When mountains collapse: New-tech geodatabase helps geologists assess landslide hazard and risk

Jesse Mysiorek, New Science Communicator Early in the morning of August 2, 2014, part of a mountain collapsed in Jure, Nepal, about 70 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu. Some 5.5 million cubic metres of rock and debris – equal to the size of Grouse Mountain, north of Vancouver, BC – tumbled down into the Sunkoshi Valley, […]

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Going dry: How decreasing water levels put our food supply at risk

Photo by skeeze via Pixabay CC 0

Kelsey Voss, New Science Communicator Freshwater: The most important resource of our fast-growing world. We need it to drink and to grow food. We use water for drinking, washing, industrial processes, natural resources, and growing food, but our water supply is dwindling. In recent decades, we have seen increasing declines in freshwater levels across the […]

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Why the cure to HIV remains hidden – and how we might find it at the bottom of the ocean

elephant ear sponge; HIV-infected T cell

Komal Adeel, New Science Communicator HIV is pretty young disease. Unlike malaria, which was with us when humans first migrated out of Africa some two million years ago, or tuberculosis, which has been found in the bodies of ancient Egyptian mummies, HIV infections did not exist in humans until the 20th century. However, in this […]

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Living in the shadow of a volcano: B.C.’s Mount Meager shows signs of stirring

Christian Phillips, New Science Communicator One hundred kilometres north of Whistler, BC, up the Lillooet River, lies Mount Meager, a sleeping giant. Mount Meager is just one of 13 volcanoes that punctuates the west coast, from California to Alaska.   However, it is starting to look like this sleeping giant may not be asleep much […]

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Pinned: How natural history museums bridge research gaps in space and time

Photo by Alex Proimos

Kris Cu, New Science Communicator Jayme Lewthwaite, a PhD candidate who studies evolutionary biology at Simon Fraser University, enters the grand halls of the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History in Washington, DC. She walks past the elegant and elaborate exhibits, heading to the sun-lit research labs. She climbs to the floor labelled ‘Lepidoptera Collections’, which […]

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