DIY time machines: how Canadian researchers use data from unexpected sources to recreate the past

By Catherine Dale, Managing Editor Tracking how human influences are changing the natural world is a common goal of science. However, to determine how something is changing, you need to know what it looked like in the past – and often, no records exist. To fill this gap, scientists sometimes turn to unconventional sources of […]

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Op-Ed: What the fitness and health media forget to talk about

By Cristina Sanza, guest contributor “Should I do more cardio or weights?” “Are dumbbells or machines better?” “How long do I need to exercise to see results?” Questions like these are all too common when you work in fitness. If you look to the media for answers, you’ll find them: a new study compares weights […]

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The benefits of learning to forget

by Jenna Finley, Biology & Life Sciences editor You may have heard it said, “Elephants never forget,”—but maybe they should. New research suggests that forgetting is a form of learning! This apparently contradictory statement could very well prove true in unpredictable environments. To understand why, let’s first take a look at how memory works. Memory […]

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The history of science: The story of humanity’s pursuit of knowledge

University of Toronto laboratory where insulin was discovered. Photo from University of Toronto Archives. Public domain.

Mary Anne Schoenhardt, Science & Society editor The summer of 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, which is credited to the two Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best. Insulin has saved the lives of millions of people who have diabetes. This discovery won the Noble Prize in Physiology and Medicine […]

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Let sleeping owls lie: What’s behind the morning lark, night owl sleep patterns

photo by cottonbro CC0 via pixels

Jaspreet Sanghera, Biology & Life Sciences editor You prefer to get up at dawn and are raring to go by the time most people are just rolling out of bed. This means that you are in bed by 10 P.M. But your new neighbours are up half the night moving around their apartment, disrupting your […]

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