Wood is a popular and cheap building material, but it swells and shrinks with moisture, limiting its potential. A new study by materials scientists and mechanical engineers shows that most of the swelling and shrinking is limited to the cell walls. The complex nanostructure of wood actually prevents it from expanding even more than it already […]
Tag: Québec
Predators are the main drivers of the Arctic tundra food chain
A new study shows that predators (Arctic fox, wolves, stoat, snowy owls) are the main drivers of the Arctic tundra food chain. Usually, predators regulate the food chain in a given ecosystem, but researchers previously thought that this view did not apply to the Arctic tundra as there are too few herbivores such as caribou, […]
Methane emissions from ecosystems to increase
Microbes found in aquatic, wetland and rice-paddy ecosystems emit methane instead of carbon dioxide during respiration. As temperatures rise, the emissions from these organisms rise too. A new study shows that methane emissions from aquatic microbes will increase with temperature faster than either respiration or photosynthesis of other living organisms. Methane is a more […]
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 […]
Bird flu and seasonal flu | Experts available
Experts available – Bird flu and seasonal flu – January 10, 2014 With Canada’s first – albeit isolated – case of H5N1 (bird flu) reported last week and ongoing concern about H1N1 influenza across the country, SMCC has gathered a short list of flu experts who are available to answer media questions. If you are […]
Climate change could affect microbes too
Saccharomyces paradoxus is a tree fungus closely related to the yeast used to make bread and beer. A new genetic mapping study shows that samples of S. paradoxus taken from across eastern North America are genetically distinct from each other, and that each grows best in the conditions that match its native habitat. This suggest […]
