Nobel Prize for Physiology awarded to Frederick Banting in 1923 for the discovery of insulin The Nobel Prizes for 2014 were announced earlier this month. For a few days every October the world's attention is briefly focused on science, since three of the six prizes – in physiology (medicine), physics and chemistry – are […]
Garlic and potatoes from my garden. This is my favourite time of year. From mid-August until the end of September I get so much pleasure from our vegetable garden as the plants we've tended all summer mature and we start to enjoy the food we harvest. We grow the usual tomatoes, beans, cucumbers […]
I recently returned from a vacation where I spent a lot of time watching birds – mostly seabirds. A National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America was my trusted companion as I learned to identify terns, cormorants, herons and osprey. A good identification book is a necessity for anyone interested in watching, […]
In summer many of us have more time to read, so I'd like to highlight some recently published books about science and technology available at the North York Central Library. People often want to read something lighter in summer, so I've selected books that are suitable for a hammock or the beach. Books about science […]
News sources are calling this one of the worst spring allergy seasons in a long time. Apparen’tly the polar vortex we experienced this winter has resulted in a pollen vortex, meaning that more trees are releasing pollens at about the same time this spring, rather than the season being spread out over a longer period. […]
Do you remember the original Cosmos, the PBS series hosted by Carl Sagan? It was the most popular program in the history of public television when originally broadcast in 1980. In it Sagan explored evolution, the nature of intelligence, atomic physics, relativity, cosmology and space exploration. Cosmos was a watershed event in public science education, […]
Spring seems to bring out the do-it-yourselfer in a lot of people. We look around our homes after a long, dark winter and are inspired to build, repair and renovate. If you're thinking about tackling an indoor or outdoor project this spring the Library has lots of resources to help you get started. Are […]
One of our most frequent requests in the Science & Technology Department is for books about Microsoft Office software – especially Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access and Outlook. Clearly many people want to learn to use these products or to improve their skills. The good news is that the Library has lots of material in a […]
When we complained about the inconveniences of winter as children, my father told us how he walked 5 km to school, even in the worst winter weather; when the lake froze over he could skate there, which was only 3 km. Not to be outdone, my mother told us how so much snow fell one […]
Every December I like to spread the word about some of the great popular science books published over the course of the year. Here are selected titles from lists of the best science books of 2013. I've chosen books on a broad range of subjects available in a variety of formats: From the New […]