News
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Could gulls' wings inspire smarter airplane design?
January 2, 2019
Flexing a single elbow joint enables gulls to adapt their wing shape to gusty conditions, according to new University of British Columbia (UBC) research—a relatively simple mechanism that could inspire improved aircraft design. “While we know birds frequently alter their wing shape,… read more
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Physicists propose a new path to high-temperature superconductivity
December 17, 2018
Physicists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur have identified a new approach to achieving high-temperature superconductivity — binding electrons to form tight, but very light pairs that flow without resistance. In electrical… read more
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Industrial fisheries are starving seabirds all around the world
December 6, 2018
Industrial fisheries are starving seabirds like penguins and terns by competing for the same prey sources, new research from the French National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier and the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia has found. In a study… read more
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UBC robo chemist could speed up discovery of clean energy materials
November 28, 2018
Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, today announced an $8-million investment to develop a first-of-its-kind robotic platform called ADA that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the development process for new energy efficient materials. “We… read more
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Newly discovered wasp turns social spiders into zombies
November 27, 2018
It sounds like the plot of the world’s tiniest horror movie: deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a newly discovered species of wasp transforms a “social” spider into a zombie-like drone that abandons its colony to do the wasp’s bidding. That’s the gruesome, real-life… read more
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New CRCs in oceans research, machine learning and quantum materials
November 14, 2018
The Federal Government’s latest round of Canada Research Chair investments include four new chair-holders at UBC Science investigating ocean sustainability and turbulence, machine learning, and quantum materials. The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, announced… read more
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Eight UBC students receive inaugural women in tech scholarships
November 13, 2018
For Giulia Mattia, a computer science student at UBC, the pathway into the tech sector just got a bit easier thanks to a newly launched scholarship from the Irving K Barber British Columbia Scholarship Society. Mattia is among 11 students in BC awarded the women in tech scholarships based on… read more
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How planets play ping pong with each other
November 6, 2018
Christa Van Laerhoven (BSc 07) is a UBC astrophysicist and post-doctoral fellow who studies celestial mechanics, which she says is a fancy name for orbital shenanigans. After completing a PhD at the University of Arizona she is now back in BC and often involved in public science… read more
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Mountain birds are on an escalator to extinction: UBC, Cornell research
October 29, 2018
Researchers retracing the steps of a 1985 expedition in the Peruvian Andes have documented how the area's bird populations have shifted—and in some cases disappeared altogether—due to warming temperatures in the intervening 30 years. "Mountaintop species are running out of mountain,"… read more
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Scientists develop a new way to remotely measure Earth’s magnetic field
October 2, 2018
Researchers in Canada, the United States and Europe have developed a new way to remotely measure Earth’s magnetic field—by zapping a layer of sodium atoms floating 100 kilometres above the planet with lasers on the ground. The technique, documented in Nature Communications, fills a… read more