74 search results for: "Science Break"
Science Break : Our Moon, and Synchronous Orbits
…A while back my 8-year son asked me why we can never see the other side of the Moon. I described the situation to him, but couldn’t give him any “whys”, leaving us both somewhat frustrated. More recently, CSEG member Jeff Beckett suggested this very topic would make a good…
Science Break : Hangovers
…‘Tis the season to be jolly…and hungover. Humans have been consuming alcohol and suffering the aftereffects since before the beginnings of recorded history (9,000 year old Chinese pottery has shown alcohol residues), yet curiously enough, we still don’t fully understand the underlying causes of a hangover. The best science can…
Science Break : Occam’s Razor
…Mathematics is the language of science, and a language in which I am admittedly only semi-literate. In spite of my lack of mathematical sophistication I am keenly aware that many of the behind-the-scenes mathematical techniques, principles and assumptions we use today have their roots in human thoughts which significantly predate…
Science Break : Skin Colour
…Without too much thought a person would conclude that human skin colour tends to be darker in populations originating near the equator, and increasingly lighter as one moves into higher latitudes. But why is that? How to explain exceptions to this general rule, such as the darker skinned Inuit? And…
Science Break : Singing Sand Dunes
…“Marvelous indeed and almost passing belief are the stories related of these spirits of the desert, which are said at times to fill the air with the sounds of all kinds...” (The Travels of Marco Polo, Book I, Chapter 36) Singing sand dunes have been known of presumably since time…
Science Break : Polynesian Navigation
…Think of the world’s great civilizations – the Egyptians, the Romans, the Chinese, the Greeks... how about the Polynesians? Not at the top of most people’s list, yet the Polynesians (I use the term in a general sense to encompass the Polynesians, Melanesians, Micronesians and all the other categories given…
Science Break : The Physics of Golf
…With golf season upon us, it seems like a perfect time to look at some of the physics behind golf. This is a well understood and extensively covered topic, probably because there are so many golfers, and the game is just so darn confounding, confusing and challenging. Many, many interesting…
Science Break : The Spokane Flood
…The Spokane Flood would have occurred about 14,000 years ago, towards the end of the last ice age. Simply put, an ice dam at the southern edge of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet blocked the Clark Fork River, creating a huge glacial lake in the vicinity of Missoula, Montana (Fig. 1).…
Science Break : Disfluencies and Discourse Markers
…Overview Leading edge research by psycholinguists suggests that words and sounds generally considered inappropriate to speech (um, ah, like, you know, etc.) are in fact useful and facilitate effective communication in many instances. It should be noted that all experts do not accept these findings. These words and sounds are…
Science Break : Parasitoids
…There is a subtle, but morbidly fascinating distinction between a parasite and a parasitoid. The latter always kills its host while the former usually does not. Some 10% of insects are parasitoid, perhaps even more, predominantly wasps and flies. I first became aware of parasitoids when I saw a wasp,…
Volunteer Spotlight
…Science Break. Considerable energy goes into keeping the news flowing and we thank all columnists both past and present – the CSEG appreciates your effort. The current regular columnists (Mike Doyle, Carmen Swalwell, Kristy Manchul and Oliver Kuhn) have been contributing for many years and in this Volunteer Spotlight we…
Chief Editor’s Message
…Science Break: Automatic Transmissions will be an interesting read. Our focus, Value Integrated Geoscience… need I say more about lots of different ideas coming together?
Letters to the Editor
…Science Break), some geo-technical (expert answers or Technical term of the month), or on the lighter side, the Seismic Gourmet. It is not just technical. The 'Grapevine' and 'Tracing the Industry' have been around for a long time. Somewhere along the way a regular feature by CAGC was added. I…
Volunteer Spotlight
…Science Break over a beverage. Time is precious, so I greatly value the RECORDER committee led by Chief Editor Penny Colton. Their dedication provides the membership with a snapshot of Canadian exploration geophysics each month. In this column we’ll meet a few of the Technical Editors, and in a future…
