Physicist Stephen Hawking in Zero Gravity, NASA
There have been rumors that the world renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking, is unhappy with the state of British science funding and has been offered a position at our own Perimeter Institute, located in Waterloo.
Want to find out about what’s happening in research in Toronto? The University of Toronto’s Experience Research site, which links the research communities of their three campuses, has recently undergone a fantastic redesign.
Along with this redesign comes volumes of information about U of T’s diverse research endeavors, including environment, health, science & technology and business.
In part two of our Medicine 2.0 series, we talked about the five important aspects of Medicine 2.0. In this interview, Dr. Gunther Eysenbach, Senior Scientist at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, talks about the specific ways in which Web 2.0 could change the medical and research industry.
Read on for the third in the Medicine 2.0 interview series with Dr. Eysenbach. Read the rest of this entry »
A storm is brewing
Several decisions made by multiple levels of the US government these past few weeks have me seriously questioning the administration’s resolve to support renewable energies (specifically solar). My personal bias is that I am completely infatuated with the idea of “fields” of solar arrays covering large swaths of arid, infertile, desolate land, soaking up wasted photons in an inhospitable environment with negligible NIMBYist opposition.
That said, certain government decisions these days clearly suggest this dream isn’t shared by all (or those who lobby those representing “all.”)
Mars Phoenix Lander
Being a bit of a space cadet, I have been following the operations of NASA’s latest venture (Phoenix) to our red neighbor, Mars. For a bit of primer, NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander is a stationary science lab that landed on Mars on May 25.
Among the various instruments, there is a robotic arm for taking soil samples, a chemistry lab to analyze soil compositions and a Canadian-made weather system that will be used for measuring wind speed, air pressure and temperature. Now, we’ll be able to know what the weather is like for Mars!
After several weeks of checkout, Phoenix began operations and on June 25 conducted the first chemistry test of a soil sample. Much to the surprise and delight of researchers, the test results indicated that the soil was capable of supporting life… In fact, they concluded that you could probably grow asparagus in it! This exciting news came one week after the lander had discovered water in the same area. Well, if you have water and viable soil, the next logical question is:
“Is there life on Mars?”
Read the rest of this entry »
World-famous Japanese stem cell scientist Dr. Shinya Yamanaka could choose to work with any group or nation he desires after being named by Time magazine as responsible for the top scientific discovery in the world last year, transforming any human skin cell into stem cells.
And who has Dr. Yamanaka chosen to work with? Ontario!
E. Coli, courtesy Wellcome Images
While the rest of Michigan fixated on the Democratic primary’s delegate math, Richard Lenski of Michigan State witnessed evolution.
Lenski has spent the past 20 years observing the development of 44,000 generations of bacteria in 12 genetically identical E. coli populations. After about 31,500 generations, one population developed the ability to metabolize citrate — something that E. coli can’t normally digest.
Compost is beautiful
A few years ago, while visiting a friend at McMaster University, I noticed he had several plastic bins scattered through the rooms. When I inquired about them, he told me that was helping to set up composters as part of an environmental awareness student group but he mentioned that these ones had a unique twist. As he slid over a box and popped the lid open, I was preparing myself for a whiff of rotting and decaying food…not the prettiest of sights and certainly not something to be kept indoors. Instead to my relief, there was no smell and or rotting food but rather a thin layer of dark black soil.
“This is the gardener’s version of black gold!” exclaimed my friend.
But how or what did he do?
A recent market research study done by Lux Research found that the VC investments in nanotechnologies dropped in 2007 for the first time in the past five years.
According to their study, in the past two years VCs have focused their money on environment and energy sectors, in spite of the generous returns generated by some of the nano-tech startups (over 200 times the initial investment in average for health science applications).
This is just one more proof that global warming can be bad for your health and your wealth!
Charles Taylor, Montreal Philosopher
Photo by Padraic
What does a philosopher from Montreal and a molecular biologist from Toronto have in common? They are the first two Canadians ever to win Japan’s most prestigious lifetime achievement award, the Kyoto Prize, largely referred to as Japan’s Nobel Prize.
Drs. Anthony Pawson and Charles Taylor were just announced as the winners of the prize which was created to recognize that “[humankind] has no higher calling than to strive for the greater good of society, and that mankind’s future can be assured only when there is a balance between our scientific progress and spiritual depth.”
Lincoln Kim is a member of the healthcare and life sciences team of the MaRS Venture Group. He evaluates and supports the development of technology platforms and commercial market opportunities of start up and emerging companies, facilitates collaboration among research groups and between research scientists and industry.
