Imagine that the players on your favourite football team were smaller than their opponents, and had to play without helmets or pads. Left defenseless, they would become easy prey for other teams. Similarly, changes in Canadian lake water chemistry have left small water organisms known as plankton vulnerable to their predators, which may pose a serious environmental […]
The saying, “looking at things with fresh eyes”, may be more than just a metaphor, according to new studies led by Professor Kari Hoffman of York’s Centre for Vision Research, which have been published in scholarly journals. Left: Kari Hoffman While searching for experiments to use in a research methods course, Hoffman took a fresh […]
Five York professors have been appointed directors at York research centres. The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German & European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of […]
What makes a worker bee a good worker? The answer may be both nature and nurture, says York Professor Amro Zayed, who is studying the genetic basis of honey bee behaviour to create better bee colonies. “A colony lives or dies by how well the workers perform, and there is a tremendous amount of variation,” […]
Celebrate the birds and the bees tomorrow at the Pollinators Festival. Learn why the bees are at risk with York Professor Laurence Packer in the Department of Biology and about the social life of honey bees with the Toronto Beekeeping Co-operative. The Pollinators Festival, part of International Pollinator Week, will take place from 8am to […]
Robert Haché, a molecular and cellular biologist and biochemist, will assume the role of vice-president research & innovation at York University for a five-year term, effective July 1, 2011. The announcement of Haché's appointment was made yesterday by York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “I am thrilled that Dr. Haché is coming to York University,” said Shoukri. “Dr. […]
The Three-spot Mariposa Lily is an understated three-petalled white and yellow flower indigenous to some areas of the Columbia Basin. Like all living things, it’s part of the intricate and complex web of life that sustains us all, wrote B.C.’s Revelstoke Times Review, April 12: Recent research by biologist Lincoln Best, [a graduate student] at […]
A York biology student has won the award for top Physiology & Toxicology Oral Presentation at the 24th annual Ontario Biology Day (OBD) held at Wilfrid Laurier University in March. Olimpia Del Duca, studying under York biology Professor Andrew Donini, presented her paper, “Carbonic Anhydrase in the Anal Papillae of the Larval Mosquito, Aedes aegypti”, to […]
New research and teaching facility scheduled to open Fall 2011 Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent paid an informal visit to York's Keele campus yesterday to view first-hand the results of the government's investment in Canada's current and future scientists and researchers. Above: From left, Environment Minister Peter Kent, senior project superintendent Chris Robinson and York President & Vice-Chancellor […]
A new research initiative involving a partnership between York University and Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket will see feature leading scientists from the University serving as embedded researchers at the hospital. York Professors Chris Ardern, Imogen Coe, Paul Ritvo and Lauren Sergio will work on site for one to two days a week with hospital clinicians to […]
CBC's The Nature of Things aired its Raccoon Nation documentary Feb. 24, featuring York psychology and biology Professor Suzanne MacDonald and PhD student Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux: The researchers tagged the raccoons with GPS collars to log their travels throughout the city, recording them at up to 1,500 points over six weeks. They found that the raccoons […]
We all know they’re out there, prying open garbage cans, scurrying across fences and maybe even bunking under your deck, wrote the Toronto Star Feb. 10: But urban raccoons – who look just like their country cousins but live very different lives – are rarely studied, leaving humans in the dark about what the nocturnal […]
The work of three researchers from the Faculty of Science & Engineering (FSE) was honoured during the FSE Honours & Awards night on Nov. 18. The evening saw the presentation of the faculty's inaugural internal research awards to chemistry Professor Dasantila Golemi-Kotra, recipient of the 2010 Early Researcher Award; biology Professor Chun Peng, recipient of the 2010 […]
Without bees, we wouldn’t have coffee to drink at breakfast, tomatoes in your sandwich at lunch or fruit for a snack on the go. While bee populations all over the world are in trouble, there are lots of things individuals can do to create bee-friendly gardens — even if your personal green space is limited […]
Today, the shared experiences of those working in education and climate change is the central theme of a one-day symposium taking place at York University. Organized by the Faculty of Education, the Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair for Reorienting Teacher Education Towards Sustainability, […]
George Dashwood Sr., a resident at Simon Fraser Lodge, is now the namesake of the rare Lasioglossum dashwoodi bee species in BC, wrote the Prince George Citizen July 7. Lincoln Best, a graduate student at York University, is one of several researchers who found this bee in the Okanangan in 2008: "There are hundreds of […]
Professor Laurence Packer, professor of biology in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, spoke to Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks & Quarks on June 26 about his research on international bee populations. He is the author of Keeping the Bees: Why All Bees Are at Risk and What We Can Do to Save Them. […]
Protecting ourselves from backyard mosquito bites may come down to leaving the vacuuming for later, a study from York University shows. Rather than vacuuming the grass clippings out of catch basins before adding treatments to control mosquitoes, municipalities should leave the organic waste in place, the research found. “Catch basins are a permanent source of […]
On June 21, Laurence Packer of York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering will discuss what has become a crisis in agriculture – the rapid disappearance of bees, wrote InsideHalton.com June 17: Packer will present findings outlined in his new book Keeping the Bees, which grew out of the Canadian pollination research initiative spearheaded by the […]
The first cohort of students graduating from York’s Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program will present their leading-edge research today as part of the University’s first Neuroscience Research Day. The presentations will take place from 9am to 3:30pm in 163 Behavioural Sciences Building on York's Keele campus. Fifteen students will offer summaries of their research. The students come […]