/oss/taxonomy/term/347/all en /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/dont-throw-baby-out-hydrogenated-bathwater <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-dont-throw-the-baby-out-with-the-hydrogenated-bathwater">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>“Congratulations! You have in your hands one of the best available tools to increase your health and vitality.”</p> Fri, 23 Feb 2024 16:50:47 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9843 at /oss /oss/article/medical-you-asked/bottled-water-bad-your-health <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the</em> <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-is-bottled-water-bad-for-your-health"><em>Montreal Gazette.</em></a></p> <hr /> <p>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 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2300582121">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> has created a bit of a panic with the suggestion that high levels of microplastics can be found in bottled water.</p> Fri, 19 Jan 2024 14:27:47 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9807 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/macropanic-over-nanoplastics <p>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.</p> Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:48:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9800 at /oss /oss/article/contributors-technology-environment/dry-water-lets-whet-your-appetite-some-science <p>The poem, “My country”, by Dorothea MacKellar, is recited by every preschooler in Australia. One line is of particular relevance: </p> <p style="text-align:center"><em>“A land of droughts and flooding rains”. </em></p> Fri, 01 Dec 2023 19:00:10 +0000 Ben Selinger FRACI, CChem 9747 at /oss /oss/article/medical-you-asked/go-goggles-risks-opening-your-eyes-underwater <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in</em> <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-facts-and-fiction-of-physiological-phenomena-volume-ii/"><em>The Skeptical Inquirer.</em></a></p> <hr /> <p>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.</p> Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Ada McVean M.Sc. 9690 at /oss /oss/article/history-did-you-know/farmer-epsom-salt-moses-and-some-sweet-chemistry <p>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.</p> Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:29:35 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9619 at /oss /oss/article/pseudoscience-environment/dowsing-dowse-it-work <p>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 <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/science/science-explorer/climate/droughts-and-climate-change">making droughts worse</a>, which will increase the value of water moving forward. An ancient pseudoscience is poised to make a resurgence in these desperate times.</p> Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:28:14 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9439 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/they-are-abbreviated-pfas-are-they-destined-abbreviate-our-lives <p>“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.</p> Wed, 01 Mar 2023 21:22:38 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9418 at /oss /oss/article/history/it-true-archimedes-formulated-his-famous-principle-based-observation-he-made-he-immersed-himself <p>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.</p> Fri, 04 Mar 2022 20:40:18 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9042 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/food-glorious-food <hr /> <p style="text-align:center"><em>Food, glorious food<br /> We're anxious to try it<br /> Three banquets a day<br /> Our favourite diet</em></p> <p style="text-align:center"><em>Just picture a great big steak<br /> Fried, roasted or stewed<br /> But food<br /> Wonderful food<br /> Marvellous food<br /> Glorious food!</em></p> Fri, 18 Feb 2022 22:29:58 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9031 at /oss /oss/article/you-asked/there-difference-between-real-snow-and-artificial-snow <p>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</p> Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:29:52 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9027 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-you-asked/there-any-point-drinking-oxygenated-water <p>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.</p> Thu, 23 Dec 2021 23:55:21 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8963 at /oss /oss/article/you-asked/why-does-plastic-stay-wet-dishwasher-whereas-glass-comes-out-dry <p>Obviously, the rate of evaporation depends on the temperature. Put a drop of water in a hot frying pan and it will sizzle and change into a vapour almost immediately. Place that drop on your countertop and it will stay there for a while.</p> Fri, 12 Nov 2021 21:16:23 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8922 at /oss /oss/article/environment-climate-change/convergence-how-climate-change-brought-two-women-artists-together <p>Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, 30, is a native of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Islands">Marshall Islands</a> in the western Pacific Ocean. This country of ~53,000 people is spread out over 1,159 islands with most of the population on 29 coral atolls. As a poet, Kathy writes about sea-level rise, and the damage to homes, businesses and their way of life. Most of the islands are only a few feet above sea level. With very little total land area it has a significant population density per square mile.</p> Fri, 30 Apr 2021 21:36:36 +0000 Raymond Johnson PhD, Contributor 8718 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health/questions-abound-safety-humidifiers <p>According to manufacturers, 8 million or so humidifiers are<a href="https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/asset/document/ENERGY_STAR_Scoping_Report_Residential_Humidifiers.pdf"> sold in the United States every year</a>. In Canada, it has been reported that<a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3810001801"> nearly half of all households</a> use a humidifier, perhaps owing to our harsher winters that bring about uncomfortable dry air.</p> Tue, 15 Dec 2020 02:26:35 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8536 at /oss