Multidisciplinary collaboration yields a promising new biopsy tool for diagnosing interstitial lung disease

Kody Beler, new science communicator About 98 out of 100,000 human patients every year suffer from interstitial lung disease, a broad collection of several lung diseases that manifest as inflammation and scarring of lung tissue and a loss of lung function. Because of the invasiveness of the necessary lung biopsy, however, the diseases are often […]

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No pain, more gain: A new way to monitor glucose

Zahra Nasser and Nada Salem, Chemistry editors People with diabetes have measured their blood sugar the same way since the 1970s – a painful daily prick of the finger. While most have no choice but to get used to this, it shouldn’t have to be that way. Monitoring technology has come a long way over […]

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Plastic recycling in Canada

Images by Daylen, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 and Regan Walsh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA modified

Esme Symons and Sri Ray-Chauduri, Technology & Engineering editors Plastic items, including single-use plastics, are ubiquitous throughout Canada. When we’re done with a disposable water bottle, many of us will spot a recycling symbol and throw it in a recycling bin, believing we’ve given the material a new lease on life. However, with Canada recycling […]

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The future of carbon: capture, storage, sequestration, re-use

Photo by Sander Weeteling on Unsplash, CC0

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, […]

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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 […]

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