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Joe Schwarcz

Joe Schwarcz

Winnipeg Sun

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The Right Chemistry: This French physician’s career could be defined by the word ‘ectoplasm’

Finding the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci on a list of polymaths was no surprise. A polymath is a person who knows a lot about many...

yesterday 5

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: A peashooter will not bring down a charging rhino

“A gesture as effective as sending out a boy with a peashooter to bring down a rhinoceros.” Sometimes I feel like I’m the boy and the rhino is...

26.07.2025 4

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: Science shows carnivore diet is best left to lions

Jenny McCarthy, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, is playing with science again. This time it is all about the “carnivore diet.” Her first...

19.07.2025 2

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: The science behind willpower vs. tastebuds

“Betcha can’t eat just one” is one of the most successful advertising slogans ever fashioned. Introduced by the Frito-Lay snack food company in...

13.07.2025 7

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: Why it’s hard to study what people eat

Last semester I carried out a little experiment in my Chemistry of Food course. At the end of the last lecture, I handed out a blank sheet of paper...

05.07.2025 3

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: There are skeletons in the Nobel Prize closet

Carleton Gajdusek was only five years old in 1928 when he and his entomologist aunt wandered through the woods overturning rocks, looking for insects....

29.06.2025 8

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: Will Vitamin D go the way of cod liver oil?

In many of my public lectures, I address the topic of dietary supplements and often do a rudimentary audience survey. When I ask about taking Vitamin...

22.06.2025 10

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: Can you get cancer from kissing a smoker and other questions with definitive answers

It was in early June 1980, that my phone rang. On the line was Helen Gougeon, host of a talk show on radio station CJAD. Would I like to come on the...

15.06.2025 3

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: For the love of carbs

I have a soft spot for carbohydrates. That’s because they helped launch my scientific career. Many, many moons ago, my PhD research explored the...

08.06.2025 10

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: Misinformation piggybacks on Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis

“Just the facts, ma’am” is a catchphrase attributed to detective Joe Friday in the classic television police drama Dragnet. If all science...

01.06.2025 20

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: The unusual diet of 18th-century geologist William Buckland

The professor, wearing flowing robes and holding a skull in his hand, approached a student sitting in the front row. “What rules the world?” he...

25.05.2025 6

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz

The Right Chemistry: The devilishly hard question I’m asked all the time

Many of the questions I get asked these days begin with, “Is it true that ...?” and can be devilishly hard to answer. Usually, the questioner has...

18.05.2025 10

Montreal Gazette

Joe Schwarcz