science wire

Professor Paul Young re-appointed as vice-president (research)
Professor Paul Young has been reappointed vice-president (research) for the University of Toronto.

Connaught Fund injects $1.1 million into U of’T research
Greg Wells is at the forefront of a relatively new field called exercise medicine, which means he looks at how disease affects a person's ability to exercise—and at how exercise can be used to treat that person.

What does Obama's support for same-sex marriage mean for his bid for a second term?
When US President Barack Obama declared his official support for same-sex marriage on May 9, the Twitterverse went into overdrive.

Children learn about prejudice
How do children come to realize that they themselves might be targets of prejudice? It may depend on their age. New research conducted at the University of Toronto shows that a six-year-old may be influenced most by direct instruction about prejudice, but once that child gets closer to 10, she begins to rely more on her own experiences.

Scholars say global governance overhaul needed for earth’s sustainability
A group of the world's leading environmental scholars are sounding the alarm that human societies need to transform their national and international environmental institutions into a more coherent an

Cutting Edge Lighting Technologies Showcased at U of’T Workshop
From the development of the light bulb over a century ago to today's LED technology, lighting has come a long way.

U of’T wins four new Canada Research Chairs
How much power does your computer use? If you unplugged it, you probably wouldn't notice a difference in your hydro bills.

Statue, chapels and animal mummies found in Egypt by U of’T team
A wooden statue of a king, a private offering chapel, a monumental building and remains of over 80 animal mummies found by a University of Toronto -led team in Abydos, Egypt reveal intriguing information about ritual activity associated with the great gods. Professor Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations presented her team's findings at a recent meeting of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.

Rebuilding after a tsunami
It has been a year since a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, generating a tsunami that caused tremendous devastation.

Cultural "tightness" can hold back female leadership - but not always, says University of Toronto study
Countries that more strictly uphold their cultural norms are less likely to promote women as leaders, unless those norms support equal opportunity for both sexes, shows a new paper from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Large-scale stem cell cultivation partnership formalized
Since James Till and Ernest McCulloch first made their stem cell discovery 50 years ago, Toronto has steadily become a world renowned centre for stem cell research.

Pair of professors win John C. Polanyi Research Award
The groundbreaking research of two University of Toronto professors has been recognized with the 2011 NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, which honours an individual or team whose Canadian-based research has led to a recent outstanding advance in the natural sciences or engineering.

Taking the marathon to the classroom
Few people will ever run a marathon in their lives, let alone twice a day, every day, for nearly a month.

Death is new design consideration in technological age
At first glance, death seems like an unlikely thesis topic for a computer scientist. But for the University of Toronto's Mike Massimi , it makes perfect sense.

Online purchasers seeking discounts exhibit herd mentality
We might like to think we're not influenced by other people, but new research from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management indicates otherwise, especially when it comes to consumer behaviour.

Many babies born to immigrants incorrectly labelled underweight
For some immigrant parents, especially South Asians, questions about a baby's birthweight may be stressful, because many of their newborns are incorrectly diagnosed as being significantly underweight. Low birthweight generally means a baby could be at higher risk of developmental issues. Researchers at the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital say many of these infants are in fact the correct birthweight for their ethnic group and should not be compared to those of babies of Canadian-born mothers.

Top researchers to lead U of T’s Institute for Human Development
Professor Stephen Lye will serve as the inaugural executive director and Professor Marla Sokolowski as the inaugural academic director of the University of Toronto's newly established Institute for Human Development.

Research that offers 10 ways to improve society, the economy and the environment
University of Toronto research with a direct impact on improving life on Earth – and the planet itself - got a huge boost Feb.

Men are not from Mars, women are not from Venus
UTM English professor Mari Ruti takes on the self-help industry in her book The Case for Falling in Love Professor Mari Ruti of the Department of English and Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga has written about love for both academic and mainstream audiences.

Over-regulation of cyberspace risks infringing on human rights
In our quest to shape and regulate cyberspace, we risk subverting the global commons of information we have created, and by extension, the prospects and potential for global democracy, said Universi

Mats Sundin establishes medical fellowships at U of T, Karolinska Institutet
Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin announced today he will establish an elite scientific exchange program in the field of developmental health between the University of Toronto and Karolinska Insitutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Healthy neighbourhoods lead to healthy nations, says visiting Fulbright scholar
To an urban planner, Toronto's Kensington Market is a vibrant, multi-use neighbourhood. To a nutritionist, it's a bountiful source of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Four U of’T researchers recognized as rising stars in global health
Losing a limb can be devastating enough, but the high cost of a prosthetic limb makes them unavailable to many in the developing world.

Creationism goes global
In the beginning there was creationism. Now we have young Earth creationism, intelligent design and creationism interpreted through the lens of other world religions.

Improving women’s participation in the public discourse
Research shows that female academic experts are seriously under-represented in the media, and this means that readers often lack a broader perspective on an issue, says a former journalist who monitors and studies female representation in the media.

Canadian police agencies suppressing data on race, says criminology study
While only 20 per cent of Canada's police forces have an explicit policy against reporting the race of victims and accused persons, criminologists from the University of Toronto and Nipissing show that the majority of police departments do not report race in practice.

Liberal-democratic ideas don't have universal support in Middle East
Liberal-democratic attitudes in the Middle East and North Africa aren't universal, say two University of Toronto sociologists.

U of’T professors perform Ontario's first cardiac stem cell transplant
University of Toronto faculty members performed the first cardiac stem cell transplant in Ontario recently, using stem cells derived from the patient's own bone marrow, isolated completely within the operating room, and implanted into the heart at the time of coronary bypass surgery.

Human trafficking a dangerous reality
In the movie The Whistleblower , an American police officer turned peacekeeper uncovers a sex trafficking operation in post-war Bosnia.

Breakthrough treatment successful for patients with blocked arteries
The world's first clinical trial of a new treatment for patients with blocked coronary arteries has shown the novel approach to be safe and to yield promising success rates. The University of Toronto -Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre study involved 20 patients, each with a coronary artery completely blocked by plaque - a condition called chronic total occlusion (CTO).

Ancient dinosaur nursery oldest nesting site yet found
An excavation at a site in South Africa has unearthed the 190-million-year-old dinosaur nesting site of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus-revealing significant clues about the evolution of complex reproductive behaviour in early dinosaurs. The newly unearthed dinosaur nesting ground predates previously known nesting sites by 100 million years, according to study authors.

Medicine and public acceptance
Preparedness usually means planning for an emergency and avoiding catastrophic outcomes. Not for Professor Peter Newman - he is planning for a best-case scenario.

Pro athletes are wise to bolster their star status, say researchers
Basketball fans in Cleveland may disagree, but two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Lebron James' decision to play with a higher-profile Miami Heat team and all-star teammates shows sound marketing and

President David Naylor discusses research and innovation
When the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation asked President David Naylor for his expertise and insight on innovation hubs and what makes them successful, he was happy to use Toronto as a prime example.

Research focuses on youth, chronic illness and employment
Like any 28 year old, Arif Jetha , a fourth-year PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is worrying about his future. Once he completes his PhD, should he remain at home with his parents and pursue post-doctoral work or move on to full-time employment and begin establishing his career? Then, he thinks about the participants in his Young Adult, Health and Employment Study (YHES) ) and realizes his own challenges pale in comparison to theirs.

Innovative research rewarded
Research excellence in projects as varied as plastic solar cells, “extreme” astronomical devices to detect earth-like planets outside our solar system and the potential of music to promot

Video games at school?
To video gamers, the name Microsoft Kinect is synonymous with the Xbox 360 video game console. To University of Toronto graduate student Uzma Khan , the motion-sensing input device offered a myriad of other possibilities.

Do minor injuries make for fuzzy minds?
When hockey players are knocked out on the ice, medical personnel often look to computerized cognition tests to determine when concussed athletes can return to play.

Saving lives, one death at a time
In their quest to track health patterns across populations, epidemiologists often call themselves “disease detectives.” Not the University of Toronto's Prabhat Jha .

A new home for Santa Claus?
After the many years of commuting on Christmas Eve, jolly old St. Nicholas is reconsidering his home at the North Pole.

Scanning the Arctic skies
Researchers from the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics are taking the search for other worlds to a new frontier: the Canadian Arctic.

World science community abuzz as latest Higgs boson results announced
The international team of researchers that has been smashing high-energy protons together inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to re-create the conditions at the time of the Big Bang announced new evidence today pointing to an observation of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics.

Aboriginal health concerns not exclusive to Ontario’s northern communities, says new research
More than 60 per cent of Canada's Aboriginal population live in urban areas and are experiencing high rates of illness, poverty and challenges in access to food and housing security, new University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital research shows.

Ancient meat-loving predators survived for 35-million years
A species of ancient predator with saw-like teeth, sleek bodies and a voracious appetite for meat survived a major extinction at a time when the distant relatives of mammals ruled the earth.

Lab-on-a-chip will revolutionize HIV monitoring in developing countries
The World Health Organization considers HIV a worldwide pandemic. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 22 million people are living with it.

In the Dragonfish's Mouth
Three astronomers at the University of Toronto have found the most numerous batch of young, supermassive stars yet observed in our galaxy: hundreds of thousands of stars, including several hundreds of the most massive kind - blue stars dozens of times heavier than our Sun.

Maximizing access to physicians
“Linking compensation to time worked or services provided, as opposed to forms of pay that are unrelated to time worked, will better ensure the goal of increased work hours,” say three professors at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Is an end to AIDS-related deaths possible?
World AIDS Day is held on Dec. 1 each year. It's an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV, commemorate people who have died and celebrate victories such as increased access to treatment and prevention services.

For those with dementia, personhood persists
The scene: a long-term care home that serves elderly residents with dementia. It's lunchtime. A resident is wheeled to the table in a wheelchair.

Reframing the story of Alzheimer’s disease
When we talk about Alzheimer's disease, what kind of story are we telling? A horror story, at least here in contemporary North America, says Marlene Goldman .

E-Reading with Grandma
Facebook, Twitter, e-readers, video games, and the seemingly endless “next generations” of smartphones.

Baycrest’s amazing Virtual Brain
Randy McIntosh's brain isn't very smart. It's about as astute as your average three-year-old. But it's getting smarter every day. Housed in a supercomputing data centre, this “brain” is actually a model created by the Brain Network Recovery Group (Brain NRG), a consortium of 16 universities.