CBC | Scientist who linked Nunavut water to Mars exploration wins lifetime award
Scientists looking for water on other planets may learn from an award-winning researcher who's spent 40 years studying permafrost in Canada's Arctic. Wayne Pollard has won a lifetime achievement award from the W.
MONTREAL GAZETTE | McGill's diploma program will train expert pot growers for $24,000
Call it a sign of the times: McGill University will teach students how to grow the perfect pot plant starting next year. McGill’s Diploma in Commercial Cannabis program launches in June and it’s meant to train biologists to cultivate weed, design strains, protect them against contaminants and understand the legal framework of Canada’s burgeoning weed industry.
THE NEW YORK TIMES | How Life on Our Planet Made It Through Snowball Earth
Oxygen needs to be present for iron to rust. It also needs to be present for animals and many other organisms to survive. If the iron rocks below the ancient oceans rusted, then there was also oxygen in those oceans. And if there was oxygen, then oxygen-breathing life-forms had a lifeline they could cling to.
CANADIAN LAWYER | McGill agrees to “JD” for common law degrees, in response to requests
The designation for common law degrees from McGill's Faculty of Law has been changed to JD from the previous LLB, effective immediately. According to a news release from the law school’s official website, starting from the spring 2020 convocation, graduates will receive two degrees: a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Juris Doctor. The program will now be called BCL/JD, and no longer BCL/LLB.
C2 Montréal’s new digs at McGill: A site for a celebration of innovation
Some might say it’s a relationship that was meant to be. Part of its continued growth and evolution, C2 Montréal is reinventing itself once again with the help of one of Canada’s most storied institutions of higher learning, McGill University.
CTV NEWS | Canada seeks peace in space as U.S. prepares to weaponize it
"Because of Canada's alliance with the United States, there might be some pressure to adopt or toe a very similar line to the United States," said David Kuan-Wei Chen, executive director of the Centre for Research in Air and Space Law at McGill University. "But so far, I think the political leadership and people at the Department of National Defence have resisted that."
THE CONVERSATION | Lack of equity and diversity still plague global health research
"The field of global health has evolved from colonial and military medicine, tropical medicine and international health. While it is evolving for the better, research shows that global health is still struggling to shake off its colonial past", says Madhukar Pai, Director of Global Health & professor at McGill University, in an article he wrote in The Conversation.
CTV NEWS | McGill University project on zero-carbon fuel to launch into space on Friday
A project testing metal combustion developed by the Alternative Fuels Laboratory at McGill University is set to launch Friday morning on a European Space Agency rocket. The project, in cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency and Airbus Defence and Space, will launch aboard a Texus-56 rocket from Esrange, Sweden, at 3 am Montreal time.
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CTV NEWS | British scholar Julia Lovell wins McGill-run history prize for book on Maoism
British scholar Julia Lovell has won a prestigious history writing prize run by McGill University for a book on the global impact of Chinese communist ideology. The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian was awarded the US$75,000 Cundill History Prize at a Montreal gala Thursday evening.
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CBC | Arctic could face 'abrupt' climate threats due to permafrost thaw, says study
The study, published in Nature Climate Change, says permafrost thaw in the region will likely drive "abrupt" climate change that will happen with "little or no warning." Most alarming, the authors found the severity of wildfires in the Northwest Territories and Yukon could double from one year to the next and stay at that higher rate.
THE GUARDIAN | Air pollution nanoparticles linked to brain cancer for first time
“Environmental risks like air pollution are not large in magnitude – their importance comes because everyone in the population is exposed,” said Scott Weichenthal, at McGill University in Canada, who led the study. “So when you multiply these small risks by lots of people, all of sudden there can be lots of cases. In a large city, it could be a meaningful number, particularly given the fact that these tumours are often fatal.”
Daniel Almeida winner of the #ScienceExposed 2019
Science Exposed is a contest organized by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and devoted exclusively to images of scientific research, in all fields of study. Daniel Almeida, McGill student, won the #ScienceExposed 2019 Jury Prize and People’s Choice Award for his research image “La reazione nera (The black reaction)”.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL | ‘Superbug’ is cause for alarm, with more deaths and massive costs looming, report says
Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, a panel member and medical sociologist at McGill University in Montreal, said the group looked to the 2003 SARS outbreak as an example of how public behaviour changed and people reduced their interactions in response to an increased risk of being exposed to a dangerous pathogen.
CBC | Why studying music and the brain is so fascinating, and so difficult
New research is shedding light on how the brain interacts with music. It also highlights how challenging it is to study the issue effectively due to the highly personalized nature of how we interpret it. "Music is very subjective," says Dr. Daniel Levitin, a professor of neuroscience and music at McGill University in Montreal and author of the bestselling book This is Your Brain on Music.
MONTREAL GAZETTE | Quebec is neglecting children suffering from obesity: expert
“There are a lot of complications of obesity in kids, and we need some investment from the government to treat more people, because our waiting lists are now up to one year,” Dr. Julie St-Pierre said at a news conference at her Clinique 180 on Mont-Royal Ave. E. “I’ve seen children as young as four years old develop Type 2 diabetes. It’s awful.”
