From the days of Karl Lashley—who believed each memory leaves a physical trace on the brain—to Dr. Wilder Penfield—whose electrical stimulation studies identified functions pertaining to specific areas of the brain—these scientists are a testament to the value of physically studying the brain in order to understand it. Last Wednesday,[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Making chemistry greener one silver at a time
The path to sustainable science achieved another milestone when chemistry professor Chao Jun Li and his team published their findings in Science Advances last week. The group have uncovered a way to convert aldehydes into carboxylic acids. However, unlike traditional synthesis methods, which use prohibitively expensive quantities of silver or[Read More…]
Brain Awareness Montreal hosts annual Brain Bee
On April 2, deep within the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Villa Maria 10th grader Melina Thibault was declared Montreal’s annual Brain Bee champion. The competition, hosted by Brain Awareness Montreal (BAM), is designed to test high school students specifically on information about the brain. The day began with a written[Read More…]
Fact or Fiction: Is it safe to pee in the pool?
With whispers of summers reaching into our Vitamin D deprived souls, many will soon head to the pool to cool off after soaking up the rays. But taking off a wet bathing suit to go to the bathroom is an undeniable pain. Many swimmers, especially those who spend long hours[Read More…]
Silent but deadly
Summer is the time to relax, hit the beach, and for some, to get a tan. But swimsuit season brings with it a major public health risk in the form of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Problems that range from wrinkles to skin cancer arise during the summer because this is when[Read More…]
Mexico’s Dark Knight
The Redpath Museum offered a screening of the documentary The Bat Man of Mexico this past Sunday, inviting viewers deep into the Mexican wilderness. The documentary features Mexican ecologist Rodrigo Medellin and his passion: Bats. Medellin is personally saving tequila, one bat at a time. While the link between tequila[Read More…]
Jeremy Hansen touches down at McGill
The Frank Dawson Adams (FDA) auditorium hosted an auspicious guest on Wednesday when Jeremy Hansen walked through the doors. The Canadian astronaut talked about his profession, space travel, and how space fits into society. He presented the audience with stunning images of Earth taken from the International Space Station (ISS)[Read More…]
From the BrainSTEM: The failing U.S. education system
When it comes to training future generations, scientific research has proven that the U.S. education system fails. In 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) coordinated the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standard that was developed for measuring the performance of 15-year-old students in math, science,[Read More…]
Research Briefs—March 31, 2015
A visual dictionary Recent research published in The Journal of Neuroscience by researchers from Georgetown University has preseanted the mechanism underlying how humans read. The researchers found that instead of breaking down words into sounds and meanings, our brains visually imagine the word first. The collaboration of scientists conducting[Read More…]
Montreal amongst cities hosting brain awareness week
Montreal’s Brain Awareness Week began in 1996 with the help of a group of neuroscience students at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Verdun in response to the formation of the U.S.-based Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. Today, the organization is operated by McGill, Concordia, l’Université de Montréal, and[Read More…]