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People who have better spatial memory are also better at identifying odors, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications. The study builds on a recent theory that the main reason that a sense of smell evolved was to aid in navigation, since most animals rely primarily on smell to find food and avoid predators.

Source: Cell Metabolism

New research suggests that higher-level brain functions have a major role in losing weight. In a study among 24 participants at a weight-loss clinic, those who achieved greatest success in terms of weight loss demonstrated more activity in the brain regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex associated with self-control. The results of the study were published in Cell Metabolism on October 18.

Scientists have revealed the intricate process that bone cells use to repair themselves after mechanical injury, according to a study in the open-access journal eLife.

The research provides new insight on how the body adapts to all kinds of mechanical stresses – from pressure placed on bones during simple walking, to extreme forces experienced during intense exercise.

The McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law has released a detailed new paper by its Director, Professor Brian F. Havel, that comprehensively analyses the legal and policy consequences of Brexit for the airline industries of the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU), and the United States (US).

A deep and shared commitment to supporting the recommendations of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) have led McGill University and Vancouver Island University (VIU) to form a unique collaboration to create new opportunities in Indigenous studies.

A study published today in the BMJ Open shows that in countries where there is a complete ban on all corporal punishment of children there is less fighting among young people. There was 31% less physical fighting in young men and 42% less physical fighting in young women in countries where corporal punishment was banned in all settings, compared with those where corporal punishment was permitted both at school and at home.

When a young athlete suddenly dies of a heart attack, chances are high that they suffer from familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Itis the most common genetic heart disease in the US and affects an estimated 1 in 500 people around the world. A protein called myosin acts as the molecular motor which makes the muscles in the heart contract. Researchers had suspected for some time that the R403Q mutation in some of the myosin genes is among those that play a role in causing HCM. But experiments using mice models failed to show that this was indeed the case.

McGill University’s Indigenous students can now rely on dedicated financial support thanks to a new partnership with Indspire, an Indigenous national charity that invests in the education of Indigenous peoples. Indspire will manage the awarding process through its Building Brighter Futures: Bursaries, Scholarships and Awards program to secure matching funds from the Government of Canada. This nearly doubles McGill’s $500,000 investment towards its prospective and enrolled Indigenous students over the next two years.

Young Canadians are more at risk of a vehicle crash even five hours after inhaling cannabis, according to results of a clinical trial conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University, and funded by the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA).

October 10, 2018 - Montreal, Canada – The McGill Executive Institute (MEI) at McGill University is launching an innovative two-day seminar focusing on leadership in the healthcare sector. The seminar, which will run at the end of October and then again in March, responds to increasing demands for healthcare workers to engage in leadership activities, mobilize cross-functional teams, give a voice to frontline staff, and implement lasting change.

Are human disturbances to the environment driving evolutionary changes in animals and plants? A new study conducted by McGill researchers finds that, on average, human disturbances don’t appear to accelerate the process of natural selection. While the finding may seem reassuring, this unexpected pattern could reflect the limited number of species for which data were available.

Interpreting age-related changes and differences in brain structure, activation and functional connectivity is an ongoing challenge. Ambiguous terminology is a major source of this challenge. For example, the terms “compensation”, “maintenance”, and “reserve” are used in different ways by researchers. Most of the time, they disagree about the kind of evidence or patterns of results required to interpret findings related to these concepts.

Every night, some 800 million people – one in nine people on earth – go to bed hungry. And projections suggest that unless creative solutions are found, the world will need to increase food production by an additional 50% in the next 30 years, when the planet’s population is expected to exceed 9 billion.

Today, the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, announced more than $558 million in discovery research funding across Canada, including the largest investment in research from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) this year. Through the 2018 Discovery Grants, Scholarships and Fellowships competition, 130 McGill researchers received funding totaling more than $30 million.

Sibling rivalry. Every parent and every sibling understands what this means. Siblings fight. A lot. And sometimes those fights escalate to involve physical, verbal, and psychological aggression. Aggression between siblings is so common that people often believe that these behaviors are part of the normal process of growing up, but recent research shows us that sibling aggression can cross the line and parents need to know when to seek help.

A set of targeted cancer drugs, known as BRAF and MEK inhibitors, have proven to be beneficial for some metastatic melanoma patients whose tumours include a specific mutation in the BRAF gene, known as V600E. A recent study conducted in the lab of Dr. Peter Siegel at McGill University’s Goodman Cancer Research Centre suggests that these same drugs may prove beneficial for a broader range of cancer patients.

The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre’s (RI-MUHC) push to treat a rare genetic disease in children – with a higher percentage found in French Canadians – has received $2 million as part of a national genomic contest led by Genome Canada.

A team of scientists has successfully trained a new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to make accurate predictions regarding cognitive decline leading to Alzheimer’s disease.

ArcelorMittal Mining Canada G.P. announced today a long-term funding programme to support mining and materials engineering R&D in the Faculty of Engineering at McGill University. The strategic partnership pledges to provide $360,000 over four years to create the ArcelorMittal Mining and Mineral Processing Fund, which will finance research projects and program development in the University’s Mining Department.