Dr. Kevin Englehart: Bionic Limbs - from science fiction to reality Advances in capturing and processing the signals from undamaged nerves are opening the door to prosthetic devices that permit a stunningly fine level of control. Today’s speaker will explain the scientific and engineering basis of these revolutionary new human-machine interfaces and present a short […]

Dr. Bryan Kolb: Understanding the plastic brain Although once considered a static organ, the brain continually rewires its structure and function to adapt to very different environmental, cultural, and developmental conditions. Consider, for example, the very different demands on the brain of an airline pilot, lawyer, musician, and pipe fitter. Each has a complex set […]

Dr. Jeffrey Dahn: Are Batteries and Fuel Cells ready for All-Electric Vehicles? Hybrid electric vehicles have arrived, but they lack a substantial all-electric range. The anticipated next generation of “plug-in” hybrids, however, will have batteries that can deliver up to 60 km of all-electric driving. They will potentially eliminate the consumption of gasoline on short […]

Dr. Bridget Stutchbury: When the canary dies Migratory songbirds are experiencing one of the most spectacular declines in numbers of all animal species. It is a sobering thought that Rachel Carson's conservation landmark book, Silent Spring, fingered agricultural chemicals as a likely cause as far back as 1962. Yet in the ensuing decades, pesticide use […]

Dr. Marc St-Onge: Hot prospects in the cold: the new Geological Map of the Arctic The newly-released Geological Map of the Arctic shows that Canada’s North is much more than just a map of frozen land and ocean. The map is an embodiment of our history, and a record of the planet that spans four […]

Dr. Victoria Kaspi: The Violent High Energy Universe A glance at the night sky during a quiet walk in the dark countryside suggests that our cosmos is calm and largely unchanging. However, X-ray space telescopes reveal a radically different Universe – one of enormous thermonuclear explosions, jets spewing from super massive black holes, and giant […]

Francis A. Plummer: University of Manitoba and National Microbiology Laboratory (Winnipeg), Public Health Agency of Canada In recent decades, more than 40 new or newly recognized diseases have emerged, largely from animal populations, to become local challenges or major pandemics like swine flu. At the same time, familiar diseases have evolved antibiotic resistance or other […]

Dr. David G. Barber: Climate Change and Arctic Sea Ice: So what is all the fuss about? People are becoming increasingly aware that something unusual is happening in the Arctic. The media is full of headlines concerning reductions in sea ice, the opening of northern waterways and the introduction of new species into northern ecosystems. […]

Nothing is simple about phosphorus. The agricultural fertilizer that makes it possible to feed the world is poison for many of the world's rivers, lakes and coastal systems. And now, concern is rising that future supplies of the mineral may not be adequate to meet demand. University of British Columbia (UBC) civil engineer Donald S. […]

Dr. Marc-André Sirard: The Science of Bacon and Eggs The life of all mammals, including humans, begins with the largest and most extraordinary cell of the body – the egg. Few people know that Canada is a world leader in mammalian egg research, much of it conducted on domestic pigs and cows. For breeders and […]

Dr. Gilles Brassard: The ABC's of Quantum Magic Quantum mechanics is perhaps the most spectacular scientific theory of all time. Yet, more than one hundred years after its discovery, few people have even the most basic grasp of what it means. Professor Brassard will describe in simple terms how quantum mechanics is being harnessed to […]