COVID has not been kind to bats. They have been accused of harbouring the SARS-CoV-2 virus and transferring it to people via an animal vector. But this is not the first time that these flying...
When an apple is cut in half, the exposed surface quickly turns brown. Do the same thing to an orange, and nothing happens. The noted Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi was intrigued by this...
The use of candles dates back as far as 3,000 B.C., when ancient Egyptians used papyrus reeds dipped in animal fat that they then lit to use as torches. Similarly, ancient Romans dipped wicks into...
There is an old saying that if you play with fire, eventually you will get burned. The same can be said for certain chemicals. Of course, I don’t mean “play” in the literal sense. What I mean is...
Some people crave whispers. As a way to relax before going to sleep, these whisper connoisseurs go to YouTube, type in four letters, and let their brain be transfixed by the murmurs of intimacy...
As more and more people “do their own research,” some end up consulting a website called PubMed. An argument I have encountered is that if a scientific paper is listed on PubMed, it must mean this...
“Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” Anthony Bourdain, chef, journalist, travel documentarian certainly had a way with words. Here he was describing the...
A pretty morbid question perhaps, but why is it that our body does not decompose while we are alive? Most of the post-mortem changes that affect our body are the result of things we already carry...
In 1942 nylon went to war. American paratroopers dropped from the sky with nylon parachutes and hunkered down in nylon tents. Soldiers on leave hoped to seduce European women with gifts of nylon...