Sharon Oosthoek
Magazines and newspapers
Signs of the Times
Canadian Wildlife, July/August 2010 By Sharon Oosthoek Assessing the impact of climate change on wildlife is tricky business. Any given year may be warmer or wetter than usual and still have nothing to do with climate change. That’s called weather. Gambo, Newfoundland trapper Clarence Pritchett knows all about that. In his 35 years of trapping, [...]
Wasp Detectives
YES Mag: The Science Magazine for Adventurous Minds, July/August, 2010 Wasp Detectives by Sharon Oosthoek A tiny black-winged wasp is about to become a detective in the case of the emerald ash borer, a beetle that has killed millions of ash trees in Canada and the United States. The shiny green beetles hitched a ride [...]
Short-sighted discovery
ON Nature, Summer 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek Go outside and play. It’s a rare child who hasn’t heard those words, and now there’s another reason to heed them – better eyesight. Australian and Singaporean researchers have found the more time kids spend outdoors, the less likely they are to be nearsighted. From 2003 to 2005, [...]
Scientists create first synthetic cell
CBC.CA May 20, 2010 Scientists have created the first cell controlled by a human-made genome — a step closer to artificial life that is drawing both praise and warnings of potential dire consequences. A team from the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., announced on Thursday it had created a synthetic bacterial genome that [...]
Eagles’ homecoming may harm fragile ecosystem
CBC.CA May 3, 2010 Restoring a species to its native habitat is usually considered a good thing, but an unusual study reconstructing historic bald eagle diets is raising flags over their reintroduction off the California coast. Attempts to bring back the United States’ iconic bird to the Channel Islands could put at risk populations of [...]
Secrets of overseeding
greenliving, March 2010 Tough winter? Here’s how to bring your lawn back to life, naturally. Sharon Oosthoek Just like people, lawns can get tired and worn out. Heavy shade, high traffic areas, compacted soil and recurring pest infestations such as grubs can thin even the lushest turf. One way to bring your lawn back to [...]
Closing the phosphorus loop
The Globe and Mail, Saturday March 13, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek Like a fickle god, phosphorus gives life and takes it away. If too much leaches into lakes and streams, algal blooms suck oxygen from the water and choke off life. But if too little exists, we are all in trouble: Phosphorus is a dwindling, [...]
Invasion of the earthworms
ON Nature, Spring 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek It sounds like a bad Hollywood film, but truth can be stranger than fiction. While gardeners love to see earthworms in their soil and eco-conscious apartment dwellers rely on them to compost food waste, what most people don’t know is that the vast majority of worms in Ontario [...]
Why Haiti’s quake was so devastating
CBC.CA January 13, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti was especially destructive because its epicentre was close to a major city and its hypocentre, or focal point, was close to the Earth’s surface, says a Canadian seismologist familiar with the area. Natural Resources Canada seismologist John Cassidy says the 7.0 quake — centred [...]
Ski industry lagging behind public on helmet issue
CBC.CA January 8, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek As the ski season hits its stride across Canada, the issue of mandatory helmets on the slopes is once again gaining traction. “The market demand is out there,” says Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). “It’s really up to the manufacturers now.” The CSA, which [...]
© 2012 Sharon Oosthoek. All Rights Reserved.
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