A timid McGill student observes a group of classmates talking and laughing, and wishes to join them. As she contemplates whether to approach them, she remembers words of encouragement from a therapist: “You will make friends, you are kind and fun. People like you more than you think.” After recalling[Read More…]
Search Results for author "Margaret Wdowiak"
Meeting the wonderful members of the human microbiome
Microbes are often perceived as dangerous nuisances responsible for fatal diseases like tuberculosis. Yet, despite the negative connotations attached to their colloquial name, “germ,” trillions of harmless microbes live on our skin and within the human body, and help us survive and thrive. Lactobacillus: The plastic maker Lactobacillus is a family[Read More…]
Fact or Fiction: Does money really buy happiness?
Many communities continue to live traditional lifestyles detached from money-based markets. Yet contrary to popular belief, they lead fulfilling lives and their mental well-being is comparable to individuals living in money-fueled societies. This prompts the age-old question of whether money truly buys happiness. In recent decades, people with more money[Read More…]
A walk a day keeps the doctor away
Every year, McGill students curse the campus terrain as they trudge up the hill towards the Life Sciences Complex. However, the health benefits of climbing up the hill are abundant. Research has shown that for those able, walking reduces the rates of cardiometabolic diseases like diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. [Read More…]
Disappearing giants: How warming oceans are suffocating large fish
Since 1981, the mean global ocean temperature has risen at an average rate of 0.18 degrees Celsius per decade. This has had serious impacts on the health of marine species; as oceans warm across the world, fish that are unable to cope with climatic changes, such as cardinalfish, are disappearing[Read More…]
When the world of dinosaurs was rocked, so was the climate
As tropical forests are cleared for agriculture and coral reefs overheat from rising temperatures, thousands of species vanish into oblivion, unable to survive the rapid climatic and environmental changes of the Anthropocene—the age of the sixth mass extinction. The Anthropocene epoch is an unofficial unit of geological time used to[Read More…]
Plastic planet: Challenges in creating a greener world
With every passing day, the Earth takes another step towards becoming a plastic planet. Plastic has infiltrated every habitat across the globe, from the high seas to the soil beneath cities. In an effort to address the gargantuan problem of plastic pollution, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party[Read More…]
Gliding, bat-winged dinosaurs surprise scientists
When most people picture flying dinosaurs, they picture beasts like pterodactyls and the pterosaurs. Although iconic to fossils of the Jurassic period, these flying reptiles were not dinosaurs at all, but instead a distant dinosaur cousin called archosaurs that flapped their forelimbs to achieve flight. However, scientists have recently found[Read More…]
The mental gymnastics of mid-semester motivation
McGill students are tired. Slouching into the tenth week of online classes in tandem with the flurry of midterm essays and assignments, many students are struggling to maintain their academic motivation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and it shows. Motivation is the process that initiates and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. There are[Read More…]
MUHC to begin trial of ciclesonide for alleviating COVID-19 symptoms
While the race for a COVID-19 vaccine continues, scientists around the world are exploring the possibility of repurposing existing drugs to effectively treat COVID-19 patients. Recently, researchers have seen a number of breakthroughs. One of these successes is dexamethasone, a corticosteroid hormone with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties. The conclusions of[Read More…]
