DEATH: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ATTEMPT AT A DEFINITION
By Justin Kahn

ASPARAGUS, STINKY PEE, AND SCIENTIFIC CURIOSITY
By Willow King

I was recently enjoying a nice dinner with a few close friends of mine. Our conversations are often less than delicate, so it was no surprise that talk soon became a little tactless. The subject turned to the unpleasant yet inevitable consequences of our meal that would visit each of us within a few hours. No, we weren’t talking about beans (the so-called “musical fruit”), but about asparagus, a seemingly benign green delicacy that goes especially well with hollandaise sauce. Strangely, one member of our group had no idea what we were talking about, despite describing asparagus as her favourite (and also oft-consumed) veggie.
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TRASH TALKIN' AT THE AQUARIUM
By Christopher Monks

DATING OILY ROCK
By David Secko

2ND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS
By Claire Salvador

THE GIRAFFE: A FAVOURITE TEXTBOOK ILLUSTRATION OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES
By Richard Peachey

High-school biology texts regularly present Darwin’s theory of evolution in contrast with Lamarck’s earlier explanation, and the organism most often used to illustrate the difference between the two views is the giraffe (e.g., Creager et al., pp. 233-240). Lamarck, it is said, told a story of giraffe necks becoming longer as the animals tried to stretch their necks to reach food (Law of Use and Disuse). The longer necks acquired in this way would then be passed on to their offspring (Law of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics). Continued stretching over the generations led to today’s long-necked giraffes. Darwin, on the other hand (it is said), proposed that early giraffes had necks of different lengths, some longer and some shorter (Variation).
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RESURRECTING DAMAGED NEURONS: ARE WE FIGHTING A HOPELESS BATTLE?
By Melvin Kwok

Spinal cord injury (SCI) has been documented throughout history. Early physicians described patients with this affliction to be conscious and aware yet unable to innervate their limbs. Up to the mid 1960s the proper course of treatment for SCI was to stabilize the spinal cord to avoid further injury. Repair, however, was deemed impossible.
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AFRICAN LION FAMILY OBJECTS TO THEIR PORTRAYAL IN RECENT DISCOVERY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY
By Steve Caldes

Papa Lion (Carl)

First off, that tree we were lying around in the shade by, that wasn’t even our tree. The producers literally brought in that tree and told us it was going to be our new tree. They said our tree—the tree we’ve lay under for years—“didn’t have a river view” and was “a little smaller than what we were looking for.” This was all said to me in front of my kids, I might add. Real class act that Discovery Channel!
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ELSEWHERE AND OVERHEARD
By Caitlin Dowling

"This is the first human-poultry interaction system ever developed."
Professor Adrian David Cheok who has been developing a system to enable people to stroke chickens over the Internet. I’m serious. (ananova.com)

"I've smelt one and tracked several since then and you cannot come much closer than that”
The fact that the Tasmanian "tiger" was officially declared extinct nearly 70 years ago does not deter Col and his fellow tiger hunters one bit. (BBC News)
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THE GALLON CLUB
By Jonathan Cohen

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 about “the rights and privileges appertaining thereto.”
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