Nada Salem and Zahra Nasser, Chemistry editors The world is on fire. From British Columbia to Greece, the growing effects of climate change have become impossible to ignore. In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that “it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.” So, […]
Science in Society
When the opioid epidemic met the coronavirus pandemic
Sonja Soo, Communications, Education & Outreach editor The opioid crisis in Canada has been a public emergency since 2016. According to the Government of Canada, there have been more than 22,000 opioid toxicity deaths in the last five years. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened opioid-related deaths in Canada – in the months that followed the […]
Defining ‘novel’: Health Canada modernizes its regulations for plant breeding
Katie Compton, Policy & Politics editor When it comes to the plants and plant-derived foods that we eat, what does novel mean? When is something so different from the existing items on grocery shelves that regulators need to assess its safety before it goes to market? In the world of plant breeding, the line between […]
Lidar and archeology: Modern technology for a historical purpose
Mary Anne Schoenhardt, Science in Society editor You may know that the iPhone 12 Pro contains a lidar (light detection and ranging) sensor. A remote sensing technique originally developed for space exploration and military defence, lidar is more than just a fancy gadget for your new phone. One of the lesser-known uses of lidar is […]
Let sleeping owls lie: What’s behind the morning lark, night owl sleep patterns
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 […]