News
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Could evolution rescue some BC salmon from climate change?
July 26, 2017
UBC zoologists are set to investigate whether salmon populations are undergoing genetic adaptation to environmental changes—a so-called ‘evolutionary rescue’. The Genome BC-funded research could help predict the fate of salmon species under alternative climate scenarios. Wild… read more
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UBC environmental sustainability research hub welcomes new director
July 13, 2017
Milind Kandlikar has been appointed director of UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) for a four-year term, effective July 1, 2017. Kandlikar’s research focuses on the intersection of technology innovation, human development and the global… read more
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Why we still don’t get gravity
July 5, 2017
Gravity. It’s simple, right? Objects, the larger the better, exerting force on each other. Turns out, it’s a complex subject that we don’t quite understand yet. In the 1970s physicist Stephen Hawking declared that gravity was incompatible with quantum mechanics—laws… read more
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UBC computer scientist named VP research and innovation
June 26, 2017
Gail Murphy, a leading expert in software engineering and chief scientist at Vancouver-based Tasktop Technologies, has been appointed UBC’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation. She will formally begin the role on August 14, 2017. As UBC’s Associate Vice-President Research pro… read more
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How AI helped the FCC auction off $19-billion worth of radio spectrum
June 26, 2017
Mobile phone carriers scooped up airwaves no longer needed by television broadcasters last March in a $19-billion auction designed by UBC and Stanford University researchers. While airwave auctions are nothing new, this one was so complex and involved so many moving parts that computer science was… read more
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Ten million tonnes of fish wasted every year despite declining fish stocks
June 26, 2017
Industrial fishing fleets dump nearly 10 million tonnes of good fish back into the ocean every year, according to new research. The study by researchers with Sea Around Us, an initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the University of… read more
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The risky side of statistics
June 5, 2017
Natalia Nolde is a UBC statistician with a risky specialty: predicting and assessing extreme events. Her work faces two major challenges. Extreme events, by definition, don’t happen often and so related data are scarce. They’re also incredibly complex. But if Nolde and colleagues are… read more
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Subsidies promote overfishing and hurt small-scale fishers worldwide
June 1, 2017
Large-scale fisheries receive about four times more subsidies than their small-scale counterparts, with up to 60 per cent of those subsidies promoting overfishing. A recent study by the University of British Columbia found that while small-scale fisheries employ over 22 million people globally… read more
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Researchers untangle mystery of tiny bird’s trans-Pacific flight
June 1, 2017
UBC zoologists have documented the first record of a House Swift in the Americas—and begun to unravel the mystery of how the tiny bird got from its south-east Asia breeding grounds to Ladner, BC. The bird’s well preserved but near-emaciated carcass was discovered in May 2012 near the… read more
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How the popularity of sea cucumbers is threatening coastal communities
May 30, 2017
Coastal communities are struggling with the complex social and ecological impacts of a growing global hunger for a seafood delicacy, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia. “Soaring demand has spurred sea cucumber booms across the globe,” says lead author… read more