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…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
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…]
Understanding asbestos
Asbestos: Mid-twentieth century American houses were hopeless without it. Malcolm in the Middle made a punchline out of it in an episode. Now, buildings are being forced to remove it, and some countries—including Canada—are introducing legislation to ban it completely. This is a problem that hits close to home, since many[Read More…]
United Nations stresses climate conundrum
It was a mild morning in London, England when the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its groundbreaking report in May 1990. By proclaiming that the Earth’s gradual warming is unquestionably man-made, it became the first international body to state so. The report was concise: “Unless emissions[Read More…]
A sustainable environment and basic income go hand-in-hand
In recognition of the International day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17, Asian Women for Equality hosted a panel discussion on the synergy between a guaranteed livable income and an environmentally-sustainable future. In the face of the current environmental crisis, there is a need for a massive upheaval[Read More…]
The psychology of fear
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…]
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…]
