
Dr. Brown: A father’s subtle life influences and NOTL’s Nobel series
My father came from a family of English midland dyers of wool and he was the first to go to university, in his case, Cornell University in New York state where he became

My father came from a family of English midland dyers of wool and he was the first to go to university, in his case, Cornell University in New York state where he became

Science, art and religion may be part of the human landscape but in the present day they tend to be separate despite common, deep evolutionary roots. For most modern humans, visual art is

Entanglement at a distance might apply to two lovers or different countries aligned by common interests, but to physicists it applies to two or more identical particles, say two photons of light or

You may have heard of gene editing and CRISPR. But what about minibrains, embryos without fathers, mothers and placentas, and brain implants? The pace in biological research has been astounding in the last

For much of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st century physics was divided between the universe of the large (galaxies, stars and other stellar bodies) and the universe of

Brain injuries affected thousands of military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most involved blast injuries and concussions and left those affected with cognitive and behavioural deficits, and significant impairments in short-

This year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry to Barry Sharpless, Morten Meldal and Carolyn Bertozzi was a work of art in science. It was a beautiful, elegant and compelling story of how the best scientists

The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 with occasional years off during the two world wars. The enterprise began with wealthy Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, an engineer by training, perhaps more famous

Have you ever noticed that longtime close friends, partners and spouses sometimes seem to behave and even look as one, and sense what the other is feeling and thinking – even when they’re

Maybe not so much for cats, but many dog owners insist that they can read how their dog is feeling and in turn, their dog can sense how their owners feel. One of

Despite hundreds of studies, no one knows what causes long COVID. The symptoms are real enough, debilitating fatigue, loss of energy, headaches, difficulties concentrating and focusing (what’s been called “brain fog”), trouble sleeping

Nothing is constant where empires, nations, borders and governments are concerned. That’s certainly been true for China and much of the rest of the world in my lifetime. When I was a boy

There isn’t much I remember about the church of my childhood except stuffy, will-they-ever-end church services, my Sunday school teacher, who preferred talking about baseball and those uncomfortable itchy wool pants my parents

In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, at the suggestion of mutual friends, presented their studies of evolution to the Linnean Society in London, England. By independent, thoroughly documented observations of variation

For much of history an end to breathing and a beating heart, marked death. This all changed in the last half of the 20th century when cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation and, more recently,

Working on the longest time scale, 13 billion years ago and beyond, the James Webb Space Telescope is set to explore the roles of dark matter and giant black holes in creating stars

By the mid-20th century, quantum physics was a mature major success story. Fifty years earlier, some scientists including Max Planck, questioned whether the atom even existed. Yet within half a century, the particle

Dedicated NOTL care workers find ways to engage residents with fun and dignity It can’t be easy caring for residents in long-term care facilities, especially for those who have major cognitive

In highly social species such as chimpanzees, understanding who’s in charge, who has influence, who’s in, who’s out, and shifting alliances between others, often make big differences when it comes to finding a

Estimates suggest that as many as 20 to 30 per cent of patients with COVID develop long lasting symptoms, what’s been called “long COVID.” Initially many were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, only

In his 2021 book, “A Brief History of Earth,” Harvard geologist Andrew Knoll wrote, “What is life, anyway? What … differentiates us and dogs and oak trees and bacteria from mountains, volcanoes, and minerals?

Just when most people have happily returned to life without a mask and social distancing, a mini surge in COVID cases involving variants of Omicron is sweeping across Canada. Some of those cases

My father was born in England and, like one of his brothers, loved to work in his garden. That sometimes required selective and even aggressive pruning to bring out the best in his

Situational awareness, an ability to know precisely where you are, the terrain you’re crossing, possible landing spots in an emergency and awareness of ever-changing weather, is critical for pilots, whether they fly single-engine training

Time: Looking Back and Forward To look far out in the universe is to look far back in time. Despite the blistering speed of light (rounded out to 300,000 kilometres per second), the

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