Ideas spark at interface of physics, biology

Humming away in the Rutherford Physics building, a long cold walk from Stewart Bio, is a computer that can predict one of the fundamental processes in biology: how vertebrae form. Paul François, associate professor in the department of physics, and associate member of the department of biology, is one researcher[Read More…]

This Week in Research

  Vitamin D and cancer Vitamin D is correlated with many health benefits, including lower cancer risk; but until now, the link has always been unclear. McGill researchers have uncovered a piece of the puzzle, explaining how the vitamin may help to prevent cancer. In a recent study published in[Read More…]

This Week in Research

HIV Vaccine Researchers at the University of Western Ontario and Sumagen Canada are one step closer to creating a marketable HIV vaccine. Last week, Dr. Chil-Yong Kang successfully completed the first phase of human clinical trials. The vaccine SAV001-H, is a genetically modified, killed whole-virus vaccine. First, the virus is[Read More…]

Open Access offers antidote to overpriced journals

To students leaving the academic world, the cost of information may come as a shock. Without access to the extensive collections of the McGill library, journal articles cost around 30 dollars per view. The library pays thousands of dollars per journal subscription. In 2011, McGill paid $12,224,900 for journals and[Read More…]

The Moa bird of New Zealand. (cfzaustralia.com)

This week in research

Flightless Birds Flightless birds are an evolutionary puzzle. The most befuddling aspect of these seemingly-related animals is their dispersion across far corners of the earth, because, well, they’re flightless. Two opposing ideas seek to explain the far-reaching origins of these birds. In one, Charles Darwin suggested that a common ancestor[Read More…]

Rowe on the Chikyu waiting to recieve an 850 meter core from the Japanese fault. (James Kirkpatrick )

Christie Rowe: earthquake hunter

Christie Rowe is an earthquake hunter. The Wares Faculty Scholar and assistant professor of earth and planetary science at McGill travels the world studying fossilized earthquakes— earthquakes that occur deep in the earth’s crust, but eventually leave a visible record in rock that has risen to the surface because of[Read More…]

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