The cost of addiction is high. In 1992 the estimated cost of substance abuse in British Columbia was $2.2 billion, but that is just money. It is difficult to know the full cost of lives eroded away by addiction because addiction is more than an addict. The price of addiction is also paid by all the lives that are touched by an addict as well. In a way we are all chained to the networks in the brain that cause addiction. But, a group of scientists out of the University of British Columbia are examining the biological chains of addiction…
The Science Creative Quarterly
From February, 2006
MY MASSIVE ROBOTIC NASA ARM
1 Went to the mall today. Bought some boxer briefs and an Icee. Stopped into the arcade and lost to some punk kid at Street Fighter II. It’s hard for me to push the buttons at the right time. Shuttle Remote Manipulator Prostheses (SRMP) destroyed Street Fighter machine. 2 Saw a friend’s band play, alone. I wish someone else would have come with me. People don’t always want to talk to the guy with nine hundred pounds of space steel strapped to his body. Broke the arm of the lead singer when I gave him a high-five. 3 Laid around…
WILLIAM VON SIEMENS
Sea-cable laid in 1869 transmitting wet lead strip of jerky snaps 18,000 feet below rupturing the reputation of Siemens Brothers, Co. William aboard the ‘Faraday’ galvanometer detecting search-anchor dragging at the depth of Mount Blanc when a spike in the meter led him to the cable and a rash of improvements like closed-steel sheathing surrounding the conductor with hemp and jute like a cozy snake content to wait for a not-yet born meal
WARNINGS ACCOMPANYING YOUR INFLATABLE UNIVERSE.
Congratulations on your receipt of an Inflatable Universe. While we can’t tell you where it came from, we can tell you with a certain amount of confidence that it will be around for some time. WARNINGS FOR THE INFLATABLE UNIVERSE: Inflatable Universe is a fun and educational tool for you and your children. Please be aware that the following precautions should be observed. This set is not intended for children younger than age 9. Small parts pose a choking hazard and larger parts pose a Might Crush You Hazard. Allow adequate space for setting up the Inflatable Universe. Please be…
DATING OILY ROCK
The giant oil sands of Alberta finally have a date. And it’s a lot older than anyone expected. David Selby and Robert Creaser, from the University of Alberta, recently put an age of 112 ± 5.3 million years ago for the migration and accumulation of oil in the Alberta oil sands – a date over 60 million years earlier than previously thought. Although, the date isn’t the first to be done on the sands, it’s the first in the world to be done with such accuracy. “This has only ever been done on a relative scale before with something like…
THE GALLON CLUB
Today, when I gave blood, the petite, Hispanic technician informed me that I was now a member of the Gallon Club. She explained that I had made eight visits to the blood center over the years, and, having given eight pints, was now in the ranks. Opening a white file cabinet, she removed a gaudy gold plastic pin in the shape of a drop of blood. It was emblazoned with a red cross on a white field, and in nearly invisible writing below the insignia, it said GALLON (1) DONOR. I graciously accepted the honor. Now, however, I was curious…
HOT SCIENCE-Y GUY OF THE MONTH – JAY INGRAM
Check this out! Canada’s own Jay Ingram’s got the posing-with-the-hand-thing going on! Now, it’s not so rakish a pose as naughty Nikola Tesla (see last Hot Science-y Guy installment), but it’s there, oh yes! So, you know what that means? Jay Ingram is hot, too. Well he is. Seriously. Okay, so maybe not so much in the accompanying photo (which, I confess, I shamelessly snatched from here where [you will surely notice] Jay Ingram is the only science-y guy on the page with his hand in his headshot). So I encourage you to run along and Google™ another photo –…
PHOTOSYNTHESIS – PART I: THE LIGHT REACTION (AS TOLD BY GRANNY)
— Watch/Download the movie (~75Mb mpeg file) — Description: A short 7 minute claymation film starring a rather busty, arguably homely (even for plasticine) woman with a shrill british accent, who takes the time to detail the biochemistry behind the light reaction of photosynthesis.