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Whales at a party?

20 Mar 2017

An 1861 Vanity Fair cartoon depicted whales celebrating at a party. Celebrating what, you may ask? The discovery of oil in Pennsylvania!

How about some Snail Cream?

20 Mar 2017

No, you don’t eat it. Neither is it meant to limber up the arthritic joints of snails. You massage it into your face to improve complexion, reduce wrinkles and improve scar lines. At least that’s...

Refrigerators and Climate Change

20 Mar 2017

The walls of refrigerators have to be heavily insulated in order to maintain efficient cooling. Polyurethane foam insulation has been the classic material used for this purpose and guess what it...

The Art of Mixing Bleach and Acids

20 Mar 2017

Chemistry is all about mixing things. But you have to know what you are doing. A lady was complaining to a neighbor about an infestation of mice in her house. The well-meaning friend had a...

Are Wind Farms Really Bad for People's Health?

20 Mar 2017

At present wind turbines produce a little over 2% of Canada’s electricity.  The industry’s goal is to have this number go up to 20% by 2025 leading to a rapid expansion of wind farms around the...

Bark Beetles

20 Mar 2017

To protect the trees from attack by the mountain pine beetle. The little bags contain verbenone, a chemical normally released by beetles as they lay their eggs just under the bark of a pine tree,...

Dateline NBC: Endocrine Disruptors

20 Mar 2017

Well…finally the Dateline piece on “hormone disruptors,: for which I was interviewed aired on March 24th. It was not as bad as it could have been, but not as good either. In the end I got 58...

Retinyl Palmitate

20 Mar 2017

According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit, environmental advocacy group, we should all be wary of retinyl palmitate. This compound is commonly added to a range of skin care...

Pollution from Incinerators

20 Mar 2017

Just about any scientific issue is more complicated than it first seems. And so it is with incineration of waste. A "yes" or "no" answer cannot be given to the question of whether or not...

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