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Researchers Identify New Protein that Triggers Breast Cancer
Dr. Audrey Claing, who is a member of the Groupe d’Étude des Proteins Membranaires and the Groupe de Recherche Universitaire sur le Médicament from l'Université de Montréal has published her recent study which claims that the protein ARF1 performs a leading role in the development of cancer cell growth. This professor of pharmacology, along with a team from the University of Alberta, tells the Journal of Biological Chemistry that cells in a woman’s breasts are “sensitive to an epidermal growth factor (EGF), which has previously been shown to stimulate tumour growth and invasion.” This Canadian research argues that EDF works through ARF1 in these cells.

New Energy-Harvesting Device Generates Power One Step at a Time
Vancouver Scientist Max Donelan is trying to collect the energy humans discharge when they perform the simple act of walking. This biochemical physiologist from Simon Frasier University invented The Bionic Energy Harvester, a device which is slipped around the knee just like an orthopaedic brace. This machine accumulates the energy swallowed by our hamstrings, and produces approximately 10 watts of power. Donelan’s creation is being developed by Bionic Power Inc, who believe their product can be useful “for those whose lives depend on portable power,” like the military or first responders.

Zoo Life Erodes Elephant Health, Study Finds
Guelph University's Georgia Mason recently published a study in Science which contrasts female elephants living in protected environments on the African and Asian continents with those living in European zoos. “The findings could mark the end of a long-standing debate about the physical and mental well being of zoo elephants, and may also bring about improvements in how these animals are kept.” Mason is an associated faculty member for the University of Guelph’s Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare and currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Guelph’s Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences.

First-Ever Photograph of Exoplanet Leads to Award
Dr. Christian Marois of the National Research Council of Canada was recently awarded the coveted Scientist of the Year award by Radio-Canada for his work in capturing the first-ever images of exoplanets - planets circling a star other than the sun. Dr. Marois and his team captured the photograph by utilizing the Gemini North and Keck telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Stephen Hawking Accepts Distinguished Research Chair at Canada's Perimeter Institute 
Dr. Neil Turok, director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) publicly announced that beginning in the summer of 2009 the internationally renowned Prof. Hawking will be visiting Waterloo Ontario on a regular basis. The Cambridge professor said he was “honoured to accept the first Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute…and look[ed] forward to building a growing partnership between PI and the Center for Theoretical Cosmology” in England.

The Institute subsequently announced the appointment of nine other “outstanding international scientists to the positions of PI Distinguished Research Chairs.” As the PI continues to develop they will be attempting to obtain a total of 40 academics to hold these steady positions.

U of T Team Heats up Gold to Surprising Effect: It Gets Harder Not Softer
Physics professor Dwayne Miller and his team from the University of Toronto have countered the common sense belief that when we heat things up they become malleable. Miller heated gold “at rates too fast for the electrons absorbing the light energy to collide with surrounding atoms and lose energy,” a process called “femtosecond electron diffraction,” which had been theoretically predicted but never actualized.

BSE Test for Live Animals may be Near
Canadian researchers and German collaborators funded by the Alberta Prion Research Institute have uncovered a breakthrough way to test cattle for BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) “that could keep the export channels open at all times.” A leading team of scientists from the University of Calgary have studied that generic blood tests performed on live animals have potential to discover the BSE “months before clinical signs of the disease become evident” from animal brain samples.

Researchers are Liberating Music from the Vinyl Vaults Using a High-Powered Microscope
McGill University's Distributed Digital Music Archives and Libraries (DDMAL) research program is advancing the technology required to digitally safeguard the sounds found in 78 RPM shellac discs and long-playing vinyl albums (LPs). “Everytime you place a phonograph needle on a record…the record gets damaged,” explains Ichiro Fujinaga, a professor at the Shulish School of Music. However, Mr. Fujinaga and his co-researchers are using a white-light interferometry profiler to protect works such as McGill’s vast collection of Handel recordings, the world’s largest Handel LP collection. In order to do so they use a microscope to scan the widths and depths of an LP’s grooves, altering the movements into a “digital waveform, which is transformed into audible sound.”

Communications Research Canada (CRC) Awarded Second Emmy Award
The CRC received its second Emmy Award last month during a ceremony which took place at the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Gala. The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, announced that “this second Emmy Award demonstrates the high standard of the government’s performance in S&T.” The prize was presented to the CRC for their “efforts in standardizing the ATSC Digital Television System to replace the analog NTSC television system.” In Canada, the changeover will happen by August 31, 2011.