A 9,000 year-old ritualized decapitation may be the oldest case found in the New World, according to researchers, leading to a re-evaluation of the origins and geographic dispersion of the practice. The remains, a skull, two amputated hands, and several vertebrae, were found laid out in a way suggesting that they were likely part of […]
Category: Paper of Interest
Let’s be clear about cannabis
Researchers must be more careful with the language they use when describing the relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia to avoid causing misinformation and panic in the public, according to a Canadian researcher. In a Perspective the researcher writes the epidemiological evidence does not support the conclusion that cannabis use causes schizophrenia. Instead the author writes […]
Increasing risk of coastal erosion from El Niño
Coastal areas around the pacific will be at increased risk of erosion and flooding if a projected increase in extreme El Niño and La Niña events occurs, according to a new study. Researchers found that observed coastal erosion across the Pacific varies closely with El Niño events, independent of changes in sea-level rise. The researchers […]
Failing our fish: Most at-risk fish species less likely to be listed
The more at risk a marine fish is in Canada, the less likely it is to be listed on the Species At Risk Act according to new research. According to Susanna Fuller, co-author and Marine Program Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, “less than 20% of at-risk marine fishes in Canada have been […]
The British navy went far for food
Looking at old cod found in the hold of the Tudor warship the Mary Rose is providing a glimpse of fisheries history. A DNA analysis of the stored cod revealed it was caught in near Iceland and Newfoundland and is “illuminating the role of naval provisioning in the early development of extensive sea fisheries, with […]
Assessing head trauma in young children
New guidelines may help emergency department physicians reduce unnecessary scans in young children with minor head injuries, according to a new study. Researchers believe they have found two factors that would identify approximately 90 per cent of skull fractures in children under two months of age. This could reduce the number of radiographs by 60 […]
How Sperm whales speak
Sperm whales learn different ‘dialects’ of their ‘click’ sounds through cultural learning, a method of learning found in both Orcas and humans, say researchers. This reinforces the idea that the same processes responsible for the formation of human cultures can operate in animal societies. Sperm whales live in clans – groups of families that can […]
Who owes what? Quantifying global climate debt
A letter in Nature Climate Change presents a new way to quantify the contribution each country has made to climate change through a nation’s carbon and climate debts. This new method ranks Canada as the fourth largest climate debt-holder. Considering only national CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion accumulated between 1990 and 2010 the […]
Common molecular toolkit shared across the Tree of Life
The assembly instructions for nearly 1,000 protein complexes shared by most kinds of animals have been revealed, offering a new tool for studying the causes of diseases like Alzheimer’s and different cancers. Proteins come together to form complexes, or molecular machines, which are responsible for certain functions in cells. The new research indicates that most […]
Global tree count: Seeing the forest through the trees
There are approximately three trillion trees in the world, according to density estimates of every continent except Antarctica, a number much larger than previous estimates of just over 400 billion trees. However their research also estimates that humans have cut down 46 per cent of the world’s trees since the beginning of human civilization. The […]
Need your umbrella? The history, and future, of weather prediction
Today’s weather forecasts are able to accurately predict the weather an extra day in advance, compared to a decade ago. The authors write that every decade has provided another day of accurate prediction to the weather forecasts; they believe that today’s 6-day forecast is as accurate as a 5-day forecast 10 years ago. In this […]
Weather impacts on insect gender
The gender of certain insects can be determined by the weather, and therefore influenced by climate change, according to new research. The authors believe this is the first study to show the effects of weather on insect gender. From 2008 to 2010 Researchers captured newly hatched weevils (Curculio elephas) after they emerged from the soil. […]
A new understanding of pig domestication
Domesticating the pig turns out to be more complicated than we thought. We used to think they were domesticated by isolating small populations and selectively breeding for certain traits, however this does not appear to be the case for pigs. By analyzing the genomes of over 600 domestic pigs and wild boars from Europe and […]
Arctic warming linked to cold winters in North America
Warming in certain areas of the Arctic can cause cold winters in North America and Asia according to climate model simulations. Researchers believe the findings may help improve the prediction of winter weather and extreme events in North America and East Asia. The results suggest that atypical warming in the Arctic Barents-Kara Sea precedes severe […]
Canadians receiving false positives for Lyme disease from U.S. labs
Canadians may receive false-positives for Lyme disease, from some commercial labs in the United States over half the time, according to an editorial in the CMAJ. Lyme disease, which is becoming more common in Canada, is spread by ticks and causes fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and if not treated, the infection can spread to joints, […]
A new “silent spring”
An editorial is calling the dumping of plastic waste into the ocean a new “silent spring”. “Silent spring” was a book written in the 1960s outlining the harmful effects of the overuse of pesticides on the environment. It was instrumental in raising public awareness of the potential dangers of pesticides. The authors of the paper […]