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Does Daylight Savings Time Actually Save Energy?

8 Mar 2024

The surefire signs that Spring is just around the corner have started to appear – trees are budding, flowers beginning to bloom and there’s more rain than snow. (Full disclosure – I live in the UK...

Hoping for a Breath of Fresh Air

7 Feb 2024

Twenty-five sextillion is an inconceivably large number. Think 25 followed by 21 zeros. Now take a deep breath! You have just inhaled roughly that many molecules! Quite mind-boggling, but if you...

Dry Water? Let’s whet your appetite for some science.

1 Dec 2023

The poem, “My country”, by Dorothea MacKellar, is recited by every preschooler in Australia. One line is of particular relevance:  “A land of droughts and flooding rains”. 

It’s a Matter of Altitude

13 Oct 2023

Cover Image: Patricia Brubaker and Stephen Poulin fly the flag of Cabbagetown, Toronto, at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The Dark Side of Black Plastics

17 Aug 2023

I’m sitting here looking around my office for anything made of black plastic. The casing of my computer is in that category, so is my coffee machine, my printer, my cell phone stand, my stapler, a...

Does Weather Really Cause Headaches?

4 Aug 2023

When the weather forecast foretells a coming storm, some get out not only their umbrella and wellies but also the Advil. The weather has been blamed for ailments from arthritis flare-ups to coughs,...

Do Not Open a Window during a Hurricane

28 Jul 2023

This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer....

Where there is Smoke, there are Air Quality Indices

21 Jul 2023

I woke up from a nap to see a doomsday-esque picture outside the car window. My friends and I were driving back to Montreal during the poorest air quality day of the summer, and the city looked...

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