news 2021

Science, Health & Technology Alex Walls Researchers have found the two-year heatwave known as 'the Blob' may have temporarily dampened the Pacific's 'biological pump,' which shuttles carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea where it can be stored for millennia. Canadian and European researchers, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, conducted a large-scale study of the impact of one of the largest marine heatwaves on record - colloquially known as the Blob - on Pacific Ocean microorganisms.

Scientists and medical practitioners now have a greater chance of discovering possible diseases through tissue sample analysis Researchers are developing a deep learning network capable of detecting disease biomarkers with a much higher degree of accuracy. Experts at the University of Waterloo's Cheriton School of Computer Science have created a deep neural network that achieves 98 per cent detection of peptide features in a dataset.

In her Ph.D. research, Christiane Kammogne found that ethnicity is a significant factor in mental health in the Canadian workplace. When Christiane Kammogne left Cameroun after completing a bachelor's degree in management, the concept of work-related stress wasn't on her radar screen. In 2011, two years after arriving in France, she was astonished to learn of suicides among employees at the company where she was employed as an HR advisor.

Reducing ship speed and noise levels would increase the probability that endangered West Coast southern resident killer whales will spend more time hunting for Chinook salmon, a new Simon Fraser University study has found. The research, published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin , provides insights to guide conservation efforts and protect the estimated 73 remaining whales in the population.

Mercury exposure in people may be low even when it is sometimes present in elevated levels in traditional foods. The benefits of consuming traditional foods tend to outweigh the risks of possible mercury contamination, according to a recent study. The research, which was part of a larger biomonitoring project to address community concerns about environmental contaminants in traditional foods, such as fish, also found that mercury exposure in people may be low even when it is sometimes present in elevated levels.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have created chemical compounds that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and several of its variants. In a recent paper published in the  Journal of Medicinal Chemistry , the researchers report the creation of D-peptides that neutralize the virus and stop infection of cultured human cells.

Microbiology professor Yves Brun and his team explain the mechanism that allows the world's most powerful bioadhesive to stick to things like pipes and even ocean water. Université de Montréal microbiologist Yves Brun made the discovery several years ago: an aquatic bacterium called Caulobacter crescentus produces an extremely powerful glue that adhere to its surrounding wet surfaces, such as pipes and fresh water.

Satellite images reveal where forest-dependent people live inside the forests of the South American Gran Chaco, and how deforestation for cattle ranching leads to an erosion of their resource base. (Background photo: Google Earth TM / Inset photo: I. Gasparri). Forest-dependent people living across the Gran Chaco have been put on the map for the first time.

New technology can contribute to other medical treatments, such as cancer. Researchers have developed a new method that uses artificial intelligence to foresee the most likely mutations of pathogens like SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The new research has implications for the rapid development of vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests that would be much less likely to be impacted by new or emerging variants of concern.

A coating developed by researchers at the University of Toronto allows for certain liquids to move across surfaces without fluid loss - and could usher in new advances in a range of fields, including medical testing. The new coating - created in the  DREAM (Durable Repellent Engineered Advanced Materials) laboratory, led by  Kevin Golovin , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering - was inspired by the natural world.

Inside a Petri dish in a lab at the University of Toronto is a muscle - made from scratch using human stem cells - that has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). To study the biological properties of DMD, a degenerative muscle disorder that mainly affects males, University of Toronto researchers obtained cell lines from people living with the condition and used them to create miniature muscles in a dish. Now, they're helping other researchers and industry partners develop and test new treatments that may help the boys and young men who are afflicted with DMD.

Study traces 40 years of change on Vancouver Island river-to-sea salmon and trout pathway Researchers from Simon Fraser University's Salmon Watershed Lab have found that recent declines of Pacific salmon and trout are associated with 40 years of changes in their combined marine and freshwater ecosystems.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have shown that our ability to quickly assess threats in our environment comes from our perception of discrete linear features in a scene rather than details or objects within it. The collaborators suggest that this response is an evolutionary trait that may have evolved in humans and other species because it helped identify potential danger quickly - that is, individuals with this visual skill were more likely to avoid danger and hence pass the trait on to their offspring.

Children have been spending almost triple the recommended amount of screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new Western-led study. Published in the  Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, the research found that, on average, children had nearly six hours of screen time each day. Some children in the study were on their screens even longer, at a staggering 13 hours a day.

UdeM environmental chemist Sébastien Sauvé and his team analyzed agricultural soil samples in France. Their alarming findings appear today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. A waterproof coat keeps you dry when it rains, but did you know it can also contaminate the environment? That's because the fabric contains perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - so-called "forever chemicals" that take forever to decompose.

Microplastics are being found in even the most remote waters, say Simon Fraser researchers who studied how the particles ended up in the stomachs of beluga whales through prey.'? A new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment looked at five species of arctic fish known to be eaten by beluga whales.

The molecular causes of a particular type of food-dependent Cushing's Syndrome, a rare disease of the adrenal glands, are finally revealed through a Canada-France research project. A team of scientists in Montreal and Paris has succeeded in identifying the gene responsible for the development of a food-dependent form of Cushing's Syndrome, a rare disease affecting both adrenal glands.

A University of Toronto astronomer's research suggests the solar system is surrounded by a magnetic tunnel that can be seen in radio waves. Jennifer West , a research associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, is making a scientific case that two bright structures seen on opposite sides of the sky - previously considered to be separate - are actually connected and are made of rope-like filaments.

A unique interaction between sea otters and the flowing plant known as eelgrass has researchers looking closer at the co-evolution of the two species. In a paper published today in the journal Science , University of Victoria geography PhD graduate, Erin Foster, explains how the digging activities of sea otters disturbs eelgrass beds, which in turn leads to greater genetic plant diversity.

Health Rhythms of music and heartbeats When you listen to or perform music, you may notice that you move your body in time with the music. You may also synchronise to music in ways that you may not be aware of, such as your heartbeats. Scientists from McGill, led by Caroline Palmer , the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance, investigated how musicians' heart rhythms change when they perform familiar and unfamiliar piano melodies at different times of day.