Researchers have mixed feelings when it comes to reading and publishing in open-access journals. In a survey on 540 researchers in Canada, 83% of them think that published research should be freely available to anyone and almost half of them reported publishing more than half of their research in open access format in the past […]
Category: News tip
Western oil buried under eastern sand 
Researchers showed that most of the actual sand at the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta is originally from the east. By analysing trace amounts of uranium and lead in individual sand grains called zircons, researchers showed that most of the sediment was originally eroded from faraway places, such as the Appalachian mountains. This improved understanding […]
Growing leukemia stem cells in the lab
Previous attempts to grow leukemia stem cells outside the body have fallen short, as the cells lose their cancer stem cell characteristics. Now, scientists have found a way to grow and maintain ‘healthy’ leukemia cancer stem cells outside of the body. This opens the way to screens for drugs that can block the cells’ ability […]
Promoting a healthy diet at the check-out line
Researchers have found a relationship between the median income and soft drink purchases in Montreal. Researchers used records from scanning equipment at grocery store checkout lines to track soft drink purchases in various Montreal neighbourhoods. They found that for every $10,000 decline in the local median income there was a five-fold increase in soft drink […]
SMCC Holiday Closure & Top Five of 2013 | News tip
SMCC Holiday Closure and Top Five Science Stories of 2013 | December 20, 2013 The Science Media Centre of Canada will be closed for the holidays from Monday, December 23, 2013 until Friday, January 3, 2014 inclusive. If there is a major breaking news story during these two weeks, we will send out news alerts […]
