Joe Schwarcz

As hard as it is to believe, I've been spending a significant part of my time countering pseudoscience for close to 17 years, so long that it seems that I've always been doing it. Of course, that's not true; I didn't actually become involved in this seemingly never-ending Sisyphean task until I was in my mid-30s, which means that the majority of my life had been spent more or less blissfully ignorant that there are people out there who passionately believe, for example, that vaccines are dangerous and cause autism and that bleach enemas can reverse that autism or that there were quacks out…
Regular readers might be wondering why my output was—shall we say?—less extensive last week than it usually is. I even skipped a weekday and then followed it up with a recycled post from my not-so-super-secret other blog, altered to be a bit more, yes, Insolent. The answer is a single word: Grants. I had a grant deadline. That's basically past now. However, today is a holiday, and, besides taking some time to pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, I also plan on taking a day off from full-scale blogging as well. Fortunately, there are a couple of links to…
Guest Blog By Festival X-STEM Speaker and Expo Performer  Dr. Joe Schwarcz “Hey, aren’t you somebody?” the teenager queried as I got into the elevator. While I was pondering an appropriate answer to this deeply philosophical question, his crony spilled the beans: "Yeah, he's that guy who talks about chemistry on TV." This was just the ammunition the philosopher needed. "Oh no, we're locked in an elevator with a scientist" he mocked, before volunteering the information that he got about 2% in chemistry in high school, and "that was with cheating." Sadly, I've heard such comments before. After…
Don't miss the opportunity to learn about the science of the paranormal from X-STEM Speaker Dr. Joe Schwarcz at the X-STEM Extreme STEM Symposium on April 24 ! Hear from this noted professor of chemistry from Canada's McGill University and how he uses his multi-faceted skills as a chemical scientist, magician, author, food expert and motivational speaker to inspire kids in science in fascinating ways! Learn how to register for the X-STEM Symposium by clicking this link. He's known to his many students and fans simply as "Dr. Joe," but then Joe Schwarcz, professor of chemistry, has always kept…
The 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival, the nation's largest celebration of STEM, is just one month away! This FREE and open to the public event will take place April 26 & 27 at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. Over 250,000 attendees will experience the weekend of a lifetime with 3,000 hands on exhibits, 150 stage shows, including presentations from science celebrities Bill Nye and Michio Kaku, teacher development workshops, a Festival Book Fair and much much more! Here is just a sampling of the upcoming stage shows at the Festival Expo Finale: Learn From Mike Rowe of  TV's…
Guest Blog by Festival Nifty Fifty Speaker Joe Schwarcz PhD According to Talmudic tradition, a wise rabbi once proclaimed that if a person planting a tree were told that the Messiah had arrived, he should finish planting before going to greet him. That of course was long before there was any awareness of the important role trees play in generating oxygen and soaking up carbon dioxide. Neither was there any knowledge about trees preventing soil erosion, absorbing air pollutants, preventing water runoff or controlling climate by moderating the effects of the sun, rain and wind. Nevertheless,…
Guest Blogger USA Science & Engineering Festival Nifty Fifty Speaker Joe Schwarcz PhD I had my tonsils out in 1954. In those days a few bouts of tonsillitis, and out they came. I remember being plied with chloroform before the operation and with ice cream after. I also remember being given a special gum, “imported from America” to chew. It was probably some version of “Aspergum” which contained aspirin and was supposed to relieve the sore throat. The idea of using the gum after a tonsillectomy was introduced in the 1940s by Lawrence Craven, a California physician, who made an interesting…
Homeopathy amuses me. Homeopaths amuse me as well, which is why I'm resurrecting this post. It was originally published elsewhere a few years ago and somehow never crossposted here. So if it seems a bit dated, fear not; Orac hasn't fired up his Tarial cells and managed to go back in time. Now, I realize that lately, due to my work schedule, I've had a tendency to crosspost too much between this blog and my other less "insolent" blogging locale. I know that and plan to try to do much less of it in 2013. But it's not 2013, and I'm still sort of on vacation. Besides, I have a very good reason to…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker The malt flavouring is gone! Celiac sufferers are no longer limited to listening to the snap, crackle and pop of Rice Krispies! They can actually eat the cereal that has been music to the ears of legions since 1928 but has been verboten for anyone with a sensitivity to gluten, the mixture of proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. Rice contains no gluten and is in general a staple for celiac sufferers. But malt flavouring, a standard ingredient in Rice Krispies, can harbour a trace of…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker Yellowstone National Park's iconic "Old Faithful" geyser is pretty faithful. It can be counted on to erupt every 50-90 minutes. Iceland's "Great Geysir," from which all other geysers get their name is less reliable. It was mostly dormant for sixty five years before it began semi-regular eruptions again in 2000 thanks to an earthquake. But in New Zealand, you can set your watch by the eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser, named after a former Governor of the country. At exactly 10:15 AM every…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program SpeakerThey sold out after just four hours. And they weren't even hotcakes. They were just little capsules. But these capsules came with a nifty promise. Pop some, and wrinkles, those fearsome hallmarks of aging, would be ironed out from the inside! Cleverly named "Strength Within," the contents were the product of at least five years of research by a team of scientists at Unilever's laboratories in the UK. When word leaked out last September that the beauty pills would be test-marketed for two…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program SpeakerPhysicians today are unlikely to encounter "Gilder's palsy." Nor are they likely to diagnose a patient with "hatter's shakes." But prior to the twentieth century these ailments had to be considered when a patient presented with tremors, irritability, increased salivation and fatigue. In the case of the hatters, the culprit was mercury nitrate used to produce felt. Beaver and rabbit fur, the traditional materials for making felt, can be matted more easily when the pelts are first treated with…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program SpeakerThe "beep..beep..beep" sounded innocent enough, but it shook America to its very core. Why? Because it was coming from outer space! No, the military personnel monitoring radio signals did not pick up a transmission from aliens. This beep was coming from a transmitter placed inside a twenty-three inch diameter ball made of aluminum, titanium and magnesium. A ball that was orbiting the earth, passing over Washington DC every hour, emitting an irritating signal that sent a clear message: We are…