Blog
Untangling the Cosmos: How Research is Changing Our Understanding of the Universe
Join CIFAR and the Ontario Science Centre on May 17, 2017 for a symposium that will take you on a journey to unravel some of the greatest secrets of the universe. Moderated by Jay Ingram, the symposium will feature leading Canadian and international...
Hazard and Risk – How they differ
A lot of jargon is used when talking about risk and some of this can be confusing. In the discussion about chemicals, the words “risk” and “hazard” are very often used as if interchangeable. In this brochure we offer our understanding of the difference between these...
All You Need to Know: March Equinox
Although there’s nothing official about it, it’s traditional to say the upcoming March or vernal equinox signals the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. This equinox does provide a hallmark for the sun’s motion in our...
Teacher Demo: The Nose vs. the Wrecking Ball
A pendulum is constructed from a 1.0-kg mass suspended from the ceiling, with a length of strong string long enough so that, when pulled about 40o from the vertical, the mass comes to nose level. The pendulum will be released from this position. The demonstrator is...
Safe Storage and Handling of Lab Chemicals – Flinn Scientific Canada
The science teacher’s duty of care for planning and designing lab activities for the science curriculum includes the responsibility for the proper storage, handling, use, and disposal of chemicals in experiments and demonstrations. The following “Top Twelve” list of...
What Our Teeth Say About Us
These words, attributed to 19th-century naturalist George Cuvier, couldn’t be more correct. The pearly whites we use every day over and over and over again are clues not just to our own individual lives but also to our evolutionary history. Teeth lock into their...
Is this the Farm of the Future?
https://youtu.be/rEw-VfFkUik There’s a new trend in agriculture called vertical farming. As humans learned to farm, we arranged plants outside in horizontal fields, and invented irrigation and fertilizer to grow bumper crops. But with modern technology and farmers’...
How Did Horses Evolve?
A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on February 10, 2017 is challenging long-held ideas about how horses evolved. Paleontologist Juan Cantalapiedra and team compiled decades of previous research into an evolutionary tree of 138 horse species...
Wrapper Worm – Sick Science! #175
https://youtu.be/mFI0RHvZUUA You can have a ton of science fun with a straw. You can make it into a blow gun, using the properties of air, or it can double as a pipette when your lab has run out. But did you know you can perform some awesome hands-on science with the...
When Does the Age of Aquarius Begin?
When does the Age of Aquarius begin? And what is the Age of Aquarius? The Age of Aquarius is not part of astronomy. It’s an astrological age, which occurs because of a real motion of Earth known as the precession of the equinoxes, which, for example, causes the...
6-Letter DNA!
https://youtu.be/Xp9HEp4cYzM Scientists have created living bacteria with two extra letters of genetic code, nicknamed X, and Y for short. Help me make Sciencium: http://ve42.co/JoinUs For more info: http://ve42.co/SAsynthEcoli Animated by Kyle Norby Life has been...
March Guide to the Bright Planets
As March 2017 opens, the waxing crescent moon joins up with Venus, Mars (and Uranus) in the western sky after sunset. Mars remains a rather feeble evening object for the next few months, but March 2017 presents the grand finale of Venus, the sky’s brightest planet, as...