Futurity.org » University of Toronto

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.

‘Moneyball’ twist: What’s a hockey player worth?

Liam Mitchell-Toronto — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:58:32 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — What Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta did for baseball, an engineering duo hopes to do for hockey.

Portrayed in the movie Moneyball, Beane and DePodesta found success by bringing careful statistical analysis to bear on assembling the Oakland A’s roster.

No-fuss device delivers entangled photons

Liam Mitchell-Toronto — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:14:11 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — A new device could move supercomputing out of the lab by making it faster and easier to produce a special class of photons.

Advanced computing technologies—such as ultra-secure communication systems and optical quantum computers—use light to quickly relay information. To enable these technologies to work, a photon, the smallest unit of energy, has to be tightly coupled with another photon. These are known as entangled photon pairs.

Blocked protein acts as ‘handbrake’ for MS

Emily Walker-Monash — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:29:38 +0000

MONASH (AUS) — Blocking a protein that contributes to nerve damage could potentially slow—or even halt—the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Research published in the journal Brain demonstrates the key role played by the collapsin response mediator protein 2 (CRMP-2) in the development of MS.

Childhood abuse raises adult suicide risk

Michael Kennedy-Toronto — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:47:24 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — Adults who were physically abused during childhood are more likely than their non-abused peers to have suicidal thoughts, new research shows.

According to a new study, published online in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, approximately one-third of adults who were physically abused in childhood have seriously considered taking their own life—a rate that is five times higher than adults who were not physically abused in childhood.

Ice ‘fingerprints’ predict sea level rise

Sean Bettam-Toronto — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:41:57 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — Geophysicists have found a way to identify the sea level fingerprint left by a particular ice sheet—allowing better estimates of its impact on global sea level.

As the Earth’s climate warms, a melting ice sheet produces a distinct and highly non-uniform pattern of sea-level change, with sea level falling close to the melting ice sheet and rising progressively farther away. The pattern for each ice sheet is unique and is known as its sea level fingerprint.

“Our findings provide a new method to distinguish sea-level fingerprints in historical records of sea levels, from other processes such as ocean waves, tides, changes in ocean circulation, and thermal expansion of the ocean,” says Carling Hay, a doctoral candidate in the department of physics at the University of Toronto.

To uncover stem cell fates, pinpoint genes

Kimm Fesenmaier-Caltech — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:18:10 +0000

CALTECH (US) — New research traces the steps by which stem cells become T cells—key components of the immune system that help destroy invading pathogens.

What happens to a stem cell at the molecular level that causes it to become one type of cell rather than another? At what point is it committed to that cell fate, and how does it become committed? The answers to these questions have been largely unknown.

But now, in studies that mark a major step forward in our understanding of stem cells’ fates, a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has traced the stepwise developmental process that ensures certain stem cells will become T cells.

Fatal crashes spike on U.S. tax day

Michael Kennedy-Toronto — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:35:07 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — Drivers in the U.S. are more prone to fatal car accidents on income tax deadline day—typically April 15—than on normal days, new research shows.

The risk, which is also higher for pedestrians and passengers, extends across different areas of the country, daylight hours, demographic groups, and alcohol consumption.

Cave yields earliest evidence of fire by humans

Kim Luke-Toronto — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:37:29 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — Scientists have uncovered evidence that human ancestors used fire one million years ago—300,000 years earlier than believed.

Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal bones and stone tools, were found in a layer dated to one million years ago at the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa. The discovery is the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors.

Cheaper, greener catalysts from iron

Michael Kennedy-Toronto — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:53:52 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — Chemists have discovered environmentally-friendly iron-based catalysts that work as well as expensive, toxic metal-based ones currently in use by the drug, food, and fragrance industries.

Catalysts—compounds that affect and improve the efficiency of chemical reactions—are an indispensible part of the processed food and drug industries. From that instant cup of soup, chock full of preservatives and “natural” flavors, to the ibuprofen that soothes your aching head—many of the products around us rely on catalysts.

“It is always important to strive to make industrial syntheses more green, and using iron catalysts is not only much less toxic, but it is also much more cost effective,” says Jessica Sonnenberg, a PhD student at the University of Toronto and lead author of a paper published this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.