brian Owens General Science editor One of the common themes at last week’s Canadian Science Policy Conference in Halifax was the role of scientific evidence in policymaking, and specifically how scientists should go about providing it. I was disappointed to hear several of the politicians and policymakers – and no small number of scientists […]
Month: October 2014
Chemistry Nobel 2014 – Seeing smaller than light
by Tyler Irving Chemistry subject editor In my last post, I discussed how chemistry is the key to nanotechnology, a hot new field that’s promising to improve everything from smart phones to health care. I also mentioned that nano-sized particles are smaller than the wavelengths of light, which makes it maddeningly difficult to “see” what’s […]
Space Exploration (or, Engineering on a Budget)
Sri Ray-Chauduri and Aadita Chaudhury, Technology & Engineering co-editors Last week marked the 14th annual UN-declared World Space Week (WSW). Celebrated from October 4-10, it was started in 1981 by the World Space Association as “Spaceweek” to commemorate the moon landings. The dates of WSW were selected to coincide with the anniversary of Sputnik-1 which […]
National Forest Week and the misconception of deforestation
Sri Ray-Chauduri and Sarah Boon, Environment and Earth Science subject editors Did you happen to find yourself in the deep woods of Canada sometime over the last few weeks? It wouldn’t be hard to do, as Canada has 10% of the world’s forests, and 35-40% of our landmass is covered in woodlands. Forests are central […]
Rising from the ashes: Canada’s Experimental Lakes Area
by Michael Rennie Research Scientist at IISD-ELA & Adjunct Professor, University of Manitoba In April of this year I happily quit my job, only to take a new one just three weeks later that had me working at exactly the same place. Confused? Allow me to explain. After 44 years, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) […]