For some, Halloween means curling up on the couch and watching a favourite horror movie. The resulting jump scares, hellish demons, and bloody deaths provoke an emotion we are all too familiar with: Fear. “Fear is an emotional state—the unpleasant feeling of being afraid—that emerges when we perceive an imminent[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Bridging gender inequality one Wikipedia article at a time
In honour of Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) on Oct. 9, people connected over their laptops to help close the gender gap on Wikipedia. ALD honours Ada Lovelace, a brilliant mathematician—often considered the world’s first computer programmer—as well as all women in the fields of science and technology. This year,[Read More…]
Putting your footprint in your mouth
In light of growing global concerns about oceanic pollution, Mathilde Jutras, a PhD student in McGill’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, produced a video proposing a solution to the continuously worsening ocean environment: Labelling consumer products with their carbon footprint. Jutras suggests that products should be labelled to indicate the carbon[Read More…]
Orgasm equality is a long time coming
Many women are familiar with the frustration of finishing a sexual encounter without actually finishing. This disparity between men and women’s sexual satisfaction, colloquially known as the ‘orgasm gap,’ refers to the fact that men are far more likely to orgasm than women in heterosexual encounters. In a recent study[Read More…]
Montreal’s wood fireplaces get smoked out
In 2011, Montreal was ranked as the city with the second-worst air pollution in Canada. Sarnia, Ontario, a place otherwise known by the nickname ‘Chemical Valley’, came in first place. It’s no secret, then, that Montreal is a polluted city—thankfully, policymakers are trying to address the problem. On Oct. 1,[Read More…]
Canada’s lasting legacy of space exploration
Space travel doesn’t normally fall within the purview of the Ministry of Transportation, but, in Oct. 1984, current Minister of Transport Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to view his home from inside a spacecraft. Since his initial trip, Garneau has spent much of his professional life commemorating the unique[Read More…]
Canada bans artificial trans fats from all foods
On Sept. 17, Canada made a leap in ameliorating the health of Canadians across the country by officially adding artificial trans fats to the List of Contaminants and other Adulterating Substances in Foods. Trans fats are usually created by adding hydrogen molecules to liquid vegetable oils, turning them into a[Read More…]
ImplementAI hackathon back for its second year
Imagine an app that can guide the visually-impaired, a program that can analyze the nutritional content of the food on your dinner plate, or software that can detect violent encounters as they’re captured on security cameras. These ideas were all implemented during ImplementAI, a 24-hour hackathon which took place from[Read More…]
Making the most of Montreal’s bag ban
Plastic is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest threats to our planet. With over eight million tons entering the ocean annually, the United Nations warns that, by 2050, the ocean could contain more plastic materials than fish. At the beginning of 2018, the city of Montreal banned plastic bags to reduce[Read More…]
Soup & Science: Heart beats, virus breach, the universe’s history, and environmental sustainability
Held at the beginning of every semester in Redpath Library, Soup and Science is an event unique to McGill during which professors from various science departments summarize their research in a series of three minute presentations. Coincidentally, the event also serves soup. The McGill Tribune sent writers to cover the Fall[Read More…]
