Farmers and insurance companies may soon get more accurate estimates of weather-related crop damage thanks to a University of Alberta researcher working with existing drone technology.

Researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the University of Dundee and the Wellcome Sanger Institute have used human and worm data to explore the mutational causes of cancer. Their study, published today in Genome Research, also shows that results from controlled experiments on a model organism – the nematode worm C. elegans – are relevant to humans, helping researchers refine what they know about cancer.  

It’s playtime for piglets at the Prairie Swine Centre (PSC), where Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) researcher Dr. Yolande Seddon hopes to find out whether piglets that play are better able to cope with life’s stresses.

Following an extensive ground and aerial survey led by wind engineering experts at Western, it has been determined that the tornado outbreak of June 18, 2017 in southern Québec is officially the largest recorded in the province’s history and, consequently, one of the largest ever recorded in Canada.

Thanks to mom and dad, baby reef fish may have what it takes to adjust to hotter oceans.

In a rapidly changing climate, the decline of animal populations is a very real concern. Today, an international team of researchers report new evidence of reef fish adjusting to global warming conditions at the genetic level.

More than 70 years after the end of the Second World War, countless pieces of ammunition from this time are still lying – and corroding – in all oceans. Once the casings are damaged, the explosives can release toxic substances into the seawater. A new review study, published by scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Environment in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, points to considerable knowledge gaps regarding the spread and effects of these chemicals on marine ecosystems.

Cheap, flexible and sustainable plastic semiconductors will soon be a reality thanks to a breakthrough by chemists at the University of Waterloo. 

Professor Derek Schipper and his team at Waterloo have developed a way to make conjugated polymers, plastics that conduct electricity like metals, using a simple dehydration reaction the only byproduct of which is water. 

A new conductor material and a new electrode material could pave the way for inexpensive batteries and therefore the large-scale storage of renewable energies.

Last year, University of British Columbia zoologist Wayne Maddison travelled to the highlands of southern Mexico in pursuit of undiscovered species of jumping spiders. He kept a journal of his adventures, documenting his encounters with resplendently beautiful arachnids.

Nitrogen is essential to marine life and cycles throughout the ocean in a delicately balanced system. Living organisms—especially marine plants called phytoplankton—require nitrogen in processes such as photosynthesis. In turn, phytoplankton growth takes up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helps regulate global climate.