Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally:
To offset flights out of North America in 2007, you'd need to plant a forest the size of Oregon. In this summer's issue of the Walrus, there's a great piece by UBC'er, David Beers, called "Grounded" which imagines circumstances...
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Posted on July 2, 2008 12:59 PM • 2 Comments •
So, there's been much argument lately in my neck of the woods, over the BC's new carbon tax. This is coming online in a few days (July 1st), and will be responsible (amongst many other things) for what has been...
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Posted on June 25, 2008 1:05 PM • 3 Comments •
I think this statement should be obvious, and for that reason alone, we've included it in the SCQ's list of truths. This, by the way, is a web experiment run by the Quarterly. The background can be found here, and...
Posted on June 23, 2008 2:20 PM • 4 Comments •
Having just returned from a visit to the magic kingdom, the above was a question that continually haunted my consciousness. Disneyland was remarkably pristine in that cookie cutter, artificial, yet aesthetically pleasing way, but it must be a major...
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Posted on June 5, 2008 6:57 AM • 19 Comments •
A couple months back, I wrote a grant for one of my main educational projects (Terry), that would ask for funding to host a student conference here at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Terry, as some of you already...
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Posted on May 2, 2008 12:10 PM • 4 Comments •
About a month ago, I was lucky enough to partake in a speaker event, where noted economist Paul Collier gave a great talk. Who is Paul Collier? Two titles to throw at you: Professor of Economics, in the Oxford University...
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Posted on April 17, 2008 2:47 PM • 1 Comments •
We had a humour piece go up at Terry today that was just too cool. Since, the Terry website isn't as visible as the Science Creative Quarterly, i thought I would highlight it here. It's called: Microcredit Isn't Right for...
Posted on April 1, 2008 12:38 PM • 0 Comments •
Food is a big issue these days - none more so than where I live in Richmond (at this very moment). - - - To: GCL Public Hearings, Richmond, BC Attn: Richmond City Clerk Re: Public hearing on the Garden...
Posted on March 17, 2008 2:39 PM • 2 Comments •
I'm sort of putting the finishing touches to today's GMO lecture in my ART+SCIENCE class, but before I move on from the land of sustainability, here is a TEDtalks lecture I quite enjoyed about the problem with space and why...
Posted on February 28, 2008 4:07 PM • 2 Comments •
Just noticed an article in our local newspaper today that highlighted the irony of sustainability researchers inadvertently having a larger than average eco-footprint. This makes logical sense though, since folks doing research tend to need to publish their findings and...
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Posted on February 11, 2008 1:39 PM • 6 Comments •
Well, maybe not. It's just that... is it me, or is this Oscar (will it happen will it not?) thing everywhere in the news these days? There's such media saturation that it brought to mind the following thought I...
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Posted on January 23, 2008 10:51 AM • 0 Comments •
Going from a previous comment in my brainspace post earlier this week... This is kind of sad really. Here is what it looks like. The axes imply relative number of searches since it doesn't seem like you get hard numbers...
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Posted on January 15, 2008 12:39 PM • 10 Comments •
A good one too, by Spike Milligan. CHRISTMAS 1970. A little girl called Sile Javotte Said 'Look at the lovely presents I've got' While a little girl in Biafra said 'Oh what a lovely slice of bread'....
Posted on December 22, 2007 4:20 PM • 0 Comments •
PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS In a stunning development, HIV advances to the final by default. Neither HIV nor Fossil Fuels could be reached for comment. Looks like the final is Darwin versus HIV....
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Posted on December 19, 2007 3:53 PM • 2 Comments •
(image source) O.K. So the deal is that it's the holidays - and soon the whole merriment parade will be kicking into high gear. This includes a number of things that I bet many households end up going through....
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Posted on December 13, 2007 5:07 PM • 0 Comments •
This is for all you folks in Vancouver who happen to have some time to kill tomorrow (Friday) at lunch. The UBC Terry Project is having James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith give a talk. These are the authors of...
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Posted on November 22, 2007 10:53 AM • 0 Comments •
This post over at the Terry website is nice, and poses an interesting question. Tonight, as I walked home past the hospital and the lights and the young teenage couple standing under the walkway and the older couple sitting on...
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Posted on November 20, 2007 12:15 PM • 4 Comments •
It looks like a lot, but really it's not (hey, that rhymes) Clearly, food is a hot topic these days. You see it constantly in the cultural dominance of things like the Food Channel, Martha Stewart, or The Iron...
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Posted on October 29, 2007 12:06 PM • 9 Comments •
IPCC figures rock! And there's a lot of discussion taking place around the blogosphere that concerns the merit behind this particular choice (here's a good overview at the NYT), ranging from the errors in his movie, as well as...
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Posted on October 12, 2007 6:43 PM • 3 Comments •
Shop fronts on the streets of Harbin Well, I've been home for a week now from my trip to Harbin, still with a cold, and my mind whirring trying to compartmentalize all that I was lucky enough to see...
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Posted on October 9, 2007 11:59 AM • 0 Comments •
Here is one of two cranes outside the Michael Smith Laboratories right now. Apparently, there is a lot of jumping in the "Bionic Woman" television show. Anyway, they're also shooting in my lab right now, but I promised not to...
Posted on October 4, 2007 1:45 PM • 2 Comments •
O.K. I have a few minutes to scribble some stuff here, so here goes. I've had a chance to tour Harbin a little more the last little while, and the one thing I can state is that it is a...
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Posted on September 28, 2007 8:26 PM • 0 Comments •
"[I just want to] speak more freely," says anti-global warming enthusiast Patrick Michaels
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Posted on September 28, 2007 7:56 AM • 2 Comments •
Well, I'm off to north China next week, although unlike Nigeria, it sounds like I'll be wired in and still able to contribute to the blog. Specifically, I'm heading to the Northeast Forestry University in Harbin to give a few...
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Posted on September 21, 2007 11:54 AM • 2 Comments •
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about good old 0.7%. This is the hallmark figure suggested by Pearson as a target for foreign aid to developing nations. In other words, the main idea is that wealthy nations do something nice...
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Posted on September 13, 2007 3:18 PM • 1 Comments •
Isn't this pretty? O.K. so lately, I've been immersed in revamping a website for a pretty high profile interdisciplinary project at my institution. It's essentially related to all of those lectures I was playing around with (here, here, and...
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Posted on September 5, 2007 6:17 PM • 3 Comments •
So... the SCQ is back from its summer hiatus, and needs to get rid of a 30G 5th generation video iPod. Sort of like this one: And it actually couldn't be easier to win. Here are the details:...
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Posted on September 4, 2007 11:32 AM • 3 Comments •
Environmental and health impacts of the entire life cycle of high tech electronics...because how many gadgets and how many new gadgets do we really need?
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Posted on August 27, 2007 9:45 AM • 2 Comments •
Part 1 | 2 | 3 - - - A: University College hospital,Ibadan, B: Entrance to College of Medicine Monday morning, the first day of the workshop, and the adrenaline was already pumping. Today, we would have the opportunity to...
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Posted on August 15, 2007 8:06 AM • 2 Comments •
Part 1 | 2 | 3 - - - From left to right: Nash, Michelle, David P., and me Sad goodbyes notwithstanding, the trip first concerned itself with a 12,700km journey, from Vancouver to London, London to Lagos, and then...
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Posted on August 8, 2007 2:32 PM • 3 Comments •
So having just returned from a two week stint in Nigeria, I'm going to spend the next little while writing about the experience itself (I had planned to do this whilst there, but internet access was, at best, sporadic, and...
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Posted on August 7, 2007 3:24 PM • 0 Comments •
As mentioned earlier, I'll be heading off to Africa soon to do some experiments and teach a workshop. One of the more interesting challenges, we face from the get go, is how to deliver the reagents in a manner...
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Posted on July 12, 2007 11:31 AM • 1 Comments •
Continuing on from our previous lecture notes (the last being about historical awareness of "global" - i.e. characterization of the Earth from both a physical and place context), we have planned that Immediately after that lecture, Allen would next go...
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Posted on July 11, 2007 2:08 PM • 6 Comments •
Just to say that in about two weeks, I'll be heading off to Ibadan in Nigeria to hold a genetics laboratory workshop. I've done this sort of thing before, and have been involved in some form or manner with...
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Posted on July 10, 2007 11:50 AM • 2 Comments •
Ooh. Another slide show. And one that tracks instances in history where humanity notices, "You know, the "stuff" all around, and the "where" we happen to be." As set up by this previous post, and produced by the grace of...
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Posted on July 6, 2007 8:42 AM • 2 Comments •
O.K. so to begin the ASIC course, we thought that part of this should be an attempt to look at historically what may have defined "global" - as in both the humanities and sciences context (maybe about 20 to 25...
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Posted on July 5, 2007 3:12 PM • 0 Comments •
O.K. so, let's design a course. A course that has a calendar entry as follows: ASIC 200 (3) Global Issues in the Arts and Sciences: Selected global issues explored through the methodologies and perspectives of both the physical and life...
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Posted on July 4, 2007 8:31 AM • 0 Comments •
O.K. so maybe the title is a bit on the heavy side, but I've always noticed a few interesting things regarding my coffee cup, more so now with climate change being on everyone's mindset these days. Dave's coffee cup...
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Posted on May 17, 2007 11:33 AM • 19 Comments •
Well, Ben has beaten me to the punch on showing some of the marvelous pictures presented here at Paleo Future. But I've actually been interested in these images for the past two weeks (with a nod to BoingBoing), having had...
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Posted on May 2, 2007 1:36 PM • 0 Comments •
This is more a hat tip to a great article by the New Yorker's Michael Specter. In a recent issue, his piece "The Denialists" was published and it does a great job of providing the exasperating context to what is...
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Posted on April 4, 2007 11:58 AM • 3 Comments •
Well, despite the political fallacies inherent in drafting such reports, the answer is an unequivocal "hell yes!" But a piece at the SCQ by Sarah Burch (which constitutes the second part of an FAQ about the IPCC reports) is...
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Posted on April 3, 2007 11:37 AM • 0 Comments •
Great White* Tiger* Hammerhead* Thresher* Leopard* Megamouth* - - - Not sure if there are any academic papers that monitor the decline of heavy metal, but there is certainly a wealth of research that examines the decline of shark populations....
Posted on April 2, 2007 2:37 PM • 4 Comments •
Last week, I managed to catch one of last year's Massey lectures on the radio. These are basically a high profile lecture series that is sponsored by both the CBC and the House of Anansi Press. In essense, they usually...
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Posted on April 2, 2007 1:35 PM • 0 Comments •
So, on Sunday and Monday, I had the privilege of hanging out with Dr. Shiva. And she was an absolute joy to host, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see students come away both enthused and...
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Posted on March 13, 2007 11:46 PM • 0 Comments •
So, as mentioned previously, I got the chance to hang out with Chris Mooney this past week, and gracious as he is, he also took time to meet and greet a few of the local gang of science scouts. Anyway,...
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Posted on March 9, 2007 12:36 PM • 3 Comments •
"Leaping from tree to tree, as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia. The Giant Redwood. The Larch. The Fir! The mighty Scots Pine! The lofty flowering Cherry! The plucky little Apsen! The limping Roo tree of Nigeria....
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Posted on February 14, 2007 12:43 PM • 1 Comments •
No doubt, a lot of talk is buzzing about the IPCC and its statements. But how exactly do these documents come to be? I have an excellent article on this at Terry, written by Sarah Burch. Check it out. It's...
Posted on February 2, 2007 11:01 AM • 4 Comments •
So I went to a site today called Cool Drive Pass, which is a carbon offsetting project spearheaded by some colleagues of mine at UBC and their friends in Vancouver. Essentially, it's a calculator designed to figure out carbon dioxide...
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Posted on January 29, 2007 2:23 PM • 1 Comments •
In the scientific literature, the use of characters from the Pokemon franchise has been suggested as a possible way to broach biodiversity and conservation challenges....
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Posted on January 26, 2007 11:24 AM • 13 Comments •
Here, succinctly anyway, is why a School Board place a moratorium on showing Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth": "Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher ... The information that's being presented is a very...
Posted on January 13, 2007 11:50 AM • 3 Comments •
This is great. And there are two more here. Reminds me also of the ones here at the SCQ....
Posted on January 11, 2007 7:24 AM • 0 Comments •
Wow, is ExxonMobil deceiving the public? Or is the UCS liberal propaganda?
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Posted on January 8, 2007 5:27 PM • 1 Comments •
Since there was a lot of interest in Faith's and Peter's "Hungry Planet" book, it's only fitting to share the beauty of their first bestseller, "Material World" which is a book that focused on visually representing the total possessions of...
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Posted on December 7, 2006 10:20 AM • 2 Comments •
Here is some silliness to get back in the swing of things. Composed whilst waiting for Ben (Cohen) at the Vancouver Airport, recently rejected by McSweeney's, and likely to make an appearance at one of my sites in the not...
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Posted on November 15, 2006 11:45 AM • 0 Comments •
One of my favorite recent sub-features at McSweeney's is Lawrence Weschler's Convergences Contest. I am stunned yet again with today's artful entry (#28), sent to L.W. by Walter Murch: [caption from the site: "Logging trees in a Swedish forest, as...
Posted on November 13, 2006 11:40 AM • 1 Comments •
(Image from herbalgram.org) This past week and a bit have been chaos central with a number of things going on round my neck of the woods. Some of which are your usual academic doledrums, but some of which were...
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Posted on November 10, 2006 1:10 PM • 2 Comments •
Yesterday I had an opportunity to listen to and to say hello to Ronald Wright. This is a fellow who has crossed a number of disciplinary boundaries in terms of his writing prowess, and winning lots of literary awards along...
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Posted on October 25, 2006 5:22 PM • 1 Comments •
So a couple months ago, I sat down with some science educator types and we had a bit of a tete a tete over the Science Creative Quarterly, and how surreal it seems to have this sizable readership growing....
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Posted on October 20, 2006 12:49 PM • 3 Comments •
"2009: Genetically Modified Chicken Eggs that will save the world, says Monsanto"
Posted on October 19, 2006 9:59 AM • 0 Comments •
David Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia - this is a just a fancier way of calling himself a science teacher. 
Benjamin Cohen is an Asst. Professor of Science, Tech., and Society at the University of Virginia. He studies the place of S & T in environmental history, policy, and ethics. He also writes other stuff. 
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