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,
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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.
“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
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
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
I’m struck by how old some Nobel Prize winners are when they finally are honoured. In 2019, at the ripe age of 97, John Goodenough won a share of a Nobel for his
The process of choosing Nobel Prize-winning work and winners begins soon after the awards ceremony the previous year. Invitations are sent out for nominations to hundreds of experts around the world, including previous
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The Nobel series, an annual November-December review of the year’s Nobel Prizes announced in October, has been a success for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library since it began in 2017. Sometimes it’s possible to
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