�㽶��Ƶ News - Biology Department

Mark your calendars! Family Science Day: September 28th

webfull — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 17:46:10 +0000

On September 28^th between 9 am and 4 pm, join McGill’s Office of Science Outreach, STEMM Diversity @ McGill, the Trottier Space Institute and McGill Physics Outreach, for free science activities for families. Activities will be held both indoors and outdoors at the downtown campus and are intended for children ages 6 and up.

Registration is required for some activities.

For more details and the full schedule, visit this link.

Published: 18 September 2024

A promising discovery in a rare neurodegenerative disease

webfull — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 16:13:27 +0000

Imagine being middle aged and starting to feel that you are off balance a lot and that you are having a hard time coordinating your movements. Those are among the symptoms of Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6, known as SCA6, a rare neurodegenerative disease which typically appears in adulthood and worsens over time. Over time, other problems such as slurred speech and difficulty seeing or seeing double, may also appear. It is estimated that fewer than 5,000 people in the US have the condition, which is the result of genetic mutations in the cerebellum.

Published: 5 April 2024

Teaching hope during the climate crisis

webfull — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:02:38 +0000

Forty-five undergraduate students at McGill participated in new Climate Crisis and Climate Actions course

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down almost everything. For Diane Dechief, PhD, and Marcy Slapcoff of the Office of Science Education (OSE), the two leads of the new Faculty of Science course FSCI198: Climate Crisis and Climate Actions, there was a positive aspect to the delays.

Published: 10 February 2023

McGill scholars respond to COP15 Biodiversity Conference

webfull — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 15:40:16 +0000

The 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP15) was held in Montreal on December 7-19, 2022. The conference’s outcome agreement, known as “30×30” means the protection of 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030.

Published: 13 January 2023

Setting Targets for Wetland Restoration to Mitigate Climate Change Effects on Watershed Hydrology

webfull — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:46:20 +0000

How much wetland we should protect or restore is not a simple question, such that conservation targets are often set according to political agendas, then standardized globally. However, given their key regulating hydrological functions, wetlands represent nature-based solutions to the anticipated, exacerbating effect of climate change on drought and flood events, which will vary at the regional scale.

Published: 10 January 2023

‘Cities are becoming the fulcrum for how we manage biodiversity’

webfull — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:23:12 +0000

As Montreal prepares to host UN Biodiversity Conference, McGill professor Andrew Gonzalez discusses how cities can help protect nature and human health.

Global urban populations are projected to increase to nearly five billion by 2030. This ever-expanding urbanization threatens our world’s plant and animal biodiversity and degrades ecosystems through the loss of habitat, biomass and carbon storage. As noted during the recent COP27 climate conference, biodiversity loss is as critical to our planet’s health as the climate crisis.

Published: 6 December 2022

What's it like to be a Biology student at McGill?

webfull — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 19:07:44 +0000

Join five current Biology students as they share their stories of finding their place and pursuing diverse paths within the discipline in this new video: A Glimpse Into Biology at McGill. To learn more about the inspiration for this video, read Video marks launch of Department of Biology outreach campaign.

Published: 14 October 2022

Why are some birds more intelligent than others?

webfull — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 19:49:32 +0000

If you’ve ever seen a starling peck open a garbage bag or a grackle steal your dog pellets, you get a sense that some birds have learned to take advantage of new feeding opportunities – a clear sign of their intelligence. Scientists have long wondered why certain species of birds are more innovative than others, and whether these capacities stem from larger brains (which intuitively seems likely) or from a greater number of neurons in specific areas of the brain.

Published: 1 August 2022

No 'Safe Space' for 12 key ocean species on North American West Coast

webfull — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 19:01:36 +0000

For the generations who grew up watching Finding Nemo, it might not come as a surprise that the North American West Coast has its own version of the underwater ocean highway – the California Current marine ecosystem (CCME). The CCME extends from the southernmost tip of California up through Washington. Seasonal upward currents of cold, nutrient-rich water are the backbone to a larger food web of krill, squid, fish, seabirds and marine mammals. However, climate change and subsequent changes in ocean pH, temperature and oxygen levels are altering the CCME — and not in a good way.

Published: 28 July 2022

Seemingly 'useless' organ makes huge soldier ants

webfull — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 17:11:41 +0000

Published: 10 October 2018