Beneath the waves and beyond the stars

Science Literacy Week as a Canada wide event was paused in 2024 when the administration switched hands to the Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC). We had a bit of a science literacy celebration this year, back in March, but we are happy to join in with CASC and other educators and organizations to ring in Science Literacy Week 2025, from October 6 – 12.

The theme for the week is From Sea to Space. Check out our Science Literacy guide to learn more.

We were one of the first universities to join the cross-country effort to celebrate science literacy, way back in 2015, so I thought that it would be fun to dig up the old blog posts and events of the past.

2015: Science Literacy Week: Register today

In addition to lectures (I attended Prof. Lovejoy’s talk, Why the warming can’t be natural: Harnessing butterflies for climate closure, and it was amazing), workshops and tours, there were fascinating exhibits at the Islamic Studies Library on the History of Science in Islam, and at the Osler Library on Sanitizing style: Germ theory and fashion at the turn of the century.

We also launched Arduino and Raspberry Pi lending at Schulich Library, that was pretty exciting!

2016: From Star Trek to honeybees

Visits to the hives at Macdonald campus and on the roof of the Schulich Library! And that was in addition to workshops, a hands on session with the Oculus Rift, and a Wikipedia edit-a-thon on women in science. There was a Science of Star Trek exhibit at Schulich Library, and Knowing Blood, Medical Observations, Fluid Meanings, at Osler Library.

This year also marked our first lecture by Dr. Joe Schwarcz, a Science Literacy Week regular, on Eating Right: The Facts and the Myths.

2017: Science cinema with Kanopy

Sadly, our movie nights were not that popular (lessons were learned!) but the same cannot be said for exhibits and events around the theme of From Lab to Life. Who wouldn’t want to knit a petri dish with Let’s Talk Science @ McGill or “drop in and bust myths” at Redpath Museum? We got really techie with augmented reality and Raspberry Pi workshops, and a learn to code session with HackMcGill.

There were 4 different library exhibits, and the Music Library joined in with Phonomenal! Rare sides from the history of sound recording. You can still read more about it from their post at the time.

2018: Science Literacy Week Reading

We got our walking shoes on for a tour of climate sensors on campus with Prof. Sengupta, plus guided tours of the Lyman Entomological Museum, the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning, and the newly redesigned Maude Abbott Medical Museum.

There was a Doctor Who exhibition, Traveling through space and time, at Schulich Library, and The World That You Know Through the Eyes of Muslim Geographers, at Islamic Studies Library. Some really important Treasures from the History of Science in Rare Books and Special Collections were also on display.

2019: An active Science Literacy Week

The timing was perfect, coinciding with a Public Astronight talk, ORIGINS: How the Earth Shaped Human History, and the Cutting Edge Lecture in Science: Can we halt global amphibian declines?

There was an exhibit in the Redpath Library building on the theme of the week, Oceans, offering different cartographic views of the oceans of the world.

2020: Science Literacy Week goes virtual

We learned all about the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather (DRAW) project, and The Art of Explaining Science to Non-Specialists with Dr. Diane Dechief. We also had De-Stress + Sketch Online, SLW edition, with the folks from Visual Arts Collection, and a book club meeting for the book, Data feminism, by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F Klein.

2021: It’s Virtually Science Literacy Week!

Many of the 2020 offerings were back with the addition of some new workshops, like Chart Making in Excel: Going Further by Telling a Story with your Data. AstroMcGill also hosted an online event, Talking with Martians: A panel on red-planet research, and the Redpath Museum brought us an informative online Secret science spots of McGill.

2022: Science Literacy Week, 2022

The theme for the week was Mathematics and Prof. Rhonda Amsel did not disappoint with Stats-wise, a presentation on the ‘why’ of statistics. Dr Joe Schwarcz educated us on Analyzing Risk, and we had library workshops on Data Analysis in Excel, Charting numbers for understanding and communication, LaTeX, and Python.

I offered a workshop on spinning wool into yarn with spindles printed on library 3D printers, and it was a blast!

2023: Flick the switch. It’s time for Science Literacy Week @ McGill!

The theme in 2023 was Energy and we really brought it! There was fun with crochet, LaTeX, satellite and drone images, and repairing personal devices. We also learned what every Montrealer should know about earthquakes from Dr. Christie Rowe.

You can still visit the exhibits page to try out the Rare & Special Collections images digital jigsaw puzzles and colouring pages.

2025: Celebrating Science Literacy @ McGill

With Science Literacy Week on hold in 2024, we decided to have our own version in March of this year. Among other great activities, the Macdonald Campus Library launched their Seed Library that week and we had a fascinating tour of the Rutherford Museum and McPherson Collection with Curator, Prof. Barrette. This might sound wild, but we also learned about ancient Egyptian animal mummies from Prof. Reznikov!

Thank you for joining us on this adventure!

Spotlight on Achievement: Top Papers in eScholarship

The latest results from the WCOM 206 Excellence in Communication Award competition are in and we have two winners: Sophia Chen (Fall 2023 term) and Alan Fu (Winter/Summer 2023).

It has been such a pleasure to be part of the team that reads and ranks the undergraduate papers nominated by Communication in Engineering instructors each term. I have learned so much!

Now you can learn about the challenges of monitoring hormone levels for transgender and non-binary individuals, and about models to improve malignant brain tumour survival rates. These two were considered the best of their peer group and the full text of the papers have been added to the McGill Libraries’ repository, eScholarship.

Recommendation for Research and Development of Point of Care Lateral Flow Immunoassay Based Continual Saliva Hormone Monitoring by Sophia Chen

Transgender and non-binary individuals may use Hormone Replacement Therapy as part of their gender transition. During this process, hormone levels are measured using immunoassays, which typically include estrogens, testosterones and progesterones. While commercial solutions can automate blood testing, the blood collection process itself is difficult., invasive, and prone to complications. Because hormone levels change throughout the day, a more robust testing solution needs to be developed. Lateral flow assays, a low cost detection device can be developed for quantitative readouts of hormone levels. However, low concentration of the hormones of interest present in the saliva means that this solution cannot currently be used as a diagnostic device. Future investigation is necessary on detection antibodies that are used for this solution. Intended audience: a biotechnical company considering research and development towards hormone monitoring.

Comparative Review of Malignant Brain Tumor Models by Alan Fu 

Stagnant growth in malignant brain tumor survival rates indicates a need for more powerful models to advance tumor research and pharmaceutical testing. This paper comparatively analyzes three models: 3D cell line xenografts, genetically engineered mice models, and neoplastic cerebral organoids based on comprehensiveness, scalability, and accuracy criteria. 3D CLXs possess excellent scalability but are unappealing in all other aspects. GEMMs are favorable in the aspects of comprehensiveness and accuracy compared to 3D CLXs, but face issues regarding scalability. Finally, neoCORs outclass GEMMs in both comprehensiveness and accuracy while retaining modest scalability, leading this paper to conclude that neoCORs are the most viable model for future development. Future development of neoCORs, especially of assistive microfluidics devices, is strongly recommended.

Doing history of science at Schulich

We extend our gratitude to Ezra J. Teboul, our Master of Information Studies practicum student at Schulich Library over the winter term. In this guest post, Ezra offers some lessons learned from working with the Mossman Collection on the History of Science and of Ideas.


McGill’s libraries contain invaluable holdings for the historian of science. A researcher at the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, I was until June also in the Master of Information Studies at McGill. In my last semester (Winter 2025), I studied the contents of the Mossman Collection on the History of Science and of Ideas at the Schulich Library for Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering. Completed with the patient supervision and many insights of April Colosimo, a big part of my project was dedicated to quantitatively assessing how the collection had evolved since its donation by Donald and Dorothea Mossman in 1974. This teaches us not just about science and how it has evolved, but also about the way history of science has been done (historiography). It’s important to understand both because science is done by humans and requires continual, active investment by the individuals and institutions it needs and affects to have a positive impact.

A graph of the years of publication of items included in the Mossman Collection in the History of Science and Ideas as currently listed in the McGill Sofia Catalogue.

This blog post illustrates how the Mossman can act as a good starting point for doing history and historiography of science and how these fields are interesting from an information access perspective because it is distributed across Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). But how might an undergraduate or junior graduate student interested in the history of science navigate the Mossman collection and the wider McGill catalogue to learn about this complex topic? Below I give an example of a research thread that starts in the Mossman collection before extending to the University collections at large.

The McGill Libraries, like many research institutions, use the Library of Congress Subject Headings for classification and access. The LCSH have a tree structure, with headings, subheadings, and call numbers of increasing specificity, not simply cataloguing every book but also linking them across branches of this knowledge tree.

History of Science, however, is a young field with very interdisciplinary practitioners: historians of course, but also scientists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, cultural and media studies scholars, etc. Many of its practitioners, like Karen Barad, start out in a technical field (theirs was quantum physics) before considering the history of those technical fields. It is also applied to almost every scientific, technological or medical topic: engineering, chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology… In that sense history of science is by definition always at least concerned with perspectives on the same technical topic: scientists, and how scientists’ view of their own work in their specialty has changed. I find it to be a particularly exciting, reflexive exercise that attempts to extend science’s inquisitive perspective (why is it like this?) to the people doing science themselves. But, from a practical perspective, it makes it difficult to categorize history of science and related publications.

Here is a graph of all the subject headings just included in the Mossman collection for the History of Science and Ideas. The blue corresponds to the contents of the collection in 1986, when a catalogue for the collection was made by the Schulich librarians. The red corresponds to the contents of the collection in 2025, when I collaborated with the McGill Libraries Collections department to do this study. To find every book on the online catalogue associated with the Mossman, look up the corresponding “uniform title.”

A graph of the LCSH headings for the items in the Mossman collection, for 1986 and 2025.

In this graph you’ll notice that most books are in the Science or Technology classes (LCSH classifications Q and T respectively) but there are 19 other headings as well. For a full list of the heading letters and their meaning, see Library of Congress Classification Outline. T, unsurprisingly, is technology, but science is Q and History is split across multiple headings: C, D, E and F (but it is notable to see that only very little of the Mossman items fall in any of these). The LCSH was first published in 1898, and this imbalance reflects the biases of scholarship in the United States at that point: a lot of academia was dedicated to historical research, while technology and science were only just becoming formal scholarly specialties. Engineering in the US and Canada had only had professional societies since 1852 with the American Society of Civil Engineers.

So doing history of science, is, from a bibliographic perspective, an interesting challenge. You can’t simply go to the stacks and find the right shelf. Books you will learn the most from may be shelves apart!

This is the value of collections like the Mossman, which used to show many of the best books on an interdisciplinary topic in the same location. With the increasing popularity of digital catalogue browsing, and the shift for the bulk of McGill collections to a robotic collections center, browsing the stacks is becoming a bit of a lost art—making all the more important the maintenance of specialized collections’ identities and purpose. If the much larger Osler history of medicine library has remained in its physical location on campus, the Mossman has been distributed across other branches, including off-site storage.

This makes the Schulich library a generous study space, but it means scholars have to trade luck in the stacks for clever digital browsing tactics. Indeed the Mossman—which over the years has included at least 6500 or so individual titles— mostly remains accessible somewhere in some form, and the rest of this post gives you a personal example of how you might access them and link them to resources from the rest of the collection.

Many of the references central to my own research are in or around the Mossman. My personal specialty is in the history of electronics, which mostly requires a knowledge of chemistry, elementary physics, signal processing, industrial manufacturing techniques, and computer science (and a few other things). One of my favorite books in the Mossman Collection is What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History by Walter Vincenti (1990). Its call number is TL515 V44 1990. Here is how that call number is constructed:

T: Technology
L: Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
515: History, General Works
V44 1990: "Cutter" number and year. These are determined by each library for further subdivision

You can already see how some categories unrelated to history (e.g. “Technology: Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics” will get a historical subheading (e.g. “515”). You can also see how some subheadings (e.g. “General Works”) are somewhat vague. Classification systems like LCSH can only get you so far when doing thorough literature reviews, and it helps to speak to other researchers and subject librarians for ideas of other headings and subheadings to consider investigating.

In my case, although aeronautics may only seem partially related to electronics research, it turns out that during the Cold War, a significant amount of electronics research was undertaken for various Air Forces, especially in Canada and the U.S. Furthermore, the rapid expansion of those countries’ industrial production capacity via machine shops was in no small part funded by defense contracts which financed private companies to supply the corresponding militaries. In that sense, learning about how aeronautical engineers produce knowledge maps very informatively to the way that electrical engineers consume and produce knowledge as well. This is made clear in David Noble’s Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation, another landmark publication included in the Mossman collection. Published in 1984, it was therefore purchased by the Schulich librarians with the Mossman endowment, rather than by Mossman himself (since his collection was donated to McGill in 1974).

In Forces of Production, Noble traces the way that machining advances in the 20th century were in large part motivated by the exacting precision required to manufacture cutting-edge aircraft during the Cold War. Automated milling machines, now called CNC (computer numerical control) and CAD/CAM (computer assisted design / computer assisted machining) was an area of high research investment, resulting in dozens of electrical and electronic inventions which were easily exported (like some of the first analog/digital converter hardware architectures and prototypes) to a variety of other fields. Also in the Mossman, Forces of Production has the call number TJ1189 N63 1984:

T: Technology
J: Mechanical engineering and machinery
1189: Numerical control of machine tools

Interestingly, TJ14 is a category for philosophy and history of machinery. The decision that lead a social history of automation to not be under this subheading are lost to the circumstance of the cataloguer at the Library of Congress that made that decision. TJ1189 is not an illogical choice, and this simply highlights that knowledge classification systems always contain ambiguities that can only be addressed through experience, rather than simple common sense. 

From Noble’s book we may want to consider histories of shop machinery prior to the adoption of CNC technology. Here Mossman collection text, Robert Woodbury’s 1960 History of the Milling Machine; a Study in Technical Development (TJ1225 W6 1960) is another interesting reference:

T: Technology
J: Mechanical engineering and machinery
1225: Machine Shops and Machine Shop Practice - General Works

From there we may want some additional context on the geopolitical conditions of the cold war and their impact on scientific and technological policies. Audra J. Wolfe’s Competing With the Soviets: Science, Technology and the State in Cold War America (2013)is a concise, clear and extremely informative summary of those exact topics. It is not in the Mossman collection, but it is clearly relevant to the history of science as a research discipline. From a collection development perspective, the Mossman is an interesting, specialized subset of the Schulich catalogue that does not include all the references which might fall under its purview (being tagged with the Mossman uniform title is more dependent on whether or not the Mossman endowment fund was used to purchase the resource). Furthermore, Competing with the Soviets call number is squarely in the sciences, as part of its specialized history subheading: 

Q: Science
127: History, by region or country
U: United States

If we are looking for something more specific to Canada, we might appreciate the work of Edward Jones-Imhotep, whose 2017 book The Unreliable Nation: Hostile Nature and Technological Failure in the Cold War closely examines the unique conditions which shaped Canada’s scientific research policy in the same period. Although only available at McGill as an ebook, a paper copy is listed at the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology’s library under the call number T23 A1 J66 2017:

T: Technology
23: History, Special Regions or Countries: Canada

Overall, this illustrates the LCSH system’s approach to classification of interdisciplinary topics. Although Jones-Imhotep work is clearly about technology, and T23 is a meaningful and helpful cataloguing heading for it, it is not entirely unrelated to science, and could easily have been part of the Mossman Collection, even as an ebook.

When doing a literature review for a new subject, it is always informative to keep track of the additional labels entries are tagged with, often drawing from multiple cataloguing systems. Cataloguing librarians know very well that only giving one label is rarely a fair representation of our complex thoughts and rich publications, and this is why additional labels are attributed to each entry. For example, with Jones-Imhotep’s book in the Sofia catalogue:

A screenshot from a catalogue record showing subject headings.

All of these are hyperlinked so that books with that tag are just a click away. Keep in mind, too, that history and historiography of science and its many connected disciplines are active projects with lively communities in constant change!

To learn more on the topics in this post, the articles below will provide you with extensive context and additional examples. They are all accessible through Sofia as well.

  • Barr, Zachary, Alex S. Ratowt, and Stephen P. Weldon. 2024. “The Isis Bibliography: Information Practices from Sarton’s Vision to the Digital Age.” Isis 115 (3): 491–502. https://doi.org/10.1086/731408.
  • Hérubel, Jean-Pierre V. M. 2006. “Clio’s View of the History of Science: A Preliminary Bibliometric Appreciation.” Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 24 (2): 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1300/J103v24n02_03.
  • ———. 2007. “Periodizations and History of Science: A Perspective and Approach for Collections.” Collection Management 31 (3): 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1300/J105v31n03_05.
  • Stone, Alva T. 2000. “The LCSH Century: A Brief History of the Library of Congress Subject Headings, and Introduction to the Centennial Essays.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 29 (1–2): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1300/J104v29n01_01.
  • Whitrow, Magda. 1964. “Classification Schemes for the History of Science.” Journal of Documentation 20 (3): 120–36. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026344.

Ezra J. Teboul

Open publisher-invited reviews in Web of Science

Something to look out for in the academic science literature is the ability to read documents that are part of the peer review associated with a published article. These can include reviewer reports, author responses, and editor decision letters. Getting the full story around a paper of interest, from the author’s submission to the final published version, is really exciting. It can also be beneficial to any new researchers or new peer reviewers that would like to learn what to expect from the system.

The process is referred to as transparent peer review. It has been piloted at the American Chemical Society, and the Institute of Physics (IOP) recently implemented transparent peer review for all of it’s open access journals.

Here is an example of an IOP article that includes open peer review documentation. It can be hard to locate the documents on the website, but they are found by hovering over the Clarivate logo with all of the article metrics. It looks like this:

View Public Peer Reviews

Clativate has made it easy to identify articles that have peer review documents associated with them by adding “Open publisher-invited reviews” as a quick filter in their multidisciplinary Web of Science database. There may only be a small number of these papers in your search results, but this number will likely grow.

Here is what the option looks like after you run a search in Web of Science:

Open publisher-invited reviews quick filter in Web of Science

Let us know if you have any questions about this option, and if you find it useful!

Cryptocurrency: Defying the Norms of Financial Institutions

Gold coin with bitcoin logo

Thanks very much to Antoine Bissonnette & Faiza Ambreen Chowdhury for submitting their FACC 400 assignment to post on The Turret. This guest post looks at the use of cryptocurrency for philanthropy and economic management.

Cryptocurrency: Defying the Norms of Financial Institutions

by Antoine Bissonnette & Faiza Ambreen Chowdhury

In the landscape of global finance, a significant transformation is underway, particularly certain markets where the relevancy of traditional banking institutions is being challenged. Cryptocurrency, once regarded as a niche or speculative asset, is steadily becoming a cornerstone in many industries where traditional banking systems have either failed or cannot adequately meet the needs of the industry. This blog post delves into the pivotal role of cryptocurrency in such industries and emerging markets.

The Rise of Crypto Philanthropy

A growing number of charitable organizations are starting to embrace cryptocurrency donations. While there are organizations dedicated to accepting only crypto-donations like The Giving Block, nowadays even major charity funds such as UNICEF, Greenpeace and the Human Rights Foundation, all offer it as an option to potential donors [4].

There are multiple advantages this offers to both donors and recipients. Firstly, the use of cryptocurrency ensures transparency between donors and organizations, facilitated by the public logging of transactions inherent to cryptocurrency. So donors, recipients and the public can track where the money is going and witness the real-time impact of donations [1]. Digital currency also offers significant tax advantages for donors, the amount donated would not be subject to capital gains taxes, therefore deducted from the donor’s overall gross income [2].

For organizations, providing the choice for crypto donations helps broaden their funding sources. With the rise in popularity of bitcoin, there are more and more people who want to donate, but only have access to cryptocurrency. Another feature that can work in organizations’ favor is the price volatility of the digital currency market. Some organizations have been known to hold donations for some amount of time, to increase the value of donations with time [3].

While cryptocurrency philanthropy showcases the transformative potential of digital assets, its influence extends far beyond charitable donations. In emerging markets, cryptocurrencies are reshaping entire economies, offering financial inclusion and economic empowerment to those who have been left behind by traditional banking systems.

Countries like Venezuela and Argentina, facing hyperinflation and economic instability, have turned to cryptocurrencies not just as an investment but as a means to preserve wealth, transact, and participate in the global economy. In fact, cryptocurrency has become a beacon of hope in emerging markets, offering financial inclusion and economic empowerment to those who have been left behind by traditional banking systems.

Case Study: Cryptocurrency Adoption in Venezuela

In Venezuela, cryptocurrencies serve as a crucial tool against hyperinflation and government control. The country ranks high in global crypto adoption, driven by the necessity to preserve savings in a stable asset and the ease of conducting transactions even during power and internet outages [5] [6]. Moreover, Venezuela’s engagement with cryptocurrencies extends beyond just transactions; it has a significant presence in the crypto mining world, thanks to the country’s low electricity costs. This has led to the creation of a legal framework to support and regulate the mining industry, further solidifying the role of digital currencies in its economy [7].

Influence on Economic Stability in Argentina

Argentina presents another compelling case of crypto’s impact, where the devaluation of the local currency has pushed individuals and businesses towards cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins, in particular, have become popular for preserving the value of earnings and savings, acting as a digital stand-in for the much-sought-after US dollar. The adaptability of cryptocurrencies has allowed for innovative solutions like crypto debit cards, enabling Argentinians to make everyday purchases directly from their crypto wallets, thus circumventing the volatile local currency [8].

These case studies shed light on a broader trend within the financial system, where cryptocurrencies are not just speculative assets but vital financial tools. They offer a way to mitigate the impacts of economic volatility, and enable businesses to operate smoothly despite fluctuating local currencies. As new markets continue to evolve, the role of cryptocurrencies is likely to expand, potentially transforming the global financial landscape and making financial inclusion a tangible reality for millions.

In summary, cryptocurrency is revolutionizing global finance by challenging traditional banking norms. From transforming philanthropy to providing economic stability in emerging markets, its impact is undeniable. Cryptocurrency’s journey is just beginning, promising a dynamic future for finance worldwide.

References:

[1] “Is Cryptophilanthropy The Future Of Giving? | Altoo AG,” Jan. 12, 2024. https://altoo.io/crypto-philanthropy-and-the-future-of-future-of-giving/ (accessed Mar. 28, 2024).

[2] “Tax Deductions for Crypto Donations,” TokenTax. https://tokentax.co/blog/tax-deductions-for-crypto-donations (accessed Mar. 28, 2024).

[3] R. Stevens, “Crypto for Good: How to Donate Crypto and Who Accepts It,” www.coindesk.com, Oct. 12, 2022. https://www.coindesk.com/learn/crypto-for-good-how-to-donate-crypto-and-who-accepts-it/ (accessed Mar. 28, 2024).

[4] T. G. Block, “List of Nonprofits Accepting Bitcoin & Crypto Donations,” The Giving Block. https://thegivingblock.com/resources/nonprofits-accepting-crypto-donations/

[5] Al Jazeera. (2021, June 22). With Venezuela’s economy in crisis, cryptocurrency fills the gaps. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/22/with-venezuelas-economy-in-crisis-cryptocurrency-fills-the-gaps

[6] Goschenko, S. (2021, May 28). A look at why Venezuela is the third country with the most crypto adoption – emerging markets bitcoin news. Bitcoin News. https://news.bitcoin.com/venezuela-numbers-cryptocurrency-adoption-factors/

[7] Abad, J. (2022, February 12). P2P payments spurred crypto adoption across Venezuela in 2021. Cointelegraph. https://cointelegraph.com/news/p2p-payments-spurred-crypto-adoption-across-venezuela-in-2021

[8] The Chainalysis Team. (2023, October 23). Latin America cryptocurrency adoption: Data and analysis. Chainalysis. https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/latin-america-cryptocurrency-adoption/

Citation politics

We may want to believe that citation practices in STEM are unbiased, but the evidence out there says otherwise. It speaks to the politics and privilege that have pervaded peer review and the published literature.

Here is just a handful of recent examples:

What can we do?

There are a few things that we can do in our citation practices to make a difference. First, if we recognize that citations are power, then we can exercise that power in our own reference lists. When we write articles or otherwise disseminate our research outputs, we can choose to break away from citing the usual suspects and cite responsibly. One easy to remember rule of thumb is the Gray test. Our works pass the Gray test if they cite and discuss the scholarship of at least two women and two non-white people. We can also consider including citation diversity statements.

Second, we can be representative in the works that we recommend to others. For example, here is a Gender Balance Assessment Tool that is available to check that our reading lists are not mostly works written by male authors.

Third, when we find ourselves in a position to judge the work of others we can let go of our reliance on citation metrics. We can commit to evaluating works on their scientific merit and consider alternative metrics not based on citation counts.

Of course, we can also talk about citation politics with our colleagues. There is lots to think about and discuss!

Find more citation politics resources and readings, along with sources for alternative metrics on the Impact Measurements guide.

Celebrating Excellence in Communication Award winners!

Please join me in congratulating the WCOM 206 Excellence in Communication Award winner for Winter/Summer 2022, Gabriel Lacroix, and Fall 2022, Sophie Allard. Their papers were chosen as the best among their peers across all sections of the Communication in Engineering course. Well done!

The full text of their papers have been added to the McGill Library repository, eScholarship.

Costs and Effectiveness of Roof Based Urban Heat Island Mitigation Strategies

by Gabriel Lacroix

The temperature of cities during summer keeps increasing due to climate change and the urban heat island phenomenon. These temperatures lead to increased mortality rates, discomfort, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to deteriorating air quality. To alleviate the effects of this phenomenon, many effective mitigation strategies have been developed. In the highly urbanized areas where the urban heat island is the most problematic, roof area is abundant, making mitigation strategies like green roofs and cool roofs attractive. This paper compares the effectiveness of green and cool roofs at mitigating the urban heat island effect by evaluating the temperature reductions they provide, the lifecycle costs associated with them, and the added benefits from implementing them. This comparison found that green and cool roofs provide similar temperature reductions with cool roofs being more cost-effective and green roofs providing valuable added benefits.

Comparative Analysis of Carbon Capture Systems for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants

by Sophie Allard

Power generation through the combustion of fossil fuels produces most of the world’s electricity; however, this results in considerable carbon dioxide emissions and harmful environmental effects. As global energy demands continue to rise, researchers have begun investigating strategies to mitigate emissions by fossil fuel-fired power plants and carbon capture and storage has emerged as a feasible and effective method of doing so. This paper provides a comparative analysis of three methods of carbon capture: post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxy-combustion capture. Post-combustion capture refers to the process of separating carbon dioxide from the flue gas produced by combustion through absorption in a solvent. Pre-combustion capture involves removing the CO2 from the fuel prior to combustion through a series of isolated reactions, leaving pure hydrogen to be burned for power generation. Oxy-combustion capture involves the combustion of fossil fuels in an environment of pure oxygen, such that the flue gas produced can easily be condensed to isolate the CO2. While these three systems are effective emission reduction strategies, pre-combustion capture is associated with the highest efficiency. However, given the high cost of implementing and running pre-combustion and oxy-combustion capture systems in coal or natural gas-fired power plants, post-combustion capture was determined to be the best solution, based on practicability, efficiency and economic feasibility. Through the employment of carbon capture, the emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants could be significantly reduced in order to mitigate the alarming effects of climate change.

Flick the switch. It’s time for Science Literacy Week @ McGill!

Science Literacy comes to McGill, September 18-22.

The Science Literacy Week theme this year is energy, and we have a high-powered lineup of events. It is our ninth year participating in this Canada-wide initiative, spreading our enthusiasm for science with tours, workshops, drop-ins, and talks.

Register for a workshop: You can crochet a mini sun keychain, learn the art of explaining science to non-specialists, explore LaTeX with Overleaf, take a beginner or intermediate Excel workshop, gain experience finding and understanding Canadian datasets, and follow an introduction to research data management. New this year is a workshop at the Geographic Information Centre on working with satellite and drone images at McGill, and Science for the People Canada is joining us for Science Literacy Week with a workshop on repair as culture.

Register for a tour: Do you know about the temperature sensors around McGill? Take a tour of climate sensors on campus and learn about Montreal’s urban heat island effect. You can also learn about medical simulations with a tour of the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning, or explore our physics collections with a tour of the Rutherford Museum and McPherson Collection with curator, Professor J. Barrette.

Drop-in: Stop by and explore science history treasures in McGill’s Rare Books & Special Collections on the Thursday of Science Literacy Week, or take advantage of the daily drop-in times for the Osler Library of the History of Medicine (11am-1pm).

Take in an exhibit: There will be an exhibit, The Rise & Influence of Medicine in the Islamic World, comprising two complementary displays, one at the Islamic Studies Library and other at the Osler Library. The exhibition will be accessible during each respective library’s opening hours until December 22.

Dr Joe Schwarcz is also returning this year with a lecture on Sense, Nonsense, and Science, and Dr. Christie Rowe is going to tell us what every Montrealer should know about earthquakes.

Visit the Science Literacy Week Library guide to see our full calendar of events!

New look for CAS SciFinder-n

Screenshot of the new launch page.

There is a brand new look and feel to the main search page of the SciFinder-n database from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. The results pages from searches in CAS SciFinder-n have not been impacted by the change.

An interesting addition to the main page is easy access to the CAS Lexicon, where you can work on your strategy ahead of time by searching the indexing terms for concepts, chemical classes, and taxonomic vocabulary.

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WCOM 206 Award Winners

Excellence in

Written Communication

The latest winners of the WCOM 206 Excellence in Written Communication Award have been announced. Please join me in congratulating Paolo Fiorilli, Theodore Glavas, and Timothy Adams!

These undergraduate engineering students have excelled among their peers. Their winning papers have been added to our digital repository, eScholarship@McGill, and made freely available to the world. Take a look at the abstracts below and follow the title links to read the full text.

Winter/Summer 2020

Paolo Fiorilli – Analysis of Alternative Insulating Gases to Replace SF6 in Electric Power Equipment

SF6 gas is an excellent electrical insulator that has been widely used in the power industry for decades, but its status as a powerful greenhouse gas has led to increasing pressure to find an alternative. The objective of this paper is to compare the properties of two novel replacement insulators, Novec 4710 and Novec 5110, and show that Novec 5110 is marginally superior in warm climates. The analysis will be performed using three criteria: electrical properties, assessed through dielectric strength and using boiling point to determine suitable operating temperatures, toxicity, evaluating mainly the median lethal dose and operational exposure limit, and environmental impact, established through the gas’ global warming potential. The analysis will show that for climates where the temperature does not fall below 0, Novec 5110 is the ideal choice because it results in a 99.996% reduction in warming potential and is the safest substance to handle. It is therefore recommended that Novec 5110 be adopted for insulating purposes in warm climates, while Novec 4710 is an excellent second choice with better insulating potential and a lower environmental impact relative to SF6 that is more suitable for colder regions.

Winter/Summer 2021

Theodore Glavas – Future Data Storage Mediums for High-Capacity Solutions

The amount of data produced by humanity each day is set on an exponential trend. As data production increases, the demand for data storage also grows. Current storage technologies cannot keep up with the extreme rate of growth, so new approaches to data storage must be considered. Quartz glass optical storage, holographic storage and DNA storage are three promising technologies that may become widely used in the future. The crucial factors necessary for these storage technologies to succeed are their storage density, transfer speed and commerciality. As of now, quartz glass optical storage leads the way as the most promising solution for large volume, low access data storage. However, research into DNA sequencing from other unrelated fields could make DNA archival storage more appealing than quartz glass in the longer run.

Fall 2021

Timothy Adams – Stability of Transtibial Socket Suspension Systems for Clinical Recommendation

Most currently available transtibial prosthesis socket suspension systems do not adequately secure the prosthetic to the residual limb. This leads to impaired biomechanical functionality, prosthesis control, and harm to the residual limb skin. Hence, it is imperative that the optimal suspension system is determined to mitigate these effects. It is concluded that out of three suspension systems, the vacuum-assisted suspension is the optimal solution as opposed to the suction and pin-lock suspension systems. It is shown that the vacuum-assisted suspension yields the minimum amount of pistoning, the second highest negative distal interface pressure during the swing phase of the gait cycle, and the minimal amount of residual limb volume loss. Although the pin-lock suspension has a greater negative distal interface pressure, the system tightly squeezes the residual limb in the process. This indicates that the vacuum-assisted suspension is a superior solution in this respect as it produces a marginally lesser amount of pressure without bringing about residual limb skin issues.