News
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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
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Canada's 'Humble' Space Telescope Celebrates 5 Years in Orbit
July 4, 2008
It cost a modest $10 million and was only designed to be used for one year, but Canada's MOST telescope celebrates its fifth year of steady work this summer. The suitcase-sized space telescope--launched into orbit on June 20, 2003--is a Canadian Space Agency mission led by Physics and Astronomy's… read more
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'Chameleon' Nanomaterial Can Transform from Spring to Shock Absorber, Back Again
July 2, 2008
Researchers with the UBC Department of Chemistry have designed a 'chameleon' elastomeric protein which can be transformed from a coiled elastic spring to a stable shock absorber, and back again. The new type of smart nanomaterial effectively combines the two extreme forms of elastic mechanical… read more
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An 'Impossible' Advance in the Study of Superconductors
June 23, 2008
Researchers with UBC Physics and Astronomy have overcome a 20-year scientific impossibility, discovering a way to control the number of electrons on the surface of high-temperature superconductors. The new technique has the potential to drive advances in fuel cells, lossless power lines, quantum… read more
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Michael Smith Career Investigator Awards: Chemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Zoology
June 11, 2008
Three researchers with UBC Science have received 2008 Career Investigator Awards from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. The researchers are investigating how to develop improved antibiotics, the growth and proper functioning of T cells, and how viruses deliver their genome to the… read more
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Computer Science Researcher Awarded One of UBC's Most Prestigious Prizes
June 4, 2008
Karon MacClean, Associate Professor with the Department of Computer Science, has been awarded one of UBC's most prestigious research prizes, the Charles A McDowell Award. MacClean is working to study and improve how humans interact and communicate physically with computers. That includes… read more