Top Stories

Bringing Indigenous perspectives to polar bear research

When Brady Highway first arrived in Churchill, Manitoba in November 2013 to begin a new position with Parks Canada, it was the morning after a polar bear attacked and seriously injured two people. The event made national headlines.

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Humor, Fear Inspire Young to Engage in Climate Activism

Melting icecaps, mass flooding, megadroughts and erratic weather are no laughing matter. However, a new study shows that humor can be an effective means to inspire young people to pursue climate change activism. At the same time, fear proves to be an equally effective motivator and has the added advantage of increasing people’s awareness of climate change’s risks.

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NASA Finds a Large Amount of Water in an Exoplanet's Atmosphere

Much like detectives study fingerprints to identify the culprit, scientists used NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to find the “fingerprints” of water in the atmosphere of a hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away. And, they found a lot of water. In fact, the planet, known as WASP-39b, has three times as much water as Saturn does.

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Study Shows Smartphones Harm the Environment

Data centres and smartphones will be the most damaging information and communications technologies to the environment by 2040, according to new research from W Booth School's Lotfi Belkhir.

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Heart Attacks Often Follow Dramatic Changes in Outdoor Temperature

Large day-to-day swings in temperature were associated with significantly more heart attacks in a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 67th Annual Scientific Session. Given that some climate models link extreme weather events with global warming, the new findings suggest climate change could, in turn, lead to an uptick in the occurrence of heart attacks, researchers said.

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Cancer Survivors Need Better Support to Get Jobs and Access Loans, Say Researchers

More and more people are surviving cancer. Yet support for people who survive cancer and the research that underpins their care is insufficient, particularly when it comes to non-medical issues. A new special issue of the Journal of Cancer Policy, which will be published in March following the 3rd EORTC Cancer Survivorship Summit to be held in Brussels on March 1st and 2nd, shines a light on the issues and calls for more long-term research, better cross-analysis of different cancer types and better support for those who survive the disease.

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Fixing Damaged Ecosystems: How Much Does Restoration Help?

Across the globe, billions of dollars are spent annually on repairing ecosystems damaged by people. Forests denuded by logging. Rivers polluted by industry. Grasslands converted to agriculture.

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Native Wildflowers Bank on Seeds Underground to Endure Drought

Native wildflowers were surprisingly resilient during California’s most recent drought, even more so than exotic grasses. But signs of their resilience were not evident with showy blooms aboveground. Rather, they were found mostly underground, hidden in the seed bank, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

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A Bird in the Bush Equals Money in the Hand

A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Foundations of Success (FOS) finds that an ecotourism strategy based on “direct payments,” where local people are compensated for the amount of wildlife seen by tourists, has resulted in a reduction in illegal hunting and an increase in wildlife sightings.

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Nature Can Reduce Pesticide Use, Environment Impact

Farmers around the world are turning to nature to help them reduce pesticide use, environmental impact and, subsequently, and in some cases, increasing yields.

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