Student researcher pieces together satellite data to help communities monitor wildfires

Morgan Crowley’s interest in sustainability took root early.

As a schoolchild in New Hampshire, she went to summer camp on Pine Mountain – so named for the stately evergreens that used to blanket the site. By the time Morgan started going there, “there were only two pines left” because the rest had fallen victim to a forest fire or to logging. As a result, “I grew up thinking very much about ecological sustainability.”

In the third installment of National Geographic’s “Into Water” 360 series, canoe through the sprawling Canadian wilderness with freshwater ecologist and National Geographic Explorer Dalal Hanna [Ph.D. candidate NRS (Bennett)]. She researches Quebec’s extensive freshwater systems, collecting samples from streams, rivers and lakes to assess ecosystem health, with the aim of protecting these precious resources. “Into Water: Canada” is the third stop on an around the world 360 tour that documents the work of female Explorers who’ve dedicated their careers to water related issues.

Les conditions météorologiques, les grands vents et les parasites peuvent abîmer les cultures jusqu’à coucher les tiges au sol. On parle alors de la verse des plants. De la reproduction à la croissance en passant par la résistance aux intempéries ou aux chocs, c’est à l’échelle microscopique que se joue le développement des plantes et des produits agricoles.

Music, including songs with words, appears to be a universal phenomenon according to a paper published this week in Science. An international team of researchers involving musicians, data scientists, psychologists, political scientists and linguists, including one from McGill University, reached this conclusion after five years of collaboration, bringing together a broad range of skills and tools to the question of whether music is universal.

Using broad datasets to arrive at deep conclusions about music

The Segal Centre for Performing Arts has welcomed Elliot Lifson, Desautels International Advisory Board member and Professor of Practice, as president of their Board of Directors. After serving 12 years as a board member, Professor Lifson looks forward to continuing to strengthen the centre’s standing as a leader in Canadian theatre.

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Research Group Launches Zero-Carbon Fuel Experiment into Space

New research from a collaboration between Argentinian and University of Alberta and McGill University palaeontologists adds a new piece to the puzzle of snake evolution.

The researchers examined a strikingly well-preserved fossil of the rear-limbed snake Najash rionegrina, found in Argentina. The study shows that nearly 100 million years ago, these legged snakes still had a cheekbone—also known as a jugal bone—that has all but disappeared in their modern descendants.