by L. E. CarmichaelIt's spring and the Sci/Why writers are celebrating. Check out these latest and award-winning books by our team of bloggers! Simon ShapiroSimon's book, Faster Higher Smarter (Annick Press) just won the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Youth Book Award! It takes a lot of talent, skill, and hard work to become a world-class athlete. But it takes even more to make a sport better: it takes smarts! And whether innovators are…

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Science doesn’t just happen in big facilities far away. There is science happening right in your city. On May 13 the universities and the nature clubs, the industrial researchers and the backyard tinkerers invite you to come out and play with them at the free 10th annual Science Rendezvous.What HappensEvery booth wants you to poke, pet, produce, prime, punch, or pedal to partake in the science they are excited about. There are things that explode, float,…

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Science doesn’t just happen in big facilities far away. There is science happening right in your city. On May 13 the universities and the nature clubs, the industrial researchers and the backyard tinkerers invite you to come out and play with them at the free 10th annual Science Rendezvous.What HappensEvery booth wants you to poke, pet, produce, prime, punch, or pedal to partake in the science they are excited about. There are things that explode, float,…

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By Simon ShapiroI had a "Eureka" moment last night. It was probably triggered by my recently reading a comment by Isaac Asimov that the most exciting phrase in science is not "Eureka" but "That's funny ...".Unable to sleep, my mind turned to the apocryphal story of Archimedes getting into a bath and noticing that the water overflowed. Supposedly he realized that this effect would allow him to determine (without destroying it) whether the king's crown…

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Post by Helaine BeckerCount down to equal opportunity, on this planet and beyond. Lego has introduced a new set of figures that celebrate female space pioneers.They include Katherine Johnson (the subject of the Hollywood blockbuster, Hidden Figures, and my own upcoming picture book, Counting on Katherine), Mae Jemison, Sally Ride, Nancy Grace Roman and Margaret Hamilton.It's five small steps for womankind, and a giant leap for all!Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories to the moon and back…

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Three of Sci/Why's regular bloggers have books shortlisted for the Canadian Science Writers' Association's 2017 Youth Books Award. The books and authors are:Faster Higher Smarter, by Simon Shapiro. Published by Annick Press.Inside Your Insides, by Claire Eamer. Published by Kids Can Press.Monster Science, by Helaine Becker. Published by Kids Can Press.The other nominees are To Burp or Not to Burp: A Guide to Your Body in Space by Dr. Dave Williams and Loredana Cunti (Annick Press)…

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By Gillian O'ReillyHow did a history and art history graduate end up writing about science? I blame it on Dr. David Suzuki. Specifically, I blame it on a 30-year-old episode of the radio program Quirks and Quarks, which Suzuki hosted, and on a talk he gave to a group of booksellers some 25 years ago. In both cases, the stories he told lodged themselves in a corner of my mind and slowly, slowly pushed science…

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 By Jan ThornhillRuby LOVES to "play dead" so we can will bury her in snow!I love early spring! And no – I’m not talking about tulips and the return of migratory birds, though I have nothing against those things. I’m talking about earlier, in the first weeks of March, when there’s still plenty of snow on the ground, when, for all intents and purposes, it’s still the dead of winter. Except it’s not dead. Minute…

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By Claire EamerFrom the website of the research ship, Okeanos Explorer: "From March 7 – 29, 2017, NOAA and partners will conduct a telepresence-enabled ocean exploration expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information about unknown and poorly known deepwater areas in the Howland and Baker Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.NOTE: ROV dives are planned, weather permitting, most days from March 8…

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