On Friday, October 17, the World Health Organization declared that Senegal is now free of Ebola virus transmission. Senegal had a single case of Ebola in late August. All those who contacted the patient have now completed the 21-day monitoring period are are symptom free and tested negative for the virus. A similar announcement about […]
Category: News tip
Project FeederWatch
This citizen science project is a joint program of Bird Studies Canada and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. For a $35 fee, participants receive a handbook and other materials that help them identify bird species. They enter this data into a central website, thereby helping scientists track changes in bird numbers and movements across North […]
McGill Alumnus wins Nobel Prize
McGill graduate John O’Keefe won the 2014 Nobel prize in medicine for his discovery in 1974 of brain cells that makes it possible for us to orient ourselves, acting like inner-GPS. Professor O’Keefe earned his phD at McGill in 1967 in physiological psychology. In 1971 O’Keefe was part of a team that discovered a type of […]
Who is spending time in emergency departments?
Patients who need admission to hospitals but don’t require an operating room or critical care bed spend the most time in the emergency departments (ED) according to a new report. The study analysed 10 million emergency-room visits from the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS). Some of the findings include: 90 per cent of ED […]
Vancouverites prefer walkable neighbourhoods
A new report from the University of British Columbia shows that Vancouver residents prefers to live in in a neigbourhood where they can walk to shops, groceries and transit, a new report shows. An infographic with the findings is available below. Living in a neighbourhoods designed in such a way to encourage walking is linked […]
SMCC in the news
The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a current affairs television program on TVO, recently featured a panel of experts to discuss the importance of science literacy in Canada. The Science Media Centre of Canada’s Executive Director, Penny Park, was included in the panel. The Agenda has additionally created an online quiz (available here) for viewers to test how scientifically […]
Water found on Neptune-sized exoplanet
Astronomers have detected water vapour in the atmosphere of Neptune-sized exoplanet. Previously, it had only been possible to measure the atmospheric composition in large, Jupiter-sized exoplanets. Using a technique called transmission spectroscopy with which they analysed the light spectrum coming from the exoplanet, they’ve detected water molecules in the atmosphere of HAT-P-11b, an exoplanet with […]
22 new strategies for improving child/maternal health in the developing world
Federally-funded Grand Challenges Canada announced seed funding Sept. 22 for 22 projects submitted by innovators worldwide and designed to improve child and maternal health in the developing world. Examples include: A snack produced from rice bran waste in the Philippines to combat child iron deficiency; A technique for safely storing vaccines at room temperature by […]
Carbon quotas are nearly used up
Two upcoming papers discuss the concept of a carbon quota, that is, a limited amount of carbon that can be released to the atmosphere in order to remain below a certain global warming target. The first paper, published in Nature Geoscience, indicates that we have already used up two thirds of the carbon quota needed […]
World Alzheimer Report 2014 – What’s good for your heart is good for your brain
Control of diabetes and high blood pressure as well as smoking cessation have the potential to reduce the risk of dementia even in late-life, a new report says. Looking at the literature, they report for example that diabetes can increase the risk of dementia by 50%. The report also includes survey data which shows […]
Canadian researcher wins Ig Nobel prize for explaining “Jesus toast”
Kang Lee, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, has won an Ig Nobel prize for explaining why people have a tendency to see faces in ordinary objects, such as the face of Jesus in toast. In a paper published earlier this year, Lee’s team showed that the […]
New Pterosaur – Avatar style
Researchers have found deposits of a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived about 120 million years ago. This new species was named Ikrandraco avatar for it’s similarities to the ‘ikran’ flying creatures in the 2009 Avatar movie and to a dragon (draco). The fossils were found in Northeastern China. Original research paper published […]
Physicians in Canada 2013
How many doctors are currently practising in Canada and how much are they getting paid? How many of them received their medical training outside of Canada? Are more women entering the physician workforce? A new CIHI report, available upon request, tackles these questions. Original report published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) on September 9, 2014.
Helping grad students prepare for life beyond the lab
Graduate students in Ontario have a new tool to help them prepare for life beyond the lab. MyGradSkills.ca is a new website available to any Ontario graduate student via their university e-mail account. It offers 18 short, self-paced training units on topics such as how to write a resume, how to conduct a job search, the […]
22 ideas for improving health in the developing world
The Government of Canada, through Grand Challenges Canada, announces seed funding Sept. 8 for 22 projects submitted by innovators worldwide and designed to improve health in the developing world. Examples include: A device that converts sound into symbols for display on Google Glass, a tablet or laptop, captioning conversations in real-time for deaf people A […]
Iceland Bardarbunga volcano at an increased risk of eruption
Four years after ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland disrupted air traffic in Europe for six days, scientists have heard ominous rumblings from another volcano, Bardarbunga. On August 18, the Icelandic Meteorological Office raised aviation alert level to orange, meaning that “it shows heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption”. Intense seismic […]
