Faculty of Science news
Scientists have unearthed giant magnetic fossils, the remnants of microbes buried in 55-million-year-old sediment. The growth of these unusual structures during a period of massive global warming provides clues about how climate change might alter the behaviour of organisms. Dirk Schumann of McGill and his colleagues found the fossils in sediment taken from a borehole in Ancora, New Jersey.
Dr. Steven Pinker's October 17 keynote address for the 2008 Faculty of Science Undergraduate Research Conference, is now available as a webcast, along with the URC prize ceremony.
Chantal Montreuil's dream was to work with animals - live ones, that is. But as a fossil technician at McGill University, it's her job to piece together the featured exhibit at this week's Meet the Triceratops event.
Congratulations to Dr. Dmitry Jakobson of of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who is a co-winner of the Canadian Mathematical Society's 2008 G. de B. Robinson Award.
The normal Tuesday schedule of course activities is cancelled for December 2, 2008. In its place, all lectures, labs, conferences and other course-related activities that are normally held on Mondays will be held on Tuesday, December 2, 2008 as well. This change in schedule is to make up for activities that are cancelled on Monday, October 13 due to Thanksgiving Day.
The remains of a 30-foot-long predatory dinosaur discovered along the banks of Argentina's Rio Colorado is helping to unravel how birds evolved their unusual breathing system. McGill's Hans Larsson was part of the team that made the discovery, published Sept. 29 in the online journal PLos ONE and announced at a news conference in Mendoza, Argentina.
Ingrid Birker, the Redpath Museum's science outreach co-ordinator, has given this one-hour tour several times a year since 2002, shortly after the publication of What Building Stones Tell, Redpath's guidebook to "the fossils, rocks and minerals of Montreal buildings."
Canadian and U.S. researchers say they have found the oldest rocks in the world, along the Northern Quebec coast of Hudson's Bay. The rocks are estimated to be 4.28 billion years old, according to a team of researchers from McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.
ATTENTION MCGILL UNDERGRADS! INTERESTED IN STUDYING IN THE U.S.? Killam Fellowships Program Info Session: Thursday, September 25th, at 1:00 p.m. Room 1041, 688 Sherbrooke Street West
The Department of Physics at McGill University and the Tomlinson Project in University-Level Science Education (T-PULSE), are pleased to welcome Professor Carl E. Wieman, University of British Columbia, and University of Colorado, to deliver two lectures about science education and physics.