Raymond Nakamura and Katrina Vera Wong, Multimedia editors Monsters of the prime Who tare each other in their slime – Thomas C. Weston, “Untitled,” Reminiscences among the rocks: in connection with the Geological Survey of Canada, 1889 ~ Excavating fossilized dinosaur bones or permineralized leaves is something we expect from a palaeontologist; digging up poems […]
Author: Science Borealis
Planting cleaner air: Can roadside plants reduce air pollution?
Katie Compton and Silvie Harder, Policy & Politics editors If you’ve gone shopping for a houseplant recently, you might have noticed that some species, like spider plants and peace lilies, are identified as having air-purifying qualities. This labelling isn’t just empty marketing. A study done by NASA 30 years ago tested the air-purifying capacity of […]
Why do we (dis)trust? A look at the science of credibility
Alice Fleerackers, Science in Society editor It’s March 9, 2021, exactly one year after the first COVID-19-related death was reported in my home province of British Columbia. I wake up to see Canadian Doctors Speak Out trending on Twitter. Curious, I click through. There, I uncover heated streams of tweets, some calling out misinformation, others […]
Bats: COVID-19’s unexpected victim
Elizabeth Benner, Biology & Life Sciences editor COVID-19 was the major villain of 2020. But another biological life form received a lot of press, as media speculation centred on bats as the origin of the virus. Bats and viruses Virus scientists found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, came from a virus in […]
Mary Anne Schoenhardt, Science in Society editor
Mary Anne grew up near Toronto, Ontario, and spent her summers exploring parks and lakes across the province; this instilled in her a wonder for the natural world and a desire to learn more about it. This love for learning led Mary Anne to the Integrated Science program at McMaster University, where she was first […]