Joe Schwarcz: investigates 'good' and 'bad' in food
Once upon a time, we used to sit down to dinner and all that mattered was what the food tasted like. If it pleased the palate, we ate it. Oh, how times have changed! Now the dinner table has become a virtual laboratory where foods are evaluated in terms of being either “good” or “bad.” It makes sense. After all, food is the only raw material that ever enters our body, so we are what we eat.
Lower costs lure American students to Canadian schools
More American teenagers are thinking about picking up a passport and heading abroad for their college years as a way of attending a top-rated school at a lower cost, Canadian and British college recruiters say… Even with extra fees for international students, colleges and universities in Canada, such as McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, can cost less than tuition at private colleges or out-of-state carges at public universities.
The autism project: to get your child diagnosed
Neuroscientist Mayada Elsabbagh has spent her career unravelling the mysteries of the infant brain. She studies neural pathways. She uses high-tech sensors and infrared eye-trackers to examine the differences in babies’ brain signals when they gaze at a face or a rubber ball. The assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal has a PhD and a long list of credentials and cutting-edge studies to her name.
Generic oxycontin sparks unique fight; MDS divided
The epidemic of addiction and abuse spawned by OxyContin is well documented, prompting even its manufacturer to replace the narcotic painkiller with a pill it claims is harder to abuse. Now, with the patent expiring on the original drug in two weeks, some provincial health ministers have made an unprecedented request of the federal government: prohibit generic versions of the prototype from coming on the market and opening up a new, far-cheaper supply of so-called Hillbilly heroin.
McGill studying the secrets of successful aging
Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won gold in the 100-metre sprint at the London 2012 Olympics, clocking a time of 10.75 seconds. Vancouver's Christa Bortignon's time for the same distance is 15.99 seconds. Fraser-Pryce is 25. Bortignon is 50 years her senior.
Science Journalist Jay Ingram exposes a side of hockey
How light can you make a skate? How bendy can you make a composite stick before its shooting utility breaks? What’s the optimal time to pull a goalie? The hidebound world of hockey is resting more and more on the shoulders of science these days. (Scientists are even investigating whether leaner shoulder pads can help curb the curse of concussions). And when science is involved in a popular pursuit, you’ll usually find Jay Ingram nearby. … We do quite a bit on the design of skates.
New pill to cut chance of a stroke
Cholesterol sufferers could soon take a simple pill which keeps levels under control and protects them against heart disease or a stroke. The daily wonder pill has been hailed as a new fat buster by scientists. Experts found that people who took just two capsules packed with healthy bacteria every day not only had lower "bad" cholesterol but also of total cholesterol.
McGill series lectures on diet, health and science
There's a sea of conflicting information out there about what we should be eating and not eating, about what's good for us and what isn't - and trying to navigate it often feels impossible. Four distinguished speakers with great expertise in the arena in which diet, health and science intersect will gather in Montreal next week for the eighth annual Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium Series, hosted by McGill University's Office for Science & Society.
The man or the platform?
(History professor Gil Troy): Mitt Romney and Barack Obama appear to agree about at least one thing on this tense Election Day: They are standing on mutually exclusive party platforms, offering Americans what Obama called “the clearest choice of any time in a generation.” The candidates – and their partisans – insist voters are deciding today between a country that will be prospering or bankrupt, with a foreign policy that is firm or flaccid, and with abortion either remaining legal or
Another nail-biting evening - but not much will change
(History professor Gil Troy): With many pollsters declaring today’s presidential election “too close to call,” Americans face the third of four nail-biting Election Days since 2000. Barack Obama’s decisive 2008 win now seems to be the 21st-century anomaly.
Read more at Globe and Mail
It's time to rebalance our sectors and society
(Henry Mintzberg) Governments and corporations can't be relied upon to provide solutions to our biggest problems – instead we must look to ourselves. That we face serious problems – poverty amid plenty, the degradation of our physical, social, and economic environments, terrorism by fanatic cells and rogue states, and so on – is clear. But how our established institutions – governments and businesses – deal with them, even when responsive and responsible, is not.
Newsmaker: Dr. Joe Schwarcz: You are what you eat
Dr. Joe Schwarcz talked to Paul Karwatsky about how what you eat will have an effect on your health. This will be the topic of the Lorne Trottier Pubic Science Symposium at the Centre Mont Royal. Drs. Walter Willett (chair of the Dept. of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health) and Jeffrey Blumberg (Tufts University) speak on Monday Nov. 12.
Talking management: The power of making people laugh
Karl Moore of Desautels Faculty of Management talks with Peter McGraw, a professor of marketing at the University of Colorado, about the place of humour at work.
Read more at Globe and Mail
Viagra makers stiffen as ruling threatens patent
The little blue pill that has enhanced sex lives the world over could face some market competition if the Supreme Court of Canada decides this week that Pfizer Canada Inc.'s patent on the erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra is invalid. The top court will issue a judgment Thursday on a challenge to Pfizer's Canadian patent by generic drug company Teva Canada Limited. If Teva is successful, the company could put a generic version of Viagra on the Canadian market immediately.
How to reduce workplace gender segregation
Researchers have previously demonstrated that approximately half of the pay gap between men and women (women earn about 20% less) is due to women having a tendency to work in different occupations and industries than men, a phenomenon called “gender segregation.” But what causes this gender segregation?
