Shoot ’em up (Image: Aeroshot)

After marvelling (and despairing a little) at breathable chocolate and bacon inhalers, only the latter of which turned out to be an April Fool’s joke, we were curious as to what the next breathable wonder to hit the market would be. Enter the AeroShot, a lipstick-sized tube containing four to six puffs (about 100 mg) of calorie-free, lime-flavoured caffeine. Developed by the same Harvard scientist who created Le Whif inhalable chocolate, the device is being promoted as an alternative to the oh-so gruelling task of drinking coffee or energy drinks: “pure energy” with “no liquid to slow you down or fill you up.”

Those claims have spooked some people. The product’s recent launch in the U.S. (it’s not yet available in Canada) rekindled worries about the hazards of pairing alcohol with caffeine. “Aeroshot is nothing more than a club drug or a party enhancer designed to give the user the ability to drink until they drop,” U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said at a press conference. He has a point—studies apparently show that people consume more alcohol when it’s paired with energy drinks. Still, to be fair, Breathable Foods, which makes the Aeroshot, is warning users to cap their consumption at three tubes per day and scrupulously avoids mentioning any late-night applications on its website. So who exactly is the product for, then? “Athletes, college students or any of us passing long days at the office.” This is starting to make more sense all of a sudden.

• Skip the Coffee Cup and Inhale Your Caffeine Fix [Associated Press]

Gryphon Trio Annalee Patipatanakoon on violin, Roman Borys on cello and Jamie Parker on piano make up what is arguably the country’s most distinguished chamber ensemble, one that recently snagged a Juno for best classical album. Find out more »

Lullaby of Birdland: A Tribute to George Shearing This much-loved jazz pianist, blind from birth, died on Valentine’s Day last year at the age of 91, bringing an end to a career that climaxed with his knighthood in 2007. Find out more »

National Geographic Live: Deep Ancestry Scientist Spencer Wells knows where you’re going and where you’ve been. He heads up the Genographic Project, an ambitious attempt to trace humanity’s journey out of Africa through the use of DNA. Wells will talk about the project’s current findings and what he expects to discover in the years to come. Find out more »

Could this be in our near future? (Probably not)

In vitro meat is one of those futuristic products that feels like it belongs to a future full of hovercraft, silver jumpsuits and Leonardo DiCaprio dropping into our dreams. Imagine our surprise, then, to see an article in the Daily Mail bearing the unapologetically emphatic headline “Artificial meat grown in a lab could become a reality THIS year.” The article suggests that 2012 could be the breakthrough year for lab-produced meat (which could help ease world hunger, animal suffering, climate change, etc.), and even contains an, ahem, scientific-looking infographic to show how the process works (it’s worth a click). If you ask us, that timeline feels mighty optimistic; researchers profiled in recent issues of The New Yorker and The Walrus indicated that we’re still some distance away from sitting down for a nice cut of vat-grown rib-eye (doesn’t that sound lovely?). Read the entire story [Daily Mail] »

(Images: steak, FotoosVanRobin; petri dish, JamesZ_Flickr)

By Marc Lewis

My family and I moved to the Netherlands from Toronto in the summer of 2010. I’d been a psychology professor at the University of Toronto for over 20 years, my wife, Isabel, had a research job at SickKids, and we were both offered faculty positions in Nijmegen, a nice little city near the country’s eastern border. We were feeling a bit stagnant, our twins were still young, and it seemed like a good time for an adventure. But hauling suitcases and children from Canada to Europe took its toll on my 59-year-old body.

According to the MRI, I was developing what’s loosely called sciatica. The nerves in my lower spine were getting squished, causing pain in the back of my legs. In September, the pain was bothersome; by early October, it spurted intermittently like a sulphurous geyser; and by late October it was excruciating—an ugly, dirty pain that lived like a demon in my body. I sometimes let out a screech when rolling over in bed at night, which freaked the hell out of Isabel and embarrassed me to no end. “Go back to sleep, it’s not that bad,” I’d say. But really it was.

My doctor arranged surgery for early December. I couldn’t wait that long without painkillers, I told her, and she agreed. With kind eyes and rough English, she said I could have as much oxycodone as I needed. Did I know what that was? I looked down for a moment and nodded. I already felt some anticipatory guilt, because I knew oxycodone—and its narcotic cousins—all too well. And there was danger there. Though I’d been clean for 30 years, my appetite for opiates had not disappeared, and it rose now, almost imperceptibly, with my pulse.

Phillip Addis as Don Giovanni, giant pumpkins at the Royal Winter Agricultural Fair, Matthew Good

1. LITERARY DEATH MATCH TORONTO
In this singularly silly lit event, four authors (Grace O’Connell, Carolyn Black, Rebecca Rosenblum and Dani Couture this time around) give readings of their best pieces of writing. After each reading, the panel of judges (poet Ryan Kamstra, comedian Lindy Zucker and National Post books editor Mark Medley) offer up American Idol–esque commentary (more Paula than Simon) before narrowing the field to two finalists, who compete in a madcap showdown (last time involved throwing cupcakes at a poster of Margaret Atwood). November 6. $10. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., 416-531-4635, literarydeathmatch.com.

2. THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL WINTER FAIR
Even the hippest Torontonian could use a little rodeo in their lives now and again. The annual fair is back in town, with its gigantic horses, veggies of unusual proportion, craft shopping and the ever-popular SuperDogs. We do have one small beef with this longtime Toronto tradition: why does it have to be called the winter fair? For the record, it’s still fall, and we’re not nearly ready for winter yet. November 4 to 13. $22. Ricoh Coliseum, 100 Princes’ Blvd., 416-263-3400, royalfair.org.

3. DON GIOVANNI
One of Mozart’s most popular operas, this Opera Atelier performance combines drama, dark comedy and the supernatural to tell the tale of the titular character (played by Phillip Addis), a lascivious playboy who gets his comeuppance via hellfire, demons and a most unusual statue. With Carla Huhtanen as Zerlina and Vasil Garvanliev as Leporello, backed by the Tafelmusik Orchestra. To November 5. $55–$175. Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge St., 416-870-8000, ticketmaster.ca.

4. SMASH, BANG, BOOM! (FREE!)
For most, college nostalgia runs more to the keggers and “study dates” than to actual school work. But for those who think back just as fondly on their lectures, there’s this series of science talks hosted by the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science. This one, by Natalia Toro of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, is part particle physics 101 and part musings on the Large Hadron Collider, which smashes protons or lead ions into one another and monitors what happens next. November 6. MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle, 416-977-2983, http://www.yorku.ca/rci/Site/Fall_11.html.

5. LEONARDO DA VINCI’S WORKSHOP
Leonardo da Vinci might be more famous for the painterly left side of his brain, but this exhibit celebrates his greatest achievements on the right. Featuring a reproduction of the master’s workshop and full-scale models of some of his most ambitious designs, including a mechanical lion and soldier and a self-propelling cart. Visitors can also browse Da Vinci’s notebooks in digital form. To March 18. $17–25. Ontario Science Centre, 770 Don Mills Rd., 416-696-1000, ontariosciencecentre.ca.

6. THE SECRET LIFE OF A SCHOOLMISTRESS
The Historic Zion Schoolhouse, which was built in the late 1800s and looks now just as it did in 1910, is both the setting and venue of this site-specific performance. School mistress Hattie Dickson (Adrianna Prosser) is on the cusp of retirement, but before she leaves the schoolhouse for the last time, she reflects on her years of teaching—ups, downs, lifelong secrets and all. Advanced tickets required. November 4 and 5. $22. 1091 Finch Ave. E., 416-395-7432, toronto.ca/culture/museums/featured-events.htm.

7. ANIMALS THAT HOOT AND HOWL IN THE NIGHT
This nature walk is not technically a spooky event (we are, after all, well past Halloween). Still, there’s something pleasantly hair-raising about going on a night hike to look for nocturnal animals. Visitors also meet a real live owl, practice animal calls and end the evening roasting marshmallows over a bonfire. November 5. Adults $12, seniors, students and children $6, ages four and under free. Kortright Centre for Conservation, 9550 Pine Valley Dr., 416-832-2289, kortright.org.

8. MATTHEW GOOD
We have a special place in our hearts for alt rocker and BC native Matthew Good, whose eponymous band’s 1997 album Underdogs provided the soundtrack to countless middle school lives. But nostalgia isn’t the only thing Good’s got going for him—he broke up the band in 2002, and his solo work since then has been just as strong. He’s touring in support of his latest release, Lights of Endangered Species, so expect to hear songs like the mellow “What If I Can’t See the Stars Mildred.” November 3 and 4. $39.50–55. Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Exhibition Place, 190 Princes’ Blvd., 416-870-8000, ticketmaster.ca.

(Images: Addis, Bruce Zinger; pumpkins, Suzanne Long; Good, Sean McGrath)

The Adelaide Herald is reporting that Australian scientists are developing a pill that helps over-indulgers in alcoholic bevvies stay sober. According to scientists at the University of Adelaide, the pill aims to limit the effects of alcohol on a drinker’s brain as well as stop cravings for alcohol in general. The pill has been extremely successful thus far on murine drinkers.

“The pill changes the focus of the wiring of the brain,” Dr. Mark Hutchinson of the University of Adelaide’s School of Medical Sciences is quoted as saying. Reseachers investigated the way alcohol affects the glial cells that make up 90 per cent of the brain. These cells act as a key part of the immune system, which plays a role in the brain’s behavioral response to alcohol. Apparently, when the brain’s immune response was shut off by the drug, the mice were able to act normally (or appeared sober) and no longer preferred alcohol to water after taking the tablet. While the Herald reports that the drug could help in the treatment of alcoholics and prevent drunk driving accidents, the Globe and Mail wonders if this new pill would give many more drinkers a license to over-indulge. For our part, we can think of a more cost-effective way to stay sober: don’t buy a beer in the first place.

• An anti-booze pill is being developed to revolutionize treatment of problem drinkers [Adelaide Herald]
• Want to drink without getting drunk? There’s a (possibly dangerous) pill for that [Globe and Mail]

(Images: pills, e-Magine Art; bottlecaps, DJ Spiess0)

While we’re busy teaching our kids to tend school gardens, they’re failing provincial tests in reading, writing and math. The folly of the new enviro-propaganda

(Illustration: Tavis Coburn)

This fall, hundreds of Toronto students are harvesting beets and zucchini from their school gardens. I say: nice photo op, bad idea. The argument for school gardens assumes that by grubbing in the dirt, kids will learn to love eating vegetables. They won’t think chickens hatch into this world as deep-fried nuggets. And they’ll develop a respect for nature.

Here’s the counter-argument: our students shouldn’t be out scrabbling in the hot sun when one in five can’t pass the Grade 10 literacy test administered by the provincially funded Education Quality and Accountability Office. And while Canadian students score high internationally in reading, mathematics and the sciences, Statistics Canada says our relative ranking is declining due to improved performance by other countries. In this era of global competition, we can’t afford to let other nations nip at our heels.

Half of Toronto’s population was born outside Canada, and it’s a safe bet many of them came here for a better life, including a good education for their offspring. A lot of immigrants originate from agrarian regions of countries such as India, Pakistan, China and the Philippines. The last thing these newcomers need is a morality crusade about carrots. Yet more than 200 of Toronto’s nearly 600 public schools now have gardens, and an army of well-meaning parents, volunteers, activists and advocacy organizations with a social agenda is successfully lobbying for more.

The schools I’ve visited tell me that growing your own food is worthy, wholesome and educational. That’s what Chairman Mao said when he shipped millions of Chinese youth to the countryside—and abandoned them there. I know whereof I speak. I moved to China in 1972, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. As a third-generation Canadian, I didn’t speak Chinese. I knew only what my profs at McGill University had taught me: that China was a revolutionary utopia.

At Beijing University, where I studied Mandarin and Chinese history, I enthusiastically embraced Maoism, including the precept that students must “reform” their wayward thinking through physical labour. It was, to put it delicately, horticultural hell. My classmates and I harvested wheat and hauled pig manure and dug ditches. At one point, we marched 20 kilometres to a farm, where we tilled the land for nearly a year. It being the silly ’70s, McGill gave me full credit toward my Asian history degree, and I graduated on schedule. Intensive farm work, however, vaporized my Chinese classmates’ one precious chance at an education. Today, they’re called China’s Lost Generation.

Mao’s agrarian fantasy and the Cultural Revolution sputtered to an end with the Great Helmsman’s death in 1976. China immediately relaunched its vaunted education system, with rigour. This past year, Shanghai beat the rest of the world in reading, math and science in standardized tests managed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

So it’s alarmingly déjà vu to see the gardening campaign underway at so many Toronto schools, both public and private, even if it’s a far more touchy-feely version. Toronto Waldorf School, where tuition and fees exceed $16,000 a year in the higher grades, is an enthusiastic proponent of whole-earth education. It has a chicken coop, a few goats and a $150,000 organic greenhouse that recycles grey water. A farming and gardening program, centered on its three-acre teaching garden, is an integrated part of the curriculum from Grade 3 through Grade 9. Ninth graders spend three weeks living and working on organic farms, some as far away as Europe.

Lahousse in the lab (Image: Sense of Taste)

Chefs often speak of perfect pairings, particularly in food and wine. While most accept that certain flavour combinations just work, a team from Belgium has developed a popular tool based on the principle that foods combine well with one another when they share major flavour components (the working philosophy of The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal). The Foodpairing database features 1,000 ingredients, along with their corresponding flavour profiles, and is beloved by food science nerds the world over. We spoke to Bernard Lahousse, science research director at parent company Sense for Taste (who was in town this week to present at the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium) about how these innovative tools are used by professional chefs, home cooks and, increasingly, bartenders and mixologists.

Foodpairing’s methodology, Lahousse told us, proceeds from the fact that our sense of smell is responsible for 80 per cent of our taste experience. Aromas are chemical compounds made up of various components, each having distinct volatility and concentrations that can be broken down and analyzed. These flavour components can then be paired with other foods with similar flavour profiles (e.g. blue cheese, strawberries and chocolate, or coconut, bacon, mustard and ground coffee). Lahousse and his team have made these abstract relations visual by presenting food-pairing trees. The shorter the branch, the better the match to the central ingredient (see below for a tree for salsify). As newfangled as all this sounds, classicists might appreciate the fact that Foodpairing has also shown that strong flavour relationships exist in Escoffier’s recipes, providing scientific validation to pairings that are now canonical.

Initially working with Michelin-starred chefs (Ferran and Albert Adrià, Blumenthal and René Redzepi), Lahousse has now extended the analyses and pairings to other commercial collaborations and even has a site devoted to chocolate. Next stop: the ever-growing world of cocktails. Access to the basic information is free, thanks in part to the financial support from the food-development industry.

Lahousse himself will be giving a pair of talks in town this week. The first, focusing on flavour pairings in drinks, will be held at Barchef tonight at 7:30 p.m. There is a $20 cover (which covers the cost of the alcohol that will be served as part of the demonstration). The second, on flavor pairings in food, will be at Humber College this Friday at 4 p.m. Both sessions are open to the public, but space is limited, so call ahead.

Barchef, 472 Queen St. W., 416-868-4800, barcheftoronto.com.

Humber College, 205 Humber College Blvd., Rm. E 143; contact program coordinator Rudi Fischbacher to reserve space

The G20 summit may be over, but now Toronto faces a new calamity in the form of hogweed, a gigantic poisonous plant that’s recently been spotted in the Don Valley and even backyards. The weed, which also goes by the hilarious name giant cow parsnip, has been spreading across the country and is covered in a sap that’s downright brutal: contact with the sap, in addition to potentially causing cancer and birth defects, can lead to inflammation, blisters, permanent scarring and even blindness. It’s the worst thing to hit the Don Valley since the DVP.

The Ontario government has yet to declare war on this particular weed, since it neither impedes agriculture nor gets people high. Official weed inspectors in most provinces (yes, they exist) haven’t been authorized to kill the plant, leaving the job to fauna vigilantes like Jeff Muzzi, a forestry manager and weed inspector near Ottawa.

“It’s not really my job,” he told the Post. “I just thought, Somebody better take the bull by the horns here, ’cause this stuff is really dangerous.”

Muzzi decks himself out in a Tyvek suit, goggles and gloves, then “nukes” the hogweed with Roundup. Trying to get rid of the plant with a weed whacker just gets the sap everywhere, apparently. The above video from WorkSafe B.C. shows just how bad the hogweed scourge can get when left unchecked and offers some helpful, if campy, tips.

For the time being, campers, gardeners and children are most susceptible to hogweed, which can grow to freakish heights of six metres or so, according to the Globe. The temptation to play with hogweed’s hollow stems, which apparently make for sweet telescopes and pea shooters, should probably be resisted.

• Giant weed that burns and blinds spreads across Canada [National Post]
• Giant weed that can cause blindness popping up in Ontario, B.C. [Globe and Mail]

Can you hear me now? (Image: David Blaikie)

In addition to making humans dumber, cellphones might be contributing to an ecological and culinary disaster known as electrosmog. Indian researchers recently released a study that links cellphone radiation to the drastic drop in bee populations occurring throughout Europe and North America. The implications of a rapidly declining bee population are far-reaching, seeing as how about one third of the food we eat depends on pollinators, according to bee expert Laurence Packer from York University. That includes apples, avocados, nuts and squash, to name just a few.

The study involved outfitting two bee hives with mobile phones: one with a dummy set and the other with an active set that was powered on for two 15-minute intervals per day for three months. At the end of the study period, researchers found that the bees living among the active phones had stopped producing honey and that the queen bee had laid significantly fewer eggs. Some scientists theorize that cellphone radiation wreaks havoc on bees’ navigational systems.

No word yet on the effect of annoying ring tones on the ecosystem.

• Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee [Telegraph]
• Are Cell Phones Killing Bees and Threatening Our Food Supply? [Take Part]

(Image: E1 Entertainment)

Take a drink:

• Whenever Brody wears an ironic T-shirt. (Isn’t being ironically hot good enough?)

• Every time Polley throws out her patented stern/frustrated look.

• Every time Brody throws out his patented confused/puppy dog look.

• When you chuckle at the line “Wired doesn’t interview losers.”

• Every time you wonder if Natali has a jazz hands fetish. Fosse references? Chicken Nugget–esque blobs named Fred and Ginger? It’s like we’re back at dance camp.

• Every time you attempt a mental tally of how many 1 ½ calories of “high-fructose foodstuffs” Dren has consumed. (You can’t fool us, Natali. Those are clearly Tic Tacs.)

• While you wait, fruitlessly, for a Toronto reference. Take an extra drink when there’s a nerd reference instead. We get it. Science = geeks.

• Whenever you think “Wow, there’s a lot of really floppy hair in this movie.”

• Every time you think “OK, so she’s a bird. No, wait, she’s a bat. Ohgodohgod please don’t eat that cat.”

• Whenever Brody rolls up in a Pacer. (A Pacer?!)

• If you think Dren looks like Katherine Heigl.

• When characters that ask themselves “What’s the worst that could happen?” deserve what they get—even if what they get is potentially one of the most disturbing things ever committed to screen.

• Each moment you long for the halcyon days of Dolly the Sheep.

On the DL: We doubt the Dalai Lama was ROTFL

In what may be the least surprising news to make the front pages of newspapers this year, a team of University of Toronto–led computer security experts have concluded that people use the Internet to spy on other people. In this case, huge amounts of highly sensitive data has been hacked into, and the suspect in the case is China. Well, it might not be the Chinese government, but a series of elaborate cyber-attacks targeting sensitive government data from countries around the world have been emanating from within China. Well, maybe not even from China, as the researchers freely admit that it’s easy for hackers to mask the true origin of their attacks. At any rate, somebody, somewhere is using such Internet services as Twitter, Blogspot and Yahoo Mail to steal classified information and a year’s worth of the Dalai Lama’s personal e-mail (yes, the Dalai Lama has e-mail).

Renowned hacker busters from the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs say they’ve traced the hackers (who use pseudonyms like lost33) to China, including one Mr. Li from Chengdu province. Reached by the New York Times, Mr. Li denied being a hacker: “I’m a wine seller,” he said.

Whoever the hackers are, they are part of one of the largest on-line spy rings ever detected, and they have made a mockery of government security systems, obtaining confidential embassy documents, reports on Indian missile systems and even details related to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Chinese government vehemently denies being complicit in the crimes, claiming that hacking is “a cancer to the whole society,” as one Chinese official told the Times.

Regardless of who is behind the attacks, the researchers say their findings highlight the need for countries to develop formal policies to deal with cyber-security. They also highlight the need for the Dalai Lama to converse with his associates the old fashioned way: by telepathy.

• Researchers Trace Data Theft to Intruders in China [New York Times]
• U of T sleuths track internet espionage ring to China [Toronto Star]
• China says it’s not behind global Internet spy ring [Globe and Mail]

(Image: Rodrigo Sá)

Pity the poor college students who, in the name of science, had to get wasted as part of a recent study to determine the effects of binge drinking on test taking. Researchers from Boston and Brown Universities gave close to 200 students either enough beer to reach a breath alcohol content of 0.12 per cent or an equivalent volume of non-alcoholic beer (the beverages were switched during a second test, so nobody got stiffed). The students were administered a multiple-choice test the next morning. To stave off any potential disillusionment at their guinea pig status, and because free beer is clearly not enough of a draw, the students were offered free movie tickets if they did well.

About 70 per cent of the students reported some degree of a hangover during the tests, but researchers were surprised to find that those who binged the night before fared as well as their sober counterparts. The study concluded that drinking to a breath alcohol content of 0.12 per cent (about seven cans of beer for the men and five for the ladies) has no effect on next-day test-taking ability.

The study falls short, however, of exonerating hungover students the world over. For one, it found that mood, attention and reaction time were all affected by the binge. The participating students also stopped drinking by 10 p.m., which more or less invalidates the findings since that is when many college students (and bloggers) are just getting started.

• Test-Takers Shrug Off the Effects of Alcohol [Wall Street Journal]
• The effects of binge drinking on college students’ next-day academic test-taking performance and mood state [Wiley InterScience]
• Next-Day Student Test-Taking Unaffected By Binge Drinking [Medical News Today]

Jonesin' (Image: Alexey Krasavin)

Science is perfecting the art of proving the patently obvious. A new study published in Nature Neuroscience recounts how lab rats that were fed bacon, sausage and cheesecake became dependent on the high-calorie goodies in order to feel good. The co-author writes that, much like other pleasurable activities (sex, drug use), eating can trigger the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, which can lead to addictive behaviour. The rats that were given the high-fat diet also had access to healthy rat chow, but they ignored it. This all demonstrates two things that have been evident for decades to any pet owner who’s gone through a breakup: 1) fat feels good, and 2) the deliciousness of sausage transcends the animal kingdom.

Still, as Katherine Harmon warns in Scientific American, this isn’t the key to unlocking the obesity epidemic. Overeating should be on a longer list of factors, including genetics, eating habits, exercise frequency, proximity to Tim Hortons and access to Paula Deen’s body of work.

• Junk food addiction may be clue to obesity: study [Reuters]
• Addicted to fat [Scientific American]
• Genetics in the gut [Scientific American]

Gas flames reportedly contain cancer-causing agents (Photo by Steven Depolo)

A new Norwegian study is giving new meaning to the cliché “cooking with gas.” Apparently, many of us have been cooking too close to the proverbial flame; fumes from gas ranges, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer long ago deemed “probably carcinogenic” (talk about a blasé pronouncement), contain higher levels of cancer-causing agents than electric stoves.

The study was performed by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who discovered that naphthalene—a banned substance found in mothballs—and mutagenic aldehydes were present when frying 17 pieces of steak for 15 minutes each under conditions “typical of Western restaurants.” Some believe the fumes can cause lung, bladder and cervical cancer, and research has found high cancer levels in chefs who cook without fume extractors. The study’s ingenious solution: reduce exposure as much as possible.

• Cooking with gas raises risk of lung cancer [New Zealand Herald]