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a, Science & Technology, Student Research

Getting a nose into research: interview with Maral Saghaei

by Caity Hui on

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Known for its excellence in research, McGill University is home to a host of professors and scientists known for their prestigious work and contributions to scientific innovation. In tribute to the amazing research conducted within McGill’s walls, SciTech will feature each month student researchers who have helped contribute to the cutting edge science conducted at the laboratories. This series hopes to shine a spotlight onto the hard work of undergraduate students who dedicate themselves to research in the lab. 

“Can I swab your nose?” This was the question Maral Saghaei, U2 Microbiology and Immunology student, asked this past summer while working at Dr. Joaquin Madrenas’ laboratory.

“At first [I thought] it [was] so disgusting and awkward, because I would be swabbing people’s noses,” Saghaei laughed. “It ended up being a lot of fun, [….] I went to every floor and I went to see teachers. [….] I felt like a [Girl Guide selling cookies] that day, but it was fun.”

A year ago, Saghaei never expected to be working in a laboratory. But after hearing in lecture about some of the dynamic experiences she could have working at a lab at McGill, she decided to try her luck and apply.

“I saw this TEDx Montreal video of Dr. Madrenas [….] His was so interesting because he made a link between diseases and the immune response and he linked that to music,” Saghaei said. “So he played a song and he [used it to explain the science]; it just made so much sense and it was so beautifully put.”

Saghaei applied to the laboratories of many of her professors from that year in addition to the laboratory of professor and Chair of Microbiology and Immunology Joaquin Madrenas. However, she mostly received responses that the labs were full, or they weren’t looking to take on any undergraduate students. When Madrenas didn’t answer her until three days later, Saghaei has already assumed his answer was a ‘No.’

“Madrenas wrote to me three days later, and he was the person I felt for sure was not going to take me—he is the Chair of microbiology and immunology—and when I saw he wasn’t answering, I thought he was not even going to bother to say no, you know. He emailed me three days later asking me when I would be available to meet, and then I was like, ‘Oh, this guy just wants to lay it on me nicely, and say no in person.’”

Saghaei was even more surprised that Madrenas did not ask her about her experience in science when she went to meet him. Instead, they spent an hour having a conversation, which, according to Saghaei, didn’t even feel like an interview.

“It just ended up being an hour [talking] about the arts, and then after that he asked, ‘So when will you be ready to start?’”

Like most undergraduate students, Saghaei did not begin her work at the laboratory with a research project. Instead, she provided support work for the other students working at the laboratory.

“They often have blood donors come in, two or three people a week,” explained Saghaei, “so I would help with the PBMC [peripheral blood mononuclear cells] isolations, which is what we use in the lab to do all of our research.”

Saghaei then progressed to working on her own research project this past summer, which involved determining if healthy donors carry the microbe Staphylococcus aureus in their noses. Upon infection, the microbe can cause septic shock (a severe immune response) if it gets into the bloodstream.

“We wanted to see if they do or do not [carry S. aureus] and see if they express TLR1 [a receptor that stimulates the innate immune system] on their cells, because that is the one that detects S. aureus and it is from TLR1 that you get the biggest inflammatory response,” Saghaei explained.

She spent the majority of the summer staining the cells of blood donors to see if they expressed TLR1. Based on her results, Saghaei found that while all humans carry TLR1, about 40 per cent lack TLR1 expression on the surface of their cells. The lack of TLR1 on cell surfaces can lower patients’ chances of dying from septic shock caused by S. aureus in the blood. It may also be associated with reducing chances of contracting leprosy and tuberculosis. Still, further research must be conducted until these results can be published.

Regardless, Saghaei has found her laboratory experience invaluable. Through learning all the techniques at the lab and applying her studies to data analysis, Saghaei says she feels she has really began to apply her learning at McGill. Like many students involved in research, she hopes that other undergraduates won’t be hesitant to get involved if something interests them.

“Just be yourself. I know it’s so cliché—everybody always says it, but … when I went into the interview with Dr. Madrenas I thought I didn’t have it. So I calmed down and I was just myself and we talked about things that actually interested me, and then he decided that he wanted to take me into the lab,” explained Saghaei.

Saghaei has a final word of advice. “Be honest. Dr. Madrenas asked me if I saw myself continuing in research or doing a masters in the department and I told him, ‘No, I don’t want to do that forever, I want to be a doctor’ and I was honest about it,” she added. “I didn’t pretend that I was overly excited, but I told him that I thought it would be interesting to learn about this. If I am going to be spending the next three years in this department, I might was well enjoy it and invest myself in it.”

a, Arts & Entertainment

Mile End gallery Art Mûr unveils found objects

by Jeremy Schipper on

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Art galleries can be pretty confusing places—especially if you don’t go to school at Concordia. Allow this piece to be your cheat-sheet to the current exhibitions of Art Mûr, one of the city’s major contemporary art galleries.

But first, a little context: Art Mûr has been displaying contemporary art at its current location on St. Hubert for 11 years now, and shows no signs of slowing down. The space is surprisingly large, so much so that it’s almost a mini-museum. The gallery’s three floors always lend another corner to turn around, or another hallway to walk through. It has also recently opened four new exhibitions, bringing its total current count up to five.

The first, Jannick Deslaurier’s Chantier, takes heavy masculine objects (the hammer-phallus! The drill-phallus!) and converts them into breezy silk sculptures. Conversely, Zeke Moores’ Useless privileges objects that we think of as just that: discarded Happy Meals, precarious Port-O-Potties, and crumpled cardboard boxes are given an extended life though their solidification into hardier steel forms. These sculptures ask: ‘What does it mean to mess with an object’s density?’ and ‘In what ways do we designate a temporality or duration onto a static object?’

The objects also appear to reference Marcel Duchamp and his famous Readymade series, which notably featured a urinal entitled The Fountain, revolutionizing the world of modern art in 1917.

A walk upstairs leads you to Colleen Wolstenholme’s Shifting Packets, an ink-drawn series where the digital clashes with the analog, blending the practices of science and art together in the process. Her colourful brain-scapes invite recollections of textbook diagrams—a neuron here, a synapse there—just as soon as they turn these recognizable forms into abstractions.

Sharing the second floor of the space is Jennifer Small’s I Found Jesus at the Flea Market, a Quebecois-sourced collection that combined the best parts of thrift shopping and the New York Times Cartoon Caption Contest. Each found representation of Jesus is combined by either a verbal or symbolic twist creating what is effectively a hall of Jesus-themed punch-lines. “Thank God It’s Friday” says one Jesus to another, as the latter pays homage to Superman’s journalist alter ego Clark Kent in a miniature phone-booth.

Up another floor is an ongoing exhibit about the Mise en Scène of photography. The exhibit uses the term ‘photography’ loosely, featuring works that incorporate film and painting in addition to conventional photography.

If you find yourself itching to stare at frustrating objects in a white room for a while, then head on over the Art Mûr. Don’t worry about ‘getting it,’ just pay attention to the questions you’re asking, and think about why you’re asking them. At the very least, just describe something as “Po-Mo” and you’ll probably fit right in.

The current Art Mûr (5826 St-Hubert) exhibition continues until Oct. 26. Admission is free.

a, Science & Technology

App review: LeftoverSwap

by Caity Hui on

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“You’re hungry. And cheap. We understand.” This is the motto of LeftoverSwap, a new app created to facilitate the exchange of leftovers between members of the community.

The app allows ‘leftover givers’ to snap a picture of what food they cannot finish, name it, and share it with other members using the app in their community. ‘Leftover takers’ may then contact the person and arrange a location for the exchange.

The inspiration for this app boils down to sustainability. According to their website, LeftoverSwap was designed to reduce waste, and promote local eating and relationships within the community. It also jokingly suggests that “ninety-nine per cent of us don’t need a second helping of the beef lo mein.”

To encourage good ‘leftover etiquette,’ the app provides a set of guidelines for users to follow, including “Be as vigilant as you would on Craigslist: if something seems off, don’t do it” and, “Don’t give away any food that you wouldn’t eat yourself.”

The concept is striking, if not a little odd. Despite the guidelines, many receivers are hesitant to swap leftovers with strangers. That being said, it’s positive to see the development of such a quirky—and potentially useful—app geared towards promoting sustainability.

LeftoverSwap is currently available for download on the App Store and will soon release an Android and web version.

a, Features

What’s in a name?: evolving our reactions to chemicals

by Caity Hui on

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In 2011, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) released a report featuring a baby covered in bubbles and sitting in a bath with the words “Baby’s Tub is Still Toxic.” The warning was in response to the discovery that Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo contained trace amounts of formaldehyde. Because formaldehyde was classified as a probable human carcinogen by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the report immediately stirred up fear that using this shampoo would cause cancer in children. However, what the report did not acknowledge was the dosage of formaldehyde required to be cancerous. Data has indicated that no tumours have been found when occupational exposure is below 2.4mg of formaldehyde per cubic meter of air. In response to this news release, Joe Schwarcz, Director of McGill’s Office for Science and Society (OSS), decided to take a closer look at this discrepancy. According to Schwarcz, even assuming that there is zero ventilation in the bathroom, the concentration of formaldehyde would be at most 0.2mg per cubic meter—not even a tenth of the amount shown to cause tumours.

This story is not unique. The OSS receives many calls each week concerning questions related to scientific misinformation. “People look up information as it is so terribly easy now with search engines—and likely many are not familiar with evidence-based sites and take whatever they read as the gospel,” explained David Harpp, McGill professor and Tomlinson Chair of Scientific Education. “It is the old ‘I heard that’ syndrome—like the game of telephone—as [people] are apt to tell friends and so on. By the time it reaches the nth person, the message is quite distorted.”

“It’s quite unfortunate that ‘chemical’ has become a dirty word,” Schwarcz said. “If you read lay publications, the word is almost always preceded by an adjective—usually a derogatory one. You know, ‘poisonous chemical,’ ‘toxic chemical,’ ‘dangerous chemical.’”

According to Schwarcz, the public’s perception of science began to change after the 1960s.

Rachel Carson’s novel Silent Spring, published in 1962, played a pivotal role in sparking an environmental movement and facilitating the ban on dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a commonly used insecticide that was found to harm reproductive development and threaten wildlife. For the first time, the public became aware of the potential effects of chemicals found in commonly used products. Today, groups like the David Suzuki Foundation are lobbying for the removal of a host of chemicals in cosmetics, while particularly emphasizing the idea that natural is better than synthetic. By voicing their concerns, these groups are starting conversations about the importance of consumer awareness.

With so many differing viewpoints readily available, critical thinking is key. Because any source of information could have potential biases or conflicts of interest, it is crucial to take a closer look at its origin. The David Suzuki Foundation and the CSC both cite some of their research from the Environmental Working Group, a foundation funded by a number of charitable groups, such as the Winslow Foundation and the Civil Society Institute. The OSS receives funding from the university and the Lorne Trottier Family Foundation and states on their website that they “accept no funding from any vested interest.” As a responsible consumer, it is essential to recognize any possible implications and biases that might accompany organizations’ funding.

Consumers consistently make choices that are affected by science. While we should be continuing to pose questions about product safety, it is important to be well-informed. With the wealth of information that is often available online, the average person is cast into an arbitrary guessing game of judging whether or not a scientific claim makes sense, because he or she usually does not have the background knowledge to gauge if, for instance, trace amounts of formaldehyde in baby shampoo would have a carcinogenic effect.

Since the 1960s, a growing myth has emerged that chemicals are either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and that natural is better than synthetic. Both these expectations are based on a naïve understanding of science. Nature is not benign. Anthrax, botulin, and castor beans—some of which are used in bio-terrorism—are naturally occurring products, and it is through synthetic drugs that people are treated for these agents.  Nature can be just as harmful as it is good to us, and the public should not be fooled by the ‘safe’ connotation it has acquired. Chemicals, too, cannot be classified as either good or bad.

“One of the challenges we face is to emphasize to people that chemicals are just things. They’re not good or bad, they don’t make any decisions—people make decisions,” Schwarcz said. “Chemicals are nothing else but the building blocks of matter. There is no such thing as a safe or dangerous chemical; there are safe or dangerous ways to use chemicals, and that’s where education and knowledge come in.”

Though it is in our best interest to strive for total safety, Schwarcz explains that this is not a demand that can be guaranteed by science.

“Risk and hazard are not the same thing. Hazard is something inherent that you cannot alter. A lion is a hazard, but the risk associated with the lion is different whether you meet up with it at the zoo or on the plains of Africa. The hazard is the same [in both situations] but the risk is different.”

Oftentimes, the focus is not on risk, but on hazard. For instance, David Suzuki’s list of “Dirty Dozen Chemicals in Cosmetics” suggests that chemicals such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and parabens are hazardous substances. Suzuki’s site states that “the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies BHA as a possible human carcinogen.” However, the risk of using any of the aforementioned compounds in a cosmetic is not only a function of hazard, but also depends on exposure, dosage, and personal liability. The 2010 Health Canada Status on Cosmetic Ingredients of Interest reported that “BHA […] was found to not present a risk at current levels of exposure [in cosmetics at a concentration of 0.1 per cent or less.]”

One question that is not getting asked is what is going into our products to replace these so-called toxic chemicals that companies have removed due to public pressure. Schwarcz explained that the chemicals we are using in the first place are being used for a reason. If a company is adding a preservative to their product, it’s often not because they want to add a potentially dangerous and expensive chemical to their make-up, but because this preservative serves a function.

For instance, when you use your finger to apply a cream, bacteria are transferred from your skin to the product. Creams—due to their moisture content—are a perfect medium for bacterial growth unless there is a preservative present. Parabens happen to be a very effective antimicrobial agent. So, the alternative to taking out the parabens is either to have a cream with limited shelf life—possibly giving rise to infection—or replacing it with another less-tested preservative.

Evidently, scientific illiteracy remains a problem, and it’s not one that will be quickly solved. However, both Schwarcz and Harpp emphasize that one of the most important steps the public can take is knowing whom to trust. The media often plays a large role in shifting the public’s perception of science, especially within the past few decades.

“The basic formula is likely to be strongly associated with the media—putting up misleading and dramatically exaggerated headlines for what is not always a story that [deserves it…] The editors are looking to sell the article, so clever headlines often take over,” Harpp said.

Schwarcz suggests Health Canada’s website as a useful resource. This agency publishes a cosmetic ingredient ‘hot list’ that  indicates which chemical ingredients manufacturers are told not to use or should use in limited amounts. These hot lists are compiled based on extensive tests and research. While it is more important to question what goods to consume, we should ensure that our choices are based on the scientific method—testing and re-testing a hypothesis until it is reproducible—rather than hearsay and anecdotes.

“Many government websites are, in my opinion, not out for headlines but for facts and conclusions based on facts,” Harpp said. “The Internet is a gigantic swamp [filled] with ‘facts’ and real facts. Usually, just [reviewing] the organization associated with the site is a good indicator [of its reliability].”

In the end, there is no simple solution. In order to make informed decisions as consumers, it is imperative that we move away from trying to evaluate the field in terms of binaries—good or bad, safe or dangerous—and recognize that there is a risk associated with all science. It is how science is used that determines its hazard.

“In […] science, it is not enough to be smart and be a critical thinker; you have to have data to analyze which you apply critical thinking to,” Schwarcz said. “Science is not white or black—there are varying shades of grey. If you really want to be informed you have to dig and do the work.”

The Office for Science and Society started the World of Chemistry courses in 1982 and since then over 30,000 students at McGill have taken one or more of the four courses in the suite (Food, Drugs, Environment and Technology). For more information on science literacy, McGill students are encouraged to attend the ‘Is that a fact?’ Lorne Trottier symposium to be held from 5:30-7:30pm on Oct. 28 to 29 at Centre Mont Royal at 1000 Sherbrooke.

a, Arts & Entertainment

Could be good

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MUSIC

The Growlers

Californian act The Growlers make an appearance in Montreal this week with a tour that follows their January 2013 release Hung at Heart. The psychedelic quintet has a history of theatrically flamboyant shows, making use of crossdressing costumes and other trippy visuals.

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 8:00 p.m., Il Motore (179 Jean Talon). Tickets $14 in advance, $16 at the door.

 

COMEDY

Yuk Yuk’s Grand Opening

Canadian comedy chain Yuk Yuk’s celebrates the grand opening of their Montreal cabaret with a performance by Kids in the Hall alumnus Dave Foley. The opening of the 240-seat venue will add a third anglo comedy club to the existing Montreal clubs Comedy Nest and Comedyworks.

Thursday, Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4, 9:00 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 5, 7:30 and 10:00 p.m., Yuk Yuk’s Montreal (5723 Parc Ave.) Tickets $23.

 

POETRY

BookThug Launch for Ron Silliman and Colin Fulton

Beloved Montreal-based graphic novel publisher Drawn & Quarterly hosts a book launch for books of poetry by Colin Fulton, releasing “Life Experience Coolant,” and Ron Silliman, releasing new collection “Revelator.”

Saturday, Oct. 5, 7:00 p.m., Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore (211 Bernard St. West.) Admission is free.

 

ART

America the Beautiful Vernissage

American transgendered artist Paedra Peter Bramhall presents a series of paintings depicting nude figures, set against an American flag wallpaper.

Sunday, Oct. 6, 3:00 p.m, Maison Kasini (372 St. Catherine). Admission is free.

 

POETRY

Poetry Jam

Montreal production Black Theatre Workshop hosts a poetry jam, this year with a Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” theme to honour the 50th anniversary of the speech this past August. Contest participants will be judged on “creativity, originality, and delivery,” and have the opportunity to win cash prizes.

Sunday, Oct. 6, 7:00 p.m., MAI Theatre (3680 Jeanne-Mance). Admission is free.

a, News

Tuition expected to increase 13 per cent by 2016-17

by Shrinkhala Dawadi on

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Earlier this month, a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) predicted a 13 per cent increase for the average Canadian student’s tuition fees by the 2016-17 school year.

According to the CCPA report released on Sept. 11, tuition in Canada will cost each student on average $7,437 by the 2016-2017 school year, compared to $6,348 in 2012-2013. Considering that the average student paid $1,464 in 1990-1991, tuition in Canada has tripled in the past 27 years—even after adjusting to inflation.

With these numbers in mind, the Tribune set out to examine the issue of rising post-secondary education costs, and the various methods that have been proposed to reduce them.

When measured as a proportion of the Canadian GDP, federal support for universities has dropped 50 per cent in the past two decades. To fill this gap, universities have turned to tuition increases. Tuition had grown to form 35 per cent of universities’ operating revenue in 2009, in contrast to 14 per cent two decades earlier.

Erika Shaker, one of the authors of the CCPA report, explained that lower- to middle-class families are increasingly forced to choose between taking on extra debt, postponing retirement, or sending their children to university. These choices mean that some families miss out on the economic and social benefits of post-secondary education.

“The social returns, while more difficult to quantify, I think are more profound,” Shaker said. “If you have access to post-secondary education, you generally are healthier, and therefore less of a strain to the health system. You’re generally more involved with your community and your family. There’s also a higher degree of social mobility so eventually there’s the movement to a more equitable society.”

Shaker explained that the current systems of government aid for university students are complex and difficult to navigate. Often, the onus is on the student to find out which aid he or she qualifies for. As part of her report, Shaker recommended that tuition be reduced for lower- and middle-class families through increased public taxpayer funding.

“People should pay what they can afford, and the most progressive and efficient way to do that is the tax system,” Shaker said. “There is a great deal of public funding already going into the [post-secondary education] system. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the costs are borne by the wealthiest amongst us, as it should be, and that is what we want in a progressive tax system.”

Christopher Ragan, a professor of economics at McGill, suggested a different approach to the problem of university underfunding. He advocated raising tuition, saying that current tuition represents only 20 per cent of the total cost of a degree. However, Ragan acknowledged that universities would need to ensure accessibility if tuition fees increased.

“There are a lot of good students who are low-income and don’t have the means to pay for a high tuition,” he said. “I think the way to square that circle is to let tuition rise for everybody and then use either an expanded loan program or student bursaries from universities to make sure that the good quality low-income students don’t get excluded as a result of high tuition.”

McGill students say that they are not surprised by the CCPA’s predictions of increased tuition for upcoming years. Amalia Slobogian, a third-year PhD student in English Literature, spoke against tuition increases at McGill.

“I don’t think [McGill is] improving in teaching undergrads,” Slobogian said. “To justify tuition increases, it should be based on the quality of teaching.”

Hannah Sinclair, U3 Arts, said that while she is not surprised by the findings of the report, she believes that future students must adapt to the reality of increased university tuition.

“It’s unfortunate [that] it seems like the price of tuition is rising but the value of the degree is going down at the same time,” she said. “I think we’re going to have to start changing the way we think about university, especially for kids coming out of high school. [University] needs to not be the only answer.”

a, Student Life

Ask Tribby

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Dear Tribby, 

My grandma was diagnosed with cancer a while ago, but things started to look worse these last few days. I really want to go home to Vancouver to see her in case anything happens because my grandma is one of the most important people in my life. The problem is I have two midterms coming up and am already going home for Thanksgiving. The tickets are expensive and it will be a major hassle to have to make the trip twice.

— Worried Grandchild

 

Dear Worried Grandchild:

I’m sincerely sorry to hear about your grandmother. Family illness is often very difficult to deal with and hard to balance with academics.

What you need to do is plan—look at your calendar and determine which days you are free and can make a trip back home to Vancouver. Whether it’s a weekend or in the middle of the week, choose the days that you aren’t missing out on anything important.

In terms of the expense side, talk to your parents. Ask their opinion on whether they want you to come home now and then again during Thanksgiving. If you’ve already booked your flight home, another option is to see if you can exchange your flight and go home now instead of over Thanksgiving. Whatever fee there is, it might be worth paying.

Besides planning the trip, also plan your study schedule. Make sure that you allocate enough time to study for your midterms and not fall behind on work. Be realistic when doing this; don’t tell yourself you’ll study on the flight if you know you’re going to fall asleep.

Lastly, talk to you professors. For a family emergency, they will be able to accommodate you and help relieve some of the pressure.

The bottom line is that your family is important to you; you don’t want to leave any regrets.

Hoping for the best,

Tribby

 

Dear Tribby,

Since the start of the semester, every time I run into a friend she says that she’s in a hurry, or she says she’s on her way to a meeting. I feel like she’s trying to ignore me, but I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. Maybe I’m just over analyzing the situation. Do I confront her? Try to give her space?

— Paranoid Pal

 

Dear Paranoid Pal: 

First, take a step back and look at what’s going on. Think back to what happened before the fall began. Did you do anything that seemed to upset her? When you see her from a distance, does she also seem like she’s in a hurry? Chances are this friend might just be extra busy this semester. Talk to your mutual friends. Has she been ignoring everyone, or been busy since the beginning of the school year? If none of your friends have gotten a chance to catch up with her from the summer, then it’s most likely that she actually does have a tight schedule and has nothing against you. However, if she seems to only be doing this to you, ask your friends if she’s mentioned anything to them.

The best solution here is to talk to that friend. The longer you let this tension continue between you two, the longer it’ll be until you can hang out like friends again. The key is communication. Ask her what’s going on before just confronting her and accusing her of ignoring you. Chances are, things are going to get ugly if you start an argument for nothing.

Yours truly,

Tribby

a, Science & Technology

‘Phonebloks’ could last a lifetime

by Abhishek Gupta on

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What’s one of the main differences between the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5? Colour. Still, consumers are purchasing an entirely new phone.

The rapid pace of technological change is outstripping the real need for frequent updates in technology, and this constant consumer cycle of switching out phones is now posing negative environmental consequences. Electronic waste (E-waste), which arises from all the devices and appliances that are thrown away, is a significant pollutant not only due to its sheer quantity, but also due to the amount of heavy and toxic metals that leech into the soil when this waste is dumped into landfills. Speaking at the CleanUp 2013 conference in Melbourne Australia, professor Ming Wong, director of the Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences at Hong Kong Baptist University, described the growing problem of E-waste as a time bomb. “[It] is the world’s fastest growing waste stream, rising by three to five per cent every year,” Wong said.

In response to this growing problem, Dave Hakkens, a recent graduate of the Dutch Design Academy Eindhoven, has developed an initiative that aims to provide a sustainable phone model while at the same time providing consumers the frequent upgrades they have grown to cherish.

Hakkens proposed a new kind of smartphone this September—a smartphone that’s worth keeping. Phonebloks, a modular smartphone, removes the concept of having a single phone body with soldered components. Instead, it has separate modules for each of the components of the smartphone, one each for the camera, processor, RAM, display and so on.

The idea behind this modular design is that if a component becomes out-dated or is damaged, one can simply replace that part and not have to change the entire phone. The phone consists of a peg board, which acts as its base. The reverse side of the peg board has pins where all the modules fit in and come together. The front side is the site for the front facing camera and the screen.

“I put the idea online and thought maybe a thousand people would like it, at best,” Hakkens exlained in a video on the PhoneBloks website. “When I published it, over half a million people supported the project. There’s a market for this.”

Currently running a campaign on Thunderclap, a crowd-speaking platform, the idea has received 99 per cent of the expected support of 850,000 people. It has gained traction among the masses as an agent for change towards a more sustainable electronic product life cycle with minimal impact on the environment.

At the moment, Phonebloks is still in the concept stage, to the point that Hakkens is not even looking to raise any money for the project using crowd-funding platforms like IndieGoGo or KickStarter. He explains in the video that the project is too large for a single company to manage. He suggests the concept might require a consortium of companies to invest in the project.

Another selling point of Phonebloks is its flexibility. According to its website, the model could be used to customize the smartphone to adapt to people with different needs. For example, senior citizens could get larger speakers to amplify sound; travelers could get a better camera than the standard offering.

Still, the Phonebloks model poses several problems. With the introduction of modules that plug into a peg board, there is a risk of a much bulkier model than the current crop of smartphones. Current smartphones are an engineering marvel in terms of the large number of components packed into a slim and tiny space, which is largely possible because they are all soldered onto a motherboard. Besides this, there is also the unseen problem of wear and tear that the plug pins on a modular phone base, as is true with any design that has repeated plugging in and out.

An ever more pertinent problem is getting large corporations like Apple and Samsung on board with this idea. They have huge quarterly profits because they can frequently release newer, more powerful smartphones that compel consumers to discard their old devices. The idea of having a phone that would ideally last a lifetime would eat away at this ever-growing pile of consumer dollars. In the future, it will be necessary for Phonebloks to address the issue of larger corporations backing up their project in order to move forward in this electronic sustainability movement.

a, Opinion

Taken: laptop theft on campus

by Lauren Konken on

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There’s a strange feeling that comes with having something stolen. Two years ago, my phone was stolen as I was getting on  a train home for reading week. Because I had a new contract and needed a phone, I had to pay $500 out of pocket to replace the stolen phone. On one hand, I was thankful; at least it was my phone and not my laptop. On the other, I felt betrayed and hurt. Who would do that and why?

Theft on campus has gotten more attention than usual lately. It seems like two clear forces are at work. On the one hand,  there seems to be a breakdown in traditional norms of trusting fellow students to watch your belongings. On the other hand, it’s becoming clear that in many cases, it isn’t merely students stealing from students, but in fact organized thieves who are strategically targeting us in and around our campus.

From the first day I stepped on campus, when you left your belongings in a given student space it was respected that it was in use and that materials weren’t to be touched. Library study space has always been in short supply and the unspoken word of conduct was to respect the that reservation in such a way. There has also been the understanding that the people sitting nearby would watch it and prevent others from either stealing your things or your spot.

This year, this no longer seems to be the case. Several  individuals have lamented on social media networks of their laptops being stolen from the library or any one of the numerous cafes around campus. Worse yet are incidences of students being robbed while they’re fully present.

Lorna Cantalare, a U2 international development student, recently shared with me how she fell victim to a strategic pair of thieves. She had been at a café near campus for four to five hours. She says she was also extremely vigilant about guarding her belongings. If she left her table to get a drink, as she did several times, she brought everything but a book with her.

Despite the precautions she took, she was robbed. While she was seated and reading, a young man tapped her shoulder from behind and asked an innocuous question. She answered and turned back to continue reading. It wasn’t until several minutes later that she turned back to her bag to find her laptop was gone. All it took was five seconds, she said, and she was left with what she described as a “disgusting feeling.”

“Everywhere I go, I take my laptop, my phone and my wallet,” she explained. It didn’t matter that the café was busy with students, or even that she was sitting close to the register where employees had a clear view of the exchange. No one saw it happen, and no one stopped the man from leaving with her computer. Only video surveillance of the exchange would confirm her suspicions. A man in his early to mid 40s had snatched her laptop from her bag when she had been distracted by the first man.

Although she filed a police report, Cantalare found the police largely unresponsive and insensitive. Ironically, an officer even told her that she could file her stolen laptop report online from home, despite the fact that her computer had been stolen. The café only turned over surveillance footage after the report had been filed, and she had since been pushing the police to collect the tape that clearly shows the man’s face. She’s since taken it upon herself to circulate the photo to local coffee shops around campus. Employees of at least three locations just off campus have recognized the man. Online postings of the image generated a lot of responses, she also explained, with many students reaching out to her to share their similar experiences. The issue is no longer carelessness, she concludes, but students targeted by organized thieves ready to capitalize on distraction or complacency in campus libraries.

She told me that we all recuperate eventually, but in the short term, one’s mind is completely preoccupied with having been a theft victim. The way you look at people changes. Everything she explained hit home for me. I myself had become incredibly critical of any strangers that bumped into me in a crowded public place. Were they trying to grab my phone? Was there a hand reaching for my purse? Perhaps this teaches a lesson to be critical of those we meet, but I can’t help but think that it makes students more skittish, while further detracting from the quality of our studies. Who wants to feel the need to be constantly vigilant? We only have so much attention to give to things when we’re already consumed with studying, classes and clubs.

a, News

Protesters call for equal access to education for non-status children

by Jannet Li on

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On Sept. 25, Solidarity Across Borders held a demonstration and public assembly demanding that the Quebec Ministry of Education improve access to education for children without immigration status attending elementary and secondary school in the province.

Solidarity Across Borders is a migrant justice network based in Montreal, while the Education for All Collective is a subgroup of the network specifically targeting education. The Quebec Ministry of Education currently charges non-status children $5,000 to $6,000 per year to attend school. Solidarity Across Borders is asking the Montreal School Board Commission and the Quebec Ministry of Education to nullify the fees.

“The guidelines are fundamentally insulting to the reality of non-status kids and their families,” the network’s website reads.

The organization also criticizes how the Quebec Ministry of Education only provided guidelines for Quebec school boards regarding children without immigration status one week before the beginning of this school year. Moreover, information regarding guidelines for fees are not available on the various Quebec school boards’ and the Ministry of Education’s websites, according to Solidarity Across Borders’ website.

The demonstration was held at L’Ecole Barthelemy-Vimont, a Montreal elementary school in the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. Approximately 30 demonstrators gathered for the demonstration, which took place at the same time as the Montreal School Board Commission held a Council meeting inside the school. A small number of activists and representatives from Solidarity Across Borders were also able to attend the meeting.

(Alexandra Allaire / McGill Tribune)
(Alexandra Allaire / McGill Tribune)

Jaggi Singh, a member of the Solidarity Across Borders and Education for All Collective attended the event.

“It is shameful that kids are not going to school,” Singh said. “All children in the United States, including those without legal status, [have] received free education since the 1980s. There is also a language barrier, which causes a problem for parents and guardians in the process of demanding free education.”

Singh expressed frustration regarding the lack of response that they have received from the Quebec government.

“In the span of two weeks we called Marie Malavoy [Quebec Minister of Education] five times but there was no response,” Singh said. “There was no response to the many letters which we wrote either.”

Mathieu Leblanc, a media representative in the Minister of Education’s office, said that they are working on the issue.

“We are trying to add more categories of children who will not need to pay for school,” Leblanc said.

Billal Tabaichount, an economics student at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), participated in the demonstration.

“I support the cause that all children have the right to go to school but I don’t necessarily support all of the Solidarity’s arguments,” Tabaichount said.

Isabelle Larrivee, an activist who also attended the event, said that her support is based on the right to access education.

“It is fundamental and important to have access to no matter the status of a person,” she said.

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