Jay Ingram

Correspondent for Discovery Channel's Daily Planet and the Face of Science Channel

One of Canada's best-known science popularisers, Jay Ingram was co-host of Daily Planet, television's first daily science show, for its first 16 years. He remains a correspondent for the program and is also the face of Science Channel.

Jay hosted CBC Radio's science program Quirks And Quarks from 1979 to 1992, earning him two ACTRA Awards, including one for Best Host. During the '80s, Jay was also Contributing Editor to Owl Magazine. He also hosted two radio documentary series, The Talk Show, about language, and Cranial Pursuits, about the brain.  The Talk Show won a Science in Society Journalism Award. For twelve years he also wrote a science column for The Toronto Star.

Jay was awarded the 1984 Royal Society of Canada McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science; the 1986 Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute for his work popularizing science; and the 2001 Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He holds five honorary doctorate degrees from Carleton University, McGill University, McMaster, University of Alberta and King's College in Halifax, and he was recently inducted into the Order of Canada.

Jay has written twelve books which have been translated into twelve languages. Several have been bestsellers. He is Chair of the Banff Science Communications program, and is a co-founder of Beakerhead, the arts and engineering festival starting up in Calgary.

• 4. Creativity

• 3. Evolution

• 2. Communicating Science

• 1. Climate Change

• In the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks, [Ingram] manages a difficult trick—making the minutiae of science seem alluring to the uninitiated.
  Maclean's
• Ingram is a wizard at transforming complex curiosities of the natural and physical sciences into entertaining anecdotes.
  The Edmonton Sun
• With his trademark wit and wonderment, Ingram makes the science of our lives accessible and fascinating.
  Avalon Publishing Group Inc.
• Ingram . . . acts as a kind of cross between a clear-eyed journalist and a tongue-in-cheek comedian.
  The Globe and Mail

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  October 2010

  Daily Planet: The Ultimate Book of Everyday Science

  Daily Planet: The Ultimate Book of Everyday Science captures everything that has made the enormously popular TV show Daily Planet great for the past 15 years: unusual, innovative people; technologies and inventions that you couldn't have imagined before you saw them; the extravagance of nature; the incomprehensibility of the universe; and even glimpses of the future. The book moves from the serious to the satirical, from planetary crises to Mars missions, from bartending robots to dolphins with prosthetic tails. In what other single volume could you read about robot female bower birds driving (real) males crazy or a one-man reconstruction of Stonehenge?

  
  
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  September 2008

  Daily Planet Book Of Cool Ideas

  Jay Ingram’s new book is adapted from Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet special series on global warming. In the book he explains what global warming is and possible solutions—even extreme solutions—for dealing with our warming planet. How does the average person make a difference in the fight to stop climate change and global warming? Ingram explains how people are making a difference, from using solar-powered ovens to living off the grid.

  
  
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  October 2006

  The Velocity Of Honey: And More Science Of Everyday Life

  Why does the journey to a new location always take longer than the trip home? What is the science behind the theory of "six degrees of separation?" Why doesn't honey flow out in all directions? In this delightful and amusing text, Jay Ingram explores the extraordinary science behind ordinary happenings. The Velocity of Honey broadens our knowledge of the everyday world and deepens our appreciation for the mysteries of science.

  
  
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  September 2006

  Theatre of the Mind

  What are you thinking, and how do you know you're thinking it? Read Theatre of the Mind, and you'll have a better understanding of what's going on side your head. Renowned science broadcaster and writer Jay Ingram examines the subject of consciousness, the way our brains work and how it is that we are able to make sense of the world at all. With his characteristic wit and insight, Ingram takes the latest research on one of the most complex topics and makes it both understandable and endlessly fascinating. A mind-bending look at the history, philosophy and science of the brain.