Outer space is not far, some wit once observed. It’s only an hour’s drive away, should you be so lucky to have a car that goes straight up. To get his view on outer space, McGill physics professor Matt Dobbs had to go considerably further. As a member of the South Pole Telescope (SPT) team, [...]
By Jacquie Rourke From the Warsaw Ghetto to Sarajevo, the international community has too often failed victims of mass atrocities. Now, Frédéric Mégret is exploring how the globalization of law can embolden the spirit of resistance—and prevent genocides. Is the pen mightier than the sword? McGill law professor Frédéric Mégret, who has wielded both, believes [...]
By Jonathan Monpetit Dispelling myths about the developing world’s economies When The Economist declared last year that no serious investor can afford to ignore emerging markets (EMs), Professor Vihang Errunza bit his tongue. For more than 30 years, Errunza has been preaching about the opportunities afforded by developing world economies. In fact, his 1974 doctoral [...]
By James Martin, with files from Patrick McDonagh From lab work to fieldwork, McGill’s undergraduate students are taking learning beyond the classroom. In August 2006, an excavation led by André Costopoulos unearthed a large stone structure near Wemindji, a remote Cree community on the east coast of James Bay. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of [...]
By Jeff Roberts Philip Oxhorn and the McGill Centre for Developing-Area Studies are helping strengthen emerging democracies For Philip Oxhorn, the recent death of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet was more than just another headline. Oxhorn did graduate work in Chile during the 1980s, when Pinochet’s reign of terror gripped the nation. He saw troops [...]
By James Martin Distributed Digital Music Archives and Libraries researchers are liberating music from the vinyl vaults—using a high-powered microscope In the era of the digital download, when ghostly MP3s float freely from computer to cellphone, and the collected works of ABBA and Zappa can slip comfortably into a shirt pocket, it’s easy to forget [...]
By Andrew Fazekas How gene-enhanced stem cell therapy is changing medicine Self-repairing livers. A simple injection that regenerates osteoporosis-riddled bone. An end to diabetes, Parkinson’s and heart disease. Such notions smack of futuristic flights of fancy, but science fiction may soon become science fact, as a diverse group of McGill researchers discover how to use [...]
When the Titanic sank in 1912, dooming 1,500 of its passengers, it was far from the first vessel to fall prey to the icebergs that stalk the North Atlantic. And even with all the improvements to navigational safety that have been made since, ships are still at risk of unexpected encounters with a silent frozen [...]
Patrick Selvadurai and Rod Macdonald are the latest McGill scholars to win Canada’s most prestigious lifetime research award: the Canada Council for the Arts’ $100,000 Killam Prize. Selvadurai is William Scott Professor and James McGill Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He is internationally recognized for his work in theoretical, applied [...]
On May 2, during a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the Duke of Edinburgh presented McGill philosophy professor emeritus Charles Taylor with the 2007 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities. The prize is worth £800,000 (approximately $1.7 million, making it the world’s largest annual monetary award for an individual. The [...]
