During my doctoral research one of my participants brought in a photo of her sand boarding. It was snow boarding on sand dunes and we talked about the potential impacts of climate change on sport, particularly winter sport. Check out the website for my research here. The cross country ski program in Special Olympics Alberta … Continue reading
Adipose tissue is the type of tissue designed to store fat (ideally to be used for energy). It also helps to protect parts of the body by cushioning it. Fat is also a known insulator keeping the body warm. There are two main types of adipose tissue: white and brown. White adipose tissue is responsible … Continue reading
After a bout of food poisoning this weekend this will be a short one. It is interesting how often I am asked how to tell different conifers (trees that produce cones) apart. After years of teaching science and nature this is my quick and dirty guide. It is by no means my intellectual property; I … Continue reading
Last summer I looked into the research on wake up lights. As a very not morning person who goes to work early every day I was looking for any sort of tool that could make the morning more bearable. Based on what I learned (you can read the post here) I took the chance and … Continue reading
I have bought your paper with a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content for several years. I don’t typically notice that anything is different until I see my paper up against someone else’s; that’s when I see that white is not always white. But it turns out that manufacturers of things like paper and laundry … Continue reading
I’ve been in several meetings/discussions recently where individuals have unintentionally said swear words. It generally happens when they are getting excited or passionate. They then apologize for their language because it “isn’t professional”, but apparently, it is more honest. Gilad Feldman, Huiwen Lian, Michal Kosinski, and David Stillwell (2017) examined the connection between swearing and … Continue reading
If you’re a runner, you’ve probably heard the advice to change your shoes, not just to replace them, but for different runs in a week. I have two different pairs of runners of different styles and brands. They both have a low heel-to-toe drop but in most other ways they are quite different. I like … Continue reading
I had a skating coach who would tell us to put pressure on a spot that we had just fallen on: fall on your knee, put pressure on your knee. Despite the fact that I now question everything I have actually given this advice to many skaters myself without knowing whether there is actually any … Continue reading
While awareness of concussions and their long term implications is becoming more and more common in a number of sports figure skating seems to be lagging behind. Not just in media, but I didn’t actually find a single peer reviewed article on the topic when searching. So, are figure skaters somehow protected from these devastating … Continue reading
I’ve heard it a lot:”Oh, you injured x, you’ll get arthritis there for sure.” So, are injuries truly connected with arthritis? are some injuries more likely to be related? and is there anything that can be done? It seems like this is such a common sense relationship that it isn’t worth asking the question about … Continue reading