�㽶��Ƶ News - Dept. of Biology

The power of face time: Insights from zebra finch courtship

webfull — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 14:16:11 +0000

A new study on songbirds sheds light on the power of social interaction to facilitate learning, insights that potentially apply to human development.

�㽶��Ƶ researchers discovered that zebra finches deprived of early social experiences could still form strong bonds with a partner later in life. Once placed into cohabitation with a male, females that had never heard a mating song before could quickly develop a preference for his melody.

Published: 22 August 2024

Lighting up the circuits of the cerebellum

webfull — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 14:08:52 +0000

New McGill study sheds light on the cerebellar nuclei

In a new article published today in Nature Communications, a team of McGill researchers led by Professor Alanna Watt of the Department of Biology examines the spatial organization of neurons in the cerebellar cortex. The findings offer new insight into how information is integrated in the cerebellum and shed light on the role of the often-overlooked cerebellar nuclei.

Published: 9 July 2024

How climate change is affecting where species live

webfull — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:44:19 +0000

As the climate warms, many species are on the move, raising new challenges for policy-makers around the world. Shifts in the ranges of mosquitoes and disease-bearing ticks and bats are introducing illnesses such as malaria and Lyme disease into regions where health-care systems are unprepared. Movements of commercially important fish from one jurisdiction to another are shifting job opportunities and causing trade disputes.

Published: 2 July 2024

Five burning questions with Ehab Abouheif

webfull — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:54:25 +0000

Ehab Abouheif, James McGill Professor in the Department of Biology at McGill, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the highest distinctions in the global science community, which recognizes contributions to science and technology, scientific leadership, and extraordinary achievements across disciplines.

Published: 18 April 2024

McGill’s Gault Nature Reserve: Serving biodiversity and the community

webfull — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:40:42 +0000

Located in the heart of the Montérégie region, in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, �㽶��Ƶ’s Gault Nature Reserve comprises more than 1,000 hectares of lush old-growth deciduous forest, just 40 km from Montreal. A refuge for migratory birds, Gault is at the heart of Canada’s first UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve.

Published: 15 April 2024

How does one species become many?

webfull — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 14:55:43 +0000

Evolutionary biologists have long suspected that the diversification of a single species into multiple descendent species – that is, an “adaptive radiation” – is the result of each species adapting to a different environment. Yet formal tests of this hypothesis have been elusive owing to the difficulty of firmly establishing the relationship between species traits and evolutionary “fitness” for a group of related species that recently diverged from a common ancestral species.

Published: 9 January 2024

Stuck in traffic: Researchers identify cellular traffic jams in a rare disease

webfull — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 16:19:38 +0000

Researchers zero in on spinocerebellar ataxia type 6, a disease that disrupts brain function

Researchers from �㽶��Ƶ, led by Professor Alanna Watt of the Department of Biology, have identified previously unknown changes in brain cells affected by a neurological disease. Their research, published in eLife, could pave the way to future treatments for the disease.

Published: 12 December 2023

What skin piercings can teach us about environmental change

webfull — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 13:44:57 +0000

In a new study from �㽶��Ƶ, researchers bring science into an unexpected setting: a tattoo parlor. In this first characterization of the human piercing microbiome, the uniquely human cultural practice of piercing serves as a model system to help us better understand how biological communities (re)assemble after catastrophic environmental disturbances.

Published: 5 December 2023

Sixteen McGill researchers among the world’s most cited

webfull — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 18:42:59 +0000

Sixteen McGill researchers have been included on the Highly Cited Researchers™ (HCRs) list, as published by Clarivate. To be included in the prestigious list, researchers must rank in the top 1 per cent worldwide for their fields and publications in the Web of Science index. In being named to this list, these investigators join a cohort of 6,849 individuals around the world who have been recognized for their academic contributions.

Published: 15 November 2023

Faculty of Science welcomes five new Schulich Leaders

webfull — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 19:00:15 +0000

When you learn you’ve been awarded Canada’s largest scholarship for STEM studies, it’s a pretty heady moment. Just ask some of McGill’s new Schulich Leaders. These new McGill students hail from New Brunswick to Vancouver and are among the 100 recipients in Canada this year of Schulich Leader Scholarships, valued at up to $120,000.

Read the full article.

Published: 8 September 2023