BETAKIT | Cifar and Osmo partner to give women training opportunities in AI
Two Canadian non-profits, OSMO and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), are partnering to launch the AI For Good Summer Lab program, an initiative that provides undergraduate women in STEM fields with exposure to training and networking opportunities in artificial intelligence.
NATIONAL POST | The obesity epidemic is real, but our solutions to date have been anything but
Obesity is a global public health issue, yet it’s regarded by many as a personal failing. Negative attitudes abound. Chief among them: The mistaken belief that those with it are to blame for their weight; the dogged perception that if they only set their minds to it, they could shed it.
CBC | Winnipeg School Division surveys parents about later start time for high school students
The Winnipeg School Division is asking parents to weigh in on a proposal that could see high school students in the division given a little more pillow time in the morning. In 2016, a team of researchers from McGill University published a report in the Journal of Sleep Research, suggesting that study participants aged 10 to 18 get an additional three minutes of sleep for every 10-minute delay in their school start time, bringing the school day more in line with
GLOBAL NEWS | Canadian youth need access to free contraceptives: Canadian Paediatric Society
All Canadian youth should have free access to contraceptives, according to a new position statement by the Canadian Paediatric Society.
IUDs, which the Canadian Paediatric Society recommends as the best birth control option for young people, are very effective but have a high upfront cost, said Dr. Giosi Di Meglio, an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill University and a co-author of the position statement.
VICE | Do Trigger warnings actually work?
Not everyone buys the idea that trigger warnings are innocuous. Jones and his colleagues’ research suggested that trigger warnings can cause people who don’t have PTSD—or who have not experienced any trauma relevant to the warning—to feel more vulnerable in the future. A study published earlier this year also noted that subjects who saw trigger warnings experienced a drop in their mood.
FORBES | Fighting Fire With Fire: Can We Kill Super-Resistant Mycobacteria With Viruses?
TB is an airborne infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. When streptomycin was first discovered in the 1940s, there was tremendous hope that TB could be defeated. But TB bacteria quickly became resistant to streptomycin when it was given alone. We quickly learnt that TB requires a combination of drugs to fend off drug-resistance.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC | Two-thirds of the longest rivers no longer flow freely—and it's harming us
A new study warns that many of the benefits rivers provide, from water to food to flood control, are increasingly at risk thanks to dams and diversions.
NATURE | Driverless cars: researchers have made a wrong turn
Uber Technologies is set to go public this week, an event that has been described as the most anticipated technology filing since Facebook in 2012. Some forecasters expect that the ride-hailing giant could sell up to US$10-billion worth of stock.
CBC | Joelle Barron, Lindsay Nixon, Casey Plett named finalists for $5K LGBTQ emerging writers prize
Joelle Barron, Lindsay Nixon and Casey Plett have been nominated for the Writers' Trust of Canada's $5,000 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ emerging writers. Nixon is a Cree-Métis-Saulteaux curator, editor and writer. Their memoir, nîtisânak, was published in 2018. Their writing has appeared in The Walrus, Malahat Review, Room, and Teen Vogue. Nixon is currently a PhD student in art history at McGill University.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL |Therapy at the museum: How the Art Gallery of Hamilton curates unique experience for people with dementia
Artful Moments, a program run by the Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) aimed at people with dementia and their caregivers is part of a growing trend toward offering art therapy inside museums, as the institutions try reaching out to all sections of the community.
THE STAR PHOENIX | EcoToxChip aims to slash cost and time for chemical toxicity tests, save lab animals
The rectangular, white plastic plate Markus Hecker holds in his hand serves as the matrix for a new way of screening chemicals for toxicity, one that could spare the majority of live animals now used for this purpose in labs. If the chips are proven to work, they could be an invaluable tool in the testing of thousands of chemicals already in use — chemicals that, in many cases, were launched on the market decades ago, before the advent of stricter safety rules.
GLOBAL NEWS | Scientist behind massive telescope near Penticton wins prestigious fellowship
One of the scientists who helped spearhead a massive telescope project in the Okanagan has won a prestigious award honouring Canada’s ground-breaking researchers. McGill University astrophysicist Matt Dobbs is the recipient of the 2019 Killam Research Fellowship in Natural Sciences. Dobbs was rewarded for his project, titled “Unveiling the Cosmos with a New Paradigm Digital Radio Telescope,” involving the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or
MARKETWATCH | These Colleges now Offer Courses in Cannabis
The (marijuana) industry is expanding rapidly. That growth could present an opportunity for both recent graduates seeking jobs and the higher education institutions willing to prepare them.
THE CONVERSATION | The Taming of Polio and the Challenge of the Flu
The now nearly global eradication of polio through vaccination is a testimonial to the enlightenment of humans dedicated to the alleviation of human disease. In the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been paralysed by polio annually.
TBR NEWSMEDIA | CSHL’s Megan Crow tackles a neuroscience ‘holy grail’
One of the challenges scientists are addressing is how pain becomes chronic, like an injury that never heals. The opioid crisis is a problem for numerous reasons, including that people are in chronic pain. Crow was interested in understanding the neurons involved in pain, and to figure out a way to treat it. “The sensory neurons in pain sparked my general interest in how neurons work and what makes them into what they are,” she said.
