Across higher education, professors, students, and administrators are grappling with how to respond to the widespread availability of fast, free, and increasingly capable chatbots like ChatGPT. In a survey conducted by The Tribune with 46 McGill undergraduate participants, only one in five students reported not using ChatGPT for class, while[Read More…]
Tag: scitech
World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week at McGill
Every year, from Nov. 18 to Nov. 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) observes World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (WAAW), recognizing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the greatest modern threats to global development and public health. AMR was responsible for 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. McGill’s own[Read More…]
Immortal time bias: A source for inaccuracies in cancer prevention research
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death, and as such, cancer treatment and prevention research has been a large focus of medical professionals worldwide. Over the past few decades, several studies have proposed that metformin—a medication widely used for type II diabetes management—is a potential preventative measure for[Read More…]
Advances and challenges in viral diseases and their emerging therapies
The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call to the world’s lack of resilience and infrastructure to guard communities from viral pathogens. This, in turn, has driven a global focus on viral pathogenesis, fostering collaboration and innovation. It also triggered a landmark coordination effort in[Read More…]
The effects of tobacco and cannabis use during pregnancy
Around 70 per cent of people who use cannabis have been found to use nicotine and tobacco products (NTP) as well. This trend is similarly observed among pregnant people. While both NTP and cannabis use during pregnancy have individually been shown to negatively impact pregnancy outcomes—such as preterm birth for[Read More…]
Sex-specific autonomic signatures of tonic pain
The subjective experience of pain varies drastically between people, but subjective measures of pain correlation provide an important understanding of its underlying mechanisms. Emerging literature on pain points to a relationship between muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA)—a measure of how active the sympathetic nervous system is while signalling blood vessels[Read More…]
Trust your gut: How your gut microbiota uses the foods you eat to prevent disease
Hidden deep within the human digestive tract lies a dynamic and complex population: The gut microbiota, a community of over 100 trillion microbial cells that influence the body far beyond digestion. Consisting of bacteria, viruses, eukaryotes, and archaea, a diverse microbiota has been shown to have many beneficial health effects,[Read More…]
Can Canada uplift AI innovation while keeping Canadians’ data safe?
Canadians helped pioneer the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers like Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto and Yoshua Bengio of Université de Montréal, known as the ‘godfathers of AI,’ laid the groundwork for technologies now reshaping economies and geopolitics. Yet as AI and the race for data become[Read More…]
Stop-and-go: How male and female hockey players move differently
Hockey is a key component of Canadian culture, as it is our national sport and a great source of joy and pride. Whether played competitively, in gym class, or just for fun on a frozen lake, hockey unites players across the country. Yet despite its importance to many across various[Read More…]
Could personalized interventions transform eating disorder care?
Eating disorders (EDs) are serious and prevalent conditions that can impact all aspects of one’s life. However, treatment remains difficult to access as a result of high costs, long waitlists, and geographic limitations. But what if just one encounter could significantly improve cost-effectiveness and long-term outcomes for individuals living with[Read More…]
