June 20, 2011
A sweeping synthesis of two decades worth of data from Canada's major earth sciences project has yielded an unprecedented geological map of North America that offers researchers a glimpse back in time.
"This is the most detailed cross-section of a continent ever put together," says Ronald Clowes, a seismologist at UBC and director of Lithoprobe. "It's a 6,000-kilometer snap shot of four billion years of crustal assembly, recycling and reorganization that took place over much of the planet's geological history."
June 17, 2011
Eight UBC Science researchers are part of a new round of funding that awarded a total of $2 million from two grant programs of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to researchers at the University. More than 140 UBC students also received NSERC scholarships, fellowships and awards.
June 15, 2011
An international team of researchers that includes UBC physicists has provided the first hints that muon neutrinos are able to transform into electron neutrinos when they travel over large distances.
June 1, 2011
Honour and shame work equally well in encouraging social cooperation, according to a new study by mathematicians at UBC and Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology.
Published today in Biology Letters, the study reported on the results of a series of experiments with 180 first-year UBC students.
The research team shows that the threat of shame and promise of honour each increased cooperation by as much as 50 per cent, providing insights into strategies for tackling global issues such as overfishing and climate change.
May 24, 2011
Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia's already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species.
May 12, 2011
Interactive teaching methods significantly improved attendance and doubled both engagement and learning in a large physics class, according to a University of British Columbia study published today in Science.
Led by Louis Deslauriers, a post-doctoral researcher at UBC’s Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI), the study compared the amount of learning students experienced when taught – in three hours over one week – by traditional lecture and by using interactive activities based on research in cognitive psychology and physics education.
May 10, 2011
Grade 6 and 7 students from across the lower mainland are poised to compete against each other in an intense one-day science knowledge competition held at UBC’s Vancouver campus on Friday, May 13.
Hosted by UBC Science students, the All Science Challenge is an exciting, fun-filled day of competition and camaraderie that's part of the nationwide Let’s Talk Science Outreach program.
“The All Science Challenge at UBC as become a highly anticipated annual event by both competitors and event organizers,” says Jennifer Choo, the Let's Talk Science coordinator at UBC.
April 28, 2011
UBC researchers are part of an international team of astronomers that have revealed details of a “super-dense” earth-like planet whose characteristics could have been culled from an episode of
Star Trek.
April 28, 2011
Former UBC Science postdoctoral fellow Brian Coombes and UBC Science alumnus David Vocadlo were among five recipients with UBC connections named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 list in the Globe and Mail today.
Brian Coombes, associate chair in biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University, completed his postdoctoral work at UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories in 2006, where he developed a research program investigating the role of type III secretion in bacterial pathogenesis.
April 18, 2011
The UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, including the Nitobe Memorial Garden, have joined the Faculty of Science.
The transfer of these major venues to UBC Science creates a cluster of biodiversity and natural history related attractions within the Faculty, which is already home to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the Pacific Museum of the Earth.
“I'm very excited by this opportunity to develop strong connections between the Botanical Garden and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in community engagement, education and research,” says Dean of Science Simon Peacock.
