For many people, including myself, a mention of the word wasp brings to mind a particular yellow and black annoyance found hovering around garbage cans in the summertime. However, as is usually the case with the natural world, wasps are far more interesting than our common experiences with them let on. To start, there are thousands upon thousands of species, not just the yellow jackets we try to avoid being stung by as we eat…

Continue reading

There are many ways to get a drug into a person. Two common approaches are to swallow a small soluble solid or inject a liquid into a vein, causing it to be transported throughout the body to wherever it is needed.Topical medications are those applied to a body surface, be it skin, eyeballs, or the insides of your lungs. This is usually done to deliver the drug to the particular place requiring repair (e.g. eye…

Continue reading

It was the summer of 1882, and grape farmers in the Médoc region of southwest France (north of Bordeaux, on the Atlantic coast) had a problem.Schoolchildren (or university students, or just anyone travelling the roads along which the grapevines grew, depending on what source you're reading) were pilfering their grapes. To try and ward them...

Continue reading

Mushrooms come in many shapes and colours. In the case of green ones, which I've written about previously, a subset owe their colour not to any particular pigment they themselves produce, but rather to algae living on top of them.These algae-bearing fungi are usually polypores, otherwise known as bracket or shelf fungi. They tend to...

Continue reading

When I was a teenager, I read Stephen King's book The Stand. It begins with the near-obliteration of humankind by a lethal virus. This was weirdly alluring stuff for a angsty teenage daydreamer. What would you do if the world ended? What would be your fate? I figured I'd make it a couple of months...

Continue reading

Here in Southern Ontario, spring is in the process of being sprung. This means warmer temperatures and lots of rain, which can bring about the appearance of various sorts of goo.That's right, goo. Time for some photos!As cold winter transitions to cool spring, trees awaken and begin moving sap through their bodies. If a tree...

Continue reading

I've been slowly working away at a map highlighting some of the locations around the world where chemical elements have made their mark. Click on the spots for more information!Red = Fluorine, Orange = Iron, Yellow = Sulfur, Green = Chlorine, Blue = Copper, Purple = Gold, White = Arsenic, Black = Helium and Nitrogen...

Continue reading

Some poisons are better known than others.Arsenic, for example, is famous for its participation in many a murder and suicide from the Middle Ages through to the mid-19th century (after which it became easier to detect and more difficult to acquire). Even to this day, the malicious metalloid remains in the public eye as a...

Continue reading

In honour of St. Patrick's Day, here are a couple of neat green fungi. I was going to do plants, but there are just so many to choose from. Ha ha.Russula virescens doing its thing (Source)Russula virescens, as its name implies, has a green cap. It also has a mild taste and smell, unlike some...

Continue reading

In a previous post, I discussed how the introduction of the automobile also introduced a bunch of new ways for people to hurt themselves. Similarly, an injury known as ice hockey lung didn't exist until a key advance was made in the world of ice sports: motorized ice resurfacing machines. Otherwise known as Zambonis (the...

Continue reading