On Monday April 8th, thousands of people flocked to McGill's downtown and MacDonald campuses, as well as Gault Nature Reserve, to witness a once-in-a-lifetime event: the total solar eclipse. The three spectacular events not only included a viewing party with free glasses, but also educational activities to inform the public on this astronomical phenomenon. Read the Reporter article on the eclipse festivities to learn more.
On April 8, 2024, a spectacular and rare celestial event is set to unfold over Canada, the United States and Mexico – a total solar eclipse. As the Moon aligns perfectly between Earth and the Sun, temporary darkness will sweep across parts of the country, captivating countless spectators. Quebec hasn't witnessed a total solar eclipse in over 50 years, and it will be over 80 years before the next one. (Government of Canada)
Exoplanets, planets located beyond our Solar System, captivate both scientists and the public, holding the promise of unveiling diverse planetary systems and potentially habitable worlds. Despite being very much not like our Earth, large gas giant planets found very close to their stars have proven to be ideal test targets for telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to refine astronomers’ methods of understanding exoplanets.
What wiped out the dinosaurs? A meteorite plummeting to Earth is only part of the story, a new study suggests. Climate change triggered by massive volcanic eruptions may have ultimately set the stage for the dinosaur extinction, challenging the traditional narrative that a meteorite alone delivered the final blow to the ancient giants.
Forty-five undergraduate students at McGill participated in new Climate Crisis and Climate Actions course
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down almost everything. For Diane Dechief, PhD, and Marcy Slapcoff of the Office of Science Education (OSE), the two leads of the new Faculty of Science course FSCI198: Climate Crisis and Climate Actions, there was a positive aspect to the delays.
Early Tuesday, lava is shooting 100 feet to 200 feet (30 to 60 metres) into the air as Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, erupts for the first time in nearly 40 years. (CTV)
Fiona D’Arcy, PhD candidate, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Using real geochemical data from the archaeological site of Itzan, Guatemala, and computer-generated artwork, PhD candidate Benjamin Keenan (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences) has produced a video that brings the ancient Mayan civilization to life. Funded by a FRQ DIALOGUE grant (the first for the Faculty of Science), his video has been shown at over 10 exhibitions and conferences, both locally and internationally. Learn more about Benjamin's project.
Image Caption: The Mackenzie River Delta on the Beaufort Sea, a low-lying region in the Canadian Arctic that is vulnerable to rising seas in a warming climate. CREDIT: Nadia and Harold Gomez
On January 12, the Federal Government announced more than $295 million for science, research, and engineering in Canada through the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) 2020-2 cycle, the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) 2020 Transformation results, and the Tri-agency Scholarships and Fellowships.
Read the full story on the McGill Newsroom or the McGill Reporter.
Below is a list of all CRCs awarded in the 2020-2022 Cycle and McGill Co-PIs and Collaborators NFRF-T 2021-2027:
International team including McGill researchers has discovered a new type of seismic event. The existence of these hydraulic fracturing-induced earthquakes supports a scientific theory that until now had not been sufficiently substantiated by measurements.
Surprising as it sounds, all life forms in the ocean, from small krill to large tuna, seem to obey a simple mathematical law that links an organism’s abundance to its body size. For example, although small krill are individually only about one millionth of the weight of a large tuna, they also tend to be a million times more numerous throughout the oceans. The idea, known as the Sheldon size spectrum theory, was first advanced in the 1970s, but has never been tested for a wide range of marine species and on a global scale until now.
Short growing seasons limited the possible size of hunter-gatherer societies by forcing people to rely on meat, according to a recent study by a team of international researchers, including McGill University professor Eric Galbraith.
Scientists’ ability to estimate eruption risks is largely reliant on knowing where pools of magma are stored, deep in the Earth’s crust. But what happens if the magma can’t be spotted?
Earth Day, celebrated annually on 22 April, will again see more than 1 billion people participating in activities around the world to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis and environmental degradation and the need for immediate action. Many important environmental events have happened on Earth Day since its inception in 1970, including the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016. The theme for this year – the second Earth Day Live digital event - is: Restore our Earth.
NASA’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday, February 18 and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. (National Post)
Here are some experts from McGill University that can provide comment on this issue: