The most abundant animals on farms—and everywhere on land, in fact—are microscopic worms called nematodes. Some kinds benefit the soil, but others parasitize crops, inflicting more than $100 billion in losses worldwide each year. Although pesticides can get rid of harmful nematodes, they inflict collateral damage on other life.
Published on: 26 May 2023
Around the world, food is grown on land of all sizes and all types, but that diversity means farmers often fail to take into account landscape complexity and soil variability, according to Chandra A. Madramootoo, a professor of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada.
He says that one solution is precision farming, an approach that “enables the selection of crops, and chemical and water applications within spatially similar land and soil zones.”
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Published on: 26 May 2023
A team led by two recent McGill bioengineering graduates, Alexander Becker and Cynthia Hitti, has made it through to the final phase of the Deep Space Food Challenge (DSFC) with their system for rearing crickets as a food source for long-haul space voyages.
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Published on: 3 May 2023
Congratulations to two Macdonald Profs who have received funding through the New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration stream, which supports high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research: Hamid Akbarzadeh (BRE) for Origami-inspired deployable sensoriactuator soft robots and Mehran Dastmalchi (PltSci) for Plant-derived biosynergists to enhance pesticide efficacy.
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Published on: 27 Apr 2023
Research published in Ecology took a closer look into the candy-striped spider’s diet and behaviour and found that these spiders use a variety of tactics to take down prey much larger than themselves, including sleeping bees and wasps.
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Published on: 27 Apr 2023
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Published on: 24 Apr 2023
A research team led by William Dawson Scholar and Assistant Professor Jen Ronholm (AnSci/FdSci) has received $1.65 million for an NSERC CREATE in One Health Against Pathogens (OHAP). Ten co-applicants from McGill, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Guelph, and l’Université du Québec à Montréal will collaborate.
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Published on: 20 Apr 2023
Genome Canada has invested nearly $8 million in two McGill projects as part of a total national investment of $18.1 million in genomics-based research. Through public-private partnerships, these investments will help accelerate the commercialization of genomics and increase its real-world applications.
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Published on: 20 Apr 2023
Thirty students from 10 countries will form the first global cohort of McCall MacBain Scholars at McGill University, arriving in September 2023. Hailing from 26 universities, the new scholars will pursue fully funded master’s or professional degrees in 18 departments and schools across eight McGill faculties.
The Macdonald campus looks forward to welcoming its first scholar, Rachel Opoku-Afriyi, a recent graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who will pursue an M.Sc. in Renewable Resources.
Published on: 20 Apr 2023
Scientists are studying the diets of the oceans’ top predators as they change in response to their environments. This is because how much and what they eat can affect how ecosystems function.
And while researchers know that killer whales, also known as orcas, are the oceans’ apex predators, our understanding of their diet — particularly the quantity of each species they consume — remains incomplete. This is especially true for remote populations that cannot be observed year-round.
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Published on: 20 Apr 2023
Heather Rogers, a Digital Humanities student at MA, has taken her research on Dorothy Newton Swales (BSc Plant Pathology, 1921; MSc Bacteriology 1922; Ph.D. University of Manitoba, Mycology 1931) and transformed it into an interactive website so that others can follow the six decades of botanical collections made by the herbarium's first woman curator (1964-1971) and longest serving mentor to young botanists.
Published on: 20 Apr 2023
Un récent rapport indique que 40 % des travailleurs agricoles partiront à la retraite d'ici 2033 et que le pays manquera de 24 000 employés d'ici là. Pascal Thériault, économiste et directeur du programme de gestion et technologies d’entreprise agricole à l’Université McGill, analyse la situation.
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Published on: 20 Apr 2023
Macdonald community members gathered at the Ceilidh on Wednesday, April 5, to celebrate the Gold Key Recipients for 2023. As the ice storm outside intensified, students, staff, and friends listened as Arthur Bégin, Defne Helvacioglu, Estee Ngew, and Meryem Talbo (picture above: fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh from left) shared their rewarding experiences of being involved in community life at Macdonald Campus before being awarded the cherished Gold Key pin.
Published on: 20 Apr 2023
McGill University and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) announced today the creation of the Research and Innovation Chair in Animal Welfare and Artificial Intelligence (WELL-E). The five-year, $5 million Chair will carry out a major research project funded by a grant from NSERC Alliance and PROMPT, fiduciary of the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy. Important contributions have also been made by industrial partners Novalait, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), Les Producteurs de Lait du Québec (PLQ), and Lactanet.
Published on: 19 Apr 2023
Preventing illness from spoiled groceries needs to be top of mind, says a food safety expert at McGill University.
"There can be a range of symptoms, most often diarrhea and vomiting, the ones we're all familiar with but foodborne infections can also be quite serious," said Jennifer Ronholm [Food/Animal Science], a professor of food microbiology.
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Published on: 14 Apr 2023
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