Research and Discovery

Scientists to study locust problem on three continents

Locust swarms may seem like a distant chapter from history, but these devastating insects still present a major threat in today’s world. They jeopardize food security throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australia. Locusts, particularly desert locusts, ravage crops and impact livestock — costing countries billions of dollars in lost harvests and eradication efforts.

Effort to reduce agricultural pollution in reservoir benefits farmers and consumers, study shows

The brown, smog-filled skies that engulf Beijing have earned China a poor reputation for environmental stewardship. But a study by an international and interdisciplinary team of environmental scientists, including McGill’s Brian Robinson, has found that a government-run clean water program is providing substantial benefit to millions of people in the nation’s capital.

Scientists at The Neuro find important time factor in second-language acquisition

By Anita Kar

Those vulnerable to alcoholism may experience an unusually large response in the brain’s reward-seeking pathway when they take a drink

By Cynthia Lee

Identification of key neurons that sense unexpected motion has significant implications for understanding of motion sickness

By Cynthia Lee

Researchers discover way to use iron as catalyst for widely used chemical process, replacing heavy metals

By Chris Chipello

Researchers from McGill, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Wako, Japan) and the Institute for Molecular Science (Okazaki, Japan) have discovered a way to make the widely used chemical process of hydrogenation more environmentally friendly – and less expensive.

By McGill Reporter Staff

Two McGill researchers are leading projects that recently received Partnership Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), worth nearly $9 million in combined funding.

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), made the SSHRC Partnership Grant funding announcement on May 31 at the launch of the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which took place at the University of Victoria.

Low-cost water-purifying copper device to be field-tested in India and Kenya

By McGill Reporter Staff

A low-cost copper device, which has been proven to kill deadly water-borne pathogens, will be field-tested in poor urban and rural households in India and Kenya thanks to a $100,000 Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) Phase I Proof-of-Concept Grant awarded to Drs. Padma Venkat, Caroline Kisia and Ahmad Firas Khalid, students in the International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) program at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management.

McGill and the RI MUHC receive a grant for an innovative pediatrics project in personalized health

A research team from McGill and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) led by Dr. Nada Jabado, a hemato-oncologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, has received a major investment of over $5 million for an innovative project on the genomic biomarkers associated with pediatric glioblastoma, a form of incurable cancer. This project aims to develop new therapeutic approaches that are more targeted and therefore more effective.

Grad student Xenia Kurguzova wins SSHRC prize for visual depiction of research

By Tamarah Feder