BLOOMBERG | Scientists Don't Fear a New Crispr Snag
I talked this over with McGill University medical ethicist Jonathan Kimmelman, who specializes in the risks of medical experiments and has written a book about them centered on the Jesse Gelsinger case. Of course, he says, money isn’t the only thing that might prevent medical researchers from being perfectly objective -- there’s the desire to be heroes, to beat rivals, and to help patients.
NEWSWEEK | Distant 'Hot Jupiter' planet Corot-28 has strange winds that astronomers can't explain
“We’ve previously studied nine other hot Jupiter, giant planets orbiting super close to their star. In every case, they have had winds blowing to the east, as theory would predict,” said Nicolas Cowan, McGill University astronomer, in a press release. “But now, nature has thrown us a curveball.” Newsweek
STAT News | How well can you predict the outcome of clinical trials? Not as well as you may think
In unpublished research, McGill bioethicist Jonathan Kimmelman and colleagues asked cancer experts to forecast the probability of more than a dozen clinical trials hitting their primary endpoint. They found that the predictions overall were not very accurate, and if anything were too pessimistic. Stat News
NEW SCIENTIST | New CRISPR method could take gene editing to the next level
The CRISPR genome-editing method may just have become even more powerful. Uri David Akavia’s team at McGill University in Canada has managed to repair mutations in 90 per cent of target cells using CRISPR – the best success rate yet. New Scientist
NEWSWEEK | Neutron star merger keeps glowing brighter and scientists can't explain why
Newsweek | “Usually when we see a short gamma-ray burst, the jet emission generated gets bright for a short time as it smashes into the surrounding medium—then fades as the system stops injecting energy into the outflow,” said McGill University astrophysicist Daryl Haggard in a statement. “This one is different; it’s definitely not a simple, plain-Jane narrow jet.”
GLOBE AND MAIL | Studies overestimate prevalence of depression, article shows
"No one gains by coming up with inaccurate and exaggerated estimates," says lead author Dr. Brett Thombs, a professor in the department of psychiatry at McGill University. "What we do need to understand is what the burden is out there, how many people [have depression], and then we need to really advocate strongly to make sure those people get better care."
MOTHERBOARD | Fast radio bursts are a sci-fi dream with an astrophysical source
"We found something that is clearly in an extreme place and the extreme location may create a phenomenon that is one of the biggest astrophysical mysteries of recent times," offered study co-author Victoria Kaspi, a professor at McGill University and leading voice on pulsars and neutron stars, in a statement.
Vice (Motherboard)
APTN | McGill medical students get closer look at indigenous approach to healthcare
Some medical students at McGill University in Montreal are getting a firsthand look at what working in an Indigenous community is like. It’s through a new program that includes a grassroots approach to healthcare.
APTN
Being bilingual may help autistic children study says
The study, published in Child Development, has found new reasons to believe that Autistic children who are bilingual have increased cognitive flexibility compared to children that are monolingual. According to Professor Aparna Nadig, the senior author of the paper, from McGill University, this research has been a long time coming…
McGill Professor helped coin the term 'Bomb Cyclone'
McGill University meteorology professor John Gyakum, along with the revered late Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorologist Fred Sanders, first coined the term in a paper they published in 1980. They used the phrase to describe powerful cyclones that get their energy from rapid drops in pressure caused by hot and cold temperatures colliding.
How a Fictional Racist Plot Made the Headlines and Revealed an American Truth
Excerpt from Merve Emre's new book, Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America. She is an assistant professor of English at McGill.
In a first, gravitational waves linked to neutron star crash
That could mean the jets of high-speed radiation sent out by the explosion were not aimed directly at Earth, and were instead slightly off axis, says Daryl Haggard of McGill University, whose team used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to spy on the merger. Read more: National Geographic
Sensing a moment, Canadian scientists swing for the fences
Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan and McGill University’s Martha Crago attend a prebudget discussion with scientists and researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on Dec. 15, 2017. Read more: The Globe and Mail
Montreal's booming tech industry juggles ethics with innovation
As a consequence, researchers such as Abhishek Gupta are trying to help Montreal lead the world in ensuring AI is developed responsibly. "The spotlight of the world is on (Montreal)," said Gupta, an AI ethics researcher at McGill University who is also a software developer in cybersecurity at Ericsson. His bi-monthly "AI ethics meet-up" brings together people from around the city who want to influence the way researchers are thinking about machine-learning.
Does Trump want peace in the Middle East?
"To some extent, it is beyond the control of world leaders, and has more to do with the cycle of protest," says Rex Brynen, a political science professor at McGill University whose work focuses on the conflict. "Most Western leaders will be trying to calm things. The Palestine Authority, although deeply dismayed by the U.S. decision, has no interest in protests getting out of hand. Nor does Jordan.
