Some stories I’ve done over the years, either for my day job at U of T Engineering News or for freelance clients.

If you want more, check out the the blog section of my website.


How does the brain give rise to the mind?

Image: Katrin Bolotsova, via Pexels

From AI to optogenetics, new techniques and strategies are enabling researchers to learn from cognitive disorders and probe the roots of consciousness

[Reach Magazine, June 2024]


Graphene won’t crack under pressure

Teng Cui and his colleagues developed a new method to measure the ability of graphene to resist mechanical fatigue. (Photo: Daria Perevezentsev)

New research shows that not only is graphene ultra-thin and super-strong, it’s also able to withstand more than a billion cycles of high stress before it breaks.

[U of T News, January 28, 2020]


Big cats of southern Alberta

 

Illustration of Smilodon fatalis by palaeoartist Henry Sharpe.

A reexamination of old fossils shows that Smilodon (sabre-toothed cats) roamed further north than previously thought — and that Eurasian cave lions came further south.

[Canadian Science Publishing, October 7, 2019]


Leading the ‘vinyl renaissance’

 

Photo: Doug Chappell

Rob Brown is chief operating officer of Viryl Technologies, one of only two companies in the world that make vinyl record pressing machines.

[U of T Engineering News, September 27, 2019]


Spray-on solar power

 

Photo: Steve Rainwater, via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons

Protective polymers from researchers at the University of Saskatchewan could lower the cost of photovoltaics.

[Canadian Science Publishing, September 23, 2019]


Why don’t more Torontonians cycle to work?

 

Photo: Kevin Zolkiewicz, via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons

A new study maps cycling stress levels and accessibility across the city.

[U of T Engineering News, September 10, 2019]


Out of thin air

 

Photo: Marit Mitchell

A promising technique for converting atmospheric CO2 into commercially valuable products.

[U of T Engineering News, May 29, 2019]


Cleaning up the lithium-ion battery supply chain

 

Photo courtesy Li-Cycle

Li-Cycle is a Toronto-area company that recovers critical materials from lithium-ion batteries

[U of T Engineering News, April 30, 2019]


How self-driving cars could shrink parking lots

 

Photo: Roberta Baker

Optimizing for autonomous vehicles could increase the capacity of a parking lot by up to 62 per cent

[U of T Engineering News, March 28, 2018]


Let them eat dirt

 

Photo: freepik.com

University of British Columbia microbiologist Brett Finlay suggests that bacteria have a role to play in keeping us healthy

[Innovation.ca, February 13, 2017]


A 150-year-old fossil mystery from the Canadian Arctic

 

Image: Nobu Tamura, via Wikimedia Commons

A fossil recovered during the search for the lost Franklin Expedition is finally identified after a century and a half

[Canadian Science Publishing, January 10, 2017[


What if all the ice on earth melted?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6CPsGanO_U

I researched and wrote the script for this video starring Bill Nye, which has more than 6.5 million views on YouTube.

[AsapSCIENCE, September 7, 2016]


Designing against disaster

 

Photo: Ashley Cooper/Corbis

As offshore wind turbines proliferate, engineers are considering the possibility of collisions with ships.

[Hakai Magazine, June 11, 2015]


What if humans disappeared?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guh7i7tHeZk

I researched and wrote the script for this video, which has more than 8.5 million views on YouTube.

[AsapSCIENCE, January 28, 2015]


How Toronto engineers built a human-powered helicopter

Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson won the Sikorsky prize for designing and building the quadcopter Atlas

[Torontoist.com, July 16, 2013]


The Human Edge

I edited and wrote some of the display copy for this exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre

[Opened 2013]


Nature’s industrialists

This story won the inaugural Award of Journalism Excellence in Engineering from Engineers Canada

[Canadian Chemical News, December 2012 issue]


Final verdict

This story won the Herb Lampert Emerging Journalist Award from Science Writers & Communicators of Canada (formerly the Canadian Science Writers’ Association) 

[Canadian Chemical News, July/August 2011 issue)535U of f