On March 22, Philip Kitcher, a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, discussed the difficulties of implementing climate change policy during the 2018 Mossman lecture. The lecture series, named after McGill alumnus and chemist Donald Mossman, seeks to raise awareness about scientific thought that is pertinent to solving the issues[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Lufa Farms: Using Montreal’s rooftops to feed the growing urban population
Lufa Farms, a Montreal urban agriculture company, is working on revolutionizing the city’s food system, based on two key ideas: Growing food where people live and growing it more sustainability. Best described as an online farmer’s market, Lufa Farms operates three rooftop greenhouses in Montreal, which produce more than 100[Read More…]
Immortality in the natural world
Harry Potter fans know that Fawkes the phoenix’s fiery demise wasn’t the end of him; he was simply reborn from the ashes. Phoenixes, of course, are mythical creatures. Immortality in real animals is likely the stuff of fantasy. Yet, as it turns out, biological immortality only refers to creatures that don’t[Read More…]
McGill Multiple Sclerosis research leads the fight against the disease
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) which causes circulating immune cells, called T cells, to gain access to the CNS across the blood-brain barrier. This causes inflammation, myelin destruction, and neuronal damage. MS affects over 2.5 million people world-wide and is the leading cause[Read More…]
Neuroscience gets even brainier with open access science
The human brain is the most complex, compact system known in the universe and certainly one of the most mysterious. Researchers from McGill and the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, now known as the Neuro, have long been at the forefront of neuroscience. This includes Wilder Penfield, who discovered brain[Read More…]
How many people is too many people?
There are currently 7.6 billion people on Earth. The United Nations (UN) projects that the planet’s population will increase by one billion within the next 15 years. By 2100, over 11 billion people could be inhabiting the planet. The concept of overpopulation is not new. Thomas Malthus, an 18th century[Read More…]
Exploring Physicist Stephen Hawking’s Scientific Contributions
On March 14, Stephen William Hawking, physicist at Cambridge University and international best-selling author of A Brief History of Time, passed away, leaving behind a legacy of revolutionary discoveries spanning the past five decades. At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou[Read More…]
Meet the newly-discovered species of 2017
The most recent estimates of the number of species world-wide, according to Science Daily, suggest that there are around 7.8 million animal species on Earth of which only about one million have been described and catalogued. Fortunately for aspiring field biologists, a staggering 87 per cent of animal species may[Read More…]
Uncoiling the accuracy of DNA ancestry tests
DNA ancestry tests from services like 23andMe, AncestryDNA, Family Tree, and MyHeritage are becoming increasingly popular methods of delving into our genetic histories, often at steep prices. While their methods used to retrace an individual’s ancestry may vary, each compares the genomes of their customers using DNA databases. Ancestry tests[Read More…]
Bioenergy Plantations: A step towards meeting our climate change goals
On April 22 2016, nations from across the globe signed the Paris Agreement, an international climate accord with the aim of managing countries’ greenhouse gas emissions and reducing average global temperatures increases to 2℃ above pre-industrial levels. Since 2015, it has become increasingly apparent that further reducing emissions will not[Read More…]
