Dr. Brown: Was Lucy an ancestor of modern-day humans?
The evolution to where we are now as a species began five to six million years ago, with the last common ancestor to what would eventually become modern humans emerging 150 to 200
Dr. William Brown is a professor of neurology at McMaster University and co-founder of the Infohealth series at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library.
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Dr. Brown: Mysteries of dark energy and the expanding universe
Dennis Overbye of the New York Times is one of the best science writers in the world for good reasons: he talks to the principal scientists involved in the subject of interest, other
Dr. Brown: Losing speech is one of the worst effects of ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one of nature’s worst diseases, up there with the dementias and some cancers. For some, cancer has become a manageable disease. Not so with ALS. It destroys motor nerve
Dr. Brown: The Bible, science and the nature of God
Richard Dawkins was once in his Oxford University office surrounded by books from floor to ceiling, when the interviewer noticed the only book on Dawkins’ desktop was a Bible. Queried about this, Dawkins,
Dr. Brown: The end and beginning of the human species
Last week’s review of the present and future revolution in genetics returns us to the question of whether the human species will continue as is, or morph into other species, possibly genetically engineered
Dr. Brown: Will humans soon take evolution into our own hands?
In week three of this five-part series on the Middle Land, we examined how life began and evolved and the life cycle of stars, including the creation of heavier elements in the cores
Dr. Brown: Origins of life — from single cell to complex creations
In this third instalment in a five-part series on “Middle Land: worlds beyond our senses,” our attention shifts. Beyond the dazzling worlds of physics and astronomy lay the equally intriguing and far more
Dr. Brown: Subatomic particles really are no small matter
Last week, in the first of this five-part series “Middle Land: worlds beyond our senses,” the focus was on the events surrounding the beginning of the universe. This week, we switch to the
Dr. Brown: Exploring ‘Middle Land’ — life beyond what we can see
When I wrote my book “Perspectives” in 2015, I hoped to explore how the world we live in might be viewed from the perspective of Earth’s place in the universe, the origins of
Dr. Brown: AI programs getting progressively better and reliable
Some form of artificial intelligence had been imagined by fiction writers in the 1800s and the first half of 1900s. But it was Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer scientist, who in the
Dr. Brown: Will humans meet their match in AI? It’s possible
No one doubts artificial intelligence’s ability to crunch huge amounts of data. What surprises some, however, is how well it learns, innovates and even seems to intuit in ways eerily similar to human
Dr. Brown: Accepting the future of AI – and the powerful role it can play in medicine
Once hominin species developed the requisite cognitive underpinnings for imagination, creativity and symbolic language for sharing what was going on in their brains with those of others, a major threshold was passed. This
Dr. Brown: Is AI a useful partner for physicians and radiologists?
In my time at University Hospital in London, Ont., from 1972 to 1992, radiologists were very much a part of the clinical scene. The radiology suite was a busy place where neurologists, neurosurgeons
Dr. Brown: Following in the footsteps of our ancestors
To claim that footprints are far more interesting than skulls might seem odd coming from a neurologist who spent a career dealing with diseases affecting the brain and nervous system, with little attention
Dr. Brown: Keeping up with and ahead of cancer and viruses
Artificial intelligence seems to be taking over the world these days — what with repeated scary predictions in the press and social media. These days, up to 10 per cent of the articles
Dr. Brown: Preparations for death, funerals and ancient practices
Those who know me know I procrastinate, especially when it comes to unpleasant matters – or at least that was my practice until not long ago. In our age group most of us
Dr. Brown: ‘Do you love me?’ Long-term care residents can thrive on love and attention
My father-in-law was a good-natured, outgoing man with a sunny disposition and gifted with a lively sense of humour. One of the many games he used to play with his daughter Jan and
Dr. Brown: Beginnings, interims and endings — what happens to us as we age
From the simplest cells to complex creatures gifted with language, imagination and creativity, life has a beginning, interims and an ending. There’s no escape. Good genes, a healthy lifestyle, timely and effective intervention,
Dr. Brown: Science and the gods of the 21st century
Science, the study of the natural world, evolved early, possibly in nascent forms long before the emergence of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Enabling traits would have been curiosity, imagination and learning by
Dr. Brown: The battle to keep up with cancer and viruses
Artificial intelligence seems to be taking over the world these days, what with repeated scary predictions in media, online and in science and medicine journals, where up to 10 per cent of the
Dr. Brown: When electrical signalling in the brain fails
Biology is far more complex than quantum physics and the study of the universe and stars. And in biology, the brain is the most complex system with the possible exception of the operations
Dr. Brown: Work on mRNA vaccines led to Nobel Prize in medicine
This year’s Nobel Prize was awarded to Katalin (Kati) Karikó and Drew Weissman for their key role in the development of mRNA vaccines in the two decades leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Brown: Nanoparticles and light, the Nobel Prize in chemistry
“Your father would expect better and so do I,” was what my organic chemistry professor told me in my second pre-medicine year at the University of Western Ontario. My father was a chemical
A poem of remembrance
Dr. William Brown The Lake Report This is based on Michael Winter’s, “Lest We Forget: Walking with the dead,” about the slaughter of the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel. His piece appeared in the
Dr. Brown: Tracking electrons: The Nobel Prize in physics
In 2018, Canadian physicist Donna Strickland received the Nobel Prize for physics, alongside French scientist Gérard Mourou, her doctoral supervisor. Her contribution was related to successfully increasing the power of brief pulses of
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