You might be familiar with the green horseradish paste that comes with sushi — wasabi. Scientists in Japan used the pungent smell of wasabi as an alarm to alert people of a fire. This idea seems incredible, but it was motivated by efforts to create an alarm system effective for people with hearing difficulties.   […]

  Plastic. Everyone is familiar with it; it’s used in the majority of products that are available to us. Yet because it is so frequent, many people do not take enough time to consider the effects that such a large industry has on the environment. Unknown to many, over 1 trillion plastic bags are used […]

Warning: Blog Post contains graphic images and video which may offend or disturb some viewers. Blogger does not take responsibility for any sudden onsets of nausea. Viewer discretion is advised. What Is It? Flesh-eating disease, or Necrotizing fasciitis as it is formally known, is actually a bacterial infection caused by several types of bacteria but […]

  Illustration courtesy DLR: An artist’s impression of ROSAT in orbit. Dead Satellites are being ‘unwelcome guests’ recently. The 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite has entered the Earth’s atmosphere early morning of September 24th 2011, but where it has crashed remains unknown. According to NASA, debris would likely have fallen in Ocean, and it may never be found. […]

  The Tasmanian devil is a resilient and notoriously fiendish predator. Weighing up to 26 pounds, this carnivorous marsupial may not seem like a threat. However, pound for pound, its muscular jaws and sharp teeth add up to one of the most powerful bites of any mammal. To this end, it is hard to believe […]

How cool would it be to track your ancestors back over 650 years? Well, if you are a Yersinia pestis, you are lucky because recently a group of Canadian scientists mapped the entire genetic makeup that will allow researchers to track your ancestor’s evolution and virulence over the centuries.   So you may ask, what […]

It is apparent that the trend of products today is to become smaller and smaller. We use many products today that achieve the same uses as its much bulkier predecessors. Just think back to the days of primitive cell phones. To say they were ‘big’ would be an understatement. While most would say that having […]

If you think back of the summer in 2008, remember the contamination found in Maple Leaf Products? Yes that’s right, it was Listeriosis. The Listeriosis victims and families are now waiting for compensation after they have been sick from eating tainted meat. This largest food recall outbreak in Canada happened three years ago killing about […]

Dr. Kevorkian dies at the age of 83 on June 3rd, 2011. (CNN blog-reports “Dr. Jack Kevorkian dead at 83”) Dr. Death is the name given to a pathologist Jack Kevorkian. He made the headlines of national news in early 1990s for his legislation of a “right-to-die”. Is Dr. Death a murderer? Early life Jacob […]

The capability that living creatures have to repair themselves is astounding.  Imagine you accidentally cut yourself with a knife while you’re making dinner.  It’s not a huge deal, a little inconvientent perhaps, but nothing your body can’t handle.  Now imagine cutting a sheet of plastic with that same knife.  The plastic does not have the […]