Futurity.org » McGill University

Hormones unleash ant’s inner ‘Hulk’

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:50:45 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Researchers report hormones can reawaken ancestral genes in ants—genes that produce giant-headed “supersoldiers.”

They look like characters that belong in the Marvel Comic The Hulk, whose body reacts to stress by expanding in size. With huge oblong heads and giant, vicious-looking mandibles, these are supersoldiers of the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole.

Oxygen levels fell in Ice Age oceans

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:49:58 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Data from the end of the last Ice Age confirm that a changing climate lowers the amount of oxygen in the water.

The first comprehensive study of changes in the oxygenation of oceans at the end of the last Ice Age (between about 10 to 20,000 years ago) has implications for the future of our oceans under global warming.

The study, which was co-authored by Eric Galbraith, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at McGill University, looked at marine sediment and found that that the dissolved oxygen concentrations in large parts of the oceans changed dramatically during the relatively slow natural climate changes at the end of the last Ice Age.

Tap runs dry as glaciers recede

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:50:22 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Glaciers are retreating at an unexpectedly fast rate, according to research in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca.

They are currently shrinking by about one percent a year, and that percentage is increasing steadily, according to the calculations by McGill University doctoral student Michel Baraer.

Wires get cozy in smallest circuits

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:20:26 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — A team of scientists has engineered one of the world’s smallest electronic circuits.

The work could have a significant effect on the speed and power of the ever-smaller integrated circuits of the future—in everything from smartphones to desktop computers, televisions, and GPS systems.

DNA ‘remembers’ early living conditions

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:51:56 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Family living conditions in childhood are associated with significant effects in DNA that persist well into middle age, new research shows.

Scientists looked for gene methylation associated with social and economic factors in early life and found clear differences between people brought up in families with very high and very low standards of living.
More than twice as many methylation differences—1,252 as opposed to 545—were associated with the combined effect of the wealth, housing conditions, and occupation of parents (that is, early upbringing) than were associated with the current socioeconomic circumstances in adulthood.

Gamma rays from pulsar defy explanation

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:34:22 +0000

MCGILL U. (CAN) — Astrophysicists have detected pulsed gamma-ray emission from the Crab pulsar at energies far beyond what current theoretical models of pulsars can explain.

With energies exceeding 100 billion electron-volts (100 GeV), the surprising gamma-ray pulses were detected by the VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) telescope array at the Whipple Observatory in Arizona and reported by an international team of scientists in a paper in Science.

Floating ‘vacuum’ probes cell behavior

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:01:53 +0000

MCGILL U. (CAN) — New technology is expected to serve as a powerful tool to study crucial cellular processes, including cancer cell formation and how neurons align themselves in the developing brain.

The device could be compared to a microscopic jet vacuum cleaner—about the size of a pen nib—that hovers over cell surfaces without ever touching them. The technology is based on using quadrupoles—or paired identical objects—two “positive” and two “negative” arranged in a square in order to create a force field between them.

Nursing care for diabetics a click away

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:48:29 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Nursing through the use of smart phones and the Internet is an effective way to help patients with uncontrolled diabetes manage their care, according to a new study.

In a pilot project for the Public Health Agency of Canada, diabetic patients in four regions of Quebec—the Lower North Shore, the Îles de la Madeleine, and in two different areas in Montreal—submitted blood sugar readings to a nurse on a daily basis, using a secure website. Patients also answered a series of daily questions about exercise, diet, and food care practices.

Gold wires get ‘brittle-like’ at nanoscale

David Ruth-Rice — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:06:42 +0000

RICE (US) — Tiny gold wires often used in high-end electronic applications are known for being flexible and conductive—qualities that don’t necessarily apply at the nanoscale.

A new study from Rice University finds gold wires less than 20 nanometers wide can become “brittle-like” under stress. The findings appear in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

In grasslands, every species matters

Dan Kuester-Iowa State — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:53:16 +0000

IOWA STATE (US) — A new analysis of plants in grassland ecosystems around the world suggests most of those plant species are important.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, show most species promoted ecosystem functioning in at least some years, sites and environmental conditions. In all, 84 percent of the grassland species are important to the ecosystem at some point.