InSciTe – October 2009
Innovation • Science • Technology

Canadian Shares Nobel in Physics
Willard S. Boyle, born in Amherst, N.S., has won the Nobel Prize in Physics with two others for breakthroughs involving the transmission of light in fibre optics and inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit. [G&M]

University of Saskatchewan Student Develops New E. coli Vaccine
Food and water around the world could soon become safer for human consumption thanks to a new cattle vaccine created by University of Saskatchewan graduate student David Asper. [UofS]

BC Scientists Decode Entire Genome of Metastatic Breast Cancer
University of British Columbia Professor Sam Aparicio and Dr. Marco Marra, Director, BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre, have created a landmark genome that illuminates cancer development and offers new hope for fighting the disease. [BC Cancer]

Cultural Evolution
Jane Goodall was the first to report broadly on the use of tools by chimps. Now current work conducted by University of Calgary archaeologist Julio Mercader has uncovered the first tangible evidence that chimps not only use tools but have been doing so and passing along the practice for thousands of years. [Innovation Canada] | Lire en français

Distracted Easily? You're Getting Older
In a study that has received international media attention, authors Dale Stevens, Cheryl Grady, Lynn Hasher and Kimberly Chiew from the University of Toronto and the Rotman Research Institute have provided further evidence that the aging brain has difficulty filtering out irrelevant information in the environment when compared to younger brains. The study is the first to look at what is going on in the brain (using fMRI) when people try to form a memory and fail. [Rotman Institute]

Retrofit for Gigabits
How can 20th-century fibre optics handle the connectivity needs of the 21st century? Researchers in the Laboratories for Broadband Optical and Wireless Systems in McGill University have a few ideas. [McGill]

FISHing for Answers
University of Alberta researchers have developed a cancer-testing technology with a snappy name but a serious purpose. The “FISH on a chip” is a complex test that detects abnormalities in chromosomes which characterize particular types of cancer. The chip promises to turn what, until now, has been a rare and expensive test into a routine part of cancer treatment. [Innovation Canada] | Lire en français

Homeless Find Hope through Technology, Internet
The digital revolution has not been kind to everyone. Thousands of homeless Canadians don't have regular access to computers and many simply do not how to use the Internet. For Canada's homeless, many of the benefits of our increasingly high-tech lifestyles are remote. [G&M]

Unlocking the Mysteries of Memories and the Aging Brain
One of the world’s foremost neuroscientists, Bruce McNaughton is renowned for his groundbreaking research into how the human brain stores, processes and transmits information. One year ago, the Ottawa-born McNaughton was lured back to Canada after spending more than a quarter century in the United States, most of that time at the University of Arizona. McNaughton is now based at the University of Lethbridge, in Alberta, home to the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), one of the country’s premier brain institutes. [Innovation Canada] | Lire en français