The Council of Canadian Academies recently released a report entitled, The State of Science and Technology in Canada, 2012. It reveals the 6 research fields in which Canada is among the best. These are:
For more information, read the report or watch the video below:
The paper, “
A Physically Transient Form of Silicon Electronics,” which was published in last week’s issue of Science generated a lot of coverage in the news media. It reports on silicon-based materials that dissolve after a period of time and their potential future application for implantable medical devices.
For more information, read the article or listen to the Science podcast.
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“Prof. Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University, has been named to the prestigious President’s Council of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). She will join 27 Nobel laureates and other prominent leaders of academia and industry from around the world on this advisory board. The mission of the Academy is to promote the resolution of society’s global challenges through science-based solutions, to support scientific literacy and to advance scientific research and knowledge.”
For more information, see McGill Principal appointed to NYAS President’s Council
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T
hree international sailors made history by being the first crew to successfully cross the M’Clure Strait in Canada’s Arctic Ocean after 90 days at sea. The M’Clure Strait has always been entirely covered by ice. This small crew departed from Newfoundland and is crossing the Arctic to record the melting of polar ice and increase awareness of climate change.
Visit “A Passage through Ice” for more information about this expedition.
Image from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The New York Times reported earlier this year that the number of published scientific articles that were retracted by journals has increased over the years. The articles were withdrawn due to false claims or errors in research data.
The Reproducibility Initiative was recently launched to improve the quality of preclinical biological research. According to its website, “the Reproducibility Initiative is a new program to help scientists validate studies for publication or commercialization. Simply submit your study, and we’ll match you to one of our 1000+ expert providers for validation. Validations are conducted blind, on a fee-for-service basis.”
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Do you need to purchase a new laptop? Are you debating whether to buy a Windows PC or a Mac? For advice from technology experts, see “PC or Mac? The experts weigh in.”
If you would like a test drive, you can borrow Windows or Mac laptops for 48 hours at the loans desk of almost all of the McGill Library’s branches. A number of iPads are available to borrow for a one-week period.
Image from HippolyteBayard
The 2012 World Cube Association’s U.S. National Championship was held at the beginning of August in Las Vegas. A California teenager, Deven Nadudvari, set a record by using one hand to solve 5 different 3-by-3 Rubik’s Cubes in an average of 14.86 seconds each.
“You can use Rubik’s Cube to teach engineering, you can use it to teach mathematics, and you can use it to talk about the interplay between design and engineering and mathematics and creativity,“ according to Paul Hoffman, president of the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, who is organizing an international exhibition in 2014 that will celebrate the cube’s 40th anniversary. (Montreal Gazette, 8/11/2012, Quenqua)
The Rubik’s Cube has been used to teach Group Theory in mathematics. For more information about group theory and the cube, check out any of these books.
Photo from allie
Wordle is useful in helping you quickly find themes in any text that you need to read. For example, you can use it to find themes in:
You just copy your text and paste it in Wordle to generate a word cloud that shows you, by default, the 150 most frequently mentioned words in your text. The bigger the word, the more often it has been mentioned.
You can also use Wordle to visually summarize anything that you have written. Visit Wordle and give it a try!
Image of a Wordle created from the text of this blog
Throughout the year, the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center in Colorado provides scientific analysis and daily image updates of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. This research center has recently been in the news due to their reporting that the Arctic sea ice has been melting more quickly this summer, which has resulted in flooding and damage to structures. Their website provides interesting FAQs about sea ice and our climate, such as “What is causing Arctic sea ice decline?”
Photo courtesy of: Patrick Kelley (U.S. Coast Guard) and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder.
We have had a few thunderstorms over the spring and summer. Are you acting safely during these storms? Test your safety knowledge by identifying the following statements as true or false:
1- Lightning never strikes in the same place twice.
2- Lightning only strikes under a storm cloud.
3- Trees are safe places under which to duck for cover during lighting.
Environment Canada provides the answers to the statements above and presents thunderstorm safety tips in this 3-minute video: