water

We Can Survive Without Food for About 70 Days, But Only 5 Days Without Water

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:26:58 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Good Old Dihydrogen Monoxide

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 17:50:36 +0000

You have probably heard about people who have actually signed a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide. The petition states that this chemical is found in cancerous tissue, accelerates corrosion, can cause suffocation, can result in blistering burns in its gaseous form, contributes to global warming, and for those who have developed a dependency on it, complete withdrawal means almost certain death. Usually, the aim of circulating this petition is to demonstrate scientific illiteracy by drawing attention to people not recognizing that dihydrogen monoxide is just the chemical term for water.

Let’s Put Water Fluoridation Myths To Rest

Christopher Labos MD, MSc — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:39:28 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Hydrogenated Bathwater

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 16:50:47 +0000

This article was first published in the Montreal Gazette.

“Congratulations! You have in your hands one of the best available tools to increase your health and vitality.”

Is bottled water bad for your health?

Christopher Labos MD, MSc — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 14:27:47 +0000

This article was originally posted in the Montreal Gazette.

Tap water or bottled water? The point has been debated for years, but a new study has added another dimension to the discussion. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has created a bit of a panic with the suggestion that high levels of microplastics can be found in bottled water.

Macropanic Over Nanoplastics?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:48:05 +0000

I keep teasing my analytical chemist colleagues that they are responsible for the anxiety that so many people have about chemicals invading their lives. Hardly a day goes by without some report of phthalates, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, dioxins, bisphenol A, or a host of other mischievous “toxins” being detected in our food and water. That detective work is carried out by analytical chemists who continue to devise better and better means to uncover smaller and smaller amounts of contaminants.

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

Ben Selinger FRACI, CChem — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 19:00:10 +0000

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”.

Go for Goggles: The Risks of Opening Your Eyes Underwater

Ada McVean M.Sc. — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000

This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer.

If you’ve ever forgotten your goggles and decided to make like a fish and open your eyes underwater, you may have been putting yourself at greater risk than you realize. Indeed, opening your eyes underwater increases the risk of a few types of eye irritation and damage.

A Farmer, Epsom Salt, Moses, and some Sweet Chemistry

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:29:35 +0000

In 1618 a farmer in England noticed that he could lead his cows to water but could not make them drink. He tasted the well water himself and realized right away that there was some wisdom to the cows’ behavior. The water tasted terribly bitter! Something that tasted so terrible, must be good for something, he thought. It sure was. The water made for a very nice soothing hot footbath and even had a healing effect on scratches and skin rashes. The most dramatic effect, however, was noted when the farmer drank a whole glass of the water.

Dowsing: Dowse It Work?

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:28:14 +0000

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. Although we live in a world driven by technology, we are always one cataclysm away from retreating to magical notions. Climate change is making droughts worse, which will increase the value of water moving forward. An ancient pseudoscience is poised to make a resurgence in these desperate times.

They are abbreviated as PFAS-are they destined to abbreviate our lives?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 21:22:38 +0000

“Not everything that can be counted, counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” That quote is commonly attributed to Einstein although there is no evidence he ever said it. Even if he did, he certainly didn’t have toxicology in mind. But the concept is very relevant to toxicology, especially these days when substances can be detected at the part per trillion level. How small is a part per trillion? That would be 1 cent in 10 million dollars or one second in 32,000 years, which is longer than human civilization.

Is it true that Archimedes formulated his famous principle based on an observation he made as he immersed himself in a bath?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 20:40:18 +0000

Archimedes’ principle states that any object, totally or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. But. it was not the discovery of the principle named after him that sent the Greek mathematician, physicist and inventor running naked through the street yelling “Eureka,” meaning “I have found it.” What he supposedly found was a solution to a problem posed to him by King Hiero of Syracuse who had suspected that a goldsmith tasked with making him a gold crown had substituted some of the gold with silver.

Food, Glorious Food!

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 22:29:58 +0000

Food, glorious food
We're anxious to try it
Three banquets a day
Our favourite diet

Just picture a great big steak
Fried, roasted or stewed
But food
Wonderful food
Marvellous food
Glorious food!

Is there a difference between real snow and "artificial snow"?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:29:52 +0000

Snow-making machines actually make tiny beads of ice, each one about one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter. Water is sprayed from a hose together with compressed air. The air is needed because as it quickly expands, its temperature drops since it has to do work by pushing away air molecules. This cooling helps freeze the water. As the water freezes, it releases heat. This should be obvious when we realize that in order to melt ice, we have to add heat. The heat released is then taken up by the expanding compressed air. This is why the "snow-making" pipes are always high in the air. If t

Is there any point in drinking oxygenated water?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 23:55:21 +0000

Oxygen is critical for life and that also makes is susceptible to chicanery. If oxygen is so essential that the brain is permanently injured after just four minutes of deprivation, then surely more must be better! That’s the argument used by sellers of “oxygenated water” who often target athletes with claims that their product can improve athletic performance. Well, all water is actually oxygenated water because oxygen from the air dissolves in water, although not to a great extent since its solubility is only about 25 mL per liter.