Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in terms of revenue, is being sued by a woman who claims that the antidepressant drug Zoloft is no more effective than a placebo pill. The plaintiff, Laura Plumlee, alleges that Zoloft failed to alleviate her depression in spite of a three-year treatment course.[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Science Capsule
Building a house out of French fries seems like a bad idea, but fried potatoes and lumber are, chemically, very similar. Only one bond distinguishes the food we enjoy from the wood with which we build. Potatoes, made from starches, and lumber, made from cellulose, are both derived from the[Read More…]
Chicken Noodle Soup: Fact or Fiction?
After the debauchery that is Winter Carnival and the exhausting weekends of Igloofest, many of McGill’s finest have begun to suffer from the effects of the common cold. Although cures like sage extract, licorice tea, and kissing a mule’s muzzle—a bit of creative flare on the part of the Romans—[Read More…]
App Reviews
Better Me For those who have trouble making their 8:30 a.m. classes, ‘BetterMe’ provides a fun and ingenious way to wake up in the morning. The app is based on a simple idea—post a status update on your Facebook profile each time you hit that dreaded snooze button. Essentially, ‘BetterMe’[Read More…]
Up close and personal with the human brain
Not many students can say they have touched a human brain, but thanks to the Neuroscience Undergraduates of McGill (NUM), I— along with around 130 other McGill students—can attest to holding not one, but six. On Jan 30, NUM hosted the first event of its kind at McGill: Touching Human[Read More…]
Quantum teleportation: science straight from Star Trek
The words “quantum teleportation” bring forth the image of transporting a person from one location to another. Although it is applied very differently than its portrayal in science fiction movies, teleportation is possible, and has been carried out in laboratories around the world. In 2012, a team of scientists in[Read More…]
Communication critical step in combating tropical disease
For Greg Matlashewski, a McGill professor and former chair of the department of microbiology and immunology, branching out from the lab and into the field had many positive results for his work regarding treatment for visceral leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis, transmitted by sandfly bites, is one of many neglected tropical infectious[Read More…]
Fear of vaccination breathes new life into virus
Poliovirus has been eliminated in most of the developing world. Its eradication has been primarily due to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a multilateral proposal passed by the World Health Assembly in 1988. However, three countries—Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan—stand between the GPEI and its goal of making polio the[Read More…]
Alzheimer’s diagnosis could be found in the blood
Until recently, a postmortem analysis of brain tissue was the only method capable of confirming that a patient suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, as opposed to another mental illness. Despite the many real-time medical assessments available, such as blood tests, brain scans and neuropsychological tests, none of these results are definitive.[Read More…]
Avian flu mutation has even deadlier potential
In 2011, when scientists at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands pinpointed the necessary mutations to make the H5N1 avian flu virus highly contagious, they had to weigh the risks and benefits of their discovery. H5N1—commonly known as the bird flu—first broke out in Hong Kong in 1997. A[Read More…]
