Apparently Science Rendezvous Kingston was SIX WEEKS ago, and I haven’t posted about it yet?! In my defence, COVID took up two of those weeks. I’d managed to avoid catching it up to this point, but after getting up ... Read More  

Well, that was a whirlwind! Experienced authors warned us newbies that Canadian Children's Book Week was both incredible and exhausting, and they were... not wrong. I crashed pretty hard after my last visit Friday afternoon and am just now starting ... Read More  

It's the first ever I Read Canadian Day! Take 15 minutes out of your day today to read a Canadian book. Any Canadian book! And if you are so inspired: read out loud to your class, library, family, or pet post ... Read More  

I've been watching Murder Maps on Netflix recently (because what's more Christmasy than murder?) and if you're into forensic science, it's solid viewing - a sort of historical Forensic Files, but with more social context. So far, S1E4: The ... Read More  

News that an arctic fox from Svalbard, Norway, traveled 3,506 km across the sea ice to Ellesmere Island, Canada surprised social media, but not Dr. L. E. Carmichael. The Ontario author of children’s science books is also a scientist ... Read More  

I'm on the road right now, posting between adventures in Cape Breton (*waves from Nova Scotia*), so it's a quick one today - a list of lists of kids books about fabulous women in science. Head to your local ... Read More  

It's a grey, rainy Friday and I'm seriously tempted to go back to bed until spring shows up. I'm also feeling very grateful that I live in an area that is not seriously affected by flooding, and a great ... Read More  

Earl Bakken passed away last week at the age of 94. Not many people have heard of Bakken, but he saved millions of lives all around the world. In 1949, Bakken founded Medtronic, a garage-based medical equipment repair shop ... Read More  

There has been a ton of debate online in the wake of the latest shootings in the States. One thing no one argues about is whether or not the shooters intended to commit murder, because of course they did. ... Read More  

  *emerges from hiding* *checks to see whether anyone is still here* *pulls out bullhorn and confetti cannon* I’M WRITING A BOOK FOR KIDS CAN PRESS. KIDS CAN PRESS, PEOPLE.   Unless you’re in the biz, you may not ... Read More  

Today, we're talking about the second major challenge with gene therapy - getting replacement DNA into EVERY affected cell in a patient's body - and why that problem leads to the central ethical debate in this field. Read More  

Gene therapy involves repairing or replacing a faulty gene that has led to disease. In order to do that, one major hurdle must be overcome: getting new DNA into the patient's cells. Cells, however, are designed to keep things ... Read More  

Muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), cancer... they all have one thing in common. They are genetic diseases, ultimately caused by missing or malfunctioning genes in the patient's DNA. Until recently, we could treat the symptoms of many ... Read More  

I have a theory* that there are three kinds of ignorance. The first kind is what I’d call neutral ignorance. The gentle, perfectly understandable kind that arises due to a simple lack of knowledge: Ignorance: lack of knowledge, education, ... Read More  

One of the coolest things about fiction (especially science fiction) is how it inspires scientific discovery in real life. Cell phones – inspired by Star Trek communicators – are a classic example. Edmond Locard is another. Locard was a ... Read More  

Last Monday, I wrote about where facts come from. Since the post focused on the peer-review process used to check scientific data before it's published, I probably should have called it "How We Know Scientists Aren't Just Making Stuff Up." Today, ... Read More  

Mmm…. popcorn. It’s a favourite treat around this house. It has also been dinner on more than one occasion, because we don’t have kids, and therefore don’t have to worry about setting a bad example. 😀 And according to daysoftheyear.com, ... Read More  

One of my weirdest experiences as a scientist was doing a maternity test on an elk. A female elk wearing a Jasper National Park ear tag had been found on an Alberta elk farm. Since it’s illegal to keep wild animals ... Read More