Contaminant bioaccumulation in fish and aquatic environments

By Dorottya Harangi, Health, Medicine and Veterinary Sciences editor Have you ever been told that you should be careful about how much tuna you eat? Part of the reason why is bioaccumulation, which is when the level of certain toxins (for example, DDT or mercury) increases in concentration in the bodies of organisms as you […]

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Communicating science through picture books: Illustrator Kari Rust

By Raymond K. Nakamura, Multimedia editor Picture books about scientists heighten younger readers’ awareness that science is a human endeavour. Picture books not only help young readers develop literacy; they are also an art form all their own. To find out more about this often-overlooked style of science communication, I reached out to Canadian illustrator, […]

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If you can’t beat the cold, join it: How animals cope with Canadian winters

By Nada Salem and Zahra Nassar, Chemistry co-editors We’re almost there! We’ve survived another Canadian winter. It’s just about time to take off our scarves and hats and leave this winter season behind. This year was a tad colder than usual, with Vancouver (Canada’s characteristically warm haven) experiencing its lowest temperatures in 52 years. While […]

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Traditional Ecological Knowledge and science: a path forward

By Mary Anne Schoenhardt, Science in Society editor “A foot in both worlds” is how Ph.D. student Enooyaq Sudlovenick describes her work. An Inuk studying the health of beluga whales at the University of Manitoba, she uses a combination of the scientific method and traditional Inuit knowledge in her research. She monitors environmental contaminants and […]

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Navigating Canada’s path towards open science

By Sonja Soo, Communications, Education & Outreach editor Open science is a movement that encourages scientists to freely share their data, tools, and infrastructure to foster collaboration and accelerate research. Many forms of open science have been gaining traction over the last decade. For example, in 2009, mathematician Timothy Gowers posted a complex unsolved math […]

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