Over the last few years, campaigns such as Bell Let’s Talk and a greater representation of mental health have increased awareness of and reduced stigma associated with accessing mental health services. Despite these steps forward, many people of colour still have trouble accessing quality services. Sommer Knight, a graduate student[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Testing Darwin’s ecological questions
Rarely does the title of a scientific study live up to the aspirations of its authors. The BIG Project, however, is an exception. BIG, which stands for the Biotic Interaction Gradients experiment, is the first endeavour of its kind to explain one of Charles Darwin’s oldest theories: Species interactions play[Read More…]
Granting computers sight
If computers could tackle the difficult tasks of processing and understanding images, they could revolutionize how people shop, make movies, and drive—or rather not drive—cars. With artificial intelligence (AI), computers can actually ‘understand’ images. Within AI, one of the most promising methods of teaching computers to ‘see’ is deep learning,[Read More…]
Obeying the biological clock
In the future, patients may be faced with a very curious question at the doctor’s office: What time are you? This puzzling question is becoming increasingly crucial in the study of vaccines. More specifically, medical professionals are looking for a link between people’s ‘biological clock’ and their immunity response. Researchers[Read More…]
HackMcGill event covers AI, smart cities, and internet privacy
In the last few decades, technology has evolved at a staggering pace and has become so deeply enmeshed in everyday life that removing it would throw society into shambles. While new technologies are immensely important to modern society, there is little regulation to keep mega-corporations like Amazon and Facebook in[Read More…]
Sex and longevity at the Trottier Public Science Symposium
The 2019 Trottier Public Science Symposium, hosted by the Office for Science and Society from Oct. 22 – 23, addressed the unavoidable process of aging in a presentation titled “Longing for Longevity.” The second night featured keynote speakers Joe Schwarcz, director of the office, and psychosexual therapist and author Ruth[Read More…]
Leaping into the sixth mass extinction
Environmental scientists believe that most animal groups today are facing global population declines. The magnitude of the declines is so great that many are referring to this as the beginning of the sixth mass extinction. Amphibians are one of the most affected groups: Their estimated extinction rate since 2007 is[Read More…]
Searching for the first stars
Astrophysicist Jeff Peterson of Carnegie Mellon University delivered a lecture on Oct. 9 about the quest to study ‘cosmic dawn,’ the ‘turning on’ of the very first stars in the universe. Estimated to have occurred 150–300 million years after the Big Bang, physicists have sought to study signals from this[Read More…]
Uncovering past climates through paleobotany
Paleontology has long offered scientists insight into the mysteries of prehistory. Through excavations of colossal skeletons, petrified insects, and fossilized plants, researchers can uncover what life looked like long ago. Despite the extensive study of animals from the Cretaceous period, which stretched from 145.5 million years ago to the dinosaur[Read More…]
E-cigarettes could be the next big public health epidemic
McGill students are no strangers to plumes of e-cigarette vapour, whether it is in class, at McLennan, or on the sidewalk. Created in 2004, vapes imitate the sensation of smoking and are often marketed as being completely safe. E-cigarettes have surged in popularity in the last few years, due in[Read More…]