The animals that inhabit the Far North have always had a fantastic oddness to them—ungainly walruses, fearsome polar bears, mysterious narwhals. A new class of beastie has joined this menagerie: sea monsters. Hans Larsson, Canada Research Chair in Vertebrate Paleontology at McGill, recently unearthed three marine reptile fossils that are a first in Canada’s Far [...]
When the HIV virus infects a human immune cell, that cell may protect itself from complete exhaustion by becoming dormant. Montreal researchers have now devised the cellular equivalent of “smelling salts” to revive sleeping immune cells so they may fight another day. “The cell’s reaction to invasion may seem illogical, but if the body does [...]
On the last day of May 2006, the skies opened up and drenched McGill’s most recent science graduates and their proud families as they celebrated spring convocation. Four days later, atmospheric and oceanic sciences and School of Environment professor Frédéric Fabry was at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, working on [...]
A new McGill study has found that women become sexually aroused as quickly as men, a finding that turns conventional wisdom on its head. Dr. Irv Binik, psychology professor and founder and director of the Sex and Couple Therapy Service of the McGill University Health Centre’s Royal Victoria Hospital, used thermal imaging to calculate the [...]
Age-related changes in hormone levels can have a significant impact on brain func-tion, a finding confirming the suspicions of many women. Barbara Sherwin, James McGill Professor of Psychology, has found the loss of estrogen that starts around the time of menopause is linked to mood swings and a measurable decline in memory function. The good [...]
When conductor Keith Lockhart strode to the podium for a spring performance in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s family concert series, he was wired. Wired for sound, that is. As part of a McGill study to measure the effects of music on the human brain, researchers from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and [...]
Three McGill professors have been named to the Order of Canada for their outstanding lifetime achievements: neurologist Frederick Andermann, family medicine professor Ann Macaulay and Dennis Osmond, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. On November 19, six McGill faculty were inducted as Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada: Laurette Dubé, [...]
Over-prescribing anti-bacterial drugs allows their targets the opportunity to adapt. Kill off a billion bacteria using penicillin and a few billion more will come along—and brush aside previously successful weapons. Antibiotic-resistant microbes are becoming more dangerous every year, creating deadlier forms of previously treatable diseases such as meningitis and pneumonia. But there is hope. McGill [...]
McGill psychology professor finds mice have feelings After accidentally ploughing open a mouse’s nest more than two centuries ago, Robbie Burns was moved to write “To a Mouse,” an anthropomorphic apology for the creature’s suffering. Now science is affirming Burns’ peculiar instincts: it turns out mice really do have feelings. Well, at least for each [...]
by Céline Poissant New hope for victims of domestic child abuse A young boy returns from school, report card in hand, and his parents ignore him. Out of the blue, a girl is pulled aside and beaten by her stepmother. A pre-teen dreads going to bed at night because her father sexually abuses her. A [...]
