Canada criticized internationally for disregarding science

Posted:February 22, 2008

A February 2008 edition of the journal Nature has criticized Canada's Conservative government's "manifest disregard for science". They cite the government's recent closure  of the office of national science adviser. The office used to offer advice on global science and technology issues and how government can better fund and support Canadian science. In addition, the Conservative government recently decreed that Environment Canada scientists must route all media enquiries through Ottawa for an "approved" response so the government could control the position of Canadian science of global climate change. Finally, the Conservative government cabinet failed to attend a reception for Nobel Prize winning Canadian scientists last week in Ottawa. If you want to express your concern for our country's poor international image regarding Canadian science, and the way this has come about due to Conservative government actions and policies, please write your MP by looking up the address on the government's contact page, or write the Prime Minister directly, or Jim Prentice the minister of Industry who is now responsible for science research funding.

Stats Canada points to benefits of science PhDs

Posted:November 23, 2007

According to Macleans Magazine, Science and engineering PhDs were, in 2001, nearly twice as likely to work in the private sector as PhD holders from other disciplines, and only 38 per cent of them worked in educational services, compared to 60 per cent of PhD holders in other fields. The Statistics Canada report also looked at location. Ninety per cent of scientists and engineers live in urban areas. The highest concentration is in Kingston, dubbed the “science and engineering capital of Canada,” with its two universities, a college, and teaching hospital. The concentration of scientists and engineers employed by the federal government also played a role as Ottawa-Hull came in second. Scientists and engineers living in Vancouver earned the highest average salary in Canada at $89,179, while the lowest was found in Edmonton at $73,527. Men with science PhDs outnumber women four to one.

Canadian study finds weight-loss pills not worth the risk

Posted:November 21, 2007

University of Alberta medical researchers reviewed 30 studies of weight loss pills such as orlistat, sibutramine and rimonabant and found that on average they help users shed only 3-5Kg. What's more the side effects are not worth the risk. The research was led by Dr. Rajdeep Padwal in the Department of Medicine at the U of Alberta.

Try the science.ca SMS poll

Posted:November 3, 2007

One of the most popular questions on science.ca is about eye colour. People want to know why their eyes are the colour they are. They also want to predict the colour of their children's eyes, and they also frequently ask why their eyes are changing colour.

Canadian Team First in Space Elevator Contest

Posted:October 21, 2007

A team of students and alumni from the University of Saskatchewan have again provided the winning robotic climber for this year's Elevator:2010 Competition in Utah (October 19 and 20, 2007). This is the second consecutive year the team's climber outperformed all others. The Space Elevator is a system based on a super-strong ribbon going from the surface of the Earth to a point beyond geosynchronous orbit. The tether is held in place by a counterweight in orbit. And so, as the Earth rotates, the tether is held taut. Vehicles would then climb the ribbon powered by a beam of energy projected from the surface of the Earth. Such a space elevator is not possible today, but researchers around the world are working on the technologies that will be required. The Canadian contribution from USask is a method of powering the elevator with a beam of light projected by lasers on the ground. Visit www.usst.ca for more information including a video.

Canadian science has tremendous world impact

Posted:August 14, 2007

In a May 2007 report, Thompson Scientific, a company that tracks refereed scientific publications and the citations they contain, gave Canada a glowing report. With little more than 0.5% of the world’s population Canada produces 4.65% of the world's scientific publications.

Citations are references in formal scientific research papers that refer to previously published research. If such research is cited frequently by other scientists it generally means it contained a valuable discovery that was influential. Based on citations collected between 2002 and 2006, on average Canadian research is cited 7% more than research from the rest of the world. In 21 of the 22 scientific fields tracked (excepting economics & business), the impact of Canadian research met or exceeded the world average, with particularly strong performance in space science (57% above the world average), clinical medicine (34% above), and physics (+31%). These  findings are reported on Thompson's inCites website.

In another 2005 review, Thompson shows that among the 145 top-performing countries in all fields, Canada ranked #6 for citations, #6 for papers, and #16 for citations per paper. Canada leads the world in the following fields in terms of volume published as well as impact based on citation indexes: Psychology, Geosciences, Ecology/Environment, Economics, Education, Space Science, Clinical medicine, and Physics.

Canadian computer scientist "solves" checkers game

Posted:July 29, 2007

Professor Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton has led a team that computed every possible outcome of the 500 billion billion possible positions in the game of checkers or draughts. His program, Chinook, can now play a perfect game from any position. The team proved that the best outcome of any starting point is a draw. The results were published in a paper in the July 19, 2007 journal Science.

Genetic Disease Map Hosted in Canada

Posted:July 12, 2007

Dr. Stephen Scherer, Senior Scientist and Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto will lead a consortium of scientists from Canada, England and USA in the mapping of copy number variants (CNVs)-- the amount of copies of a particular gene in the genotype of an individual. Evidence shows that in some cases gene copy number can be elevated in people predisposed to various diseases. The goal is to create a detailed map of CNVs in the human genome. The map will be located and made available to the world's researchers at Database of Genomic Variants hosted by SickKids.

New Science, Technology and Innovation Council

Posted:June 15, 2007

Howard Alper will chair Canada's new Science, Technology and Innovation Council. The council will report to the Minister of Industry. It will be a non-governmental advisory body that provides evidence-based policy advice on science and technology issues and produces regular national reports that measure Canada's Science and Technology performance against international standards of excellence.

Canadian scientist wins the Benjamin Franklin Medal for physics

Posted:April 23, 2007

Physicist Art McDonald, director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), will share the Benjamin Franklin Medal for physics with Yoji Totsuka of the University of Tokyo. The prize is awarded in recognition of their discovery in 2001 that neutrinos have mass and can change from one type to another.

Canadian Wins 2007 King Faisal Prize for Medicine

Posted:February 21, 2007

Fernand Labrie of Laval University in Quebec city shared the US$200,000 King Faisal International prize for medicine with Patrick Walsh of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The prize is awarded by the King Faisal Foundation of Saudi Arabia. Labrie won for his work developing a hormone-based therapy to manage prostate cancer.

Journal of Irreproducible Results Printed in Canada

Posted:February 19, 2007

The science humour magazine, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, though it is published bimonthly from San Mateo, California, is actually printed in Lachine, Quebec at Transcontinental O'Keefe. The editor Norman Sperling says cost saving is not the main reason the JIR is printed in Canada. He gets better service from the Canadian printers and the paper is better. Check out the website and consider subscribing.

Canadian Science Reveals Pregnant Mona Lisa

Posted:January 15, 2007

A group of scientists from Canada's National Research Council's Institute for Information Technology in Ottawa used an advanced high resolution colour 3D laser scanner to record the Mona Lisa at the invitation of the Louvre. An article in the January 2007 issue of Art News magazine describes how the Canadian imagery shows that the woman was wearing a previously invisible gauze veil only worn by pregnant women in the Renaissance period. You can check out the data yourself at the NRC Giaconda website.

U of Toronto Scientists Reverse Diabetes in Mice

Posted:December 15, 2006

An auto-immune researcher together with a pain researcher at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children (U. of Toronot) as well as one in Calgary have found a link between diabetes and the nervous system. Hans-Michael Dosch led a team that was able to inject pain receptor neuropeptides into diabetes-prone mice to reverse established diabetes with no bad side effects.

Canadian Geologists May Solve Bangladesh Arsenic Poisoning with Lentils

Posted:November 29, 2006

Up to 80 million people in Bangladesh and India suffer from arsenic poisoning as a result of the water supply. Two Canadian researchers at the University of Saskatchewan Canadian Light Source Synchrotron are using X-ray absorption spectroscopy to analyse blood and tissues collected from people in Bangladesh. Graham George and Ingrid Pickering think selenium in lentils could counteract the poisonous effects of arsenic.

New way to find ice-loving bacteria

Posted:October 13, 2006

A Canadian scientist at Queens University has developed a way to isolate bacteria that survive in extreme cold. Virginia Walker, a professor of biology and President of the Genetics Society of Canada uses microscopic "ice fingers" to isolate bacteria which have properties to interact with, and modify, ice. The bacteria have many potential applications from improving the consistency of ice-cream to the creation of better snow making machines. Read more at the Queens News Centre.

Canadian Software Proves What Neil Armstrong Said

Posted:September 30, 2006

Peter Shann Ford, a Sydney, Australia-based computer programmer used Canadian sound editing software called GoldWave (from St. John's, Newfoundland) to analyse the first words of Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong when he set foot on the moon. According to the research, he said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Not "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. NOTE: The science of this news story has since come under heavy criticism. Hence the result may not be true.

Canadian Astronaut to Work on Space Station

Posted:September 10, 2006

Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean is set to make a spacewalk after he successfully rocketed to orbit aboard space shuttle Atlantis Sept. 9. MacLean, on his second spaceflight, joins five other astronauts on the first construction mission to the International Space Station since the Columbia disaster of 2003. The Nepean, ON native will play a crucial role in increasing the station's power. Using the robotic Canadarm, he will manoeuvre a set of solar panels from the shuttle to the station. He will then perform a spacewalk on Sept. 13 to release locks on the panels, allowing them to track the sun. (Elizabeth Howell reporting)

Faintest Stars Detected by Canadian Led Team

Posted:August 18, 2006

Astronomer Harvey Richer at the University of British Columbia used the Hubble telescope to study white dwarfs in star cluster NGC 6397, which is 8500 light years away. The light detected is the equivalent of a birthday candle on the moon.

Astronomers have used white dwarfs in globular clusters as a measure of the universe's age. The universe must be at least as old as the oldest stars. White dwarfs cool down at a predictable rate. The older the dwarf, the cooler it is, making it a perfect "clock" that has been ticking for almost as long as the universe has existed. Richer and his team are using the same age-dating technique to calculate the cluster's age. NGC 6397 is estimated to be nearly 12 billion years old.

Canadian Scientists Discover Gene for Depression

Posted:July 28, 2006

Canadian scientists have identified a gene that makes some people susceptible to major depressive disorders. Speaking at the Forum of European Neuroscience earlier this month, Professor Nicholas Barden of Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval in Quebec explained, “This is a major breakthrough in the realm of psychiatry and will have groundbreaking implications for diagnosis and the development of new anti-depressant treatment.”