/oss/taxonomy/term/2852/all en /oss/article/technology/say-cheese <p>Cheese producers were cheesed off. People were just not eating enough veal. Slaughterhouses were running short of calf stomachs and the cheese industry was feeling the pinch. There was not enough rennet to meet the demands of turophiles (that's "cheese lovers" from the Greek “turo” for cheese) around the world.</p> Tue, 16 Jul 2024 16:48:57 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10003 at /oss /oss/article/technology-history-general-science/media-has-expiration-date <p>The tragedy occurred as I was rewatching the final season of <i>Six Feet Under</i>, arguably the best television series ever made.</p> <p>Each episode begins with a death, sometimes comical, sometimes deeply affecting. In this case, the entire episode died. The image started to freeze, displaying rectangular blocks of colour. The audio soon followed. The episode lived up to its name, “The Silence.”</p> Fri, 31 May 2024 16:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9965 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-technology/reports-death-dental-cavities-are-greatly-exaggerated <p>If I asked you to name the most common chronic disease in children, what would you say?</p> Fri, 17 May 2024 16:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9949 at /oss /oss/article/technology-history-general-science/truth-about-truth-serum <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-the-truth-about-truth-serum">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>The plot of the 1961 action film The Guns of Navarone revolves around a Second World War British commando raid on the island of Navarone in the Aegean Sea to destroy two giant radar-controlled guns the Germans had installed to target Allied ships.</p> Fri, 03 May 2024 17:06:15 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9937 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-technology-environment-climate-change/folly-water-fuelled-vehicles <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-the-folly-of-water-fuelled-vehicles">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9930 at /oss /oss/article/medical-technology/springtime-montreal-means-scent-asphalt-air <p>So, what is asphalt and where does it come from? The source is petroleum, that dark viscous liquid found deep within the Earth, the product of once living organisms subjected to millennia of intense pressure and heat. It is not an understatement to say that petroleum is vital to modern life. It is of course used to produce the fuel that our cars, trucks, buses, ships and airplanes run on, but petroleum also furnishes the raw materials used to make our plastics, synthetic fibres, medications, agrochemicals and personal care products.</p> Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9923 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-technology/how-spot-ai-fakes-now <p>In a recent <a href="https://variety.com/vip/sora-ai-video-confusion-human-test-survey-1235933647/">test</a>, a little over a thousand American adults were shown eight videos, and they had to choose if the video was real or if it had been completely generated by an artificial intelligence (AI). Half of the videos were real; the other half, AI generated. The results show that, on average, people couldn’t tell. As a group, they were split fifty-fifty on almost all of them.</p> Thu, 14 Mar 2024 21:24:08 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9871 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-technology/repronizer-merits-reproach <p>We have become accustomed to seeing a lot of gobbledygook online. But the jargon that purports to explain the workings of the “Repronizer” elevates bunk to new heights. What is the Repronizer? A device to “bioprogram hair.” Not a hair dryer, the profusion of ads proclaim, although it sure looks like one. But if you are going to pay about $1200 for a gizmo, you do expect it to do more than dry hair. And Lumielina, the Japanese manufacturer, claims it does. Not only does it not damage hair like a hair dryer, it improves the quality of hair with each use!</p> Wed, 28 Feb 2024 16:57:46 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9847 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-technology/will-right-boots-stop-you-slipping-ice <p>Have you ever slipped on ice and fallen on your derrière? At best, it is unpleasant; at worst, it can send you to the hospital with a broken bone (or even kill you). Icy sidewalks and parking lots are a hazard with which those of us living far from the equator must deal, and one would hope that winter boots would offer protection. Shopping for a new pair, you will see convincing names for outsole technology. You would be forgiven for thinking that science has delivered a modern winter boot that digs into the ice and never lets you down.</p> <p>You would be mistaken.</p> Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:23:27 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9759 at /oss /oss/article/contributors-technology-environment/dry-water-lets-whet-your-appetite-some-science <p>The poem, “My country”, by Dorothea MacKellar, is recited by every preschooler in Australia. One line is of particular relevance: </p> <p style="text-align:center"><em>“A land of droughts and flooding rains”. </em></p> Fri, 01 Dec 2023 19:00:10 +0000 Ben Selinger FRACI, CChem 9747 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-pseudoscience-technology/gadget-scam <p>Anyone who owns a car and who lives in snowy climes will be tempted by this. What if you could buy a small device that you left in your car and that magically melted the snow off of it and prevented your car from freezing? You may think this is the sort of thing you would see on <i>Star Trek</i>, yet I can point you to <a href="https://fivfivgo.com/products/pro-electromagnetic-molecular-interference-antifreeze-snow-removal-instrument">a website</a> where you can acquire this incredible device today for only USD 26.97.</p> Fri, 24 Nov 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9739 at /oss /oss/article/student-contributors-technology-history/can-problems-future-be-solved-technology-past <p>Electric cars are often portrayed as an invention created to solve the issue of pollution generated from the exhaust emission of gasoline cars, but the electric car has been around the block before! The first electric vehicle (EV) was developed by Robert Anderson – a Scottish inventor – in 1847. And while the world has drastically changed in the past 176 years, both the benefits and problems of EV’s remain much the same.</p> Fri, 06 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Daniela Padres 9679 at /oss /oss/article/medical-technology-general-science/nobel-prize-chemistry-no-small-matter <p>The word “quantum” derives from the Latin word for “amount,” so that if something is “quantifiable,” it means that it can be measured. Although I think I have a reasonably good grasp of chemistry, I’ll admit that my knowledge of “quantum chemistry” is quantifiably very small. But it is enough to allow me to appreciate the magnitude of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry, awarded to Drs. Moungi Bawendi of MIT, Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology Inc.</p> Thu, 05 Oct 2023 23:11:11 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9680 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-technology/artificial-intelligence-coming-our-proteins <p>At first glance, these two things look nothing alike. On the one hand, we see the mesmerizing contortions that proteins display to grant life forms their functionalities. On the other hand, we have the oldest continuously played board game in the history of our species, consisting of a gridded board and simple stones. </p> <p>In both cases, however, a sobering truth has emerged in recent years: computers beat humans. </p> Fri, 18 Aug 2023 16:00:52 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9602 at /oss /oss/article/medical-student-contributors-technology/nanogold-ruby-red-glass-possible-cancer-treatment <p>Though aesthetically pleasing, gold is scientifically quite boring. It is chemically inert, meaning it doesn’t easily react with other chemicals and remains shiny for long periods which is why it is prized in jewelry. But when it comes to tiny pieces of gold, only nanometers long, the science becomes far more interesting. These mini metal flecks of gold nanoparticles have potentially far-reaching applications.</p> Fri, 04 Aug 2023 15:53:48 +0000 Maya McKeown, B.Sc. 9594 at /oss