An editorial from the Canadian Medical Association Journal calls for improving winter road maintenance and safety to decrease the number of deaths due to winter driving in Canada. The authors recommend: Improving road maintenance standards, and tailoring maintenance to local conditions. Government oversight of road service companies to ensure adherence to regulations. Legislation requiring […]
Posts by Kelly Fram (KellyFram)
How infants account for dominance
Group size matters when determining who is dominant, at least according to human infants. The team believes this shows infants as young as six months of age are able to assess social dominance by looking at the numerical size of competing groups, an ancient evolutionary ability. Researchers found infants evaluate which group is dominant by […]
NSERC Award Winners
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada The winners of the 2016 NSERC prizes celebrating exceptional research in Canada were announced yesterday they include: Dr. Victoria M. Kaspi, McGill University, is the winner of the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. Kapsi studies neutron stars and her research sheds light […]
Printing living bones may be possible
Printing bones and cartilage could be the way of the future. Using specialized ‘bioprinters’, researchers have been able to “print” cells into layered patterns reconstructing human body parts. Current 3D printers are unable to create bone and cartilage with enough structural stability. By combining bioprinters with biodegradable polymer materials researchers were able to “create” the […]
Something’s fishy about childhood obesity
Eating fish more than three times a week during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity, according to the results of a new study. Women who ate fish more than three times per week were more likely to give birth to children with higher BMI values at ages two, four, and six. […]
Losing money to lose weight
Paying employees to exercise doesn’t work, but taking money away might, according to a new study. Removing a small amount from a cash reward given upfront was more effective at promoting daily physical exercise than receiving a small reward for meeting physical activity goals. Participants in a 13-week physical activity program were given a goal […]
Visualizing the blood-brain barrier
Using a microscope to see inside living tissue, researchers have found how the parasite Toxoplasma gondii passes through the blood brain barrier to invade the central nervous system. The researchers hope this finding will help develop effective strategies to stop the parasite from entering and damaging the brain. T. gondii infects about 30 per cent of […]
How bed bugs beat insecticides
By analysing and sequencing the genome of the bed bug, Cimex lectularius, researchers have identified genes associated with insecticide resistance. Over the last 20 years the bed bug has developed abilities which limit the effectiveness of insecticides. Researchers hope their findings will help uncover mechanisms of insecticide resistance. The bugs have certain proteins in their […]
How bears gain weight without getting obese
Bears eat intensively to put on weight for winter hibernation but don’t seem to suffer the negative health effects of obesity, thanks to the microbiota in their digestive tract. By analyzing fecal samples researchers found the microbiota in a bear’s digestive tract changes when the bear is preparing for hibernation. The researchers believe some of […]
Women and the empathic yawn
It’s called yawn contagion, the need to yawn when you see someone else yawning. Increasingly it’s recognized as an empathy based response. Now, new research not only supports that notion but has found that women are more likely to contagiously yawn, than men. The authors of the paper observed people for five years during their […]
The resilience of tropical forests
Tropical rainforests that regrow after deforestation take up carbon more quickly than established forests and recover most of their biomass within decades, according to research on forests in Central and South America. Until now the recovery rate of these forests was unknown, hindering reliable estimates of their ability to absorb and store atmospheric carbon. […]
Lab in a suitcase provides real-time monitoring of Ebola
Testing the DNA of the Ebola virus on-site in the field in less than a day is now possible thanks to a new system developed by researchers. Real-time genomic surveillance will provide information on the virus and its rate of evolution – as well as characterizing its response to treatments and vaccines. The kit weighs […]
Ravens on their mind
Ravens possess the “Theory of Mind”, or the ability to predict the mental state of others, according to a new study. This is the first time the “Theory of Mind” has been confirmed in an animal other than humans or non-human primates. The researchers fed individual ravens in an enclosed study area, while playing raven […]
Shared semantic structure between human languages
Human languages share a common semantic structure regardless of the regional environment in which a language evolved, according a study of 81 languages. The authors believe concepts expressed in language may arise from universal properties of human cognition. Examining how words are related to other words in a language revealed a universal semantic network. For […]
The secret to impacting policy
Environmental researchers can increase their influence on policy by increasing their outreach, according to researchers. Consulting with greater numbers of stakeholders during the research process increases how legitimate researchers are seen, regardless of how knowledgeable they are perceived as. Lead author Stephen Posner of the University of Vermont said “our results suggest that decision-makers are […]
Shipping noises potentially harming Vancouver Island’s Killer Whales
New findings suggest noise from ships overlaps frequencies used for communication and foraging by orcas, potentially affecting the endangered Southern Resident orcas living in the waters around Vancouver Island, B.C. The researchers found container ships created the highest levels of background noise at frequencies below 20,000 Hz, and military vessels typically had some of the […]
