I sit in a lab in a state of disarray, full of unopened boxes, chemical containers and keepsakes from Kentucky, all artifacts of a recent move. Across from me is the department of biological science’s new associate professor and Canadian research chair (CRC) in phylogenomics, Jeffrey Marcus. I have to admit to feelings of nervousness, [...]
The Manitoban
The Students' Newspaper of the University of Manitoba
Science section
-
Nine, 10 never sleep again
“In the middle of the night I woke up and tried to get out of bed. I was shocked, even terrified when I found that I was unable to move anything except for my eyes. I could see everything around me very clearly. I tried to scream but I couldn’t make a sound! I struggled [...]
-
Why you should be concerned about species extinction
Most of you were probably taught that “extinction is forever.” Heck, you may have even bought a T-shirt with that logo on it, hoping that your fashion sense or financial support might stem the tide of some cataclysmic species disappearance (of which you have the general sense is due to happen next week sometime). In [...]
-
Ask a scientist
What does it sound like when doves cry? Much to the dismay of the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince, according to some cursory research, very few non-mammals actually cry. So asking the question “is this what it sounds like when doves cry?” is akin to asking what the sound of [...]
-
Close encounter
The universe is beginning to look a lot less lonely than it used to. The probability of all of the components coming together in an environment that can support life is an indicator of how many places in the universe might have life. The search for the origins of life is a numbers game, and [...]
-
The science of hatred
In the 1962 movie What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis play siblings whose rivalry and hatred for each other almost surpasses the real-life malice between the two. In one scene, Davis’ character Jane kicks the crippled Blanche (played by Crawford) who has fallen out of her wheelchair. Whether by accident [...]
-
Better know a prokaryote
Escherichia coli, or E. coli, as its friends know it, has gotten a pretty bad rap lately. From tainting water supplies in Walkerton, Ontario to contaminating ground beef and — to the delight of chlorophyll-phobic children everywhere — spinach in grocery stores to closing Manitoba beaches, it seems that every time this Gram-negative — one [...]
-
Human versus machine
In the boardrooms, laboratories and command centres of space agencies around the world a war is coming — a war, which will pit burley astronauts, who excel at winning the hearts and minds of the space-exploration funding taxpayers, against the metallic reason and spider-like appendages of space probes, and their bespectacled, and pocket protected creators. [...]
-
Out of the minds of babes
Developmental psychologists are fond of telling us that we can, contrary to popular opinion, read each other’s minds. The initial excitement of this prospect quickly wears off when we find out the sort of mundane mental events they are referring to — namely, the ability to infer another person’s beliefs, desires or goals from their [...]
-
Dr. Know
Cordial greetings once more, thou hairless arthropoid. Things are really rolling now, so I’ll need to try my very best not to overwhelm your itsy-bitsy brains. You humans are renowned for limited arteriovenous cranial cooling, I know, so I’ll suppose that meltdown of the cerebellum should be highest on my list of worries. Not that [...]