Ancient bat guano provides­ historic record of changes to chemical composition of air

ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
BY:

At first glance, you might regard a Jamaican cave that has been continuously inhabited by bats for thousands of years as one of the last places to learn how the chemical content of regional air and water have been changing. But for Jules Blais, a biologist with the University of Ottawa, the countless strata of guano deposited there by these animals provide an ideal record of this information. Blais specializes in gauging the influence of environmental contaminants on the metabolism...

Read More >>

Glass toughens up with lessons from mother nature

MATERIALS SCIENCE
BY:

Mollusc shells consist largely of chalk, the same soft stuff that comes apart so easily on blackboards. Yet this material provides aquatic life with protection tougher than advanced engineering ceramics. The difference can be seen at the microscopic level, where the shell is revealed as an interlocking series of small tablets, intricately connected to provide remarkable resilience.

Read More >>

Superconductors hang 10 riding the charge waves

FUNDAMENTALS
BY:

The extraordinary properties of superconductivity have regularly frustrated researchers, who have successfully identified it in many different materials, but always at temperatures too low for a widespread technological impact. The search for superconducting materials — which lack any resistance to electrical flow — has regularly frustrated researchers; while many such materials have been discovered, they only work at temperatures too low for widespread application.

Read More >>

Water testing for E. coli gets smart treatment

ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
BY:

A handheld system developed through an India-Canada research network promises to provide on-the-spot testing of drinking water sources in more remote locations, immediately confirming the absence or presence of harmful E. coli bacteria and transmitting the results electronically to all interested parties. This approach represents a significant improvement over standard...

Read More >>

Nanoparticles deliver the goods against cancer, then go

HEALTH
BY:

The best way of applying medicines powerful enough to kill cancerous tumours is to ensure that they wind up in those tumours and nowhere else in the body. In a recent Nature Nanotechnology paper, researchers at the University of Toronto point the way to just this kind of targeted delivery, which takes advantage of the properties of gold nanoparticles.

Read More >>

Shedding light on the secrets of plant photosynthesis

ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
BY:

While untold numbers of plants have carried out photosynthesis for hundreds of millions of years, the nature of this subtle process continues to elude us. Scientists are, however, focusing increasingly sophisticated tools on this problem, raising hopes that this fundamental biological activity will eventually reveal its secrets.

Read More >>

Small publication means big exposure for collaborators

NANOTECHNOLOGY
BY:

Three researchers at Polytechnique Montréal have published a paper that was featured as the cover story for the Wiley publication Small, which has an impact factor that puts it among the world’s leading publications covering topics in nano-scale and micro-scale chemistry, physics, materials science, engineering, medicine and biology.

Read More >>

Imaging boost for fuel cells

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
BY:

The same tomographic imaging technique that provides doctors and surgeons with vital views inside their patients is now being adapted to improve the performance of hydrogen fuel cells. Researchers at Simon Fraser University are working with Burnaby-based Ballard Power Systems to apply a new tool for testing and characterizing these devices.

Read More >>

Size counts when it comes to contrast agents

NANOTECHNOLOGY
BY:

Radiographic images produced by X-rays have been a staple tool of medical diagnosis for many decades and this technology remains one of the health care system’s workhorses. Nevertheless, important physiological features, such as the emergence or growth of tumours, ...

Read More >>