News
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Astronomers Discover Missing Link for Origin of Comets
September 4, 2008
An international team of scientists that includes University of British Columbia astronomer Brett Gladman has found an unusual object whose backward and tilted orbit around the Sun may clarify the origins of certain comets. In the first discovery of its kind, researchers from Canada, France and… read more
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Air quality, weather forecasting projects net climate research funding
August 29, 2008
Two UBC Science research projects—one looking at improving weather forecasting and warning capability, the other investigating the effects of international pollutants on Canada’s air quality—have received more than $300,000 from Canada’s major funding body for university… read more
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Shedding Armour Helps Tiny Fish Thrive, Helps Darwin
August 28, 2008
Shedding some genetically induced excess baggage may have helped a tiny fish thrive in freshwater and outsize its marine ancestors, according to a UBC study published today in Science Express. Measuring three to 10 centimetres long, stickleback fish originated in the ocean but began populating… read more
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Salmonella Bacteria Lay Down their Lives for the Common 'Good'
August 28, 2008
Researchers at UBC and in Switzerland have applied a mathematical model to Salmonella bacteria to show how altruistic, self-destructive traits can evolve in biological populations. In the case of Salmonella, these traits could potentially result in stronger and more damaging infections. UBC's… read more
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Cosmic Competition: Amateur Astronomers Win Time on Space Telescope
August 27, 2008
Two Canadian amateur stargazers get to trade in their backyard telescopes for one 820 kilometres up in space. Dozens of proposals poured in over the last year after scientists in charge of MOST—a Canadian Space Agency space mission headed by Physics and Astronomy professor Jaymie Matthews… read more
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Spiders Who Eat Together, Stay Together: UBC Research
August 5, 2008
The ability to work together and capture larger prey has allowed social spiders to stretch the laws of nature and develop enormous colonies, researchers with the UBC Department of Zoology have found. The findings, published in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of… read more
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New Head at UBC Statistics
July 29, 2008
Professor Nancy Heckman--internationally recognized for her work in non-parametric, or smoothing, regression--has been named head of the UBC Department of Statistics. Heckman joined the University as an assistant professor in 1984, and earned her PhD at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She… read more
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UBC–Mineral Exploration Joint Venture Appoints New Director
July 28, 2008
Dr Craig Hart has been appointed director of the Mineral Deposit Research Unit, an award-winning industry-UBC Science partnership. Hart, well known to the Canadian geoscience community, is currently a senior research fellow at the Centre for Exploration Targeting at the University of Western… read more
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UBC Physicists' Bright Idea Gets Clean Energy Funding
July 23, 2008
An illumination system designed by UBC physicists that saves energy by directing daylight into the core of office buildings has received $2 million in funding from BC's Innovative Clean Energy initiative. The Solar Canopy System uses precisely aligned mirrors to reflect direct sunlight into a… read more
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Zoology Grad Students Named Top Young Scientists
July 18, 2008
Graduate students from the Department of Zoology have won two of the five 2008 Young Scientist awards handed out by Europe's Society of Experimental Biologists. Graham Scott was recognized for his work investigating how the bar-headed goose—a species that migrates over the Himalayas at… read more