Paul Jay, Nortel Networks Thursday, May 27, 1999 Semiconductor technology has advanced at an impressive rate over the past 4-5 decades. Gordon Moore (now of Intel) observed over 30 years ago that silicon chip complexity was doubling every 18 months, a dependency now called 'Moore's Law'. This 'Law' has held constant since 1970 to the […]
Patrick Lee, University of Calgary Health Sciences Centre Thursday, October 21, 1999 Patrick Lee and his research colleagues at the University of Calgary are responsible for an amazing discovery - viruses that target and destroy cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. Somehow these agents "called reoviruses" are able to hone in on characteristics that […]
Diane Michelangeli, York University Tuesday, November 16, 1999 From urban smog to stratospheric ozone depletion, from greenhouse gases to acid rain, from global weather patterns to severe local storms, the atmosphere is a complex, changing system on which we are having a major impact. The effects of atmospheric processes can be felt in many ways, […]
Sydney Pugh, Millenium Biologix Inc., Kingston Thursday, December 2, 1999 Osteoporosis, one of the most common and devastating bone diseases on earth, is also a serious problem for astronauts, male and female alike. Millenium Biologix is a Canadian company at the forefront of international efforts to study and treat this and other crippling bone diseases. […]
Jean-René Roy, Université Laval Thursday, February 10, 2000 From the earliest tracking of the motions of the stars during the Stone Age to the discovery of the expansion of the universe in the 20th century, astronomy has held an irresistible fascination for humanity. The quest to know the universe is also the story of the […]
John Clague, Simon Fraser University Thursday, March 16, 2000 Western British Columbia is one of Canada's earthquake hotspots. On average, one detectable quake occurs there every day. Nine large earthquakes of Richter magnitude 6-7 have struck B.C. and adjacent Washington state since the late 1800s. Even more worrying is the growing body of scientific evidence […]
John Cross, Philom Bios Inc., Saskatoon Thursday, April 13, 2000 Microbes have been both friend and foe for food producers since the beginning of time - friends as drivers of natural processes to prepare nutritional foodstuffs, and foes as disease-causing agents. Both fungi and bacteria are used in agriculture to give plants better access to […]
Kim Vicente, University of Toronto Thursday, May 11, 2000 When designers ignore people, the result is products that are difficult for people to use. Just think of all of those flashing 12:00's on the VCRs in our homes. Poorly designed systems exist because the vast majority of engineers and scientists who design technology never get […]
Peter Jones,McGill University Thursday, Sept 28, 2000 No other lifestyle decision can influence your long term health prospects as much as the food you eat. Arriving soon on your supermarket shelves is the latest wave in "healthy" offerings. Functional foods are defined as foodstuffs with ingredients that confer additional benefits to the human body. Although […]
Verena Tunnicliffe, University of Victoria Thursday, March 15, 2001 The hottest water on Earth, over 400°C, gushes into the otherwise barren depths of the cold ocean. One such spectacular site lies in Canadian waters just off Vancouver Island. Hydrothermal vent studies are changing basic ideas in many sciences. They present a new model for the […]
Thomas (Tom) Hudson, Montreal Genome Centre Thursday, April 5, 2001 As the human genome sequencing project nears completion, researchers have begun grappling with its implications for the study of life processes and the understanding of disease. The impact of genomics can be seen in the explosion of new protein technologies, the tremendous growth of the […]
John Smol, Queens University Thursday, May 10, 2001 (originally Tuesday, October 31, 2000) Human activities are greatly affecting water systems, but data from the past are hard to get. Is water quality changing? If so, why and by how much? Fortunately, aquatic systems archive an immense library of information in their sediments. From the fossil […]