news 2023

On World Mental Health Day, we look at how Ciaran Murphy-Royal and his research team work to prevent depression by acting on brain cells. The scientific literature is clear: chronic stress experienced in childhood increases the risk of illness in adulthood - everything from obesity and cancer to dependence and depression.

Psychotherapeutic approaches show modest to moderate effectiveness in treating substance abuse, according to a review of studies by UdeM professor Alexandre Dumais. Psychotherapeutic approaches are, at best, moderately effective in helping people with substance abuse or addiction problems reduce their dependence.

New study: Fear of human "super predator" pervades South African savanna Elephants, rhinos, giraffes and other wildlife dread people far more than lions Lions have long been considered the world's most fearsome predator, the "king of beasts," but according to a new study, fear of humans far exceeds that of lions in elephants, rhinos, giraffes and every other mammal across the African savanna.

An international research team investigates how stress caused by global warming could increase incidences of self-medication worldwide. We knew that climate change and its effects-natural disasters, pandemics, pollution-are negatively impacting mental and physical health around the world. Now a new study sheds light on another health impact of climate change: increased substance abuse.

Antimatter is tied up in one of the world's greatest mysteries. Physics predicts that when we create matter, we also create equal amounts of antimatter. Yet there seems to be almost no antimatter in our universe, a fact that has long puzzled physicists. Now, physicists at Simon Fraser University, the University of Calgary, TRIUMF, the University of British Columbia, York University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology and research institutions from around the world have just answered a long-standing question that will lead to a deeper understanding of antimatter: Does it fall down?

Waterloo Pharmacy researchers find an opportunity to improve vaccination uptake HPV, or human papillomavirus, is the most common sexually transmitted infection. It is also the leading cause of cervical cancer. Over 1,400 Canadian women are affected yearly, with almost 400 deaths, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

An international study has characterized the diversity of bees in apple orchards across the globe. By carrying pollen from flower to flower, pollinator insects play an essential role in the reproductive cycle of flowering plants. Bees do more of it than any other, both here in Canada and around the world.

In business, leaders rarely want to take accountability for unfavourable company performance - but a new study from the UBC Sauder School of Business shows that when they do, they might actually boost the value of their companies. In the study titled " The role of CEO accounts and perceived integrity in analysts' forecasts ," researchers electronically combed through more than 35,000 CEO conference calls to investors that spanned 12 years (2002-2013), and looked at whether the companies performed favourably or unfavourably.

In the fast-paced corporate world where stress can be an unwelcome colleague for many employees, SFU researchers have found that mindfulness can reduce workplace stress by helping to narrow employees' views of work tasks as threats. Research looking at the role of mindfulness in the workplace conducted by SFU Beedie School professor Lieke ten Brummelhuis and PhD candidate Mariana Toniolo-Barrios is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Science, Health & Technology Prof. Takamasa Momose First measurement of the force of the Earth's gravity on antimatter, which leverages a built-in-Vancouver antimatter gravity detector. In the world's first observation of the effect of gravity on antimatter, a group of researchers from Canada and around the world have made an important confirmation: like matter, antimatter does indeed 'fall downwards'.

If they've already had a concussion before, university athletes are less likely to report symptoms of a new one when the symptoms are less severe, an UdeM study suggests. University athletes who have already suffered a sport-related concussion are less likely to report symptoms of a new concussion if they consider them to be less serious than their previous ones.

Science, Health & Technology Brett Goldhawk New research from the University of British Columbia is painting a clearer picture of the early signs of multiple sclerosis (MS), showing that people are nearly twice as likely to experience mental illness in the years leading up to the onset of the diseases.

Researchers studied a cohort of 400 children aged 9 to 10 in New Zealand who exhibited a full range of possible autism traits and conducted a variety of vision and visuomotor processing tests with them. Females are often underdiagnosed with being on the autism spectrum because they often mask their symptoms more successfully than males.

Feeling faint after your booster shot? A team of SFU researchers found that needle pain may increase the conditions that lead some people to faint. In a recent paper published in the journal Clinical Autonomic Research , the researchers suggest those with a fear of needles or history of fainting could benefit from topical anesthetics to help reduce the pain.

A new study of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system has demonstrated the complex interaction between the activity of the system's star and its planetary features. Astronomers led by a team at Université de Montréal has made important progress in understanding the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system, which was first discovered in 2016 amid speculation it could someday provide a place for humans to live.

Complex interplay between stellar activity and exoplanet characteristics revealed in study co-authored by McGill Professor Nicolas Cowan A team of astronomers has made a leap forward in our understanding of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system. Not only has their research shed light on the nature of TRAPPIST-1 b, the exoplanet orbiting closest to the system's star, but it has also shown the importance of parent stars when studying exoplanets.

Researchers set out to achieve passive cooling inside naturally conditioned buildings in hot, arid climates As the planet gets hotter, the need for cool living environments is becoming more urgent. But air conditioning is a major contributor to global warming since units use potent greenhouse gases and lots of energy.

This figure represents around 9% of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease in Canada each year. Reducing our salt intake to the level recommended by public health authorities could prevent up to 5,300 deaths per year in Canada. This is the conclusion reached by a research team at the end of a study evaluating the impact of different scenarios for reducing sodium consumption on the health of the Canadian population.

Despite growing awareness about the high rates of suicide among men, research is still needed to examine men's mental health challenges. Existential psychology, with its focus on questions of meaning and value, may bring new insights that can aid in this examination. To better understand men's psychological well-being, a recent study by researchers at McGill University and the University of British Columbia investigated the prospective connection between the presence of meaning in life and psychological distress among men.

Researchers from Queen's University and Environment and Climate Change Canada have discovered that accelerated 21st -century warming has triggered a striking shift in algae composition in Great Slave Lake, North America's deepest lake. The findings were published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B , and suggests that declining ice coverage and other climate-related changes have marked the crossing of an important ecological threshold.