“Programming a computer to be clever is harder than programming it to learn to be clever,” Hugo Larochelle, a researcher at Google Brain and adjunct professor at Université de Sherbooke, said during his “Beyond Artificial Intelligence: Deep Learning” presentation at SUS Academia Week on Jan. 31. Deep learning is a[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Love on the brain
Everyone knows the story: Boy meets girl, boy encounters obstacle; they fight to overcome it, but something goes wrong and someone runs away crying. Ultimately, love prevails, they share a passionate kiss, get married, and live happily ever after. This, Hollywood claims, is love. Valentine’s Day is marketed as a[Read More…]
McHacks 6 attracts diverse talent from across Canada
From Feb. 2 to 3, students from across Canada and the United States hunched over their laptops at McGill’s annual McHacks competition. With cash awards and Nintendo switches at stake, the participating ‘hackers’ had 24 hours to program an original project. Students have organized and run the competition since 2013,[Read More…]
A brain without a body
Parkinson’s disease affects the dopamine neurons in as many as ten million people worldwide yet, to this day, nobody has identified a concrete cause. However, science may be a step closer, as researchers have recently shown that the protein alpha synuclein detrimentally affects the brains of Parkinson’s patients. Scientists have[Read More…]
DOvEE project aims to detect ovarian cancer earlier
In Canada, deaths from gynecological cancers have steadily decreased over the past three decades. As women are no longer heavily exposed to carcinogenic dyes in clothing and early detection programs have improved, detecting cervical and uterine cancers has slowly become less of a priority for gynecologists. However, ovarian cancer continues[Read More…]
Removing the barriers for genetic data sharing
The emerging field of computational genomics, which uses statistical analysis to unpack the plethora of information harboured inside the human genome, is complicated. The sheer amount of data that comprises the human genome is massive. Meanwhile, the pressure is high: With more people turning to their genes for answers to[Read More…]
Questioning the device we use to question
To kickoff the Science Undergraduate Society’s ‘Academia Week: To Science and Beyond,’ David Ragsdale, associate professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, explored questions on morality and neuroscience. Within every human head, there is a tangible organ associated with something fundamentally intangible: The mind. “Your brain is a physical[Read More…]
Elementary, my dear Watson
Everything is made of something. Books are made of pages, which are made of paper, which is made of wood. All of these items are made up of molecular complexes that break down into tiny atoms. What differentiates these atoms from one another is the number of subatomic particles, protons[Read More…]
Lobsters and crabs, here to save the oceans
While attempts to reduce plastic usage have taken many forms, including McGill’s plastic water bottle ban and much ado about straws, some McGill researchers are approaching the situation from a different angle, by replacing the controversial polymers with biodegradable alternatives. Audrey Moores, associate professor of applied chemistry and Thomos Di[Read More…]
Males more sensitive to painful memories than females
Stereotypes may lead many to assume that women are more sensitive than men. However, recent findings on pain challenge conventional assumptions regarding the way men and women experience pain. A recent study conducted by researchers from McGill and the University of Toronto exploring the role of memory in the transition[Read More…]
