News
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Marine life migrating to cooler habitats 12 times faster than land animals
August 6, 2013
Marine species are migrating toward the poles as much as 12 times faster than land-based species as a result of the warming climate, according to a new study by an international team of scientists. The study, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows marine species… read more
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Captured: Mysterious oyster killers
July 25, 2013
University of British Columbia researchers have apprehended tiny, elusive parasites that have plagued oysters from British Columbia to California. First reported in 1960, Denman Island disease is caused by Mikrocytos mackini, a parasite that infects mainly Pacific oysters, and leads to unsightly… read more
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UBC physicists catch neutrinos “In the act”
July 18, 2013
Today at the prestigious European Physical Society meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, a new breakthrough in our understanding of neutrinos, nature’s most elusive particle, was announced. The T2K collaboration, which consists of scientists from Canada, Japan, and nine other nations, confirmed… read more
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Stars’ orbital dance reveals a generation gap: UBC, NASA research
July 18, 2013
UBC astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to track the orbital motion of 33,000 stars in one of the Galaxy’s oldest globular clusters, offering new insights into the formation of the Milky Way. The careful examination of ‘cosmic choreography’ enabled researchers,… read more
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Genomic survey of microbial ‘dark matter’ sheds light on BC’s unseen biodiversity
July 14, 2013
A landmark single-cell genomic study of microorgansims from sites across the globe is underscoring British Columbia's role as an 'oasis' of biodiversity. The findings, to be published Sunday in Nature, could also prompt scientists to redefine how the tree of life represents relationships among and… read more
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UBC zoologists develop bird vaccine for West Nile Virus
July 9, 2013
UBC zoologists have developed a vaccine that may halt the spread of West Nile Virus (WNV) among common and endangered bird species. WNV, a mosquito borne pathogen, arrived in North America in 1999 and is now endemic across the continent. In 2012 alone, WNV killed 286 people in the United States,… read more
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New director of UBC Life Sciences Institute brings a focus on personalized medicine
July 5, 2013
Pieter Cullis, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has been appointed as the new Director of the UBC Life Sciences Institute. As director, Cullis will work to nurture, expand and coordinate the work of the LSI's nine research groups and their scientists, and to… read more
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Higgs boson is just the beginning: UBC prof
July 3, 2013
The discovery of the Higgs boson was without doubt the most important of its kind in recent years. Finding the subatomic particle at the Large Haldron Collider (LHC) on the Swiss-French border made international news earlier this year—and for good reason. It affirmed 40 years of physics in… read more
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Canada’s pint-sized space telescope celebrates 10th anniversary in orbit
July 1, 2013
Canada’s suitcase-sized MOST space telescope celebrates its 10th birthday in space this Canada Day weekend with new details on a distant super-Earth, and a renewed call for amateur astronomers to submit targets for the satellite. "Over the years we’ve always half-joked that MOST could… read more
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Genetic survey sheds light on Oceans’ lean, mean microbial machines
June 24, 2013
Planktonic bacteria inhabiting the world’s oceans have streamlined their genetic makeup to become lean, mean survival machines, according to new research by an international team of researchers, including microbiologists at the University of British Columbia. The findings, published this… read more