Looking for a summer science project? Here's a note for volunteers and citizen scientists in British Columbia, Canada! There are stink bugs native to this region that are doing just fine, but in addition to them are new stink bugs. New to BC are Brown marmorated stink bugs ( BMSBs) from Asia. Invasive species of stink...

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By Claire Eamer No! Not those bears! I'm talking caterpillars.Woolly bears are those fluffy, hairy caterpillars that look a bit like tiny plush toys. They're common from Mexico to northern Canada. You might have seen a woolly bear trundling along a warm sidewalk in summer or climbing a plant stem to munch on leaves. Eventually, the...

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By Megan ClendenanApril 22nd is Earth Day – a great opportunity to consider how we are caring for our home planet. Are we using the golden rule? Are we treating our planet how we ourselves would like to be treated?A different perspective shows us how everything on Earth is connected.  The right to life. Freedom from...

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Salt — that stuff that melts the ice on sidewalks and makes popcorn taste so yummy — salt is a rock! Well, the kind in your salt shaker is rock-y. There's also salt dissolved in the oceans. It is dissolved rock! A mineral, actually. Salt is mined just like rocks too! It takes huge mining equipment...

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 by Nina MunteanuI’m a limnologist (someone who studies water and water systems); I’m also a Canadian, living in the north. That means that the water and waterways I study are often covered in ice and snow. Since moving to Peterborough a few years ago, I’ve been walking daily along the shores of the Otonabee River,...

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by Kim Woolcock It’s spring, and all kinds of creatures are crawling out from under the leaf litter. Including millipedes.Their name means “thousand legs” (even though only one millipede, Eumillipes persephone, has more than a thousand legs, and it was just discovered in December 2021). Despite their many legs, they are not fast runners, and...

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by Anne Munier Kids doing what kids do best! Children are playful creatures. This holds true all over the world- whether that’s playing 4-square in the schoolyard, engaging in some shadow tag if you happen to be in Ireland, or maybe partaking in a bit of luksong-baka if you’re in the Philippines (it translates to...

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by Elaine KachalaPhoto by Michael Kachala It might surprise you to learn that one of the largest free-roaming herds of bison lives in a state park! Recently, I had the incredible experience of visiting Antelope Island State Park. Located in Utah, United States, it’s the largest island in the middle of Great Salt Lake and...

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 A year ago I wrote a blog entry which included  “entanglement” – a complicated quantum mechanics concept where multiple particles … never mind. (If you’re interested, go and look for the February 2021 blog “Schroedinger’s Bird ??????”. This other entanglement is more easily understood. Why does hair tangle and how do you get it untangled? When you look at hair under a microscope, you can see that the core of the hair is covered with…

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 By Raymond K. Nakamura Do you play Wordle? If you haven’t heard, it’s a popular online word game. It has become a pandemic diversion and also reminds me of DOING science. It’s not a perfect analogy, of course. As far as I know, nature was not BUILT by an engineer and has not yet been...

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