A facial scrub with that MRI?

The term “medical tourism” may conjure images of clinics in far-flung countries that offer a tempting proposition: world travel and cut-rate surgery. Yet a Quebec clinic hopes that Canadians will instead think of a warm bed, perhaps an invigorating facial scrub at a renowned Quebec City spa and the chance to skip the clogged lines that are the reality in much of the Canadian public medical system.

Q&A with university leaders

Heather Munroe-Blum - Appointed in 2003 at McGill University. What is the biggest challenge your successor faces? No matter what the challenges are, the job is an exhilarating one, the people remarkable, the mission simply the best. But a primary issue facing today’s university leaders is that of making the case for effective public policy in a focused, evidence-based, yet politically and publicly compelling manner.

Do books matter? And if so,why?

(Review) The poor book. The poor book publisher. Is there any other industry that labours under such a poignant threat of obsolescence? Or produces such large quantities of unsaleable items? Now avant-garde artists, in their cold-hearted rites, are violently dramatizing the death of the book.

Twitter is safer in America

Two men this week confronted unproven sexual accusations that may ruin their reputations.  The incidents, which took place on different sides of the Atlantic, raise questions about how the law should respond when social media wrongly labels someone a paedophile. They also showed why free speech laws are better in America.

Vinegar health claims leave a bitter taste

(Joe Schwarcz): In 218 BC, the Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants to settle a score with Rome. The perilous journey almost came to an end at what looked like an impenetrable rockfall. But Hannibal, an ingenious leader, had a trick up his sleeve. Or at least some vinegar in his pot.

Newsmaker: John Hanrahan, Cystic Fibrosis

McGill researcher John Hanrahan describes a new treatment for cystic fibrosis derived from sea sponges.

Read more at CTV

Newsmaker: Free eye screening clinic

Dr. Alice Yang Zhang of McGill’s ophthalmology clinic is organizing a free clinic for full eye exams. The clinic takes place on Nov. 24, 2012 at 4120 Ste. Catherine St. W.

Read more at CTV

Wellington bomber MF509 crew remembered in walk

Scores of people have climbed a mountain in the Upper Swansea Valley to take part in a service of remembrance dedicated to the lost crew of a Second World War bomber. And the experience has been captured on video for families of the fallen to watch.

Thin India presence at global TB conference

For a country with one of the highest TB burdens in the world, the presence of barely a handful of key officials from its Central TB Division was immediately noticeable at the 43rd, and largest ever, Union World Conference on Lung Health at Kuala Lumpur.

Physicists skirt thermal vibration, transfer signal

Using tiny radiation pressure forces -- generated each time light is reflected off a surface -- University of Oregon physicists converted an optical field, or signal, from one color to another. Aided by a "dark mode," the conversion occurs through the coupling between light and a mechanical oscillator, without interruption by thermal mechanical vibrations.

Out of touch: E-reading isn't reading

(Andrew Piper, German and European literature prof at McGill and co-director of the literary lab Citelab. Author of Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times, from which this is excerpted): "Amid the seemingly endless debates today about the future of reading, there remains one salient, yet often overlooked fact: Reading isn’t only a matter of our brains; it’s something that we do with our bodies.

Use research, genetics to help mistreated children

Governments need to do a better job of tracking and pinpointing which of a myriad of social programs would best help children cope with abuse in their early years, says a study released Thursday. […] Niko Trocme, a social work professor at McGill University and panel member, said each year social agencies receive reports of potential maltreatment of about 200,000 children across Canada.

It's a crisis for Quebec women

Surgery wait times for deadly ovarian, cervical and breast cancers in Quebec are three times longer than government benchmarks, leading some desperate patients to shop around for an operating room. But that's a waste of time, doctors say, since the problem is spread across Quebec hospitals. And doctors are refusing to accept new patients quickly because they can't treat them, health advocates say.

City honours veterans at McGill

Under overcast skies on the athletic grounds of McGill University, veterans, politicians and everyday folk, the overwhelming majority wearing a poppy over their hearts, gathered Sunday morning to remember the veterans who fought for Canada.

McGill remembers brings digital light to the dark years

For years, one man clipped every article, stored every letter and carefully transcribed every promotion, every victory and every heartbreaking loss that touched the McGill University community during the Second World War. The man, R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, took on the task as an additional duty in the McGill War Records Office. In 1945, the gunfire ceased, and those left started moving on with their lives.