Blood and Mistletoe is a book about the Druids by Professor Ronald Hutton. Find out why the fact that we know next to nothing about the Druids is what makes them fascinating. I had a great history teacher in high school. His name was William Bothwell. He was a bit of a misfit in our little, rural community. His eclectic background included having earned a doctorate, and studied at King’s College, Cambridge,

Kiska, Canada’s last captive orca, died this week at Marineland after twelve years of isolation. Find out why animals rights groups want Marineland prosecuted, and how Kiska’s story reflects changing attitudes toward our treatment of animals. There’s a jingle playing in my head today. It comes from my childhood, and…

Massive early galaxies emerged from a review of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first dataset. Find out why current science says they shouldn’t exist, and what this means for our understanding of the Big Bang and galaxy formation. Every once in a while, a scientist “breaks the universe.” I don’t mean the real universe, of course, but only our model of it. Copernicus shattered existing science when he disproved Aristotle’s model of the universe where the sun went around the Earth. …

European archery was thought to have orginated about 11,000 years ago. Find out why a new discovery places that date another 40,000 years into the past. Archery has always fascinated me. …

The mother tree hypothesis suggests that trees form networks to share resources and communicate using fungi growing in their roots. Find out why a new study questions the evidence for this idea and calls for better experiments to uncover the truth. The more time I spend in nature, the more…

UFOs, or UAP as researchers now call them, are no longer viewed with complete derision by science. Find out why some in the scientific and intelligence communities now think unidentified aerial phenomena might be worthwhile research topics. It was a beautiful, clear, late summer night. I was stargazing aimlessly when I saw a brilliant flash right above my head. The object burst into flames in the blink of an eye. Based on its direction, I assumed it ended up in the nearby lake.

The Agricultural Revolution took place about 12,000 years ago and brought many benefits. Find out how the lifestyle changes humanity embraced then also led to the conflict, disease, fitness and nutrition issues we cope with today. I come from a long line of farmers. My ancestors came to this area…

Earth’s inner core appears to be slowing down relative the speed of our planet’s rotation on its axis. Find out how this affects our magnetic field and shortens the length of a day on our world. Living as a travelling consultant for a couple of decades had both advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages was the opportunity to take in local attractions wherever I found myself. Whenever I found myself in Edmonton, Alberta, I’d stop by the TELUS World of Science. It houses the Zeidler…

The DART Mission involved sending a spacecraft to collide with an asteroid. Find out how it demonstrated the feasibility of NASA’s planetary defense strategy and exceeded expectations. We had tuned into the NASA channel, and I was spellbound. It was September 26, 2022 and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was closing in on the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system. As readers will realize, especially if they watched the movie Don’t Look Up, our planet is at risk of…