Explorer

A detector from Waterloo, Ontario’s KA Imaging allows for clearer visualization of a patient’s lungs.

Canada's RADARSAT program has a long history, going back to experimenting with radar sensors onboard the Convair 580 aircraft, which is now in the collection of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.

The term “bug” is another way of saying something is wrong with our computer or software, but where did the term come from? While many attribute the reference to computer scientist Grace Hopper, this article from Curiosity explains that it dates back to Thomas Edison’s private journals.

Last summer, the Canada Science and Technology Museum offered up access to its collection so that researcher Jennifer Thivierge could study “keypunch girls” — the women who punched holes in data cards and fed them into machines or tabulators, starting in the 1950s. The University of Ottawa’s Gazette writes about her findings, and what they say about gender discrimination within the field of computer science.

A new product will soon enable novice beekeepers to keep honeybees inside their houses. The BEEcosystem is modular honeybee habitat that can be hung almost anywhere; it simply needs to be placed near a window if inside, or in a sheltered location outside. Watch a video that shows how the technology works.

Researchers at MIT and the Max Planck Institute have developed a method for quick, on-site E. coli detection in food. While current food safety testing either requires days to complete or expensive equipment, this new method, paired with a smartphone and QR code, will make testing inexpensive and portable. The new detection process uses Janus emulsions, droplets consisting of two hemispheres of different densities. In water, the less dense, hydrocarbon hemisphere sits above the denser hemisphere

Since the deciphering of the honey bee ‘waggle’ in the 1920’s by Karl von Frisch, researchers have been measuring the dance-like form of communication that allows bees to convey direction and distance to a food source. While this observation process was initially manual and time-consuming – requiring humans, protractors, and stopwatches – techniques have evolved with technology. Recently, a team from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Free University of Berlin, Germany

Intended to replace the Avro Canada CF-100, the CF-105 Arrow was a technical masterpiece at the forefront of aviation engineering during its time. The Canadian government believed, however, that the manned bomber threat was diminishing and that air defence could be better handled by unmanned BOMARC missiles. The contract was cancelled on February 20, 1959 while test flying was still in progress. By then five Arrows had flown. The government ordered all completed Arrows, related documentation

Engineers are constantly taking cues from nature when designing new technologies, and the robotic tentacle arm created by German robotics company, Festo, is a great example.