Canada’s most prestigious French-language learned society announced the recipients of its research awards today, and two McGill professors are among the winners.
At its 77th virtual gala ceremony, the non-profit organization , l’Association francophone pour le savoir, awarded McGill Professor Michel Biron the Prix André-Laurendeau and Professor Susanne Lajoie the Prix Jeanne-Lapointe.
The causes of psychiatric disorders are poorly understood. Now, in work led by researchers at Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, there is evidence that a wide range of early onset psychiatric problems (from depression, anxiety and addictions to dyslexia, bulimia, and ADHD) may be largely due to the combination of just three factors. The first is biological—in the form of individual variability in the brain’s dopamine reward pathway. The second is social—and points to the important role of early childhood neglect or abuse.
Marjoleine Kars has been named winner of the 2021 Cundill History Prize for Blood on the River: a Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast (The New Press). Kars accessed a previously untapped Dutch archive to reveal the little-known story of a 1763 slave rebellion in Berbice, a Dutch colony in present-day Guyana.
The search of life beyond our world is an exciting venture that may yield an enormous discovery in the not-too-distant future. However, space agencies around the world, including NASA and the European Space Agency, have long been aware of the potential risks of biological contamination and have set in place planetary protection policies.
According to research, early childhood gambling experiences, including those with lottery products, increase the risk for developing gambling problems later in life.
As the world reflects on pledges made at the United Nations climate conference (COP26) to reduce carbon emissions, and scientists develop new ways to scale up renewable energy, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ’s efforts to contribute to a cleaner, carbon-free future will take another big leap forward thanks to a $2-million donation from TD Bank Group (TD).
Combining knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering, scientists from Ď㽶ĘÓƵ develop a tough enough to repair the heart, muscles, and vocal cords, representing a major advance in regenerative medicine.
A team of international researchers from Canada, Colombia, and Germany has discovered a new marine reptile. The specimen, a stunningly preserved metre-long skull, is one of the last surviving ichthyosaurs – ancient animals that look eerily like living swordfish.
Donations totalling $13 million from McGill alumnus Gerald Rimer and the Rimer family will support a major renovation of the University’s Leacock Building and build the foundation for a future Institute for Indigenous Research and Knowledges (IIRK) at McGill.
Concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the deep waters of the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary (LSLE) have dropped by over 50% over the past two years. The consequences for many marine species, who depend on oxygen to survive, are potentially very serious. A compilation of historical data reveals that dissolved oxygen concentrations in the deep waters of the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary decreased by about 50% during the fifty years between 1934 and 1985. And then remained fairly constant until 2019, when the situation changed dramatically.
In humans, the dopamine system has been tied to rewards and pleasurable sensations. As well as to memory and learning. A recent study from Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, published in , suggests that dopamine may also play a key role in shaping what songs female songbirds enjoy, which may ultimately affect mating as females choose (and then remember) their mates based on the songs they prefer.
This fall, 700 graduating students, who completed their programs at the end of Summer 2021 at Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, will cross the stage for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in 2019. The four in-person fall convocation ceremonies will take place on November 25th and 26th, 2021 at Place des Arts, where graduates will celebrate together with family and friends.
Residential energy use represents roughly one-fifth of annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. A team of researchers led by Ď㽶ĘÓƵ has used data from 60 million individual American households to look into how carbon emissions caused by household energy use vary by race and ethnicity across the country. Paradoxically, this first national level analysis found that even though energy-efficient homes are more often found in Caucasian neighbourhoods, carbon emissions from these neighbourhoods are higher than in African American neighbourhoods.
Recognized for her ground-breaking advancements in the field of DNA nanotechnology and precision medicine to combat major diseases
Hanadi Sleiman, Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in DNA Nanoscience, has transformed the field of DNA nanotechnology and revolutionized precise medical treatments for major diseases, like cancer – and she has just earned national recognition for her research.
Surprising as it sounds, all life forms in the ocean, from small krill to large tuna, seem to obey a simple mathematical law that links an organism’s abundance to its body size. For example, although small krill are individually only about one millionth of the weight of a large tuna, they also tend to be a million times more numerous throughout the oceans. The idea, known as the Sheldon size spectrum theory, was first advanced in the 1970s, but has never been tested for a wide range of marine species and on a global scale until now.
