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Life Sciences - Earth Sciences - 25.05.2023
Mapping the genetic history of French Canadians through space and time
Mapping the genetic history of French Canadians through space and time
First study to incorporate genealogical records to provide an accurate map of genetic relatedness Though we all share common ancestors ranging from a few generations to hundreds of thousands of years, genealogies that relate all of us are often forgotten over time. A new McGill University-led study is now providing insight into the complex relationship between human migration and genetic variation, using a unique genealogical dataset of over five million records spanning 400 years to unravel the genetic structure of French Canadian populations.

Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 17.05.2023
Found: a likely volcano-covered terrestrial world outside the Solar System
Found: a likely volcano-covered terrestrial world outside the Solar System
Astronomers from Université de Montréal have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet around a nearby small red dwarf star that appears to be carpeted with volcanoes. Björn Benneke, a Professor at the Université de Montréal and member of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, whose team led this discovery.

Earth Sciences - 04.05.2023
How seaweed has been misleading scientists about reef health
How seaweed has been misleading scientists about reef health
Science, Health & Technology Erik Rolfsen For decades, scientists have looked to seaweed as an indicator of the health of coral reefs lying underneath. But what if the seaweed was misleading them? New UBC research reveals it was, and scientists need new ways to determine whether human activity is harming a particular reef.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 08.02.2023
A second chance to protect wetlands
A second chance to protect wetlands
Wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. A new study, published in Nature , has found that the loss of wetland areas around the globe since 1700 has likely been overestimated. This is good news overall, however, the global picture hides significant variations, with several regions and distinct wetland types under significant levels of pressure.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 06.02.2023
Sea urchins are on the move, and the 'Blob' is partly to blame
Sea urchins are on the move, and the ’Blob’ is partly to blame
New research has uncovered a change in behaviour of deep-sea fragile pink sea urchins off the south coast of Vancouver Island that is linked to climate change impacts including the " Blob ," a marine heatwave that persisted in the Pacific Ocean off North America between 2013 to 2016. Researchers from the Memorial University, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and the University of Victoria (UVic) found pink sea urchins  ( Strongylocentrotus fragilis ) have been moving up into shallower waters as food sources and oxygen levels at lower depths decline due to a warming ocean.

Earth Sciences - 25.01.2023
Shark and ray populations rebounding in Northwestern Atlantic: SFU study
Shark and ray populations rebounding in Northwestern Atlantic: SFU study
Better fisheries management and conservation is effective at turning the tide on the shark and ray declines, according to a study from Simon Fraser researchers. The fact sharks and rays are increasingly threatened by overfishing has made global headlines in recent years. Oceanic populations have plummeted by as much as 71 per cent in the last 50 years and one third of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 19.01.2023
A trail of dust from Africa to Antarctica
A trail of dust from Africa to Antarctica
An international research team including UdeM professor James King has shown that dust from southern Africa made its way to Antarctica within the last few thousand years. CONTENU - Until recently, the southern part of South America was believed to be the main source of the dust that lands in Antarctica.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 17.01.2023
Science of sediment transport key to river conservation & protection: Researchers
Science of sediment transport key to river conservation & protection: Researchers
New research from SFU-s Jeremy Venditti dives into the science of going with the flow predicting the evolution of the Earth's surface. Researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have devised a better way to measure how fast sediment flows in rivers.

Life Sciences - Earth Sciences - 07.12.2022
The three dimensions of a flower
The three dimensions of a flower
Montreal biologists publish a study demonstrating that photogrammetry allows rapid and precise three-dimensional reconstruction of flowers from two-dimensional images. CONTENU - To better understand the evolution of flowers, a research team in biology from Université de Montréal, the Montreal Botanical Garden and McGill University have succeeded in using photogrammetry to quickly and precisely build, in three dimensions, a model of a flower from two-dimensional images.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 17.11.2022
Millions at risk as drylands degrade, finds study
Millions at risk as drylands degrade, finds study
Drylands are experiencing increasingly levels of degradation and desertification, changes that could put already vulnerable populations at greater risk. A research team, including Natasha MacBean , conducted an examination of dryland productivity and its important role in global carbon and water cycling, to understand the impact of climate change and human activity on future dryland ecosystem functioning.

Earth Sciences - Astronomy / Space Science - 16.11.2022
New observation method helps unlock secrets of U.K. meteorite
New observation method helps unlock secrets of U.K. meteorite
The Winchcombe meteorite, a rare carbonaceous meteorite which crashed onto a driveway in Gloucestershire in 2021, has been found to contain extra-terrestrial water and organic compounds that reveal insights into the origin of Earth's oceans. A new study, published today by Science Advances , led by experts from the Natural History Museum and the University of Glasgow reports the orbital history and first laboratory analyses of the Winchcombe meteorite, which was recovered only hours after its spectacular fireball lit up the skies over the U.K. in February 2021.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 10.11.2022
A river runs beneath it: new study discovers a 460-km river under the Antarctica ice sheet
A river runs beneath it: new study discovers a 460-km river under the Antarctica ice sheet
The discovery of a 460 km river under the Antarctica ice sheet could be the missing link to climate models. A team of researchers led by Dr. Christine Dow, a professor in the department of Geography and Environmental Management and cross-appointed to the Department of Applied Mathematics, discovered the river from a series of airborne radar surveys and modelling.

Earth Sciences - Chemistry - 28.09.2022
Predicting the next volcanic eruption, plus other stories
Predicting the next volcanic eruption, plus other stories
Predicting the next volcanic eruption Volcanic eruptions can be tricky to predict. Magma stored below volcanoes contains dissolved gases, including carbon dioxide, which escape to the surface and can be sampled at different times (before, after or during) an eruption to provide clues about the next one.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 16.08.2022
Earth sciences researchers locate billion-year-old groundwater in South Africa
Earth sciences researchers locate billion-year-old groundwater in South Africa
An international team of researchers has discovered groundwater that is more than a billion years old deep below Earth's surface - only the  second time such a discovery has been made. The water, which is 1.2 billion years old, was recovered from a goldand uranium-producing mine in Moab Khotsong, South Africa, confirming that groundwater of such a vintage is more abundant than previously thought.

Earth Sciences - Health - 25.07.2022
Researchers aim to predict cardiac events with AI technique used to analyze earthquakes
Sebastian Goodfellow , an assistant professor in the University of Toronto's department of civil and mineral engineering, and his team have partnered with researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) to help detect and diagnose heart arrhythmias. The project, supported by grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, aims to leverage techniques developed by Goodfellow and his colleague in their previous work, which involves using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze seismic data.

Earth Sciences - 19.07.2022
The Earth's crust has been 'dripping' beneath the Andes Mountains for millions of years: Researchers
The Earth’s crust has been ’dripping’ beneath the Andes Mountains for millions of years: Researchers
Just like honey slowly dripping from a spoon, parts of the rocky outermost layer of Earth's shell are continuously sinking into the more fluid layer of the planet's mantle over the course of millions of years. Known as lithospheric dripping - named for the fragmenting of rocky material that makes up Earth's crust and upper mantle - the process results in significant deformations at the surface such as basins, folding of the crust and irregular elevations.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 19.07.2022
New map shows where fracking-induced earthquakes could hit in Canada
Maps help us to better understand and predict induced seismicity during subsurface engineering processes Scientists from the University of Waterloo have developed a map showing which regions and population centres of Western Canada are likely to experience earthquakes induced by underground energy extraction.

Life Sciences - Earth Sciences - 13.07.2022
Fighting climate change with deep-sea water
Microbes deep down in the ocean could be a good tool to transform carbon into more stable molecules, a laboratory study at UdeM suggests. Marine biologists have long known the power of microbes to transform carbon released by surface phytoplankton - algae on the surface of the sea - into more stable molecules.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 13.07.2022
Two volcanic eruptions forever changed the brown kiwi
Two volcanic eruptions forever changed the brown kiwi
When two massive volcanic eruptions blanketed New Zealand in ash, they forever changed the genetics of the brown kiwi bird, a new study from the University of Toronto Scarborough has found. The brown kiwi are split into four distinct lineages that inhabit different parts of New Zealand's North Island.

Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 07.07.2022
NASA data to decipher clouds of sand on distant planets
Brown dwarfs - celestial objects that fall between stars and planets - are shown in this illustration with a range of temperatures, from hottest (left) to coldest (right). The two in the middle represent those in the right temperature range for clouds made of silicates to form. (Illustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech) A new study led by researchers at Western University provides critical information on sand clouds observed in distant planets and helps affirm a larger theory of how planetary atmospheres work.