MAY 2012
MAY 2, 2012
ASH TREES IN WEST ISLAND THREATENED BY BEETLE
West Island homeowners have officially been notified that the emerald ash borer beetle is on its way, which could likely kill off thousands of trees in the coming years. … Forest ecology expert Jim Fyles at Macdonald Campus of McGill University says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's warning about beetle infestations means the West Island's ash trees could all be destroyed within 15 years. Fyles described the beetle situation as a SARS-like epidemic facing ash trees. "The way this thing gets around is it rides around in firewood," Fyles said.
Read more in The Gazette
APRIL 2012
APRIL 19, 2012
LA CUISINE MOLÉCULAIRE, DÉJÀ DÉPASSÉE ?
"La cuisine moléculaire, c'est fini!", clame son inventeur, le chimiste français Hervé This. Il faut faire place "à la cuisine note à note". … Hervé This a été à l'avant-scène de la gastronomie moléculaire, il y a une trentaine d'années, en compagnie du chercheur Nicholas Kurti. Au début des années 1990, le chef catalan Ferran Adria a pris la balle au bond et créé un menu moléculaire pour son restaurant El Bulli, récemment fermé. Non sans imposer El Bulli comme le meilleur établissement au monde une année sur deux entre 2000 et 2010, et s'imposer lui comme le chef le plus illustre au tournant du xxie siècle. … Mais déjà, un chercheur comme Hervé This regarde au-delà. C'est pourquoi il lance d'un ton un peu provocateur que "le moléculaire, c'est fini". Et en tournée à Montréal pour célébrer les 25 ans du département des sciences de l'alimentation de l'Université McGill, il explique ce qu'est cette cuisine note à note auquel nous nous dirigerions.
Le Droit (lien non disponible)
MARCH 2012
MARCH 30, 2012
FÉLICITATIONS AUX GAGNANTS DE LA PREMIÈRE ÉDITION DU CONCOURS RÉSIDENCES DURABLES!
Durant deux semaines, entre le 7 et 21 mars 2012, des résidences de différentes universités de partout à travers le Québec étaient en compétition pour la résidence qui obtiendrait une réduction la plus importante de son empreinte environnementale, spécifiquement au niveau de la consommation d’énergie et de la génération des déchets. Les gagnants dans chacune des 4 catégories suivantes sont : - Efficacité énergétique : Université McGill, University Hall - Gestion des matières résiduelles : Université McGill, Ecoresidence - Durabilité en générale : Université Laval - Taux de participation : Université McGill, University Hall.
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MARCH 29, 2012
NEWSMAKER: PROFESSOR HOPE WEILER IS STUDYING CHILDHOOD OBESITY
A study by Professor Hope Weiler of McGill University aims to improve the health of overweight children and teach them how to be healthy. When it comes to knowing if their children are overweight, "what I would suggest for parents if they're wondering... is probably they are in fact," said Weiler. She and her group are seeking to prevent overweight children from growing into overweight adults, however she is not putting children on a diet.
CTV
MARCH 26, 2012
POUR UNE MEILLEURE GESTION DE L'EAU
(Libre opinion de Lylia Khennache, doctorante au département de génie des bioressources à l'Université McGill) : Au terme du Forum mondial de l'eau qui a récemment eu lieu à Marseille, de nombreux projets novateurs ont fait souffler un vent d'espoir sur les enjeux liés à l'eau dans notre société. Malgré ces initiatives locales et internationales, de plus en plus de pays sont confrontés à un stress hydrique, terme employé lorsque les besoins en eau outrepassent la quantité disponible.
Le Devoir
MARCH 21, 2012
PROPONENTS OF BIRD'S NEST SOUP PUT MONEY IN WALLET
(McGill professor David Bird) "While I always enjoy the weekly columns of my McGill University colleague Dr. Joe Schwarcz - The Right Chemistry - I am particularly pleased when he brings his credibility as an award-winning science writer to help debunk myths concerning wildlife. One such recent example carried the headline "The myth of the healing rhino horn" (Feb. 18). But the one that really caught my eye was the one on Aug. 27: "Taking a flyer on benefits of bird's nest soup."…
The Gazette
MARCH 20, 2012
ÉTUDIANTE MONTRÉALAISE PRIMÉE
Une étudiante en nutrition de l'Université McGill a remporté l'un des deux pris d'un concours pancanadien de lutte contre l'excès de poids et la malnutrition. Alyssa Reid-Fontaine, qui étudie en troisième année, a nommé son projet « Kilos pour la planète ». Son but était de redistribuer les kilos dans le monde et d'équilibrer ainsi globalement le poids des gens à l'échelle planétaire. Le projet encourage les gens qui veulent perdre du poids à recueillir des fonds en se faisant parrainer, puis à remettre ces fonds à une oeuvre de bienfaisance visant à éliminer la faim dans le monde.
La Presse
FEBRUARY 29, 2012
FEBRUARY 21, 2012
DON SMITH TOP NSERC GRANT WINNER
(Alex Usher) : "It turns out that two professors stand out above all the others in this country when it comes to sponsored research grants: Donald Smith, a plant biologist at McGill University and Ajay Dalai, a chemical engineer from the University of Saskatchewan. Between 2006 and 2010, these two received $2.9 million in NSERC funding – but, rather more remarkably, were each the recipients of two new NSERC grants per year. To be clear, that’s not two recurring grants lasting over six years. That’s two brand new ones, each year, for six years. Some of which were recurring. In total, Smith picked up twelve separate NSERC grants over a 6-year period, and Dalai eleven. And that’s not counting Smith’s work in the Biofuels Network Centre of Excellence or Dalai’s Canada Research Chair. … These two somehow have bottled the research productivity genie and their secrets need to be understood. Or perhaps just poached. If you can’t beat ‘em, you could always try hiring them. All you enterprising science and engineering deans wanting to increase your granting council success rates, please form an orderly queue over here…"
HESA
FEBRUARY 13, 2012
SKY IS THE LIMIT FOR USE OF MINI, UNMANNED PLANES
Helicopters collect evidence in some car-crash cases, but the RCMP collision-cop seized had a faster, cheaper, and more portable alternative in mind – namely “Micro-UAVs,” or the stripped-down commercial cousins of the “unmanned aerial vehicles” pioneered by the military. … “I don’t want to destroy things, I want to spy on things, count things and so on,” says David Bird of McGill University, a researcher who has been using UAVs to study birds of prey. The aptly named wildlife-biology professor says UAVs have given him big-picture perspectives on migration patterns and some sharp insights into what’s going on in bird nests. “It’s brand new really exciting stuff,” he says.
Globe and Mail
FEBRUARY 2, 2012
TOP-RATED DIETS OFFER BENEFITS FOR EVERYONE; US NEWS REPORT ASSESSES THE EFFICACY OF VARIOUS WELL-KNOWN PLANS
(Athletics' Jill Barker's column in the Gazette):
Rating diets never gets old. That's because dieting never gets old. It's no wonder then, that for the second year in a row, US News created a buzz with its recent listing of the top diets of 2012. … According to Pearl Nerenberg, a Montrealbased dietitian with her own private practice, get-thinquick diets have their drawbacks, namely a loss of precious muscle mass. "We spend our lifetime trying to build muscle so we'll have enough to compensate for the loss of muscle associated with aging," said Nerenberg. "We're effectively dipping into our retirement fund of lean body mass whenever we go on those types of diets." Kristine Koski, director of McGill's School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, agrees. "How you lose weight is as important as losing the weight itself," she said. "You want to lose fat. Not bone and not muscle mass."
The Gazette
JANUARY 30, 2012
LUMBERJACKS AND JILLS
Students from eastern Canada and the U.S. converge on McGill University's Macdonald Campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Saturday, Jan. 28, to take part in the university’s Intercollegiate Woodsmen Competition, part of the Canadian Lumberjack Championships. Two women demonstrate that they are as able as anyone to participate in this back-breaking contest.
The Gazette
JANUARY 18, 2012
WHEN MAGPIES LOOK IN THE MORROR, THEY RECOGNIZE WHAT THEY SEE
STUDY FINDS From Prof. David Bird's column: "Almost all of us begin our mornings with a peek into the bathroom mirror. Whether we like what we see is another matter, but one thing is clear - we are engaging in self-recognition. When animals gaze into a mirror, they will often engage in some sort of social behaviour. Sometimes it sparks aggression. I see that reaction every winter in my Ethology laboratory session involving Siamese fighting fish with my undergraduate students. Aptly named, they treat their mirror reflection as an intruder with whom to do battle."
The Gazette