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Research Briefs, Science & Technology

Smoothing the road of glucose highs and lows

by Sophia Gorbounov on

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Though diabetes was officially discovered in 1899, records of diabetes-like symptoms, such as excessive thirst and urination, go back 3,000 years to ancient Egypt. Diabetes mellitus, or simply diabetes, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by high blood sugar for a prolonged period of time as a result of the body’s inability to produce insulin. 

With the introduction of insulin pumps in the 1970s, diabetes patients found it easier to regulate their glucose levels, although the task remains tedious to this day. Now, a group of researchers at McGill have developed an artificial pancreas system that uses an algorithm to monitor the amount of glucose inside of it and adjust accordingly.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the person’s own immune cells destroy the beta cells in the pancreas responsible for the production of insulin, a hormone key for regulating the body’s glucose levels. Insulin ensures that glucose, a simple form of sugar, can enter cells and participate in the energy production process. When the body has enough energy, the remaining glucose is converted into glycogen, a different type of sugar, and stored in the liver for later use.

Emilie Palisaitis, a clinical research manager at McGill’s Artificial Pancreas Lab, explained that traditional insulin pumps aim to mimic a healthy pancreas. 

“An insulin pump includes an insulin reservoir, a delivery motor [that] is linked to a control mechanism, and a subcutaneous insulin infusion set […] inserted to the patient’s thigh, abdominal area, lower back, or to the back of the arm,” Palisaitis wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “This delivers insulin throughout the day.”

By monitoring glucose levels every five to 10 minutes, individuals with a glucose pump are alerted of glucose peaks and spikes. However, the amount of insulin is determined by the user, and most patients with insulin pumps hit the target glucose range less than half of the time.  The artificial pancreas system increases the time spent in the target glucose range by controlling insulin delivery based on real-time glucose levels.

“The artificial pancreas, also known as closed-loop insulin delivery, automates insulin delivery based on real time glucose values,” Palisaitis wrote. “It is [composed] of three components […] an insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor, and a control algorithm that modulates insulin delivery based on glucose levels.”

By continuously monitoring glucose levels, this artificial organ uses a control algorithm to read glucose levels in the body, analyze them, and manipulate insulin infusion,  emulating the feedback response from a healthy pancreas.

Currently, people with type 1 diabetes must track their carbohydrate intake and let their monitoring systems know when they are eating. This can be difficult for a number of reasons, particularly the inaccuracy of estimating carb intake and the inconvenience of constantly monitoring eating habits. Thus, the next step for the Artificial Pancreas Lab is to create a fully automated artificial pancreas. 

To improve upon their initial design, the Artificial Pancreas Lab  hopes to infuse insulin with pramlintide, the synthetic analog drug to amylin. Amylin is a regulating hormone that is responsible for inhibiting glucagon secretion after mealtimes and slowing stomach emptying. Glucagon is a peptide hormone that causes the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose and release it into the bloodstream. Patients with type 1 diabetes do not produce amylin and therefore experience a mismatch with peak insulin secretion and glucose absorption into the blood. Palisaitis explained that the reason for infusing insulin with amylin is to slow the absorption of carbohydrates and allow it to better match up with insulin secretion.

“We have developed a novel dual-hormone artificial pancreas that does not require carbohydrate counting or announcing meals to the system,” Palisaitis wrote. “Meals would be automatically detected, and pramlintide and insulin would be infused after meal detection to control blood glucose levels.”

Currently, the lab is finishing an inpatient trial, where participants undergo 24 hours of insulin-pramlintide delivery with no carb counting and no meal announcements, as is traditional with current insulin pumps. 

“Our results look very promising, and we are moving onto a three-week, free-living, outpatient study to study the fully automated system in real world scenarios,” Palisaitis wrote.

Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Sports

The best sports to play indoors

by Ender McDuff, Kaja Surborg on

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Sports fans everywhere are suddenly unable to watch their favourite teams or even go to the court and play with friends due to the spread of COVID-19. While confinement to one’s home makes it difficult to maintain an active lifestyle, it is not impossible. To help individuals practicing social distancing enjoy the full potential of their own home, The McGill Tribune compiled a list of the best sports to play indoors. 

 

Hallway Hockey

Hockey, Canada’s national pastime, is well-suited to the indoor arena. All one needs is a tennis ball and hockey sticks (preferably the miniature kind). While you can play anywhere in the house, a hallway is often the most convenient space, offering both the longest arena and the fewest breakable objects. The hallway’s width can serve as goalposts, so you have a built-in net to shoot on. Get your roommates together and let the games begin!

If hockey is not your game of choice, there are several other sports that can be played in this space: Baseball, tennis, and bowling can all use the same tennis ball, while bats and pins can be fashioned from any number of household items, like brooms and wine bottles. 

Mini-Hoop Basketball

Indoor basketball is a fantastic way to work up a sweat regardless of your apartment’s square-footage. All you need is a mini-hoop to hang from a doorway or on the wall and a small ball, both of which should be available at a nearby dollar store. There are numerous games you can play with this setup. The most physically exhausting is a dunk contest, which involves jumping repeatedly to mimic the 360 and through-the-legs moves of the NBA’s highest flyers. Another great game is HORSE, which entails shooting, dunks, and making trick shots to try to make your opponent miss. Lastly, if a mini-hoop is not an option or you are worried about your neighbours filing a noise complaint, you can always ball up your socks and use a clothes hamper as a hoop to get some shooting practice in. 

Marble Racing

Indoor marble racing is the perfect sport for fans of NASCAR, track and field, horse racing, or any other time-trial contest. All you need is a marble or some other small spherical object, and the rest is up to your imagination. Use whatever objects are lying around your house, as well as stairs and countertops, to construct epic tracks for your marble to race along. You can compare tracks to see which is the fastest, the longest, or even the Rube Goldberg–esque.

Floorboard Curling 

Floorboard curling is a game of precision, rather than speed. The goal of floorboard curling is to give your stone just the right push to land on a specific marking point on the floor. Any household object can be used as the stone, with different objects providing varying degrees of difficulty. Your opponents will then shoot their stones in an effort to knock previous throws out of position. Alternatively, this game can be altered to focus on getting various objects to slide as far as possible. 

Darts

The only activity on this list that was originally designed to be played indoors, darts is the perfect sport to play while in social isolation. All you need is a cheap dart board, which can be ordered online to minimize your contact with others. Place a piece of tape on the ground to mark your throwing line, and you are all set to go. You can work on your own dart throwing skills, play friendly competitions, or even try to develop some trick shots. Whatever you do, the next time you are allowed to visit a bar, you will be sure to have a new set of skills to show off.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

The unconvincing hedonism of The Weeknd’s “After Hours”

by Julian Miller on

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In his latest album, After Hours, The Weeknd appears as a 1970s synth-pop star overcome by his own dark side. He casts himself as the victim of his own fame—ashamed of his wickedness, but too far gone to change—and the ensuing identity crisis reverberates throughout the album. No matter how forced it becomes, The Weeknd is desperate to convince listeners that he remains the contemptible, womanizing, intoxicated anti-hero that first captivated fans of his 2012 Trilogy.

The enthusiasm with which After Hours commits to its pop-star nightmare vibe is admirable, and there are moments when it is contagious. “Blinding Lights” and “Scared to Live” are  two of several spine-tingling intersections between sumptuous production and eerily perfect vocals. The album’s peak is “Faith,” which climaxes in The Weeknd’s best lyrical moment of the album: “but if I O.D. / I want you to O.D. right beside / I want you to follow right behind.” This is the Weeknd at his most extreme; equal parts superstar and suicidal, teetering between exaltation and self-loathing, and entirely indifferent to the personal destruction he leaves in his wake.

The album’s highlights, however, are eclipsed by lows, particularly lyrical ones, bound to leave listeners wincing. “Hardest to Love” is a little more than a half-baked preamble to “Scared to Live,” and “Save Your Tears” is so generic that it could conceivably have been intended for any of Max Martin’s clients. “Escape From L.A.” is the worst offender, responsible for such lapses as “She pulled up to the studio / Nobody’s watching / She closed the door and then she locked it / For me, for me / We had sex in the studio.” Despite its triumphant production, After Hours’s lyricism is amusing at best (“Futuristic sex give her Phillip K. Dick”) and downright cringeworthy at worst.

The Weeknd’s inability to match sonic form with lyrical content on After Hours is suggestive of his more damning problem: His inability to convince anyone that he truly is the wretched, guilt-ridden virtuoso that After Hours claims he is. The self-loathing rings hollow, the regret feels contrived, and next to the wicked splendour of Trilogy, After Hours is as empty as the celebrity lifestyle it is meant to denounce. For all its pretensions, maybe After Hours is just a really well-produced break-up album about Bella Hadid.

Star Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Pop rhetoric: Reconciling the remake and reboot

by Joey Caplan on

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Leave it to Hollywood to monetize the concept of history repeating itself. Film remakes and reboots are here to stay, whether you like it or not. They are profitable, and studios will continue to make them until they no longer make money. To dismiss remakes as formulaic money-grabs that have no place in the worldwide filmography is naive, however, as there is a great deal of creativity that can be gleaned from recreating another’s work. 

The language of the remake is often misleading and confusing, which can work against the audience if employed the wrong way. The lines are beginning to blur: What differentiates a remake from a reboot? What does Spike Lee mean by “reinterpretation” in the 2013 version of Oldboy (2013)? What the heck is a ‘soft reboot?’ Often, a reuse of the original title or adding an errant “the” indicates a reboot or a soft reboot, as is the case with The Batman (2021), The Predator (2018), and Ghostbusters (2016), but this is confused by Star Trek (2009) and Halloween (2017), films that could more accurately be called pseudo-sequels. To make matters worse, remakes often use the same naming convention: Robocop (2014), Hellboy (2019), and The Mummy (2017) all have little to do with the plot and characters of their predecessors, yet share the same title. The audience has to do their own research to figure out the connection, or lack thereof, thus putting the onus on the audience to find out whether they should even be interested at all.

What damns the upsetting majority of remakes is their glaring creative bankruptcy. Spike Lee’s Oldboy is a reinterpretation in the same way Zack Snyder’s Watchmen (2006) is an adaptation: They never show an understanding of their source material. Disney’s live action remakes of their own films are perhaps the most egregious examples, banking exclusively on nostalgia rather than any semblance of creative validity. Critics are finally waking up to this with the lukewarm reception to The Lion King (2019) and Aladdin (2019), but those movies each made over a billion dollars, so rest assured, Disney likely will not stop. 

The reboot, as opposed to a remake, is a concept that allows for more creative endeavours. Yet, there are far too many examples of lazy rehashings, rather than innovations: Tomb Raider (2018) is both a reboot of a film series and a remake of a video game, and it botches both in gloriously tedious fashion. 

As much as many would love to hate the entire idea of the remakes and reboots, some films provide a convincing argument that there is a specific place for them in the landscape of modern cinema. Luca Guadanigno’s Suspiria (2018) takes the basic concept of the 1977 Dario Argento arthouse horror film of the same name and weaves an entirely new and beautifully disturbed vision, Guadanigno making his own mark on the property without ever leaning on his inspiration for anything more than an initial spark. A remake requires that the filmmaker both entirely understands their source material and knows that they too are crucial to the process; a remake should become as much a creation of the new filmmaker as it is an homage to the old. There are a scant few modern examples of the ideal remake, and yet movie fans hold out hope that more films like Suspiria or The Departed (2006) (Scorsese’s remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs) can impress. Even some not-so-great films can still fit the criteria: The Invisible Man (2020) puts an interesting spin on a classic tale that clearly shows a new, modern vision on the part of the filmmaker, but it fails to be a particularly thrilling thriller. It is certainly a step in the right direction, at the very least. 

The integrity of the remake is hanging by a thread, but it is not condemned yet. As long as they churn out a profit, remakes will be made, and thus these should be viewed as an opportunity, rather than a sign of the end times. People will see remakes no matter what, so why not make them watchable?

Commentary, Opinion

Reinforcing Bill 101 is Discrimination 101

by Jonah Fried on

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A reinvigorated Bill 101 looms over Quebec, and if it descends, it could impede demographic reconciliation in the province. Enacted in 1977, the bill established French as the official language of Quebec, forcing government agencies, many businesses, and other institutions to conduct operations in French. While the bill is longstanding in Quebec, anglophones have not historically feared the bill because many of its stipulations have not been strictly enforced. However, anglophones may have reason to fear it again, because Premier François Legault announced on Nov. 5 that his Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government would reinforce the bill. McGill students, in particular, should heed these developments, because they could be threatened by the policy. Although Quebec’s French history and culture should absolutely be preserved, Bill 101 has not been and still should not be fully enforced, because it disregards Quebec’s multicultural reality.

Quebec is not a cultural blank slate. In fact, cultural diversity is inherent to Quebec’s history. Additionally, Quebec has long been a land of hope and sanctuary for the marginalized; including Black Americans using the Underground Railroad to escape slavery, Jewish people escaping pogroms, and most recently, those fleeing political upheaval in the Middle East. Moreover, while relations between anglophones and francophones remain contentious, they have improved overall since the 1970 October Crisis. Francophone Quebecers were once forced to assimilate into English society if they wanted to access economic and political opportunities, but cultural pluralism has nevertheless become a foundational pillar of Quebec society. Reinforcing Bill 101 is a betrayal of this principle as it would disproportionately affect already struggling immigrants who do not speak French. Enforcing cultural homogeneity would not only antagonize minority groups that Quebec has historically protected, it would also put a roadblock in the way of improving cultural relations in Quebec. As the world confronts crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, reconciling cultural differences is more urgent than ever, because tackling these challenges requires unity and mutual support between all sectors of society.

Reinforcing Bill 101 would also be logistically impracticable. Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, portions of the bill were challenged in court as violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. While Legault has claimed that only “historic anglophones” defined by the bill would receive government communications in English, the legal obstructions to this action render Legault’s claim false. Besides which, if the original purpose of the bill was to alleviate a French-language crisis in Quebec, it has already succeeded. According to economists, Quebecers’ proficiency in the language rose to 94.5 per cent in 2016, up from 88.5 per cent in 1971. Reinforcing Bill 101 could cause an actual crisis for Quebecers who do not speak French, especially if they must receive medical bills and documents in French. Considering that many students at McGill are either Anglophone Quebecers, Canadians from English-speaking provinces, or international students who do not speak French, it is possible that the McGill student body would be hit particularly hard by these measures. Consequently, reinforcing the bill would not only be disastrous for affected students, it could also threaten McGill as an institution. Premier Legault should learn from the failure of René Lévesque, because the economic havoc created by his nationalist Parti Québécois and the premiership of Lucien Bouchard is partly responsible for McGill’s current financial problems, among other economic issues across Quebec. 

Reinforcing Bill 101 is morally objectionable, logistically untenable, and economically inadvisable. Most importantly, Legault’s proposal is indefensible because it would unnecessarily hinder the lives of the CAQ’s English-speaking constituents. Not only that, but it could also negatively impact McGill students, particularly international students, by making it more difficult to live in Quebec without speaking French. Divisive policies like Bill 101 are a disservice to Quebec’s cultural heritage, because they ultimately prevent outsiders from even accessing Quebec, preventing the world from appreciating Quebec’s many idiosyncrasies. By touting Quebec’s multicultural and bilingual history as much as its French history, the CAQ can promote French culture without replicating the draconian policies of past anglophone administrations. McGill students should support protests against Bill 101 in Montreal, but not just because the bill could negatively affect students. McGill is an institution of learning and, armed with the facts, its students have the means to challenge the bill on moral and practical grounds.

Student Life

To do work or not to do work: That is the question when social distancing

by Alaana Kumar on

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As cases of COVID-19 continue to exponentially rise around the world, health professionals are mandating that the global community practice ‘social distancing.’  This term refers to a conscious effort made by individuals to keep a physical distance between one another for the purpose of reducing the spread of an illness and flattening the curve to prevent the overburdening of the healthcare system. As the world descends into this new normal, a common ‘motivational’ anecdote passed around on social media is Shakespeare’s creation of his famous tragedy King Lear while quarantined during an outbreak of the bubonic plague five centuries ago. 

Although the act of social distancing offers a chance to explore one’s inner creativity or grind out schoolwork, it can also be an overwhelming time for many McGill students, as this generation feels more uncertainty than ever in regards to employment and education. The already constant pressure to be productive, along with the stress that comes from health crises and self-isolation, can be particularly damaging to one’s mental health. Therefore, people should also allocate some time in quarantine to relax, recoup, and reevaluate the pace at which they are normally expected to operate. 

While social distancing means spending time away from groups, it does not mean spending all day indoors. For young people today, social media, gyms, and other indoor facilities occupy most of their daily exposure. Walking around Montreal alone or with a roommate can be a great pastime and a simple yet effective way to learn more about yourself and where you live. Additionally, social distancing does not mean completely avoiding your friends or community. Spend a day FaceTiming with an old friend, help your younger sibling with their online homework, or drop off groceries for an elderly neighbour. A day helping someone else, given the proper precautions, is never a day wasted. 

Although one can learn a new craft, paint a masterpiece, or write the next great American novel, enjoying the work of others and enriching your cultural awareness can also be a beneficial use of time. This can include watching Oscar-nominated movies on Netflix, doing 1000-piece puzzles, mastering a complicated recipe, and just dancing around an empty bedroom. Sparking joy doesn’t have to be limited to the organization of one’s closet. People today often believe that there is not enough time in a day to do fun things in life, when in reality, there are plenty of enjoyable and productive activities that can be done in 24 hours, particularly when many of those 24 hours are no longer spent rushing to school or work.  

In the quickly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, many have realized that it is acceptable, and necessary, to slow down once in a while. Employees are now working from home, cancelling meetings, and prioritizing what tasks are truly important. Even large corporations have made drastic changes, cutting back on production and fossil fuel usage, therefore slowing down emissions in the process. With social distancing, patience, and cooperation, we can tackle this global problem as a collective unit, while also potentially adapting our way of life to a slower, simpler, and more enjoyable pace. 

Science & Technology

The levitating power of quantum materials

by Pouya Jafarian on

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The Redpath Museum hosted Tami Pereg-Barnea, an associate professor in McGill’s Department of Physics, on March 12 as part of the Cutting Edge Lecture in Science series. An expert in nano-scale materials, Pereg-Barnea discussed her current research, in which she applies quantum mechanical properties to understand the behaviour of superconductors.

Pereg-Barnea started by giving a crash course on quantum mechanics, highlighting the revolutionary concept of wave-particle duality, the idea that materials can be described as either a particle or a wave.

“Quantum mechanics is a theory that we use for microscopic scales,” Pereg-Barnea said.

Interactions between subatomic particles such as electrons are better described by quantum physics than classical physics: While larger-scale objects do not usually act as waves, physicists have found that small particles at the quantum level do. However, unlike ocean waves, quantum-level waves are not made of any material constituent; rather, they are mathematical functions, called wave functions, that describe the probability of finding a particle at different positions. 

Just as normal waves can be superimposed to cancel or amplify one other, quantum materials, such as electrons, can interact to produce wave functions with peaks and plateaus. The probability of finding an electron in these peaks is high, and almost nonexistent in the plateaus. This wave-particle duality is what distinguishes quantum mechanics from Newtonian physics, which considers objects only as particles.

Quantum mechanics helps explain the behaviour of superconductors, which are materials that can transport electrons between atoms with no resistance. Usually, the current of electrons through a material is slowed by their collisions with each other. However, by being cooled down to extremely low temperatures, a superconductor minimizes these collisions. According to Pereg-Barnea, lowering electron collisions can be used to avoid economic costs.

“Hydro-Quebec is losing about six per cent of the energy that it is sending us even before it arrives at our homes,” Pereg-Barnea said. “This is because of these collisions.”

Superconductors play on the force of magnetism, too. 

“A superconductor is not only a perfect conductor, [it] also repels magnetic fields from its interior,” Pereg-Barnea said. “This is the Meissner effect.”

The Meissner effect refers to the ability of a superconductor to repel a magnetic field. This effect is possible because of the coordinated nature of electric currents inside superconductors.

To show superconductors in action, Pereg-Barnea prepared a track made of magnetic material and demonstrated how a superconductor playing the role of a train would levitate above this track. Since the superconductor levitates, there is no friction. Therefore, given an initial push, the levitating train would theoretically continue forever.

“This looks like magic,” Pereg-Barnea said. “But it’s actually just physics.”

The mechanism behind this macro-scale event is quantum mechanics. When exposed to a magnetic field, the material creates a well-coordinated flow of electrons that bring a magnetic field opposing that of the track. Based on the wave-particle duality proposed by quantum mechanics, electrons do not have to actually hit each other in a collision but can rather ‘go through’ each other. 

“You should not think of them as particles,” Pereg-Barnea said. “You should think of them as waves.” 

When a system is cooled, the electrons in the system want to be at the lowest energy level, or ground state. In ground state, all electrons move in a coordinated way. Therefore, the cooling effect combined with the quantum mechanical collision of electrons allows the superconductor to produce a magnetic field exactly opposite to what it experiences from the track. 

While quantum mechanics requires a great deal of abstraction, it has many real-world applications, such as electrical conductance, lasers, and MRI scanners. Quantum materials also hold great potential in the realm of sustainability, though Pereg-Barnea made clear that scientific advance cannot be impactful without real-world insight. 

“I think we have enough materials nowadays to tackle sustainability issues,” Pereg-Barnea said. “However, this is still an engineering problem of making it more affordable and more efficient.”

Science & Technology

Learning about the brain through science podcasts and fantasy worlds

by Thomas Bahen on

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The term ‘science education’ often brings to mind stressful chemistry labs, memorizing biology facts from a textbook, or struggling to read dry, confusing research papers. Such learning methods may work for those specializing in a particular field, but do little to convey the ideas to a broader audience. Morgan Sweeney, U3 Arts & Science, has a plan to change how science, particularly cognitive science, is communicated. 

Through her new podcast, Magic of the Mind, Sweeney aims to introduce intriguing cognitive science topics and ideas in two steps. First, she and her friends play an adapted Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) game that introduces cognitive science ideas through their story. Similar to how science fiction often bases its technology off of real scientific concepts, Magic of the Mind builds its key plot devices based on real cognitive science topics, like memory or language. After each episode’s adventure concludes, Sweeney interviews a prominent female scientist on the issue to learn more about the topic. These two-part episodes come out roughly every two weeks on magicofthemind.ca, Spotify, and Apple Music.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Sweeney explained that it was her encounters with podcasts that led her to want to create one.

“I wanted to make a podcast after listening to all these different podcasts while travelling,” Sweeney said. “At the end of last year, I thought about what […] I wanted to do in a podcast. I love learning about the brain, […] it is so pertinent to everyone’s life [.…] So, it seemed really natural to center it around that.” 

Magic of the Mind’s unique format was also guided by the podcasts that Sweeney listens to. In particular, Sweeney cited Radio Lab for its ability to weave together journalism and storytelling and Dungeons and Daddies for illustrating how D&D can provide the basis for a comedic fantasy adventure with friends. The end product of incorporating such influences is a rich soundscape of Sweeney and her friends voicing their characters with emotion and dramatic pauses. 

“As a kid, I loved fantasy [and] plot-driven narratives,” Sweeney said. “[…] A lot of other [book genres] were a little more boring. I personally have always been drawn to storytelling and more complicated narratives.”

In the first episode, the adventurer Quest reveals that she is bilingual and only knows the word ‘home’ in one of her languages, foreshadowing a source of conflict later in the episode and bringing attention to the interesting way that bilingual minds can work.

To further explore how these bilingual minds work, Sweeney interviewed Dr. Debra Titone, director of the McGill Language and Multilingualism Lab. Through Titone’s work, listeners learn that bilingual people sometimes heavily compartmentalize words for certain objects between their languages but can often recognize more clearly that many labels could be applied to a variety of objects. Beyond bilingualism, Titone and Sweeney delved into the world of semantics and the differences between spoken and written language. 

Future episodes will feature experts at McGill tackling several themes on topics like memory and attention. Encouraged by the great interviews that she has had with scientists so far, Sweeney is excited to highlight more female scientists going forward.

“[If there is] anything I can do to showcase the awesome work of female scientists, of course I will do it,” Sweeney said. “Representation is so important, […] and there are so many female scientists to share their great experience.”

Sweeney has the format, resources, and ideas to keep this podcast going strong, and she hopes that it can reach a wide audience at McGill and beyond. 

“I mostly just want people to listen to it,” Sweeney said. “I want people to view science as a human endeavour, especially if there are other people [at] McGill who want to do science communication.”

Creative

Reflections on two years at SSMU from the Indigenous Affairs Commissioner

by Sarah Ford & Aidan Martin on

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We sat down with Indigenous Affairs Commissioner Tomas Jirousek as he looks back at his time with SSMU.

Video by Sarah Ford and Aidan Martin.

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