How is spider silk so strong? It’s so thin and light! The properties of spider silk—also known as gossamer—can seem mysterious if we try to think of it as a kind of string; however, the strength of spider silk comes primarily from its complex structure on the microscopic scale. Gossamer[Read More…]
Articles by Daniel Galef
Ask a scientist: Why isn’t the sky blue?
Two questions stood out for our first column. First, “Why is the sky blue?” This is a well-known one, but the subject has also been tackled by just about every scientific blog and answer column under the blue sky. The second attention-grabbing question was “Why isn’t the sky blue?” That query[Read More…]
Ask a Scientist: What Is “Ask a Scientist”?
Since this is the first instalment of this column, there are not yet questions to answer. But, not to worry! The first question we’ll answer will be: “What is Ask a Scientist about?” In answering it, SciTech hope to drum up enough interest and enthusiasm from you, the readers, to[Read More…]
Move aside elephants—birds are the smartest non-primates
Footage from a revolutionary behavioural experiment showed non-primates making and using tools just like humans. In the video, a crow is trying to get food out of a narrow vessel, but its beak is too short for it to reach through the container. Nearby, the researchers placed a straight wire,[Read More…]
Students discovered in suspended animation under melting snowbanks
When April arrives with its sweet showers to herald spring and the end of the term, and the giant snowbanks that have dwarfed all other campus structures for the past six months finally begin to melt, what was once hidden shall be revealed. We meet again our old friends the[Read More…]
McGill professor wins top Canadian science award
Professor Victoria Kaspi, astrophysicist in McGill University’s Department of Physics and Director of the McGill Space Institute, was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, the nation’s top scientific honour, last month. Kaspi is one of the world’s leading experts on neutron stars, tiny stellar remnants[Read More…]
Rewriting the history of the moon
A research team out of UCLA, when testing the compositions of moon rocks, determined that they possessed a striking similarity to rocks found here on Earth. This has led the scientists to believe that the Earth and the moon have the same origin. McGill Earth and Planetary Sciences professor William Minarik,[Read More…]
McGill remembers Marvin Minsky
Marvin Minsky, the MIT scientist, philosopher, and author, passed away last week at the age of 88, from a cerebral hemorrhage. Known around his campus as “Old Man Minsky,” he was a pioneer in a number of fields from cognitive and computer science to philosophy of mind and information theory.[Read More…]
The best scientific publications at McGill
While every newspaper at McGill, including the Daily, the Reporter, and the Tribune, has a Science & Technology section, McGill University is also home to a number of specialized publications that cover all aspects of scientific journalism and inquiry. Many of these, despite fascinating content and a hardworking staff (often[Read More…]
What the galaxies have in store
Last year was an exciting year in space. In 2015, the Dawn orbiter visited the dwarf planet Ceres, scientists photographed the surface of Pluto in unprecedented detail, and Matt Damon even got stuck in space again. But knowing what’s already happened is easy—it’s predicting the future that’s hard. But that doesn’t[Read More…]
Chill out—sea levels aren’t rising as quickly as predicted
Scientists have been warning for years that it may actually be too late to stop climate change despite concerted efforts by the global community. But the world may not be doomed after all. According to a new paper co-authored by McGill Professor Natalya Gomez from the Department of Earth and[Read More…]
Give the flu shot a shot
Vaccinations are very much in the public consciousness right now as a small, but vocal, section of people make this medical issue into a political one. They claim regular vaccinations lead to adverse health effects such as autism and rare muscular disorders. Although the flu shot is now in their[Read More…]
The latest poison has been revealed—and you’re made of it
The World Health Organization (WHO) has just announced that processed meat—and possibly all red meat—has been confirmed to be carcinogenic. I was at my computer when I first heard of the news in the form of a Facebook post and I was skeptical. At first, I briefly considered switching to[Read More…]
Are monsters real?
Science has a reputation for refutation. But this is not always the case, and some researchers have found that monsters and ghosts might actually exist; however, maybe not in the way that people expect. Zombies The concept of zombies originates from Haitian folklore, in which Vodou priests called bokors were[Read More…]
Great Scott! The sci-fi world of Back to the Future
Back to the Future, the 1985 sci-fi classic, is in the news this week for a special anniversary. The protagonist of the movie, Marty McFly, time-travels from 1985 to 1955 and back again. In the process, he saves his mentor, mad scientist Doc Brown, and assures his own existence by[Read More…]
Demilitarize McGill: The unexpected applications of military research
Demilitarize McGill is one of the most well-known and controversial groups on campus. Those unfamiliar with Demilitarize McGill from their ubiquitous stickers and posters will have heard about their Remembrance Day protest last year, which drew large amounts of media attention in. Their goal continues to be the condemnation of[Read More…]
Ten-billion-year-old galaxy cluster discovered
This week, NASA announced the discovery of a galaxy cluster found billions of light years from Earth. The finding, published in The Astrophysical Journal, identified a unique property of the cluster, named SpARCS1049+56. It hosts what physicists call a wet merger, which is a unique type of galactic[Read More…]