“I think everyone wins, and that’s not just a fluff sentence,” Nikolas Provatas, professor in the Department of Physics, said at McGill’s Physics Hackathon. “Everyone wins just by being here. If they go back home and they have something positive to say about science, to me, that’s a success.” From[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Can you sea the floor?
From the heights of the ozone layer to the depths of the ocean, greenhouse gas emissions have far reaching impacts and damage natural systems in often unexpected ways. A recent study conducted by McGill researchers found that the seafloor is rapidly dissolving due to manmade CO2 emissions, with particularly notable[Read More…]
Tracking ‘Jaws’
Many lives could have been saved in the movie Jaws if only the town had an effective way of tracking the shark terrorizing their waters. Analysis of environmental DNA, or eDNA, is a revolutionary new technique that enables scientists to follow marine animals, no matter their size. eDNA refers to the genetic material,[Read More…]
Follow your nose
Those who can easily navigate new cities and unfamiliar locations might also find they have an unusually-precise ability to accurately identify a plethora of different smells, ranging from basil and cinnamon to strawberry and peppermint. A recent study conducted at the McGill Department of Psychiatry demonstrated the surprising link between[Read More…]
Cannabis as a key for chronic illness
Since the legalization of cannabinoids—chemical compounds found in cannabis—for medical purposes in 2001, a growing number of Canadian physicians have turned to medicinal marijuana for patients suffering from cancer and other chronic disorders such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis. Cannabinoid receptors, which bind cannabinoids, influence cognitive and physiological processes and[Read More…]
Understanding the most common STI: HPV
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection (STI); in fact, up to 80 per cent of sexually active men and women will be infected with the virus at least once in their lives. The infection can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact and primarily manifests on skin and[Read More…]
Living in a high-tech sci-tech world
The McGill Office for Science and Society hosted the 2018 Trottier Public Science Symposium on Oct. 29 and 30, where academics discussed information technology and its implications for humanity. Human history is punctuated with moments which completely redefined technology, the latest being the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Beginning during World War[Read More…]
Fantastic alien microbes and how to find them
The 2015 discovery of water on Mars, an essential for life on Earth, sparked theories of thriving Martian life. Ideas of interstellar travel to find extracellular beings were suddenly within reach. The second Montreal Space Symposium on Oct. 18 to 19, offered a forum for the future of space exploration,[Read More…]
Myers-Briggs’ evolution into the personality gospel
“Throughout college, I was always someone who thought that who you were was a function of what you accomplished,” Merve Emre, associate professor of English at the University of Oxford and author of the book The Personality Brokers, said. Emre, a former assistant professor at McGill, is not alone in[Read More…]
T-cells take the wheel
In recent years, modern targeted cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery have become better at effectively treating the disease. However, these methods continue to be invasive for patients, as they essentially involve racing to kill cancerous cells faster than healthy ones. Fortunately, discoveries in the field of immunotherapy—using the[Read More…]
