Today, The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) announced 102 new Fellows and 54 new Members of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. Among the 2022 cohort are fifteen McGill researchers and scholars, including eleven RSC Fellows and four new Members, who will be inducted at the RSC Celebration of Excellence and Engagement on November 25, 2022, in Calgary, Alberta. The newest McGill cohort will join 238 McGill researchers who are currently RSC Fellows and Members of the College and 2400 Canada-wide.
It’s no secret that the internet and social media fuel rampant spread of misinformation in many areas of life. A collective of researchers, including Catherine Scott, Postdoctoral Fellow in McGill University’s Lyman Lab, have explored this phenomenon as it applies to news about spiders. The verdict? Don’t blindly trust anything you read online about these eight-legged arthropods—or anything else for that matter—and always consider the source.
A $29-million gift from Quebec-born entrepreneur Sylvan Adams will launch an exciting venture for McGill’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education in the Faculty of Education, ushering in a new era of world-leading research and discovery in sports science, with the long-term goal of improving elite human performance, and promoting healthier living across the human lifespan.
The new Adaptable Earth Observation System (AEOS) research facility at the Gault Nature Reserve in Mont-Saint-Hilaire is open for business for those conducting cutting-edge research on extreme weather conditions. It also serves as a lab for advanced ecological research. Thanks to a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant, this new pavilion paves the way to advancing environmental research by linking the Gault Nature Reserve with the project’s research stations in the Saint-Lawrence Valley, and in different parts of the world.
Moshe Safdie, the renowned architect behind some of the world’s most celebrated buildings, has donated his professional archive to his alma mater, McGill University, and pledged his personal apartment at Habitat 67 to ensure that it remains a resource for the University and the public at large.
A national survey of close to 1000 adults in Greenland (where approximately 90% of the population is Indigenous) conducted by a McGill University-led research team has found that a surprisingly large majority – 3 out of 4 Greenlanders – support extracting and exporting sand left by the melting ice sheet. A significant proportion want Greenland’s leadership to assess the impact of sand extraction and exports on both the environment and economy. Furthermore, when it comes to who mines the sand, the majority prefer local involvement to foreign collaboration.
McGill University’s School of Continuing Studies is launching a unique experiential training and professional development program, with support from a $2-million community investment from Scotiabank, to help members of underrepresented local communities and newcomers to Canada, including refugees, build the durable skills they need to pursue their career paths.
New research stories from McGill University.
Using artificial intelligence to study the social impact of disruptive weather events
Does a “disruptive weather event” imply extreme weather? Not necessarily, say two McGill University researchers. Instead of focusing on social impacts, weather research tends to focus on meteorology.
Researchers have discovered that they can control the stickiness of adhesive bandages using ultrasound waves and bubbles. This breakthrough could lead to new advances in medical adhesives, especially in cases where adhesives are difficult to apply such as on wet skin.
Study challenges attitudes about young people and pandemic preventative measures, plus other stories
In disinformation campaigns, like the long-standing pro-Kremlin campaign targeted at Ukraine by the Russian government, who is most at risk of believing false information? A study led by McGill University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that Ukrainians who engaged in more analytic thinking were less likely to believe the pro-Kremlin disinformation, even if they were generally pro-Russia.
If you’ve ever seen a starling peck open a garbage bag or a grackle steal your dog pellets, you get a sense that some birds have learned to take advantage of new feeding opportunities – a clear sign of their intelligence. Scientists have long wondered why certain species of birds are more innovative than others, and whether these capacities stem from larger brains (which intuitively seems likely) or from a greater number of neurons in specific areas of the brain.
For the generations who grew up watching Finding Nemo, it might not come as a surprise that the North American West Coast has its own version of the underwater ocean highway – the California Current marine ecosystem (CCME). The CCME extends from the southernmost tip of California up through Washington. Seasonal upward currents of cold, nutrient-rich water are the backbone to a larger food web of krill, squid, fish, seabirds and marine mammals. However, climate change and subsequent changes in ocean pH, temperature and oxygen levels are altering the CCME — and not in a good way.
Many mammal species living in cold climates tend to have large bodies and short limbs to reduce heat loss – a general pattern known as Bergmann’s rule. However, bats are the exception to the rule, displaying small body sizes in both hot and cold regions. A McGill-led team of researchers is shedding light on this long-standing debate over bats’ body sizes and focus on why bats are seemingly non-conforming to ecogeographical patterns found in other mammals. Their findings offer a new method for investigating complex macroecology across bat species.
Imagine having to choose over and over between what you enjoy doing and the pain that it might cause you, whether physical or emotional. If you live with conditions such as depression, anxiety, or chronic pain, you are probably familiar with making these difficult choices on a daily or weekly basis. But surprisingly little is known about which areas of the brain are involved in decisions of this kind.