Sea slugs and sex drugs Last Friday was “Single awareness day” leaving many wondering how to find their soul mate. As it turns out, sea slugs may hold the key. For these saltwater snails, lovemaking is far from gentle and sweet: sea slugs stab their partners to procreate. The slugs[Read More…]
Research Briefs
Research briefs
Glow-in-the-dark piglets born As the new year rolls in, so does the prospect of glow-in-the-dark bacon and neon pork chops. Last August, two researchers at the South China Agricultural University in Guangdon Province—Zhenfang Wu and Zicong Li—successfully injected biofluorescent genetic material taken from jellyfish directly into pig embryos, resulting in[Read More…]
Research briefs
FDA joins fight against trans fat High levels of artificial trans-fat in processed foods have been known to cause 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths related to heart disease every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In an effort to reduce such diseases, the Food and Drug[Read More…]
Research briefs
Safety questioned in hands-free texting apps An article in the November issue of Scientific American revealed a surprising twist to the popularity concerning hands-free texting apps, such as Voice Text Pro and DriveSafe.ly. Developers assumed that, since drivers would not need to take their eyes off the road to use[Read More…]
Research briefs
Technology and medicine join forces through an in-home HIV test Despite approximately 2.5 million new cases of HIV each year worldwide, six out of 10 go undiagnosed. Dr. Nitika Pant Pai and her team at the Royal Victoria Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) hope to address this[Read More…]
McGill research briefs
A new disorder in metabolism of vitamin B12 This week, researchers at McGill’s Department of Human Genetics and Genome Quebec—in collaboration with others from the United States, Switzerland, and Germany—published the discovery of a new genetic defect that causes an inability to break down vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 plays an[Read More…]
