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Every Day Our Body Needs to Demolish Billions of Houses

18 Feb 2022

Imagine waking up one day to a constant racket. You walk out of your house and see that your neighbour’s townhouse is being deconstructed. A crew is disassembling that house item by item, some of...

The Unbearable Poopness of Bookstores

22 Jan 2022

Imagine you have been walking the aisles of your favourite bookstore for an hour, letting your gaze gaily hop from one spine to the next. You smell the ink and the paper. You hear the dulcet tones...

The Time I Thought I Would Meet My Maker

12 Jan 2022

Being of Hungarian origin, I have had some experience with hot paprika. That’s why I was not averse to trying some of the hot sauces offered up for tasting at one of the many spice shops in New...

Smoke Alarms Are Not Created Equal

8 Jan 2022

Earlier this week, a fire broke out in a rowhouse in Philadelphia, killing at least 13 people. The deputy fire commissioner stated during a news conference that there were four smoke alarms but...

Want to cuddle? Personality is likely to get you further than oxytocin.

10 Dec 2021

Why do people cuddle? According to a slew of media reports, that answer lies in oxytocin, dubbed either the “cuddle chemical” or the “love hormone.” English pharmacologist and neurophysiologist Sir...

Is it true that rubbing olive oil on a knife will lead to “tearless chopping?”

10 Dec 2021

Not having carried out a proper scientific investigation in the kitchen, I can’s safe for sure, but I would doubt it makes a difference. Let’s delve into a little onion chemistry which will of...

A Real “Breaking Bad” Story

3 Dec 2021

As a chemistry professor, I find it particularly appalling when a member of the profession goes astray. That is just what Professor Bradley Allen Rowland did at Henderson State University in...

Would the Lone Ranger’s silver bullets have tarnished?

26 Nov 2021

We do get some interesting questions. The Lone Ranger was a television series that ran from 1949 to 1957 and recounted the adventures of a former Texas Ranger who with his companion, the Native...

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