May 09, 2018

Science on the Silver Screen Reaches Year Three!

May 09, 2018/ Bruce Science

It's finally here... the third year of the Bruce Museum's summer film series, Science on the Silver Screen! This year's films are: Godzilla (2014), San Andreas, and Twister. For each of these films, we've invited an expert in a related scientific field to introduce the film and watch with you. Afterward, the expert will answer any questions you might have about the science (or lack thereof) shown in the movie.

Read more to find out when they are and how to attend!

May 02, 2018

Wild Bees and How to Befriend Them

May 02, 2018/ Bruce Science

While honey bees are charismatic, helpful, and interesting, they take a back seat in our new exhibit at the Bruce Museum, Wild Bees: Photographs by Paula Sharp and Ross Eatman. This exhibit explores the small scale world that native bees inhabit and showcases their beauty and diversity in form and lifestyle. These wild bee species are facing many challenges as the world changes around them, but there are steps we can take to make things a little better for our buzzing allies.

April 03, 2018

Fool Proof 3: The Science of Aliens

April 03, 2018/ Bruce Science

To celebrate previous April Fool’s Days, we’ve delved into various scientific conspiracy theories on our Bruce science blog. This year we’re doing something similar, but narrowing our focus. Instead of plucking theories from all across the spectrum, this time we’re looking at variations on a particular subject: Aliens!

March 26, 2018

The New Face of Empathy: Rats

March 26, 2018/ Bruce Science

Our understanding of what’s going on in the minds of animals has come a long way. Where once science held that animals were little more than instinctive automatons, now we understand that cats miss us when we’re gone, crows can remember human faces and hold grudges, and a number of species even have a rudimentary sense of self. One trait that has been investigated in animals recently is empathy.

March 19, 2018

How to Defend Against Wolves in Space: The TP-82

March 19, 2018/ Bruce Science

When cosmonauts went into space they carried a survival kit that contained everything they might need should they land in the wilderness and need to fend for themselves for a few days. One of the items in this survival kit was the TP-82 space gun, a unique weapon like none other.

March 16, 2018

Lecture: Sweet Ideology of Soviet Space Dogs During the Cold War

March 16, 2018/ Bruce Science

Dr. Olesya Turkina's lecture delved into the art, science, and ideology that surrounded the dogs that were the pioneers of the Soviet space program. She asks the question, would you send your dog into space?

February 27, 2018

Lecture: Out of the Secret World: Cosmic Visions in the Soviet Imagination

February 27, 2018/ Bruce Science

Dr. Siddiqi is a professor in the Department of History at Fordham University in New York. He studies both the history of science and modern Russia, and the history of the Soviet Space program is the combination of both these disciplines. The many books he has written on the subject were instrumental in the curation of Hot Art in a Cold War, and his talk at the Bruce touched upon many of those subjects.

February 20, 2018

The Slippery Physics Behind Winter Sports

February 20, 2018/ Bruce Science

We take for granted that ice is slippery enough to make winter sports like skiing, ice skating, and luge possible, but this property of ice is actually rather unusual for natural materials. You couldn’t skate without wheels on a floor made of stone or wood, so why is ice different? Over the years, many physicists have asked themselves this same question, and come up with a number of intriguing possibilities.