by Megan ClendenanWhere I live, in the Pacific Northwest, autumn means rain and plenty of it. The rain pours down and flies sideways, soaking your cuffs and everything else if you’ve forgotten an umbrella.If you’re out walking during a storm in a city, you might notice rainwater soaking the streets, skidding across parking lots and sidewalks and then pouring into drains – if they aren’t clogged by soggy leaves or other debris. All that storm…

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Climbing VolcanoesBy Elaine Kachala I waited…and waited. One by one, people descended the mountain. They looked sweaty, red-faced, and they were breathing heavily. But where were my husband and daughter? They’d woke early to hit the trailhead at 6 am. But it was going on twelve hours since they’d left our campsite to hike Mount St. Helens—an active volcano in Washington State.  The mountain stands at 8,363 (f) (2,549 m). The hike is 10 miles (16 km)…

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 by Kim WoolcockIt’s autumn where I am, and the leaves are turning. They look like they’re setting themselves on fire before they fall, going out in a blaze of glory. Crispy husks carpet the forest floor, ready to be turned into next year’s nutrients.  Leaves of Acer palmatumsubsp. matsumurae(Koidz) Ogata Photo credit: 松岡明芳I love it, but it also seems extravagant. Why don’t leaves just stay green until they fall?It turns out the trees are being thrifty.…

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 by Anne MunierThousands of years ago, in what is now Mexico, people chewed a wild grass called teosinte, enjoying the sweet juice from the stalks. The plant was short and bushy-looking, with lots of stems going every which way. People didn’t bother much with the seeds, because they were covered by a hard, protective case. But every once in a while a mutation -- or unexpected slipup in the plant’s genetic structure -- came along,…

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 How the Bdelloid Rotifer Lived for Millennia—Without Sexby Nina Munteanu  As a child, I always wanted a microscope.I would have collected slimy waters from the scum ponds and murky puddles near my house. I would have brought them home and exposed them to the light of my microscope. I would then have peered deep into a secret world, where shady characters and alien forms lurked and traded.It would be many years, when I was in college,…

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 How the Bdelloid Rotifer Lived for Millennia—Without Sexby Nina Munteanu  As a child, I always wanted a microscope.I would have collected slimy waters from the scum ponds and murky puddles near my house. I would have brought them home and exposed them to the light of my microscope. I would then have peered deep into a secret world, where shady characters and alien forms lurked and traded.It would be many years, when I was in college,…

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 I thought I knew what decibels (dB) were. One dictionary definition is “A decibel is a unit of measurement which is used to indicate how loud a sound is.” Some typical decibel values are A normal conversation at a distance of 1m: 40-60 dB Possible hearing damage: 120 dBJet engine 100m distant: 110-140 dB Public Domain Image from publicdomainq.net But decibels are much more complex. Because sound is caused by pressure on our ears, I assumed…

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By Claire EamerSeveral years ago, I wrote a book about pioneers in science and technology and how they were treated. It is called Before the World Was Ready: Stories of Daring Genius in Science (Annick Press, 2013). A couple of days ago, I had one of those awful authorly moments where you shout (internally, at least), "NO!!! I missed that!!!"What I missed, or rather who I missed, was Alice E. Wilson, the first woman geologist…

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by L. E. CarmichaelIt's Science Literacy Week - woohoo!!!!For those unfamiliar, Science Literacy Week is an annual event that celebrates the messy, astounding, wonder-filled thing that is the scientific method and all the knowledge it gives us. It's a time to learn about science, do some science, and - you guessed it - read science books to improve our understanding of what science is and how it works.It's a science writer's favourite time of year.The…

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Bloom’s Day by Raymond Nakamura The last time Uncle Fester showed up (2018), we were out of town. This time, we had no excuse. Uncle Fester is a Titan arum, A.K.A. The Corpse Flower, a rare plant that produces the largest flower in the world, which can grow up to four or five metres and produces a fragrance resembling rotting meat. Who wouldn’t want to witness such a wonder of nature? But Corpse Flowers are fickle. You can’t…

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