Over the past three months, I’ve had the honour and pleasure of presenting a weekly general-interest science lecture for Learning Unlimited Etobicoke, who have been offering speaker series’ since 1976.
From astronomy to medical science, to paleontology, to materials science, to research oddities, to Canada’s biggest science projects and beyond, we looked at some of the most fascinating aspects of the universe of discovery.
Here below – mostly for participants of the series, but also for anyone else interested – are links to some of the hundreds of things we looked at from January to March of 2012:
Weird Science (January 10)
AvroCar flying saucer-mobile
Edison’s concrete obsession
Ford “Nucleon” Atomic Car concept
Snake-bot video
“Blueberries” on Mars
Saturn’s Moon Titan
The Largest Stars in the Universe (that we know of)
Tardigrades (i.e. “Water Bears”: the most indestructible-known-animals)
The “Prehistoric Shark” alive today
Weirdest dinosaurs ever (Peter’s blog post based on this part of his lecture)
Dinosaur Season in Canada (January 17)
What were the dinosaurs? (and what constitutes a dinosaur?)
When did they live and what did they do?
Top dino discoveries in 2011 and 2012
Buying a dinosaur (a great source in Canada)
Jurassic Forest (animatronic dinosaur park near Edmonton) video
Scary Science (January 24)
Opium and Heroin as household products
Mercury (Nuts! Who knew it was poisonous…?)
The infamous macaque experiments
Killer-asteroids (and video)
Explosive decompression (and other ways to die in outer space)
The facts behind “The end of the world” in 2012
Extreme Medical Robot Makeover (January 31)
“It seemed like a good idea . . .” Fumbles and Failures in Science (February 7)
Penicillin (it actually remains a good idea)
The “Aether Wind”
The Banff Merman
Science Road Trip 2012 (February 14)
Atlantic
NRC Institute for Ocean Technology
Mistaken Point – oldest complex life on earth
L’Anse aux Meadows – Land of the Vikings
Whale watching in St Anthony, NL
Quebec
Hydroelectric projects (and tours of them)
Ontario
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Bruce Peninsula National Park dark sky preserve
Bluewater Astronomical Society
Gordon’s Park on Manitoulin Island dark sky preserve
Swim with the polar bears in Cochrane Ontario
Manitoba
Land of the prehistoric marine animals
Gimli – largest Icelandic settlement outside of Iceland
Saskatchewan
Grasslands National Park and dark sky preserve
The Canadian Light Source synchrotron (particle accelerator)
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park and dark sky preserve
Alberta
Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta Badlands
Jurassic Forest (animatronic dinosaur park near Edmonton) video
Jasper National Park, the world’s largest, darkest dark sky preserve
Oilsands “Discovery Centre”, Fort McMurray
British Columbia
TRIUMF Canada’s Nuclear and Particle Physics lab
University of Victoria’s NEPTUNE underwater science network
Legacy of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Yukon/NWT/Nunavut
Beringia Centre museum, Whitehorse, YK
Dredge # 4, Dawson City, YK
Eagle Plains and a drive up to the Arctic Circle
Narwhal watching, Baffin Island
Zero to 24,000 in 60 Seconds: Transportation’s Next Big Thing (February 21)
Airbus A380 – the largest pasengerliner in the world
Maglev cobra (video – description text is in Spanish, video is in English)
MiG 31 fighter jet “Edge of Space” tour
Suborbital spaceflight vacations
The New Astronomy: Stargazing in an Age of Light Pollution (February 28)
Dark sky preserves across the globe
Traditional Knowledge in the Modern World (March 6)
Canada’s Biggest Science Projects (March 13)
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
All about Quantum Theory/Quantum Mechanics
Level 4 bio-containment lab in Winnipeg
The Canadian Light Source synchrotron (particle accelerator)
TRIUMF Canada’s Nuclear and Particle Physics lab
University of Victoria’s NEPTUNE underwater science network
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
About the presenter:
Peter’s science blogs for Telescopes.ca
Where to get all the cool stuff you saw during the series (toys, gear & gadgets) EfstonScience, at Dufferin & 401 (the store with the giant telescope on the roof)
Specific products:
Don’t see something here you wanted to know about? Drop Peter a note below and ask to have it posted!