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Tag: Science

  • Action Plan for Killer Asteroids

    From the source article, on the Beeb:

    A draft UN treaty to determine what would have to be done if a giant asteroid was on a collision course with Earth is to be drawn up this year. […] The association has asked a group of scientists, lawyers, diplomats and insurance experts to draw up the recommendations.

    Sorry, it’s hard to type while I’m laughing so hard… Yeah, those are definitely the people to put on the job! All they’re missing are religious leaders, and we’re sure to have a speedy conclusion to that project. 😉

  • Mona Lisa Grave Found, Claims Scholar

    From the source article:

    The woman behind Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting may be buried near a now derelict building in the heart of Florence, according to archival documents. The exact location of Mona Lisa’s burial site, the convent of Sant’Orsola, was just a about 900 feet away from the house of the artist’s father, according to the historian, Giuseppe Pallanti.

  • Why is the universe just right for life?

    Paul Davies, George Efstathiou, David Gross and Leonard Susskind, four of the world’s most renowned physicists, will debate the fundamental questions of existence at A Cosmic Coincidence: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life? McGill University’s second annual Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium. The symposium will address the controversial anthropic principle: the notion that the universe is somehow specifically “tuned” to support life as we know it.


    What:     The 2007 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium: A Cosmic Coincidence: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life?

    When: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, January 25, 2007

    Where: McGill University Main Campus, Leacock Building, Room 132

    Live Webcast (on January 25)

    This symposium will be presented in English with simultaneous French translation.

    Read the source article on the McGill Newsroom.

  • Have Canadian Researchers Found a Cure for Diabetes?

    In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians. Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

    You can read the full article on the National Post website.

    I am not directly affected by this disease, but I know enough people who unfortunately are to realize that this has the potential to tremendously change a lot of people’s lives, if it does lead to anything even remotely viable for humans.

  • Bruce Trigger: Archaelogist, Anthropologist 1937-2006

    This is, by Web standards, old news, but I still wanted to mark the passing of a great Canadian mind. See the article on the Globe and Mail site.

    Archaeologist, anthropologist and historian Bruce Trigger had a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity that roamed across civilizations — from ancient Egyptians in Africa to the Huron Confederacy in Eastern Canada — historical time frames and scholarly disciplines. He understood from an early age that complexity was an underlying factor in human behaviour, an insight that made him wary of ideological determinism and rigid methodological approaches to data.

    See also: Honouring Bruce Trigger in the McGill Reporter.

  • Memories for Life

    Memories for Life is a unique project, funded by the EPSRC, bringing together a diverse range of academics in a bid to understand how memory works and to develop the technologies to enhance it. We are our memories. Our memories underpin every thought we have, every fact we learn and every skill we acquire. In today’s technology-rich society this human memory is now supplemented by increasing amounts of personal digital information; emails, photographs, Internet telephone calls, even GPS locations and television viewing logs. We believe bringing together psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists and computer scientists will lead to a more effective use and management of both the human and computerised memory. It will place the technology in the context.

    This truly sounds like a fascinating project.

  • Mission STS-118 Canadian Patch Design Contest

    McGill University announced a pretty unique contest for the student body today: designing a commemorative patch that will be worn by the Canadian astronaut on Mission STS-118 to the International Space Station in June of 2007.

    McGill and the Canadian Space Agency are proud to announce the launch of the Mission STS-118 Canadian Patch Design Contest. The winner will have the unique experience of seeing their design chosen for Dr Williams‘ uniform, AND will be invited to attend the launch of mission STS-118 in the Mission Control Room at the Canadian Space Agency.