Helping Kids Look at the Small Picture

By Pippa Wysong

When I was in the eighth grade, my homeroom teacher gave the class an exciting geography assignment. It was to write an essay on anything related to geography that we wanted to. We were to pick some part of the planet, go to the library, read up on the topic and write a paper. We could do this project in pairs.

Nothing wrong with starting small.
Just ask this caterpillar.
Claire Eamer photo

My friend Cathy and I discussed it and decided on the Sahara Desert. We knew nothing about it, but it sounded incredibly exotic. We had visions of relentless sunlight, drifting sand and camels. We both associated it with Lawrence of Arabia and Peter O’Toole’s dreamy blue eyes, which added to our naïve concepts of the Sahara Desert.

We proposed this to the teacher, who said it sounded like a fine topic and that we should narrow it down a bit.

“How can we narrow it down?” we asked.

“Go to the library and start reading. You’ll figure it out,” was his reply.

Off to the library we went, the first of multiple visits. We quickly discovered there were shelves full of books about the Sahara Desert. And we started reading.

With no other direction than “you’ll figure it out,” we were nervous about going back to the teacher. We were both shy and nervous at that age. His friendly directive, to our minds, was a command. The leap we made was that we had to figure it out or get a failing mark.

I decided to tackle everything about the Sahara Desert. Its geographical boundaries, minerals, population, and date palms. I wrote down things about various industries and oil, and quoted large tracts with weird terms like GDP and import-export jargon.

The paper had a lot of big passages in quotes with references (I knew not to plagiarize). Most of what was in quotes was stuff I didn’t understand but sounded important. I was amazed with what counted as ‘geography.’

Lambs start small too. It's not a bad thing.
Claire Eamer photo

In the end, we handed in 52 pages of sweat. Cathy contributed a reasonable five pages about the weather.

Later, in high school, a science competition was announced and I wanted to enter. The directions were “come up with an idea and tell the teacher.”

There were several of us who wanted to be part of a science fair, but “figure it out on your own” was beyond us. We needed directions to the starting line. Where other kids got their ideas from was a mystery.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, there weren’t the large number of science experiment books for kids and teens that there are now. (And I worry about some kids who may over-rely on these wonderful books because all the answers, including observations and discussions of implications, are taking away from kids figuring out some of those things themselves. Hopefully reading about those still helps them understand the critical skills used in science.)

I hear from friends’ kids that they still get the “start from scratch” and “figure it out on your own” directives. Good in some ways, stunting in others – depending on the student. Some of us who wanted to be part of a science project didn’t know where to look. We didn’t have parents who said “How about studying the effects of watering a house plant with coffee?” or “Here’s a neat way to build a model of a volcano.” I never did enter.

I’ve also seen parents say “I have to leave early to finish building junior’s science fair project” – but that’s an essay for another time.

Even racecars and racecar drivers start small.
Claire Eamer photo

Later, a reader in the eighth grade wrote to me at my Ask Pippa column, asking how she could do a science fair project relating to rust and her bicycle. I wanted to help, yet knew I couldn’t tell her what to do. But I wanted to give her something to help her get past the "start from scratch and figure it out" directive.

So I wrote back, suggesting she look up the word oxidation. I didn’t tell her that was the key concept behind rust.

Apparently it helped. I don’t know what her experiment was, but she wrote back months later thanking me, saying that the one word made all the difference. She had placed in the provincial finals.

The moral? Nudge kids towards a reasonable starting place. Or it’s too overwhelming and science becomes painful.

For more of Pippa Wysong's work, see her article Like Swimming Through a Pharmacy in Hakai Magazine.

Saskatoon Offers Robotic Cow Massagers, Big Physics and More

By Pippa Wysong (June 26, 2015)

TORONTO – From robotic cow massagers to photon accelerators and big physics, to a major vaccine development centre, Saskatoon is a hub of science, discovery and outreach.  This, of course, was a delightful find for the nearly 100 members of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA) who attended the annual conference there. We couldn’t get enough of what the University of Saskatchewan had to offer.

The first stop on campus was the Rayner Dairy Research and Teaching Facility, home to about 100 cows where research is done looking at how feed combinations affect milk production, the use of robotic technology, cow health, fertility and more. Between that and the Ryan-Dube Equine Performance Centre, veterinary college students learn how to work with big animals.

We saw cows, ready to be milked, wander into an automatic milking stall. A cow walks in, had treats she could snack on, and stands there while milking cups attach themselves to her udders – guided by a robotic vision system. When done, the cow we watched languidly walked out.

Next to this was a robotic arm in the form of a large spinning brush that could be activated by a cow to get a back-scratch or massage. And just as our guide was describing how cows voluntarily walk over to the device and activate it, one did. It was a bovine spa moment.

Devices like these are starting to appear in actual dairy farms because, well, the cows like it, according to Dr. Bernard Laarveld who teaches animal and poultry science. He noted that when outside, cows often rub their backs or sides against a fence or tree. It feels good. Mimicking this indoors makes cows happy.

We also toured the Canadian Light Source (CLS) where several physicists described their projects, ranging from using the synchrotron for medical diagnostics, to soil analysis. The ranges of light frequencies it uses means it is one of the most sensitive tools in Canada for analysing the structure and chemistry of materials, including soil, metals and biologic materials.

Impressively, the public can request tours for both the Rayner centre and the CLS.

GMOS

Being in the agriculture research capital of Canada, the topic of GMOs came up. A keynote talk was given by Mark Lynas, a former anti-GMO food activist who was behind various campaigns ripping GMO crops out of fields, in England. He now regrets the activism.

Why? The AAAS - The American Association for the Advancement of Science released a consensus statement saying climate change was real and that the science overwhelmingly demonstrated it. He was impressed with the science. But then the AAAS released a consensus statement saying GMOs are safe, and generally good for farming and for feeding the world's population. He couldn't support the one on climate change, and not the one on GMOs since the quality of the science was excellent for both, he said. During his activism days, he says he didn’t know the science.

The group got the chance to meet numerous other scientists at the conference in areas ranging from Arctic water quality, soil science, a researcher comparing heritage vs modern wheat, global food security, vaccine development, and more. And there was a public talk by Jay Ingram about Alzheimer’s Disease (he also gave a talk on effective and creative story-telling methods).

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

What about the art of science communication? Speakers from Mashable, Greymadder.net and the CBC gave inspiring talks about new ways of presenting stories and the changing market place. Personal stories still matter when it comes to what people want to read, said Alix Hayden who launched Greymadder. Professional development sessions were useful for beginner and seasoned science writers alike.

There was fun too, such as the boat tour on the Saskatchewn River on a perfect day. We mingled with researchers working on how to deal with the effects of climate change (such as drought) and managing this valuable river source – the water of which is needed for most of Canada’s crops. These world-class researchers are also working as consultants in China and advising how to reduce emissions and water pollution there – much of which eventually flows to Canadian waters.

With a population of only 250,000, the city of Saskatoon sure packs in a lot of world-class science.

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The Dalai Lama and Science

By Pippa Wysong

Much of October 2014 was suffused with a sense of unreality because of the unusual trip that was to happen near the end of the month. Hubby and I were to travel to Alabama where Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama was scheduled to appear. We would attend several events, meet the organizers and even get a chance to meet His Holiness in person.

During my career as a science writer, I’ve had the privilege to meet some extraordinary people. But there was something different about the chance to meet the Dalai Lama, even if it was for just a five-second grasping of hands with no real chance to talk one-on-one. This is someone who is truly a global figure, whose name and influence cross all cultures and sectors of society. A true thought-leader.

It all seemed bigger than life, and in fact the opportunity somehow felt surreal. I didn’t tell anyone that I was going or, until now, that I had gone. The invitation to these events came through a colleague of my husband’s who became personally acquainted with His Holiness while trying to start up a hospital in India.

Symposium poster. Photo by P. Wysong.

Knowing almost nothing about the history of the 14th Dalai Lama nor of his brand of Buddhism, the Gelug school, I felt unprepared and scrambled to read about him.

I learned several intriguing things. One is that the Dalai Lama is actually a science geek and has an insatiable thirst to learn about areas relating to cosmology, physics, neurology, genetics, and more. In fact, he regularly invites small groups of top scientists to visit his home in Dharamsala in northern India to discuss recent scientific findings and trends. Plus, he makes sure that the education monks get has strong science content.

He has said that if an explanation of the natural world in the Buddhist texts is proven to be incorrect through scientific evidence -- then those sections of the Buddhist texts should be updated to stay current and accurate. In one place, he phrases this as, “...in the Buddhist investigation of reality, at least in principle, empirical evidence should triumph over scriptural authority, no matter how deeply venerated a scripture may be.”

He is co-founder of the Mind and Life Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring relationships between modern sciences, philosophy, the humanities and social sciences. A goal is to explore the effects of contemplative-based practices (such as meditation) on the brain and human biology and behaviour.

This brings us to Alabama, where the University of Alabama (UAB) hosted a public panel discussion, in honour of the Dalai Lama’s visit, on the theme of neuroplasticity – the ability of the brain to adapt and change.

Dialogue on Neuroplasticity and Health took place at the Jemison Concert Hall. The participants were top neuroscientists Edward Taub, PhD; Michael Merzenich, PhD; and Toronto-based psychiatrist Dr. Norman Doidge.

The Dalai Lama, centre, with scientists. Photo by P. Wysong.

Dr. Taub is a behavioural neuroscientist at UAB, known for making vital breakthroughs in the understanding of the brain and neuroplasticity. He developed CI Therapy, now used on stroke survivors. Dr. Merzenich taught neuroscience at the University of California San Francisco and developed various therapies that affect behaviour, memory, and learning ability. Dr. Doidge authored the bestseller The Brain That Changes Itself. His Holiness periodically interjected with questions and comments.

Public dialogues with leading scientists is not an uncommon thing for the Dalai Lama to do, and through these efforts he is contributing to science literacy – and showing that spirituality and science can be complementary.

Why does a spiritual leader lean so heavily towards the sciences? Because science helps explain how the world around us works, who we are, what we are, and what our relationship is to the world. It also provides tools we can use to help make ourselves and the world a better place.

The Dalai Lama’s key message is about compassion. How can we learn to treat each other better? How can we push aside traits that make us angry, distrustful, or violent? How can we create a society that is peaceful, with people respecting and appreciating the differences in others, and avoid conflict?

One tool that could be added to efforts in these directions is neuroplasticity. Studies show that by doing certain types of brain training, people who suffer debilitating, periodic depression can become less depressed – and even reduce their need for medication. Through meditation, or other techniques that train the brain and alter neuro-wiring, people who were once quick to anger can learn to handle difficult situations more calmly and rationally. Numerous examples of using neuroplasticity are described in Doidge’s book.

As a spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama is keen on areas of science that can help people become happier. And there is no contradiction with the Gelug school going in this direction. The Gelug school is more philosophical than theistic – a specific god isn’t worshipped. Followers learn to find inner peace and enlightenment largely using meditation and teachings of ethics, mixed with its version of spirituality.

Regardless of religion, spirituality, or a lack of either, what everyone has in common is that we want to live peacefully with those around us, ideally in a compassionate society. And the Dalai Lama has embraced science to help in this quest.

Quarantine Tent looks to the past in the discussion about vaccines

By Pippa Wysong

When it comes to communicating science, talking to people in-person is still a valid approach. Often getting an idea or information across is about the experience, and interacting with real people.

The Quarantine Tent is an experience. Here, visitors meet people transported from the past who have vaccine-preventable diseases from an era before vaccines were available.

At the Quarantine Tent, volunteers play the roles of diseases vaccination can now prevent. Pippa Wysong photo.

With vaccination rates dropping, diseases such as whooping cough and measles that were once tamed in populations are starting to make a come-back. And for some people, these diseases have debilitating long-term effects. Many of today’s parents don’t have the context, in terms of history, as to what the risks of these diseases mean in terms of a non-vaccinated population.

The Tent was first presented at Canada’s biggest, nation-wide science festival, Science Rendezvous in 2013 at the University of Toronto location where the actors (mostly medical students) and I interacted with over 500 visitors to the tent. As of July 2014, the Tent has now been to two Science Rendezvous festivals, was invited to set-up at a 100th anniversary fair put on by Sanofi-Pasteur on the historic Connaught Laboratories property, and hosted by the Hamilton Public Health Services for the city’s Open Streets festival.

At the Tent you can meet smallpox. He’s 20, from 1921, and the blisters on his face and hands look terrible. He contracted the disease in Ottawa when he was visiting family during an outbreak. He lost several family members there to smallpox, including his father and younger brother. That year, Ottawa saw 1,352 cases, and 30%-50% of non-vaccinated people who got smallpox died.

The last case in Canada occurred in 1967 from someone returning from Brazil. A success story of vaccination, globally smallpox was eliminated in 1979.

Or meet diphtheria. She is 19 and from 1913 when there was an outbreak in Toronto. She‘ll tell you how she lost her kid sister from the disease just a few days ago, how a younger brother is struggling, and will describe the symptoms of “The Strangling Disease”.

In the 1920s, diphtheria killed 15% of children between 2 and 14 every year. Until 1920, about 12,000 cases and 1,000 deaths occurred each year in Canada (those numbers would be bigger with today’s population). After the vaccine was introduced, diphtheria deaths and incidence fell sharply and major cities, for the first time, reported zero cases by the mid 1930s.

The Quarantine Tent also features polio, HPV, measles, 1918 flu and whooping cough. My grandfather, Dr. Gordon Bates was a physician and national public health activist from WW-I through to the 1970s who treated these diseases and saw the havoc they wreaked. The inspiration for the Tent came from the stories of old that I grew up with, and the education bug is probably inherited.

Vaccines have been an incredible success story in terms of reducing the incidence of these diseases. Unfortunately, growing numbers of people not vaccinating their children – largely because they don’t know how devastating these diseases, unchecked, really can be. People from the past will tell you about seeing loved one or friends getting sick, dying or developing disabilities from these diseases. Ever hear of the permanent hearing loss caused by ‘measles ear’? Serious complications occur in upwards of 10% of measles cases.

Or, they have been misinformed about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, both challenging things to communicate to people who don’t understand statistics. A simple message from the Tent is ‘what does society look like without vaccines’?

Or, they’re worried about ingredients in vaccines (which were all tested for safety before being added, by the way). Formaldehyde sounds scary. But the amount in a vaccine is far less than what your own body produces, and 600 times less than what occurs in a pear (it’s a natural metabolite), and is easily cleared by the body. With many things, it’s the quantity that makes the poison and the amounts naturally made by your body and in vaccines are miniscule.

By the way, there are over 12,000 peer-reviewed studies in the medical literature on vaccines, population effects, long-term effects, safety and more. Knowledge is constantly increasing.

No medical treatment is 100% effective or 100% safe, and that’s another difficult concept to communicate. People would like zero risk, but that’s not possible. Surgery and headache remedies have risks too, but most of us benefit from them. A risk that is ‘rare’ is difficult to communicate because people think ‘what if I’m that one?’. So, turn that around to how ‘common’ the risks are if diseases are unchecked -- and suddenly a ‘rare’ risk looks better.

There is always someone out there for whom a treatment doesn’t quite do the job, or who experiences a bad side effect. But looking at it from a population point of view, the treatments are far safer and beneficial than having masses of people suffering the condition.

All these diseases (except smallpox) are still around, and if vaccination rates keep dropping, could make a serious come back. All of them.

So, vaccines, why bother? Take a trip to the past to find out.

Winning Authors, Touring Authors, Teaching Authors... We've got 'em all!

By Claire Eamer

It's the season, apparently, when Sci/Why authors come out of hibernation and flaunt their accomplishments. I did a quick whip-round of the Sci/Why bloggers and friends of Sci/Why, and discovered a flurry of activity. Here are the highlights.

First of all - we have a winner! Sci/Why blogger Shar Levine and her writing partner, Leslie Johnstone, have won the Canadian Science Writers' Association's 2013 Science in Society Youth Book Award for their down-and-dirty science activity book, Dirty Science: 25 Experiments with Soil. We are all, needless to say, very proud of them.

The 2014 roster of authors touring during TD Canadian Children's Book Week, May 3-10, includes a couple of Sci/Why bloggers. Helaine Becker will be touring in Manitoba, telling kids all about Zoobots and entertaining them with her Ode to Underwear. Claire Eamer will be visiting schools and libraries in Nunavut and talking about her book Before the World Was Ready: Stories of Daring Genius in Science.

Sci/Why blogger Marie Powell recently placed runner-up in the 2014 City of Regina Writing Awards. She'll lead a Channelling Creativity workshop on Tuesday, May 7, at Regina's Central Library. You can also catch her every second Thursday and third Wednesday at the Prince of Wales branch library, leading her ongoing Write for the Heart programs.

Blogger Jan Thornhill has been busy too. Her new book, Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change, is about to go to press. It's a companion volume for Is This Panama?: A Migration Story. And Jan has discovered a passion for fungi - to the point where she has launched a fungi blog called Weird and Wonderful Wild Mushrooms.

Our travelling-est blogger, Margriet Ruurs, has taken time off book writing to go touring the world over the past few months. You can find her adventures at her Globetrotting Grandparents blog. Recent entries include history in Holland, Turkish Delight in Istanbul, and the amazing archaeological sites of Petra, Jordan.

Paula Johanson, who's happiest in a kayak, has still managed the time to produce a couple of new books: one on Love Poetry, and another, called What is Energy? and due out in August. You can follow Paula's kayak adventures at the Kayak Yak blog.

Sci/Why's first Blog Boss, L.E. Carmichael has a couple of new books out for older kids who are dealing with health issues, either their own or someone else's: Living With Scoliosis and Living With Obesity.

Our Alberta blogger and astronomy enthusiast, Joan Marie Galat, will be leading a writing workshop at the Calgary Young Writers' Conference on April 26.

Sci/Why friend (she came up with the name!) Pippa Wysong can be found on Saturday, May 10, at her Quarantine Tent vaccine education event at the University of Toronto campus. It's part of the national event, Science Rendezvous. Here's a short video of the 2013 Tent event.

Finally, Sci/Why blogger Judy Wearing informs us that she's in the first year of a second (second!!) PhD in education, writing papers about critical thinking in science education and the relationship between fear and learning. She also says she'll have some book news to announce, but it's still a Big Hairy Secret. Keep an eye on Sci/Why, where all will be revealed... unveiled... whatever... soon!

Massive open-house of thousands of laboratories across Canada coming May 11!

By Pippa Wysong

What has a million legs, a few thousand open doors and things that make you go ‘ooh!’ and ‘aww!’? If you said Science Rendezvous, you’re right! This is a nation-wide event that will take place Saturday May 11, and it’s for the whole family.

What is Science Rendezvous? Think of it as a massive open-house where thousands of laboratories across the country open their doors to the public. The whole family can visit labs at universities and other institutions and see where real research is done. You can meet scientists who will answer your questions, give tours of their labs, and do demos – many of which you can try out yourself.

Explosive fun from Science Rendezvous 2012.
For more blasts (and other stuff) from the past,
check out Science Rendezvous's video gallery.
Photo courtesy of Science Rendezvous.

I ventured into the Science Rendezvous festival the last two years, and found it an amazing experience. I got to talk to geologists, astronomers of various types, and even spoke to a researcher working with flat-worms who was trying to figure out what it is that makes these creatures grow new body parts and be basically immortal. (Read a previous blog I wrote about it.)

This year, I’ve gotten involved. In fact, I’ll be at this year’s event all day, hosting a vaccine education tent that will be on the University of Toronto campus on St. George Street. Look for the tent where people are handing out surgical masks and letting you visit our actors portraying people sick with diseases such as Spanish flu, polio and smallpox.

There will be things that appeal to all ages. Across Canada, there will be experiments and activities for the kids, lectures for the adults, and displays for people of all ages. And not everything is indoors. There will be tents erected on university grounds where various demos and exhibits will reside and contribute to a festival atmosphere.

There will be even be science activities at a shopping Mall! Cape Breton University is hosting the Mall of Science at the Mayflower Shopping Mall where there will be a variety of hands-on activities.

Toronto has 17 venues participating, including 4 universities, 2 hospitals, research centres, libraries, and the Ontario Science Centre.

This is the only science festival of its kind in Canada, and the biggest. What makes it different from other science outreach events is that it’s the only one where the public gets direct access to real-live researchers and their labs, and find out exactly what novel areas they are working on. Other science outreach groups mostly focus on doing hands-on experiments that demonstrate basic scientific principles.

To find out more, tune in to the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet show. Each day for the week leading up to May 11, scientists participating in Science Rendezvous will be on the show describing and showing off a tiny sampling of the things you’ll experience.

Mark May 11, 2013, on your calendar now! Here are some highlights of things to come:

• Science on Stage at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, Ontario. With Daily Planet’s Dan Riskin. Ryerson University hosts the Science on Stage event at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto. See the ever-popular Sumo Robot Competition, a machine-vs-machine battle to the death, the Dance of Science featuring Ryerson’s renowned performing arts programs, and a spectacular fire show! Dan Riskin will host and do some amazing science himself!

• The Role of Gender in Science Communication, Vancouver. As a prelude to the main event happening on campus, University of British Columbia (UBC) will present a public lecture on the role of gender in science communication on May 10th, 2013 from 5:30-7:00pm. Open forum and panel discussions will be led by Dr. Jennifer Gardy from UBC. On May 11, UBC labs will open their doors.

• Science Jeopardy, Oshawa, Ontario. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) presents flaming gummy bears, liquid nitrogen fun and Science Jeopardy. Examine forensic evidence to solve a crime scene, levitate a magnet, discover the sensational sliminess of creating polymers, create a Maggot Masterpiece, and isolate your own DNA.

And much, much more!
For more details: http://www.sciencerendezvous.ca/2013/

My Big Toe and Big Questions

When I was in grade 5, I wrote a poem as part of a class assignment. Little did I know, my homeroom teacher entered it into a contest. And I won. The poem was called “My Big Toe”.

It started:

My big toe sure doesn’t look like snow.

Why it’s there, I really don’t know.

It went on for a painful two pages, and it nicely shows why I didn’t become a poet. Still, the prize I won for was for a gift certificate from a local bookstore. Mom and I bounced off to the mall to peruse the shelves and pick out my prize.

“Anne of Green Gables”, my mother pulled out a book with a big grin her face.

“Nah,” I said, flipping through a book about toads.

“Mary Poppins,” mom said, holding out a nice hardcover edition.

“Already read it at the library,” I said, glazing over an indecipherable book on astronomy.

“Little Women? Black Beauty? You really need to read the classics,” she said.

“I dunno, I want something different...” The book of chemistry experiments looked too complicated, and I put it back on the shelf.

“The Tinman of Oz,” she said. I hesitated, and glanced at the cover.

“I already have that one...ooh! Wait.” I saw my prize. Hardcover, black background with a coloured overlay of plants, animals, a creepy looking insect, and rockets. I flipped through it. It was perfect.

“Oh no, that looks dull,” mom said. “You really should get Anne of Green Gables. It’s a wonderful book.”

“I want this one.” It was a book, now long out of print, called Tell Me Why. It was a question and answer book about science and had stuff about lightening, insects, cats and famous inventors. It was about everything, and I liked that. That’s the book we went home with.

Flash forward about 17 years. At the age of 27 I landed a column on the kid’s page at the Toronto Star. It was called Ask Pippa – a question and answer column about science. It was about all sorts of stuff, and the column ran for 20 years.

I wouldn’t say Tell Me Why was the cause of me getting into the question answering biz. I look back at it now and find the answers in it a bit fluffy – not the way I’d answer them. In fact, even back then I would’ve liked a bit more depth. I try to get at what I call the “essence” of what the science is about in words kids can understand – not skirt around it. And it’s a tricky thing to do, while also keeping to a very short word length.

I figure if kids ask real questions, they deserve real answers.

In grade 6 I won another gift certificate. Much to mom’s dismay, the book I selected was Tell Me Why, Part 2.

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Science Festivities in the City

By Pippa Wysong (May 2011) – On a sunny Saturday in early May an amazing thing happened. Scientists across Canada came out into the open with experiments, demonstrations and expertise in hand. They were there for anyone who was curious about they do. It was an event called Science Rendezvous.

In what began as a local science festival in Toronto in 2008, Science Rendezvous has morphed into an event which now takes place one day a year in cities across Canada. Laboratories on university and college campuses, and even some private labs, open their doors to the public.

This year, I went to the University of Toronto campus and started at the astronomy and physics section of the event. I chatted with an astronomy graduate student who told me her area of study was celestial motion – how planets and stars move around in space, and how they affect each other. She studies what happens in solar systems where there are two, three or more stars. It turns out that systems with multiple stars are very common. Our solar system, with its one star is not the most common model.

I also met a grad student who studies colliding black holes – an even more intriguing area since these are objects that can't be directly observed. I also met big-name astronomy professor John Percy who studies variable stars, and who was more than happy to answer any sort of astronomy question you could throw at him.

Down the street from the astronomers was a man in front of the chemistry building playing a strange instrument he called a hydraulophone. The man was none other than the clever and eccentric professor Steven Mann from the department of electrical and computer engineering. The instrument consisted of a series of containers filled with water. There were holes at the top of each container where some of the water burbled out. To play this instrument he slapped the tops of the containers – which created vibrations in the water and a tone.

The idea came when he thought about how musical instruments work, he said. There are wind instruments (which use air or gas), and instruments which rely on vibrations through solid materials (think drums, or even string instruments). He figured something could be done using vibrations through water. Of course, my question is – are fire instruments next on the list?

The physics department opened up its doors to it holographic lab. Here there were displays showing off some really impressive holographic images using at least four different hologram technologies. Very cool.

Then there was the grad student who studies flat worms – microscopic creatures that look something like leeches. He informed us that flatworms can not only regenerate body parts that are broken off, but the broken off bits grow into a new flat worm.

There was a second event in Toronto that day that was listed as part of Science Rendezvous– the Mini Maker Faire at the Evergreen Brickworks. A Maker Faire is where science, technology and art meet.

At this event were over 100 booths of 'makers' – mostly hobbyists who build strange and intriguing things in their basements and garages, or in co-operative studio spaces. There we saw mechanical Steampunk kinetic sculptures by Russell Zeid, hand carved wooden telescopes, and people willing to show you how to make your own small remote controlled toys.

There was also the display of apparently blank canvasses where the images on them could only be seen on pictures you took of them. How did that work? The canvasses had LED lights behind them which emitted infrared light – a frequency of light that our eyes can't see, but is picked up by most digital cameras.

So, keep eye on the calendar for early May next year. Science Rendezvous will be back, and is an event for people of all ages. Science might sound like something for geeks, but once you're at this event, it’s amazingly fun.

Science Rendzevous: http://www.sciencerendezvous.ca/2011/

Mini Maker Faire: http://makerfairetoronto.ca/

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