H. Borchers et al.

Pac-Man carving by laser cutting. Credit: H. Borchers et al.

A gentler, more precise laser cutting technique

Laser cutting techniques are usually powered by high energy beams, so hot that they melt most materials. Now scientists from McGill University have developed a gentler, more precise technique using low-power visible light.

Classified as: poverty reduction, evolutionary change, laser cutting, Tomislav Friščić, Daniel Béland, Shaun Lovejoy
Published on: 30 Jun 2022

McGill University scientists have developed a new system for sharing the enormous amount of data being generated by the CHIME radio telescope in its search for fast radio bursts (FRBs), the puzzling extragalactic phenomenon that is one of the hottest topics in modern-day astronomy.

Published on: 18 Nov 2021

Milton Riaño, McGill’s Climate Change Artist-in-Residence, will curate the Faculty of Science’s Bicentennial Science/Art Exposition, billed as a “celebration of science in all its forms”.

The art show organizers are calling on all members of the McGill community to submit works in any medium, expressing what science means to them.

The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2021.

Published on: 30 Aug 2021

The 5th edition of McGill Physics Hackathon brought together a record breaking number of participants in this 2020 online event. 

Classified as: STEM Outreach
Published on: 5 May 2021

Mini-Neptunes and super-Earths up to four times the size of our own are the most common exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. Until now, super-Earths were thought to be the rocky cores of mini-Neptunes whose gassy atmospheres were blown away. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, astronomers from McGill University show that some of these exoplanets never had gaseous atmospheres to begin with, shedding new light on their mysterious origins.

Classified as: space, super-Earths, mini-Neptunes, planetary formation, origins, exoplanets, planets, Eve Lee
Published on: 10 Feb 2021

The core mass of the giant exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than what was thought necessary to build up the immense gas envelope surrounding giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, according to a Canadian-led team of astronomers, including McGill University Professor Eve Lee.

Classified as: super-puff, cotton-candy, planet, WASP-107b, exoplanet, gas-giant, astronomers, Eve Lee
Published on: 18 Jan 2021

The Faculty of Science is celebrating McGill’s 200th anniversary with a student art exhibition on the theme of “Science!”. McGill students at all levels and all faculties are invited to submit works in any medium, expressing what science means to them.

Faculty of Science bicentennial committee member, Torsten Bernhard, says the aim of the exhibition is to celebrate science in all its forms.

Published on: 12 Jan 2021

The threshold for dangerous global warming will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042 – a much narrower window than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimate of between now and 2052. In a study published in Climate Dynamics, researchers from McGill University introduce a new and more precise way to project the Earth’s temperature. Based on historical data, it considerably reduces uncertainties compared to previous approaches.

Classified as: climate change, dangerous warming, global warming, Sustainability, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Scaling Climate Response Function, Bruno Tremblay, Shaun Lovejoy, Raphaël Hébert
Published on: 21 Dec 2020

A Canadian-led team of astronomers, including researchers from McGill University, has discovered that a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) originating from a nearby galaxy pulses at regular intervals.

Researchers within the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Fast Radio Burst Collaboration used the CHIME telescope in British Columbia to show that the repeating radio source known as FRB 180916.J0158+65 – first discovered in 2018 by the same group - pulsates apparently every 16.35 days.

Classified as: fast radio burst, repeating fast radio burst, CHIME, Ziggy Pleunis, Pragya Chawla, McGill Space Institute, Victoria Kaspi
Published on: 17 Jun 2020

Crowdmark – an online grading tool developed especially to handle large classes – has been attracting a growing following across North America, with members of McGill’s own Faculty of Science among its most ardent enthusiasts. Kira Smith, reporter-at-large for the OSE, went undercover to find out more.

Published on: 6 Sep 2019

McGill University astrophysicist Matt Dobbs is the recipient of the 2019 Killam Research Fellowship in Natural Sciences.

The announcement was made today by the Canada Council for the Arts, which revealed this year's winners of the prestigious Killam Program, composed of the Killam Prizes and the Killam Research Fellowships. 

Classified as: Killam fellowships, Research, Matt Dobbs, McGill Space Institute, Awards, Yoshua Bengio
Published on: 25 Apr 2019

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the most massive and complex science experiment in human history, is a prime example of global achievement through collaboration. Driven by a multinational community of researchers, engineers, and technicians from over 100 countries, the LHC has enabled us to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

Classified as: CERN, Large Hadron Collider, atlas, TRIUMF, particle accelerator
Published on: 27 Jun 2018

Cosmologist Jonathan Sievers and international-relations scholar Jennifer Welsh will become Canada 150 Research Chairs at McGill University. The appointments were among the 24 Chairs announced today at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, by Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan.  

Classified as: Canada 150 Research Chairs, Jennifer Welsh, Jonathan Sievers, astronomy, international relations, School of Public Policy, McGill Space Institute
Published on: 29 Mar 2018

The afterglow from the distant neutron-star merger detected last August has continued to brighten – much to the surprise of astrophysicists studying the aftermath of the massive collision that took place about 138 million light years away and sent gravitational waves rippling through the universe.

Classified as: neutron star, merger, gravitational waves, Chandra X-ray Observatory, astrophysics, astronomy, Haggard, Ruan, Nynka, LIGO, Virgo, science and technology, McGill Space Institute
Published on: 18 Jan 2018

Astronomers have pinpointed for the first time the home galaxy of a Fast Radio Burst, moving scientists a step closer to detecting what causes these powerful but fleeting pulses of radio waves. FRBs, which last just a few thousandths of a second, have puzzled astrophysicists since their discovery a decade ago.

Classified as: astrophysics, galaxy, Kaspi, telescope, science and technology, Fast Radio Bursts, FRB, neutron star, magnetar, CHIME, Tendulkar, American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers
Published on: 4 Jan 2017

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