Science & Technology - Sep 2, 2010 15:09 - 0 Comments

What’s the sound of yellow ochre?

MCGILL (CAN)—Chemists have discovered that a technique known as photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy could help identify the composition of pigments used in artwork that is decades or even centuries old. (more…)

Science & Technology - Aug 25, 2010 14:48 - 1 Comment

Are atom-scale devices on the horizon?

MCGILL (CAN)—Researchers have discovered how to control the piezoelectric effect in nanoscale semiconductors called “quantum dots,” enabling the development of incredibly tiny new products. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Aug 18, 2010 8:38 - 0 Comments

Glimpse of prehistoric Earth in Arctic rock

McGILL (CAN)—Geochemical evidence from volcanic rocks collected on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic suggests that a region of mantle beneath the Earth’s surface has largely escaped billions of years of melting and geological churning. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jun 7, 2010 14:56 - 0 Comments

Extreme spring points to life on Mars

McGILL (CAN)—Methane-eating bacteria are able to survive in a highly unique spring located on Axel Heiberg Island in the Nunavut Territory in Canada’s extreme North. (more…)

Society & Culture - Jun 4, 2010 11:14 - 5 Comments

Mother Nature issues a wake-up call

U. ROCHESTER (US)—Being outside in nature makes people feel more alive—and that sense of vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction, new research shows. (more…)

Health & Medicine - May 25, 2010 11:02 - 0 Comments

Controlling for quality in clinical trials

CARNEGIE MELLON (US)—Scientists and regulators alike often focus on how individual patients should be protected from risk and as a result, overlook how medical advance itself can be negatively affected by poorly designed clinical trials, a new study reports. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 12, 2010 10:47 - 0 Comments

Another nail in the silicon chip coffin

MCGILL U. (CAN)—Physicists have developed a system for measuring the energy involved in adding electrons to semi-conductor nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots—a technology that may revolutionize computing and other areas of science. (more…)

Earth & Environment - May 4, 2010 7:50 - 3 Comments

Carbon cycle snowballed out of control

PRINCETON (US)—New evidence uncovered by a team of geologists suggests that an episode 720 million years ago called “snowball Earth,” which may have covered the continents and oceans in a thick sheet of ice, produced a dramatic change in the carbon cycle. (more…)

Health & Medicine - May 3, 2010 5:05 - 0 Comments

Polarity gene key to breast tumor growth

MCGILL (CAN)—New research helps explain why breast-milk cells lose their structure, causing them to clump up in strange ways and sometimes become cancer tumors. (more…)

Science & Technology - Apr 29, 2010 11:39 - 0 Comments

Dino ecosystem as big as a continent

MCGILL (CAN)—New evidence suggests the entire western interior of North America was likely once populated by a single community of dinosaurs thanks to a warm and moderate climate. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Mar 29, 2010 12:57 - 9 Comments

Low vitamin D linked to fat buildup

MCGILL (CAN)—Vitamin D is not only good for your bones. New research shows it may help keep muscles free of fat. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Mar 11, 2010 11:11 - 0 Comments

How early humans adapted to climate change

U. BUFFALO (US)—Siberia’s remote Kamchatka peninsula, a rough and extremely volcanic wilderness region the size of California, is the current site of an international effort to understand how humans living 4,000 to 6,000 years ago reacted to climate changes. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Mar 10, 2010 12:02 - 0 Comments

Enzyme method may immobilize malaria

MCGILL (CAN)—A multinational team may have identified a target for a new malaria treatment by disabling digestive enzymes in malaria parasites, which are transmitted by mosquito bites. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Jan 14, 2010 17:00 - 2 Comments

Picking out a tumor’s cancer causers

YALE—Researchers have demonstrated for the first time how distinct groups of cells from the same tumor are capable of forming tumors. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Jan 14, 2010 15:08 - 1 Comment

Sleep, mental problems for wives of deployed

UNC-CHAPEL HILL—Wives of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and other mental health conditions than women whose husbands are not deployed. The recent finding “confirms what many people have long suspected,” says lead author Alyssa Mansfield. (more…)

Society & Culture - Jan 12, 2010 11:44 - 3 Comments

Everybody’s working for the ‘weekend effect’

U. ROCHESTER—We feel better, physically and mentally, on the weekends—regardless of age, marital status, income level, or occupation—concludes a recent study. (more…)

Science & Technology - Dec 16, 2009 4:47 - 0 Comments

Sea cow fossil hints to Madagascar’s past

MCGILL (CANADA)—An ancient little sea cow now has a name. This primitive “dugong” is among the world’s first fully aquatic sea cows, having evolved from terrestrial herbivores that began exploiting coastal waters. (more…)

Best of 2009 - Nov 19, 2009 16:08 - 9 Comments

BEST OF 2009: Bizarre band of paleo-crocs

U. CHICAGO (US)/MCGILL (CANADA)—A suite of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth-like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck’s bill, have been discovered in the Sahara. (more…)

Posts Tagged ‘McGill University’