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The smog from industry creates a silouette against a sunset.

Earth & Environment

Opening a digital window on our way of life

Half a century ago, you would have regularly heard Canadians discussing the Apollo moon landings and the future prospects of space travel, but there would have been far less talk about the state of water or air pollution. Today, we hear far less about other planets than the environmental state of this one. Much of our current discussion is voicing frustration and distress over the possibility that the very technological progress enabling us to visit other worlds may have done irreparable harm to

One of the 3 Kharkovkiy Zavod Transportnogo Mashinostroyeniya imeni Malysheva Project 404 all terrain vehicles operated by the 4th Soviet Antarctic expedition of 1958-60. Anon., “Ça et là.” La Patrie du dimanche, 3 May 1959, 12.

Road Transportation

The igloomobile or, A mobile home like no other

Rénald Fortier

My reading friend whose wrath reaches the stars, I humbly beg you to forgive the non-aeronautical topic of this issue of our blog / bulletin / thingee. My main excuse is that last week’s peroration revolved around Antarctic expeditions in the 1930s. A second topic on the same continent seemed most appropriate to me. Reading the short text that accompanied the photo above, published in the 3 May 1959 issue of La Patrie du dimanche , a weekly from Montréal, Québec, which disappeared a few decades

A man studies the ice under the surface of a rock face.

Earth & Environment

Arctic Roads: Canada in a Changing Climate

Let's Talk Energy

Canada's seasonal Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk ice road is now a permanent feature in the Arctic. A warming climate has led to this. Learn more about this remarkable feature in Canada's landscape.

An artist's rendering of an urban centre; trees dot the landscape.

Earth & Environment

Urban trees

Let's Talk Energy

Trees in urban settings play multiple roles that impact things like air quality, storm water drainage and how we enjoy our leisure time. This short video digs a little deeper into these and other vital roles played by urban trees.

Collections & Connections

Stories from our collections, about the people we meet and the work we do at our three museums. Hosted by Collections and Research staff at Ingenium, find out about our diverse activities and projects, the exhibitions we work on, and the connections we make across Canada and around the world.

18 Stories

Find out what this is !

Collection Development

A peek inside the mind of a collector

Michel Labrecque

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Technology

A biochemist, avid cross-country skier, and former science budget analyst speaks on the joys of collecting, the lessons learned, and the importance of preserving material culture.

Cristina Wood and Tom Everrett examine records of tailwater elevations from the Domtar/E.B. Eddy/J.R. Booth Collection, which provided some of the historical data sets used in the “Songs of the Ottawa” project.

Social Science & Culture

Songs of the Ottawa: Using sound to interpret historical data

Tom Everrett, PhD

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Technology

Data visualization techniques are commonly used by researchers to interpret and share data. If you’ve ever encountered a bar graph, pie chart, or infographic, then you’ve already observed one of the many ways that researchers use visual imagery to render complex data sets more approachable and easier to understand. But what if instead of visuals , researchers instead used sounds to communicate information about their research data? This is one of the guiding questions that motivated Carleton

A mother and daughter weaving a carpet.

Unseen and unrecognized: Women’s key role in the history of computer memories

Ghazaleh Jerban

Guest writer, Ingenium-University of Ottawa Fellowship in Gender, Science and Technology.

In 2017, I had the honour of travelling to Iran — the country that's world famous for its hand-woven carpets — to study women’s traditional practises of Persian carpet weaving. I visited collective and home carpet-weaving workshops in Kashan , where I interviewed local women who were involved in carpet weaving. Frames of astonishing designs, mixed with attractive colours using traditional tools, have been fixed in my memory. Traditional tools used for carpet weaving, ToranjMehrab carpet weaving

The unloading of the nitroglycerin carried from Shelby, Montana, to Calgary, Alberta, aboard the (purple?) Stinson SB-1 Detroiter operated by Great Western Airways Limited, February 1929. Anon., “–.” Canadian Aviation, April 1929, 17.

Unsafe at any speed or time

Rénald Fortier

Is that an expression of shock or disbelief I see on your face, my reading friend? Shock would be an appropriate reaction. Disbelief, not so much. What follows is no joke, my reading friend, but I beseech you not to try this at home. This week’s story comes to you courtesy of the most successful aviation magazine in Canadian history, personal opinion, the monthly Canadian Aviation , more specifically its April 1929 issue. Once upon a time, early in 1929 to be exact, Calmont Oils Limited, a

microdensitometer

A space-age microscope for reading the stars

David Pantalony, PhD

Ingenium: Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Each object we move to the new Collections Conservation Centre comes with many stories, connections, and interpretations. As a curator for physical sciences and medicine, I have the privilege of examining incredibly diverse objects in the national science and technology collection. This microdensitometer stands out for a number of reasons; first, it has an illustrious connection to Canadian and international astronomy. The microdensitometer featured here came to Ingenium from the David Dunlap

An artist’s rendering of the Ingenium Collections Conservation Centre, currently under construction next to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.

Engineering & Technology

Not your average warehouse: Ingenium’s new Collections Conservation Centre

Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation

Ingenium’s new Collections Conservation Centre will open in only a few months. This is a dream come true for those of us who have been caring for Canada’s national collection of scientific and technological artifacts for our entire careers, and have been waiting for this moment for over a decade.

An oil painting depicts a hotel dwarfed by the mountains of Banff.

Social Science & Culture

Why we collect

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

As Ingenium prepares to move the national science and technology collection into the new Collections Conservation Centre over the coming months, curator Sharon Babaian reflects on the purpose of collecting. As curators, we collect objects to document, preserve, and understand the past. The things made and used by people are physical evidence of human invention, activity, and need; they also reflect the societies, communities, and cultures that created and adopted them. At Ingenium – Canada’s

A black-and-white image of a plane in flight.

The death of a dream: The sixtieth anniversary of Avro’s Black Friday

Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Technology

Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the cancellation of the CF-105 Avro Arrow, Canada’s first and only supersonic fighter interceptor. It remains one of the most contentious moments in Canadian aerospace history.

Two men stand in a dirt field; one bores into the soil while the other looks on.

Excavating Canadian soil science history

Guest Writer, Queen's University

In honour of World Soil Day, this blog post reports on a collaborative research project that explores the history of soil science in Canada. Launched in June 2018, the project documents the history of Canadian soil scientists and their research programs, as well as their documentary and artefactual heritage. This project was generously funded by the Canadian Soil Information Service at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Making sense of an Enigma

Molly McCullough

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Students at Maupeltuewey Kina'matno'kuom, an elementary school (primary to 8) located in Membertou.

Visit to Membertou, Cape Breton

David Pantalony, PhD

Ingenium: Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

6” Cooke & Sons refracting telescope

Social Science & Culture

Award profile: Putting a historic telescope back into focus

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

Through the course of a project spanning nine years, two Ingenium conservators — Tony Missio and David Elliott — had the chance to work on the complete restoration and preservation of the 6” Cooke & Sons refracting telescope, bought by the Meteorological Service of Canada in 1882. The telescope was in service for over 100 years; it was donated to the museum by its last owner, the University of Toronto, in 1984. The telescope was dismantled and brought to the national collection storage. On

The Petrovic Collection

Social Science & Culture

Award profile: Finding cultural connections through our shared mathematical heritage

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

The Petrovic Collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum is a collection of over 130 mathematical instruments from the twelfth to nineteenth centuries. These instruments came to the museum in 1980 from Dr. George Petrovic, a Serbian-born architect who collected them in order to document the connections between mathematical practice and architecture in the eastern Mediterranean regions, as well as countries that were once part of the Ottoman Empire. The collection is now at the centre

Seventy-six women from around the world were participants on the inaugural Homeward Bound Women In Science Leadership Expedition to Antarctica.

Social Science & Culture

Homeward Bound: Women in Science and Leadership in Antarctica

Dr. Shelley Ball

Guest Writer, Biosphere Environmental Education

What better place to sharpen one’s leadership skills than amidst the harsh landscape of Antarctica. The frozen continent is filled with stories of leadership from the early 20th century explorers and their race to be the first to set foot on the South Pole. For 76 of us from around the world - all women with science backgrounds - Antarctica was the backdrop for our own explorations into leadership.

Alexa, a Canadienne dairy cattle calf, laying down in the calf barn at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.

Alexa: 400 Years of History, and an Uncertain Future

Cédric Brosseau

Ingenium Canada

A short post on the history and current status of the Canadienne dairy cattle breed.

A selection of apiculture journals in the Rare Books Collection at Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Apiarist Ambitions: Subscription Incentives in the Canadian Bee Journal

Guest writer, McGill University

When the going gets tough, I get this vision: I’ll pick up my life, buy a plot of land in the countryside, and take up apiculture. That’s right: beekeeping.

Envelope sent to John Horn from Samuel Morse in 1871. It appears between pages 470-71 in Horn’s volume of The Telegraph in America.

Social Science & Culture

Enhanced Reading: John Horn’s Volume of The Telegraph in America, 1879

Guest writer, McGill University

Books are tools that organize knowledge. When readers access that knowledge, they engage a reading experience.

Joust for Atari (artifact no. 2002.0384.001)

Sports & Gaming

Rising from the Grave: “Deadplay" and Video Game Preservation

Dany Guay-Bélanger

Guest writer, Carleton University

Videogames are cultural heritage artifacts worthy of preservation. My Master’s major research project culminated in the creation of a podcast and website which investigates videogame preservation and proposes some solutions to this complex and pressing issue.

Smokestack belting smoke into the air.

New devices could help turn atmospheric CO2 into useful supplies

Kristy von Moos

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

New electrochemical cells could transform the chemical components of carbon dioxide pollution into useful compounds for manufacturing and space exploration. Read more about the advances in chemical-recycling devices and how they might help combat climate change in the near future.

Picture of the weather station outside

Earth & Environment

Project Log #5: Meetings and Test Runs

A lot has happened in our quest to build a weather station for the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.

Screen capture of a 3D design

Earth & Environment

Project Log #4: Designing and Modelling

In my recent adventures as an intern with the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, I spent time programming the Raspberry Pi in order to set a very simple, internal website that can be accessed to see the data. The next task was to start thinking about the casing for the weather station we’re building for the museum. My advisor and I decided to design and 3D print our own boxes.

Screen capture of python code

Earth & Environment

Project Log #3: PHP and Databases

New week, new ideas.

Jason helping Mohamed with soldering to a sensor

Earth & Environment

Project Log #2: Programming and Sensors

In my first post , I wrote about the first step in my challenge to build a weather station for the Canada Aviation and Space Museum - which was to get the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino communicating. The next step in the project was to connect the weather sensors, and have them output real measurements.