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Axial tilt and evolution

04 August 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
What role does Earth's axial tilt play in the ongoing evolution of life on this planet? That question has intrigued me ever since the Japanese earthquake, this spring. I read that the quake had shifted our planet on its axis by 25cm - a minute amount on the planetary scale - but one that could have, as one story noted, "profound, if...

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Tags: evolution, biology, paleontology, science 4 Comments


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500-million-year-old fossils create economic development opportunities

09 June 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Social values
This intriguing story is from a media release from the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, posted on the Municipal Information Network. Exciting stuff when a government recognizes the importance of fossils, evolution and science, and helps promote them to the public.

Capturing the significance of...

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Tags: science, fossils, economic development 0 Comments


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Creationist victory a sad day for American education

22 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Pointless legislation, Social values
It's pretty easy to make fun of American education these days. There are viral videos on YouTube that paint a bleak, even frightening, picture of the average American unable to locate Iraq on a world map, unable to identify the name of a country beginning with the letter "U", the religion of Buddhist monks, and so on. Rick Mercer did...

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Tags: America, creationism, evolution, science 3 Comments


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Giant spider fossil found in Mongolia

20 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
I developed an appreciation of spiders around age 10. I came down with one of those childhood diseases - chicken pox, mumps, or measles, I forget which now - and spent a week in bed. I was a voracious reader even then, but I had only one unread book on hand, a library title taken out for some school project. It was Jean Henri Fabre's 1912...

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Tags: spiders, fossils, science, paleontology 0 Comments


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T. Rex had a cousin. Imagine the family BBQs...

03 April 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
He's called Zhuchengtyrannus magnus, but I bet that gets condensed to something more like Z. Mag when people start taking about him. He's the latest fossil find to come from China - an 11-metre-long, 4-metre-tall theropod weighing in at 6 tonnes. That's pretty close to the size of T. Rex, his huge carnivorous cousin. Imagine the fun...

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Tags: science, dinosaurs, China, paleontology 0 Comments


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What have dogs taught us?

21 February 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science
Dogs, say some social anthropologists, taught humans compassion*. Any dog owner will understand that claim, especially if he or she has ever had a puppy. It's tempting to believe that the relationship between humans and dogs began with puppies, perhaps an abandoned litter our prehistoric ancestors came across. But it might have come about...

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Tags: pets, dogs, anthropology, science, cats 4 Comments


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A skeptic's take on the wireless debate

21 November 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science, Collingwood life
I missed this post about the wireless debate when it was first written. Although a savvy reader brought it to my attention a couple of weeks ago, his email got lost in the cascade of email I get - 100 or more a day. When I was cleaning out my cache this morning I found it, and after reading it, thought I should share it because it relates to local...

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Tags: computers, wifi, Collingwood's Municipal Madness, Science, technology 3 Comments


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A snowstorm on a comet

19 November 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, technology
You think our winter is crazy here? Whiteouts, snow storms, blizzards... imagine a snowstorm in space - with snow falling up, instead of down! That's what's happening on Comet Hartley right now. Particles of ice and snow - frozen CO2 probably, and some as large as a basketball - are being shot from jets on the comet's surface. This...

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Tags: science, NASA, Comet Hartley 0 Comments


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Are monkeys self-aware? How do we define awareness?

02 October 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Animals, Social values
There's an interesting article in this week's online edition of The Scientist about experiments done with rhesus monkeys and mirrors to determine if they recognize themselves. In other words, can they see themselves in the mirror and identify the image as their own self? That, we're told, indicated self-awareness.

Self-awareness in...

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Tags: ethics, sentience, self-awareness, science 0 Comments


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The lime tree puzzle

15 August 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Science, Social values
When I crush a leaf from my lime tree, it smells deliciously of lime, like its fruits do. And its fruits, when it graces us with them, are richly aromatic and unmistakably lime-scented. When you cut into one, you can smell it across the room, and the scent from the oils will linger for hours on your fingers.

Yet today, with it in full bloom in...

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Tags: botany, lime, science, evolution, Citrus aurantifolia 0 Comments



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