The alarmingly increasing frequency of allergies, affecting over 20% of the population in developed countries, has led to the establishment of a new branch of medicine, that of allergology, which is conceptually closely related to immunology.

FROM THE OUTSET it has embodied all the elements of a fine spectator sport: adaptable principles, skilled deception, bullying and emotional blackmail. Little wonder Canadians love their medicare.

IT TOOK just nine seconds to turn the clock back a century. A voltage fluctuation in some Ohio transmission lines. Then, at 4:11 p.m. n a muggy August Thursday, a faster-than-you-can-blink reversal in the flow of current, suddenly sucking away a city's worth of power from the eastern half of the continent.

In British author Philip Kerr's futuristic novel, A Philosophical Investigation, scientists can determine whether a man is prone to violent criminal behavior by administering a brain scan to detect an abnormality.

"I remain a cautious optimist in the progress of the human brain," Garry Kasparov told reporters during a historic chess match last week. "I still believe that there are some horizons it will be very difficult for a computer to cross.

Given the excitement of a family vacation in California, four-year-old Ashford Slowley's fatigue and loss of appetite did not seem unusual. "The kids were playing hard," says his mother, Tina Slowley. "They don't eat much when they're in the hot sun.

The early symptoms can be minor and easy to ignore - a leg that drags when the victim is walking, an inexplicable difficulty fastening an earring or a voice that gradually weakens to a whisper. In the case of Canadian-born television and movie star Michael J.

Sitting in his wood-panelled office at the Alberta legislature, Ralph Klein contemplates the political fire storm raging outside his door.

They're everywhere. Turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper or magazine, and the stories leap out: stem cells to heal the body's failing nervous system; transplanted wombs; the smaller-than-small world of nanotechnology; and yes, as in the previous story, the feverish quest for an artificial heart.

In the waning light of a brisk October evening in Quebec City, patrons flock to a bar in a yuppie neighbourhood near the Plains of Abraham. Inside, Sarah McLachlan's sensual voice spills out of the sound system.

NEIL HOOEY admits his addiction to an on-line computer game called EverQuest initially cost him admission into university.

It was a bad day at the aerospace office. Around 9 a.m. on March 5, NASA called Richard Rembala, a lead engineer for CANADARM2. There was a problem.

Schizophrenia is an illness of the mind that affects 1 percent of the world's population, including 1percent of Canada's population. It is one of the most serious and debilitating mental illnesses because at present there is no cure, and it can be very difficult to treat.

The Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame is a permanent exhibition at the CANADA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM that honours individuals whose outstanding scientific or technological achievements have had long-term implications for Canadians.

BC Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro), a provincial Crown corportation is the third-largest electric utility in Canada.

A herbarium (Lat herba, "herb," formerly any medicinal plant) is a collection of dried specimens of plants mounted on sheets of heavy paper and stored in cabinets or bound in book form, as well as the building that houses such a collection.

A one-man submersible capable of working 4-6 hours under water to a depth of 914 m at speeds up to 1.5 knots, Deep Rover was designed by Graham Hawkes at San Leandro, Calif, and built by Can-Dive Services Ltd of Vancouver and in Dartmouth, NS, in 1984 to work in the offshore oil industry.

There are five veterinary colleges in Canada: the Ontario and Atlantic Veterinary Colleges; the Western College of Veterinary Medicine; and the faculties of veterinary medicine at the Université de Montréal and the University of Calgary.

Radiation fog forms most commonly as moist air is cooled below its dew point, ie, the critical temperature at which air can no longer hold all its water vapour.

Several plants of family Gentianaceae, of the genus Gentiana, are commonly known as gentian.

The north and south magnetic poles are the locations on Earth's surface where the planet's magnetic field points straight downwards (at the north magnetic pole) and upwards (at the south magnetic pole). Conventional compasses which move on a horizontal plane are useless near the magnetic poles.

The first HÔTEL-DIEU in New France was established in 1639 by 3 sisters of Augustines de la Miséricorde de Jésus in Québec City. This hospital is still in operation.

Tropical Asian and N Australian pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes belong to the family Nepenthaceae. The Australian flycatcher (Cephalotus follicularis) of SW Australia is the only species of the family Cephalotaceae.

Plankton [Gk planktos, "drifting"], PLANTS and ANIMALS, phytoplankton and ZOOPLANKTON, respectively, that float freely or drift with currents in OCEANS, freshwater ponds and LAKES.