Office for Science and Society - Separating Sense from Nonsense

Dr. John Mervin Nooth and His Scientific Connections to Quebec

Denis Robillard — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 18:00:00 +0000

John Mervin NOOTH (1737-1828) was an obscure British-born medical man and inventor with a Quebec connection. A distinguished physician, Nooth entered the Royal Society via Benjamin Franklin and anatomist William Hunter in 1774. He published a Royal Society paper on a method of carbonizing water. By 1775 this process revolutionized the preparation of soft drinks. His famous Nooth’s apparatus was used until the mid- 19th century, and by the mid 1840’s its inner workings of the device assisted ether and anesthetics. In addition, Dr.

There Are Skeletons in the Nobel Prize Closet

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:59:11 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Carleton Gajdusek was only five years old in 1928 when he and his entomologist aunt wandered through the woods overturning rocks, looking for insects. Then, they observed in petri dishes how some insects succumbed to insecticides while others were unaffected. That’s all it took for Carleton to be bitten by the science bug.

Does a Chocolate a Day Keep the Grim Reaper Away?

Eva Kellner B.A.Sc. — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Theobromine is a naturally occurring bitter alkaloid most prominently found in cocoa beans. A metabolite of caffeine, theobromine shares some of the common effects of the household stimulant. Compared to caffeine, theobromine has a much gentler stimulating effect. This is because it lingers longer in our bodies before being metabolized.

The Paper-Thin Evidence for Mouth Taping

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

TikTokers can’t shut up about this one simple trick. All you need to do is seal your mouth with tape before going to bed, and you will apparently collect a slew of benefits. It will give you more energy, chisel your jawline, and even improve the health of your heart in the long run.

A Frankenstein Backgrounder

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:19:58 +0000

Mention Frankenstein, and what springs to most people's minds is Boris Karloff’s portrayal of the “monster.” That's because they’ve skipped the book and seen the movie, which is a true Hollywood-style horror story. In writing her novel, Mary Shelley did not intend to scare her readers—what she penned was a work of science fiction that explored the consequences of allowing science to go astray.

Will Vitamin D Go the Way of Cod Liver Oil?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:58:08 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

In many of my public lectures, I address the topic of dietary supplements and often do a rudimentary audience survey. When I ask about taking Vitamin D, the majority of adult hands go up.

What If We Were Able To Graze on Grass Like Cows?

Shona Hanaishi — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

On a future field trip to Mount Royal, I imagine opening up my lunch box to find a small forest of fried insects flavoured with MSG and curry powder. On the side are some salmon rice balls. Noting I missed some greenery, I grab some grass and sprinkle it onto my rice balls.

$1,950 Worth of Woo: The Biomat, Unwrapped

Sophie Tseng Pellar BSc — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Recently, I was forwarded an email about the Biomat—a $1,950 USD “healing mat” that claims to cure everything short of a broken heart. And boy oh boy, is it ever a hotbed of pseudoscience wrapped in a cozy cotton cover and priced like a small vacation. When I dug into the science behind the Biomat’s claims, I found a textbook case of clever marketing dressed up in scientific jargon, with very little evidence to back it up.

An Ode to Yogurt

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 20:55:34 +0000

Many years ago, when I first started teaching about the chemistry of food, yogurt was only granted a few minutes of lecture time. It appeared as one of the first processed foods, albeit accidentally processed, dating back some 7000 years to when bacteria happened to drift into a pot of milk in Mesopotamia, thickening it and giving it a tart taste. I explained that the bacteria were likely of the Lactobacillus genus that produce lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme that converts the milk sugar lactose into lactic acid.

Can You Get Cancer from Kissing a Smoker and Other Questions with Definitive Answers

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 15:58:14 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.