News
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Honey bees can help monitor pollution in cities
March 11, 2019
Honey from urban bees can tell us how clean a city is and help pinpoint the sources of environmental pollutants such as lead, new University of British Columbia research has found. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, scientists from UBC’s Pacific Centre for Isotopic and… read more
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Are BC's Killer Whales getting enough to eat? New funding will help UBC scientists find out
March 8, 2019
UBC researchers will use tracking and monitoring technology to determine if Southern Resident Killer Whales are able to forage for enough of their preferred prey, Chinook Salmon, to meet their nutritional needs. The new research project was announced today by Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of… read more
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Achieving Paris climate target could net additional billions in fisheries revenue
February 27, 2019
Achieving the Paris Agreement global warming target could protect millions of tonnes in annual worldwide fisheries catch, as well as billions of dollars of annual revenues for fishers, workers’ income and household seafood expenditures, according to new research from the University of… read more
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Chasing the mysteries of the universe with the top quark
February 21, 2019
Alison Lister, Canada Research Chair in Particle Physics, quite loves quarks. She belongs to one of the largest scientific collaborations on the planet—the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider—and is helping to develop new particle detectors at Canada’s national lab for… read more
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Mega experiment shows species interact more towards tropics and lowlands
February 20, 2019
One of the largest field experiments ever conducted is providing the best evidence yet in support of a key Darwinian theory—that interactions between species are stronger toward the tropics and at lower elevations. An international research team used a simple experiment that mimics how… read more
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Fish chemical cocktail reveals how a single gene may alter an aquatic ecosystem
February 6, 2019
EMBARGO 8 AM EST Variations in a single gene in tiny stickleback fish alter how they interact with their environment and potentially trigger changes across an ecosystem, a new study from the University of British Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania finds. The study, published today in… read more
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Haida Gwaii's northern goshawks: Highly distinct and at risk
January 14, 2019
Haida Gwaii's small population of northern goshawks—already of great concern to conservationists—are the last remnant of a highly distinct genetic cluster of the birds, according to a new genomic analysis by University of British Columbia researchers. “Goshawks across the… read more
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UBC planetary scientist honoured by UK’s Royal Astronomical Society
January 11, 2019
Catherine Johnson, a UBC researcher searching for ‘Marsquakes’ as part of NASA’s InSight mission and a leading expert on planetary magnetic fields, has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s Price Medal in Geophysics. Johnson, a professor with UBC’s Department… read more
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CHIME telescope detects second-ever repeating fast radio burst
January 9, 2019
A team of scientists in Canada has found the second repeating fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded, providing new clues about the brief, puzzling pulses of radio energy from far outside our galaxy. The repeating FRB was one of 13 new bursts detected in just two weeks by the Canadian Hydrogen… read more
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Paul Gustafson appointed head of UBC Statistics
January 3, 2019
Professor Paul Gustafson has accepted a five-year term as Head of the UBC Department of Statistics, beginning January 1, 2019. A founding co-director of UBC’s recently launched Masters of Data Science, Gustafson has served as acting department head, and on numerous departmental committees… read more