Letting lab mice mix with their pet-store cousins may help future research by better mimicking adult human immune systems, according to the results of a new study. Normally, adult lab mice live in abnormally clean environments, which means their immune systems rarely get exposed to different types of bacteria and viruses. Mice in a pet […]
Posts by SMCCadmin (SMCCadmin)
A missing piece in the North American monkey puzzle
Fossilized monkey teeth, found during the expansion of the Panama Canal, suggest that monkeys arrived in Central and North America much earlier than previously thought. Researchers believed that monkeys did not reach Central America until a strip of land between North and South America, called the Isthmus of Panama, formed 3.5 million years ago. But […]
Ancestors of modern birds saved by seeds 
The secret of survival for bird-like dinosaurs was simple: eating seeds. The reason behind the survival of the ancestors of modern birds has puzzled researchers for years, and a recent Canadian study of fossil dinosaur teeth may have provided the answer. According to a new hypothesis from dinosaur specialists at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur […]
Palliative care viewed as a stigma, despite improving quality of life
Canadians with cancer and their caregivers, associate “palliative care” with impending death, and consequently are not taking advantage of the benefits early palliative care can bring to a patients’ quality of life, according to the authors of a new study. Originally, in the 1960s, palliative care referred to end-of-life care, mainly for cancer patients. The […]
Biologics and Biosimilars | SMCC Webinar
Biologics and Biosimilars | SMCC Webinar | January 7, 2016 | Video available Biopharmaceuticals, or Biologics have successfully improved the care of several hard to treat conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and cancer. More of these complex biological drugs are coming. In the US over 900 biologics are being developed for more than 100 diseases. While they […]
Une mutation génétique à l’origine d’une maladie rare qui frappe les Inuits au Québec
Des chercheurs ont identifié la mutation génétique responsable d’une maladie rare qui frappe 1 Inuits sur 2500 dans le nord du Québec. Cette maladie nommée glycogénose type IIIa cause des hypoglycémies et des retards de croissance tout en s’attaquant aux muscles et au foie. Pour ce faire, les auteurs ont séquencé le génome de 5 enfants inuits et ont identifié […]
Une langue se diversifie même dans une population isolée
L’évolution d’une langue suit l’évolution génétique d’une population donnée au fil du temps révèle une nouvelle étude. Toutefois, une langue peut changer de manière spontanée dans des populations isolées. Comme les gènes qui changent au cours du temps par le processus des mutations, les phonèmes qui composent une langue, comme le son /k/ dans “cou” et “kiwi”, peuvent […]
Fossil discovered by young boy in PEI shines light on the origin of turtles
Researchers have discovered a new genus and species of reptile from a 300-million-year-old fossil from Prince Edward Island. The fossil was found in PEI by a young boy and its family, and the species was named in his family’s honour, Erpetonyx arsenaultorum. This discovery indicates that reptiles at the end of this era were more […]
Facebook could know you better than your spouse
If you have 100 or more Likes on Facebook then your computer believes it knows you better than the average person, and if you have 300 or more, then it believes it could know you better than even your spouse. Researchers analysed both individuals’ responses to a personality questionnaire and obtained information on Facebook […]
If you’re outgoing, so is your avatar
Judging someone’s personality is no easy task, especially when all you can see is an avatar and not the real person. However, new research suggests that people can make some accurate personality judgements after seeing customized avatars, at least for some people. The researchers found that outgoing and sociable individuals typically create avatars that communicate […]
For sleeping children, quality is more important than quantity
For young children, the quality of sleep may be more important than the duration of sleep when it comes it academic performance, according to a new study. The researchers found that a high percentage of time in bed spent sleeping influenced positively a child’s grades in math, English, and French as a second language, while […]
Brain Stimulation Therapies for Mental Illness | SMCC Webinar
Brain Stimulation Therapies for Mental Illness – Current Success and Future Directions | SMCC Webinar | 12:15 PM ET, November 18, 2014 One in five Canadians will experience some kind of mental illness within their lifetime, yet for many the current treatments like medication or psychotherapy just don’t help. In Ontario alone it’s estimated that […]
Les thérapies par stimulations cérébrales contre la maladie mentale – Webinaire du CCSM
Un Canadien sur cinq aura un problème de santé mentale au cours de sa vie, mais pour certains d’entre eux, les traitements actuels comme les médicaments ou la psychothérapie ne fonctionneront pas. Ces patients peuvent maintenant compter sur une nouvelle génération de traitements comme les thérapies par stimulations cérébrales. Contrairement aux thérapies traditionnelles comme les traitements […]
Chin strap device generates power from chewing
Researchers have created a device capable of harvesting the mechanical energy generated by chewing or talking. The device works via the piezoelectic effect, in which certain materials generate electricity when stretched or squeezed. In this case, the chin strap contains a strip of piezoelectric material made of electrodes that are embedded into plastic. Chewing gum […]
Science Culture: Where Canada Stands | SMCC Webinar
Science Culture: Where Canada Stands | SMCC Webinar | 12:00 PM ET, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 How do Canadians use, think about, and interact with science? How do we compare with our peers in other developed nations? Are we ready to embrace science for the future of our country? These are just some of the […]
Expert Comments – Carbon Impact of Keystone XL
A study published Sunday in Nature Climate Change uses an economic model to quantify the potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude oil from Canadian oil sands projects to refineries in the US. The authors say that previous analyses did not adequately account for the ways […]