Henry de la Beche’s “Duria Antiquior,” an image of the carnage that must have taken place on the shores of the ancient Dorset. Years ago, when touring dino-mation exhibits were all the rage, my parents took me to “see the dinosaurs” at the Morris Museum. I was terrified. I had seen dinosaur skeletons before, but the moving, roaring beasts sent me scurrying around the corner, peeking around it as if from a blind. My father walked up to a Triceratops and touched it to show me I was safe, but even though I was so excited about seeing dinosaurs I…
The Science Creative Quarterly
Search for impact today - 39 results found
THE FINNISH DISEASE HERITAGE AND OTHER GENETIC ISOLATES
- archive / textbookFinland, Finland Finland, The country where I want to be, You’re so sadly neglected, And often ignored, Finland, Finland, Finland, Finland has it all. -Monty Python, “Finland” In modern society it is generally considered impolite to point out the intrinsic differences between ethnic groups; while it is true that people should be treated equally regardless of ethnicity in terms of employment, respect, rights etc, there are genetic differences between ethnicities that can provide invaluable medical information about disease processes. Throughout history there has been a vast amount of inter-ethnic mingling, this has made most genetic differences negligible at best however,…
SATIRE, SYRACUSE, AND SEA-LEVELS
- archive– FROM THE ARCHIVE – I am an avid reader of The Onion. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about please be rest assured that I’m not some sort of weirdo who looks for messages in tea leaves and the like. Perhaps the name of a vegetable is a rather unusual choice for a satirical periodical, although I would have to disagree with anyone who felt that any prior publications of this genre had set lasting precedents. The more absurd the name is the better, and as we all know, absurdity is inherent to human existence.…
GOTTA BARCODE ‘EM ALL!
- archive / textbookIt’s strange how imagination often becomes reality. In the 13th century, Leonardo da Vinci designed machines that were extremely similar to modern day machine guns, submersibles and helicopters. Jules Verne’s sci-fi novels, written in the 19th century, such as Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and From the Earth to the Moon all had elements in them which were deemed quite marvelous, if not impossible, at the time when they were written. Fast-forward two centuries, and we find ourselves with the technology that allows us to travel around the world in much less than…
BOOK REVIEW: BROWNE’S “DARWIN’S ORIGIN OF SPECIES: A BIOGRAPHY”
- archive / reviewMuch like David Quammen’s The Reluctant Mr. Darwin (2006) and Edward J. Larson’s Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (2004), Harvard historian of science Janet Browne’s Darwin’s Origin of Species: A Biography (2007, ‘Books That Changed the World’ series, which also includes the Bible, the Qur’an, Smith’s Wealth of Nations , Plato’s Republic, Paine’s Rights of Man, and Marx’s Das Kapital) serves, I think, as a great introductory book on the topic of Darwin and evolution (for either lay persons wishing to become familiar with the topic or for undergraduate level courses in the history of science or…
AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS CIRCA 3005
- archive– FROM THE ARCHIVE – In reviewing the University’s ancient imagery archives, I was astounded and pleased to discover an interesting, albeit short, fragment of 20th-century photomechanical film. Apparently produced at some time in the late 1900’s, it depicts a brief but fascinating moment in the lives of three young humans of the time. The footage lasts a mere thirty seconds; it begins with three young, primitive boys seated around a table, apparently in the early morning hours judging from the angle and color of the natural light filtering in through the window (image analysis corrected for United States’ average…
ALL CHANGE IS NOT EVOLUTIONARY
- archive / commentary / textbookWhat is evolution? Who was Darwin? What do the words Darwinism, natural selection, or survival of the fittest really mean? These words and phrases have been bandied around over the past century, used interchangeably, frequently in the news, and known very much as players of one of the most controversial topics in our society today. Basically, Darwin opened a pretty large can of worms when he wrote “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, and the impact of “The Descent of Man” can still be felt today. In short, evolution is the process whereby species arise. Natural selection is a…
OBESITY AND DIABETES: A CANADIAN EPIDEMIC
- archive / textbookKahnawake is a Mohawk community of 7000 people, located 12 miles north of Montreal, Quebec, on the bank of the St. Lawrence River. Originally settled in 1680, the community traditionally relied on fishing and hunting for food, as well as gathering corn, beans and squash from the area. However, despite the healthy meat and vegetable based diet of the past, today over 800 people (12%), between the age of 45 & 64, live with diabetes (1). Sixty percent of these people are living with major complications, such as blindness and kidney failure; 48% have heart disease as a result of…
A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR HEART: CARDIAC BIOMARKERS – INSIGHT INTO THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
- archive / textbookDr. McCondo: “So, how are you feeling today? You told the nurse you were feeling a little sick?” Mr. Heart: “Not well, and I think I might be coming down with something serious…” Dr. McCondo: “Alright, let’s take a look.” Mr. Heart: “Okay…hey do you think it’s going to be something serious? Do you think it might be because of the new neighbourhood I moved into? Ever since my buddies Turk and Burke helped me move in I started feeling a little weird. I mean, it was nice to relocate to a new place and all because my old one….well…