History

The Bystander Effect Started from a Lie

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000

You have just been attacked. How likely is it that someone will come to your help?

If you remember the infamous case of Kitty Genovese in 1960s New York, you may despair at ever receiving assistance. Psychology students are diligently taught about this watershed moment; fans of the HBO show Girls were treated to a whole episode about it; and this murder is a core part of the character Rorschach’s origin story in the celebrated graphic novel Watchmen. In the latter, a fictional newspaper headline sums up the tragedy: “WOMAN KILLED WHILE NEIGHBORS LOOK ON.”

“Electric Feel”: A Guide to How Touchscreens Work

Eva Kellner B.A.Sc. — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000

I love the beach. What I don’t love is when I try to use my phone after taking a dip. One droplet of water hits my phone and somehow opens an app I didn’t know I had. Unfortunately for me, this is not an experience isolated from the beach. Whether it's sweat dripping on my phone while I’m uploading a run to my Strava, or answering a text fresh out of the shower, the water always seems to make my phone do the opposite of what I want it to do.

The History of Acetaminophen

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 21:46:07 +0000

President Trump’s unhinged, ill-informed and potentially dangerous attack on Tylenol has focussed attention on its active ingredient, acetaminophen. Many others have, and will dissect his harangue (see Jonathan Jarry's article), but I’ll take his vilification of Tylenol as an opportunity to discuss the history of this medication.

Hungary’s House of Houdini Reveals Another Astonishing Magician

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 15:49:38 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

“Did you know about the House of Houdini here?”

Mozart, Mice and Microbes

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 21:51:19 +0000

I must admit that my interest in Mozart has mostly focused on the various theories of his demise in the prime of his youth. The composer had always been sickly, and it is well known that he had often been treated with antimony compounds by his physicians. He even dosed himself when he didn’t feel well. Antimony compounds can indeed be lethal if the dose is high enough. Recently, though, my curiosity about Mozart has taken a different turn. I’ve become interested in his music. Not because I’ve suddenly developed an appreciation for his sonatas.

Einstein’s Brain

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 17:46:23 +0000

Vladimir Lenin lies in a mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow in a preserved state. But he has no brain. That’s because the Soviet government had it removed after he died in 1924. They wanted to have the brain examined scientifically to see how it differed from that of mere mortals. After all, someone who thought up something as clever as communism must have had a very special brain! The item in question was sent to Oskar Vogt, a well-known German neuroscientist, who spent a couple of years studying it. His conclusion?

Lise Meitner: The Forgotten Mother of Nuclear Fission

Eva Kellner B.A.Sc. — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Science is the story of discoveries but sometimes credit isn’t given when it is due. How many women discoverers can you name? Discoveries such as DNA’s double helix structure and the greenhouse effect are tainted by their unjust past. Rosalind Franklin and Eunice Newton Foote, respectively, are two women whose work led to each of these discoveries, and both were snubbed by male researchers.

This French Physician’s Career Could Be Defined by the Word ‘Ectoplasm’

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:05:06 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

The Prince of Quackery

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:09:17 +0000

The luxurious bulletproof limo was 22 feet long, weighed four tons, had soft, green leather upholstery and interior fittings of silver and ivory. Sounds like “The Beast” used to transport the U.S. President. But back in 1933, President Roosevelt just rode around in a rather ordinary Lincoln. This luxury limo belonged to Ewing Virgil Neal who was described by the American Medical association as “a prince of quackery.” Judging by the wealth Neal accumulated, “king of quackery” would be a more apt description.

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.

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.

The Unusual Diet of 18th-Century Geologist William Buckland

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 23 May 2025 16:19:56 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

The professor, wearing flowing robes and holding a skull in his hand, approached a student sitting in the front row. “What rules the world?” he asked. “I have no idea,” the terrified student muttered, to which the prof retorted: “The stomach, sir!”

Gutta Percha-From Golf Balls to Root Canals

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 14 May 2025 13:57:24 +0000

Gutta percha is the hardened latex of the Palaquium gutta tree, originally native to Malaysia. This is a natural “thermoplastic” substance, meaning it can be softened with heat and shaped into a form that is retained on cooling. Gutta percha was introduced to Europe in 1842 by Dr. William Montgomerie, a surgeon serving with the British army in the East Indies who had originally come across the substance in Singapore where it was being used to make handles for machetes. He thought the substance would be useful to produce handles for medical devices as well as splints for fractures.

Chewing Gum Adds to Concerns About Microplastics

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 16:29:11 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

I don’t think I have chewed gum more than a handful of times in my life. It just never appealed to me. But judging by the flattened relics ground into the pavement on sidewalks and the yucky, sticky blobs on the undersides of lecture room desks, I seem to be an outlier when it comes to this practice. However, I’m all in when it comes to exploring the chemistry of chewing gum.