Futurity.org » McGill University

Billions of new stars blaze in galactic bridge

Chris Chipello-McGill — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:15:59 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — The discovery of a galaxy-packed filament offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore how galaxies evolve and merge to form superclusters.

The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the universe.

Plants spring up sooner in warming climate

Sonia Fernandez-UCSB — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:47:49 +0000

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Plants may be reacting to climate change more than we think, and the uncertainty could leave us ill-prepared for the future effects of global warming, say scientists.

The team’s findings are published in the early online edition of the journal Nature.

“This suggests that predicted ecosystem changes—including continuing advances in the start of spring across much of the globe—may be far greater than current estimates based on data from experiments,” says the paper’s first author Elizabeth Wolkovich, an ecologist at the University of British Columbia, who led the study at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Market push may tarnish research ethics

Allison Flynn-McGill — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:56:09 +0000

CARNEGIE MELLON (US) / MCGILL (CAN) — Current research ethics frameworks don’t flag drug trials that, while not putting patients at risk, still produce biased evidence, a new study argues.

Published in Science, the study says that current research ethics focuses on protecting study participants, but fail to prevent problems that undermine the social value of the research.

Bug snags mate with antenna hooks

Chris Chipello-McGill — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:23:16 +0000

MCGILL/ U. TORONTO (CAN) — To understand the evolution of sex differences, researchers have recreated the development of the barbed antennae male water striders use to catch mates.

Sexual conflict—the battle between males and females over mating—is thought to be a particularly potent force in driving the evolution of traits that differ in males and females.

Extinction’s toll could rival climate change

Cynthia Lee-McGill — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:07:08 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Loss of biodiversity appears to affect ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution, and other major forms of environmental stress.

A new study published in the journal Nature directly compares the effects of biological diversity loss to the anticipated effects of a host of other human-caused environmental changes—and highlights the need for stronger local, national, and international efforts to protect biodiversity and the benefits it provides.

Neurons handle sensory data in order

Allison Flynn-McGill — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:18:17 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) /JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — New research sheds light on how the brain processes what we sense, and could lead to advances for people with sensory deficiencies.

In Canada alone, 600,000 people are visually impaired while almost three million suffer from partial or total hearing loss.

In a paper published this week in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from McGill University have demonstrated for the first time that there are specific neurons that respond selectively to first and second order sensory attributes.

For a better life after cancer, set new goals

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:42:30 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Breast cancer survivors who are able to let go of old goals and set new ones are better off overall, enjoy an improved quality of life, and are more physically active.

Statistics show that as many as 48 percent of breast cancer survivors are overweight or obese and also tend to be more sedentary than women who have not been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Off-label drug use could pose health risks

Allison Flynn-McGill — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:56:43 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — A new study in Canada finds that 11 percent of medications are prescribed for an off-label indication, a practice that may cause adverse drug events.

In addition, the study finds that 79 percent of those off-label uses lacked strong scientific evidence.

The paper, based on prescriptions from primary care physicians in Quebec, was published online April 16 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Breast cancer ‘fingerprint’ in blood drop

Chris Chipello-McGill — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:40:20 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Scientists have come up with a way to accurately measure protein biomarkers to detect breast cancer’s fingerprint in a single drop of blood.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. The earlier cancer is detected, the better the chance of successful treatment and long-term survival. However, early cancer diagnosis is still challenging as testing by mammography remains cumbersome, costly, and in many cases, can only detect cancer at an advanced stage.

To adapt, alter many genes, not just a few

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:07:05 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — New research seems to confirm that adaptation to new environments is the result of many genes, each of relatively small effect, not just a few genes of large effect.

The study on stickleback fish, published in Molecular Ecology, strongly supports the “many-small” hypothesis.

McGill University Professor Andrew Hendry, from the department of biology, and evolutionary geneticists at Basel University in Switzerland, studied how threespine stickleback fish adapted to lake and stream environments in British Columbia, Canada.