Volkswagen came under fire by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week following allegations of cheating and deceit. In a statement released on Sept. 18, the EPA stated that the German automobile company misled environmental regulators about its car emissions. Special software, colloquially known as the defeat devices, reported[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Drug price hike causes global outrage
Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was harshly criticized last week after raising the cost of one of the company’s drugs, Daraprim, from $13.40 USD to $750 USD—an increase of 5,000 per cent. Manufactured exclusively by Turing, this price hike has reignited the debate on the ethics of charging patients for[Read More…]
Ten-billion-year-old galaxy cluster discovered
This week, NASA announced the discovery of a galaxy cluster found billions of light years from Earth. The finding, published in The Astrophysical Journal, identified a unique property of the cluster, named SpARCS1049+56. It hosts what physicists call a wet merger, which is a unique type of galactic[Read More…]
Understanding the world of hiero-gifics
As platforms like Short Message Service (SMS), Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp grow in popularity, the amount of time people spend interacting face-to-face decreases. To make up for this, tech enthusiasts and artists have teamed up to develop novel ways to convey emotion over text. Ranging from the humble smiley to[Read More…]
“So, you want to become a doctor?” gives students a look into the medical world
Last Wednesday’s ‘So, you want to become a doctor?’ conference, organized by MedSpecs, spoke about the process of applying to med school. The presentations, which featured current McGill medical school students and alumnus, drew from personal experiences. The event began with, Guido Guberman Diaz, M1 McGill, who provided the audience[Read More…]
Fact or Fiction: Are you born a morning person?
Some individuals find themselves waking up with the birds, while others are falling asleep to them. People who wake up late have been stigmatized by society as being lazy, while those up at the break of dawn were perceived as the go-getters; however, studies are showing that the inverse is[Read More…]
Can you change your mind?
Creating Frankenstein’s monster—taking bits and pieces from different people to make a whole—is an idea conceived by fiction, not real-life; however, Dr. Sergio Canavero, Italian neurosurgeon, plans to undertake what he describes as the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage. This venture, named The Head Anastomosis Venture[Read More…]
Getting into the app game
Entering the app world is equal parts intimidating and exciting. McGill alumnus Nathaniel Blumer (BSc. Computer Science 2013) has developed several apps since graduating from McGill. He’s worked for private contractors in Canada and the U.S., and has even received offers for his apps from multinational companies. His most recent[Read More…]
Cracking the Canadian cell phone code
The quest for the best cell phone deal is not unlike finding the Holy Grail. Everyone knows a friend of a friend that somehow secured a $40 six-gigabyte plan, but nobody really knows how they got it. Cell phone salespeople offer cryptic promises and deals, but are they just padding[Read More…]
Does having a high IQ mean you’re smart?
News of 12-year-old Lydia Sebastian scoring 162—the top score—on a Mensa IQ test made headlines last week. People were astounded that a child had scored higher than both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. While there’s actually no evidence that Einstein or Hawking ever took the Mensa IQ test, Sebastian’s score[Read More…]
