By Qiaochu Liang, guest contributor With winter just around the corner, some animals start building food caches, while others eat plenty of food to prepare for hibernation. This is also the perfect time for us humans to be proactive about getting enough essential nutrients, particularly vitamin D. What is vitamin D? Vitamins are a class […]
Guest contributors
How we predict and manage fire – and why it matters
By Naeema Bhyat, guest contributor With Canada’s wide expanses of forest, grasslands and shrublands, wildfires have always been part of our landscape. But as more Canadians experience eerie, smoky skies and a dull orange sun, these fires loom larger in the public’s imagination. Events like the 2016 wildfire that tore through Fort McMurray, Alberta and […]
Microbes could be the solution to our waste plastics problem
By Ishara Yahampath, guest contributor Globally, 400 metric tonnes of plastic are produced annually: 40% is single-use, resulting in significant waste. Every year, 29,000 tonnes of plastic are released into Canada’s environment, causing serious environmental problems—the accumulation of plastic waste in land and water ecosystems, leakage of harmful microbes into the environment, and threats to […]
Untangling Cosmic Strings
By Eloise Chakour, guest contributor Theoretical physics is often criticized for its lack of observable predictions. However, Canada is at the forefront of research on fascinating objects that exist in the borderlands between theoretical and observational physics: cosmic strings. These theorized objects may provide answers to some of the biggest questions in physics today. The […]
Crushing snowbanks could help to preserve permafrost and keep northern communities connected
By Patrick Jardine, new science communicator Northern field work 2:00 p.m. on March 9th, 2021: I was finishing sampling snow density along a mine access roadside in the central Yukon with my co-worker, Jen, when I heard branches breaking deep within the forest beside me. It was a balmy –15 °C out — a significant […]