Features & NewS REPORTING
MAGAZINE FRONT OF BOOK
How saving on daycare helped a B.C. family afford a bigger home - BCBusiness, September 2018 Lower daycare costs helped working mom Tiffany Ottahal and her family afford a home with room for everyone.
ONLINE FEATURE
How Canada's Most Endangered Mammal Was Saved - NationalGeographic.com, August 2018 The Vancouver Island marmot once plummeted to a wild population below 30. But a band of devoted conservationists brought it back.
NEWSPAPER
Starving Research Means Less Crucial Innovation: Scientists - The Globe and Mail, June 2017
NEWSPAPER
The Maker Movement in schools has students learning by doing - The Globe and Mail, September 2017
ONLINE NEWS
Last-Ditch Plan Aims to Prevent First Drought Extinction of Native Fish - Scientific American, July 2015 The California drought threatens several of its native fish with extinction. Will the Sacramento River’s winter-run Chinook be the first to go?
ONLINE NEWS
Humans Have Tripled Mercury Levels in the Ocean - Scientific American, August 2014 Pollution may soon overwhelm deep seas' ability to sequester mercury, which builds up in tuna and other predatory fish
MAGAZINE FEATURE
In Cold Water - The Walrus, Jan/Feb 2014 Engineering a better survival suit.
“According to mythology, the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, which marked the edge of the known world, were etched with the motto “Ne Plus Ultra,” cautioning sailors to venture no farther. Mustang urges its clients to go farther but dress appropriately. Its 3,000 products are designed to protect the human body from pretty much any hazard Mother Nature throws its way: immersion, cold, excessive G-forces, a four-second fireball. “Our garments have a function,” says Uglene, “and that’s to save your life.”
ONLINE FEATURE
Canada Declares War on Rats - Scientific American, November 2013 In a bid to buoy flagging seabird populations, park biologists eradicate rats from islands in British Columbia
MAGAZINE PROFILE
Cell-made Man - BCBusiness magazine, October 2013 In the wake of this province’s biotech meltdown, Allen Eaves has quietly built a $70-million company catering to the world’s leading research labs—all without the help of venture capitalists and with no exit plan in sight.
“To tour the R&D lab of Stemcell Technologies Inc. is to come face to face with your maker, in a way. “These cells I’ve got in here are iPS cells: induced pluripotent stem cells,” says Erik Hadley, a senior scientist. Down the barrel of the inverted microscope, at a total magnification of 400, is a circle of granular dots, the cells that Hadley refers to as his department’s “bread and butter.”
Each one holds the potential to differentiate into any one of the 200 or so types of cells that make up the human body. It’s like looking back in time, at my proto self, before I differentiated into various cell types, before those cells formed tissues, which made up my organs and, eventually, me. Then again, to look at these cells is a bit like looking into the future, because in them is the promise of generating all the cells and tissues that make up a human body, and perhaps of curing such ills as cancer, diabetes and neurodegenerative and autoimmune disorders.”
NEWSPAPER
Epidemiologist’s Gen-Y Zest For Science is Catchy - The Globe and Mail, March 2013
MAGAZINE PROFILE
The Enforcer - BCBusiness magazine, September 2012 Holding your employers’ feet to the fire is an unenviable task, and one that seldom earns a repeat appointment. But as the province’s top accountant, John Doyle relishes the role of auditor general. The only question is: will he still have a job come October 2013?
MAGAZINE FEATURE
The Test of Taste - BCBusiness magazine, February 2012 B.C.’s apple industry is in crisis. Are new apple breeds the solution? A team of Scientists are scrambling to invent the perfect apple.
“It’s early winter here in Summerland and a biting wind makes Lake Okanagan look more like Loch Ness. The only relic of the warm summer sun that bathes these slopes is the fruit before us. Armed with knife and spittoon, the pre-tasting panel is mercilessly thinning the pack. Of the 21 crates of apple varieties before us, only six will go on to blind taste tests that evaluate their skin toughness, crispiness, juiciness, sweetness, sourness and flavour intensity.
To make it, a new apple has to be the best apple you’ve ever eaten. Literally. “Because we are trying to beat what’s out there, to get a new apple on the market it has to be pretty darn good,” says McKenzie...(One retired PARC employee boasts that he has tasted over a million apples in his life.) So it’s not just that their palates are jaded. Their tooth enamel is starting to erode and their stomach acid is spiking.”
MAGAZINE FRONT OF BOOK
Is Cadborosaurus for Real? - The Walrus, June 2012 The British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club thinks so.
MAGAZINE FRONT OF BOOK
Will Work For Chew Toys? - OnEarth, Winter 2011 With their super-evolved sense of smell, canines make ideal employees for conservation programs aimed at tracking and detecting endangered wildlife. and they never whine for a raise.
MAGAZINE FRONT OF BOOK
Regal Steps - The Walrus, September 2011 Inside the English country dance scene, where the most intimate contact occurs between the eyes
“Nelson wears a white “flouncy garment” (his words), with a woven rainbow sash loosely tied at his waist. When he really gets going, it streams behind him, as do his centre-parted locks, which take to the air in syncopation with his skipping gait…
Three hours later, and the night draws to a close. It’s my last dance with Nelson, “A Fine Balance.” He’s in full woodland sprite mode, archly improvising steps in between beats, and orbiting far out of formation to dance with others before swooping back into place. We end in a long, hammy bow, drawn out with the piano and fiddle’s last notes. Everyone is giddy, flushed with joy; there’s something more than nostalgia at work here, something timeless. The music ends, and Nelson bows his head, putting his hands together as if in prayer. Then his head comes back up and his eyes crinkle into arcs as he reveals the best part of the night: “Dancing frees the soul!”
ONLINE FEATURE
Will Canada’s Proposed Tar Sands Oil Pipeline Muck Up Its Pacific Coast? - Scientific American, March 2013 Large cracks remain in the science assessing Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project
MAGAZINE FEATURE
The Case for Affordable Child Care - The Walrus, December 2020 For decades, we've known that universal child care would advance the nation. What's taking Canada so long?
“I, too, like countless other parents, often find myself juggling. Which is how I ended up in the surreal situation of discussing Canada’s child care crisis with Paul Martin one morning, before the pandemic, when, lacking child care myself, I plopped my daughter in front of the TV to buy the time I needed. I was eager to discover what had made him the prime minister who came closest to achieving what others—Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien—had talked about but never delivered...
As I listened to Martin expound on the value of nurturing young minds by providing them with the best education possible through early learning and child care, I looked over to see my then three-year-old daughter practically licking the TV screen in rapture. “Do I believe that this is a moral issue? Unequivocally,” Martin continued. “There can be no excuse for not giving our children every opportunity that is possible.””
ONLINE FEATURE
Searching for the World's Last Remaining Sawfish - NationalGeographic.com, April 2019 To save them, scientists must first find them.
“Mario Espinoza has dedicated years of his life to saving a fish he has yet to see for himself in Costa Rica’s waters. It’s not for lack of trying. Every single month, the University of Costa Rica marine scientist and his team drive to the edges of one of the largest mangroves in the world, where they load onto a former fisherman’s boat and work tirelessly over three days casting nets and longlines into the murky waters of the estuary. Under the shadow of 80-foot tall mangrove trees, with crocodiles and howler monkeys for company, they seek evidence of a ghost: the largetooth sawfish.”
MAGAZINE FRONT OF BOOK
Does Vancouver Need its Own Auditor General? - BCBusiness, April 2019 As one of the largest cities in B.C., and with yearly revenues of over $1 billion, does Vancouver need a financial watchdog?
MAGAZINE FEATURE
How Canada is Preparing for the Next Big Earthquake - Canadian Geographic, July 2019 The last megathrust earthquake to strike Canada was in 1700, and the clock is ticking.
ONLINE FEATURE
How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Wildlife Research - NationalGeographic.com, November 2018 From analyzing animal photos to combing through YouTube, new software is harnessing data never before accessible to scientists.