It’s a no-brainer that the physical benefits of exercise can take time to manifest, but the emotional and mental benefits can be almost instantaneous. “When we exercise, more of the hormone serotonin is released,” Louise Lockhart, a nurse at Macdonald campus’ Student Health Services, explained. These hormonal releases work as[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Fact or Fiction: Chocolate is the ultimate love drug
Famously exchanged by lovers on Valentine's Day, tucked in an attractive heart-shaped box, chocolate is almost unanimously recognized as the sweet treat of love. Beyond being a sentimental gift to express affection, some believe that chocolate directly influences feelings of attachment and arousement, with the snack being historically considered as[Read More…]
Scientists for Love encourages connections through the senses
Love is in the air and, according to the Montreal-based organization Scientists for Love, it is also in our senses. On Feb. 9, founders Amy Chartrand and Leigh Kotsilidis spoke during the Science Undergraduate Society’s (SUS) Academia Week 2017 “Stranger Things,” introducing the audience to a new method for building[Read More…]
Green Chemistry can lead Canada to be the next global superpower
The McGill Canada Excellence Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Green Chemicals Robin D. Rogers spoke at the Cutting Edge Lecture series on Feb. 9 at the Redpath Museum. Rogers work focuses on creating ionic liquids for cleaning using the principles of Green Chemistry—that is, designing chemical products that reduce[Read More…]
The academic journal detectives behind Retraction Watch
The atmosphere was electric in the New Residence Ballroom on Feb. 3. Tables were filled with the energetic chatter of graduate researchers and professors in anticipation of the academic journal retraction detective: Ivan Oransky. Oransky and his partner Adam Marcus founded the popular blog Retraction Watch in 2010 to record[Read More…]
McHacks draws top talent from across Canada and the U.S. to McGill
The annual McHacks competition—a 24-hour student-run collaborative computer programming event—returned to McGill in full force over the weekend of Jan. 28 and 29. Since 2013, the hackathon has attracted programming veterans and rookies alike to Montreal to compete for awards and prizes from the event’s many sponsors. This year’s sponsors,[Read More…]
McGill researchers advocate for delayed school start times for adolescents
With the onslaught of midterms on the horizon, sleep will likely be pushed down the list of students’ priorities. According to a report card issued by ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit organization focused on improving public health, 26 per cent of adolescents are either mildly or moderately sleep deprived. In addition[Read More…]
Communicating climate change in Canada
On Feb. 2, Media@McGill hosted a panel discussion on the role of journalism in effectively communicating climate change. NASA recently revealed that 2016 was the hottest year in history and the third record year in a row—the first time such a pattern has occurred since climate data collection began. Despite[Read More…]
McGill bioethicists argue for stricter limits on first-in-human clinical trials
The standards for drugs entering first-in-human (FIH) clinical trials are too low, argues Associate Professor Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman and PhD candidate Carole Federico in McGill’s Biomedical Ethics Unit. In a commentary published online in Nature on Jan. 30, Kimmelman and Federico maintain that evidence for drug efficacy is not emphasized enough before[Read More…]
MNI researchers link lack of pleasure from music with decreased connectivity in the brain
Researchers link lack of pleasure from music to dampened connectivity in the brain.
